Iran: Beginning of the end

international | rights, freedoms and repression | other press

Thursday June 25, 2009 17:07

by Yassamine Mather

Yassamine Mather writes on the developing situation in Iran, on howdivisions are developing amongst the Mullahs and most importantly on the class composition of the demonstrations. Full text at link.

The problem with most dictators is that, even in their dying days, they believe they can stop the movement by simply passing orders or blaming ‘foreign powers’. Some supporters of the shah are still under the illusion that he was not overthrown by the 1979 Iranian revolution, but was deposed thanks to a plot by Britain and the US. In fact, as he went on speaking, attributing strange comments to Obama (the US president has apparently admitted in public that he had been looking forward to the demonstrations that have rocked Iran), one wondered if Khamenei, well known for using opium as a painkiller for his injured arm, had taken a double dose that morning.

It is now clear that the attempt to impose Ahmadinejad on the Iranian people for another term has thrown the entire regime into terminal crisis, as calls for a general strike are gaining support. On Sunday June 21, Karroubi, still dreaming of a compromise, commented that the regime could yet save “the Islamic order” by annulling the elections. But the failure to do so, combined with the hesitation and dithering of the ‘reformists’, means we are seeing the beginning of the end. No doubt the process could be drawn out and its outcome unpredictable, but it has begun and no-one can stop it.

The calls for a general strike, sit-ins and other forms of civil disobedience are gaining momentum and the protests have now clearly spread to many provincial cities and even some smaller towns, despite the regime’s resort to increasingly repressive methods. Contrary to the claims of apologists for the Iranian regime and some reporters, the demonstrations were not and are not dominated by the middle classes. In fact Iran does not possess such a huge middle class and those who did turn out took courage by the presence on the streets in the first week of large sections of poorer classes.

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Comments (4 of 4)

Misreading

by Bazooka Joe

Fri Jun 26, 2009 16:13

Once again the assumption about the protests in Iran is that they are about changing the political system. They are not. Could Ms Mathers or whoever posted this please give ONE credible reference to Mousavi saying his protests are for a change of the system?

Not About Mousavi

by Chicherin

Fri Jun 26, 2009 16:17

This isnt about Mousavi this is now about bringing down the Theicracy. mousavi is no better than the other Theocrats. In power he was a butcher.

This is about acheiving democracy, the right to vote for candidates not filtered by clerics, the right to join a free union, the right to strike, the right not to wear a hijab.

Those who act as cheerleaders for the Mullahs have Nedas blood on their hands.

The Real Struggle

Fri Jun 26, 2009 16:35

Here are extracts from a statement by the Free Trade Union of Iranian Workers to Iranian workers. There protests aren't just about Mousavi.

We workers, under the present conditions, when social protests have taken the form of a mass and huge movement that has come on the scene to achieve its demands, it is our right to turn the leaflet with the demands of our fellow working class people, into our banner and to raise it. These demands are as follows:

1- Immediate increase in the minimum wage to over 1 million tomans [$1010] a month.
2- An end to temporary contracts and new forms of work contracts.
3- The disbanding of the Labour House and the Islamic Labour Councils as government organisations in the factories and workshops, and the setting up of shoras [councils] and other workers’ organisations independent from the government.
4- Immediate payment of workers’ unpaid wages without any excuses.
5- An end to laying-off workers and payment of adequate unemployment insurance to all unemployed workers.
6- The immediate release of all political prisoners including the workers arrested on May Day, Jafar Azimzadeh, Gholamreza Khani, Said Yuzi, Said Rostami, Mehdi Farahi-Shandiz, Kaveh Mozafari, Mansour Osanloo and Ebrahim Madadi, and an end to surveillance and harassment of workers and labour leaders.
7- The right to strike, protest, assemble and the freedom of speech and the press are the workers’ absolute right.
8- An end to sexual discrimination, child labour and the sacking of foreign workers.

Workers! Today we have a duty to intervene, to pose our demands independently and by relying on our own united strength, together with other sections of society, to work towards achieving our human rights

The Free Trade Union of Iranian Workers
18 June 2009

Full text at http://www.iwsn.org/labour/free-union-workers-18jun09.htm

Mousavi is no reformer

by shoegirl

Tue Jun 30, 2009 11:18

Chicherin and Joe are correct. Mousavi was an integral part of the 1979 revolution who has survived the political system in deep sympathy to the theocratic establishment for 30 years. He is hardly changing his tune now.

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Iran: Beginning of the end

Comments (4 of 4)