"Maryam Rajavi on Workers’ Day: Iran’s Workers Need Democratic Change, Not More Repression"

In a message marking "International Workers’ Day," Maryam Rajavi described the condition of workers and poor laborers in Iran as the product of a ruling system built on repression, plunder, and war. She argued that the crisis facing Iranian workers is no longer just economic or social, but deeply political, and said the only real solution lies in "a revolution for a democratic republic and a new order based on justice and human dignity."

Rajavi opened her message by saluting workers, laborers, and the poor who, in her words, "saw the solution in revolution and joined the Resistance Units." She said this year’s Workers’ Day comes at a time when executions and repression continue to strike the working class directly. She pointed to the execution of "Mohammad Masoum Shahi," a 38-year-old technical worker, on April 20, 2026, and to the execution of "Ali Akbar Daneshvarkar" on March 30, 2026, saying they were part of a broader front of workers who entered direct confrontation with the regime.

According to Rajavi, the Iranian regime has used wartime conditions not only to execute fighters of the "National Liberation Army" and rebellious youth, but also to dismiss workers and strip them of their rights. She said internet shutdowns forced many businesses to close and left many workers jobless. These policies, she argued, have deepened poverty and deprivation while also building a massive reservoir of anger inside Iranian society.

Rajavi also accused the regime of destroying the Iranian economy by channeling national wealth for more than four decades into nuclear projects, missiles, drones, and military expansion rather than development and social justice. She said this led to the looting of public resources, environmental destruction, and the loss of a historic chance for democratic economic and social development after the 1979 revolution.

A major part of her message focused on what she described as Iran’s transformation into one of the cheapest labor markets in the world. She said workers have faced some of the harshest forms of exploitation for decades, including blank-signed contracts, temporary labor, denial of independent unions, lack of job security, and unsafe working conditions. Women workers, she said, suffer multiple layers of inequality in wages, opportunities, and economic participation. She added that nearly 29 million women of working age are considered outside the labor force, while child labor has risen to around 3 million children and more than 13 million workers remain outside all forms of social insurance.

Rajavi concluded that this "enslaving reality" can no longer continue, especially with inflation already above 50 percent and potentially heading toward 80, 100, or even 120 percent, alongside unpaid wages and collapsing living standards. She said the path to salvation lies in the banner of "peace and freedom" carried by the National Council of Resistance, and called on workers, farmers, laborers, street vendors, border porters, fuel carriers, drivers, delivery workers, project workers, the dismissed, and the unemployed to join the Resistance Units and help prepare an organized uprising to overthrow the regime.