Iran's protests are being 'hijacked': Iranian communist group

The Socialist Bulletin Staff - 11/1/2026

AMIDST the ongoing major protests in Iran, the Slingers Collective, a group of communists within Iran, has warned of the ongoing hijacking of the movement by monarchist and reactionary groups.

In their article, 'A Legitimate Rage and a Real Fear, or When “What is to be Done?” is the Wrong Question', released on 6 January, the group detailed the situation on the ground in Iran from a Leninist position. 

The Slingers Collective is the international, English-speaking branch of the Manjanigh ("Catapult" in Farsi) movement, and is organised into several committees aimed at supporting elements of the working class that have been especially oppressed under the Islamic Republic, including the Communist Queer Committee, aimed at supporting LGBTQIA+ people in Iran, The Secret Nesvan Committee, aimed at supporting women, and the Ethnically Marginalized Committee, aimed at supporting Iran's many minority ethnic groups, including Kurds and Arabs.

The group has argued that the protests today have little true revolutionary potential, as a result of the ongoing hijacking of the movement by reactionary elements. Instead, if the protests are to be successful, in their current form they would only cause the formation of a new regime not unlike the previous one in its class character, according to the Slingers Collective.

The protests have been endorsed in their early stages by the Tudeh Party of Iran, the largest Marxist-Leninist party in the country, which is currently illegal in Iran.