Some Analysis on Iran

Below, please find three articles that provide some decent analysis on Iran, at the same time that they critique some of the idiotic, sicko American 'leftists' who have lined up behind the most retrograde/reactionary forces within the Iranian theocracy, and who are doing so shamelessly, under the excuse of buying into the mullahs' 'anti-imperialism'. 

Even if we stay kindly polite and take this as an oversight on their part and believe that they completely (if moronically) believe in whatever comes out of Ahmadinejad's mouth, they consistently (and it is instructive to see what things are systematically overlooked) forget to ever take into account all the collaboration this regime has provided the imperialists: e.g., the mullahs' stabbing in the back of the Nicaraguan revolution in the 1980's when they collaborated with the Reagan Administration; and, more recently in the 21st century, their collaboration with the Americans in the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

The first article looks at how the movement in Iran can keep its independence, and what kind of solidarity it needs from abroad:
Iran: their solidarity and ours (Yassamine Mather; HOPI/July 10, 2009)

There are also two very good articles looking at some of the sickos* of the 'Left', most notably the very sickly AND sickening MRZine:
MRZine and Sex Change Operations in Iran (Louis Proyect; July 10, 2009)
The Tragedy of Left's Discourse on Iran (Saeed Rahnema; ZNet/July 10, 2009)

[*Note: the adjective 'sicko' is too kind, but let's just settle for that for now!]

New Slogan on Iran Streets

This bit of news is interesting in that it reports on a new slogan being voiced on the streets on July 9th:

Mojtaba bemiri, rahbari-ro nagiri!

(roughly; 'die Mojataba, so you won't become the leader').

As reported, "During the past week, rumors have surfaced that [Mojtaba Khamenei, supreme leader's son] has taken over the pro-government Basij militia and that his father is grooming him to be the next supreme leader. Thursday marked the first time protesters chanted against him."

RELATED:
Khamenei's son takes control of Iran's anti-protest militia (Julian Borger/Gurdian; July 8, 2009)

Video: Iran protests on anniversary of July 9, 1999

This was found on Uruknet. 

Click here for more videos and the report by Ian Black and Saeed Kamali Dehghan, Guardian (UK).

RELATED:
Beyond Mousavi: The Movement of the Iranian Masses (David Broder/July 9, 2009)
[found here]

Khiaban No. 17: Anniversary of another uprising in Iran

Translation of the lead article of Khiaban #17, received in the mail.

For reports, photos and videos of July 9th protests, you can go to Revolutionary Road ... 

18th of Tir/July 9: From 1999 to 2009
By Amir K.
Khiaban #17/ Tuesday, July 7, 2009

July 9th/18th of Tir is close. Both sides are preparing. Massive nationwide protests by the people, and their prevention by the state. The government has announced the day off, so as to reduce the traffic and Tehran's daily crowds. SMS services have been turned off again to disrupt the organizing. But, the people are organizing by the word of mouth, and using any cracks to inform as many people as possible about the July 9th protests, and forming numerous small cells, so as to dawn on the streets again with all their strength.

July 9th/18th of Tir, is the anniversary of a student uprising against state violence and the attacks of the death squads on the Tehran university campus, in 1999. In that year too the death squads and forces of crackdown attacked the Tehran university campus, watering the soil with the blood of students. Students' reaction was unequivocal: an uprising. The state, however, came forth wielding two blades: violent crackdown and deceit.

It was said to return to homes and pursue your grievances through legal means. A majority of the students, who still harbored illusions about Khatami, left the streets. They were promised that soon committees created by the people's popular president would uproot those who, vigilante-like, had allowed themselves the right to violate the university's sanctity. The more radical elements of the movement stayed, and the government's wolves went after them. Once the streets were emptied of the people, on July 14th, Khamenei's thugs took over the streets and bellowed howls of victory. And the city was once again under the control of the government.

