The Solution is not in Changing the Camel Driver; the Whole Caravan Must Change Course!

“10 Mehr” Group, March 29, 2025 — 

After a long period of uncertainty regarding the domestic and foreign policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Supreme Leader finally broke his silence and, with his explicit statements regarding the causes of the country’s internal and external problems, opened a new path for the course of the Revolution.

The firm and decisive speech of the Supreme Leader on February 7, 2025, while dismissing the views of all West-oriented figures in the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, contained an awakening warning regarding the internal situation of the country:

Negotiation with America has no effect in removing the country’s problems; this we must understand correctly. They should not make it appear to us that if we sit at the negotiation table with that government, this or that will be solved. No, no problem is solved through negotiation with America…. We, of course, have problems internally; no one denies the existence of problems. In people’s livelihood, there are many problems, and almost all segments of the people have afflictions; they have problems. But what can remove these problems is the internal factor….

Although Ayatollah Khamenei, in his speech of February 7, did not give any specific explanation about the “internal factor” intended by him, the wave that this historic speech—and his later statements—set in motion in the country is a very clear sign of the intensification of a struggle that has begun in relation to the overall political and economic orientation of the system.

The first sign of the decisive effect of Ayatollah Khamenei’s statements was the firm action of the representatives of the Islamic Consultative Assembly in the direction of impeaching and removing Mr. Abdolnaser Hemmati [Director of Central Bank]—whom the parliament, a few months earlier, had submissively given a vote of confidence—because of the worsening of the disastrous economic situation resulting from neoliberal policies of increasing the exchange rate for the US dollar and creating inflation. But the matter did not remain limited to the action of the parliament in impeaching and removing Mr. Hemmati. Some commanders of the IRGC, including General Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force, also declared that the policy of following the prescriptions of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund must be ended and that those who have implemented such policies should not be in the government. And following these actions and statements, the head of the judiciary also asked Mr. Zarif—the main designer of the policy of returning to the West in the government—to resign from his position, and he too, despite much resistance, was forced to do so.

But it seems that this formal displacement has not been sufficient for Ayatollah Khamenei, because from that time until now, every day he has directed the sharp edge of his words regarding the “internal factor” more and more toward government officials and the corrupt and profiteering oligarchy. Ayatollah Khamenei, nearly one month after that historic speech, in a meeting with officials of the system on March 8, gave a more specific form to his concept of the “internal factor” and stated the main root of the existing problems more explicitly:

Before the system of the Islamic Republic, this country had rulers; it had governors; it had managers. They did things; they had bad performances; they committed wrongdoing…. Well, if we gradually move toward that same situation, that same work, that same path that the managers of the Tyranny [Pahlavi] era carried out, this is a very big crime…. The way they acted before us in this country—in foreign policy, in domestic policy, in the administration of the affairs of the country, in the distribution of privileges and resources—we must not act that way. Their path was their path; our path is another path…. Reliance on foreigners; a life based on encroachment, corruption, privilege-seeking, and unhealthy gains. Well, the structure of the Islamic civilization and the Islamic system that we seek to form, and have sought, is completely incompatible with this….

In other words, Ayatollah Khamenei, in this speech, defined the continuation of the “path of the managers of the Tyranny [Pahlavi] era”—that is, “reliance on foreigners, a life based on encroachment, corruption, privilege-seeking, and unhealthy gains”—as the “internal factor” generating problems, and considered it a “very big crime.” And then he went further than this and, for the first time, directly named the perpetrators of these “very big crimes”—that is, “large and important major state companies”:

One of the important issues related to the economy is the reform of the country’s currency system. Strengthening the national currency is the top priority…. The national currency must be strengthened; this has an effect both on the reality of people’s lives and on the dignity of the country…. Attention must be given to the national currency; one of the most fundamental tasks is this…. Regarding currency, the return of foreign exchange by those who have export income is very important…. Some large companies—that is, major and important large state companies—have exports, they have foreign exchange income, but their foreign exchange does not return to the central bank…. Why is it that the foreign exchange income of a company that belongs to the state itself is not placed at the disposal of the state, not placed at the disposal of the central bank? Why? For this, some solution must be thought of; fundamental work must be done….

And following this explicit statement regarding violations by state companies, in his Nowruz message on March 21, 2025, he directly addressed the wealthy and non-productive, speculative private investors and accused them of creating “problems for the country”:

I have been repeating the importance of the issue of production, production growth, and, related to production, the participation of the people in production, for several years. Why? Because production is one of the main keys to improving the country’s economy and people’s livelihoods. Domestic production is very important. But production needs investment; and when we say investment, the minds of some go to foreign investment. No—the investment of our own people; this liquidity that is in the hands of wealthy people, which some spend on speculation in gold coins, land, housing, and currency, creates problems for the country—in addition to having no benefits, it creates problems….

