It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Uniting the forces of the left across the globe to confront the rise of the far right – and imperialist wars. This is the objective of the First International Anti-Fascist Conference for the Sovereignty of Peoples. The meeting will open on 26 March in Porto Alegre, capital of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, which was the birthplace of the anti-globalisation movement in the early 2000s. The initiative, which aims to overcome the fragmentation of resistance in the face of the ongoing neo-fascist shift, was supported by an appeal signed by a wide range of figures representing the militant left and social movements from across five continents (see below). Le Courrier spoke with Eric Toussaint, of the Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt (CADTM), one of the driving forces behind this initiative.
What is the background to this international conference?
Eric Toussaint: On 8 January 2023, shortly after losing the presidential election to Lula, Jair Bolsonaro attempted a coup d’état in Brazil. Citing alleged electoral fraud, supporters of the neo-fascist former president stormed the headquarters of Congress and the Federal Supreme Court, mirroring the storming of the Capitol by Donald Trump’s supporters two years earlier. These events highlighted the danger posed by the rise of the far right. From this realisation emerged the idea of organising an international anti-fascist initiative.
Why was the city of Porto Alegre, in southern Brazil, chosen?
The symbolism is powerful, as it was in this city that the World Social Forum (WSF) was born: in January 2001, 20,000 people gathered there to define a common agenda for the anti-globalisation movement, which was then in full swing. Secondly, because by defeating Jair Bolsonaro in 2022, the Brazilian left proved that it is possible to block the path of the neo-fascist threat: parties – from the social-democratic PT to the radical-left PSOL – popular movements and trade unions overcame their differences to secure Lula’s victory. These actors are represented within the united committee organising the conference.
Scheduled for May 2024, the meeting had to be postponed due to the severe flooding – a consequence of climate change – that hit the state of Rio Grande do Sul the previous month. Given the increase in military aggression by Donald Trump since the start of his term, we have since decided to add an anti-imperialist component to the event.
Is the world currently experiencing a neo-fascist turning point?
The Trump administration is at the helm of the world’s leading power. It is implementing a policy characterised by extreme nationalism, supremacism and homophobia, whilst using the ICE militia to carry out mass deportations of non-white people. It can therefore be described as neo-fascist. A shift explicitly symbolised by Elon Musk’s Nazi salute at Trump’s inauguration.
At the same time, the far right threatens to come to power in most European states; in Russia, Vladimir Putin’s regime bears striking similarities to Trump’s; India is led by a radical Hindu nationalist and Islamophobe, Narendra Modi. Meanwhile, in Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu’s neo-fascist government has been carrying out a genocide in Gaza for over two and a half years.
In Latin America, the election of Javier Milei in November 2023 was followed by that of Juan-Antonio Kast in Chile in 2025. Meanwhile, Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, is modelling his regime on the authoritarian rule of Nayib Bukele in El Salvador. And the far right will do everything in its power to win the presidential election this autumn in Brazil, against Lula, with the support of an international network. If it succeeds, this will have terrible repercussions across the entire continent, which has endured brutal dictatorships over the last century.
The radical right appears to have a strong global network. Is this the case?
We are witnessing the emergence of a kind of neo-fascist international, driven in particular by Donald Trump’s United States. In his national security strategy published in 2025, the US president clearly lends his support to the ‘patriotic’ parties of the Old Continent. In Latin America, which he once again regards as a ‘backyard’, he does not hesitate to interfere directly in political and electoral processes to favour far-right candidates.
Admittedly, these forces do not have a single global command. But coordination structures are already in place. The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) brings together the radical right-wing parties of the Americas and Europe every year. It has recently organised conferences in the United States, Hungary and several Latin American countries. Launched by the Spanish party Vox, the Madrid forum is another event that brings these parties together.
Is the Porto Alegre conference intended as a response to this neo-fascist globalisation?
On the left, we are lagging behind: we have not yet begun to internationalise our response to the far right. Admittedly, the forces fighting fascism and imperialist aggression are very diverse, and there is no question of erasing these differences. However, it is essential to build a broad front, on a global scale, against these increasingly threatening enemies. This convergence must include all forces willing to defend the working class, the peasantry, migrants, women, LGBTQIA+ people, people of colour, oppressed minorities and indigenous peoples – whilst defending nature and supporting the struggles against imperialism. Our conference will seek to provide the beginnings of a response to this challenge.
In practical terms, what might this initiative lead to?
One of the keys to success is to remain modest. The idea is not to create a new global structure, but to bring together parties, prominent figures and activists around a space capable of convening and supporting joint initiatives and mobilisations against the far right. All whilst supporting the battles being fought in different countries.
Following this first global meeting, a second significant step forward would be to organise a similar initiative in the world’s major regions, starting in 2027.
THOUSANDS OF ACTIVISTS EXPECTED
Several thousand people, from around 70 countries, are expected to attend the First Anti-Fascist Conference for People’s Sovereignty, to be held in Porto Alegre from 26 to 29 March. The event will open with a large demonstration in the streets of the capital of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Over three days, it will feature eleven thematic plenary sessions and 150 self-organised activities. Discussions will focus on strengthening social, feminist and trade union movements, as well as international solidarity in the fight against fascism – but also on the potential and limitations of institutional action. Solidarity with Gaza, the struggles against climate denial and for agrarian reform, and the situation on the American continent will be other key themes. The debates will conclude with the adoption of a charter at a general assembly.
