Statement on the death of Mahsa Amini and protests in Iran

1- The brutal murder of Mahsa Amini by the police of the Islamic Republic of Iran has led to nationwide protests lasting more than twenty days so far against this crime, against the Islamic Republic and against its mandatory hijab. Women, especially young women and students, have played a decisive role in this uprising. 2- …

Something has to give

Mahsa Amini’s killing at the hands of the morality police sparked protests in every province. The young, in particular female students and school students, refuse to be ruled in the old way. However, the Islamic regime seems determined to keep on using mass repression, fear and the cloak of religion, says Yassamine Mather The first …

Putting two and two together

A new nuclear deal is now probably on the cards, says Yassamine Mather. But Iran’s conservatives, US Republicans and the Israeli government are fuming At a time when the western media is totally focussed on facts and fiction about Ukraine, we do not hear much about the Iran nuclear negotiations, even though a lot seems …

In the final round

Neither Russia nor China can afford to come to the rescue. Yassamine Mather shows that for Iran a great deal hangs on the results of the Vienna negotiations After months of discussion at the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action talks in Vienna, Iran’s minister of foreign affairs, Amir Abdollahian, admitted on January 24 that its …

Dismal political failings

There can be no excuse for taking money and doing the bidding of neocons and reactionaries. Yassamine Mather savages the so-called ‘people’s tribunal’ which took place in London last week When Iranians ask me why the European and US left seems to have nothing to say about workers’ protests in Iran and at times appears …

Bitter fruit of imperialism

Islamist jihadism is a modern, not an ancient, phenomenon. Yassamine Mather looks at causes, social roots and terrible consequences In the aftermath of every Islamist terror attacks in America, Europe or the UK, such as the stabbing of Tory MP David Amess, we hear the ‘analysts’ and media pundits come up with the same nonsense …

Centrality of class independence

Khomeini and the clergy completely outmanoeuvred the left. But it need not have been that way. In his second and concluding article on the role of oil workers in the 1979 revolution, Peyman Jafari stresses the complex nature of ideology and class consciousness On January 12 1979, two weeks after the Oil Strikes Coordinating Committee …

Surviving against all the odds

Why are the leaders of the Islamic Republic still looking so confident? The answer lies in the dismal failures of the global hegemon, argues Yassamine Mather The ceremonies marking the inauguration of the new Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, could not have come at a worse time for the country’s rulers. Despite Raisi’s repeated reassurances that …

The Imam, the strikers and the black, black oil

There are rich lessons for today in the experiences of the oil strikes of 1978. In the first of two articles Peyman Jafari charts the incredibly difficult struggle for organisation, hegemony and strategy “We are melting away,” lamented the shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, on December 26 1978 in a phone tap of a conversation with …

Anger finds open expression

From Isfahan to Tabriz, Karaj to Tehran, the slogans are clear: ‘Death to the dictator’, ‘Shame on Khamenei’, ‘Hands off Iran’. Yassamine Mather reports on the upsurge of protests Protests over the lack of clean water that started in the Iranian province of Khuzestan have now spread to other parts of the country. In Lorestan, …