The course of developments following the widespread protests against poverty and destitution has placed Iranian society in one of the most perilous periods of its political life.

Protests against rising prices and inflation quickly spread from Tehran’s bazaar and turned into a mass protest against the architects of poverty and misery, the Islamic Republic, extending to other cities, and to other sections of society and universities.

A society that, prior to 27 December 2025, had witnessed the broadest, most organised, and most unified workers’ protests in workplaces and centres of production against poverty and destitution and in defence of a humane and prosperous life, had seen an unprecedented unity among the protests of teachers, retirees, nurses, and others across Iran, was now faced with mass protests in cities throughout the country.

Efforts to link these protests with organised struggle became a priority for the organised sections of the working class. The support of independent labour organisations, teachers’ and retirees’ associations for the mass protests, and the continuation of workers’ strikes in production centres in tandem with the street protests were clear indicators of this effort. This solidarity was on the verge of turning into a practical and social mobilisation capable of shaking the ground beneath the Islamic Republic, Iran’s bourgeoisie, and the foundations of its capitalist order.

This solidarity and this conscious, purposeful effort to unite the protests of different segments of society constituted one of the most important characteristics of this period of people’s struggle against poverty and destitution, over livelihood, welfare, freedom, and rid of the Islamic Republic.

The Islamic Republic’s attempts to offer concessions, not only to the bazaar but also to the working class, its efforts to control the exchange rate, rising prices, and inflation, and its retreat in the face of this protest movement were all attempts to prevent the escalation and unification of the protests and, more importantly, to stop them from turning into an organised revolutionary movement to overthrow the ruling power, a revolutionary movement in which the working class played a central role.

The outbreak of the protests on 27 December and their rapid expansion provided the Islamic Republic’s regional rival, the Israeli state, with an opportunity to advance its strategy of consolidating its hegemony in the Middle East by destabilising the region and weakening its rivals.

Creating insecurity and the “collapse of the Islamic Republic” form part of this strategy, which was initially pursued through military attacks and, in this period, through the militarisation of mass protests by the Israeli state. Relying on an informal coalition of reactionary forces within the opposition and using global propaganda apparatuses, this policy transformed mass protest into street clashes with the Islamic Republic’s repressive forces, marginalising mass protests and workers’, nurses’, and other strikes, and paving the way for the violent intervention of the regime’s repression machine and the bloodshed of the protests.

Forces whose attempts to turn the uprising of three years ago into a “regime change” project had been defeated by freedom-seeking women and men and radical youth, led by socialists and communists. These attempts exposed the weak capacity of these forces for mass mobilisation in a society of 90 million people,  and in capturing power from within. This time these forces adopted, in line with the Israeli state’s strategy, a policy of militarising mass protests for “collapse”.

The Islamic Republic’s announcement of deploying the army into the streets under the pretext of “defending the country” and “confronting” these gangs and “Mossad terror cells” transformed Iran’s cities from the scene of a broad, nationwide struggle, the comprehensive struggle of the people to rid themselves of the Islamic Republic and achieve “freedom and equality”, into scenes of massacre, terror, bloody repression, and street warfare.

At a time when Israel had officially declared that “our agents are in the streets,” when Trump was threatening military strikes and attack, and when the Islamic Republic had officially announced that it would deploy the army, Reza Pahlavi’s call on the Iranian people to “not abandon the streets” and that “Trump is ready to help you” was not only open support for a US military attack and the intervention of Mossad terrorists in mass protests. His designation of “government employees” as “legitimate targets” amounted to nothing less than calling the people into a civil war, in the name of “fighting the Islamic Republic,” with the aid of American bombers.

The announcement of operations by the “Kurdish National Guard” outside Kurdistan under the banner of “defending the people,” reports of operations by the Mojahedin’s “Rebellion Units” in various cities and the propaganda surrounding them, the declaration of the number of “Mojahedin martyrs” in street clashes, and the announcement of military operations by the “Popular Fighters Front,” composed of religious and nationalist gangs in Baluchistan, are not merely propaganda or adventurism. Nor are they simply irresponsible policies of sending unarmed and unorganised people into an unequal war. They represent conscious and planned participation in the Israeli state’s strategy of the “collapse of the Islamic Republic” (the dark scenario) and the repetition of the scenario of Libya in Iran.

