On the Second Anniversary of the November 2019 Uprising
The Uprising of November 2019 Was a Signal of the Need to Move to a Different Future!
Fellow Iranians
Two years have passed since the uprising of November 2019 in more than one hundred cities, in twenty-nine provinces and in more than seven hundred locations of the country. A massive uprising that met with bloody regime crackdowns, killing of hundreds, and arrest and imprisonment of thousands. Although it was suppressed, the uprising became an important turning point in the struggle against the Islamic Republic and in the fight for getting rid of sufferings it has caused.
In the last hours of Thursday, November 14, 2019, the leaders of the Islamic Republic announced that the price of gasoline had tripled as of the morning of Friday, November 15, 2019. Protests against this sudden announcement began on November 15 and gradually spread. The protests culminated on Saturday and Sunday, November 16 and 17, which was confronted with Khamenei’s personal order and repressive forces shooting people in the head and chest, using heavy weapons against rallies in southern Iran, arresting and torturing thousands, severely censoring the media, and cutting off the Internet.
The scale of the protests was so large that the regime confronted them with full force and waged a full-scale war against the protesters, launching its killing and arresting machine across the country. Two years later, the true number of victims of the regime repression has not been announced. The official figures given in this case are by no means reliable. The regime itself has admitted to killing several hundred people, but Reuters quoted regime sources as saying the figure was about 1,500. The fate of the thousands of protesters detained is also unknown. Only a few heavy sentences have been issued, including some death sentences.
The families of the victims of November 2019 uprising are still under pressure from the regime. The bodies of their loved ones are buried without their presence. Some of them have been arrested, imprisoned, barred from pursuing the murder of their children, and are under constant threat. However, there are many fathers and mothers who courageously and fearlessly pursue the case of their loved ones, and with their perseverance, challenge the murderers who rule the Islamic Republic.
The leaders of the Islamic Republic have admitted in many ways over the past two years that the November 2019 uprising was turning into an uprising against the regime and a "full-scale war against system and the revolution." These confessions also reveal how much the people's uprising has instilled fear in the ranks of the regime. To overcome this fear, they have brutally killed the children of the people. In fact, the leaders of the regime, and above all Khamenei, were able to "settle" the November 2019 protest uprising by declaring war on the people. The regime repressive forces fired not only at the protesters, but at anyone they found on the street. Many of the victims of the November 2019 uprising were young people who were shot in the head and chest between home and school, the youth and teenagers who were prostrated by the medieval regime of the Islamic Republic in the spring of their heyday.
The uprising of November 2019 was a continuation of the protests of December 2017 in different dimensions. If the uprising of December 2017 reflected the loosing of people's hopes for change within the regime and the declaration of absolute distrust of all elements of the Islamic Republic and its internal factions, the November 2019 uprising was a signal of the need to move on to a different future and need to leave behind the nightmare of the forty years of the Islamic Republic in front of the society. The all-encompassing slogans of November 2019 targeted the center of the power of the Islamic Republic, the Velayat-e-Faqih (Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist) apparatus, and the Supreme Leader Khamenei himself, and shook the pillars of the Islamic Republic's power. The will that arose from the heart of the society in November 2019 is still alive in the depths. Its excitement is manifested every day in protests, strikes and gatherings in any corner of the country. The desire for fundamental change and the transition to a different future has become stronger in these two years and has become more apparent in the local moves of the people. This fact has been shown by thousands of civil and protest rallies in these two years.
The Left Party of Iran (People’s Fadaian) respects the will of the November 2019 uprising to change the current situation and its stability in the face of tyranny and dictatorship, cherishes the memory of the victims of this great uprising, expresses its condolences to the bereaved families of the victims, and supports their lawsuit. We consider the “Aban (November) International People's Court,” held in London, a step in this direction. We insist on the release of all detainees. We demand that the perpetrators and all those who engaged in the repression and killing of the people must be brought to justice. The crime against the people will never be forgotten!
The Left Party of Iran (People’s Fadaian)
November 19, 2021
افزودن دیدگاه جدید