U.S. imperialist aggression in the Middle East knows no bounds. It has carried out (or facilitated) murderous attacks over the past decades in Gaza, Iraq, Libya, Iran, Lebanon, and Yemen. At the same time, it buttresses fascist regimes in Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. Bombing nuclear production sites and missile emplacement, Islamic Revolutionary Guard leadership, Ayatollah Khamenei and other mullahs, vast residential areas and high rise apartment buildings, 30 hospitals and health centers, and key economic sites in Iran demonstrates the savagery of U.S. imperialism. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that over 3.2 million Iranians were displaced in the first two weeks of the U.S.-Israeli attack (Al Jazeera, 3/12/2026).
Trump claimed that he was supporting the recent rebellion against Khamenei’s regime, but this is a lie. Anti-regime rebellions broke out in over 180 towns and cities in all 31 provinces and thousands of workers and students have been murdered by the regime by Khamenei’s repressive apparatus (CNN, 1/13/26) , but U.S. imperialism has no interest in saving anyone’s life but that of its own ruling class. It proves this by murdering Islamic leaders and Iranian children alike.
U.S. Imperialism’s Interests
The real interests of U.S. imperialism in the region are twofold. It seeks to dominate the West Asian/Middle East’s oil and gas fields and its trade routes. About half of global proven reserves of oil are in the Middle East (935Bn barrels, compared to 74Bn in the US and 303Bn in Venezuela (Worldatlas.com, 6/2024)). About 38% of crude oil, 19% liquefied natural gas and 33% of fertilizers move through the Straits of Hormuz (UNCTAD, 3/10/2026). Moreover, U.S. imperialism wants to keep Iran weak and, from the ruling class’s strategic viewpoint, indirectly weaken China, a rapidly growing imperialist rival.
Today’s conflict among imperialists is intensifying as China expands its economic, political, and military strength across Asia, Africa, Latin American, the Middle East, and even Europe. Iran and China established a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2016 and reached a 25-year cooperation agreement including a $400Bn infrastructure investment by China in Iran in exchange for oil exports. In addition, China and Iran agreed to strengthen military and security cooperation, including exchanging military experience and conducting military exercises, jointly developing weapons and sharing intelligence to combat terrorism (BBC News, 3/29/21). These political, military, and economic ties further reduce U.S. imperialist domination of the Middle East/West Asia. China leads both the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the BRICS+ group as capitalist blocs which it hopes, with Iran’s help, will strengthen global organized opposition to U.S. imperialism and its allies and favor that of China.
Economic ties between China and Iran are deepening, even if trade fell off in 2025 due to war and sanctions. Still, China already purchases 1.3-1.6 million barrels per day (b/d) of oil at discounted prices (between 8% and 10% below Brent crude prices) from Iran, about 80% of Iran’s international sales (Reuters, 1/13/26). China dodges U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil by working with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its extensive undercover trade network.
China is building strong political ties with Iran through their common political positions in the BRICS+ organization. Within BRICS+, there is no unanimity about systematically opposing U.S. imperialism. But Iran is allied with China in seeking to make BRICS+ a more unified bloc against U.S. imperialism (Foreign Affairs, 9/24/24). The attack on Iran by U.S. imperialism is not only about immediate economic gains and domination of the Middle East; it is another U.S. move to prepare for world war against a Chinese-led rival bloc.
The U.S. imperialists fear the relative strengthening of their Chinese capitalist rivals. For imperialists in general, there is no space in the world for competitors. The world and its markets have been fully divided among the major imperialists since the early 20th century. Now any advance by one imperialist bloc comes at the expense of another. Such inter-imperialist rivalries were at the heart of both 20th century World Wars and dozens of smaller wars over the past 60 years.
Workers’ Interests
Workers have no interest in supporting any imperialists (neither U.S. imperialists nor their rivals) that are maneuvering for greater control of oil, trade routes, and world finance, but we workers do have a strong objective interest in smashing all imperialists and fighting for communism.
