Information is sketchy thanks not least to the internet blackout imposed by the ruling theocracy. It is clear from what can be gleaned from the internet, however, that labour agitation in Iran and collective action on the part of Iranian workers has been ongoing. In their communications they go to pains to point out that their resistance is distinct from, and in defiance of, attempts by the West to destabilise Iran in the manner they have been doing since the CIA deposed Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953 on behalf of British oil conglomerate BP. It is, they argue, distinct from, and defiant of, regime change looking to install a leader who will pay tribute, even (or especially) if they’re Al-Qaeda.
The big knob theocrats ruling Iran apparently don’t mind demonising and scapegoating anarchists for the unintended consequences of their own misrule either, like the rest of their class.
- Statement from the Workers’ Councils of Arak
- Iran’s Labor Uprising: 4,000 Arak Workers on Hunger Strike, Exposing Regime’s Systemic Failure
- An unstoppable uprising through the eyes of Iranian revolutionaries and workers: Down with America, long live the revolution!
- See also
- Statement of the Anarchist Front in support of popular strikes in Iran
- Workers’ Councils in Iranian Factories: A History
- Generations of Struggle: Interview with an Iranian Anarchist (2005)
- Anarchism in Iran
In the last few weeks, the following appeared on the website of the Communist Party of Iran: Statement of the Workers’ Councils of Arak: All power to the councils!:
“To the workers of Markazi Province, to our comrades in Khuzestan, and to all the people of Iran.”
For decades, our demands for bread have been answered with bullets, and our demands for dignity with prison. But today, the silence has come to an end. We, the workers of Arak’s factories, declare the following:
Workplace control: From now on, the management of the Machine Manufacturing Company, AzarAb, and Wagon Pars factories will be in the hands of workers’ councils elected by the workers themselves. We no longer recognize managers appointed by the state or the regime’s puppet unions.
Connection with the community: Our strike is no longer about wages. We call on the citizens of Arak to form neighborhood councils to manage security and logistics. Our factories are your protection.
Defense of soldiers: We call on our brothers in the army: do not become the killers of your own fathers. If you stand with us, our councils will guarantee the safety of you and your families.
Ultimatum to the regime: Any attempt to forcibly enter the industrial complexes or to arrest our representatives will be considered a declaration of war against the entire city. If a single drop of workers’ blood is spilled, the flames of uprising will leave no trace of power behind.
We are not here only because of unpaid wages. We are here to decide how this factory and this country must be run. The era of employers and clerics has come to an end. All power to the councils!
Iran’s Labor Uprising: 4,000 Arak Workers on Hunger Strike, Exposing Regime’s Systemic Failure
Mansoureh Galestan, 11th September 2025 || A grave humanitarian crisis is unfolding in the industrial city of Arak, where a prolonged protest by 4,000 aluminum factory workers has reached a terrifying new stage. As of September 10, their strike entered its 44th day, with a significant number of workers escalating their protest to a “dry hunger strike,” refusing both food and water. The physical toll has been immediate and severe, with videos circulating on social media showing weakened workers being transported to hospitals, their bodies failing but their resolve intact.
This desperate stand in Arak is not an isolated incident but a powerful symptom of a nationwide crisis fueled by the clerical regime’s systemic corruption and economic plundering. As organized labor pushes back against oppression, tragic acts of individual despair, like the recent self-immolation of a young man in Shadegan, paint a harrowing picture of a nation at its breaking point.
Arak: A Symbol of Unyielding Resistance
The workers at the Arak Aluminum company are protesting for their most basic rights: overdue wages and livable working conditions. Yet, in an extraordinary act of defiance, their strike is not a work stoppage. They continue to operate the production lines even as the hunger strike ravages their health. Reports from the factory describe workers so weakened they can barely stand, yet they remain at their posts, a testament to their commitment and a stark indictment of the regime’s neglect. One worker lamented, “We have to go to the hospital hungry! Workers are giving their lives, but the management offers no response.”
The regime’s response has been a mixture of contempt and intimidation. Instead of addressing the workers’ legitimate grievances, the management offered a “small and worthless gift card,” an insult that has only deepened the workers’ resolve. Their demands have now grown beyond mere economic relief, with calls for the dismissal of the factory’s head of security, a figure they identify as a mercenary of the regime. This escalation shows the protest has evolved from a labor dispute into a direct confrontation with the state’s oppressive apparatus.
A Spreading Fire of Discontent
The courage of the Arak workers has not gone unnoticed. Their strike is part of a “growing wave of labor protests,” with workers in the key port city of Bandar Abbas and the oil town of Aghajari holding their own rallies in solidarity. This fire of discontent is spreading far beyond industrial centers. In Varzaqan, East Azerbaijan, deprived villagers blocked the road to the Andirgan gold mine, protesting the environmental devastation caused by regime-affiliated mafias. They report that the plundering of their local resources is destroying their agriculture and killing their livestock, leaving them with nothing but “poverty and ruin” while enriching a corrupt elite.
This organized resistance, both from industrial workers and rural communities, is mirrored by tragic acts of individual despair elsewhere in the country, highlighting the multiple fronts of the Iranian people’s struggle. On September 7, Mohammad Shavardi, a 26-year-old man from Shadegan, succumbed to his injuries after setting himself on fire in front of the local governor’s office on August 30. His protest was a final, desperate cry against the crushing economic pressures and lack of opportunity that define life for millions of young Iranians. Shavardi’s death is a direct consequence of the same “plundering and oppressive policies” that have driven the Arak workers to the brink of starvation. Together, the mass strike in Arak, the community uprising in Varzaqan, and the solitary act of self-immolation in Shadegan form a powerful signal that the Iranian people have been pushed beyond their limit.