The law convicted a single soldier for stealing a student's shaver. All others were found not-guilty. Some were promoted to high ranking embassy staff in Iranian embassies abroad. Some were promoted to directors and other cultural figures. On the other hand, the Ezatollah Ebrahimnejad's were buried in scorched earth. Numerous students spent many years of their lives in the regime's prisons. At that time, a generation of student dissidents was liquidated so that a dictatorial Islamic regime shall remain.

Ten years have passed. This time, it was not only in universities but in all of Iran that a line of blood was drawn. And again, some hands are working hard to turn the streets over to the enemies of the people, with the promise of pursuing things legally. But, this time, people have paid a very high price for their practical knowledge. They have realized that they are the many. The millions. And the power of their unity cannot be broken by any oppressive machinery.

Statement of Former Political Prisoners of the Islamic Republic of Iran

From Pezhvak-e Iran. 

Statement of Former Political Prisoners of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Since the onset of the June 12th “coup d’état” thousands of people have been detained or disappeared in Iran. In Tehran, for instance, the number of detainees is so large that the officials are holding prisoners in places such as the Ministry of State building’s basement and vacant camps in the city suburbs. Many families are kept in the dark with regard to the whereabouts or the conditions of their loved ones. According to the testimony of some of those who were arrested, tortured and released, this recent wave of arrests and disappearances is overseen by the Ministry of Intelligence, and in Tehran through their base in Evin prison, the infamous Section 209. Their stories tell of subjection to both physical and psychological torture, forcing them to incriminate themselves and others by confessing to prefabricated charges. Coincidentally, tortured-confessions begin to appear on state media. These events are reminiscent of the well-documented atrocities committed inside the prison walls during the 1980s.

We former political prisoners of the Islamic Republic of Iran testify to the scarring effects –on the prisoners, their families and society as a whole—of physical and psychological torture. We have witnessed how, through the application of callous methods, prosecutors sought to break down the sense of identity and human integrity of their ‘subjects’.

We fear that, under torture, some will be forced to confess to crimes committed by the security, military, paramilitary and plain-clothes forces on the streets, crimes such as the attacks on the University of Tehran and Shiraz’s dormitories on June 14th, the murder of student residents, the murder of Neda Aqa-Soltani, etc.

We fear this new generation of prisoners will, in their turn, experience this awful cycle of violence. We fear this naked, violent suppression of people in the streets and inside numerous jails around the country will lead to another wave of political executions. This naked violent suppression must be taken with the utmost seriousness. This threat of execution must be taken with the utmost seriousness.

As we demand release of all political prisoners, including those categorized as rioters by the government, and an end to torture and execution in Iran. we call on all international human rights institutions, particularly the United Nations to hold the government of Iran accountable for this violence and the violence it will continue to perpetrate; to utilize all their powers to stop crimes being committed in Iran’s prisons; and, adding our voices to those of the many other concerned citizens, we urge the general secretary of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, to send a representative to inspect Iran’s prisons before everything is swept under the carpet.

Read the list of signatories here (scroll down when page opens) ...

Khiaban No. 16: A Safe Nest for Our Hopes

This was sent in by a kind person, and is a translation of the lead article in Khiaban #16 (Monday, June 6, 2009). Many thanks to the sender! 

(additional editing was done where needed.) 

(To get electronic copies of the paper in Persian, you can write to: khyaboon@gmail.com)

A Safe Nest for the Seeds of Our Hopes
By Seemin Mesgari 

Khiaban #16 / Monday, July 6, 2009

What has been happening over the past month in the streets of Iran, leaves no doubts among any skeptics that the people know best what's in the best interest of their own country! If until now, some have been holding onto the fantasy of exported peace and freedom of the Iraqi and the Afghani (!) type, or have put all their media effort into colorizing or velvetizing the people's uprising to the benefit of one of the governing factions, people's struggle up to now have shown that the fate of this country is neither being figured in the hands of the imperialists nor in the internal lobbies of the ruling system, but in the streets and in every single house, and with the raised fist of every single fighter and activist. Any hope in any illusion other than this fact is doomed to disappointment, and any effort at reducing this struggle to a family fight [between the ruling elites], is doomed to failure!