It will take a communist revolution throughout the Middle East/West Asia and the world to put an end to imperialist aggression of all kinds. As communists, we aim to defeat imperialism in general by fighting against the bosses of the world, from the US to Russia to China and beyond. To do this, we must criticize those nominally oppositional forces who may oppose Iran’s current regime but plan to maintain a form of capitalism for their own profit interests.
This is the framework within which we seek to analyze recent developments and imperialist maneuvers in Iran.
Post-War History of Iran
Following World War II, the U.S. gained vast power over much of the world’s economy. It had a special eye on the Middle East/West Asia, as did many other imperialist powers, because of the vital role of oil and natural gas in fueling economic growth, generating profits, sustaining military power, and denying their rivals access to such wealth.
The U.S. supported the formation of Israel, consolidated by the latter’s terrorist war against the Palestinians, to create a powerful U.S. ally on the Mediterranean side of the region. In parallel fashion, the CIA and Britain’s MI6 sponsored a military coup in Iran that ousted the elected social democratic leader, Mohammad Mossadegh, who had previously served as prime minister under the Shah. His crime? Moving to nationalize the oil industry. The U.S. placed the Shah back in power, ensuring a loyal ally to U.S. imperialism on the east side of the Gulf. The U.S. thereby gained two cops – Israel and Iran – for U.S. imperialism.
It was immaterial (and possibly desirable) for U.S. imperialists that the Shah and his secret police (the SAVAK) carried out systematic brutal tortures and murderers of anyone even whispering opposition. The CIA was crucial in the creation of SAVAK. The Iranian working class resisted this tyranny with strikes and rebellions. The Shah with U.S. backing violently suppressed them. Opposition came both from the Tudeh (“masses” in Farsi) communist party and the trade unions it helped lead, and Islamic forces led by traditional Islamic Shi’a religious leaders known as mullahs, including the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. This cleric had been jailed for many years by the Shah and lived in exile in France due to his opposition to the Shah’s regime. Khomeini’s religious forces objected to Iran’s secularization and westernization of the country and, even more vitally, being frozen out of the possible economic gains they could achieve from exploiting Iranian workers in a theocratic dictatorship.
The 1979 Revolution
In 1979, Islamists, socialists, communists, guerilla groups, and liberals formed a national front that overthrew the Shah to the delight of the masses of Iranians and progressives throughout the world. Khomeini came to power with the support of the opportunist Tudeh party and other elements of the national front, and declared that Iran would be an Islamic Republic and would oppose U.S. intervention and manipulation as hostile acts of the “Great Satan.” Once the mullahs had consolidated power, under their rubric “neither capitalism nor communism,” they slaughtered thousands of communists and many others who resisted their power. Tudeh had made the tragic revisionist (i.e., abandoning revolutionary focus) error of allying with class enemies.
The Islamic State under Khomeini absorbed most business firms and natural resources. The mullahs and the IRGC became the core of the capitalist class. Today, the Supreme Leader, the IRGC, and the Bonyads (Islamic foundations) directly control at least 60% of the economy. The Bonyads dominate Iran’s agriculture, manufacturing, and finance. The IRGC, through its construction firm Khatam al-Anbiya, holds billions of dollars of contracts in the oil, gas, and infrastructure sectors and dominates the international oil trade through an elaborate system it has created to evade U.S. sanctions. Large-scale industries, banking, insurance, and minerals are directly controlled by the state. Traditional private sector capitalists are small in scale and subordinated to the Supreme Leader. The working class remains intensely exploited.
Economic Background to Revolt
After the revolution of 1979 and the establishment of the Islamic theocracy, Ayatollah Khomeini made initial concessions to the working class, including union rights, a 40-hour work week, and lodging allowances. It was, after all, the oil workers’ leadership of a political general strike that overthrew the Shah, chased his successor Shapour Bakhtiar into exile, and was a threat to Khomeini himself in the immediate post-revolutionary period (Brookings, 3/5/19).
