“We are bakers, not slaves,” bakery owners and workers chanted during protests that broke out in at least nine provinces in Iran last week. Bakers and their staff were outraged that frequent power outages were causing their dough to spoil, ruining production, while promised government subsidies aimed at keeping the price of bread low had not materialized. Bread is a key staple in the Iranian diet and shortages, combined with rising prices have caused mounting tension among Iran’s 95 million population, most of whom have been impoverished after 46 years of corruption, mismanagement and brazen warmongering by the mullahs who seized power in the 1979 revolution. Now the theocratic regime fears another revolution may overthrow their crumbling dictatorship.
In a bid to quell dissent, they have launched a frenzy of executions, mostly of political prisoners, with more than 1,000 hanged since the so-called ‘moderate’ president Masoud Pezeshkian assumed office in July 2024. Pezeshkian would do well to heed the warning of Mahatma Gandhi who said: “There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.” History relates the occurrence of countless bread riots that brought down incompetent or despotic regimes, including the French Revolution, which led to the overthrow of the monarchy and saw King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette guillotined.
Most bakeries are small businesses. The theocratic regime buys wheat from farmers at a guaranteed price and then sells it at a subsidized rate to bakers who have joined the government’s program. The bakers must then meet a quota and sell the bread at a government-set subsidized price, which varies from province to province. However, in many parts of Iran this scheme has collapsed, causing surging anger and frustration. Last year the mullahs raised the price on some varieties of bread by as much as 66 percent. Bakers who are not part of the program charge even higher prices. Iranian bakers were told by the regime to cut the price of bread by 40 percent, in return for which the government would deposit a similar amount into their bakery accounts. But one protesting baker told a state-run newspaper: “Not only has the government broken its promise, but it hasn’t paid a single rial.”
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The bakers’ protests are taking place amid a deepening economic crisis and growing opposition among working people to the Iranian regime’s threats against Israel and their decades of subsidizing terrorist groups such as Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. There is also rage against the squandering of billions on a poorly concealed nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program. With the fall of the regime’s key ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria, the effective decapitation of Hamas and Hezbollah by Israel and the relentless pummeling of the Houthis by the American military, the mullahs are at their weakest point and fear that a further rise in bread prices will provoke a nationwide uprising. At a protest in Yasujon last month, hundreds of bakers chanted: “The government has cut subsidies, raised the price of flour, sells yeast at the price of gold, and cuts off electricity without warning, causing dough to spoil — then shamelessly blames bakers for the rising prices!” In Ahvaz, wheat farmers protested alongside the bakers, saying the government had not paid them for their wheat.They were joined by the Union of Truckers and Drivers of Iran who announced a nationwide one-week strike that began on May 21, in solidarity with the bakers. Similar demonstrations took place in Isfahan, Birjand, Kermanshah, Qom, Shahinshahr and Mashhad, where bakers raged against the economic strain threatening their businesses and livelihoods.
A video broadcast by Iran International, a London-based Persian-language satellite TV channel, showed a baker smearing spoiled dough on his face in protest over the electricity blackouts. Another showed a baker in Qom stating he had ceased baking after working for 27 days without any promised pay or compensation from the regime. Bakers have warned that without immediate relief, bread may soon be unavailable or priced beyond the reach of ordinary households. Even elements within the regime have been forced to acknowledge the severity of the crisis. One state-controlled daily newspaper, Etemad, stated on May 19: “From a social perspective, power outages have pushed public dissatisfaction to its peak and weakened trust in the government. Currently, bakers in most cities have resorted to protests.” Recognizing the escalating anger, Ahmad Fatemi, a member of the regime’s Majlis (parliament), issued a stark warning: “Today, the country’s bakeries are facing serious problems. Regarding the frequent power cuts and widespread blackouts, I warn that this has exhausted people’s patience. It has exhausted the patience of production units and industry owners.”
With inflation in Iran running at around 35.3 percent due largely to rising food prices, combined with the collapse of the Iranian currency, the rial, which has lost almost half its value since Pezeshkian took office last August, poverty has reached unprecedented levels. It is estimated that up to three quarters of Iranians now struggle to survive on incomes below the international poverty line. Much of the blame can be levelled at the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), who control around 70 percent of all business and industry in Iran, pay no tax and are answerable only to the Supreme Leader, the elderly and fanatical Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Venial corruption among the higher-ranking officers in the IRGC is rampant, with many owning luxury villas in Turkey, Dubai and other countries in Asia, while sending their children to universities in the UK and EU. The IRGC has been blacklisted as a terrorist organization in America and Canada and there are increasing demands for the UK and EU to follow suit.
The struggle of Iran’s bakers is a blunt reminder that the mullahs’ fascist dictatorship can no longer provide even the most fundamental necessities for its people. The anger over spoiled dough, empty ovens and darkened bakeries is a clear sign that the Iranian people’s patience has hit rock bottom.
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