In view of the principle that any path to the elimination of the enemies -- of freedom and equality and popular sovereignty -- passes through the ranks of the people, the voice of every freedom and justice loving individual and group that cannot be present [in Iran] in this struggle can be turned into an effective voice. A prime example is that of the is the vociferous voice of the Iranians outside Iran, who from the very beginning of the struggle of the Iranian people in the streets, though not literally shoulder to shoulder, but in the same spirit and voice in unison with the Iranian people's demand for change, they have formed their lines of struggle outside the borders of Iran.

The fact that every individual and organization and line comes to the side of the Iranian people for their own reasons is a separate discussion, which is neither in the scope nor the intention of this note. But, the tools employed by the Iranians living abroad, in their solidarity with and support of the activists inside, are limited tools which can be summarized mainly into demonstrations, and bringing to the attention of the world media what is happening inside Iran, and try to pressure mostly European and the American governments to unambiguously condemn the crackdown and the killings and the arrests by the Iranian government.

If we take a fair look at what has been, and being done outside the country, for those inside, we cannot deny the positive effects of the information dissemination efforts and pressuring of the government leaders in those countries ...

But, what compels me to write this note is the exaggeration of some Iranians living abroad regarding the utility of putting any hope in world's statesmen and women. Of course it is very useful to keep up the pressure on world leaders, but holding out huge hopes about their steadfastness of assistance, given the record of the last thirty years, is not very realistic.

If the people's historical memory is short, all evidence points to the fact that the memory of politicians is much shorter. Let us not forget that, in the political games played by the statesmen of the word, it is self-interest, not humanistic or human rights considerations, which have the primary say.

After three weeks of killings and violent crackdowns and arrests and immoral and illegal, tortured confessions, it is the arrest of the British embassy staff in Tehran that turned the Iranian events into a crisis situation for the European parliamentarians, and got them to start considering an unambiguous position and some practical steps. And perhaps the possible freeing of those staff will be portrayed as a 'positive step of building confidence' taken by Iran!

But, even in the midst of all this, European countries such as Italy and Germany, that have the biggest capital investments and trade with the Iranian government, find themselves fighting against plans for and ratification of any proposals for actions against the Iranian government.

Therefore, focusing and trusting these governments, for consultation/pressuring, should not make Iranians living abroad overlook or neglect the main focus of the struggle and the ongoing events inside Iran.

The hope for a fundamental change passes through the ranks of the fighting people of Iran inside the country, and given the untrustworthiness of any other form of alliance, especially with any statesmen and women -- all this renders the movement of our fighting people the safest nest for the seeds carrying the saplings of freedom and equality in Iran.

Khiaban No. 13: A Velvet Coup?

A kind person of anonymous disposition sent this translation of one of the lead articles from issue number 13 of the paper (put out by leftist dissidents in Iran), Khiaban (The Street). If you read Farsi/Persian, or have an Iranian friend who can, you can get pdf files of all issues of the paper on this blog from Sweden. 

A Velvet Coup?
Khiaban, #13/Saturday, July 4, 2009

In a meeting with a group of families of those detained in recent days, [former president] Khatami called the recent events a 'velvet coup'. This was an implicit reply to Ahmadinejad's characterization of the recent events as a 'velvet revolution', which was defeated by the government.

However, to call it a velvet coup is as much of a lie as calling it a velvet revolution. A coup that has murdered hundreds of people in the most violent fashion, that has shut down all the news and communication lines, that has arrested and subjected to torture a vast number of political activists, and has locked up thousands of youth and dissidents in torture/imprisonment camps -- how can it be called velvet like?

In a few coup's in the modern world history, such level of ruthlessness and violence has been employed; and in very few cases in the world has a coup stood in such absolute confrontation with the civil society. Numerous coup's that in their own right would not be described as 'velvet like' operated with much less crackdown and killing than the joint Khamenei-Ahmadinejad coup.

