Category: Articles

On February 8 1971, 50 years ago, the geurrillaist left began its armed struggle by attacking a gendamerie post at Siahkal. Three police were killed and two comrades rescued. Yassamine Mather spoke to Ardeshir Mehrdad. He was a member of the Organisation of Iranian People’s Fadai until 1980 and later became editor of Iran Bulletin… Continue reading From symbol to failure

Yassamine Mather says that the Siahkal incident 50 years ago marked a break with the passivity of ‘official communism’, but the guerrillaist left was hopelessly outmanoeuvred when it came to the reality of revolution in Iran Fifty years ago this week, the town of Siahkal in northern Iran was the scene of an armed uprising… Continue reading Preparing for revolution

Mohamad Reza Shalgouni was a founder-member of the Organisation of Revolutionary Workers of Iran (Rahe Kargar). He spoke to Yassamine Mather about his strategic reassessment as a prisoner of the shah and experience of the revolutionary years of 1978-79 How long were you a prisoner during the shah’s reign? I was in prison from January… Continue reading Limits of guerrillaism

Feelings of injustice, a lack of rights and a sense of betrayal have become universal and act as psychological and subjective drivers of protest, writes Ardeshir Mehrdad. But how can protest be forged into a movement than can topple the regime? Since the beginning of the 1990s, Iranian society has witnessed successive waves of protest.… Continue reading Three waves of protest

Yassamine Mather As Binyamin Netanyahu’s government tacitly admits its role, so why the Iranian regime is in denial There are strong indications that Israel was responsible for a number of incidents in Iran’s military and nuclear sites. On June 20 Tehran’s inhabitants reported a major explosion that lit up the skies east of the capital… Continue reading Israel’s nuclear war

Yassamine Mather Why attempts to ‘root out corruption’ are not taken seriously This week, as the world awaited Israel’s possible annexation of Palestinian territories, Iran’s Islamic Republic remained relatively quiet about the subject. In fact in recent weeks even ‘moderate’ Arab states, such as Kuwait and Jordan, have been vocal in expressing strong opposition to… Continue reading Corruption in Iran’s Islamic Republic

A week before Donald Trump made his infamous comments about drinking disinfectant as a cure for coronavirus, a self-appointed ‘Islamic medical expert’ in Iran had filmed himself on Instagram drinking camel urine. He claims it should be used to treat anyone suffering from the current pandemic. Exiled Iranian broadcasters – especially Saudi- and US-financed TV… Continue reading Double standards, misinformation and stupidity of the ‘regime change from above’ advocates

A look at the blame-gaming and likely consequences of Covid-19 in the Middle East . The criminal incompetence of western leaders in failing to deal with the coronavirus pandemic has led to a situation where we do not hear much about the disastrous effects of the virus in the rest of the world – and… Continue reading Lies, poverty and repression

Yassamine Mather Professor Fariborz Raisdana, who died on March 16 in a Tehran hospital, was a leftwing economist, political activist and author, who lived and worked in Iran. According to relatives, his hospital admission was as a result of showing symptoms of coronavirus. He had a long-standing heart condition. He was an advocate of using… Continue reading Death of a radical intellectual: Fariborz Raisdana

They say a week is a long time in politics, but in the case of Iran sometimes one day is a very long time. Over the past few weeks there have been mass protests, the threat of war and then we had first the assassination of Qassem Soleimani ordered by Donald Trump – as I… Continue reading Iran , Trump’s threats and protests