Iran Protests

Abbas Goya - February 27, 2026 War propaganda by the United States and Iran in the current period does not differ in any meaningful way from similar episodes over the past two decades. The positions adopted by most political organizations, so far as I have examined them, are likewise largely the same as those they took in earlier confrontations. Broadly speaking, three main approaches can be distinguished: 1. Supporters of War One spectrum -- composed of monarchists, the MEK, republicans, pro-Western liberals & social democrats, and sections of Kurdish nationalist forces -- openly defends the prospect of “war.” These currents advocate “regime change” from above, without relying on the direct and organized power of the people themselves. The Worker-Communist Party of Iran (WPI) adopts essentially the same position, albeit expressed in different terminology under the banner of the “overthrow movement.” It evaluates military action positively, on the condition that U.S. and Israeli st...

Abbas Goya - February 24, 2026 I'm not sure, as some on the left claim, that the right-wing has put all their eggs in the basket of "people's desperation" to use it as an excuse for their agenda, namely, military intervention by Israel and the U.S. Iran International, on January 23, quoted Reza Pahlavi as saying, "The regime is desperate and is trying to buy time." On the other hand, the BBC reported on February 15 that "Prince Reza Pahlavi, referring to the desperation of the people in the face of severe repression, believes the only way to help is to weaken the Islamic Republic's repression machine (the IRGC and military forces)." So who is desperate, the regime or the people? Instead of interpreting this subjectively, let’s look at the facts. Gatherings of over 150,000 people in three cities—Toronto (50,000 people), Munich (60,000), and Los Angeles (40,000)—were remarkable and significant. (The governments of Canada, Germany, and the U.S. fa...

The following is an excerpt from an interview with Esmail Bakhshi Q: In the face of what capitalists and the state do, what body do workers have for discussion and decision-making, for organizing and responding? Esmail Bakhshi*: They have no [organizational] body at all. Whatever effort we made to form a powerful council in Haft Tappeh—so that from within Haft Tappeh we could raise many issues for all workers in Iran or represent their voice—were destroyed. Unions like the Haft Tappeh and the Vahed Syndicate [Tehran Bus Company Workers’ Union] were suppressed as much as possible; they were weakened and their members were imprisoned. We have no institution or body [of workers] to organize us, or where we can sit together and discuss, or that can represent the united and independent voice of all workers in Iran. We don’t have one, because we were not allowed to. Do you know why? Because workers make up the largest segment of Iran’s population. If we had such an organization, we could eas...

Abbas Goya- February 22, 2026 If we consider the main cause of the uprising of workers in Iran to lie in chronic poverty, widespread job insecurity, the absence of any prospect for a dignified life for youth, repression of freedoms, structural inequality, and gender apartheid, then it can be said that what is visible between the Islamic Republic of Iran and monarchist currents—beyond their rhetoric of love and hate—is a kind of strategic and class overlap. Monarchism is not merely a pressure group; it is a political project with a specific agenda. If, in their gatherings, there is no sign of a demand for the release of political prisoners, no promise—even a token one—of public welfare, nor any defense of equal rights, no promises of freedom, or the elimination of oppression, this absence is not accidental. Such demands have no place in their project. They have one clear objective and nothing more: the almost intact transfer of the Islamic Republic’s state apparatus—especially with all...

The following is an excerpt from an interview with Esmail Bakhshi*:  People are truly exhausted by the ruling establishment and the Islamic Republic. They say there is no way out, but I say there is. We should organize and take the power of labor away from the government. We haven’t tried this yet. They say we’ve tried every path. But we haven’t tried this one: without bloodshed, without violence. Do you understand? However, the country’s situation is such that people have become so desperate—first, because of the economic conditions; second, because of the unjust oppression by the Islamic Republic over issues like hijab, ideological matters, and many other unrelated topics that put pressure on people. Unfortunately, there are also groups that have sold illusions to the public. Many people say, “Let the United States and Israel strike—nothing could be darker than this.” I’m not judging whether that is right or wrong. I’m describing society as it is. People have doubts in their hear...

On the occasion of the 40th day marking the deaths of thousands of dear lives lost in January 2026 at the hands of the Islamic Republic, Danish trade unions and the Danish women’s community, while condemning the killing of the Iranian people by the regime and expressing solidarity with the people of Iran, have declared their sympathy and solidarity with the families of those killed and arrested and have called for the immediate release of all detainees. It should be noted that Amnesty International Denmark, women’s organizations, trade unions, and left-wing parties are organizing broad campaigns in various forms in support of the people of Iran. Among them, nine organizations—including Amnesty International, a trade union, a women’s organization, and socialist parties—organized a demonstration on January 25 in cooperation with the Women–Life–Freedom Committee in Denmark. So far, four trade unions and the Danish Women’s Society have issued statements to commemorate the 40th day of the f...