The Regime’s Bankrupt Response: Suppression and Spin
Faced with a burgeoning crisis, the regime has resorted to its time-worn tactics of suppression and propaganda. In Arak, its agents have attempted to create a “climate of fear,” issuing threats to break the strike. Simultaneously, state-affiliated media outlets like the ILNA news agency have tried to sanitize the protest, framing it as a mere technical dispute over “mismanagement” and the “inappropriate results of privatization policies.” This narrative deliberately ignores the workers’ political rage and the systemic corruption at the heart of the crisis.
Similarly, state media confirmed Shavardi’s death but cynically dismissed its cause as simply “work-related problems,” erasing the political context of his desperate act. These tactics reveal a regime that is not only unwilling but incapable of addressing its people’s suffering.
A Nation on the Verge
The eyes of Iran’s disenfranchised populace are now fixed on Arak. The aluminum workers have become a national symbol of resilience, sending a clear message: “We are standing for a life of dignity.” The events in Arak, Shadegan, and Varzaqan are not isolated flare-ups; they are the tremors of a potential nationwide uprising, born from decades of injustice and an unwavering demand for fundamental change. The Iranian people have shown they will pay any price, even with their lives, to reclaim the rights and the nation stolen from them.
An unstoppable uprising through the eyes of Iranian revolutionaries and workers: Down with America, long live the revolution!
Communist Party of Iran International Bureau: “The genuine protests of the oppressed people in Iran”
[Regarding the protests that have been ongoing in Iran for several weeks, we asked comrade about the claims that the actions are being directed by the US and genocidal Israel or are under their intervention. Our comrade sent the responses via a voice message. We have transcribed this voice message but we chose not to convert the speech into formal written language, in order to remain faithful to the original words and made only minimal changes just for clarity.]
About those speculations or questions; it is obvious that those are all lies actually. Because as much as it goes back to the protest itself, those are real protests by Iranian oppressed people, who have been deprived of their freedom, dignity, equality and the imposed poverty that the regime has put on them. So those are real protests. Those are a continuation of the protests that we have seen in 2009, in 2018, 2019, 2022 and so on.
So maybe the reason why people think this might be US or Israel backed protests, is that it happened at a time when Iran is under a lot of international pressure, especially the war threats that it gets from Israel and the US and so on. But Iranian people are doing themselves a huge favor by having those protests at this time because it is the best that they get rid of that regime on their own by their own ways in the peaceful way that they know. So that they do not allow the regime adventurism to go on and give excuses to imperialism and imperialist powers like US and its allies to attack Iran.
So Iranian people are doing what they have been doing for 47 years and it has nothing to do with the US and Israel. Of course you hear that Israel and US are saying that we are supporting those people. It is just something you know that these politicians say but they are not supporting at all. Trump was saying that if protesters are killed, they were going to attack Iran, but have they? No. Actually the real coup that is happening is not on the streets by those people. The real coup may be is happening behind the scenes now by the factions inside the Islamic Regime and the US and Israel. So as long as comparing this to Venezuela, maybe there is also a thought among the Iranians, that one of the alternatives for the West would be to sit (behind the scenes of course) and talk with the reformists.
Some of the reformists inside Iran, the insiders, and with some parts of the IGRC so that they come up with some kind of regime or new government that could take control of the protests and after the regime is gone, they take control of Iran. So there is a chance that the west would compromise with some factions inside the current regime and let them run the country. They think this is the safest and easiest way for them to control these protests in Iran.
So basically something similar to Venezuela, they took away Maduro and they let the rest of the operatives to be there and continue controlling the country. That is very safe for them. They do not want to risk by bringing something new that they do not know anything about. So maybe they are also thinking of doing something same in Iran, but it has nothing to do with the protests. On the contrary, it is very dangerous for the protesters if they do it. The Iranian people on the streets, they are being killed, they are being beaten up, they are being put in prison, they are facing one of the most brutal crackdowns you could imagine at the moment not just to have the IGRC and the reformist come and rule them for another 50 years. This is not what they want. This is a real revolution.
As can be seen from the statements, particularly the statement made by workers in Arak, the car manufacturing workers, they have taken control of their factories and they are working to build their own workers councils. They have also asked the people in Arak to come and help them and have asked the people also to build up their organizing committees, their councils. That is what people on the streets really want.
Majority of the movement on the street is the workers movement, the teacher’s movement, the student’s movement, the nurse’s movement, the woman movement. Most of those active movements you have seen, that is what they want. So, this is a real revolution and the aim is that. But of course, the US imperialism and its allies will of course try, try to curb the revolution to somehow mislead it into something that people really do not want and something that serves their own interest. So, what is important for us, the communists, the leftists, the freedom loving people, is not to fall into the trap of what the regimes media is saying or even what the bourgeois media is saying globally. So, this is not a coup by Israel and the US. This is something real happening by the Iranian people as it has been happening many more times before and this time it is so huge that everybody thinks that this time would be the end of the regime. And pertaining “to these people are killing babies”, of course that is obvious lies. The regime itself attacks the hospitals where the wounded people are.
They kill them and they say the protesters have attacked the hospitals and have killed people there. Or they have killed a lot of people inside prisons. There are horrible videos and you could see that they have killed a lot of people inside prisons. Those people they have arrested and they have taken them there and detained them and have killed them right away. This morning, I saw a video full of corpses of young people who have been killed.
