Iran has been in the news a lot lately. Protestors have taken to the streets to demand social and political change. The government has responded by killing and injuring thousands of protestors, conducting mass arrests, and shutting down the internet and telecommunications. In the meantime, the US has used these developments as a pretext to carry out a dangerous and illegal imperialist escalation against the regime. While these developments are recent, they build off of several threads--on the one hand, a long history of US imperialist intervention in Iran from the overthrow of Mossadegh to the dollar imperialism we see today; on the other, several decades of resistance and struggles by the Iranian people for political and economic change.

As leftists, how do we make sense of all this? Join DSA SF as we discuss Iran's history, Iranians’ current realities, and the role that the Iranian left has played in standing up to US imperialism and to the current regime. As we take on this complex but critical conversation, we aim to break free of the false, harmful dichotomy of supporting imperialist designs for regime change on the one hand and viewing Iran's regime uncritically on the other. Together we can work to build a socialist anti-imperialist understanding of the Iranian people's resistance and right to self-determination.