The inspiring protests by ordinary Iranians against their rulers build on previous waves of revolt over the last 15 years, including the mass mobilisations of the Green movement in 2009-10, and more recently the Women, Life and Freedom movement of 2022. The current revolts are also a response to the economic instability caused by sanctions designed by the US to crush the Iranian economy.

On one hand the Western media celebrate the protests and assume that the people want a return to the previous Pahlavi dynasty which was overthrown by the Iranian revolution of 1979. On the other hand, some on the Left who see Iran as part of the Axis of Resistance to the US imperial interests in the Middle East, suggest we should dial down our support for the protestors.

How can we approach the current mass demonstrations in a way which avoids either of these two perspectives and can map out a way forward for challenging imperialism in the wider region? Workers and their radical democratic committees played a decisive role in the 1979 revolution and the overthrow of the Shah, even whilst being eventually outflanked by the radical Islamists. What are the prospects now for working people again taking collective action to fundamentally alter the balance of power in Iran and more widely?

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