Maryam Rajavi’s Message commemoration of International Workers’ day – 1 May 2026
The Solution Lies in Revolution to Establish a Democratic Republic and a New Order to Secure the Rights of the Iranian People, Especially the Working People
Working sisters and brothers,
Brave toilers and people of modest means who have come to see protests, strikes, and revolution as the answer,
On International Workers’ Day, I extend my heartfelt congratulations to you, despite the many hardships and injustices under the rule of the religious dictatorship.
On April 20 this year, a pioneering worker and PMOI member, Mohammad Masoum-Shahi, a 38-year-old technical worker, was executed by Khamenei’s executioners for the “crime” of rebelling to defend the legitimate rights of the people of Iran.
Before him stands a long line of workers and laborers who have brought pride to Iran’s working class by giving their lives in direct confrontation with the anti-labor clerical regime this year, including in the January 2026 uprising.
At present, the regime is exploiting wartime conditions, in much the same way it is using them to execute Liberation Army fighters and rebellious youth, in order to dismiss workers and strip them of their rights and freedoms. With internet access curtailed, countless businesses have been forced to shut down, and many have lost their livelihoods.
The clerical regime has devoted a substantial share of the nation’s economy, dominated by the Supreme Leader and the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), to nuclear ambitions and the production of missiles and drones to preserve its grip on power. In this sweeping and sustained plunder, national resources have been squandered.
Yet beyond all this, the most vital asset of Iran, namely the tireless labor and effort of its working class, has been subjected to the mullahs’ relentless plunder and inhumane exploitation.
These deep wounds, defining the condition of Iran’s working class under the Velayat-e Faqih regime, have reached particularly alarming proportions this year. Inflation has surged beyond 50 percent, with projections pointing toward rates of 80, 100, or even 120 percent. Prolonged delays in wage payments, the crushing burden of rising prices, and ever-emptier tables have pushed the livelihoods of the vast majority of workers to the brink of collapse.
The continuation of this bleak and deteriorating era is no longer bearable. The solution lies in bringing about a revolution to establish a democratic republic that rejects all forms of dictatorship, whether religious or monarchical, and in establishing a new order to secure the rights of the people of Iran, particularly working people.
In these oppressive conditions under the Velayat-e faqih regime, where repression, executions, rising prices, homelessness, war, and plunder are devastating workers’ lives every day, working people demand peace and freedom. This is the banner raised by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, under which rebellious youth are waging their struggle across the country.
I call upon all workers, farmers, toilers, and precarious workers, including street vendors, porters, fuel carriers, drivers, couriers, contract workers, dismissed workers, and the unemployed, to support the Resistance Units and the Liberation Army.