So, the government is using those pretexts like Zionism and Imperialism, backed coup, killing babies, killing officers, just to kill the people on the streets. It is just an excuse. We should not believe that. That is about that, but anyway, as I said, we really do not know where the current uprising is going. There are many alternatives. One of them is what I mentioned above; that the US imperialism could go and compromise with part of the regime itself on the inside and impose them on the society after regime change.
Another option could be, they try to bring back Shah’s son from the outside, but that is not really that probable. Because first of all people have removed his father, a dictatorship, 47 years ago and they are not going to bring back his son. A person who has not done any real work for the past 47 years and has been living off the money that his father has stolen from the people and he still thinks that his father was not a dictator and that his father has not done anything bad.
So that is why people are chanting “down with the oppressor, whether it is a shah or supreme leader”. Of course you might have seen fake images, videos around, saying that people are chanting long live shah. There might be some small portion of those that are real, as there are of course some people who want Pahlavi back or even they might be infiltrators by the regime itself to bring a few people from each people inside the demonstrators and say “Come on, you see? This is organized form the outside. “They want Pahlavi back, somebody dead, you removed in 1979, they want to bring him back and put him on top of your head” and stuff like that.
The best option of course for the Iranian people is that they organize themselves, like those movements that have been active inside Iran, like the workers, the teachers, the students, the woman, the revolutionary movement in Kurdistan, all of these. They have been organizing and leading protests and strikes during the past 47 years and during those movements, they have those uprisings, those protests, they have also raised their own leaders, they have leaders, they have organizers. Of course you cannot have 3000 thousands protests and strikes in a year without having leaders or organizers. So we have those leaders and organizers. Once this revolution continues and the atmosphere opens up a little bit, you will see that we have those. And we have already seen unions and workers councils, mass committees, they have been put up so as to take control of the places that they capture from the regime.
This is what we are also working for. We had a conference during the weekend organized by the leftists and communists from Iran and I was also participating there. Soon, they will have their statement out. I think it will be an important statement. There will be a lot of new and good things there, maybe many of your questions will also get answered there. Also, what we as the communists would expect from those socialists and worker leaders inside to do and organize so that their revolution is not stolen once again by the internal and international bourgeois and imperialist powers.
So hopefully what I have said here answers most of the questions.
Let’s follow what is happening in Iran. Of course it is really important what is happening in Iran, we think that it will have a very big impact not just on Iran, or the region, it will have a big impact on the whole world.
Especially when we see around the world, all kind of fascists and right hand groups coming up and attacking workers like every day. If we have a successful example inside Iran, it would be really important for the whole world.
Latest news from the uprising of protesting people against the criminal government
[The text in this section is taken from a bulletin published by the Worker-communist Party of Iran on January 12, 2026.] Today, 12 January 2026, marks the sixteenth day of the revolution. The Islamic government is attempting to cut off people’s connection with the outside world through internet shutdowns, in order to prevent international coverage and block broader organisation of the protests. Following a four-day internet blackout, reports indicate that access to Starlink satellite internet has also been widely disrupted.
Under cover of this digital blackout, the Islamic Republic—seeing itself on a path toward
overthrow—has intensified the killing of protesters, particularly over the past two days. Due to severe repression, internet shutdowns, and extremely limited access for independent journalists, there is no accurate figure for the number of those killed. Reports nevertheless point to large-scale crimes committed by the government against protesting people, even though precise statistics are unavailable.
At the same time, state media are attempting to spread despair and fear in society by broadcasting false news, publishing fabricated videos, and engaging in intimidation on social media.
Yet reports also describe the people’s courageous and determined resistance against the government and their resolute confrontation with the regime’s repression forces—people who are standing bravely, determined to put an end to this government of killing, poverty, and total misery.
According to reports, yesterday, 11 January 2026, large crowds attended the funeral of one of the fallen protesters at Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in Tehran, chanting: “I will kill, I will kill the one who killed my brother!” Participants ululated, clapped, and shouted “Death to Khamenei.” On the same day, many families of slain protesters staged protests during funerals at Behesht-e Zahra, chanting “Death to Khamenei” and “Death to the dictator.”
Some families were still searching for the bodies of their loved ones, and Behesht-e Zahra became a site of unified protest.
On the same day in Abdanan, a memorial ceremony for one of the fallen, Ali Seydi, turned into a protest, with participants chanting against Khomeini and government officials. These ceremonies have become scenes of mass protest and chants of “Death to Khamenei.”
Night-time protests are continuing. Last night in Tehran, people took to the streets in various neighbourhoods and, despite severe repression, confronted Islamic Republic forces alley by alley. In Punak, as on the previous night, large crowds gathered and chanted anti-government slogans. In Ferdows Boulevard and Kashani Boulevard, revolutionary youth came out chanting “Death to the dictator.” A banner displayed on the pedestrian bridge over Modarres Highway reading “We are no longer afraid—we will fight” drew particular attention.
Last night in Gorgan, crowds chanted “This year is the year of blood—Seyyed Ali will be
overthrown.” In Mobarakeh, Isfahan, revolutionary youth attacked banks, municipalities, public buildings, and mosques. In Shahsavar (Tonekabon), protests and chanting continued.
In Bandar Abbas, people demonstrated, while in Kianshahr, Karaj, revolutionary youth
surrounded repression forces chanting: “Police, surrender—we won’t harm you.”
