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From Nawal El Saadawi to Iranian men and women demonstrating in the the streets

This is a revolution of the Iranian people against internal and external dictatorships and exploitation, against local and global powers, political, economic and religious powers. Iranian men and women, young and old, are fighting against oppression, inequality, injustices and domination. This is the voice of Iranian people. It is heard clearly all over the world. No power can stop them before they achieve their goals. No power can erase their blood.

Nawal El Saadawi

Regrouping Against Repression in Iran

21 June 2001

The video clip below is from Al Giordano's The Field.

But, first ... It is refreshingly reassuring to see more able voices coming out in opposition to idiocy, when it comes to presenting realistic analyses of what's going on in Iran. I have known for a long time that, though the Clueless Leftists (CL, from here) are a loud bunch, their numbers are small. So, although it may seem like it at times, not all Americans leftists are CL: which is to say, not lost in the fog of stupidity and cowardice, refusing to stand with the people in Iran, and instead standing steadfast with the murderous machinery that is shooting the people in the streets.

Anybody not standing with the people, in this very unambiguous people-v-state situation, are standing with a most vicious dictatorship the Iranians have had to endure.

What Now in Iran?

Found this on Payvand Iran News. Not a totally bad analysis. But, the end section of the article (quoted here), sets out the different paths that can unfold from this point.

The most important part the analysis is that it correctly maintains that there are THREE camps (not just two) in the current struggle: the conservatives, the reformists, and the PEOPLE! This last one is completely missing from the analysis of most people. Everybody thinks this is just a power play between the two factions of the system, and so some 'leftists' too cynical to see that people do have their own mind, are construing this whole thing as a CIA-directed velvet revolution. CIA can only WISH they were that good! But, the people in Iran decided to insert themselves as a force independent of both ruling factions and have pushed the issue well past what the 'reformists' are comfortable with.

Mir-Hossein Mousavi's Iran/Contra Connection?

What do Michael Ledeen (the American 'neo-conservative'), Mir-Hossein Mousavi (the Iranian presidential candidate of 'chagne') and Adnan Khashoggi (the opulent Saudi Arabian jet-setter) have in common?

They are all good friends and associates of Manuchehr Ghorbanifar (an Iranian arms merchant, an alleged MOSSAD double agent, and a key figure in the Iran/Contra Affair, the arms-for-hostages deals between Iran and the Reagan administration). In one or two, at most three, degrees of separation, these people hung out in the same circles and very likely drank to the same toasts.

You can find all kinds of trivia about Ghorbanifar in the Walsh Report on the Iran/Contra affair. In Chapter 8, for example, we learn:

"Ghorbanifar, an Iranian exile and former CIA informant who had been discredited by the agency as a fabricator, was a driving force behind these proposals [for arms-for-hostages deal];" or, "Ghorbanifar, as broker for Iran, borrowed funds for the weapons payments from Khashoggi, who loaned millions of dollars to Ghorbanifar in "bridge financing'" for the deals. Ghorbanifar repaid Khashoggi with a 20 percent commission after being paid by the Iranians," (see: http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_08.htm).

Here is a bit from an article by Time magazine that shows Ghorbanifar's circle of associates; it is from a January 1987 cover story (The Murky World of Weapons Dealers; January 19, 1987):

"By [Ghorbanifar's] own account he was a refugee from the revolutionary government of Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, which confiscated his businesses in Iran, yet he later became a trusted friend and kitchen adviser to Mir Hussein Mousavi, Prime Minister in the Khomeini government. Some U.S. officials who have dealt with Ghorbanifar praise him highly. Says Michael Ledeen, adviser to the Pentagon on counterterrorism: "[Ghorbanifar] is one of the most honest, educated, honorable men I have ever known." Others call him a liar who, as one puts it, could not tell the truth about the clothes he is wearing," (emphasis added).

Iran: June 20th Demonstrations

The images were found by following links from the Kasama site.
The images are powerful in showing the rebels standing, marching, and fighting with the Iranian State security agencies and their quasi-fascist paramilitary street militias like the Basij and Iranian Ansar-e Hezbollah.

While we need to see the complex nature of the demonstrations and that the rebels are in no way a unified political bloc, the revolt by sectors of the Iranian people inspires and cuts against the "anti-imperialist" politics of so many on the Left who give regimes like the Iranian Islamic Republic support in the face of Western capitalist Empire. "Left anti-imperialism" so soften stays mute on the crimes and authoritarianism of governments that appear in opposition to the U.S and its allies. The "Left" by and large gives tacit approval to the regimes of Iran and Venezuela because these governments are seen as somehow an anti-hegemonic force. Talk of how these governments have murdered and outlawed dissent, or how these regimes attempt to liquidate the varied parties and organizations either by force or through "legislating" them into singular, unitary top-down mega-party formations, this talk is muted because the "Left" somehow thinks criticism aids Empire. What criticism there is remains hushed and closeted. those of us who do stand in critical opposition are considered part of the imperialist project.

