“There is no contradiction between opposing every instance of US meddling in Iran–and every other country–and supporting the popular, democratic struggles of ordinary Iranians against dictatorship. Effective international solidarity requires that the two go hand in hand, for example, by linking the struggles of political prisoners in Iran and with those of political prisoners in the US, not by counterposing them. Iranian dissidents, like dissidents in the US, see their own government as their main enemy. The fact that Iranian activists also have to deal with sanctions and threats of military action from the US only makes their work and their lives more difficult. The US and Iranian governments are, of course, not equal in their global reach, but both stand in the way of popular democracy and human liberation. US-based activists must not undermine the brave and endangered work of Iranian opposition groups by supporting the regime that is ruthlessly trying to crush them.”
Solidarity and Its Discontents
By Raha Iranian Feminist Collective
While building solidarity between activists in the U.S. and Iran can be a powerful way of supporting social justice movements in Iran, progressives and leftists who want to express solidarity with Iranians are challenged by a complicated geopolitical terrain. The U.S. government shrilly decries Iran’s nuclear power program and expands a long-standing sanctions regime on the one hand, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad makes inflammatory proclamations and harshly suppresses Iranian protesters and dissidents on the other. Solidarity activists are often caught between a rock and a hard place, and many choose what they believe are the “lesser evil” politics. In the case of Iran, this has meant aligning with a repressive state leader under the guise of “anti-imperialism” and “populism,” or supporting “targeted” sanctions.
As members of a feminist collective founded in part to support the massive post-election protests in Iran in 2009, while opposing all forms of US intervention, we take this opportunity to reflect on the meaning and practice of transnational solidarity between US-based activists and sections of Iranian society. In this article, we look at the remarkable situation in which both protests against and expressions of support for Ahmadinejad are articulated under the banner of support for the “Iranian people.” In particular, we examine the claims of critics of the Iranian regime who have advocated the use of “targeted sanctions” against human rights violators in the Iranian government as a method of solidarity. Despite their name, these sanctions trickle down to punish broader sections of the population. They also stand as a stunning example of American power and hypocrisy, since no country dare sanction the US for its illegal wars, torture practices and program of extrajudicial assassinations. We then assess the positions of some “anti-imperialist” activists who not only oppose war and sanctions on Iran but also defend Ahmadinejad as a populist president expressing the will of the majority of the Iranian people. In fact, Ahmadinejad’s aggressive neo-liberal economic policies represent a right-wing attack on living standards and on various social welfare provisions established after the revolution. And finally, we offer an alternative notion of and method for building international solidarity “from below,” one that offers a way out of “lesser evil” politics and turns the focus away from the state and onto those movement activists in the streets.
A recent column by the always insightful Ray McGovern succinctly demonstrates the problem.
The world of science acknowledges matter-of-factly that Iran is not pursuing a nuclear weapons program. There is simply no evidence for one. The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, staffed by specialists on nuclear power and maintaining a tight watch on Iran’s civilian facilities, finds no evidence of a military program. Two successive reports (National Intelligence Estimates) produced (in 2007 and 2010) by all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies have declared with confidence that there is no operative weapons program. U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and (even) Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak have both recently stated (or let it slip) that Iran is not currently attempting to build nuclear weapons.
But then there is the political world of systematic disinformation. The world of big, bold lies which, as they are constantly repeated, acquire a certain life of their own. Thus the mainstream press and the entire political class in this country refer routinely to “Iran’s nuclear weapons program” as though there obviously were one. As though any questioning of the charge were thoroughly naive.
(By the way: try doing an advanced Google search for the exact phrase “Iran’s nuclear weapons program” and you will call up 4,640,000 results. Try “Israel’s nuclear weapons program”—which we know exists—and you’ll get 533,000. What does this tell you?)
Below is a statement by the UNAC CC on the assassination of Iranian scientists and the growing threat of war against Iran.
Also, UNAC members participated in a national conference call on Tuesday with many other antiwar and Iranian groups. The meeting called for demonstrations on February 4 to protest the threat of war against Iran. Please join us on February 4 and plan a protest in your local area. There is a Facebook event for February 4 here.
