Iran Protests

Abbas Goya Both the right and left wings of the bourgeois opposition to the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) possess a distinct social base. Apart from pro-west capitalists, the savagery, backwardness, impoverishment, and misery that the Islamic Republic has imposed upon the ordinary people have led a marginal segment of workers to call for the restoration of the monarchical regime. Moreover, a large section of the middle class is the organic supporter of the Pahlavi monarchy. A middle class that emerged during the rule of the IRI and owes its existence to the regime’s chronic political instability. This writing is about this middle class.  The IRI's political instability discouraged large-scale investment, creating fertile ground for the growth of small producers, intermediaries, and brokers. As a result, a middle class developed whose position is deeply contradictory: while it owes its material existence to the IRI, it simultaneously harbors profound grievances against it. Unresolv...