Over the past week, thousands of multi-ethnic Iranians have demonstrated in response to Iran’s water crisis and power blackouts. These protests, in conjunction with massive oil strikes and strikes in other sectors, highlight the discontent of a large swath of the Iranian population that faces a sanctions-battered economy and a repressive bourgeois regime.

For almost a month, Iranian oil workers, along with workers in other industries, have organized demonstrations and wildcat strikes in response to a dire economic and health crisis accentuated by U.S. sanctions.

The imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma for contempt of court triggered protests and violent repression in several South African cities. Corruption, internal conflicts in the ruling party, poverty, unemployment, and the pandemic are fueling the mobilization.

Over one million people in southern Madagascar are food insecure, while almost half a million are on the brink of starvation. Climate change is to blame, and capitalism ensures that the Global South will pay the highest price.

The Israeli army has begun demolishing buildings in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan and repressing residents and activists. Palestinians are mounting fierce resistance against these criminal attacks.

Yesterday, Joe Biden ordered airstrikes in Syria and Iraq against two Iranian-backed militias in the name of “national security.” This latest act of imperialist aggression in the Middle East serves to ramp up pressure against Iran in the midst of tense negotiations for a new nuclear agreement.

The assassination of activist Nizar Banat while in Palestinian police custody this week sparked a series of protests calling for the ouster of President Mahmoud Abbas. The demonstrations are another sign of the deepening crisis of the Palestinian Authority as a result of its collusion with the colonialist and racist State of Israel.

Days after Naftali Bennett succeeded Benjamin Netanyahu as Prime Minister, Israel is already breaking the May 26 ceasefire agreement and has bombed Gaza twice in the last three days.

Protests began in the working-class districts of Sidi Hassine and Séjoumi in Tunis, Tunisia, after a young man died in police custody and videos of police beating a minor went viral on social media. Police violence is endemic in Tunisia, and the masses suffer unemployment, poverty, and misery a decade after the fall of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali’s regime and the beginning of the Arab Spring.