According to reports, on Sunday morning a group of truck drivers and bazaar merchants in Isfahan joined the nationwide strikes and protests. During demonstrations on Saturday and Sunday, regime forces attacked protesters, and tragically two protesting truck drivers were killed by live fire.
The Educational Affairs Office of the University of Tehran announced the closure of all
undergraduate student dormitories for at least ten days—an indication of the government’s fear of students, who play a key role in the revolution.
The scale of the revolution and the people’s remarkable courage and resilience have, in some cases, led to defections among repression forces. IRGC Intelligence has issued warnings to all relevant bodies, threatening military personnel and officials with consequences if they abandon their posts. During clashes between revolutionaries and Islamic Republic forces, and attacks on repression centres, reports indicate that dozens of regime forces have been killed, though no exact figures are available. To maintain the morale of its forces and further militarise cities, the government has declared three days of public mourning for its dead.
Meanwhile, the wounded government continues its threats to repress and intimidate the population. Ahmad Radān, Commander-in-Chief of the Police, spoke of an “upgraded level of confrontation” with detained citizens. Gholamhossein Mohseni Eje’i, head of the judiciary, called on judges to prepare for “avenging the blood of the martyrs of recent terrorist acts.” Mohammad Movahedi, the Prosecutor General, threatened that even publishing calls for protests and general strikes is a crime.
The government is gripped by fear, while the people are furious and determined. Protesters insist on continuing the revolution until victory. The Worker-communist Party of Iran stresses the importance of spreading news of the revolution by every possible means, standing with the families of detainees, organising protests for the immediate and unconditional release of all recently arrested individuals and all political prisoners, and forming struggle committees and decision-making councils in neighbourhoods and workplaces to coordinate protests nationwide.
The criminal Islamic Republic must be overthrown.
Worker-communist Party of Iran
What does it take to cripple the Islamic Republic’s killing machine?
[The text in this section is a statement issued by the Communist Party of Iran on January 12, 2026.] The criminal regime of the Islamic Republic, in order to confront the wave of the recent uprising, from the very first days effectively imposed an undeclared state of martial law by deploying security forces, police, and special units in various cities and in areas that had turned into focal points of the protests. By the fifteenth day of these protests, as a result of the regime’s repressive forces attacking the ranks of protesters and opening fire on them, more than 540 protesters have so far lost their lives, hundreds have been wounded, and over 10,700 people have been arrested and sent to prison.
The regime’s repressive forces, especially from the thirteenth day of the protests onward, have pushed brutality and savagery to their peak by cutting off the internet. The leaders and commanders of the Islamic government, who are unable to conceal the scale of the horrific crimes they have committed, attribute these killings to so-called “armed rioters.”
On Sunday, 11 January, the circulation of images and videos showing the lifeless bodies of protesters in Kahrizak, Tehran, as well as families anxiously and fearfully searching for any sign of their loved ones, displayed scenes of these appalling crimes. At the same time as these images and videos were published, the shutdown of internet lines has intensified concerns about the risk of such massacres spreading further.
There is no doubt that the regime’s ability to carry out bloody repression and commit such horrific crimes is one of the main obstacles to the mass expansion of this revolutionary movement. However, the key to overcoming this obstacle also lies in the hands of the masses themselves. For example, if protesting masses in Tehran and other Iranian cities take to the streets simultaneously at multiple points across the city and on the scale of several thousand people, and if they remain vigilant and neutralize the tactics and tricks used by security forces to turn protests into street battles and hit-and-run clashes, they can not only effectively neutralize the repressive power of the Islamic Republic’s mercenaries, but also shatter their cohesion.
In this regard, it is necessary for activists in social movements, through organizational work and by employing their own initiatives and experiences in information dissemination via social networks and other means, to ensure the advance of this protest movement by preparing and broadly mobilizing the masses for demonstrations. Along this path, it is essential for people to remain fully alert and not allow the Islamic Republic’s security and intelligence apparatus, by giving space to a group of reactionary monarchists, to derail their freedom-seeking and equality-oriented struggle, or to use this same tactic to damage the credibility of the people’s resistance and intensify repression against them.
Another essential requirement for the advance and victory of this protest movement is the entry of the working class into the arena through unified and nationwide strikes in factories, industrial complexes, and key centers of production and services, combining economic and political demands. These include, among others, the demand to end the repression of protests, the release of all detainees and political prisoners, and the abolition of the death penalty.
Despite the numerous obstacles it faces, the working class—by relying on the achievements of its struggles so far, on the presence of experienced leaders, on its experience in forming strike committees and factory committees that are the buds and embryos of workers’ councils, and on the experience it has gained in organizing hundreds of powerful strikes—can join this protest movement by launching nationwide strikes and, through this participation, paralyze the Islamic regime’s machinery of repression and killing. At the same time, the social-scale participation of the working class in these protests can provide a suitable foundation for advancing organization, creating class-based and mass organizations, and fostering the political organization of workers.
Another condition for ensuring the advance and victory of this movement lies in spreading a clear and revolutionary political strategy and outlook, fostering organization, and forming a nationwide leadership element. Therefore, one should not promise the masses an easy and effortless victory; rather, concrete steps must be taken to address the real needs of this movement and to provide the prerequisites for the revolutionary overthrow of the Islamic regime, while making the masses aware of the hardships and difficulties of this arduous and rocky path.