These statements of Ayatollah Khamenei regarding state companies and the speculative capitalists of the private sector clearly go beyond the limited option of removing errant officials at the level of the government and directly target the corrupt structure of the neoliberal economy and the oligarchy benefiting from this structure; and, in fact, they are a kind of warning to the “aggressive,” “corrupt,” and “privilege-seeking” oligarchy dominating the country’s economy. And this, in practice, means that, in the view of the Supreme Leader, solving the problems lies not merely in removing the agents of the dominant oligarchy—like Hemmati and Zarif—and replacing them with other agents, but in removing the entire state from under the domination of this oligarchy and placing it in the service of the people, the revolution, the resistance, and guaranteeing the severely endangered security of the country. And this cannot be achieved merely by changing the horses of the carriage of this oligarchy. Rather, according to Ayatollah Khamenei, it requires “fundamental work”!

The Problem of “Savior-Seeking”

In such conditions, unfortunately, we see that some of the sincere and concerned companions and defenders of the Revolution, instead of emphasizing the necessity of implementing the recent guidelines of Ayatollah Khamenei as quickly as possible and turning them into the banner of struggle for the social forces demanding social justice and democratic rights for the millions of people, direct the edge of their criticism toward the person of Ayatollah Khamenei and ask why he did not raise these guidelines much earlier? Or, if he is firm in his statements, why does he not issue a fatwa [religious decree] for the legal prosecution and arrest of those who “create problems for the country”?

In our view, such approaches, although raised out of concern—and justified concern—regarding the fate of the country and the Revolution, cannot be positive and constructive in the present conditions for several reasons:

First, this approach, in the words of one analyst defending the Revolution, is a kind of “savior-seeking”—that is, removing responsibility for action from oneself and placing it on another. Such an approach expects that, without broad mobilization of the social forces that have an interest in the changes intended by Ayatollah Khamenei, he, mounted on a white horse, will alone enter the field and single-handedly fight this corrupt oligarchy, which for four decades has spread its roots throughout all the economic and political tissues of the country. But, as Ayatollah Khamenei himself has repeatedly emphasized—and as is also reflected in the Constitution of the country—he, as “Velayat-e Faqih” [Supreme Leader], does not have any executive authority. And although a large part of the people of Iran considers his commands as religiously binding, it is the governmental and state institutions that bear responsibility for implementing the guidelines. Demanding executive action from the Supreme Leader in conditions where administrative and state institutions evade implementing his guidelines and accusing him—not the executive institutions—of inaction, only leads to greater despair among the people and increases their doubt regarding the authenticity of the Leader’s statements, thus weakening the revolutionary process.

Second, they ask: if this is so, then how did the late Leader of the Revolution, Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini, issue executive orders and, in some cases, even bypass administrative and state institutions? And based on this, they say: if Mr. Khomeini could do such a thing, Ayatollah Khamenei also can. And if he does not do so, the problem must be his lack of decisiveness.

What is absent in this argument is an understanding of the difference between the revolutionary atmosphere prevailing in the years immediately after the victory of the Revolution—and the organized presence of millions of people in the field at that time—and the present atmosphere, which is filled with despair and disappointment as a result of four decades of destructive domination by corrupt, West-oriented capital and its deadly neoliberal policies, which have driven a large portion of the masses into poverty, deprivation, and deep dissatisfaction with the government, and have distanced them from the arena of political struggle. If Ayatollah Khomeini could act with such decisiveness at that time, it was because of the effective and organized presence of state institutions and millions of people behind him. At the same time, this powerful and corrupt bourgeoisie, which today dominates all the economic and political arteries of the country, had not yet fully formed and had not yet acquired the capacity for resistance and obstruction against the Leader of the Revolution and the revolutionary process. Ayatollah Khamenei today faces a completely different situation: this powerful bourgeoisie, along with many administrative and state institutions, has lined up against his policies. And this situation requires a different approach, in which every step must be measured and calculated. Therefore, his step-by-step but forward-moving approach must be understood as a measured response to current objective conditions, not as a personal “lack of decisiveness.”

Which “Fundamental Work”?

Considering the objective conditions, Ayatollah Khamenei, through his increasingly clear guidelines, has explained the root causes of the problems and clarified what must be done: (1) the problem is caused by an internal factor; (2) the internal factor, politically, is the “Tyrant-like” behavior of governmental and state officials; (3) the internal factor, economically, is the destructive and “problem-creating” performance of economic enterprises in the state sector, and profit-seeking, speculative, and non-productive capitalists in the private sector; and (4) for removing these internal factors, “fundamental work” is necessary.