But these gains steadily eroded to benefit the capitalist ruling class, especially those institutions owned and controlled by the theocracy that dominated the state-controlled enterprises, especially petroleum.
The Iran-Iraq War
During Iran’s revolutionary chaos in 1980, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invaded Iran to seize oil-rich territory and overturn the 1975 Shatt al-Arab waterway border agreement. The Iran-Iraq war, lasting through 1988, enabled the capitalist regime in the name of national unity to outlaw independent unions and undo previous gains. The war severely damaged the economic base of Iran’s society, deepening the oppression of the working class for decades to come with a 40% reduction in real income (Defence and Peace Economics, 2022, 33:2). Oil facilities and other infrastructure were also severely damaged, setting back economic growth by a decade.
After the war’s end in 1988, Iran hastened down the capitalist path by accepting IMF reconstruction loans. These agreements required “structural adjustment,” i.e. cutting subsidies and services to the working class further.
U.S. Sanctions Against Iran
The sanctions against Iran by the U.S. and its allies likewise harmed the economic well-being of the working class. Five U.S. presidents have enforced increasingly severe sanctions since the 1979 revolution. In 2018, President Trump imposed “maximum pressure” sanctions seeking to eliminate Iranian oil exports altogether and isolate its banking sector from international financial relations by blocking its access to SWIFT, a secure messaging network serving as the backbone of international finance and a critical institution that facilitates economic growth.
Drought
The sanctions have significantly reduced Iran’s international trade. The mullahs’ reaction to trade reductions has been to seek self-sufficiency in agriculture by building large, numerous irrigation dams, but Iran still relies on expensive imports for 25% of the country’s food. Dam building for irrigation has contributed to a major two-decade long drought that has intensified during the 2020s. Global capitalist industry using fossil fuels has caused warming throughout the world, but temperatures and evaporation rates in Iran have risen over twice as fast as the average for the planet as a whole. Irrigation and water-intensive rice planting have drained the aquifers, leading to earthen collapses throughout the country. The shrinking rivers have been further depleted because upstream, Afghanistan has built dams that reduce the flows of water into Iran (Yale Environment 360, 12/18/2025). Iran has built desalination plants to augment its low water supply, but the U.S./Israel aggressors have already bombed the desalination plant on Qeshm Island (NY Times, 3/8/26; Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, 3/9/26). Making Iranian workers die of thirst is a genocidal practice.
Supporting Allies
Iran has also spent billions in weapons and subsidies over the past two decades to nurture allies in the region including Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthis, and Syria (during Assad’s leadership), again draining money and resources from the economy and making the working class pay.
Economic conditions of the working class today
U.S. sanctions, corrupt mullahs, war-time destruction, drought, and financial support for allies in the region have led Iran’s economic performance into decline. Iran’s nominal Gross Domestic Product was $434B in 2024 ranking 117th in the world despite the rich resources Iran contains. (IMF, World Economic Outlook, 10/2024)
High annual price inflation is heading towards hyperinflation. The Central Bank of Iran reported that the February 2026 annual inflation rate is 62% while food price inflation is 99%. (Iranwire, 2/26/2026; slightly lower numbers are reported by the Tasmin News Agency, affiliated with the IRGC). Inflation is rapidly destroying the value of the rial, the Iranian currency. The exchange rate in the 1920s was 70 rials to the dollar. By 2013, it was 37,700 rials, and by 2026 it reached 1.59 million. The government’s solution? Start printing 5 million rial banknotes! (Washington Post, 3/17/25). Food imports consist of basic working-class staples such as wheat, soybeans, corn, and rice. Importers must pay for these products in dollars and pass on the higher prices to consumers in larger amounts of weakening rials.