This movement is not merely a movement aimed solely at overthrowing the Islamic Republic. The masses who have risen up have entered the arena of protest and struggle against poverty and economic misery, against inequalities, deprivations, and discriminations that are rooted in Iran’s capitalist relations. In this sense, the movement not only places the overthrow of the Islamic Republic before itself as a goal, but by virtue of the nature of its demands, it is an anti-capitalist movement.
People are rightfully looking toward the latent potentials within Iran to establish a free, equal, and prosperous society. A clear picture of the government that will come to power after the Islamic Republic must be brought before the people. Therefore, a socialist horizon—the horizon of a council-based government of workers and the oppressed, and of people’s councils—must be set before this movement. Efforts should be made to further popularize, through broad political and propaganda campaigns, slogans such as “Bread, Work, Freedom, Council Governance” and “Freedom, Equality, Council Governance,” which have been raised by protesters in this revolutionary movement. A clear explanation of these slogans, and of the true meaning of freedom, equality, and council governance, must be brought to the masses.
It is necessary to issue persistent and uninterrupted warnings about the dangers of imperialist regime-change projects and the transfer of power over the heads of the people, and to make clear to the public the positions and political strategies of various factions of Iran’s bourgeois opposition aimed at derailing and defeating this movement. It is essential to openly expose the contradiction between their economic programs—which are nothing more than capitalism based on the free-market model and neo-liberalism under non-Islamic management—and the promises they make to the people regarding political and legal equality and equality between women and men. Those whose alternative is capitalism with non-Islamic management cannot promise freedom and prosperity to the people. Capitalism with non-Islamic management is also an authoritarian system of rule.
The Woman, Life, Freedom revolution enters a new phase
Statement of the Worker-communist Party of Iran on the new round of the uprising of the people of Iran
[The text in this section is a statement issued by the Worker-communist Party of Iran on January 5, 2026, regarding the recent mass protests by the Iranian people.] Protests that began on 28 December 2025 following the Tehran bazaar strike, in opposition to rising prices and the severe economic situation, have grown broader and more radical by the day. Chants of “death to the dictator” and calls for overthrow have shaken the streets of large and small cities alike, once again drawing global attention to the struggle of the Iranian people to free themselves from the Islamic Republic.
These protests are a continuation of previous struggles, and it is specifically the Woman, Life, Freedom revolution that has once again taken to the streets—this time under different conditions and with an even stronger emphasis on “life”. Attention is now focused on how this revolution, in its new phase, will chart its path forward, and on how the people of Iran, by defeating the Islamic Republic and taking control of every aspect of life themselves, will shape a new chapter of history.
The latest protests are unfolding amid a dramatic deterioration in living conditions. For many people, there is no longer any room for patience or compromise, and as a result ever wider sections of society are being compelled to enter the struggle and settle accounts with the ruling power. On the other side stands an Islamic Republic weaker and more crisis-ridden than ever, with no economic or political answers to offer, and still reliant on bullets, prisons, executions and the machinery of repression.
For the revolution to overcome the Islamic Republic, it must bring an ever broader social force into the field and make greater use of levers such as nationwide strikes and a general strike—measures that are extremely difficult for the state to confront. The widest possible sections of the population, in cities large and small and across neighbourhoods nationwide, must actively join the revolution, while simultaneously engaging in sustained and varied forms of protest: demonstrations, night-time chanting, neighbourhood control, and attacks on state forces and institutions. Workers in industrial centres, teachers, nurses, retirees, public-sector employees and students can—and must—play a far more decisive and central role.
Strike committees, neighbourhood control committees, mutual aid committees and revolutionary coordination networks must be formed wherever possible, preparing the ground for the mass expansion of the political movement and readiness to deliver decisive blows to the Islamic Republic.
But the revolution does not confront only the Islamic Republic and its repression. Another danger threatening its advance and victory lies in efforts to steer political developments in Iran through deals from above—preserving the foundations of repression, dictatorship, religious authority and the state apparatus—whether through media manipulation, public opinion engineering, or direct and indirect intervention by foreign governments, so that they remain limited to merely the passing of power from the hands of one capital owners to another. In the presence of a revolution of this scale, such efforts are often presented in the name of the revolution itself, even as its supposed outcome. In reality, they serve the interests of the ruling regime and work against the revolution.
A clear example of this danger can be seen in the activities of monarchist forces. Through deception and propaganda, issuing death threats, intimidating opponents, engaging in thuggery, abuse and misogyny—in short, by modelling themselves on Trump-style fascism—they seek to eliminate rival figures and leaders who enjoy popular support, aiming wishfully to claim uncontested leadership. This delusion works to the benefit of the Islamic Republic and to the detriment of the people’s revolution. As a result, the struggle to overthrow the Islamic Republic has today become inseparable from the struggle to neutralise and defeat this home-grown, Trump-style fascism.
The Woman, Life, Freedom revolution in Iran must, even before its final victory, entrench its human principles—such as unconditional freedom of expression, organisation and political activity; the abolition of the death penalty; and the dismantling of all forms of misogyny—so deeply in Iran’s political culture that no one can cross these lines without being exposed and isolated. Confronting attempts to clip the wings of the revolution, impose top-down deals, or manufacture artificial leaders likewise depends on the mass participation of millions in advancing the revolution across the country.
Opposing all forms of attempts to cause divisions among the peoples living within Iran’s geography; reaffirming Woman, Life, Freedom as a unifying slogan; rejecting all forms of dictatorship and state power imposed above society; insisting on demands that uproot the machinery of repression and suffocation; enforcing a total ban on execution, torture and imprisonment; and defending unconditional freedom of expression—these are all essential to strengthening and deepening the revolution.