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Statement by the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC)
On the Assassination of Iranian Scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan
and the Growing Threat of War Against the Islamic Republic of Iran
Another Iranian scientist has been assassinated in Iran by a car bombing. This is the fifth Iranian scientist targeted in Iran during the past two years. This is a dangerous escalation of the covert activities conducted by the CIA and Israeli intelligence and their domestic spies in Iran against the government and people of Iran.
Kasama received the following from A World to Win, a news service based in Britain.
August 15 2011. A World to Win News Service. Further fissures and cracks have appeared among Iran’s top rulers, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the spiritual leader of the Islamic regime, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his close circle in charge of the government.
Given the love affair between Khamenei and Ahmadinejad over the last six years and specially Khamenei’s support for Ahmadinejad during the 2009 election that sparked an uprising, this difference between the two factions was not taken very seriously by masses at the beginning.
>But now the sudden intensification of this row and the aggressive approach of both sides has left little doubt about the depth and gravity of the differences. These developments have also proved an explanation for previous contradictory statements made by Ahmadinejad and high-ranking conservative clergy.
“Today, comrade Behi, a poet, women‘s rights activist, and a long time communist lost her battle with illness. My heartfelt sympathy with and condolences to her relatives and comrades of the Communist Party of Iran (MLM).”
Thanks to Gary for suggesting this. (This is the version last revised on July 27. Posted from Empire Burlesque.
“The treachery of Iran is a constant theme in the leakage — both in the raw, unsifted, uncorroborated ‘humint’ and in the diplomatic cables of puzzled occupiers who cannot fathom why there should be any opposition to their enlightened rule. It must the fault of those perfidious Persians!
“One can only imagine the lipsmacking and handclapping now rampant among the Bomb Iran crowd as they pore over these unsubstantiated rumors and Potomac ass-coverings which are being doled out — by the “liberal” media, no less! — as the new, grim truth about Afghanistan.”
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Leaky Vessels:
Wikileaks “Revelations” Will Comfort Warmongers, Confirm Conventional Wisdom
by Chris Floyd
“I am shocked — shocked! — to find gambling is going on in here” – Captain Renault at the gaming tables in Casablanca.
The much ballyhooed dump of intelligence and diplomatic files concerning the Afghan War has been trumpeted as some kind of shocking expose, “painting a different picture” than the official version of events — revelations that are sure to rock the Anglo-American political establishments to their foundations.
19 July 2010. The news that Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was about to be executed by stoning stunned and outraged millions of people everywhere.
The 43 year-old widow, a mother of two, was arrested by the Iranian Islamic regime in the northern city of Tabriz in 2005. She was convicted of an “illicit relationship” in May 2006 and received 99 lashes with a whip. Later the authorities opened another investigation against her for the murder of her husband, but in the end she was found guilty of “adultery” instead and sentenced to death. The Supreme Court of the Islamic Republic upheld the verdict. The death sentence for adultery in Islamic Republic is usually carried out by stoning.
In the face of international disgust the Islamic regime had to back down. On 12 July the country’s judiciary chief announced that her execution “will not be carried out for the moment.” If she is not killed by stoning, this does not reduce the threat of her being executed by other means, such as hanging.
Execution, imprisonment and other kinds of naked suppression have always been mainstays of the Islamic regime, but now particularly after the people’s uprising they are becoming even more central to its rule. According to Amnesty International, last year nearly 390 people were executed in Iran and so far this year there have been 126 executions. Many of the dead were political prisoners. These numbers do not include people shot dead during the protests, such as Neda Agha Soltan, Sohrab Araabi and Kianoush Asa, or those murdered under torture such as Mohsen Rouholamini and others.
As the June anniversary of the uprising approached, the Islamic regime started another wave of executions to terrify the protesting people. The execution of five political prisoners in Tehran on 10May was part a series that is still continuing. Hundreds of women, students, workers’ leaders and activists have been arrested and tortured in prisons. The prevailing undeclared martial law left little room for the people to continue their protest. The 9th of July, traditionally a day of student protests over the last decade, saw another wave of repression in Tehran , especially in the universities. This time, most leaders and many activists were already in prison.