40-50% of Iranians live below the official poverty line (official government values poverty percentages range from 30-35%), with 10-20 million people in absolute poverty. This economic crisis for families has been spurred by a minimum wage of $186 per month set in 2024 that can pay for less than half of the monthly expenses of about $400 for a family of three. The youth unemployment rate is about 20% and half or more of men aged 25 to 40 are unemployed and unable to find work. Millions of university graduates remain excluded from the labor force as there is no work (Canadian Peoples Voice, 3/10/2026).
In the last year, in a country with a wealth of fossil fuel reserves, the country has faced a severe energy crisis, with an electricity shortfall of 50% of its total generation capacity, resulting in production losses estimated at 30-40.
(Roberts, 3/2/2026 https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/blog/ ).
These conditions made Iran ripe for rebellion.
The Diverse Working Class in Iran
Many nationalities live in Iran. Persians constitute the largest ethnic group (over 60%) and occupy the central region of Iran including the capital, Tehran, and Mashhad, Shiraz, and Yazd . There are also many ethnic minority groups throughout Iran with a variety of political outlooks (see Map of ethnic groups and their languages). These include Azerbaijanis (20%) who live mainly in the northwestern part of Iran near Azerbaijan and generally co-exist guardedly with the Persian majority, with whom they share the Shi’a religion; the Arabs in the west (3%) who generally identify as Sunnis; (Kurds (8%) and Lurs (6%) who live in the west, northwest, and northeast part and identify with a broad Kurdish diaspora living in Iraq, Turkey, and Syria; Balochs (2%) who live in southeastern Iran and identify with the the restive Baluchistan region in western Pakistan where a vigorous separatist national liberation movement is active; and others. Members of many of the minority groups have faced discrimination under all regimes, at least partly due to Persian nationalism and religious hatred. Kurds in particular have faced oppressive conditions and have fought back accordingly (Reuters, 10/10/2022; Genocide Watch, 8/2025).
Women’s lives under the Islamic Republic are harshly constricted by Islamic law, requiring head and body coverings that make women almost invisible after having lived more freely prior to the 1979 Islamic revolution. These laws are enforced by the Guardian Council (morality police), the IRGC, and other law enforcement bodies. Even traffic cameras are used to punish women in violation of dress requirements.
The condition of the working class, including ethnic minorities and women, is poor and politically repressed. Under the regime, trade unions are illegal while the workers still fight back. The mullahs have cancelled union contracts in general by making all workers contract workers rather than employees. Workers now face severe job insecurity, widespread unemployment, and hunger.
These economic trends have led to uprisings and broad resistance while the mullahs and their friends and family live lives of luxury and decadence (NY Post, 1/20/2026; Counterpunch 1/5/2018).
Workers and Class Struggle: Uprisings and Rebellions Since the 1990s
The Recent Uprising, 2025-26
The recent 2025-6 country-wide rebellions were built on a tradition of resistance, first against the Shah and now against the Islamic Republic’s clerical fascists. The working class and its organizations have almost always been central to these past struggles and have been critical in the current rebellion.
Workers’ organizations in the 2026 uprising have been fighting both for their immediate survival demands and in opposition to the clerical capitalist class. Here are some examples.
