Origins and Role of the Internationalist Publishing Collective
The Internationalist Publishing Collective is not an organizational or party body. It is fundamentally a digital publishing center whose main task is to publish political, theoretical, and informational texts related to the workers’ movement and internationalist issues.
In practice, the collective operates as a publishing platform. This means that although it publishes statements and texts from the Internationalist Workers’ Organization (IWO), it nevertheless maintains a relative editorial independence in its publishing activity. For this reason, the presence of individuals, political activists, or interested readers on these pages—whether as friends of the account or followers of the page—does not imply political closeness, membership, or organizational relations with the Internationalist Workers’ Organization.
This characteristic is reflected both in the public relations of the publishing center and in its practical mode of operation. During different periods, in addition to publishing theoretical and political texts, the Internationalist Publishing Collective has also functioned as a media platform supporting movements of solidarity with independent workers’ struggles.
For instance, at certain times it has played a communicative and media role within networks supporting independent workers’ struggles in Sweden, as well as in solidarity with workers’ struggles in Iran, including those of the Haft Tappeh workers and the steel workers of Ahvaz.
The historical origins of this page and its activities also go back to these experiences. A review of earlier posts shows that for a long period its content was largely devoted to supporting independent workers’ struggles. These efforts were not limited to publishing news and statements; in some cases they also included practical initiatives aimed at building networks of workers’ solidarity.
Today, the Internationalist Publishing Collective primarily functions as a publishing center for internationalist and workers’ movement texts. Its aim is to provide a space for publishing documents, analyses, and statements concerning the workers’ movement, class struggle, and efforts toward the independent organization of workers.
Our approach to social media
The online pages run by this collective—including the Facebook page Internationalist Publishing—form part of a media and communication network developed alongside the organizational activities of the Internationalist Workers’ Organization.
The main purpose of these pages is to publish texts and to help create communication networks among workers and activists in workplaces and workers’ communities.
The presence of individuals and political activists on these pages therefore does not imply membership, political affinity, or organizational cooperation with IWO. Only in cases where there is suspicion of collaboration with the repressive institutions of the Islamic Republic will such accounts be prevented from participating in this platform. The same principle applies to other media pages linked to networks supporting independent workers’ struggles.
Another important point is that these pages are not operated with the aim of participating in extensive social-media debates or influencing public opinion through online polemics. Unlike many political parties or activists who use social media primarily as a tool of public opinion influence, the Internationalist Workers’ Organization does not pursue such a strategy.
From our perspective, social media is first and foremost a tool for organizing workers’ communication and supporting ongoing struggles in workers’ workplaces and living environments. Accordingly, these platforms are used in line with the practical needs of organizing workers’ struggles rather than as a journalistic instrument for shaping public opinion.
For this reason, our presence in broad discussions on social media is often limited. This limitation does not reflect indifference to political debates but rather stems from the priorities we place on strengthening independent working-class organization.
We therefore encourage friends and those interested in workers’ struggles and socialist questions to contact us directly through our website or email, rather than through comments on our social-media pages.
IWO- April 20218
To visit the Facebook page of the Internationalist Publishing Collective click here.
To visit the account of the Internationalist Publishing Collective click here.