In February 1979, the Iranian Revolution was carried out by a broad array of forces, religious and secular, united around the single goal of removing Shah Mohamad Reza Pahlavi from power. During this time, Ayatollah Khomeini, who was exiled by the Shah and represented his conservative opposition, returned to Tehran. After the Shah was forced to flee from Iran, expressions of popular power emerged: workers formed factory committees, women demonstrated for equal rights, the Kurds pushed for autonomy, etc., This movement was fragmented and leftist revolutionary organizations, emerging from years of repression, were popular but politically short-sighted. Khomeini, by blending anti-imperialist, populist and religious sentiment, was able to take power and begin suppressing radical movements.
Fast forward to 2010. The increasing protests in Iran over the last year have led some to suggest that history may repeat itself in the form of another toppled government. Again, it’s not that simple. Dilip Hiro looks at the changes that have occurred within Iran over the last 31 years and offers a different take.
Regime Change in Tehran? Don’t Bet on It… Yet
By Dilip Hiro
The dramatic images of protestors in Iran fearlessly facing — and sometimes countering — the brutal attacks of the regime’s security forces rightly gain the admiration and sympathy of viewers in the West. They also leave many Westerners assuming that this is a preamble to regime change in Tehran, a repeat of history, but with a twist. After all, Iran has the distinction of being the only Middle Eastern state that underwent a revolutionary change — 31 years ago — which originated as a mild street protest.
Viewed objectively, though, this assumption is over-optimistic. It overlooks cardinal differences between the present moment and the 1978-1979 events which led to the overthrow of the Shah of Iran and the founding of an Islamic Republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. History shows that a revolutionary movement triumphs only when two vital factors merge: it is supported by a coalition of different social classes and it succeeds in crippling the country’s governing machinery and fracturing the state’s repressive apparatus.
““It is important for us to find the ways to popularize and politically support the most radical currents that emerge, and tirelessly expose the intrigues of the CIA agents, military bullies and lying U.S. rulers who want to tighten their grip on this whole part of the world. These are real responsibilities. The fact that our previous revolutionary movement has slid into impotence, and that a long-standing internationalism has been shamefully undermineds, does not change those responsibilities. They need to be taken up with strength and consciousness we can muster.“
A Quick Report by Mike Ely
Clearly major collisions are happening in Iran, as sections of the people (and sections of the elite) strain to isolate and topple the existing regime. It is hard, for obvious reasons, to offer quick and reliable analysis from here.
It seems clear however that the last days of protest have developed into tenacious streetfighting — confronting police and reactionary vigilantes and in some cases driving them back. The people attacked police with their bare hands and rocks — often taking over the streets, sometimes cornering the police and burning their vehicles. There were hundreds of arrests and beatings of protesters in the streets, and reports of at least eight deaths (all taking place in the context of revelations of atrocities taking place within the regime’s prisons).
Important sections of people are rising in fearless resistance to their oppressors. They have built new organizations secretly over the last months, made vital new connections in the streets, learned important political lessons through bitter experience — and they have clearly emerged more and more determined to break the spine of the hated Islamist Regime. Clearly there are all kinds of reactionary forces hoping to gain advantage of “regime change” in Iran — starting first of all with our own overlords, the U.S. imperialists, and followed by various ruling class forces in Iran (who hope to prevent deep or fundamental change). The fact that reactionaries intrigue in such crises is not news — while we all need to understand that, in revolutionary situations, the people often find ways to thwart and defeat the attempts by new reactionaries to exploit their struggle.
Green-Red suggested that we post this report from the mainstream press — dealing with the resistance actions launched on December 7 in Iran . We will post reports from opposition groups as soon as we get them.
Iran: More than 200 arrested in student protests
By NASSER KARIMI
The Associated Press Dec. 8, 2009
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran threatened tougher action against protesters Tuesday after more than 200 were arrested during marches by tens of thousands at universities across the country, the biggest anti-government rallies in months.
The warning suggested that Monday’s unrest raised authorities’ concern that the protest movement could pick up new steam. The protests Monday turned into fierce clashes between youths throwing stones and riot police and militiamen wielding batons and tear gas.
