In the last couple of days, Iran state-run media acknowledged how the regime’s wrong policies had devastated Iranian people’s lives. They also warn the regime of another nationwide uprising.
The regime’s apologists try to blame sanctions for Iran’s economic and social problems. But state-run media identify the regime’s mismanagement as the real source of all Iran’s problems.
“Many experts believe that Iran’s economy is sick. But are the country’s economic problems being really due to foreign sanctions? If we review the words of the experts, we will come to the answer which is ‘no'” wrote the state-run Arman daily on Tuesday, in an article entitled “People pay government’s inaction.”
“The answer [to the economic crisis] lies behind hundreds of other unanswered questions about the economic performance of governments, their ability to reduce their current spending, implementing Article 44 of the Constitution and privatization, and so on, leading to recession and rising inflation in the society,” Arman’s article adds.
Article 44 of the regime’s Constitution divides the Iranian economy into three sectors: Private, Governmental, and Cooperative. This plan is a façade for the regime to use private companies as front companies to circumvent sanctions and dominate Iran’s economy. All of Iran’s so-called cooperative companies. And many private companies are under the control of the regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).
The regime’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, implemented a so-called “Economic revision plan” in the second half of 2019 to prevent the regime from collapsing through raising taxes, decreasing wages and insurance, banknote printings, and unbridled import. Khamenei had started this plan in the 1990s, but the plan was realized in 2019. Implementing Article 44 of the regime’s Constitution was in line with this plan.
“The proclamation of the policies of Article 44 was to leave the economy to the people and the government to give up the economy, but what did we do? Part of the economy was in the hands of a government without guns, which we handed over to a government with guns [IRGC]; this is not privatization. A government that has guns and media and everything and no one dares to compete with them,” wrote the state-run Sharq daily on July 31, 2017.
In other words, the so-called privatization plan or Khamenei’s economic plans are to plunder people more.
Who pays the price of the regime’s economic mismanagement?
The so-called Privatization Organization of Iran has been liquidating Iran’s public assets and selling them to private owners. These private owners are mostly the regime’s affiliates, mainly those with close ties with the IRGC. Due to this so-called privatization process, many Iranian factories and industries were destroyed. One of these factories is HEPCO, once the largest and flourishing manufacturer of industrial machinery. Haft Tapeh sugar mill was another industry, once the largest agro-industrial sugar factory in the Middle East, which was devastated due to this privatization plan.
As a result of this process, many workers lost their jobs, and the so-called private owners have been delaying paying the workers’ wages. Thus, there have numerous protests and strikes by deprived workers of HEPCO, Haft Tapeh, and other factories.
Iranian workers do not receive their wages for months, while their salaries are far below the 10 million tomans poverty line, making it hard for them to make ends meet.
“The rampant rise in inflation and the unsettled economy once again shifted the poverty line. The poverty line for a family of four is 10 million tomans. The latest published statistics on the poverty line are related to May of this year, estimated at 9 million tomans. Considering the rampant growth of inflation, the skyrocketing prices over the past four months in various economic sectors, the poverty line has seemingly exceeded 10 million tomans. The 10 million toman poverty line indicates the difficult conditions of low-income families, especially workers. The difference between income and the poverty line is a repeated story. But the skyrocketing prices due to the coronavirus have made this difference more important than before,” wrote the state-run Sobh-e Emrooz daily on Monday.
Iranians cannot purchase meat, poultry, or even fruit and are protesting the regime’s mismanagements.
In a program on the regime’ State TV on March 11, Abbas Ghobadi, Deputy Minister of Commerce, Ministry of Industry, Mines and Trade, advised people to reduce the level of their expectations and “do not eat meat or fruit.”
“If people are not going to buy or consume any ‘expensive’ food, this so-called prescription of Deputy Minister will be extended to other more important food items. With the skyrocketing prices, there is nothing left to eat on people’s table so they could survive,” wrote the state-run Mostaghel daily on March 16.
The regime has devastated Iran’s economy. On Monday, the IRGC unveiled another Missile town and bragged about its military power. Meanwhile, Iranians are dealing with poverty and skyrocketing prices. The regime’s actions have turned the society into a powder keg, and people, particularly youth, constantly protest harsh living conditions. Three major Iran protests since 2018 show Iranian people do not want this regime, which has terrified the ruling theocracy.
“The current situation of the third generation after the revolution warns [the regime] that ruling this generation is not easy, as they have a dissident nature when it comes to the current situation. The continuation of the current situation in the third generation can be a serious threat to the future of the cultural and even political system. [the regime’s officials] need to think of a way to deal with the threat ahead,” wrote the state-run Jahan-e Sanat daily on March 16.