Libsyn Directory

#115: Iran: An Uprising Besieged from Within and Without—Three Perspectives

Release Date: 01/09/2026

#115: Iran: An Uprising Besieged from Within and Without—Three Perspectives

The Ex-Worker

This episode offers an audio version of “,” discussing the uprising that broke out across Iran on December 28, 2025, triggered by economic distress and escalating to call for the toppling of the government. It includes three analyses exploring the tensions within the uprising between grassroots movements and monarchist groups courting the support of the United States and Israel. -------SHOW NOTES------ Table of Contents: Introduction {0:41} Report on the Current Wave of Protests in Iran {2:57} Iran Protests Amid a Siege by Internal and External Enemies: A Report on...

#114: Safeguarding Our Movements against Repression—How to Respond to the Criminalization of “Antifa”

The Ex-Worker

This episode offers an audio version of “,” exploring the implications of Donald Trump’s executive order designating “Antifa” as “a major terrorist organization” and how we can prepare our communities to endure whatever comes next. It also includes an audio version of “.” -------SHOW NOTES------ Table of Contents Introduction {0:40} Don’t be intimidated {5:53} Make the most of your strengths {7:42} Prepare for federal visits and raids {9:12} Be transparent about repression {10:33} Redundancy means resilience {11:18} Coordinate to support each other...

#113: Mutual Aid and Revolutionary Anti-Capitalism: Revisiting the Difference Between Mutual Aid and Charity

The Ex-Worker

This episode offers an audio version of “,” exploring why the best way to understand mutual aid as an effort to create participatory commons in which everyone can contribute and there is no fundamental division between organizers and beneficiaries. -------SHOW NOTES------ Table of Contents Introduction {0:30} Is It Mutual Enough? {1:34} Beyond Individualism {5:13} The Ones with the Problem Are Themselves the Solution {9:18} The Social Is the Material {13:14} Change from Below {15:17} Mutual Aid Means Resistance {19:33} This episode offers an audio version of “,”...

#112: From Minneapolis to Los Angeles: The Origins of the Wave of Resistance to ICE

The Ex-Worker

This episode offers audio versions of “’” and “,” which trace the origins of the angry response to federal raids that spread across the United States in early June 2025. -------SHOW NOTES------ Table of Contents Introduction {0:34} Minneapolis to Feds: “Get the Fuck Out” {0:41} Account I: The Raid {8:11} Account II: The Response {11:51} Los Angeles Stands up to ICE {17:58} First Action, High Noon {19:48} Second Action, 4 pm {22:59} Third Action, 10 pm {24:35} This episode offers audio versions of “’” and “,” published by CrimethInc. on June 4, 2025 and June 6,...

#111: Become an Anarchist or Forever Hold Your Peace

The Ex-Worker

This episode offers an audio version of “,” arguing that neither courts nor laws will halt the descent into autocracy. Massive numbers of people will have to take it upon themselves to organize concrete acts of resistance, to take direct action on a horizontal and participatory basis—in other words, to become anarchists. -------SHOW NOTES------ Table of Contents Introduction {0:36} Tyranny Is the Opposite of Anarchism {1:12} A Three-Sided Conflict {3:45} No Law Will Give You Freedom {8:32} Remember How We Got Here {12:02} Become an Anarchist or Forever Hold Your Peace...

#110: It’s Safer in the Front

The Ex-Worker

This episode offers an audio version of “,” making the case that seeking safety by avoiding confrontation is not likely to be an effective strategy in a time of escalating political conflict. {February 25, 2025} -------SHOW NOTES------ Table of Contents Introduction {0:30} My Friend’s Grandfather {1:11} “Summit of the Americas,” Québec City, April 20, 2001 {3:41} George W. Bush’s Second Inauguration, Washington, DC, January 20, 2005 {5:10} Democratic National Convention, Denver, August 25, 2008 {6:34} Donald Trump’s First Inauguration, Washington, DC, January 20, 2017...