Perhaps more importantly, they also saw an increased fervor and boldness among demonstrators, who more openly broke the biggest taboo in Iran – burning pictures of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and chanting slogans against him.
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From here on there is description of the photos that was enclosed with the article that is partially presented here:
Green-Red has shared the following article from Reuter, with comments:
Iran says will show no mercy to opposition protesters
Dec 8, 2009
By Parisa Hafezi
TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran will “show no mercy” towards opposition protesters seen as threatening national security, a judiciary official said on Tuesday, a day after thousands of students staged anti-government rallies.
A nationwide rally on Monday to mark the killing of three students under the Shah turned violent when students clashed with security forces armed with batons and tear gas in the largest anti-government protests in months.
“From now on, we will show no mercy towards anyone who acts against national security. They will be confronted firmly,” said prosecutor Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, according to the official IRNA news agency.
Green-Red wrote as introduction for this posting on the November 4 actions in Iran:
“‘Scenes of Class Struggles in Tehran and…’ was the title the Red Neda comrades had chosen for the report of this demonstration. Here is the text of the report and, i hope, many other people hope as well, that it was a good lesson and productive experience for the people, as an introductory session to the December 7 demonstration which is the real historic students’ day, that its origin goes back to the Shah’s time during a visit of Richard Nixon’s to Iran… [when] the Shah’s regime guards and soldiers fired into the crowd of students and three activist students, Shariat Razavi, Ghandchi and Bozorghnia died. Ever since then, this date is the hottest day of student movement’s legacy.
Scenes of Class Struggle in Tehran and …
Report of the November 4th Demonstrations in Iran (originally published Saturday, November 14, 2009)
Although, The Telecommunication Bureau had blocked the secure communication protocols such as VPN and HTTPS, tens or maybe hundreds of written, video and graphical reports of Nov. 4th demonstrations were sent online, even before we had a chance to establish a secure connection. Fortunately, this is an indication of the Islamic republic regime’s utter defeat in their attempts to censor the reports of the people’s struggles. The rise in numbers of reports, from one action to another, blocks the regime and the liberal analysts’ attempts to abuse and misrepresent the nature of the peoples’ struggle to the internal and international public.
Kasama’s regular commentator Green-Red recently wrote that while the immediate upsurge is over, the question of Iran continues sharply on the U.S. left — and captures larger issues about whether we should embrace any forces in the Third World that (one way or another) run afoul of the U.S. Green-Red described his frustration meeting people who “think that since Ahmadinejad shakes hand and makes deals with Chavez, he’s gotta be a great progressive guy!”
Green-Red suggested that we post the following polemical piece (which he describes as “a very nice and SIMPLE article”). It appeared in International Socialist Review (Sept./Oct. 2009) as part of a column called “Critical Thinking.”
Why are some U.S. leftists siding with the repressive Iranian regime against pro-democracy protesters?
At the beginning of August, the government of Iran launched a trial against more than 100 of its most prominent opponents, claiming that they had conspired with foreign governments to overthrow the Iranian regime by organizing a campaign to discredit the legitimacy of the country’s presidential election in June. Among those accused were former vice president Mohammad Ali Abtahi, former deputy interior minister Mohammad Atrianfar, former deputy economic minister Mohsen Safai-Farahani, former deputy speaker of the Parliament Behzad Nabavi, and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, as well as various Iranians living outside the country. That the conservative theocratic Iranian government, which has faced widespread street protests since the disputed election, should respond to its critics in this way was perhaps not surprising. Sadly, however, over the past few months, similar accusations have been leveled against the protesters by sections of the U.S. left.
Here at Kasama we have been publishing documents and reports from a number of different political trends in Iran. Here is a statement from a group called “Call of the Red.”
It critiques various demands that were common in the recent mass protest, and encourages working people to come into the political movement and bring their specific (often economic) concerns with them.
We are offering this message here without endorsing its particular politics and tactics.
It sketches an important problem facing the revolutionary movements in Iran: How to build on a highly spontaneous movement of protest, and develop (out of it) sustained organization that reaches deeper into the working people. How to bring the struggle out from under the wing of the “reform” currents within the regime — and have working people develop an independent and far more radical current.
