The Marx International

Iran has joined the revolutionary wave sweeping the world with a national uprising against the capitalist dictatorship of the Ayatollahs. The protests erupted on December 28, 2025, following the collapse of Iran's currency, the Rial, which devalued by 69% against the dollar, trading at 1,370,000 Rials. Fed up with the soaring prices of basic goods, which rose by 42.2% in 2025, the people began an uprising that has been met with police repression for several days. The unrest began with merchants in the Grand Bazaar in Tehran, the capital, but quickly spread to Malard in Tehran province, Kara, Kerman, Zanyan, Hamadan, and Qeshm Island. University students joined the protests in Beheshti, Khajeh Nasir, Sharif, Amir Kabir, and at the Isfahan University of Technology. People chanted "Death to the dictator" in the streets, referring to Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Ayatollahs' capitalist dictatorship.

The uprising of the Grand Bazaar merchants is a highly significant event in the class struggle because it represents a crucial sector of the middle class, which has sustained the Ayatollah regime for decades. Several Iranian unions have also joined the mobilizations, including those of teachers, truck drivers, and bus drivers, as well as the gold and iron guilds in the bazaars and in the provinces of Kurdistan and Khorasan. Security forces used tear gas to disperse protesters in Tehran, while residents of Malard, 45 kilometers east of the capital, clashed with armed security forces on motorcycles. However, the regime is failing to quell this third revolution taking place in the country. We Marxists support the struggle of the Iranian people: Long live the revolution in Iran! Down with the capitalist dictatorship of the Ayatollahs!

A revolution against the dictatorship of the Ayatollahs

The revolution in Iran is part of a global revolutionary process unfolding across five continents, a third wave sweeping through Turkey, Serbia, Bangladesh, Nepal, Morocco, Peru, Paraguay, Ecuador, France, the Ukrainian national revolution, Syria, Rojava, the Palestinian national liberation intifada, and more. The Iranian revolution is a slap in the face to those who claim a rise in fascism and the far right worldwide, because it strikes at one of the oldest dictatorships in the world, which is also the political center of the reactionary Islamic fundamentalist movement that has dominated the Middle East for decades.

However, the revolutionary process shaking Iran did not begin with these mobilizations of December 2025. It began in 2019 with a revolution called the "Persian Spring" and continued with the uprising of 2022. In other words, the current revolution in Iran is a February revolution, in Nahuel Moreno's definition, a recurring February, because it constitutes the third uprising of the people against the dictatorship. We at Marx International have been arguing that a Second Arab Spring has been underway in the Middle East since 2019, because the "Persian Spring" of 2019 occurred in conjunction with the uprising in Iraq against the government supported by Islamic fundamentalism, and against the government of Lebanon supported by Hezbollah. That is to say, that revolutionary wave of 2019 began to target the fundamentalist Islamic leadership, driven essentially by the people's weariness with the Shiite clergy, a retrograde and medieval religious current, who live in luxury just like the Vatican officials.

The mobilizations of merchants in the Grand Bazaar signify a rupture among sectors that have traditionally supported Islamic fundamentalism. At the same time, the Bazaar protests converged with actions by sectors of the working class, such as the sugar workers of Shush, who continued their demonstrations demanding unpaid wages, job security, and the reinstatement of their dismissed colleagues, and the railway workers of Dorud, who extended their strikes against privatization and job insecurity. Social workers, drivers contracted in strategic sectors like oil and gas, and miners from Takab also demonstrated, along with pensioners who mobilized in Tehran, Ahvaz, Isfahan, Rasht, and Kermanshah against the collapse of their purchasing power and access to healthcare.

Images quickly went viral showing a lone protester confronting security forces, evoking memories of the Tiananmen Square protests in China. The government, led by Pezeshkian, announced measures to appease the public, such as a "food basket" and a "bonus" for basic foodstuffs, but people fear hyperinflation that would severely impact working families, who have seen food prices rise by more than 70% and medical expenses by around 50%. Rising fuel prices, announced tax increases, and austerity measures have fueled expectations of further price hikes, leading businesses to raise prices, restrict sales, or even close down altogether.