Whilst a large proportion of the speakers will come from the Americas, a wide range of organisations and movements will be represented in the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, which was the birthplace of one of the main social movements on the Latin American continent, the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST), in the 1980s. This is evidenced by the more than 1,500 prominent figures and activists from five continents who have signed the international call inviting people to the conference. They include, notably: leaders of grassroots and political organisations from Latin America, including the leader of the MST, João Pedro Stédile; feminist authors and activists Nancy Fraser and Tithi Bhattacharya; Indian journalist and activist Vijay Prashad; Haitian economist Camille Chalmers; Solange Koné, of the World March of Women (WMW) in Côte d’Ivoire; Frei Betto, a Brazilian writer and figure in liberation theology; MEP (La France Insoumise) Rima Hassan and Thiago Silva, participants in the global Soumoud flotilla for Gaza; Ada Colau, the former mayor of Barcelona; Annie Ernaux, winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature; former leader of the British Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn; the leader of La France Insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, alongside Italian and Spanish parliamentarians and members of DSA, the left-wing faction of the US Democratic Party. In Switzerland, sociologist Jean Ziegler, former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, has signed the appeal. Mathilde Marendaz, an activist with the Solidarité & Ecologie party and a member of the Ensemble à gauche group in the Vaud Grand Council, will be travelling to Porto Alegre.
Eric Toussaint is a historian and political scientist who completed his Ph.D. at the universities of Paris VIII and Liège, is the international spokesperson of the CADTM (Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt) , and sits on the Scientific Council of ATTAC France. He is the author of Debt System (2019), Bankocracy (2015); Glance in the Rear View Mirror. Neoliberal Ideology From its Origins to the Present, Haymarket books, Chicago; “Debt, the IMF, and the World Bank, Sixty Questions, Sixty Answers”, Monthly Review Press, New York, 2010. He has published extensively in this field. He is a member of the Fourth International leadership.
Wednesday, March 25, 2026
The Kingdom Of Bhutan And Relations With The United States – Analysis
March 25, 2026 The Congressional Research Service (CRS) By Maria A. Blackwood
The Kingdom of Bhutan is a small, landlocked Himalayan country situated between India and the People’s Republic of China (PRC, or China). The kingdom is about half the size of Indiana, with an estimated population of approximately 792,000. Hydropower, mining, and tourism are major drivers of economic growth. Although Bhutan does not maintain diplomatic relations with the United States—or, indeed, with any of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council—the Trump Administration stated in 2025 that it “values [U.S.] friendship with Bhutan and looks forward to strengthening the ties between our countries.”
The U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India, is responsible for consular matters in Bhutan, and Bhutan maintains a consulate general in New York City. Geopolitical tensions between China and India along their Himalayan border have driven U.S. policymakers’ interest in the region. In the 118th and 119th Congresses, Members of Congress have expressed interest in Bhutan’s human rights record and PRC territorial claims in Bhutan.
The Bhutanese government asserts that it “strives to enhance friendly relations and engagements with all countries, with or without diplomatic relations,” and notes “meaningful” cooperation with the United States in a range of areas. Bhutan previously participated in a U.S. Agency for International Development regional program for South Asia focused on developing power infrastructure, and implemented energy- and disaster-related programs intended to help mitigate some effects of climate change.
The Constitution, Elections, and the King
Bhutan’s constitution, adopted in 2008, established three branches of government: legislative, executive, and judicial. The bicameral legislature includes the National Assembly, with 47 elected representatives, and the National Council, with 25 members, 5 of whom are selected by the king. Legislators serve five-year terms. The executive branch includes the monarch, currently King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, as Head of State, and the prime minister, presently Tshering Tobgay, as Head of Government. The monarchy is hereditary, and the king appoints the majority leader in the parliament as prime minister. The king can be forced to abdicate by a national referendum triggered by a three-fourths vote in the National Assembly, and must retire at 65. Executive power is vested in the Council of Ministers, whose members are appointed by the king from among members of the National Assembly on the recommendation of the prime minister. The judiciary consists of the Supreme Court, the High Court, District Courts, and Sub-District Courts.
The Wangchuck dynasty, in power since 1907, spearheaded and has shaped Bhutan’s young democracy. After previous monarchs implemented incremental social and administrative reforms, the current king, in power since 2006, began a top-down democratic transition. In 2008, Bhutan’s political system changed from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary government. Since then, the country has “undergone democratic consolidation” in the assessment of the nongovernmental human rights organization Freedom House, which rates Bhutan as “free” in its 2026 Freedom in the World report. International election observers deemed Bhutan’s 2008 parliamentary elections to be free and fair, as they did subsequent elections held in 2013, 2018, and 2024. The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) currently holds 30 of 47 seats in the National Assembly; the opposition Bhutan Tendrel party, formed in 2022, holds the remaining 17 seats. Current Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay of the PDP previously served in the same post from 2013 to 2018. Some analysts characterize Bhutan’s electorate as displaying weak party loyalty and strong anti-incumbency sentiment, due in part to disillusionment with promised socioeconomic reforms.