Under current revolutionary conditions, collective effort and direct action to confront livelihood issues—from strikes and struggles for wage increases to protests for public services, the formation of medical mutual aid groups, cooperative funds, child-support initiatives, environmental rescue groups and other forms of solidarity—also take on political significance. In these areas too, the revolutionary movement is compelled to exercise direct popular power, even before fully displacing the ruling political power, depending on the balance of forces.
The revolution does not manifest itself solely through street protests, neighbourhood control or strikes. It can also take shape through revolutionary actions by workers in water, electricity, hospitals, telecommunications and other institutions, aimed at alleviating or resolving people’s immediate problems. This points to a broader truth: for full and comprehensive victory over the Islamic Republic, the current revolution must not only undertake revolutionary economic and welfare measures, but also move towards socialism—towards placing social production and distribution under the control of direct popular institutions.
The new phase of the Woman, Life, Freedom revolution has brought the prospect of victory over the Islamic Republic closer than ever before. At the same time, it makes clearer than ever that decisive victory can only come alongside the defeat of all reactionary, traditional and backward forces that promise the people a return to the past, to despotism, servitude and inequality.
Down with the Islamic Republic!
Victory to Woman, Life, Freedom!
Long live the Socialist Republic!
Defending the Workers’ Movement and Socialism Is an Urgent Necessity
(The text included in this section was written by labor activist Reza Shahabi, a member of the Syndicate of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company. Dated January 4, 2026, the statement draws attention to the urgent necessity of a class-based defense in the face of attacks on the workers’ movement, the left, and socialism.)
At a time when the workers’ movement, the left, and socialism are under an organized assault by the right, fascist forces, and warmongers, class-based defense is not merely a conscious choice but an immediate responsibility.
Following the publication of my recent note (on Instagram), I have received numerous responses and reflections from fellow workers, social activists, and comrades from different backgrounds. A large portion of this feedback has emphasized the importance of the central aim of my note—namely, the necessity of defending the independent workers’ movement, the left and socialism, and freedom- and equality-seeking movements under current conditions. These are conditions in which such movements are increasingly subjected to deliberate attacks, distortion, and sabotage by right-wing, fascist, and monarchist currents—attacks that are often accompanied by overt or implicit support for the military actions of the United States and Israel. As the recent example of the U.S. military attack on Venezuela illustrates, confronting these warmongering, anti-worker, and fascist forces constitutes a vital and urgent component of the class struggle.
Alongside these responses, I have also received critiques from some dear colleagues and from concerned labour and student activists with diverse orientations and backgrounds. Disagreement and critical engagement are a natural and necessary part of the existence of the workers’ and socialist movement, and when pursued in a spirit of collective reflection and clarification, they can contribute to deepening debate. However, criticism that ignores the context and purpose of the text, whether intentionally or not, misdirects its aim and, rather than strengthening dialogue and comradely exchange, undermines the possibility of constructive and meaningful engagement.
It should be clear that my brief note was neither a theoretical manifesto on socialism nor an attempt to synthesize debates concerning political organization, class formation, or the strategic horizons of the workers’ movement. As an anti-capitalist worker and a defender of socialism, I have articulated my views and critiques over many years of practical struggle, in different contexts and forms, and I will continue to do so.
The specific purpose of that short text was to underscore the necessity for workers, oppressed and protesting people to stand alongside workers’, leftist, and socialist movements, as well as freedom- and equality-seeking movements, against a wave of reactionary slogans, campaigns, and degenerate discourses that seek to discredit the left and socialism within popular protests or to equate them with authoritarian forces—specifically the Islamic Republic. This includes violent and diversionary slogans such as “Death to the three corrupt: the cleric, the leftist, the Mojahed.” The intended audience of my text was the working class and people who, under intense economic and social pressure and relentless state repression, are simultaneously subjected to a barrage of propaganda from right-wing and authoritarian currents within the so-called opposition.
My remarks are also addressed to some of my dear and hardworking trade-union comrades who oppose what they call interference by leftist and socialist currents in independent workers’ organizations. We have discussed this issue many times and have consistently agreed that an independent workers’ organization must be transparently and decisively independent of all employers, managers, capitalists, and state institutions. That said, the anti-capitalist critique that the overwhelming majority of our coworkers—whether they identify as leftists or socialists or not—have arrived at through their lived experience and workplace struggles is fundamentally rooted in socialist principles. At the same time, this does not mean interference by specific groups or parties in the internal organizational affairs of independent workers’ organizations. The current weakened state of workers’ organizations in the country is primarily the result of ongoing repression, dismissals, threats, imprisonment, the all-encompassing brutality of the ruling capitalist system, and the absence of well-established traditions of mass workers’ organizations—not the influence of leftist or socialist tendencies.
It is clear that workers and labour activists may hold diverse political tendencies and party affiliations. Nevertheless, I believe that we can build independent workers’ organizations with an anti-capitalist and socialist orientation while, at the organizational and structural level, remaining independent of all political parties, based on a clear constitution and transparent decision-making mechanisms. Part of my previous note was directed precisely at this necessity: the direct, conscious, and organized intervention of workers and the oppressed in determining their own fate and in resisting capitalism and anti-worker, power-seeking forces. This emphasis is rooted in the lived experience of workers’ struggle and resistance to right-wing assaults—not in any illusion about the reformability of capitalism or in denying the necessity of left political parties.
