Newsroom
Long-form pieces from chapter leaders and editors.
Warning from Iranian Kurdistan Parties to Reza Pahlavi; Rejection of Military Threat and Call for Coalition Against Totalitarian Discourse
A coalition of political parties and movements from Iranian Kurdistan published a statement strongly condemning Reza Pahlavi's recent remarks regarding "separatism" and his threat to use the army against the Kurdish movement, calling it a sign of a security-driven approach and the continuation of a tradition of repression in his envisioned future Iran.
The Power of the Masses in the Era of the "Politics of Cruelty"; Media, Instrumentalized Reaction, and the Impossibilities of Resistance
In weeks that, in the author's words, "have condensed decades within themselves," Mohammad Hajinia, in a long article on the website *Critique of Political Economy*, tackles one of the most contentious questions in Iran today: Why is Pahlavi-centric royalism surging while the left is marginalized, and what is the media doing—or failing to do—in the middle of it all?
The Draft of Despotism, This Time Without a Turban
Two narratives stand on opposite sides of a political divide, yet when you look in the mirror, they reflect the same face: both view history not as an arena of pluralistic forces, but as a field for the exclusive appropriation of agency. Both rewrite yesterday's history so as to pre-emptively seize tomorrow's power. Both share a single logic: the logic of appropriating history to appropriate power. Read the rest of the note.
انقلاب واپس‌گرا، افسانه انقلاب دزدیده‌شده و خطر اقتدارگرایی نو: بازخوانی مهرداد درویش‌پور از انقلاب ۵۷
در این مقاله، مهرداد درویش‌پور با تکیه بر بازنشر متنی تحلیلی از ۳۹ سال پیش، از نو به انقلاب ۵۷ می‌نگرد تا نشان دهد فهم امروزِ بن‌بست جمهوری اسلامی بدون نقد خود منطق پوپولیستی و اقتدارگرایانه‌ی آن انقلاب ممکن نیست. او با رد دو روایت مسلط – یکی نوستالژی سلطنت و مقصر دانستن یک‌پارچه «نسل ۵۷»، و دیگری افسانه «انقلاب شکوهمند دزدیده‌شده» – بر روایت سومی پای می‌فشارد که هم‌زمان با مخالفت از همان آغاز با پروژه حکومت دینی، نقد ریشه‌های اقتدارگرایی را در خود متن انقلاب جست‌وجو می‌کند.
میان انسداد و فرصت: نیکفر از بن‌بست نظام تا امکان رهایی چه می‌گوید؟
در این یادداشت تحلیلی در رادیو زمانه، محمدرضا نیکفر وضعیت امروز جمهوری اسلامی و جامعه ایران را با دو مفهوم محوری «انسداد» و «فرصت» صورت‌بندی می‌کند و می‌کوشد نشان دهد چگونه یک خیزش می‌تواند یا به گشایش رهایی‌بخش بدل شود یا به فاجعه‌ای فرصت‌سوز.
If the People Do Not Want Freedom: From "Fear of the People" to the Politics of Care
While critiquing monarchist and conservative notions of transition, this essay addresses left-wing and republican forces concerned about the generalization of reactionary demands. It discusses the necessity of engaging in a politics of care as an alternative to stereotypical notions of mass enlightenment.
“January 2026: The Uprising, Pahlavi-ism, and the Danger of Regime Change from Above”
In a note on its official website titled “The 2026 Uprising: Half a Step Forward, Two Steps Back,” the Labor Organization Action Committee analyzes the January 2026 uprising in the continuity of December 2017, November 2019, and “Woman, Life, Freedom,” describing it as a wave that has simultaneously deepened street radicalism and made the space more fertile for reactionary projects such as Pahlavi-ism and imperialist regime change.
From the 1979 Revolution to Today's Deadlock: An Analytical Look at the Erosion of Power in the Islamic Republic of Iran
Five decades after the 1979 revolution, the erosion of legitimacy, efficiency, and the capacity to reproduce social consensus has left the Islamic Republic facing a kind of structural paralysis. In this article, Shahriar Sanaei shows how a rapidly transforming society has come face to face with a government stuck in the language and logic of the revolution's early decades. In this …
Anisha Asadollahi, Labor Activist, Released from Prison
Anisha Asadollahi, a teacher, translator, and trade union and labor activist, was released from Evin Prison on Friday, February 20, after completing her three-year prison sentence without even a single day of furlough.
Republican Students of Iran's Top Universities: The University is Alive, Hope for a Democratic Republic is Alive
In a statement commemorating the fortieth day of the bloody crackdown in January 2026, a group of republican students and alumni from Shahid Beheshti, Allameh Tabatabai, Tehran, and several other Iranian universities honored the victims of the protests and held the regime directly responsible for the organized violence, which responded to civil protests with bullets, killings, and mass arrests.
Mai Sato: Iran must clarify the status of the disappeared and killed of the دی (Dey) protests
Mai Sato, the UN Human Rights Council's Special Rapporteur, has called on the Islamic Republic of Iran to declare the fate and whereabouts of individuals who were arrested, disappeared, or killed following the nationwide protests. She stated that, alongside UN human rights experts, she is also urging Iranian authorities to halt all executions related to …
Continuation of Student Protests in Iran for the Second Day
Students at Iranian universities, including Amirkabir, Sharif University of Technology, and Beheshti in Tehran, as well as Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, held protest gatherings for the second consecutive day on Sunday, February 22, 2026. According to reports, students chanted anti-government slogans, including against Ali Khamenei, and commemorated those killed in the bloody crackdown on the January protests. Published videos …