Houshang Sepehr^* was born in Iran on 4 on October 1945. He studied physics there under the Shah’s dictatorship. In 1970, he moved to London to continue his studies. He earned a ( ( PhD)in nuclear physics from Imperial College London and worked there as a researcher. At the start of the Iranian Revolution in 1979, he returned to Iran.

It was in London that he began his political activism. The political climate there was very different from Tehran’s. Three major movements—the campaign against the Vietnam War, the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, and the movement for nuclear disarmament—drew him toward left-wing politics. He soon joined the International Marxist Group (IMG), the British section of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International (USFI). He was drawn to the IMG by its anti-imperialist and internationalist outlook and its rejection of dogmatism.

In the years that followed, he and other Iranian Trotskyists in Europe formed a political group opposed to Stalinism, Maoism, and the guerrilla movements then popular among Iranian students abroad. Identifying as Trotskyist, the group established direct links with the Fourth International–United Secretariat (USec). Its political work drew on Trotsky’s Transitional Program and the resolutions of the first four congresses of the Communist International.

In London during the 1970s, he helped edit Kand-o Kav (“Analysis”), a theoretical and political journal that promoted revolutionary Marxism. The group also campaigned for human rights in Iran and for the release and protection of political prisoners, establishing the Committee Against Repression in Iran (CARI).

In January 1979, as the Iranian Revolution began, the group returned to Iran. During the revolution, a unification congress brought together Iranian Trotskyists, including supporters of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International (USec) and the US Socialist Workers Party. In February 1979, the congress led to the founding of the Socialist Workers Party of Iran (Hezb-e Kargaran-e Socialist, or HKS). The party focused on building a workers’ organization in Iran. Sepehr helped found the HKS and became an active member.

A few months after the unification, a class-collaborationist faction emerged within the party. Composed entirely of former members of the US Socialist Workers Party, it held illusions about Khomeini’s clerical-bourgeois regime. The faction soon split from the party and continued its collaborationist politics under the name Revolutionary Workers Party (Hezb-e Kargaran-e Enghelabi, or HKE). It dissolved a few years later.

Between 1979 and 1983, the HKS published several weekly newspapers: Kargar (“Workers”), Kargar-e Socialist (“Socialist Workers”), Che Bayad Kard (“What Is to Be Done?”), and Nazm-e Kargar (“The Workers’ Order”). The party’s publishing house, Tali-e (“The Vanguard”), translated works of classical Marxist literature into Persian. Sepehr created the HKS Archive, where these publications can be consulted.

Between 1979 and 1981, Sepehr taught physics at Tehran Polytechnic University. In 1981, he was dismissed because of his political activities and forced to go underground. His dismissal came amid a widening crackdown on independent political organizations and the purging of institutions of people deemed politically undesirable. For left-wing activists, repression threatened not only their ability to organize but also their livelihoods, personal safety, and freedom to act openly. Political activity had become increasingly dangerous at home.

In 1983, following the regime’s brutal crackdown on the left, a small number of surviving HKS members were forced to flee Iran and go into exile. Sepehr went to Paris as a political refugee.

For Sepehr, leaving Iran marked a major change in the conditions under which he could pursue political work. In exile, he was able to continue writing, take part in international socialist discussions, and support solidarity initiatives on behalf of Iranian workers.

In Paris, despite the difficult circumstances, Sepehr and his comrades continued their political work and launched Socialisme va Enghelab (“Socialism and Revolution”), a theoretical and political journal that remained in circulation until 1989.

Sepehr also worked with the French section of the Fourth International, writing about Iran’s political situation for its newspapers and journals. This work reflected the internationalist focus of his political activity.

In exile, Sepehr remained focused on developments in Iran and on the prospects for independent working-class organization. He sought to help build a nationally organized workers’ movement, emphasizing the working class’s central role in the revolution and the need to move beyond traditional forms of protest and fragmented struggle.

His work has spanned several areas :

• Analyzing the Islamic Republic and its institutions ;

• Reporting on and commenting on Iranian social movements ;

• Supporting workers and independent labor activists ;

• Taking part in international socialist discussions ;

• Publishing articles and books on the historical and political challenges facing the Iranian left.

His work has mostly appeared in Inprecor and À l’encontre, two French-language publications associated with the international revolutionary socialist movement, and in International Viewpoint, an international socialist magazine.

One of the most prominent aspects of Sepehr’s public political activity has been his involvement with Solidarité avec les travailleurs en Iran (STII), an association he founded with fellow Iranian activists in exile in France. The organization supports Iranian workers in their struggles for independent organization and better social and political conditions, while keeping international attention focused on workers’ rights and political repression in Iran.

For the past two decades, STII has campaigned against repression in Iran and sought to amplify the voices of Iranian workers. Sepehr also manages the organization’s website, Echo d’Iran

In 2010, as part of STII’s work, Sepehr helped establish an inter-union collective bringing together France’s CGT, CFDT, FSU, Union syndicale Solidaires, and UNSA. The collective provides ongoing support to people facing exploitation and oppression in Iran.

Alongside his organizing and solidarity work, Sepehr has produced a substantial body of publications. These include the French-language newsletter Echo d’Iran; Persian translations of around two dozen works of classical Marxist writers such as Trotsky, Lenin, and Mandel; and the Persian-language journal In Defense of Marxism, among others.

Another important theme in Sepehr’s writing is the position of women in Iranian society and the relationship between gender equality and broader social change. The establishment of the Islamic Republic brought sweeping restrictions on women’s legal and social freedoms. In the decades since, women have played a prominent role in campaigns against discrimination, compulsory dress codes, and restrictions on personal autonomy.

Sepehr has explored these issues in articles such as Women in the 1979 Revolution and After. His analysis places women’s struggles within the broader history of the Iranian Revolution and the political order that followed, linking women’s emancipation to wider questions of democracy, class relations, and the nature of the state.

His work is available on his personal website, hks-space.com.

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* Houshang Sepehr is the pen name of Houshang Karami, who chose to write under a pseudonym for political reasons.∆