On May 1, marking International Workers’ Day, PMOI Resistance Units in Zahedan launched a public campaign to express their support for Iran’s workers and toilers. The activists displayed placards across the southeastern city, reiterating their commitment to the overthrow of the clerical regime, which they described as the “scourge of workers in Iran.” The Resistance Units emphasized that laborers will only attain their rights through the regime’s downfall and the establishment of a democratic republic.
A central theme of the campaign was a fierce condemnation of the regime’s surge in capital punishment. The clerical regime is actively using wartime conditions as a pretext for nonstop executions to crush and preempt uprisings. Fearing the spread of unrest, the ruling religious fascism sends a youth to the slaughterhouse every day as its only answer to delay its inevitable downfall.
May 1—Zahedan, southeast Iran
PMOI Resistance Units mark International Workers' Day, expressing their support for Iran's workers and toilers and reiterating their commitment to the overthrow of the mullahs' regime, which is the scourge of workers in Iran. https://t.co/Xa9ieEy3xv pic.twitter.com/cPfEfpgwSt— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) May 2, 2026
The Resistance Units made it clear that these brutal executions are failing to instill fear; instead, they further inflame the people’s anger and strengthen the resolve of rebellious youth who are preparing for the next uprisings. Warning that international silence only emboldens the mullahs, the activists demanded that a halt to executions in Iran must be included as a demand of all the people in any international agreement. Confronting this regime, they noted, is the responsibility of the Iranian people, the rebellious youth, and the National Liberation Army.
Rejecting all forms of dictatorship
The Resistance Units also highlighted the century-long struggle of the Iranian people against different dictatorships. They stated that for a hundred years, the main war in Iran has been between freedom and despotism, specifically pointing to the oppressive regimes of both the shah and the mullahs. Under clerical tyranny, just as under the monarchy, workers receive nothing but repression, suffocation, and deepening class inequality. In response to this historic oppression, the activists urged workers to arm themselves, noting that despite sweeping repression, the laboring masses have seized every chance to protest.
"Workers and toilers will only attain their rights through the overthrow of the regime and the establishment of a democratic republic." pic.twitter.com/EPaVLm5wIg
— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) May 2, 2026
The Resistance Units’ call for regime change is rooted in an unbearable economic reality. Over the past 47 years, workers’ livelihoods have shrunk and purchasing power has steadily declined. Today, general year-on-year inflation has reached 70 percent, food inflation has surpassed 60 percent, and the US dollar has skyrocketed to 1.8 million rials. Consequently, the average working-class family’s income has plummeted to roughly $200 per month.
The regime deliberately delayed the official wage announcement for the 2026-2027 year, leaving laborers crushed by inflation. Even the proposed base minimum wage of 160 million rials barely covers the rent for a 45-square-meter apartment in Tehran. Meanwhile, the regime weaponizes the post-war security environment to suppress labor rights and crush protests. Employers freely impose forced unpaid leave and carry out illegal firings without consequence, exemplified by a recent mass layoff of roughly 2,000 workers in Rasht.
Internet blackouts and systemic marginalization
Economic devastation extends to the digital realm. Widespread internet shutdowns have destroyed over a million online jobs and devastated home-based businesses. This blackout disproportionately harms women, completely cutting off their access to the job market. Women’s share of employment was no more than 20 percent even before the war, and today they make up just one-third of the mere 147,000 people eligible for insufficient unemployment benefits.
The Ministry of Labor operates solely to protect large employers, leaving half of all workers—and highly vulnerable Afghan migrants—completely outside the protection of labor laws. As economic instability pushes the middle class below the poverty line, the Resistance Units emphasized that the main and decisive war is between the people of Iran and the religious dictatorship, and that lasting peace requires the regime’s total overthrow.