We can have no illusions in the "progressiveness" or "anti-imperialism" of these regimes. Fuck All Governments. Up with mass rebellion!

more images

And a video showing street fighting by thousands of rebels against the Iranian security forces. Watch entire piece, the best bits are last!


Its also important to show the brutality of the Iranian security agencies. Below is video footage of a 24 year old woman reportedly shot dead by Basij fascists. The woman's name was Neda.

The Video is graphic and disturbing and shows the difficult situation the rebels (as well as everyday peoples who find themselves in the mix) are in.

Remember the dead, fight for the living!

Marg bar Dictator

(Death to the Dictator)

I talked to a U.S. born Iranian friend of mine who is also an anarchist-communist, and asked his take on the election and protests. His perspective was Moosavi was no progressive or democratic alternative to Ahmadinejad. My friend also said that Moosavi was going to loose as all previous polls showed Ahmadinejad winning by a 2:1 margin.

While Moosavi was able to rally tens of thousands of people - urbanites, students, youth, pro-western and free market business interests, Ahmadinejad has wide and popular support amongst the poor and rural masses that dwarfs the opposition. A combination of fundamentalist politics, charity to the poor in the form of social-economic aid, and opposition to the West/US, have helped solidify Ahmadinejad's political position and to maintain his favor with Grand Ayatollah Khāmene’i - for now - even if Khāmene’i has called for inquiries into the election.

So what then do the protests mean? The value of the opposition and protests is to democratize Iranian society and give voice to the anti-fundamentalist forces despite thses opposition forces being a myriad of tendencies whose varying visions may ultimately be in contradiction to each other as is illustrated by there being both bourgeois and Western trends functioning in the same periphery as a revolutionary "Left" tendency as well as thousands of young people who are just tired of being harassed and repressed. The protests should be supported as being an expression of the anti-theocracy, anti-fundamentalist, and pro-freedom desires of mass sectors of Iranian society.

As for an outcome, the opposition may ask for - in return for putting the breaks on the protests - a Zimbabwe type scenario, that being where Moosavi is brought into a governmental configuration with Ahmadinejad. There is no exact example of this in contemporary Iranian history, but it may be the only pragmatic way the Iranian ruling classes see of ending the protests. I think that such a scenario would stabilize Iran but in doing so would extinguish the actual progressive and radical potentials that the protest movements and demonstrations represent.

Here are some links to various news and analysis on the Iranian situation. As always, threewayfight does not necessarily endorse the political conclusions of these articles or links.

from the forum Anarchist Black Cat:

Paul: On the one hand you have the, for lack of a better term, "Pro-market" wing - i.e. wealthy business men (aligned with Rafsanjani) and their small business and monied middle class allies who are frustrated with the Republican Guards creeping takeover of the economy. Mousavi's economic programme is definitely oriented in this direction.

You also have the pro-democracy and pro-liberalisation students who rioted in 1999 and 2003.

But still, both of these together do not add up to the mass upsurge we have seen in the last days. I speculate that the spontaneous mass mobilisation is more to do with an anti-Basij tendency than the pro-market one. In effect the attack on the Basij base was both manifestation and manifesto. Bob Fisk made the point, in a comment quoted by Al Jazeera:

But Fisk said not all the protesters were supporting Mousavi, many were simply making a statement about the vote.

"I don't think they [the demonstrators] are all supporting Mir Hossein Mousavi, they are objecting to the presence of Ahmadinejad as the president. They don't believe he won those votes," he told Al Jazeera.

and form the Maoist website, Kasama:

Mike Ely: We have long strongly and correctly opposed the sinister threats of both the U.S. and Israel against the people of Iran. And certainly these are moments when we all need to redouble those efforts together. There is no excuse for allowing these events to become some sick new justification for a criminal U.S. grab for Mideast hegemony.

At the same time, there now come to us, from this major country groaning so long under the bloody hand of the Shi’ite fundamentalists, the cries of people rising up and demanding radical changes. We need to find the ways to politically support them — and to popularize the revolutionary, secular and socialist currents that may well contend and grow among them.

In times of tight repressive governments, outbreaks among the people often involve exploiting cracks (and in-fighting) within the establishment. Liberal reform movements almost always intermingle with more deeply revolutionary currents.