Six months have passed since the events of January 8 and 9, 2026. Days when millions of protesting women and men took to the streets with extraordinary courage but without the necessary organizational preparation. This massive uprising was another link in the chain of successive uprisings by the people of Iran; a continuation of the December 2017, November 2019, and 2022 uprisings, carrying the same historic slogan, “Woman, Life, Freedom,” now intertwined with the cry of “Bread, Work, Freedom.” Tens of millions of workers, militant women, young people, and those who had long dreamed of overthrowing the monster of the Islamic Republic finally found the opportunity to stand together in more than four hundred cities across Iran.
The broad social diversity of the participants was the defining characteristic of the January 2026 uprising. The first spark was ignited by rising prices, runaway inflation, and the continuous collapse of the national currency’s value, a level of poverty that had become unbearable. But the protests quickly moved beyond economic demands. Slogans calling for freedom and justice echoed through the streets, and soon “Death to the Dictator” became the central slogan of the demonstrations. Contrary to the image presented by some Persian-language media outlets abroad, this uprising had thoroughly material and class-based roots; it was the cry of the hungry and the marginalized against an order that has brought nothing but poverty, repression, and discrimination to the majority of society.
Nevertheless, this enormous uprising suffered from serious and decisive shortcomings. The protesters, despite the urgent requirements of any revolutionary movement, lacked a nationwide leadership committee and a central coordinating body. No nationwide political party with broad popular legitimacy was present to provide direction and cohesion. Organized local networks had not been established in different cities, and the protesters had no clear plan for a nationwide strike or for sustaining the movement. No significant split had emerged within the regime’s security and military forces, and no alternative communication mechanisms had been prepared in advance for the moment when the regime would shut down the internet and launch a bloody crackdown.
Alongside these structural weaknesses, a dangerous belief also spread among sections of the protest movement: the notion that the uprising required assistance from powers such as the United States in order to succeed. It was in the context of this illusion that Donald Trump wrote on his social media platform: “Keep protesting; take over your institutions… help is on the way.” This message, later echoed in official documents of the U.S. Congress, was accompanied by another statement from him: “Patriotic Iranians, keep protesting… help is on the way. I have canceled all meetings with Iranian officials until the meaningless killing of protesters comes to an end.”
Persian-language media outlets abroad aligned with an imperialist discourse repeatedly amplified these statements. Reza Pahlavi also opportunistically built upon Trump’s promises, calling on people to flood the streets on the nights of January 8 and 9, 2026, in the greatest numbers possible in order, as he claimed, to “finish off the regime.” It is evident that the illusion of “outside assistance” played a destructive role in misleading part of the movement and trapping it before the regime’s machinery of repression.
The January 2026 uprising has secured a permanent place in the history of the Iranian people’s struggle and contains countless lessons. This article has touched on only a small portion of them, as the forty-day war that began shortly afterward overshadowed the process of analyzing and assessing the uprising. Yet one conclusion is already unmistakably clear: the courage of the people to overthrow a regime like the monster of the Islamic Republic is a necessary condition, but it is never a sufficient one. No matter how magnificent, the presence of millions in the streets “without organization, without nationwide leadership, without a clear political program, and without preparation for the period after the regime’s overthrow” cannot by itself guarantee the success of a revolutionary movement. Relying on imperialist powers instead of the independent organization of the working class and the toiling masses is not only ineffective, but also exposes the movement to the geopolitical games of major powers, games in which the genuine interests of the people of Iran have never been the central concern.
It is at this point that recalling one bitter yet hopeful reality becomes necessary: the commander who ordered the mass killings of January 8 and 9, 2026, was finally laid to rest on July 10, 2026. The end of one of the architects of repression, while not in itself the end of the repressive system, serves as a reminder of the historical truth that the Islamic regime, like every other authoritarian system, will ultimately be overthrown by the organized power of the people. The blood of the beloved victims of those two dark days will remain alive in the historical memory of Iran’s labor and freedom movement, inspiring future struggles to overthrow this regime and build a society founded on social justice, equality, and freedom.
The January Epic, though drowned in blood, planted the seed of a priceless experience that will nourish the future struggles of the Iranian people for revolutionary change.