Iran's monetary collapse is part of the global crisis of capitalism. The bailouts and financial rescues carried out by imperialist governments have triggered inflation worldwide, which erupts unevenly across countries and regions. In Iran, the ruling classes are not affected by inflation as the working classes are, thus exacerbating social inequality under the Ayatollah regime, just as it does in all capitalist countries around the world. Imperialist sanctions against Iran have damaged the country's economy, but the measures taken by the Ayatollah regime, which protects the profits and privileges of wealthy regime officials, have done far more damage to the people. The revolution is against the Ayatollah dictatorship, and we must support it with all our strength.

The Second Arab Spring and the Third Intifada are a single revolution

The current revolution is a continuation of the "Persian Spring," which erupted in response to a 200% increase in fuel prices and then escalated into a protest against the current government and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on November 15, 2019. Within hours, the protests had spread to 21 cities. They began as peaceful gatherings, but the government's repressive measures sparked a revolt against the entire government, which responded by killing approximately 450 Iranian citizens. Protesters destroyed 731 government banks, including the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran, nine Islamic religious centers, and toppled propaganda of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, including statues. Fifty government military bases were also targeted by protesters.

The chants of the protesters were directed against the government and its leaders, with people shouting: "The clergy must be lost," "Death to the dictator," "Death to the Islamic Republic," "The supreme leader lives like a god. We, the people, live like beggars." Thus began the Second Arab Spring, which, unlike the First Arab Spring of 2011, was directed against the clerical leaders of Islamic fundamentalism, also demonstrating the development of the political revolution process against all the established directions of the mass movement.

The second revolution in Iran was sparked by the murder of activist Mahsa Amini on September 14, 2022. She died after being detained and beaten by the Guidance Patrols, Iran's Islamic religious police, for refusing to wear a hijab covering her head and face, which religious authorities deemed "inappropriate." Protests began in the Kurdistan Province cities of Saqqez, Sanandaj, Divandarreh, Baneh, and Bijar, and then spread to Tehran, Hamedan, Mashhad, Sabzevar, Amol, Isfahan, Kerman, Shiraz, Tabriz, Rasht, Sari, Karaj, Tonekabon, Arak, Ilam, and many other cities, resulting in the deaths of 66 members of the security forces, 516 protesters, and the arrest of more than 19,200 people.

The second Iranian revolution was also part of the global women's revolution against capitalist, sexist, and patriarchal oppression. Women's protests against the mandatory hijab began, but the "Guidance Patrols" systematically repressed them. Following Mahsa's death, a national strike was called, stretching from the Kurdistan province to Tehran on September 18. Political parties in Iranian Kurdistan and Kurdish civil and political activists declared a general strike on Monday. Behind the movement the dictatorship emerged weakened, and Islamic fundamentalism suffered defeat after defeat, including the loss of Hezbollah and the Revolutionary Guards in Syria at the hands of the guerrillas who liberated the country from Bashar al-Assad's dictatorship. As part of the Second Arab Spring, the secular guerrilla movement arose in the West Bank, leading to the Third Intifada against Israeli Zionism.

In the midst of the Third Intifada, which defeated Zionist troops in October 2013, Israel bombed Iran. But Iran's military response exacerbated Israel's crisis because it caused enormous destruction and a mass exodus of Israeli settlers and citizens. Israel's " iron shield" failed; bombs rained down on Tel Aviv, and several demolished neighborhoods of the capital began to resemble Gaza. Israel's brief "Twelve-Day War" against Iran shattered the myth of Israel's "invincibility" and exposed the vulnerabilities, growing crisis, and weakness of the Zionist state.

However, the treacherous policies of the Iranian bourgeoisie, incapable of consistently leading the Palestinian people's national liberation struggle, created the conditions for Iran's new crisis. Hamas supported the Syrian revolution and welcomed the fall of Bashar al-Assad, confronting Hezbollah, which already revealed the deep fissures and crises within Islamic fundamentalism. Now, the Iranian revolution continues to fuel the Second Arab Spring, unleashing forces of new activism in the Middle East that emerge from Islamic fundamentalist currents, and which we urge to embrace Marxism. We, the Marxist International, support the revolution in Iran and stand for the overthrow of the Ayatollahs' dictatorship as part of the struggle for global socialism.