Ethnic, Religious, and Refugee Issues
Bhutan’s population includes four main ethnic categories: the Ngalop, the Sharchop, the Lhotshampa, and indigenous peoples. The Ngalop migrated from nearby Tibet to Bhutan around the ninth century. They introduced Tibetan culture and Mahayana Buddhism to Bhutan. The Ngalop are the majority population in central, western, and northern Bhutan, and are culturally, religiously, and politically the country’s most prominent group. The Sharchop, who predominate in eastern Bhutan, are thought to have originated from Assam, in present-day India, or perhaps Burma, and they also practice Mahayana Buddhism. Lhotshampa, of Nepali descent and largely Hindu, are the majority population in the south. Several indigenous groups (Drokpa, Lepcha, Doya) live and practice Hinduism throughout Bhutan. According to the State Department, about 1,300 Tibetan refugees lived in Bhutan as of 2024.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Bhutanese government implemented policies targeting the Lhotshampa, who then comprised about 25% of the country’s population, calling them a threat to the country’s cultural identity. Many Lhotshampa were expelled or voluntarily emigrated to India and Nepal, evading government attempts to forcibly integrate them into mainstream Bhutanese culture. This tension led to unrest in the south of Bhutan, and resulted in an estimated 107,000 Lhotshampa living in Nepal as refugees. The United States resettled over 75,000 Lhotshampa refugees from Nepal beginning in 2008. H.Res. 1093, introduced in the 119th Congress, would recognize the Bhutanese government’s responsibility for the oppression and forced eviction of over 100,000 Lhotshampa in the 1980s and 1990s and urge steps toward justice, repatriation, and reconciliation.
Economic Development and “Gross National Happiness (GNH)”
Bhutan is a lower-middle income country, with GDP growth exceeding 4% since 2021. Bhutan’s poverty rate decreased from 36% in 2000 to 12.4% in 2022, and the country graduated from the UN’s list of Least Developed Countries in 2023. The government of Bhutan aims to increase foreign direct investment in the country to $5.9 billion by 2029. While the Asian Development Bank estimates GDP growth of 8.1% in 2025 and forecasts growth of 6% in 2026, high youth unemployment has led to out-migration by many skilled workers, primarily to Australia, raising questions about Bhutan’s future economic development. Over 70% of Bhutan’s territory is forested, contributing to its status as a carbon-negative country. Nevertheless, the World Bank assesses that Bhutan’s economy faces “significant risks” from climate change.
The government of Bhutan touts the concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH), in contrast to GDP. GNH is enshrined in Article 9 of the 2008 Constitution. The Gross National Happiness Commission (GNHC) is responsible for implementing GNH goals and ensuring that all government policies are formulated and implemented in line with the principles of GNH.
Foreign Relations
For more than a century, Bhutan’s external relations have been heavily influenced by the United Kingdom, and more recently India. The 1910 Treaty of Punakha with Great Britain and 1949 Treaty of Perpetual Peace and Friendship with India allowed the British and Indian governments, respectively, to direct Bhutan’s external affairs. Both treaties prohibited British and Indian “interference in the internal administration of Bhutan” and provided protection from external encroachment. India is Bhutan’s key strategic and economic partner and main source of foreign assistance. Bhutan and India reaffirmed their “ties of close friendship and cooperation” in a 2007 Treaty of Friendship, which removed the article stating that Bhutan would be “guided by the advice of the Government of India in regard to its external relations.” Bhutan has joined a number of international organizations and entered into several international agreements. Bhutan became a member of the United Nations in 1971. It was a co-founding member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation in 1985 and joined the South Asian Free Trade Agreement in 2004. Bhutan also joined 174 other countries in signing the Paris Agreement on Climate Change in 2016.
Doklam and Sakteng Border Disputes
With a population under one million, Bhutan is dwarfed by India and China (each with a population of over 1.4 billion). Since the 1962 China-India border war, the two powers’ periodic tensions have complicated Bhutan’s external relations. China-India border tensions escalated in mid-2017, when China extended an unpaved road near Doklam, on the disputed border between China and Bhutan, close to the Bhutan-India-China tripoint. Indian military personnel subsequently moved to the border area, and a standoff ensued until a de-escalation of tensions two months later. Doklam is located north of the strategically vital Siliguri Corridor, which is 20 miles wide at its narrowest and links central India to its northeastern region. PRC control of the corridor could isolate 45 million Indians in an area the size of the United Kingdom. In 2020, China made a new claim to the Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary (285 sq. mi.) in Bhutan’s east; the sanctuary had not previously been considered disputed. Previous border talks between Bhutan and China have focused on disputed areas along Bhutan’s northern and western borders with China. The 118th Congress introduced S.Res. 75, condemning PRC “provocations” in South Asia, and in part highlighting PRC expansion in Bhutanese territory.
Some observers claim that China has established new settlements on Bhutan’s territory. These alleged territorial infringements could offer Beijing greater leverage in the case of a China-India conflict. Bhutan shares its eastern border with India’s Arunachal Pradesh (AP) state, which China claims as “southern Tibet.” The United States recognizes the AP-China demarcation, known as the McMahon Line, as an international border. In October 2021, Bhutan and China signed an agreement on a “three-step roadmap” to help expedite talks on boundary disputes. King Jigme Khesar Namgyel officially visited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April 2023, when Modi confirmed India’s commitment to resolve border tensions trilaterally.
