The Ex-Worker #115: Iran: An Uprising Besieged from Within and Without—Three Perspectives
This episode offers an audio version of "Iran: An Uprising Besieged from Within and Without," discussing the uprising that broke out across Iran on December 28, 2025, triggered by economic distress and escalating to call for the toppling of the government. It includes three analyses exploring the tensions within the uprising between grassroots movements and monarchist groups courting the support of the United States and Israel.
-------SHOW NOTES------Table of Contents:
- Introduction {0:41}
- Report on the Current Wave of Protests in Iran {2:57}
- Iran Protests Amid a Siege by Internal and External Enemies: A Report on the Recent Mass Uprising {6:53}
- I. The Fifth Uprising since 2017 {8:11}
- II. An Uprising Besieged by External and Internal Threats {10:51}
- III. The Spread of the Revolt {16:52}
- IV. The Geography of the Revolt {19:06}
- V. The Impact of the Twelve-Day War {22:46}
- VI. The Contradictions {28:11}
- VII. The Horizon {32:52}
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The View from Syria {38:45}
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This episode offers an audio version of "Iran: An Uprising Besieged from Within and Without," published by CrimethInc. on January 7, 2026. The online version includes footnotes and hyperlinks offering more information.
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Thanks to Ayman Makarem of From The Periphery media collective for reading and recording this episode.
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To learn more about previous waves of resistance in Iran, you could start with "Revolt in Iran," discussing the revolt that began on September 16, 2022, and "Jin, Jiyan, Azadi (Woman, Life, Freedom)—The Genealogy of a Slogan," exploring the background of that movement.
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For deeper background, you could read "There Is an Infinite Amount of Hope… but Not for Us," an interview publishing in 2020 discussing the pandemic, economic crisis, repression, and resistance in Iran.
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To learn more about the conditions that ethnic minorities experience in Iran, read Precarious Work Means Precarious Life, discussing the Rajaee Port Disaster and what it shoes about the situation confronting Baluch ethnic minorities.
- To understand how Iranians who oppose both the Islamic Republic government of Iran and the genocidal project represented by Israeli Zionism and US foreign policy in the region, read "Women, Life, Freedom" against the War and Against Apartheid and Tyranny.