Using the term 'velvet like' by Khatami to describe it is to paint a gentler face of the coup, so as to secure himself and his friends the possibility of cooperation and friendship down the line with the coup regime. He has made up his mind about staying with the system at any price. Therefore, he has no choice but to justify the symbiosis of his faction with the coup regime at every step. Yesterday, Ahmadinejad's move was a coup d'etat, today it's a velvet coup, and perhaps tomorrow there will only remain a colorful piece of velvet to be spread on the seat of the rulers.

But, as Khatami obfuscates, Ahmadinejad spins misinformation yarn: he claims to have defeated an American velvet revolution. A velvet revolution whose planners, like all velvet revolutions, were part of the power structure. He wants to deny the absolute opposition of the people to the ruling system.

But, a new era has begun. And nothing about it is velvet like.

Bazr: Iranian Student Paper

See pdf file here ...

Consolidating the Electoral Coup in Iran

In the aftermath of the electoral coup carried out by Ahmadinejad-Khamenei in Iran, the push forward by the people to force the state authorities to submit to some accountability, openly questioning the legitimacy of the state in the process, has caused a great deal of fear in both ruling factions. But, more critically, in order to consolidate the coup, the Khamenei-Ahmadinejad faction has to move very carefully, so as not to inflame more intense hatred and discord among the ruling factions themselves. Hence, the insistence of the coup leaders to put the biggest blames on 'foreign arrogant powers', especially the British. 

And ergo the editorial in Iran's daily Kayhan, by Hossein Shariatmadari, declaring Mousavi a foreign agent, stating, "It has to be asked whether the actions of (Mousavi and his supporters) are in response to instructions of American authorities," adding that Mousavi was trying to "escape punishment for murdering innocent people, holding riots, cooperating with foreigners and acting as America's fifth column inside the country," (see here).

Meanwhile, they are doing their best to keep an iron fist on any form of open and mass dissent, lest the storm of the people's fury blow to hell the entire house of conceit.

The first step in the consolidation of the coup has been carried out: the overwhelming presence of security forces on the streets, leading to a de facto martial law state of affairs, in which any assembly of more than three people can be attacked and shot at, at will, with one hundred percent impunity.

More than a thousand people have been arrested and very likely being tortured as I write these lines, to force 'confessions' out of them (just like the Americans in Guantanamo forced 'confessions' out of people linking Saddam to Al-Qaida). Six people were already hanged in the Evin prison on Wednesday, July 1; another six were hanged in Qom on July 2. There are also reports of 20 more hangings outside Tehran, in Karaj, on July 4th; some of the hanged were arrested between 2004-2008 on drugs charges, but their hanging in the current tense atmosphere is meant to instill terror in people's hearts. Meanwhile, more names of martyrs from post-election demonstrations are being unearthed, raising the total of names released to 26 (excluding the Basiji's members killed). Most of the dead have been shot in the head.

Additionally, the calls by senior clerics for trying the British embassy staff for fomenting an uprising show that the authorities will resort to any and all forms of fabrication and intimidation.

All this, to instill terror in the hearts of our people; to drive them back to their homes and out of the streets, to drive them back to solitude and fear, to despondency.

But, more will need to be done if this coup is to be consolidated solidly. Most importantly, they have to get key figures of the loyal opposition to give up their protests (like they did with Mohsen Rezaee, the other conservative candidate in the stolen elections, who quickly enough jumped ship).

So, for those loyal opposition figures who refuse to shut up and put up, well, a whole host of 'legal' measures await. One such has been suggested by the Basiji's: they want to bring charges of 'treason' for his 'call to an uprising against the system' against Mousavi, for daring to call the election results illegitimate. Other 'legal' means will include what Ahmadinejad stated explicitly in his televised debates: corruption charges against those not going along with the coup (and 'files' filled with 'evidence' of any 'guilt' you'd like to order up can be made out of pure air, by these alchemists of deceit).

And, of course, as always, they have to crush the most daring of the popular dissenters: university students. Universities -- historically bastions of the most radical of the dissenting classes, consistently standing against oppressive machineries erected by both the Pahlavi and later the theocratic dictatorships -- have always played a key role in the overall national movements for justice in Iran. Hence, the need for the harshest crackdown on the university campuses.

[...]

