Trump threatens war and punitive tariffs to recapture Iranian resources – just as in 1953, when the CIA overthrew Mossadegh and US corporations immediately seized 40% of the oil, says SEVIM DAGDELEN
THE recent order by Iranian “Supreme Leader” Ali Khamenei directing the security forces “to implement their tasks” sends out a stark and ominous signal to the people of Iran.
Protests erupted in cities across Iran on Friday following the government’s announcement of a hike in the cost of petrol by at least 50 per cent, signalling further hardship for the Iranian people at a time when the economy is already under intense pressure.
Khamenei’s warning to Iran’s citizens, to stay away from the demonstrations, would also appear to indicate that a violent crackdown is looming. Economic protests in late 2017 into 2018 that rocked cities across the country were met with a heavy response by the police and the paramilitary Basij force.
While Iranians take to the streets en masse to protest sky-high inflation, Trump and Netanyahu are threatening military intervention. The Iranian population is trapped between a repressive regime, a suffocating economic war from the outside, and a history of dark alliances, argues MARC VANDEPITTE
Payam Solhtalab talks to GAWAIN LITTLE, general secretary of Codir, about the connection between the struggle for peace, against banking and economic sanctions, and the threat of a further military attack by the US/Israel axis on Iran
In the second of two articles, STEVE BISHOP looks at how the 1979 revolution’s aims are obfuscated to create a picture where the monarchists are the opposition to the theocracy, not the burgeoning workers’ and women’s movement on the streets of Iran



