On 23 June 2025, Israeli warmongers bombed the entrance area of Evin Prison. Following this attack, at least 79 people had lost their lives by the time of writing this article, including prisoners, family members who had come for visits or to follow up on legal cases, nearby residents, administrative staff, and conscripted soldiers. Many others were also injured. The attack took place during visiting hours, which significantly increased the number of casualties. The youngest victim of this atrocity was a five-year-old child.

With the increasing number of political prisoners and the structural inefficiency of Qasr and Qezel Qaleh prisons, the Imperial regime ‒ which at the time was the main ally of Western democracies in the region ‒ decided to build a more “modern” prison in a location far from the urban centre. The aim of this measure was to enable greater security control and to expand interrogation facilities. Evin Prison was established in 1972 under the supervision of the Bureau for Intelligence and Security of the State (SAVAK), an institution formed with direct training and support from the CIA, Mossad and SDECE[1](predecessor of today’s DGSE). At its inception, Evin was primarily used to hold political prisoners.

Evin is not merely a prison; it is a symbol of organised repression and the terrifying embodiment of the most dreadful face of oppressive power. In the 1970s and 1980s, the name Evin became so closely associated with torture, interrogation, and death that merely hearing it would send a shiver down one’s spine. Just as Khavaran is not simply a mass grave but has become a symbol for all the mass graves of political prisoners, so too does Evin represent the brutal face of the machinery of repression.

The Imperial bourgeoisie, relying on the unconditional support of Western democracies, established a machine of repression which, through training by the CIA, Mossad and SDECE, became a tool for breaking both body and spirit, humiliating and subjugating those who stood against the prevailing order. But this was not the end of the story. The Islamic Republic, this sordid heir to the monarchy, not only preserved Evin but, with even greater brazenness, intensified the violence and oppression. The torture machine established by the Imperial bourgeoisie reached the peak of its repressive capacity in the hands of the Islamic bourgeoisie.

The criminal bourgeoisie of Israel also played its part. By bombing the grounds of Evin Prison and launching missiles that ruthlessly took the lives of prisoners, their families, conscripted soldiers, and other bystanders, they demonstrated that beneath ideological differences lies a shared approach: the bourgeoisie’s unified stance on repression, violence, and crimes against humanity.

Evin is not just walls, barbed wire, concrete, and watchtowers; it is not merely a prison. The name Evin echoes with the sound of whips and screams in the ears, and before one’s eyes, wounded feet, bruised bodies, and dislocated shoulders come to life. Evin cannot be adequately described in words. There, a person was not only physically broken but also shattered from within; stripped of dignity, honour, and humanity. In Evin, prisoners were driven to the point of self-denial ‒ reduced to humiliated, silent, and forgotten beings. Evin was a place where, for a child, the meaning of “play” was the bandaging of their mother’s legs.

For leftists, everything serves the propaganda goals against dictatorship; and it appears that the corrupt Islamic bourgeoisie also provides the groundwork for these propaganda efforts. They claim there is evidence of a genocide alarm in 1988. However, all these seemingly radical statements are, in reality, nothing more than attempts to dilute, downplay, and distort the historical memory of the 1988 genocide.

The criminal Islamic bourgeoisie, even if it were able to execute hundreds of people today‒which is practically impossible under current circumstances‒would still be incapable of repeating the genocide of 1988. Although the adventurism of the People’s Mojahedin Organisation at that time accelerated this process, the criminal bourgeoisie had already decided, as part of consolidating its power, to eliminate a generation represented by the political prisoners of that era.

The prisoners who were massacred during the 1988 genocide belonged to a specific generation of political detainees. The aim was not merely their physical elimination, but the destruction of a generation that had experienced the events of February 1979 and was deeply political and idealistic—regardless of the class positions and interests they represented. Today’s prisoners are neither comparable in number to those of 1988, nor do they share the political structure or context of that period, nor do they carry the same historical experience.

The bourgeoisie in dictatorial countries, including the criminal bourgeoisie of Iran, are not only supporters of dictatorship but its very embodiment, clearly revealing the true nature of these regimes. In the United States, the bourgeoisie openly speaks like bandits; to the extent that the country’s president uses obscene and offensive language (such as the f-word) on live television. However, the European bourgeoisie[2] is even more shameless, corrupt, and deceitful; they speak of civilisation, culture, human rights, and human dignity, while simultaneously cloaking cruelty in kindness.

Communist lefts have declared that Western democracies were complicit in the genocide at Auschwitz. We too have shown, in a recent article[3], that all states ‒ including Western democracies ‒ are complicit in the genocide in Gaza. We now state this plainly once again: all Western democracies, through their support for Israel ‒ or, in the words of the German Chancellor, “Israel is doing the dirty work for all of us,” or more precisely, is carrying out this dirty work on their behalf — are complicit in this crime against humanity. These criminals, these civilised barbarians, have remained silent — or rather, have fallen mute — in the face of such atrocities.

Apparently, bourgeois institutions such as Amnesty International and the den of thieves (the United Nations) have condemned these attacks only on paper ‒ a performative gesture intended merely to preserve the democratic façade of these institutions, with no real practical consequence. There should not be even the slightest illusion about bourgeois institutions ‒ whether Amnesty International, the United Nations, the Western democracies, or bourgeois democracy itself. Bourgeois democracy and bourgeois dictatorship are two sides of the same coin: the barbarism of capitalism.

The heroic events of early 1979 clearly demonstrated that only the working-class movement possesses the genuine ability to confront the machinery of repression. It was during the widespread workers’ and mass protests of that year that the Shah’s regime, under mounting pressure, was forced to release political prisoners in groups.

Evin Prison, too, briefly fell into the hands of the people in February 1979 and was cleared of torturers and agents of repression. However, with the decline of the class struggle and the full establishment of the disgraceful rule of the Islamic bourgeoisie, the gallows and whip were raised once again — and Evin, more terrifying than ever, resumed its function.

Not by resorting to bourgeois democratic institutions, but only through the path of class struggle can one not only challenge and crush the machinery of repression and, as in 1979, pave the way for the release of political prisoners, but also thwart the criminal and dirty schemes of the Israeli bourgeoisie.

Although under the current conditions‒especially in the shadow of the wartime situation‒workers’ protests and strikes across Iran have temporarily subsided, this calm is fragile and unstable. Soon, we will once again witness workers’ protests in Iran; protests whose sharp edge will be directed at the entire capitalist order and all factions of the bourgeoisie, from Iran to Israel. Particularly at a time when waves of protests continue across Europe and the United States, these future protests will be significant.

From Tehran to Tel Aviv, From Washington to Berlin:

Against the War Criminals!

Long Live the War Between the Classes!

M.J.

1 July 2025

Notes:

[1] The French intelligence service, the Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage.

[2] Friedrich Merz, the Chancellor of Germany, believes that “Israel does the dirty work for all of us.” It seems likely that Merz wishes to complete the dirty and unfinished business of his grandfather, not under a Nazi guise, but behind the ideological mask of democracy. His grandfather, Josef Paul Sauvigny, was a member of the Nazi Party and served as mayor of the town of Brilon from 1917 to 1937. After Hitler came to power in 1933, Sauvigny joined the Nazi task force and served as an Oberscharführer (senior squad leader) within the group. He was also involved in renaming Brilon’s streets to names such as “Adolf-Hitler-Straße” and “Hermann-Göring-Straße.” Source.

[3] Gaza Genocide: A Product of Global Capitalism’s Organized Barbarism.

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