Although Ayatollah Khamenei has not explicitly explained in his statements the specific dimensions of this “fundamental work”—and we hope that in his future statements he will do so—his remarks regarding the root causes of internal problems can serve as a useful guide for explaining the dimensions of the “fundamental work” intended by him. However, since all systems based on a neoliberal economic structure have relatively similar characteristics, it is necessary, before continuing the discussion, to refer to one of the previous analytical documents of the “10 Mehr” Group regarding the important characteristics of such a neoliberal structure, from which our country also suffers:

Separation of the process of production from the process of accumulation … has changed the economic structure … of developing countries:

First, … the primary condition for the globalization of the “outsourcing” process has been the “liberalization” of the private sector of these countries, removing it from state control and establishing a direct relationship between international outsourcing capital and domestic producers. As we know, this “liberalization” of the private sector—what we now refer to as the “neoliberal economy”—has required reducing the role of the state in the economy and opening national markets by removing governmental restrictions on imports, exports, and foreign trade. At the same time, minimizing production costs in these countries has required weakening labor laws—especially reducing wages—preventing the formation and activity of labor unions, and weakening tax regulations to reduce or avoid taxation by this new class of dependent domestic producers. In other words, whereas in the era of industrial-capital dominance, imperialism relied on strong dependent governments to control national economies, in the current era of financial-banking capital, it has increasingly shifted toward an imperialist order based on weak states and a powerful private sector in developing countries.

Second, this “liberalization” of the private sector and its direct linkage with international capital has led to the emergence, growth, and increasing political power of a dependent “neoliberal” bourgeoisie tied to global markets. This class has become a key internal force in imposing the neoliberal economic order. Consequently, a central contradiction has emerged in developing countries: between the “neoliberalism” promoted by imperialist capital and the independent development of these countries. On one side stands the domestic dependent bourgeoisie aligned with this neoliberal order; and on the other stand workers, toilers, national capital, and independent governments resisting it. It is clear that imperialism actively intervenes in this struggle—through electoral interference, financial and political support for neoliberal-aligned forces, the strengthening of NGOs under its influence, and, when necessary, the use of economic sanctions, which have become one of the most effective tools of financial-banking capital…. (emphases added)

— “10 Mehr” evaluation of “Draft documents of the Seventh Congress”
— Part Three, December 14, 2021

“Fundamental Work” by Whom?

If the implementation of such “fundamental work” is entrusted to the same political structure dominated by the neoliberal bourgeoisie, not only will there be no hope for change, but under the current sensitive regional and global conditions, the situation—especially from a security perspective—may deteriorate even further. As recent developments following Ayatollah Khamenei’s statements have shown, the economic oligarchy dominating the country’s political structure has neither the intention nor the interest in changing course. On the contrary, it has mobilized all its resources to defend its class interests—through media distortion of Ayatollah Khamenei’s statements, creating confusion and delays in decision-making, and engaging in both overt and covert economic obstruction—to prevent the implementation of these key directives.

This bourgeoisie, over four decades, has used all available means to consolidate its dominance over the country’s fate and now holds a near-monopoly over instruments of power. Confronting such a force—especially one supported by international capital—is not easy and requires the mobilization of all defenders of the Revolution across society.

Defenders of the Revolution, whether they like it or not, must recognize the reality of class contradictions and organize their actions accordingly. Just as, according to Ayatollah Khamenei, one must not trust America in the external arena, in the internal arena one must not place hope in the neoliberal bourgeoisie and its governmental representatives. It is not possible to persuade this class—through advice or moral appeals—to abandon its interests and redirect its accumulated wealth, gained through both external support and internal opportunism, toward the service of the Revolution and the transformation of the very economic structure that sustains its power.

The only force that, under current conditions, both possesses the capacity to resist and has a genuine motivation for change is the millions of workers and lower social strata who have been the primary victims of this neoliberal system for decades. The Revolution of 1979 itself was carried out by these very forces, and the strength and decisiveness of its leadership at that time depended on their active participation. Today, too, the continuation of the Revolution and the realization of Ayatollah Khamenei’s call for “fundamental work” depend on the return of these forces to the political arena.

Given the grave conditions facing the Revolution, the time has come for these forces—who have always been its true supporters—to once again be mobilized. Their collective power must be brought into the field to bring about the changes envisioned by the Supreme Leader.

It is hoped that the genuine defenders of the Revolution, recognizing this essential reality, will act accordingly and, in this critical historical moment, take steps as quickly as possible toward the unified mobilization of the forces capable of rescuing our deeply challenged Revolution.