Mass protests are spreading across Iran; in a show of widespread anger against the regime of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Pezeshkan, both of whom now have answers to give to these growing mass protests. What began as a strike and demonstration by merchants in Tehran, Iran’s Capital, has now spread to nearly all the provinces of the country. In other words, the December 29 action by merchants in Tehran has now become a spark that has ignited a fiercer fire of revolt in about 25 out of the 31 provinces in Iran.
This revolt is moving so fast that it soon overtake the ‘Green movement’ against the rigging of the 2009 elections and the ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ movement in 2022. It is not the first movement against price hikes, Iran was shaken by many protests against the fuel price hike at the end of 2017, a movement that stimulated subsequent workers’ struggles.
At present these protests are decentralised and without official leadership; traders, workers, and students are actively involved in these protests, which still show no sign of decline. The emergence of protest in Qom must have been the biggest blow to the regime, which has always prided Qom, the base of the religious leadership, as its stronghold. Now in Qom, traders, students and workers are screaming ‘death to the dictator’. The same screams are loud in different districts in Tehran like Naziabad, Tehranpars, Sadeghieh, Narmak, etc, also in places like Isfahan, Mashhad, Shiraz, Karaj, Sari, Rasht and many other places.
The regime has acted true to its colour by trying to suppress the protest. So far, over 40 deaths have been reported, while several arrests have been made; there have been clashes between protesters and the police. More violent repression is possible as Khamenei, the ‘Supreme Leader’, has vowed not to bow to pressure. However, the protests remain solid, with the possibility of growing stronger.
What is fuelling this fire of revolt?
The immediate detonator of this mass movement is the crashing of Iran’s currency, the rial, to historic lows — around 1.45 million rials to 1 USD on the open market by late 2025/early 2026. This is merely a part of the tragedy. The vast majority of working people have had their lives negatively turned around; ‘abject poverty’ is the reality of many working people’s families, with their purchasing power completely wiped out by inflation. According to the Central Bank of Iran, Agriculture contracted by 2.9% and industry and mining by 3.4%, while construction had a sharp 12.9% slump. These sectors are among the biggest employers of labour, especially for young people. At the same time, the Statistics centre of Iran said point-to-point inflation rose to 52.6% in the month to late December, while average annual inflation went up to 42.2%.
Food inflation had a drastic rise, with prices of food, beverages and tobacco up 72% year-on-year, in relation with 43% for non-food goods and services. Monthly inflation climbed up to 4.2%, led by sharp increases in staples such as dairy and bread. Behind these statistics are gory tales of hunger, homelessness, joblessness and mass misery amidst a country with enormous resources to guarantee a better life for Iranians. There are real issues pushing thousands of Iranians to the streets.
Importantly, the new austerity budget awaiting approval of the parliament has worsened the situation for the Iranian regime. This budget is due to commence on March 21, but it has come under severe attack. This budget is to be mainly financed by tax revenue; it plans to increase VAT and other taxes; the regime is turning to workers and ordinary to bear the burden of its failure. Also, the budget seeks to implement cuts to certain subsidies. For instance, the regime plans to cut or reduce currency subsidies for essentials like wheat and fuel importation. While the budget comes with a meagre wage increase for public sector workers, it is like a drop of water into the ocean, considering the stratospheric rate of inflation. President Pezeshkian has openly declared that the state has no funds to implement any wage increase that could be commensurate with the rate of inflation. This is another way of saying the regime is incapable of improving the conditions of the working masses. The growing protest ongoing in Iran shows the Iranian masses
Sanctions and Actions
It has been argued, by defenders of the Iranian regime, that the economic misery obtainable in Iran is a direct consequence of years of sanctions imposed on Iran by US/Western imperialism. It is, of course, true that the US has imposed myriads of sanctions on Iran; these sanctions are targeted mainly at Iran’s export of its oil. Sanctions have also been imposed on Iran’s economic partners, isolating it from global trade. The sanctions have been imposed under the guise that the Iranian revenue is being used to fund its nuclear bomb project and fund terrorist organizations.
Ever since the Iranian revolution of 1979, which ousted the Monarch, Shah Mohammad Pahlavi, who was strongly backed by the US, and the coming to power of Khomeini, the US has sustained sanctions on Iran. Trump 2.0 has aggravated the situation, reinstating previous sanctions that the Biden administration did not seriously pursue, while also threatening new ones, including sanctions on companies doing deals with Iran. Without doubt, years of sanctions have drastic effect on the economy and played a key role in the slowing down of the economy. Ironically, Donald Trump has given a thumbs-up to the protest triggered by the crisis that he and the US ruling class contributed to the making and threatened to defend the protesters. This support was just weeks after he lavishly welcomed the de facto leader of the Saudi feudal dictatorship, a regime which executed at least 356 people last year.
However, the Iranian working masses must not be swayed away by these talks of sanctions; the theocratic regime is a major player in the economic hardship of Iranians. Since coming into power, they have used public resources to create paradise for themselves, while the working masses live in hell. Although the regime under the influence of the revolution, implemented some progressive policies at the inception at the same time, from the very beginning they moved to concentrate power in their hands while beginning to limit women’s freedom. Additionally, the key sectors of the economy, like the oil sector, banking sector, etc., were nationalized. However, these sectors were only nationalized into the hands of the theocratic ruling class. Workers’ democracy was not only absent, but the regime rapidly developed into a dictatorship of Khomeini and the theocratic ruling class. Workers’ organisations were crushed, and democratic rights were buried.
So when Iranians on the street are screaming ‘Death to the dictator’, it is an expression of how their society has been turned into a big prison. Human rights ranking for Iran is always low; in 2025, 22,709 individuals were arrested, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) statistics for 2025. Out of this figure, 22,028 arrests were in connection to freedom of thought and expression, while others were in relation to labour and student unionism activities, as well as religious minorities. According to UN data, there were reported cases of 975 executions; the figures are higher for 2025. Therefore, the regime maintains its hold on power with an iron fist, hitting the working masses aggressively.
What next for the movement?
It is not enough to speak about sanctions without emphasizing the actions of the Khamenei regime and its atrocities against the working masses of Iran. It is inaccurate to say that the ongoing protest in Iran, and a collapse of the dictatorial and theocratic ruling class in Iran, would automatically be a leverage for Trump and US imperialism. Yes, it is true that Trump and US imperialism can take advantage of the mass movement for a favourable regime change but that outcome is not preordained. The overthrow of Khamenei and co. will open a period of struggle over which direction Iran moves. Socialists argue that a mass movement of the working masses cannot only defeat Khamenei and the Iranian ruling class, but also challenge the Iranian capitalists, Trump and US imperialism. In clear words, without a revolutionary victory of the working people in the power struggle, imperialism cannot be defeated. Therefore, every advance of the working masses towards seeking power from the ruling class must be supported; in these advances lie the fulcrum for the building of a working peoples’ republic. However, a clamour for the return of monarchy by a section of the protesters is not only testament to the utter failure of the theocratic rule but also the current absence of an internal opposition arguing for next steps for the movement and, at the same, time, a genuine working people alternative.
The task for the revolutionary movement in Iran is not to commit the ‘mistake’ of the past. An end to Khamenei without ending capitalism in Iran and instituting a genuine socialist society based on workers’ ownership and democratic management of the commanding heights of the economy would mean nothing significantly for the working masses. The mass protest must begin to transform from a leaderless protest to democratically appointing coordinating bodies, winning the support of more strata of the oppressed population, and urgently developing concrete steps to build the movement and take power.