The systematic massacre of 10,000 or more protesters by Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, police and paramilitary thugs cut short the wave of demonstrations that was spreading across Iran. But far from demoralizing working people, the repression deepened their anger and their resolve to overturn the reactionary capitalist regime.
Every day new actions are being called — from public statements to sit-ins, rallies and marches — by unions, students, retirees and others. They’re demanding the release of imprisoned protesters and political prisoners as well as justice for those who were murdered. Some actions are a few dozen, others, like some campus protests, have involved hundreds.
“We will not retreat in the face of any level of killing,” the Council for Organizing Contract Oil Workers Protests said in a Jan. 31 statement. “The perpetrators and those who ordered the murder of our loved ones must be tried and punished.”
The protests began Dec. 28 among merchants and businesses in Tehran’s bazaar and then spread across the country, with chants “Death to the dictator,” “Freedom, freedom, freedom,” and “Not for Gaza, not for Lebanon, I will die for Iran.” Oppressed nationalities, including Kurds, Baluchis, Azerbaijanis and Arabs, joined in.
On Jan. 7 workers from two oil refineries — key to Iran’s economy — joined the protests, while a coalition of Kurdish groups the following day held a general strike.
Fearing its rule could be overturned, the regime even brought in thugs from Hezbollah in Lebanon and Tehran-backed militia groups the regime has organized in Iraq and Syria, part of its anti-Israel “axis of resistance” to aid in the slaughter.
Within days, family members began turning funerals of those killed into expressions of opposition to the regime, its assault on democratic rights, and its drive to destroy Israel and expel the Jews there.
On Jan. 31, Feb. 1 and 3 hundreds of nursing, medical and dentistry students held rallies and sit-ins in at least five universities in Shiraz, Tehran, Tabriz, and Mashhad calling for a boycott of exams. “You killed our classmates, blinded and injured many. We will not return to normal life until this government is overthrown,” they said.
A few dozen retired workers in Shush and Rasht restarted their weekly protests, which had been taking place for over a year. Their actions on Feb. 1 demanded freedom for all imprisoned protesters and all others arrested for opposing the regime.
On Feb. 2, police used pepper spray and beatings to disperse a sit-in and protest by municipal workers in Ilam who haven’t been paid in three months.