Protests in Iran tap into widespread ‘discontent’

A German protest in solidarity with Iran in 2022

Huge protests have swept Iran since last week. What began as outrage over a dramatic fall in the national currency has snowballed as demonstrations tap into a deeper anger.

Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets. At least 20 people have been killed, and the state has arrested hundreds.

The protests began among shop keepers in the capital Tehran. Stores were shut as they rallied and urged others to join. Sahar, an activist in Iranians for Palestine UK, told Socialist Worker that the ­protests represent the “discontent” of Iranian people.

“With 60 percent inflation and stagnant wages, it’s really ­understandable that people are not surviving this cost of living crisis,” they said.

“But there are water and power shortages. So, they can’t even afford food and shelter—what they need to meet their basic needs.

“People here put themselves at such a great risk because they have nothing to lose.”

As Sahar explained, the currency crisis was the trigger, but protests have now taken up wider economic and political questions. They said there have been ­“decades of mismanagement of assets” and “injustices at every institution”.

“At universities, for instance, decisions are made politically instead of based on academic rationale,” they explained.

“I think the wave from this ­movement has just put issues that were already concerning the people and the ­students to the surface.”

In 2022, huge protests swept Iran after Mahsa Amini’s death in police custody. The state responded with a brutal ­crackdown, killing hundreds.

This time, Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian has not yet clamped down with the same brutality, in a sign of the regime’s weakness.

Sahar said, “Pezeshkian is making ­statements about negotiating with the protesters. But ­different agencies in the ­government are making contradictory statements.”

Supreme leader Ali Khamenei—the top political position in Iran—has insisted that “rioters must be put in their place”. But Pezeshkian’s ­government appointed a new governor of the central bank in an attempt to address economic issues.

Amid wider shifts in the Middle East, both Israel and the United States have tried to exploit the protests.

Iran is already one of the most sanctioned countries in the world. And its economy has suffered after Israel bombed Tehran in July.

“When there is Western ­intervention with sanctions and military intervention, that ­targets ordinary people,” Sahar said.

“They don’t target the regime exclusively. And, if anything, the financial pressures are more so felt by the people of Iran. The damage that was done to power infrastructure by Israel, again, that’s felt more by ordinary Iranians.”

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has posted messages ­encouraging protests, and Donald Trump said that the US is “locked and loaded” to “rescue” the people of Iran.

“This hijacking is very ­detrimental to the movement and the people of Iran,” Sahar said.

“Any Western intervention and posturing that they’re on the side of Iranians undermines the ­sovereignty of Iranians.

“The people of Iran should be deciding what ­happens in Iran—not Western states, or Israel, intervening for political purposes, not for the ­purpose of Iranians.”

• Sahar is a pseudonym