At the same time, Trump’s playing of the Iran-attack card and the intensification of sanctions have further extended the dark shadow of deeper poverty, war, and bloodshed, turning the people’s struggle in Iran to rid themselves of the Islamic Republic into a scene for these destructive and reactionary powers.

Before 6 January 2026, the people of Iran, with optimism, confidence in their own strength, and relying on the achievements of the uprising of the 2022, had forced the Islamic Republic into serious retreats and were opening the way for further advances. Organised sectors of society were preparing themselves for broader and more mass-based struggles, for intervention in political conditions and struggle for power, while the working class, through its organised protests, stood at the centre of these changes. The introduction of weapons into mass protests by the forces of the dark-scenario camp, and the regime’s encounter with repressive response, stamped a seal of military on this powerful political-social movement of the people. In the context of a war environment and the war propaganda of the United States and the Islamic Republic, this will, albeit temporarily, push back the struggle of the working class and freedom-seeking people for freedom and welfare, which had reemerged through the wartime atmosphere and the Islamic Republic’s rhetoric of “defence of the homeland” following Israel’s attack and the twelve-day war.

The attacks and killings of protesters, the arbitrary, manipulated, and one-sided dissemination of news about the protests, threats and intimidation, mass arrests, and finally government-orchestrated demonstration campaigns and declarations of “victory” by military officials reflect only fragments and partial images of events. The war and its various fronts are far broader, more multidimensional, and more extensive than what is portrayed by the Islamic Republic’s official media and the propaganda apparatuses of other states and powers.

Meanwhile, the revival of the regime’s internal opposition under the banner of “democratic transition,” and the reduction of the people’s radical demands to the removal of the Supreme Leader and a redistribution of power among elites, is a cowardly attempt to preserve the foundations of the ruling economic-political system with minimal changes, in the hope of securing a share of power. This attempt, which has taken various forms over recent years, has failed repeatedly and today has less chance than ever of drawing strength from the people.

Confronting these two reactionary camps stands the camp of freedom in Iran, especially the working class. This is a camp that, to achieve freedom and exercise direct determination over its destiny, must not only overthrow the Islamic regime but also sever the influence of all reactionary powers and forces from its present and future.

Today, the open support of these forces for an Israel–US attack on Iran, their calls for dragging people into a too-early war, and their transformation of mass protests into street warfare with repressive forces leave no doubt about their hostility toward the people’s radical, freedom-seeking, and revolutionary movement. Like the ruling bourgeoisie, these forces regard the working class and freedom-seeking people, and their radical, united, organised, and structured struggles under the banner of freedom, equality, welfare, and rule of the councils, as their main enemy. These forces’ arena is not mass uprising and revolution, but rather the preparation of conditions for bloodshed over these uprisings and revolution and the marginalisation of the people’s radical and revolutionary protest and above all, that of the working class.

Today, even for the most unconscious members of society, it has become clear that the revolutionary overthrow of the Islamic Republic and the seizure of political power by the people and their organs of action cannot and will not occur through reactionary states and their allies and proxies in the opposition, nor through the victory of this reactionary camp over the Islamic Republic.

Iran is the bearer of decisive transformations. Alongside the scenario of war and collapse (the dark scenario), the scenario of the overthrow of the Islamic Republic through a freedom-seeking revolution by the people remains one of the real possibilities.

The “collapse of the Islamic Republic”, whether with the help of US bombers or proxy forces of Israel, is the shared scenario of the reactionary camp. It would result in nothing but the transformation of Iran into a battlefield among the remnants of the Islamic Republic, defenders of “territorial integrity”, nationalist forces demanding “federalism of different nations”, and their criminal gangs, from the IRGC and Basij to the “Javidan Guard”, “Resistance Units”, “Kurdish National Guard”, “Jaish al-Adl”, “Harakat al-Nasr”, “Mohammad Rasulollah Group”, and others.

