cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/19040
Arbeit Zukunft | January 5, 2026 | Translated for the Red Phoenix by Misha G.– For days, people in Iran have been taking to the streets. Starting in Tehran, the protests have now spread throughout the country and mark the largest protest movement in Iran in recent years since the “Women, Life, Freedom” (Persian: zan, zendegi, azadi) protest movement in 2022.
Last Sunday (Jan 4) in Tehran, triggered by the sudden collapse of exchange rates, bazaar traders spontaneously took to the streets to protest price increases, inflation and the rising cost of living. “Don’t be afraid, we are all in this together!” they shouted, urging bystanders to join the protests. Now, people are taking to the streets daily in over 13 provinces and at least 22 cities, including not only traders but also other segments of the population. It’s not just students who have repeatedly called for demonstrations. Workers from oil refineries and factories in southern Iran, in particular, are participating in the protests through strikes, fighting against price increases and the privatization of profits.
The economic situation has long been a burden on the people of Iran; Western sanctions are hitting workers particularly hard, and experts are calling it the worst economic crisis in Iranian history. Last month alone, the rial lost almost 20 percent of its value, plummeting to a new record low on Sunday. One US dollar is now worth over 1,420,000 rials.
The head of the Iranian central bank subsequently resigned. What began as a protest against rising prices quickly transformed into a political protest. Read More ›
From The Red Phoenix via This RSS Feed.
Iran falling back into Amerikkkan influence will be another nail in the coffin of the last few socialist states on Earth, and will give Israel the excuse to ramp up it’s extermination and expansion campaigns to even more brutal levels.
It’s getting depressing at the moment…
Do Iranian citizens know they are inviting the destruction of their sovereignty?
This is trying to turn into a color revolution. Text book all thr way. It is already hijacked and the west plans to install the spoiled ass entitled “shaw”.Yes yes invite the IMF to debt enslave the country and sell out it’s wealth.
Might as well hand out the
awards early.I smell solidarność
Nobody can convince me this is organic and not having been fomented and puppeteered by israeli and us intelligence.
Even if it sprung up organically, the USA and Israel are definitely taking advantage and steering it to their benefit
It absolutely cannot be said to have sprung up organically, Iran is under heavy economic sanctions. Never forget the goal, as it has always been: “to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government”
I think there’s an interesting parallel between the overall political configuration in Iran, with the hardliners being generally older, more socially conservative, but resolute in their opposition to collaboration with the US/Israel and the liberal reformers being significantly to the right but also more socially liberal and capable of capturing the youth, and China post Cultural Revolution. You have this big problem where the people who have the most sensible reading of the general situation and understand the reason why their system is set up the way it is are unequipped to be flexible to meet the needs of the current moment (hardline Maoists in China, the conservative anti-imperialists in Iran), but even the more strategically minded of the right wing camp fail to understand that they’d be setting their country on a path to be looted by Western capital.
Now, in China I think there was a positive resolution in the form of Reform and Opening Up which managed to thread the needle between creating a way to bolster Chinese people’s wealth via integration, but not hollowing the country out for western investors. I think it’s unlikely that something so positive could come out of the current situation in Iran even in the best case. I don’t think there’s gonna be a lot of people on Hexbear who hope to see these protests topple the regime, anyway, but I’d like to hear some measured reasoning from someone who is rooting for that outcome for reasons that are a bit deeper than reflexive support of anyone who has a vaguely progressive slogan.