The translation into English is a bit primitive, but we have not edited it extensively, believing that most of it will be understandable to readers.
12th Public Message from the Call of the Red:
Forward to the November 3 Demonstrations in Organized Manner and With Clear demands!
We are going to welcome the third of November, the National Student’s Day. Contrary to regime’s fallacious propagandas, this day has not been registered in Iranian history due to regime mercenaries’ taking Americans hostage in their embassy, but, it is the commemoration day for High School students’ support of teachers’ strike, during the revolutionary struggles against the Pahlavi royal dictatorship on November 3rd 1978. On that day all across the country, students of High Schools and, other levels, came into streets with organization and regardless of their ages, being so young, they showed such endurance as though they were writing the exemplary sheets to their elders. We salute all Iranian students and we are hopeful that on November 3rd 2009, they create another legacy in the revolutionary struggles of Iranian peoples for better living and freedom.
Right now a large variety of political groups are declaring their support for a concentrated and nationwide gathering. We also invite all peoples of Iran, the workers and red forces in particular, to participate in these gathering to demonstrate alongside of our comrades. But, at this mark in history, there are few remarkable matters that we need to point out in this message.
Confrontation between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian people
This article is a critique of Naomi Klein’s Harper’s piece “Minority Death Match: Jews, Blacks, And the ‘Post-Racial’ Presidency.” Arlene Eisen and Kali Akuno both attended the UN Conference against Racism, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Geneva, April 2009 as part of the United against Racism Delegation. Their response to Naomi Klein originally appeared on Kali Akuno’s blog Navigating the Storm. (Thanks to Jed for suggesting it.) Posting this substantive piece here on Kasama does not imply agreement with the many specifics of its analysis.
On its face, Naomi Klein’s article, “Minority Death Match,” does a disservice to both the movements for reparations and redress for crimes against people of African descent and for self determination for the Palestinian people. But, given her reputation as an anti-imperialist thinker and recent high-profile visit to Palestine, where she endorsed the international campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel, we want to give her the benefit of the doubt.
It is no mean feat to publish an article in a corporate magazine that [rarely] includes any reportage that exposes Israel’s lies.
1. She reports well on the case for reparations
2. She provides an insightful narrative on aspects of the African reparations movement
3. She recognizes the synergy of interests between US, Israel and Europe
4. She points out that Obama betrayed Black people by waffling on reparations and boycotting the UN’s anti-racist efforts in Geneva.
But the critical failures of the article sabotage her good intentions. At first glance, one might forgive the title “Minority Death Match” as an editor’s attempt to sensationalize Klein’s material. Unfortunately, the theme of “Jews against Blacks” – or more precisely “Blacks must choose between Jews and Palestinians” recurs throughout Klein’s article. This theme takes different forms in Klein’s account of the April 2009 UN Conference on Racism, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance held in Geneva. But regardless of the form, the conclusion is the same: Ahmedinejad, Muslims and by implication: Palestinians,– not Israel, the US and other Western Countries—have primary responsibility to preventing the UN from holding a conference that would advance a pro-reparations/anti-racist agenda.
Here are the steps Klein takes to let Israel, US and Western imperialism off the hook.
This was received from A World to Win News Service.
Iran: “An analytical declaration on the present crisis and the tasks of revolutionary communists” – part 2
10 August 2009. A World to Win News Service. The following document by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Iran (Marxist-Leninist- Maoist) dated 28 June 2009 was recently released publicly. This is the second of a two-part series. The first part, published in AWTWNS 090727, focused on analysing the situation. The English translation is unofficial.
This wave has just started
With the accumulation of 30 years of anger and the collapse of its legitimacy among the majority of people, the regime’s inability to carry forward plans to suppress the masses will cause the continuation of a new wave of struggle among the masses. This wave can emerge abruptly or recede and will advance through ups and downs. The longer this revolutionary wave lasts, the more developed will be the polarization between the more advanced and the more conservative strata of the people, both objectively and subjectively.