Other Security Concerns
Bhutan has experienced other security challenges. In the 1990s, Indian separatist militants (the United Liberation Front of Assam [ULFA] and others) established bases in southern Bhutan. After five rounds of talks with the militants failed, the National Assembly approved “Operation All Clear” in 2003 to remove the groups forcefully. The operation captured or killed 650 militants, including top ULFA leaders. Other security threats emerged prior to the 2008 election, as several bombs exploded in the capital and other districts. The United Revolutionary Front of Bhutan claimed responsibility for the bombings to draw attention to the plight of the Lhotshampa.
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) works exclusively for the United States Congress, providing policy and legal analysis to committees and Members of both the House and Senate, regardless of party affiliation. As a legislative branch agency within the Library of Congress, CRS has been a valued and respected resource on Capitol Hill for nearly a century.
Tuesday, March 24, 2026
The Costs of Trump’s Unnecessary, Illegal War on Iran Keep Mounting
The US and Israel may have started this war, but it won’t be so easily ended. The damage done to Iran, Lebanon, and Palestine will be with us for a generation.
Fire breaks out at the Shahran oil depot after US and Israeli attacks, leaving numerous fuel tankers and vehicles in the area unusable in Tehran, Iran on March 8, 2026. (Photo by Hassan Ghaedi/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The costs associated with any war—losses of lives, treasure, and security—are to be expected. And so it is with the US-Israel war on Iran. It was unnecessary. It has been massive. And it has been waged without any clear objective or strategic purpose. Though only a few weeks old, and still too early to project how it will play out, early signs of this war’s costs and consequences are worrisome.
The amounts of weapons that the US and Israel have dropped on Iranian targets have had a devastating impact on Iran’s people and the country’s infrastructure and resources. It is difficult to imagine that this situation can be remedied any time soon. As a result, Iran, which was already struggling with a flagging economy and a reform-minded and restive population, will most likely endure years of political unrest met by massive repression.
Once illegally attacked by the US and Israel, instead of seeking support from neighboring Arab countries, Iran has struck out at them with a vengeance, destroying some of their infrastructure and economic resources. While the Arab Gulf states can recover, the fragile rapprochement that had been developing between them and Iran has been shattered and will not be easily rebuilt.
A disruption in the supply of oil and gas has resulted from Iran’s choking of the Straits of Hormuz and Israel’s and Iran’s bombings of oil and gas facilities on both sides of the Gulf. This has caused a steep rise in the price of fuel, a sharp decline in the stock market, and the loss of hundreds of billions in overall wealth of investments and pension funds. The war’s economic impacts will continue to reverberate throughout the remainder of the year.
This isn’t the first time that Israel or the US have looked at what they had done to these countries and their peoples and said, “Well, that’s finished,” only to find that the devastating toll of the losses they inflicted and dislocation they created produced a festering bitterness that didn’t dissipate in time.
Meanwhile, the excessive amounts of weaponry so far expended in the war has resulted in reported shortages in both the US and Israel, with President Donald Trump asking Congress to approve an additional $200 billion for the Pentagon and a substantial increase in Israel’s military assistance. As with Ukraine and Gaza, the only winners of this war appear to be the US arms manufacturers.
The damage done doesn’t stop there. The Lebanese Hezbollah forgot that Israel never plays by the rules. They responded to Israel’s murder of Iran’s Ayatollah—a spiritual leader for many Shi’a Muslims—by firing a few shells across their border. Despite the fact that Israel has daily violated its five-month-old ceasefire with Lebanon, Israel used Hezbollah’s shelling to launch a sustained and disproportionate attack on Lebanon. To date, Israel has killed over 1,000 Lebanese, has destroyed entire neighborhoods in Beirut, and has ordered almost one-quarter of Lebanon’s people to flee their homes, exacerbating existing sectarian divisions in the country. Israeli forces now appear to be preparing for a longer-term Israeli occupation of Lebanon’s south. This occupation will likely fare no better than the last time Israel attempted it from the late 1970s to 2000.
As if this weren’t enough, Israel’s far-right government has used the cover of war to consolidate annexation of the West Bank. Plans have been accelerated to evacuate and destroy Palestinian communities in the Jordan Valley to build a “security wall.” Since the war began, the number of attacks by settlers (with the support of Israeli troops) on Palestinian villages has dramatically increased, now averaging 10 a day. These military and vigilante actions have involved deaths and injuries, land theft, and destruction of homes and properties (including orchards and livestock). While Israel’s intent to take full control of all of Palestine has been steadily proceeding in recent years, the actions of the past few weeks are making it all but irreversible.
Meanwhile, the Gazagenocide continues. The attention of the world may be focused elsewhere, but the nearly 2 million Palestinians who remain in that devastated strip continue to suffer from hunger, lack of proper shelter, sanitation, and medical and other essential support services. There is no way to understand the long-term impact this “hell on earth” existence will have on Gaza’s children. But an educated guess would be that it won’t be good.
