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Demonstrations by Iranian workers and students over the May Day holiday suggest that some observers may have underestimated the continuing vitality and resilience of the Green opposition. The protests were relatively muted as a result of regime intimidation, but the involvement of workers indicates that the reformist movement may be widening its social base to include the country’s poor and marginalized.

Iranian opposition leader Mir Hussein Mousavi took advantage of international labor day weekend to call on workers and teachers to support the Green opposition, in the latest attempt to diversify and revive the reformist movement.

“Teachers and workers know that the lack of programming and an adventurist foreign policy have endangered our national interests and the people feel the impact of these actions in their daily lives,” he said.

Workers appeared to respond to his call over the weekend, with reports of clashes with pro-regime forces in Tehran and of demonstrators marching on the Ministry of Labor. But the regime’s mobilization of Basiji thugs reportedly succeeded in intimidating many would-be protesters.

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