By Siyâvash Shahabi 

Iranian “gestapo”, the Basij, patrolling the streets, rounding up dissidents

The final result of this 12-days war is not just the intensification of repression inside Iran under the name of “defending the homeland” or “fighting espionage.” According to reports, at least 700 people have been arrested on accusations of cooperating with Israel. Six former political prisoners (all with serious legal irregularities in their cases. Some of them have been in prison for a long time, or have been accused for an event that happened more than 8 years ago.) have already been executed, labeled as “spies.”

And this is only the beginning. In today’s Iran, it doesn’t matter whether someone supports the war or opposes it. As long as they refuse to repeat the ruling narrative of Islamic fascism, they can be branded as a threat. Any citizen can be declared an “undesirable element.”

After losing their military maneuvering power, firing dozens of missiles in the early days of the war, only to be reduced to a few weak attempts later on, and after even their most secret high-level meetings were exposed and targeted, the Islamic regime has now launched a new campaign: the “hunt for foreign agents.”

At the same time, while Israeli F-35 jets and missiles strike Iranian cities, the Islamic Gestapo (the Basij) have turned major urban areas like Tehran into militarized zones. They roam the streets, hunting for “suspicious agents.” Suspicious agents! Isn’t it absurd? This same regime claimed to have advanced intelligence capabilities, yet lost some of its top commanders on the very first day of war. Now it searches the streets in panic, looking for enemies it cannot see.

But we must look further. The international consequences of this war repeat what we have already seen in Ukraine: the creation of a false binary between two authoritarian camps. [NOTE: In a subsequent communication, Siyâvash explained that he is not equating the Ukrainian and IRI governments. He is referring to how Putin has helped turn much of the “left” to the far right.] What we are witnessing is not a struggle between democracy and tyranny. It is the complete political collapse of the West, on one side, and the total isolation of anti-fascist movements in countries like Iran, on the other. In this situation, the global order is shifting into a new phase: a multi-polar world without justice or progress.

When mass movements from below are ignored, when working-class agency is silenced, all that remains is a choice between states—between empires. That is the death of class politics. That is the destruction of any progressive or emancipatory vision of the world. Without a return to internationalist solidarity and real democratic struggle from below, we are heading toward a world where war becomes the only language, and repression becomes the only answer.

Image: The condition of some streets in Tehran. These are Basij agents who were patrolling the streets as they claim, were looking for spies!

Siyâvash Shahabi is an Iranian political refugee living in Greece. He maintains the excellent blog site Firenexttime.net