- Workers at the Gachsaran Oil and Gas Company demanded the elimination of contractors and improved working conditions
- Oil workers at the Iranian Offshore Oil Company facilities at Kharg and Siri protested against contractors and for better working condition
- Oil workers at 11 of the South Pars refineries demonstrated as part of a nationwide campaign by oil workers demanding the removal of salary caps and an end to the limit of years of service counting towards pensions
- The Steel Industry and Social Security Organization retirees held coordinated protests in Ahvaz, Isfahan, Kermanshah, Rasht, and Shush, protesting how inflation and high prices were impacting their meager pensions
- In Khuzestan, contract workers at the North and South Azadegan oil fields rallied against plans to privatize the state-run Arvandan Oil and Gas Company, fearing that it would lead to job losses and job insecurity
- Workers and retirees of the Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI) were in the streets in dozens of cities including Ahvaz, Isfahan, Shiraz and Tehran condemning the failure of the privatized TCI to uphold its legal duty to maintain the value of their pensions
- Health workers at the Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences protested unpaid wages
- Nurses at the Fatemeh Zahra hospital in Minudasht went on strike over the failure of the hospital to pay outstanding allowances in full
- Gold miners struck the IRGC-owned Zarshuran gold mine in Takab (the largest gold mine in the Middle East), accusing management of discriminating against local workers, paying higher wages and benefits to relatives and friends of the IIRGC
- A statement in support of the protests issued by the Kermanshah Electricity and Metal Association, the Coordination Council for Protests of Contract Oil Workers, and the Coordination Council of Nurses Protests along with community organizations such as the Voice of Women of Iran argued that “[t]he current uprising has exposed institutionalized discrimination, systematic humiliation, overt repression, and structural poverty” and went on to declare that society would no longer live under such an unjust imposed order
- The teachers’ trade association in the city of Islam Abad-e Gharb in western Iran cited rising inflation, unemployment, and mounting economic pressure on households as they supported the protests, noting that rising living costs had reached levels “unbearable for many.”
Earlier uprisings
The 2025-26 struggles and rebellions grew out of a history of such uprisings. The Iranian leadership, while universally supporting a theocratic Islamic Republic structure, has oscillated between the hard-core Islamic fundamentalists and reformist leaders who would prefer a less stringent interpretation of Islam while welcoming more investment from abroad. Reformist Mohammaed Khatami, for example, was elected president of Iran in 1997 and encouraged the expansion of grassroots voices of reform and struggle. Multiple reformist newspapers appeared, much to the dismay of the mullahs and Khamenei. The students at Teheran University revolted in 1999 when the regime closed Salam, a popular reformist newspaper that had widespread support. The student movement spread nationwide and began to politically challenge the mullahs’ regime. The movement was violently repressed, with several students killed, a dozen more “disappeared”, and thousands arrested. This upheaval marked the beginning of greater action against the regime.
Workers, students, and others protested in 2009 against election fraud perpetrated by incumbent, hard-line fundamentalist Islamic President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. Mir-Hossein Mousavi, his opponent, favored liberal reforms including opening the country to outside investment, anathema to the Islamic capitalists monopolizing the country’s economy. This so-called Green Rebellion reflected the disastrous economic conditions foisted on the working class at that time by the hardliners and the oppression of national minorities and women. This time, workers and their organizations were part of the protest. Workers demanded a fourfold increase in the minimum wage and a decrease in inflation. The Tehran Bus Drivers’ Union, the Syndicate of Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Workers, teachers’ organizations, and other labor activists were targeted for arrest. Over 150 were arrested on May 1, 2009 and several other labor organizers were gunned down in the street. Talk of a general strike spread but did not materialize.
The 2009 uprising was forcefully defeated, but another significant working-class revolt happened eight years later in 2017. The theocratic regime had promised an improved economic life for the working class because the 2015 nuclear deal with the U.S. included an end to most U.S.-imposed economic sanctions. The regime failed to deliver economic improvements to the working class and ratcheted up austerity budgets while enriching themselves. Working-class struggles fueled the 2017 explosion with strikes, labor actions, and protests by nurses, bus drivers, truck drivers, tire workers, sugar cane workers, petrochemical workers, bakers, and tractor factory workers (Zahedi, 2024).
The trigger of the revolt that began December 28, 2017 was a budget announcement by reformist President Hassan Rouhani that exposed the corruption of the hardline mullahs. President Rouhani ‘s public release of the proposed budget revealed the budget’s secret part for the first time, which documented billions slated for the Islamic institutions, the hardline institutions in particular—the army, religious foundations of the clerical elite, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. More importantly for the Iranian masses, the budget proposed ending cash subsidies for millions of citizens, increasing fuel prices, and privatizing public schools ($5.3 billion was cut in income support, gas prices were increased by 50%, and infrastructure spending was cut by $3.1 billion (Al Jazeera, 1/30/2018).