Likewise, the emphasis on the “leadership and maximum participation of workers” refers to the direct, conscious, and organized involvement of workers and the oppressed in shaping their own destiny. It means that workers should not serve as the foot soldiers of other classes, but should be present—as a conscious class—as the determining force shaping the direction and horizon of social and class struggles, exercising a leading role. For me, this is a concept deeply rooted in the anti-capitalist and socialist tradition, oriented toward establishing social relations in which exploitation and oppression have been abolished. Moreover, for us anti-capitalist working-class activists, references to “justice,” “freedom,” and “equality” have always been understood in this same light. They have never been merely legal concepts confined to existing laws or to purely economic and trade-union struggles, but rather the direct product of collective struggle from below. Historical experience demonstrates that under relations of exploitation and wage slavery—whether in this establishment or in any other form of capitalism—no form of justice, freedom, or equality can be lasting unless these very relations are fundamentally eradicated.
It is evident that debates over the role of organizations, the necessity of organization, and the challenges facing the workers’ and socialist movement are essential and unavoidable—especially at the present moment. I hope that these discussions will continue within workers’ organizations and among emancipatory and socialist movements, in appropriate spaces and platforms, in a healthy, comradely, and forward-looking manner.
Long live the struggle against poverty, high prices and inflation! Forward to the revolution!
(This text is a call for solidarity with the Iranian people’s recent mass protests, published on December 31, 2025, by the Council for Cooperation of Iranian Left and Communist Forces (Shoraye Hamkary). The statement addresses the spread of street actions, state violence, and possible attempts at diversion.)
In recent days, a wave of mass protests has erupted in a number of Iranian cities. These protests, which began on Sunday, December 28, 2025, following an unprecedented rise in the value of the dollar and a sharp increase in prices, combined with a combination of protests by businessmen and people from Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, spread to Jomhuri Street in the early hours and then to other areas of Tehran. The current new wave of protests, which is rooted in the general dissatisfaction of the masses, the people’s livelihood difficulties, the skyrocketing inflation, and the meager wages and rights of workers and laborers, continued on Monday and Tuesday and has taken on wider dimensions by spreading to cities such as Isfahan, Mashhad, Karaj, Hamedan, Qeshm, Kish, Mallard, Mamasani, and Kerman.
The rapid spread of popular protests from Tehran to other cities, along with slogans against Khamenei and the Islamic Republic, and the rapid support of students at Tehran and other universities in the country, reflects the pent-up anger and disgust of the working masses who are no longer willing to tolerate the crimes of the Islamic Republic. An authoritarian and reactionary regime that has suppressed the Iranian people for many years, imposed poverty and deprivation on them, and spent billions of dollars from the hard-earned money of workers and laborers on waging war, expanding its proxy forces, and nuclear facilities. A corrupt and oppressive regime that, despite all the poverty and misery it has imposed on the workers and laborers of Iran, has responded to society with unlimited repression and any protest movement with arrests, imprisonment, executions, and killings. As in the past two days, in order to disperse the protesting masses, it has thrown tear gas at them, surrounded universities, beaten protesters, and in some cases even shot them.
The growing protests of the Iranian masses in the past few days have clearly shown that not only have the killings, executions, imprisonments, and arrests of the past years not been able to stop the oppressed people from fighting to get rid of the poverty, misery, and discrimination imposed on them, but they have once again taken to the streets with slogans of “Death to the dictator,” “Death to the Islamic Republic,” and “Long live freedom,” turning the streets into their battlefield with the ruling reaction. More importantly, with the formation of a new wave of protests, the militant students of Tehran’s universities have also linked the university campuses to the street struggles of the people from the very first hours of the street protests by chanting slogans such as “no Pahlavi, no leader (supreme leader), democracy and equality,” “Women, Life, Freedom,” and “The student dies, but will not accept humiliation.”
Meanwhile, a few seemingly monarchist forces – perhaps security infiltrators – are trying to divide and disrupt the current protests of the Iranian people, as in 2022, by attending some of these gatherings and chanting slogans in favor of Reza Pahlavi. Therefore, it is necessary that women, youth, and progressive forces accelerate the current growing protests while rejecting and isolating these neo-fascist policies, along with exposing the fascist actions of Israel and the right-wing television channels such as “man-o-tou” and “Iran International” which spread deepfake videos by falsifying and dubbing videos of street protests. The masses of the Iranian people should also expand popular protests by joining the ranks of street struggles as much as possible, strengthen their struggle unity even more than before, and distance themselves from those who try to create division by infiltrating their struggle ranks.
More important than the street struggles of the working masses and the solidarity of the militant and freedom-loving students with their struggles in the past days is the formation and spread of labor strikes and their connection with the street struggles of the masses of the Iranian people. A rightful demand that the street movement and the student movement should demand from the Iranian working class in these decisive days. Undoubtedly, if the workers of Iran in these decisive days in factories and service institutions unify their scattered strikes, stop the wheel of production, and rise up united and unified to organize nationwide strikes, then surely this time it will be the workers, women, and the broad masses of the Iranian people who will celebrate the victory of the revolution on the ruins of the Islamic Republic.
Down with the Capitalist Regime of the Islamic Republic
Long Live Freedom, Long Live Socialism
Worker Organizations, Retirees, and Social Groups in Solidarity with the Popular Uprising
(This section contains a joint statement of solidarity published on January 3, 2026, by workers’ organizations, retirees, and various social groups (Retirees’ Union – Kermanshah Electricity and Metal Association – Don’t Execute! – Seekers of Justice – Contracted Oil Workers’ Protest Organizing Committee – Unofficial Oil Workers’ Protest Organizing Committee – Nurses’ Protest Coordination Committee – Voice of Iranian Women). The text outlines the ongoing process, seen as a continuation of the 2022 uprising, and presents the main demands.)