There is a video clip of an extremely chilling nature, available online (in Farsi, no subtitles), of a post-election meeting of a group of conservatives, including Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi, a most fascistic clerical leader, who literally OK'd vote rigging before the elections ( see here). 

In the clip, you will not observe the slightest of lighthearted jubilation among the attendees, as would be expected from a group of people who had just won a clean, hard-fought election campaign. Quite the contrary, a sinister, hushed tone of guilt-ridden sickly purpose saturates every utterance made by Ahmadinejad.

In the clip, Ahmadinejad speaks in allusions and metaphors, which, when listened to carefully, shed some light on the general strategy the coup organizers are likely to adopt. Ahmadinejad talks about the completion of the first difficult phase of the struggle, and the start of the second, more difficult phase, which, as he puts it, will require ALL the capabilities of the system; the executive, judicial and 'spiritual' (meaning the solid backing of certain of the clerical classes). He also talks about the 'big wave of enthusiasm, both internal and external', for this divine movement toward the 'Purist Mohammedan Islam' (Islam-e Naab-e Mohammadi).

[The reference to the wave of enthusiasm from abroad is usual propaganda of course, but there is also a very telling subtext here: there are reports of foreign, Arab sounding, goon squads which have been shipped in, paid handsomely and put up in hotels across Tehran (the Iranian paid goons brought from provincial small towns and villages, by contrast, get paid much less, and are put up in modest dormitories).]

There is also a very chilling reference by Ahmadinejad in the clip about the need to take care of the universities.

Ahmadinejad, the co-conspirator, also talks about the 'joyous nature of fighting corruption', a judicial tactic they will be lining up for the next wave of eliminations of the loyal opposition; and, of course, all this has to happen fast, hence his reference to the urgency of the task at hand, and how time is of the essence; hence, in his words, "Let's operationalize our plans".

Among international developments that must bring some joy to the coup leaders in Iran is Obama administration's behind-the-scenes manipulations to stop the G8 from issuing any new calls for (or actual proposals for) expanded sanctions against the government of Iran (see here).

To conclude then, in the aftermath of the electoral coup pulled by Ahmadinejad-Khamenei and the resultant outrage expressed by millions of Iranians, those 'leftists' vociferous in conjuring up imaginary coups, remote-controlled from Langley, VA, should rejoice in knowing that their favorite state formation in Iran will last a while longer. And will be doing so through pure terror, kangaroo courts and summary executions, fraudulent deal makings and concentration of even more conceit at the very top of the state ideological apparatuses.

But, to their chagrin, and to the chagrin of people in love with authoritarian states, the people of Iran have not given up, nor feel cowed. They may be momentarily pushed back into their homes, but this movement is far from over.

Read the complete article here ...

Picket Venezuelan Embassies!

Forget about picketing the Iranian embassies! If they don't give a flying puck about the millions of Iranians inside the country, they sure as hell would not give a flying puck about demos in front of their embassies around the world. If anything, they just take pictures of the demonstrators and add info to their files on people to harass and terrorize down the road. 

But, as a good and a very wise friend keeps reminding me, it's about time to target those collaborator states (such as Venezuela) giving succor to Ahmadinejad-Khamenei's coup. If we showed up in front of their embassies, they will at least have to feel the shame of shaking the blood drenched hands of a criminal regime. 

Also, while we're at it ... 

We also need to pressure the Nicaraguan government to issue statements of support for the people of Iran, for the working classes of Iran, for the revolutionary women, students and the youth of Iran, and in opposition to a theocratic dictatorship, which, in the 1980s helped the Reagan administration to funnel funds to the murderous Contra thugs who were terrorizing the Nicaraguan revolution, holding it hostage, bleeding it slowly, all throughout the 1980s. The Iranian regime was co-conspirator in that treacherous enterprise. 

It is time to cash in those chips. The heroic people of Nicaragua, and their revolutionary Sandinista leaders paid heavily for the mistake of the leftists all over the world, who thought that they could go to bed with a vicious theocracy, and ended up dead. This theocracy is 'anti-imperialist' only in sinister gestures. In their well documented deeds, however, besides their stabbing in the back of the Nicaraguan revolution, they have helped the imperialists plenty in securing their plans for the greater Middle East, during their invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. 