At this point, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is strutting around as if he were the “Middle East Overlord.” At the same time, there are conflicting reports that the US is either attempting to “wind down” the war or to send ground troops to Iran to “finish the job.” Both are ill-founded. Whatever Trump’s intention, it is a fool’s errand. There is no winding down, nor is there a job to finish.
The US and Israel may have started this war, but it won’t be so easily ended. The damage done to Iran, Lebanon, and Palestine will be with us for a generation. This isn’t the first time that Israel or the US have looked at what they had done to these countries and their peoples and said, “Well, that’s finished,” only to find that the devastating toll of the losses they inflicted and dislocation they created produced a festering bitterness that didn’t dissipate in time. Beware the reckoning.
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James Zogby Dr. James J. Zogby is the author of Arab Voices (2010) and the founder and president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a Washington, D.C.-based organization which serves as the political and policy research arm of the Arab American community. Since 1985, Dr. Zogby and AAI have led Arab American efforts to secure political empowerment in the U.S. Through voter registration, education and mobilization, AAI has moved Arab Americans into the political mainstream. Dr. Zogby has also been personally active in U.S. politics for many years; in 1984 and 1988 he served as Deputy Campaign manager and Senior Advisor to the Jesse Jackson Presidential campaign. In 1988, he led the first ever debate on Palestinian statehood at that year's Democratic convention in Atlanta, GA. In 2000, 2008, and 2016 he served as an advisor to the Gore, Obama, and Sanders presidential campaigns. Full Bio >
Monday, March 23, 2026
The U.S. & Israeli War with Iran: What Is a Needed Approach for a Principled Socialist Left?
Below is the revised text of a presentation by Frieda Afary to the South African organization, Zabalaza for Socialism on March 15, 2026.
I. What has happened since the United States and Israel launched the latest war on Iran?
The United States and Israel started a new round of bombing Iran on February 28. Since then, they have bombed oil depots; oil facilities; Kharg Island, which is the export hub for 90% of Iran’s oil (4-5 million barrels a day); military sites, missile and drone installations, police facilities; banks; a girls’ school in Minab; hospitals; residential buildings; water desalination plants and world heritage sites.
On the first day of the bombing, Israel targeted the housing complex of Ali Khamenei, “Supreme Religious Leader,” killing him, his wife, daughter-in-law, grandchild, and various government leaders. On March 17, Israel killed Ali Larijani, Iran’s top national security official and Gholamreza Soleimani, the head of the Basij paramilitary force. On March 18, it killed Iran’s Intelligence Minister, Esmaeil Kahtib in another air strike.
Currently the United States has over 50,000 troops in the Middle East region and has just sent another 2,500 marines. It has sent fighter bombers and assault ships to the region. In the first 6 days, it spent $11 billion on the war and continues to spend over a billion dollars a day on it. Trump has also spoken of sending U.S. ground forces into Iran.
Israel has started bombing Lebanon again and is sending ground troops there. It continues its genocidal war on Palestinians in Gaza and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.
Iran has retaliated by shooting missiles and drones at U.S. bases and military facilities in the region. Its Israeli targets were initially military targets. Now Iran is outfitting its ballistic missile with cluster munitions to bomb Tel Aviv homes, parks, businesses and roads. Iran has also targeted Gulf region oil facilities, oil tankers, hotels, airports and desalination plants. It has blocked the strait of Hormuz and has begun laying mines in it. It has appointed Mujtaba Khamenei, the son of Ali Khamenei, as the new “Supreme Religious Leader.” Since January 2026, the Iranian government has cut off internet access for the public.
Over 2,000 civilians have been killed in the region so far. More than 1,200 are Iranians. Other civilian casualties are mostly in Lebanon. In the Gulf states, the casualties have been mostly among migrant workers.
Over 3.2 million people have been displaced in Iran and over a million displaced in Lebanon.
The costs of this war so far have been not only economic, with a 35% rise in the price of oil and the blockage of transit of other needed goods such as food and fertilizer. The cost has also been humanitarian. Tremendous and even irreversible damage has been done to water and air especially in Iran where air pollution and water shortage were already severe. We have also seen damage done to world heritage sites such as the Golestan palace in Tehran.
Apocalyptic language based on Christian fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalism, and Jewish fundamentalism is being used to motivate and recruit people to fight.
Artificial intelligence is being used in various ways, whether for bombing, shooting missiles or for generating fake videos to promote disinformation.
Globally, the Russian government has gained from this war because the price of oil has increased, and the Trump administration has lifted sanctions on Russia’s sale of oil. Russia has also gained because the anti-missile systems that Ukraine and Europe were buying from the U.S. to help defend Ukraine against Russia’s brutal imperialist invasion of that country are now going to the Middle East. Russia is also helping the Iranian government by sharing secret information about U.S. targets.
The Chinese government has also gained from this war, because the U.S. government will pay less attention to the Pacific Region and might even allow China to proceed with its plans to take over Taiwan.
II. Some Context on Iran 1979-Today, U.S./Israel and Global Shifts
Since its founding following the popular 1979 Iranian revolution against a brutal and authoritarian monarchy, the Islamic Republic has defined its reason for being as opposition to Israel and the United States. It has been a religious fundamentalist Shi’a and Persian nationalist entity which has also built strongly on misogyny and patriarchy. Anti-imperialist, and even anti-capitalist and revolutionary slogans have been used to promote authoritarianism and to destroy any progressive opposition.