We stand at one of the most decisive moments in our contemporary history. What is unfolding today in the streets, strikes, and nationwide protests is a continuation of the 2022 uprising—an uprising that began with the slogan Woman_Life_Freedom and exposed institutionalized discrimination, systematic humiliation, naked repression, and structural poverty. This uprising made clear that society is no longer willing to continue living under this unjust order and its imposed conditions.
The stronghold of compulsory hijab has been breached, and we have declared that we will not tolerate sexual and gender apartheid. We have declared our revulsion toward superstition and our refusal to bargain away human dignity. When the response to our demands was bullets, prison, and execution, we stood firm and, with the cry of unity against poverty and corruption, declared that we will not relent until our unfinished revolution is victorious.
Today, in fidelity to that same pledge and covenant, we have taken to the streets and cry out: Freedom, Freedom, Freedom.
Today we have come out not merely for bread, but for life; not merely for survival, but for human dignity, and for a humane future.
Runaway inflation has broken the backs of the majority of the people. Wages and salaries that fall far below the poverty line and the subsistence basket; predatory privatizations; rent-seeking; the existence of multiple mafias; repression, prison, and execution; and warmongering policies have pushed people’s lives to the brink of collapse. Society has reached a boiling point, and nationwide protests are the direct reflection of this critical condition.
Bazaar merchants (Bazaaris), as the barometer of this collapsing economy, have entered the field through their strikes.
Today’s protest is a protest against a parasitic billionaire class that has driven people’s lives into ruin. The issue is not merely the astronomical price of the dollar or inflation; the issue is the entire structure that tramples on our human dignity every day. It is this very condition that has brought everyone—from Generation Z to retirees who cry out daily, “Livelihood, dignity, our inalienable right”—into the streets.
Today we—workers, teachers, nurses, retirees, students, women, and all long-suffering people—take to the streets city by city and raise the cry for freedom and equality.
How long should we suffer from poverty? How long shall we endure this slavery? How long should we stay captivated in the grip of contractors and the water, electricity, and health mafias that, in alliance with power networks, grow fatter by the day while people’s lives are destroyed more each day?
How long prison, execution, hijab decrees, and repression patrols?
We have no quarrel with the peoples of the world, nor do we need nuclear enrichment or proxy forces. It is these policies that have broken the people’s backs.
We, the organizations and signatories of this statement, consider ourselves an inseparable part of this nationwide uprising and, in unison with the slogan Woman, Life, Freedom, declare our full support and solidarity with the ongoing struggles of the people for freedom, welfare, justice, and human dignity, and demand the following points:
- We stand united and resolute against state repression and killing, and we stand alongside the justice-seeking families of those who have lost their lives. Protest is our right. We will strive with all our strength for the freedom of all detainees of popular protests and all political prisoners, and we demand an “Iran without executions.”
- In support of nationwide strikes, together with our families we will bring gatherings to city centres and make the ranks of street protests ever stronger.
- Against attempts to sow division, we will unite our ranks with the slogans ‘Unity, Unity, Against Poverty and Corruption’ and ‘Death to the Dictator’, and, in unison with the people of Zahedan, we will shout: ‘Now is the time for unity; now is the time for revolution’.
- A seven-hundred-thousand-toman subsidy is no answer to poverty imposed by wages many times below the subsistence basket. Do not speak of an empty treasury. The astronomical budgets of repression forces, proxy forces, and inefficient religious institutions must be cut. The billions of dollars in wealth held by ayatollahs, the privileged offspring of officials, and ruling gangs must be returned to the people to be spent on people’s lives—reducing the costs of bread, gasoline, and more.
- We need no leader, and we reaffirm that our demand is to end a century of exploitation and despotism and to build a society in which a plundering minority does not decide people’s fate over their heads.
The resolute continuation of protests, the expansion of strikes, vigilance, and unity are the guarantees of our advance and the realization of our suppressed aspirations. We will continue on the path we have chosen with strength, and through our unity and solidarity we will put an end to this slavery, poverty, humiliation, and inequality.
As last words
When read together, these three statements make it clear that the uprising in Iran cannot be explained solely by today’s economic indicators. This social movement, which has taken different forms since 2009 and erupted again in 2017, 2019, and 2022, points to a historical contradiction that keeps reemerging whenever it is suppressed.
Therefore, the uprising in Iran cannot be understood through the geopolitical calculations of imperialists, nationalist clichés, or monarchist nostalgias. As the texts above clearly show, this movement draws its strength from its own social experience, its own poverty, and its own memory of oppression and resistance. This is precisely what cannot be extinguished.
The US and genocidal Israel are also intervening in this uprising and attempting to exploit the Iranian people’s rebellion to reshape Iran according to imperialist plans. While Pahlavi calls for US intervention, the Iranian state characterizes these actions as foreign interference and suppresses them. In response, the uprising, with the slogan “Neither Pahlavi nor the leader,” has shown that it cannot be reduced to these dynamics.
As seen in the call from the workers’ council in Arak, the uprising has begun to move beyond mere protest; it is starting to select a path that claims the right to govern.
The issue is to organize the indomitable uprising and turn it into a socialist revolution.
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