Now the deep contradiction between the masses of oppressed and the exploited classes and the IRI is developing through leaps. This is reflected in the battlefield of the streets. In practice and on the battlefield the radical sections have demonstrated their differences with the “green wave” [the Islamic opposition led by presidential candidate Mir Hussein Mousavi] and “Allah-u akbar” [those chanting "God is great"].
The problem is that a solid core that would have an organisational and political impact on the radical section of the people has not formed yet. Only when the deep class feelings of a section of these more radical strata is linked with revolutionary communist political consciousness and finds organisational expression can it be said that this part of the people have their own solid core. Then it can be said that the political scene has effectively changed. Then there will exist a small but concentrated conscious and determined force among the masses that can neutralize the other side [the green wave and allah-u akbar] and become a pole of attraction leading the masses.
Nazim passed this on, thinking people should know about it:
Urgent Call!
Letter to Student Newsletter Bazr
July 03, 2009
News leaking from prisons and underground detention centers In Iran-Tehran, where detainees of the recent uprisings are kept is horrifying. It is important to start a massive campaign to expose on going crimes and genocides and to demand an unconditional and immediate release of all political prisoners. In Iran , families of the past or recent political prisoners can be the central nucleus and instigator to start the campaign. But, at this point and time Iranian in Diaspora can play a very significant role in this matter. Even the gatherings of the anniversary of the massacre of 1989 can be used as an occasion for this purpose.
News talk of brutal and inhumane tortures of inflicted on youths and others detained in resent uprising with intention to kill. At the same time pressure is put on marked and known people, like reporters and activists in Moussavi or Karrobi’s camp to confess to their alleged crimes. It seems that in case of youths they are adopting the Latin America policies of disappearance. A prison guard in Evin was explaining that every day, from the segment allocated to Basiji (Militia ) and information center of the Revolutionary Guard (army ), where no one is allowed to enter there, the harsh and severe torturing is going on and that they are all unnerved because of the screams and cries from within; and that every day at least 10 corps, killed under the tortures are thrown in the ambulances and carried out to an unmarked burial places.
Beginning in 2006, the United States under the Bush administration began issuing increasingly bellicose statements and threats concerning Iran’s nuclear program. During the same time Israel’s threats on Iran were much more explicit, and a topic of frequent discussion was whether Israel might act as a proxy for the US in attacking Iranian nuclear sites. Is this also an active option for the Obama administration?
Vice President Joe Biden, apparently speaking on behalf of the Obama administration, has just given Israel the green light to bomb Iran.
“Israel can determine for itself — it’s a sovereign nation — what’s in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else,” he told ABC’s “This Week” in an interview broadcast Sunday. “Whether we agree or not, they’re entitled to do that. Any sovereign nation is entitled to do that. But there is no pressure from any nation that’s going to alter our behavior as to how to proceed. If the Netanyahu government decides to take a course of action different than the one being pursued now, that is their sovereign right to do that. That is not our choice,” he declared.
“Whatever the outcome, it is vitally important to keep in mind that we are witnessing a great emancipatory event which doesn’t fit the frame of the struggle between pro-Western liberals and anti-Western fundamentalists.”
By Slavoj Zizek
When an authoritarian regime approaches its final crisis, its dissolution as a rule follows two steps. Before its actual collapse, a mysterious rupture takes place: all of a sudden people know that the game is over, they are simply no longer afraid. It is not only that the regime loses its legitimacy, its exercise of power itself is perceived as an impotent panic reaction.
We all know the classic scene from cartoons: the cat reaches a precipice, but it goes on walking, ignoring the fact that there is no ground under its feet; it starts to fall only when it looks down and notices the abyss. When it loses its authority, the regime is like a cat above the precipice: in order to fall, it only has to be reminded to look down…
In Shah of Shahs, a classic account of the Khomeini revolution, Ryszard Kapuscinski located the precise moment of this rupture: at a Tehran crossroad, a single demonstrator refused to budge when a policeman shouted at him to move, and the embarrassed policeman simply withdrew; in a couple of hours, all Tehran knew about this incident, and although there were street fights going on for weeks, everyone somehow knew the game is over.
