Iran

Hezbollah: state ban not the answer

The Tory government plans to ban the political wing of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Islamist political party with a well-armed paramilitary wing. This armed wing is already proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the British government, but Hezbollah’s political wing is not specifically banned. The proposed ban is motivated in part by a desire to exert diplomatic pressure on Iran, a key state ally of Hezbollah, in the context of its continuing imprisonment of British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. Despite their clerical-fascist political programme, support for Hezbollah as a...

Lull but no peace

A lull in conflict in the Middle East looks likely. But it may be short-lived, or not happen at all. None of the underlying drivers of tension have eased. On the Gaza-Israel border, Israeli snipers killed 64 people on 14 May. That brings the total killed by snipers over weeks of protests, from which groups mostly of young men sally forth to throw stones and improvised firebombs, to over 110. Thousands have been injured. The protests were backed by Hamas, the Islamic clerical-fascist group which rules in Gaza, on the slogan of “right of return”, which Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh explicated as...

Iran sugar workers demand control

Recent events have shown that Iran’s working class is willing and able to fight consistently against the capitalist class, the regime and the state. By the end of the current Iranian year (on 20 March) the number of workers’ strikes and protests in the course of the year could reach the 1,000 mark. Recent struggles or issues include: Esfahan Kashi (tiles) where production has come to a halt and workers are threatened with unemployment; Iran Chooka (wood and paper) where jobs are under threat; Palood Dairy, five months’ unpaid wages; Tabriz Combine Sazi, where workers prevented plant equipment...

Iran protests: “a fire beneath the ashes”

On Monday 29 January, many women took off their scarves in many parts of Iran, especially in Tehran, put it on a stick, and got on boxes and waved it around, like the woman from the iconic picture from early in the movement. The action is referred to as “the girl from Revolution Street”. That is where the first woman did this action — on top of an electricity substation on Revolution Street. People have laid flowers at that substation since then. The pictures of people copying her are being posted on the hashtag “Girl from Revolution Street”. It is a radical act. It is a huge thing to do. The...

Trump to renew Iran deal

Donald Trump is set to maintain the 2015 “nuclear deal” with Iran when it comes up for renewal on 17 January. Under the deal Iran is obliged to restrict its nuclear programme in return for the easing of international sanctions. Trump had previously declared his intention to undo the nuclear deal, denouncing it as weakness in the face of the regime. Accordingly, he has had to hedge his renewal of the deal with much tough-sounding bluster and secondary sanctions. Trump and Republican politicians have suggested setting a deadline for “improvements” to the deal, including getting rid of the...

Iran: Haft Tappeh workers take the lead

There have been more strikes and protests during the past week for payment of unpaid wages and other basic demands. There have been at least 600 such protests in the past year and they will probably increase as we approach the Iranian New Year, with workers demanding their new year bonuses and so on. Wage arrears of many months exist in many industries, including state-owned, part-private, fully-private, religious endowments and the Pasdaran [Revolutionary Guards]. The various businesses owned by the Pasdaran amount to about a quarter of the economy. On 15 January, 500 day-labourers at Haft...

“The working class is the key”

Moran Shirin of the Iranian Revolutionary Marxist Tendency spoke to Solidarity . There were many workers’ protests on Sunday-Monday, 7-8 January. Mostly they’ve been about unpaid wages. These include: Haft Tapeh sugar cane workers; Khalij-e Fars Transport (2-4 months of unpaid wages); Phases 22 and 24 of the South Pars gas field development in Asaluyeh (temporary contract workers have not been paid for six months). Zar Shooran gold miners have not been paid since November. Tabas council has not paid its workers for three months. Ghaemshahr Textiles workers have just had some of their three...

Iranian workers push for regime change

Editorial from Solidarity 458 Beginning on Thursday 28 December around 80 Iranian cities and towns saw a wave of demonstrations, amounting to the biggest protest against Iran’s authoritarian Islamist political system since the 2009 "Green" reform movement. This has been a tremendous revolt with the issue of working-class livelihood at the centre. A revolt against years of super-exploitation and a vicious regime which exists to enrich itself and boost its own power. According to official figures, at least 1,000 people have been arrested and 25 people have been killed (including, three...

Rebellion in Iran: Iranian socialists speak!

Friday 19 January, 7:30pm, Institute of Education WC1H 0AL, Room 537 Facebook event here Eventbrite tickets here Across Iran, workers and young people are protesting against poverty, exploitation, and demanding freedom from a stifling authoritarian regime. Around the world, they have been answered by a movement of solidarity. What are the politics of these protests? What do they mean, and how can the Iranian working class take steps towards taking power in its own name? Workers’ Liberty has organised this January London Forum with speakers from the Iranian Revolutionary Marxist Tendency and...

Iranian demonstrations push for regime change

(Updated 5.1.18) Since Thursday 28 December around 20 Iranian cities have seen demonstrations, amounting to the biggest wave of protests since the 2009 Green Movement organised around reforming Iran’s authoritarian Islamist political system. On 5 November the Iranian Protestors Live Information Facebook group reported: "Last night the families of hundreds of protesters arrested gathered in front of Evin prison singing folk songs... The government has been brutally cracking down any opposition. The Human Rights Activist News Agency has reported that in Tehran’s Evin prison alone, the...

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