As international support for Iranian teachers and labor activists continues to grow, the Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF/FCE) has sent an official letter to the Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations expressing its solidarity with teachers, students, and union activists in Iran. The letter condemns the widespread violence and repression and emphasizes the strong support of Canada’s teaching community for Iranian teachers’ struggle for freedom, education, and democracy. The full text of the letter follows: February 11, 2026 Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations Subject: Standing in Solidarity with You Dear members, officials, and leaders of the Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations, My name is Clint Johnston, President of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF/FCE), representing more than 370,000 teachers and education workers across all provinces and territories of Canada. I am writing to convey a message of support...

Abbas Goya When I first heard the news of the brutal killings on January 8 and 9, I involuntarily turned to the person beside me and said: “Anyone — even Trump — if he overthrows the Islamic Republic, I would not oppose it.” These words were spoken by someone who considers himself a staunch communist. I do not offer them as a justification. They were not a political position; they were an expression of personal despair — of utter desperation. For countless reasons already discussed, it is clear that in the foreseeable future no mass movement — without “external” backing or without a qualitative transformation in its forms of struggle — is capable of overthrowing the Islamic Republic. By “external” force, I do not mean foreign states, but the world’s socialists and workers. Such intervention would only become conceivable if workers and socialist activists in Iran could demonstrate that they are a viable force on the country’s political stage. I do not ignore Kurdistan in this equation. ...

Abbas Goya What is the purpose of the blatant lies by the governments of Canada(1) and Germany about the number of participants in yesterday’s demonstrations in Toronto and Munich, and the reflection of these lies in British and French media? 1. To discourage the labor and socialist opposition 2. To encourage the U.S. toward a regime-change policy. The official figure announced by the U.S. government regarding the number of participants in Saturday’s Los Angeles demonstration—the third key city of this call—was “thousands,” and that figure was correct. Marco Rubio reiterated again on Sunday that Trump preference is an agreement through negotiation. In other words, the Canada–Europe propaganda campaign, which in all likelihood was carried out in coordination with Israel, is aimed at encouraging the U.S. toward regime change in Iran. He also tried at the Munich Security Conference to line Europe up behind “Trump’s new order.” In other words, and clearly, Europe and the United States are ...

 Abbas Goya – February 12, 2026 Black ThuFriday, on the 8th and 9th of January, with the massacre of (tens) of thousands, has provided the U.S. with a rare pretext to advance its disputes with Iran. This catastrophe did not intimidate the citizens, but in the absence of an organized working-class alternative, it has driven them into a state of desperation in which they neither pin their hopes on a U.S. military attack nor necessarily stand against it. Black ThuFriday and its perpetrator, the Islamic Republic, are indefensible to anyone; and this is precisely the reality on which the U.S. is counting. The “friends” of the Islamic government pass over U.S. military threats either in silence or with ineffectual grumbling. Today even NATO-member Turkey and Saudi Arabia, America’s long-standing ally, appear more concerned than China and Russia about a U.S. military attack on Iran. Despite the war propaganda of both sides of the affair and the extensive and unprecedented mobilization of ...

Note: the text is polished in its translation to English by an AI bot Introduction : This text was prepared amid the days leading up to the second week of the protests and was on the verge of publication; however, on January 8 the internet was cut off, and developments took on an essentially different character, requiring serious revision of certain sections. The several-week shutdown of communication channels, combined with censorship and the biased coverage of satellite networks, created limitations in our understanding of the overall picture—especially the war-like atmosphere. On the one hand, the масшiveness of the killings shocked everyone and psychologically paralyzed many; yet we are obliged, as a matter of duty, to examine these events with so-called cold and critical reason. Now that the internet has been partially restored, we intend—based on our observations and interventions—to review January 2026 anew: What happened? How did we move from “Woman, Life, Freedom” to “Pahlavi ...

 Abbas Goya  The title of this piece may appear absolutist. More precisely, I contend that a substantial majority of the current analyses and assessments produced by socialist organizations concerning the state of class struggle in Iran —at least those I have read—fall short in their application of the socialist method of critique. Let's start with the very phrase “class struggle.” If, as stated in The Communist Manifesto, the history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles, any critique that removes the position and even the name of the classes is not socialist, whatever it may be. Obscure expressions such as “the people,” “public opinion,” or “a third force” do not belong to the vocabulary of a class-based—and therefore necessarily socialist—critique. When referring to the working class, one might use terms such as workers, wage earners, toilers, or even, in a more diluted sense, the hungry or the destitute, as near equivalents. But “the people...

No level of repression will silence us All detained colleagues must be released According to reports, during the violent crackdown on protests and the killing of civilians in the regions of Asaluyeh, Kangan, Dayyer, Lamerd, Parsian, and surrounding areas, a number of oil-sector workers employed in various regions have been arrested. Some of these arrests took place in workers’ homes and company dormitories. These cases are connected to protests by our colleagues that coincided with the nationwide popular demonstrations in the month of Dey (Dec-Jan). At that time, hundreds of project-based workers from Omran Sahel Company—a contractor affiliated with the IRGC—working on development projects in the South Pars Special Economic Zone went on strike in protest over unpaid back wages. Despite intense security threats, these workers stood their ground and, while insisting on their demands, refused to return to their workplaces. The simultaneity of these protests and the solidarity of workers w...