Thus, in March 1979, shortly after the revolution overthrew the brutal monarchy of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Ayatollah Khomeini and his followers began the suppression of International Women’s Day protests against the newly imposed compulsory hijab. During that month, a popular referendum declared Iran an Islamic Republic. The new government also began brutally crushing an uprising of the Kurds for autonomy in the North. Much of the Left continued to defend the Islamic Republic as anti-imperialist in the first two years after the revolution. The Islamic Republic, however, cracked down on the Left and killed and executed thousands of them starting in 1981. It also killed thousands more leftist political prisoners after the end of the Iran-Iraq War in 1988. It continued to crack down on any progressive opposition and created a police state.
Since 2009, Iran has had five popular protest waves, each of which was brutally crushed. The first in 2009 after a fraudulent election, sought the reform of the system. The others in 2017, 2019, 2022, and the latest in 2026 sought the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. The 2022 uprising known as “the Woman, Life, Freedom” movement gained the most attention from the world because it was led by women burning their headscarves and had a strong emancipatory content. It involved labor and youth activists, national minorities such as Kurds, Baluchis and Arabs. The latest wave of popular protests in 2026 involved over a million people throughout the country and was crushed in the most brutal way. In the course of three days, in January 2026, the government killed at least 7,000 people and possibly 20,000 or more.
Iran has the highest execution rate in the world after China and has many political prisoners.
The Iranian regime has also used its talk of anti-U.S. imperialism and anti-Israel to crush progressive opposition in the countries in which it exerts influence.
Iran’s regional imperialist project began in the early 1980s with its role in the founding of Hezbollah in Lebanon, and later its interventions in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. In the case of Syria, it backed the brutal Bashar Assad regime for 13 years by sending ground troops and crushing the Syrian uprising with the help of Russia. It has spent billions on funding Hezbollah and Hamas and Shi’a militias in Iraq and Syria. Its support for Palestinians is only limited to promoting its own regional ambitions and does not include democracy or human rights for the Palestinian people. In the past few years, it has been selling drones and missiles to Russia for Russia’s imperialist war on Ukraine. It has also been supporting one faction of the Sudanese army in the Sudanese civil war. It is currently supporting the Taliban while promoting hatred against Afghan refugees inside Iran.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was founded by Ayatollah Khamenei as an army outside the regular army. After the eight-year bloody and destructive 1980 to 1988 Iran-Iraq War in which over a million were killed or injured, the IRGC expanded itself and became Iran’s largest capital owner/investor and the embodiment of the unity of the party, the army, and the state. It has 180,000 guards and is part of the larger Iranian army and police force of 1.5 million. Iran has the 8th largest army in the world.
The IRGC has spent an unknown amount on Iran’s nuclear program. In June 2025, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced that Iran had enough uranium enriched to 60% that could fuel ten bombs. After the June 2025 destructive and illegal U.S. and Israeli war on Iran, this nuclear capacity was severely weakened.
As far as the U.S. and Israel are concerned, there is no doubt that they are pursuing their brutal imperialist ambitions in the region. The Netanyahu government wants to crush the Palestinian struggle for independence and has been massacring the Palestinian people. The Netanyahu government is also against any Israeli Jews who believe in the peaceful coexistence of Jews and Palestinians based on equality.
Washington has its history of backing Iran’s previous monarchical regime. The United States is also responsible for later invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq in the region, which led to the deaths and injuries of millions.
Both the United States and Israel have turned toward the direction of fascism. In the U.S. with the second Trump administration, we have a fascist government which controls the presidency, the Congress, and the Supreme Court. When I speak of fascism, I refer to Robert Paxton’s definition in the Anatomy of Fascism. Fascist rule’s distinct features are the mass rejection of reason and logic, the mass embrace of Social Darwinism or the belief in the superiority of one’s nation or race and the so-called “Survival of the Fittest.” Fascist rule also needs complicity on the part of the elites who bow to it. Fascist extreme nationalism and racism is expressed in a process of internal “purification” by demonizing, dehumanizing, imprisoning and killing members of a group/groups as “Other” or “the enemy within.” This process goes hand in hand with external imperialist expansion/war, misogyny, disinformation, erasure of history, and rule by a strongman. Judging by these standards, in Israel too, the Netanyahu administration is run by fascists.
Both the U.S. and Israel want to collaborate with the Gulf states and Turkey to reshape the Middle East as a fully authoritarian capitalist entity without even paying lip service to democracy or human rights.
The Trump administration had thought that it would bomb Iran for a few days and make a deal with part of the IRGC in order to have an obedient regime in Iran. The IRGC however, has been planning retaliatory attacks for many years and bets on weakening the U.S. and Israel by lengthening the war. It also relies on a multipolar world with Russia and China increasing their imperialist power.
For Russia, which is a fascist and imperialist state, Iran has been an ally state to which it sells nuclear plants, arms, and from which it gets missiles, drones and services in promoting disinformation and terror around the world.