The hardliners organized against Hassan Rouhani—they understood that his release of the budget was, actually, a broadside against them by exposing their corruption–but the initial anti-budget rally the hardliners organized in Mashhad (population of 3 million, 2nd largest city in Iran) swept past the mullahs and spread to between 40 and 80 cities, involved 10,000s of workers and students, and attacked the regime as a whole, including chants of “People are begging and Mullahs rule like they’re gods!” and “Death to the Dictator”– the Supreme leader Khamenei.
Twenty-two protesters were killed and 2,000 were arrested. Telegram and Instagram social media were shut down, demonstrating the ruling class’s fear of these mass protests. Twitter and Facebook had already been put under tight control. Ninety percent of those arrested were aged 25 or younger. Bloody repression ended that rebellion, with many killed or arrested and imprisoned. Protesters then (and now!) were young, low-income working-class people in smaller cities, towns, and some villages. In 1979, two-thirds of a population of 30-35 million was rural. Today two-thirds of a population of 93 million live in urban settings (cities/towns of 5,000 or more in population). This migration was hastened in part by the 14-year drought that drove many to move to towns to try to find work, often unsuccessfully. Tehran now has over 10 million residents.
In 2019, the regime announced a 50% increase in fuel prices, adding an additional layer of oppression to the working class, which responded with yet another uprising, and the regime responded with more bloody repression. But the rhythm of revolt was accelerating.
In 2022, The “morality police” arrested a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, Jini Amini, for allegedly violating compulsory Islamic veiling laws. This was both an attack on women and on the Kurdish minority (Genocide Watch, 11/7/2025). She was murdered in custody, triggering another uprising known as the “Woman, Life, Freedom” (WLF) movement. The protests quickly evolved from demanding justice for Amini into a widespread challenge to the Islamic Republic’s rule. The WLF movement was in large measure a continuation of the rebellions of 2017 and 2019 while also reflecting sharp resistance to anti-Kurdish bigotry by the mainly Persian regime.
The current rebellion has faced enormous repression and thousands of deaths at the hands of the state. Like previous uprisings, this rebellion has rapidly evolved from fighting economic oppression to mass challenges to the Islamic Republic’s legitimacy — a near-revolutionary situation.
U.S. Imperialist Manipulation
The U.S. imperialists are once again trying to manipulate the revolutionary struggle into a pro-U.S. imperialism outcome, whether by restoring the Pahlavi dynasty, splitting the country into ethnic subdivision (like what happened to Yugoslavia), or finding a compliant alternative leader among the mullahs. None of these approaches seem likely to work. And so the U.S- Israel axis launched a brutal war on Iran on February 28, 2026. The resounding call from the working class during the 2026 rebellion was for the overthrow of the corrupt theocratic fascist dictatorship, not for the return of the Shah or any other U.S. flunkey! The workers of Iran are not fools. They know full well that replacing the clerical fascists with U.S. puppets would not represent any progress. But the alternative of revolutionary communist overthrow does not appear yet to be on the agenda of most of the militant protesters.
The Need for Leftwing Leadership
Despite widespread labor action against the regime, communist working-class revolutionary leadership is lacking. The labor struggles noted earlier were mainly for better working conditions and only later began to take on an anti-regime character as mass anger at the fascist theocratic dictatorship took hold. The left, broadly considered, had been repressed by decades of murder and jail by Reza Shah in the 1930s and by his son and SAVAK (the secret police under the shah crafted in large measure by the CIA), and then decimated yet again by the large, complex, repressive apparatus of the ayatollahs since the 1979 revolution. (Iran has seventeen security organizations, with three main bodies involved in internal intelligence: the Ministry of Intelligence, the IRGC Intelligence Organization (IRGC-IO), and the Intelligence and Public Security Police (PAVA). All of them are directly or indirectly overseen by the Supreme Leader and work together to protect the regime by slaughtering those who threaten the regime in any way.)