Thanks to the full account presented by Robert Parry (forgiving some of the hyperboles presented), American readers must now know what a lot of Iranians have known for thirty years: that this theocracy colluded with the Reagan campaign team in the 1980 presidential elections, at the behest of the Israelis mind you (!!!), to make sure that Carter was not re-elected. And he wasn't. The history of the behind-the-scenes collaborations between the theocrats and the Republicans came to shameful yet insightful light in the form of the Iran-Contra Affair. 

But, it didn't stop there. For all the fire and the fury expressed about the axial qualifications for being evil bestowed on Iran by the Bush regime, during W's presidency, the trade between Iran and the U.S. actually increased tenfold. 

Also, Ahmadinejad's inflammatory rhetoric is a fantastically welcome dose of 'rising up of the temperatures' that the likes of Israeli war criminals love to have around. What better than another crazy in the neighborhood to justify the crazies in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem? These odious creatures are made for each other, and they are made to crush the decent people's hopes of leading a normal, peaceful, dignified and just life. These people live on militarism, jingoism, prejudice, superstition, hate and falsehoods. 

So, if in the recent episode of the Iranian people's struggle for democracy and freedom some 'leftists' (such as the shameful Hugo Chavez, Worker's World Party, World Socialist Website, Monthly Review/MRZine, et al.) ended up supporting a most vicious dictatorship, we can only conclude that their compass is way off, or that they don't use any compass at all, besides their egos and their imagined contingencies, and that indeed they are no leftists, but a bunch of statist conservatives, just like that character, Paul Craig Roberts; that docile servant of the Reagan administration (who to this day defends Reagan's economics), and whose writings are nowadays taken as God's own words seared into stone that is to be held in awe by all 'leftists'.

With 'leftists' like that ... Go figure! 

RELATED:
German neo-Nazis praise reelection of Iran's Ahmadinejad (The Local: Germany's News in English/June 25, 2009) [This was first spotted on Louis Proyect's The Unrepentant Marxist]

Chávez sides with the clerical dictatorship against Iran’s youth, workers and women

This is from the League for the Fifth International. 

Chávez sides with the clerical dictatorship against Iran’s youth, workers and women
Sun, 28/06/2009

On 21 JUNE, on his regular Aló Presidente TV show, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez indicated where he stood on the struggle unfolding in Iran: with the forces murdering and repressing the students and workers, with the clerical dictatorship that stifles and oppresses women and national minorities.

He stated: "We send a greeting to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's great president, to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and to the Iranian people. We ask the world to respect Iran because they (sic) are trying to undermine the Iranian revolution's strength."

He continued: "Ahmadinejad's triumph is a victory in full order. They're trying to stain Ahmadinejad's victory, and by doing so they aim to weaken the government and the Islamic revolution. I know they won't be able to do it."
[...]
It is true that over the past three years Venezuela has done million dollar deals with Iran’s government but it is not in any sense dependent on them for its economic survival. At the same time, Chávez claims to be the leader and ideologist of what he calls “the socialism of the twenty first century.” Many people around the world, encouraged by Venezuela’s combination of significant socials reforms and defiance of the USA, take all this as good coin. But if Chávez were really a “democrat,” a “socialist” and a champion of the working class, he ought to solidarise with young people, workers and socialists fighting in Iran for freedom against the theocratic dictatorship.

His statements show that, in reality, he does not take international working class solidarity as his starting point but rather an alliance between capitalist states that find themselves obliged to resist the exploitation and bullying of US (and European) imperialism.

Revolutionary socialists should certainly support Iran (and Venezuela) unconditionally against economic blockades, threats and any military attacks coming from the United Sates and its Zionist puppet. But this does not in any way oblige us to support a dictatorship against its own working class. The “Iranian Revolution” that Chávez refers to was strangled between 1979-82 by the very people who now rule Iran.

Read the complete article here ...