For Chinese capitalist imperialism, Iran is a source of cheap oil, petrochemicals, minerals, and an authoritarian ally. China and Iran signed a 25-year agreement in 2021 according to which China gets $400 billion worth of Iranian oil at a highly reduced price in exchange for building oil and gas facilities and other infrastructure for Iran.
Based on the Trump administration’s Strategic Doctrine, its open alliance with Putin in Russia’s war on Ukraine, and its current lack of concern about a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan, it seems that these three superpowers have for now come to an agreement about their spheres of influence. This does not mean that the spheres of influence are eternal. Capitalism is not a stable system. It is about poles of capital competing with each other for the extraction and accumulation of monetary value from humans and nature, and entering more and more destructive wars in the process.
An ongoing war in the Middle East sucking in U.S. military and other resources and weakening it, is also very much in the interest of Russia and China as they concentrate on their own imperialist projects and capitalist exploitation of their subjects.
Faced with this reality, it is essential to have an understanding of the achievements, limitations, and possibilities of progressive forces in Iran.
III. Achievements, Limitations & Possibilities of Progressive Forces Inside Iran
The most important achievement has been the 2022 Woman, Life Freedom Movement which raised explicit emancipatory demands involving women, labor, education and the rights of oppressed minorities. That movement was brutally crushed with 20,000 arrests and the murder of over 500 participants.
Over the past twenty years, we have seen the growth of independent labor organizing in Iran among oil and petrochemical workers with temporary contracts, sugar cane workers, bus workers, teachers, and nurses.
Women have constituted 60% of college graduates and speak out forcefully for their rights despite living under an authoritarian, religious fundamentalist government and having only a 16% share in the official economy.
Political prisoners have been organizing inside prisons and writing letters and manifestos.
Iranian intellectuals have produced various translations of key works on philosophy and critique of political economy such as Marx’s 1844 Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts and Capital in a new translation, as well as some important works on feminism. Other important works on Iranian history, sociology, politics, gender relations, and the rights of minorities have been written by various intellectuals, especially outside the country where they have had more resources and more freedom.
Some key limitations within Iranian progressives have been the following:
Persian nationalism opposes any effort to offer a plan for recognizing and codifying the rights of national minorities to the use of their language and natural resources.
Patriarchy and misogyny still lead to high rates of femicide, gender-based violence, and abuse.
The Iranian Left mostly reduces the concept of socialism to state control of property without any effort to address the alienation of the capitalist mode of production itself. Hence it stays at the level of simply advocating the replacement of private property with state property.
Many on the Left still reduce imperialism to Western imperialism only, and refuse to pay equal attention to Russian and Chinese imperialism as well as the Iranian government’s own regional imperialist interventions in the past four decades.
Given these limitations, various retrogressive entities have appealed to the Iranian masses especially through the use of disinformation on social media and satellite television stations. Thus in the January 2026 uprising, when over 7,000 were confirmed killed by the regime, many people even among the working class were chanting monarchist slogans and calling on Reza Pahlavi, the son of the deposed king, to come back to Iran and bring them prosperity. Some prominent progressive intellectuals including feminists have also declared their alliance with Reza Pahlavi. Reza Pahlavi in the meantime has not only supported U.S. and Israeli military invasion. He has also been appealing to the IRGC for a number of years to join him in exchange for a full pardon and full participation in the new regime.
Five Kurdish parties have recently created a coalition to prepare themselves for the fall of the regime. While it is not clear whether or not they plan to fight on behalf of U.S. and Israeli forces, it is clear that they are deeply disillusioned with the prevalence of Persian nationalism in Iranian society.
Iran has some courageous and committed intellectuals that we have not heard from recently because they are either in prison or under house arrest or on furlough or parole. Most notable is Nasrin Sotoudeh, a feminist human rights attorney who has been a political prisoner for many years and is currently on parole. Iranian Kurdish women’s rights activists Pakhshan Azizi continues to face the death penalty and speaks out against the regime and U.S. military intervention. Narges Mohammadi, 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate is another feminist activist who has been silenced in prison for now.
Given the current brutal and expanding war and these real problems within Iranian society and the region, what can international progressives do now?
IV. What Can International Progressives Do Now?
First: Do anything you can to stop this war. Educate, speak out, protest, put pressure on your government representatives and independent intellectuals. In the case of the United States, public opinion is currently 60% against this war. Most people don’t want to send their children to fight in the Middle East. Half the adult population is opposed to the Trump administration’s attacks on and detention/deportation of innocent immigrants. There is also a great deal of anger about the ways in which mostly wealthy men including Trump, other politicians and even academics have collaborated with and benefited from the late Jeffrey Epstein’s network for trafficking of women and girls for rape and sexual abuse. All of these questions need to be addressed in articulating an anti-war message.
Second: Reach out to progressives in the Middle East or Middle Eastern progressives abroad. Do not limit yourself to talking only about one struggle or one country in the Middle East.
Third: Oppose campism, take a clear stand against all global and regional capitalist-imperialist powers and defend the rights and humanity of the peoples that these powers are oppressing.
Fourth: Address key issues that are holding back our struggles: racial and ethnic discrimination, patriarchy, capitalist exploitation, and capitalist alienation.