While the workers become poorer, politically repressed, and destitute, the mullahs are getting richer and flaunting their wealth. As one supporter of the uprising of 2017 declared, “The clergy are the most unproductive leeches of our society, yet their sons, in upper-class neighborhoods of Tehran and other big cities, own more Bugatti’s and Lamborghini’s per capita than you’d see in the streets of Monaco. Where did all that wealth come from? It was all stolen from our national coffers, and the youth of our country have risen up to stop the thievery.” (Counterpunch, 1/5/2018)
Communists in the Struggle
The Communist Party of Persia (CPP) was formed in 1920 and joined the Comintern (the international communist organization led by the Soviet Union). The CPP created and led early trade union organizations. British puppet Reza Shah banned the CPP in the 1930s because it led a general strike highlighted by militant oil workers at the Anglo-Persian Oil Company fields in 1929. During World War II, the communists regrouped as the Tudeh Party in 1941 and gained a significant base in the industrial working class.
Its strategy for success, however, followed a multi-stage theory in the fight for communism. Tudeh generally supported Mohammad Mosaddegh, a social democratic/national bourgeois figure and prime minister under the Shah. The CIA and MI6 violently removed Mossadegh from office and shored up the power of the Shah. Workers continued to support Tudeh, but it reprised its error in the late 1970s by backing Khomeini as the leader of the “first stage”, the so-called national independence stage of the revolution. Such nationalist decisions are the death knell of revolution. By 1983, Khomeini had consolidated power and attacked the Tudeh Party, executing thousands including its leadership, using lists prepared by the CIA.
The historic destruction of the communist movement in Iran is a cautionary tale about what happens when a communist party follows the wrong line of march. The world communist movement (the Comintern) in 1935 wrongly decided, as fascism was sweeping across Europe, that allying with social democratic organizations was required to defeat fascism. This strategy reinforces the idea that many stages, including joining nationalist fronts, were required on the road to communist liberation. Based on the historical experience of countless nationalist struggles supported by communists, including in Iran, communists should follow a different strategy. Communists must win a significant share of the working class to an internationalist communist vision of the future, without wages, racism, sexism, and with an economy organized collectively by workers to meet each other’s needs. Alliances with pro-capitalist forces, or concessions to capitalist institutions like the wage system and nationalism/national liberation strategies, will allow capitalists and their ideology to enter our movement, subvert the path to communism, and block progress towards liberation. Today, Tudeh has been reduced to an exiled leadership in Europe, issuing statements but unable to lead the struggle in Iran any longer.
Some communists in Iran refused to follow Tudeh’s nationalist strategy. Peykar (Farsi for “Struggle”) was formed in 1975 and opposed Tudeh’s nationalism and reformism. Peykar, unfortunately, was not large enough to escape Khomeini’s repression, which killed over 250 of its members by 1985. Survivors scattered throughout the rural areas of Iran to escape repression but often failed to survive, as Khomeini’s repressive apparatus pursued the reds ruthlessly. Others scattered to Europe and the U.S. The organization ceased functioning in 1985.
Until the revolutionary left in the working class in Iran reconstitutes itself based on the strategy of a direct fight for communism, we are likely to see clerical fascists or U.S. stooges return to power in Iran. Rebuilding the world communist movement on a firmer foundation is an urgent task for all those who wish to build a better world. As bombs fall in Iran and Lebanon and wider war looms large, it is a matter of great urgency to rebuild the movement for communism and against imperialism of all forms. We have a world to win!
Additional readings
On history:
Arya Zahedi, Class Struggle, Autonomy, and the State in Iran, February 24, 2024
On the economy:
Michael Roberts, June 21, 2025, Iran’s Misery
https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2025/06/21/irans-misery/
On drought:
Fred Pearce, December 18, 2025, After Ruining a Treasured Water Resource, Iran Is Drying Up
https://e360.yale.edu/features/iran-water-drought-dams-qanats