#109: Sacrificial Violence and Retribution

The Ex-Worker

This episode offers an audio version of “,” exploring the responses to two different extrajudicial killings as a way to understand the different forms of violence that are contending in our society today. {November 22, 2024} -------SHOW NOTES------ Table of Contents Introduction {0:30} Sacrificial Violence {3:18} Retribution? {8:35} Beyond Martyrdom {14:11} This episode offers an audio version of “,” published by CrimethInc. on December 23, 2024. The article version includes a variety of hyperlinks providing citations for the claims made herein. To get deeper into René...

#108: The Case for Resistance

The Ex-Worker

This episode offers an audio version of “,” laying out an analysis of what we can expect from Donald Trump’s second term and how we can prepare to confront it. “This is a pivotal moment, and everyone who isn’t cynically detached is sounding the alarm. Those of us who recognize the necessity of fighting had better find each other, identify the strengths and weaknesses of all the parties involved, recall the lessons of the past eight years, and strategize.” {November 22, 2024} -------SHOW NOTES------ Table of Contents Introduction {0:30} The Balance of Forces {2:44} How...

#107: The Eye of Every Storm

The Ex-Worker

At a time when misinformation, rising authoritarianism, and disasters exacerbated by industrially-produced climate change are creating a feedback loop of escalating crisis, it’s crucial to understand disaster response as an integral part of community defense and strategize about how this can play a part in movements for liberation. In this reflection, a local anarchist involved in longstanding disaster response efforts in Appalachia recounts the lessons that they have learned in the course of dealing with the consequences of Hurricane Helene over the past six weeks and offers advice about...

#106: First as Farce, Then as Tragedy

The Ex-Worker

Donald Trump has won the 2024 election. In order to understand what we’re up against, let’s look at how we got here. In many ways, the Democrats are responsible for Donald Trump’s return to power. Over the past four years, the Democrats have beefed up the institutions through which the fascists will enact their policies, normalized violence against the people that the fascists intend to target, turned over the communications platforms via which people share information, and discouraged people from the kind of tactics one needs to fight against a fascist regime is complicity. {November 6,...

More Episodes

This episode offers an audio version of “Iran: An Uprising Besieged from Within and Without,” discussing the uprising that broke out across Iran on December 28, 2025, triggered by economic distress and escalating to call for the toppling of the government. It includes three analyses exploring the tensions within the uprising between grassroots movements and monarchist groups courting the support of the United States and Israel.

-------SHOW NOTES------

Table of Contents:

Introduction {0:41}
Report on the Current Wave of Protests in Iran {2:57}
Iran Protests Amid a Siege by Internal and External Enemies: A Report on the Recent Mass Uprising {6:53}
I. The Fifth Uprising since 2017 {8:11}
II. An Uprising Besieged by External and Internal Threats {10:51}
III. The Spread of the Revolt {16:52}
IV. The Geography of the Revolt {19:06}
V. The Impact of the Twelve-Day War {22:46}
VI. The Contradictions {28:11}
VII. The Horizon {32:52}
The View from Syria {38:45}
This episode offers an audio version of “Iran: An Uprising Besieged from Within and Without,” published by CrimethInc. on January 7, 2026. The online version includes footnotes and hyperlinks offering more information.
Thanks to Ayman Makarem of From The Periphery media collective for reading and recording this episode.
To learn more about previous waves of resistance in Iran, you could start with “Revolt in Iran,” discussing the revolt that began on September 16, 2022, and “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi (Woman, Life, Freedom)—The Genealogy of a Slogan,” exploring the background of that movement.
For deeper background, you could read “There Is an Infinite Amount of Hope… but Not for Us,” an interview publishing in 2020 discussing the pandemic, economic crisis, repression, and resistance in Iran.
To learn more about the conditions that ethnic minorities experience in Iran, read Precarious Work Means Precarious Life, discussing the Rajaee Port Disaster and what it shoes about the situation confronting Baluch ethnic minorities.
To understand how Iranians who oppose both the Islamic Republic government of Iran and the genocidal project represented by Israeli Zionism and US foreign policy in the region, read “Women, Life, Freedom” against the War and Against Apartheid and Tyranny.

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