On December 28, 2025, Iranian merchants from the Grand Bazaar closed down their shops in an act of protest against the deteriorating rial and rising inflation, which has risen to 60 percent. Soon after, protests erupted all across the country not only in response to the cost of living crisis, but in ongoing discontent for the regime’s corruption and mismanagement of water, which have all resulted in larger calls for regime change.
The current protests are occurring on a mass scale, with over 617 protests taking place in all 31 provinces. There has been a brutal repression of dissent, with 18,434 people confirmed to have been arrested, and over 2,615 confirmed dead (likely many more). The Iranian government’s decision to cut off the country’s internet and host pro-government rallies is a sign of how deep the crisis has become.
These protests cannot be viewed in isolation of past protest movements, namely in 2019 and 2022, which are evidently increasing in frequency and in their scale of mass support.
In 2019, protests revolved around economic demands, namely regarding the rising price of gas. In 2022, the Woman, Life, Freedom movement was more left-leaning, led by women and students to resist the country’s morality police.
Opposing imperialism shouldn’t mean breaking solidarity
During periods of political unrest in Iran, some on the left can find themselves in a contradictory position in which they staunchly support so-called anti-imperialist states such as Iran, while reducing 46 years of gendered, ethnic, religious, and class struggle to a discussion of geopolitics. Through this analysis, leftists disregard the working-classes of Iran while emboldening the capitalist regime to continue to commit atrocities with impunity. And we should make no mistake that leaders of Iran have pursued neoliberal capitalist policies for many years.
When some on the left ignore or even support state sanctioned violence against the protesters in Iran, it not only dismisses the right of ordinary Iranians to assert their rights and choose their future; it also opens the door to right. If solidarity with Iranian protesters is only expressed by liberals and the right, it simply provides leverage for the most reactionary of conclusions, which can be seen through increased support for Reza Pahlavi. This makes it easier for the right wing to push its pro-war agenda.
The role of Western interference
It is similarly unwise to ignore the forces at play, namely the interests of the United States and Israel, and how the current protests vary significantly from the previous Woman, Life, Freedom movement of 2022, especially following the 12-day war between Iran and Israel.
What began as a grassroots movement was quickly exploited following various Western actors, such as Mike Pompeo, tweeting “Happy New Year to every Iranian in the streets. Also to every Mossad agent walking beside them.” As the death toll has increased, Donald Trump has made various statements via social media with threats of military intervention.
It is the West’s economic sanctions that exacerbate preexisting disparities and withhold necessities such as adequate medical care from working class Iranians. Western nations require this political turmoil in order to justify their capitalist interventions.
While it is confirmed Western-backed actors are corroborating with protesters, a sole focus on this narrative is dangerous as it reinforces the regime’s talking points which justify violence towards protesters and undermine the grassroots struggle led by thousands of ordinary Iranians risking their lives against the IRI. The idea that the CIA or Mossad has simply created these protests dismisses the broader economic and political conditions driving the protests.
Solidarity with the working class, not states
Western interference will not lead to the liberation of the Iranian people. The IRI has systematically repressed, arrested, and killed leftists since its inception. Foreign invasion and interference will not liberate anyone. What the Iranian people deserve is the ability to decide their own future.
In 1991, in a letter written to South African workers, a leader of the 1979 Oil Workers Strike, Yadollah Khosrowshahi wrote:
“We have come to realize with a thousand regrets that the only genuine struggle against imperialism is the unconditional struggle in line with our demands. The Islamic regime cleverly exploited our ignorance and immediately consolidated its power.”
We must lean upon the lessons learned through Iran’s long and devastating history with Western interference and revolution. Meaningful revolutionary change will not occur through tactics imposed from above which seek freedom through a tyrannical theocratic regime, nor from a Western-backed monarch upholding another legacy of violence. We must support Iranians in fighting for economic justice and democratic freedoms, as well as advocate against narratives which push for war and increased sanctions, which only devastate ordinary working class peoples.
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