Long live May 1st, the day of international solidarity of workers.
May Day is the day of global unity of the working class. On this day, workers stop production and take to the streets with determination, under red flags. They act as a single collective force against an oppressive system built on capitalist exploitation. They affirm that their interests and goals are the same across all countries. It is a common struggle, not for reforms alone, but for the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of a socialist order.
The working class in Iran is part of this global force. Despite the open dictatorship of capital, which deprives them of their most basic freedoms and suppresses all forms of public protest, they continue to express their solidarity with workers worldwide.
This year, May Day takes place under extremely harsh conditions in Iran. A reactionary 40-day war waged by the capitalist states of the United States and Israel against the Islamic regime has brought devastation. This war, driven by expansionism and regional domination, has inflicted enormous suffering on the people of Iran, above all on the working class. It stands in direct opposition to the interests of workers in all countries involved.
Thousands have been killed. Many more have been wounded. The majority of the victims come from working-class and impoverished families. Homes and public infrastructure have been destroyed. Key factories have been bombed and in some cases completely annihilated. Workers have been killed and injured. Entire sectors of production have been crippled. Millions of workers have lost their jobs.
According to official reports, at least 3 to 4 million workers have been pushed into unemployment since the beginning of the war. This catastrophe unfolds in a country without a real system of social protection. Even the minimal unemployment benefits fall far below subsistence level, often less than half of previous wages, while inflation has surged to extreme levels, exceeding 112% for basic necessities such as food and essential goods.
Yet this is not the end. The war continues. The current ceasefire is fragile and temporary. The threat of renewed escalation remains. Under these conditions, pressure on the working class intensifies. Even before the war, workers were subjected to brutal exploitation through poverty wages and precarious contracts. Today, their conditions have deteriorated to an unprecedented level.
The experience of recent decades has made one fact clear: even a prolonged ceasefire will not improve the conditions of the working class. Real wages have continuously declined, and living standards have steadily worsened. The capitalist system in Iran, deeply entrenched in crisis, is incapable of solving any of the fundamental problems of society.
Since 2017, masses of oppressed people have taken to the streets in protests, uprisings, and rebellions, demonstrating their refusal to tolerate this reactionary and inhuman system any longer. At the same time, the ruling class has shown that it has no solution to the deep contradictions of society and can no longer govern as before. It relies solely on repression, violence, imprisonment, and executions; to maintain control.
But repression has not stabilized the system. Each wave of violence has only deepened resistance. The events of last winter, when thousands were shot in the streets, are a clear example. Today, under the pretext of war, the regime enforces a de facto state of emergency: internet shutdowns, military occupation of public spaces, mass arrests, and ongoing executions.
Despite all this, there is no way out for the ruling class. The overthrow of the Islamic Republic is inevitable. The current weakening of workers’ struggles is temporary. A new wave of struggle will emerge. The decisive question is the formation of an independent political movement of the working class.
The main reason why previous uprisings have not yet achieved victory lies in the absence of the working class as an organized and leading force. To fulfill its historic role, the working class must move beyond economic struggles and engage in conscious political struggle.
Whether the war continues or gives way to a longer ceasefire, the crisis will deepen and contradictions will sharpen. Conditions are ripening for new political movements and for a broader turn of the masses toward political struggle.
The Organization of Fadaian (Aghaliyat) calls on the workers of Iran to unite under the slogan:
“Work, Bread, Freedom, Workers’ Councils.”
It calls for nationwide political strikes to overthrow the Islamic regime, to advance a working-class social revolution, and to establish a socialist order.
Long live international working-class solidarity.
Down with the Islamic Republic — power to workers’ councils.
Down with capitalism.
Long live freedom — long live socialism.
Work — Bread — Freedom — Workers’ Councils
26.04.2026