The Islamic Republic is neither Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s regime, which stepped aside at America’s command, nor Bashar al-Assad, who fled to Russia, nor the Eastern European governments that easily gave in to such scenarios. The collapse of the Islamic Republic would lead to a long-term, possibly permanent internal war, to a combination of military fiefdoms, foreign occupation, and ethnic and religious fragmentation of Iran. This is  a scenario that we have witnessed in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Rwanda, Somalia, Yemen, Syria, and Libya.

The collapse of the Islamic Republic is the recipe for dragging Iran’s society of 90 million into ruin. The Islamic Republic, as the leader of a reactionary movement that came to power in the name of a revolution through its defeat, and that for over four decades has imposed itself as a regional pole of reaction amid crises, wars, and global and regional rifts, will, if not overthrown by a popular movement, bring the entire society down with it in its collapse.

The massacres and atrocities that occurred in Iran on 6 and 7 of January were a moment in the process of the “collapse of the Islamic Republic”, part of the dark scenario that could determine the fate of 90 million people for months and years to come. A scenario that, by trapping the people between the warring forces of reaction, from the Islamic Republic to the dark-scenario forces in the opposition, would lead to the destruction of millions of lives in Iran.

The only force capable of forcing the Islamic Republic into retreat, and one that has done so repeatedly, including during the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement in response to many of women’s demands, is the popular movement: the women’s liberation movement, the labour movement, and the direct, face-to-face, unmediated struggle of the people, youth, and working population of Iran.

The only process capable of transferring society’s fate to the people and their organs of action through the overthrow of the Islamic Republic is a freedom-seeking, working-class revolution. This is the process Iranian society has been undergoing since the 2022 uprising and the people’s freedom movement. A movement that has so far defeated and sidelined all regime’s internal oppositions; a movement that neither US and Israeli war against Iran, nor economic sanctions and the starvation of the people, nor manufactured “regime change”, “colour revolution”, or “alternative-making” projects have been able to defeat. A movement that could, and can, open its path, advance and be victorious in a united and organised manner, from the centres of production to the streets, under the banner of welfare, freedom, and rule by the councils.

In this turbulent and decisive period, urgent and serious tasks are on the agenda of the Hekmatist Party (Official Line), communist workers, and freedom- and equality-seeking activists and leaders of social movements. The most important of these tasks are:

1. Preventing the realisation of the dark scenario, which today has effectively become a dangerous game involving the United States, Israel, the Islamic Republic, and their proxy forces.

2. Raising awareness and preparation of the people in defence of their existing achievements and in protection of their security and lives against attacks by any reactionary force, from the Islamic Republic to neo-Pahlavists, the Mojahedin, and the Kurdish National Guard, ….

3. The formation of mass organisations, especially independent workers’ organisation and neighbourhood councils, to administer, control, and protect the life and security of society in workplaces and places of residence.

4. Unification and connection of networks of workers, civil, and social leaders and activists in workplaces and communities—from factories to schools, universities, hospitals, and neighbourhoods for coordination, solidarity, and united nationwide struggle under a radical and revolutionary banner.

5. The formation of a nationwide central leadership body (“Leadership Headquarters”), composed of independent workers, civil, and social organizations and networks of workplace and community leaders, based on the clear and radical demands present in society, which:

   * Firstly, shatters the reactionary efforts of the dark-scenario gangs.
   * Secondly, prevents the transformation of the arena of revolutionary struggle into warfare among reactionary forces.
   * Thirdly, prevents the impoverished masses from being dragged into an unequal and premature war, opening the gates for criminal militarists and repressors slaughter the youth and people who detest and have risen against the Islamic Republic.

This is the force that can prevent Iran from becoming Libya, Yugoslavia, or Somalia. This is the force that, by overthrowing the Islamic Republic through its own freedom-seeking, working-class revolution, can become a point of hope in the dark world that the bourgeoisie has constructed for humanity.

Hekmatist Party (Official Line)
14 January 2026