On August 3, in an article titled “Aref’s First Directive as First Vice President: Allocating Arbaeen Budget”, Tasnim News Agency, affiliated with the IRGC Quds Force, reported that: “The Vice President [Mohammad Reza Aref] has allocated 40 trillion rials to prevent unforeseen accidents, contagious diseases, and heatstroke among the Arbaeen (the 40th day of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the prophet Mohammed) pilgrims.”
With details of the so-called “Arbaeen Headquarters” meeting, which is nothing more than the annual charade by the mullahs to show off their hollow power and distract minds from internal crises, Tasnim News Agency continued that regime president Massoud Pezeshkian himself “gave strict orders that all relevant agencies must take the necessary actions” for this task.
While he has been repeatedly touted as a moderate and reformist, Pezeshkian has repeatedly emphasized his loyalty to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and has made it clear he will follow Khamenei’s general policies just like his predecessor, Ebrahim Raisi. And his first orders and actions clearly demonstrate that he is nothing but an extension of Khamenei’s will. He proves that he will not hesitate to steal the last rial from the Iranian people’s budget and the national treasury to carry out Khamenei’s plans and programs.
In contrast, the people of Iran have come to the firm belief that they will only achieve their rights by taking to the streets.
The protests and demonstrations in many Iranian cities are evidence of this deep realization among the oppressed masses.
Protests across different sectors
In the past few days, many cities in the country witnessed protests by various groups. Workers from the Wagon Pars factory in Arak continued their strike for several consecutive days and left the factory. They crossed the industrial city’s bridge and gathered in front of the central governor’s office.
In Tehran, reserve teachers protested in front of the regime’s presidential office. The educators chanted slogans such as “Never to humiliation” and “Reserve teachers are awake and hate discrimination.”
Meanwhile aggrieved shareholders and stock market protesters gathered in front of the Tehran Stock Exchange building
And the defrauded customers of the state-backed Modiran Khodro vehicle manufacturer gathered in front of the Ministry of Industry, Mine, and Trade.
At the same time, retirees of different sectors took to the streets of Tehran, Tabriz, Khuzestan, Marivan, Urmia, Ardabil, Ahvaz, Isfahan, Zanjan, Kermanshah, Hamadan, Hormozgan, and Sanandaj in different days of the week, echoing with the angry chants of this oppressed segment of Iran’s society. They shouted against “cruel discrimination” and stressed that under the clerical regime, they had “seen no justice, only lies” and “lying officials, shame, shame.”
The pensioners of the Social Security Organization also took to the streets in cities such as Tehran, Kermanshah, Ahvaz, Shush, and Sari, chanting “Only on the streets will we get our rights,” “High-income country, what happened to you?” “From Khuzestan to Gilan, shame on these officials.”
In addition to their economic demands, the pensioners also reiterated their social and political demands, including the release of imprisoned teacher activists and the revocation of the death sentence for activist Sharifeh Mohammadi. The pensioners also chanted, “Let go of the headscarf, do something for us,” making it clear that they do not stand by the regime’s repressive policies toward women and girls.
Nurses in Arak, Shiraz and Karaj also continued their protests in the past week, as did the early customers of Shahin J vehicles and truck drivers in Isfahan. Additionally, people blocked the Minab to Bandar Abbas route in protest of the military forces’ actions in chasing fuel traders.
Political slogans and demands
Returning to the initial news about the approval of a substantial budget by regime’s new government to exploit people’s religious beliefs and the Arbaeen ceremony, we then see that Iran is uniformly engulfed in turmoil and protests.
With a simple calculation, we can see what 40 trillion rials can accomplish, such as:
How many overdue salaries of retirees can be paid?
How many jobs for unemployed workers can be created?
How many defrauded people can be compensated?
How much of the expenses of deprived and suffering Iranians can be covered?
How many orphaned families can be supported?
And so on.
But ultimately, we will come to the same conclusion that various groups of Iranian people have reached. Just as the Iranian people unanimously chanted “Death to the Shah” in the final months of the Shah’s dictatorship and targeted the head of the tyranny, now too, professional and social demands are gradually evolving into political slogans. The demands of different segments of society are tied to the desires and needs of all the people of Iran. It is becoming increasingly clear that to achieve professional, livelihood, civil rights, and so on, the first obstacle that must be removed is the regime itself. This is the only path to achieving welfare and economic development and preventing waste like the 40 trillion rials lies in the pursuit of social and political freedoms.
For this reason, retirees have elevated their slogans to political demands, calling for political freedoms, the release of “imprisoned teachers,” the release of “imprisoned workers,” and an end to repression under the pretext of the “headscarf.”
These orientations, the raising of awareness, the politicization, and the political view and politicization of various professional and economic affairs by different social groups and professions indicate the maximum readiness of society for a major political change, akin to a revolution.