Two days before the uprising of Baluch youth on the anniversary of Zahedan’s Bloody Friday, Javan newspaper, which is run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), showcased the regime’s fear of “disruption of norms” and uprisings. The slogans of “Death to Khamenei” along with the strikes in Baluchestan cities and over a hundred anti-regime activities by rebellious youth on September 29 and 30 shed light on the reasons for such expressions of terror.
On September 27, Javan wrote about the reasons for the regime’s fear: “We are witnessing cycles of accumulated anger. This anger has various reasons, such as livelihood, political demands, economic factors, and other factors that can be mentioned in this regard. We used to see this anger being unleashed once every 10 years, but currently, this time interval has decreased.”
The issue of the “disruption of norms” and the “accumulation of people’s anger” is not a claim by a marginalized faction of the regime. It is indeed an admission by a newspaper run by the regime’s main repressive organ.
Javan clearly acknowledges that accumulated anger is like gunpowder and compressed energy that explodes and becomes “free” at a certain point. The driving force behind this explosion and uprising is not only social pressures and restrictions or cultural issues, but also economic hardships and livelihood problems.
The emphasis of Javan newspaper on the “disruption of norms” and the “accumulation of people’s anger,” as well as the statement that “currently, the periods of venting this anger have shortened compared to before,” highlights two main realities or consequences of the 2022 uprising. One is that the regime’s balance has been so “disrupted” that it is irreparable, and the other is that the gap between uprisings or outbursts of people’s anger has become smaller.
One day after this expression of fear by Javan, the state-run Ruydad 24 website also expressed the regime’s security concerns and fear of an uprising by the impoverished masses, and the burning anger of the people due to livelihood problems, quoting government experts: “People who are hungry and deprived will not back down until their rights are fulfilled because livelihood problems shake and disrupt everything from its roots.”
Earlier, on July 16, the state-run Jomhouri newspaper had also written about the widening class gap and the increasing “severe economic problems in livelihood constraints,” stating, “Do not think that people’s patience is endless. Fear the day when the army of the hungry rises against you.”
Indeed, the alarm of the movement of the “army of the starved” had been raised repeatedly, even before that, by regime experts and media. They said, “If the army of the starved takes to the field and the streets, no one will be able to stop them.”
As a result, the accumulation of public anger and the nightmare of the army of the starved have become subjects of concern and anxiety for the regime’s authorities. On August 11, Ensaf news website quoted Vahid Shaghaghi, an economic expert, as saying, “We are experiencing the unprecedented period of inflation in the history of Iran. No period in the history of Iran has had continuous and sustained inflation to the extent we have today. Today, we are witnessing backbreaking inflation, a major challenge to pension funds, a major challenge to land collapse, a major challenge to water, a major challenge to infrastructure decay, and so on. I see these as a heavy flood that is currently distant from us but rapidly approaching.”
This regime has has had no other achievement but unemployment, water disaster, limitless and borderless growth of liquidity, and unprecedented class divisions. This regime has the worst record in terms of systemic corruption. Over the course of more than four decades, it has plundered the national assets and public wealth, allocating a significant portion of it to the security of the regime and the development of fundamentalism.
In such circumstances, Khamenei inevitably finds no way but to pursue a policy of contraction and purification to salvage the regime. On the other hand, Iranian regime president Ebrahim Raisi, whose government has sunk into the quagmire of failure, claims progress and victory in the most ridiculous manner.