Contact Information, blogs and works by Frieda Afary
Frieda Afary is an Iranian American librarian, translator and author of Socialist Feminism: A New Approach (Pluto Press, 2022, Audible, 2025). She produces Iranian Progressives in Translation and Socialistfeminism.org
Antiwar protesters march in Los Angeles, CA, demanding an end to the Iran war. (X/ANSWER Coalition)
Just days after the United States and Israel launched their first strikes on Iran, Iran’s women’s football team walked onto the pitch for their opening match at the Asian Cup and stood in silence as the national anthem played. Within hours, a state-aligned commentator branded the players “wartime traitors.” By the next match, officials were standing beside them as they sang.
Several players initially accepted humanitarian visas in Australia – only for most to withdraw their asylum claims amid reports their families had been threatened. Most of the team has now returned to Iran.Their dilemma offers a glimpse of what war and political upheaval may mean for Iran’s 45 million women.
The first days of the war have already shown its human cost. One of the earliest attacks reportedly hit a girls’ elementary school in the southern city of Minab, killing at least 168 people, most of them children aged seven to twelve. Investigations into this strike are still ongoing, but the devastation is clear: classrooms destroyed and families mourning daughters who never came home.
These tragedies point to a deeper danger: when ideological regimes face violent upheaval, women’s rights are often among the first casualties. Successors seeking to demonstrate ideological purity frequently tighten control over women’s lives.
This has happened before.
Across Africa, extremist movements have repeatedly used violence against women to consolidate power. In Nigeria, Boko Haram’s brutality intensified following the killing of its founder, Mohammed Yusuf, in 2009. Rather than collapsing, the movement radicalized. Under the leadership of Abubakar Shekau, kidnappings, forced marriages, and the abduction of schoolgirls escalated dramatically. Women were coerced into suicide bombings or used as instruments of propaganda and terror. What initially appeared to be a counter-terrorism success rapidly became a humanitarian catastrophe.
Here in South Africa, we have seen how political crises reshape women’s lives. As the apartheid state grew more desperate to maintain control, it responded with escalating repression. Women activists were detained without trial, subjected to surveillance and harassment, and frequently targeted alongside their children in efforts to crush dissent. The struggle for political freedom was inseparable from the struggle for women’s dignity and autonomy. Femicide rates remain six times higher than the global average.
Afghanistan offers an even starker warning. After two decades of international intervention ended and the Taliban returned to power in 2021, women’s rights collapsed almost overnight. Today, according to the United Nations, nearly eight in ten young Afghan women are excluded from education, employment or training. Entire generations have been pushed out of public life into the shadows.
Iran could follow this same pattern.
Under the new ayatollah, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has taken over from his slain father, women could face harsher dress codes, expanded surveillance, and stronger enforcement by morality police. The fragile gains Iranian women have fought for could quickly be reversed.
This would be particularly tragic because Iranian women have been among the most courageous opponents of authoritarian rule in the country.
In 2022, the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s morality police sparked nationwide protests. Amini had been detained for allegedly wearing her hijab “improperly.” Her death ignited the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement, in which women publicly removed their headscarves, cut their hair in protest, and confronted security forces in the streets. The demonstrations spread across the country and inspired solidarity movements around the world.
For a moment, it seemed as though Iranian women might be forcing a historic shift in their country’s political trajectory. But wars have a way of silencing precisely the voices that challenge repression.
Ultimately, any crackdown on women’s rights could leave Iran more isolated than ever. Influential leaders from across the Muslim world have already made clear that they will make it harder to cloak repression in religious legitimacy.
Only last year, the world’s largest Islamic NGO, the Muslim World League, convened the International Conference on Girls’ Education in Muslim Communities, bringing together senior Islamic scholars, political leaders and civil society groups. Led by the League’s Secretary-General, Dr. Mohammad Al-Issa, scholars representing a wide range of Islamic traditions — including conservative Deobandi and Hanafi schools — joined Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai to affirm that educating girls is fully consistent with Islamic teaching.
The conference produced the Islamabad Declaration, which states clearly that there is no basis in Islam for denying girls access to education or excluding women from public life. By rooting the case for girls’ education in theological teaching, the initiative directly challenged extremist ideologies like the Taliban’s and even exposed rare internal tensions within the movement.
That shift matters now. If Iran’s new leadership seeks to justify harsher restrictions on women in the name of religion, it will not be able to claim uncontested religious authority. But this moral argument must be backed by global resolve.
If the international community truly wants justice for the people of Iran, it must look beyond battlefield narratives. It must protect activists, amplify Iranian women’s voices and refuse to treat their rights as collateral damage in geopolitical struggles.
Donald Trump called Khamenei’s death “justice for the people of Iran.” But justice cannot be measured by the fall of a single man. It must be judged by whether ordinary people – especially women – emerge safer and freer afterward.
Because history offers a sobering lesson: when wars reshape ideological regimes, women’s freedoms are often the first casualties – and the hardest victories to reclaim.
Aaliyah Vayez is a South African political and security risk analyst specializing in African geopolitics, foreign policy, and global governance. She has advised governments, international institutions, and multinational firms on geopolitical risk and regulatory intelligence across Africa and emerging markets, including work on BRICS expansion and G20 dynamics. Her commentary has appeared in BBC Africa, TRT Global, The Guardian, and more.
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