This is a publication of the Communist Youth Organization of the Workers Communist Party of Iran
We are the 99% April 23th 2013
Communist Youth Organization April 4th protest! The ultimatum to the Tunisian government and protest in front of the central mosque in Stockholm in support and defence of Amina against the Islamists: Today, the fourth of April, protests took place in many cities around the world in defence of a Tunisian youth named Amina who has been threatened with flogging as well as stoning in Tunisia. The Communist Youth Organization (the youth branch of The Workers’ Communist Party of Iran) organized a protest in support of Amina in front of the Tunisian embassy in Stockholm: this protest was received widely by the public as well as the media! This protest that took place alongside organizations such as the Organization Against Discrimination, and the International Committee Against Execution. The above three organizations had a meeting with the Tunisian Embassy as well as presented them with an open letter and requested the immediate freedom of Amina, the guarantee of her safety and security, as well as the prosecution of the Islamist individuals and groups involved in the threats made against Amina. In this way it was made clear to the Tunisian embassy that the government of Tunisia is directly responsible for the well-being of Amina and for bringing to justice those involved in compromising her security. Swedish radio and television, as well as the international media were present at the location and conducted interviews with the organizers of the protest. The protesters chanted the slogans “You are responsible for Amina’s life!”, “Freedom and Equality”, “We will fight and we will win!”, “All women around the world and specifically, women in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and all of the Middle East and Africa must be freed from sexual slavery and the oppression of patriarchy, religion and the ruling capitalist system.” Among the protesters was a Swedish women’s rights
Communist Youth Organization March 2nd protest! On March 2nd the Communist Youth Organization of the Workers’ Communist Party of Iran held a women’s rights demonstration in Stockholm, Sweden. This protest made a resounding media impact around the world with coverage from over 25 different international news agencies and close to 10 different languages! During this protest two women became nude with the slogans “my nudity is my voice!” and “hijab is not my choice!” printed on their chests. This protest underscored the reality of women’s right under Islam. The protesters exclaimed with their voices and their nudity that all Islamic regimes are agents of the oppression, de-humanization, humiliation, and degradation of women: that Islam is first and foremost a vehicle to enslave women. With this reverberating demonstration these Iranian communist youth activists brought attention to the gender apartheid, anti-women regime in Iran: a regime that has remained in power for almost 30 years using torture, public stoning, public amputations and public hangings to propagate fear and terror. Although the focus of this protest was squarely set to raise awareness women’s rights and freedoms under Islam, with a specific focus on the Islamic republic of Iran’s violence against women, it was also a strong comradeship and solidarity with all freedom lovers, and all women activists around the world that have taken stance for women’s rights. It was also a prequel to
activist that went topless in support of Amina and against the Islamists and the Tunisian government. Following this day of action, the Communist Youth Organization activists conducted a nude protest in front of the Tunisian central mosque with the slogans “Free Amina”, “No to religion”, “Freedom and equality” written on their bodies and chanted “Amina must be freed”. They also chanted slogans in defence of all women against religion, patriarchy, and sexual slavery. No to religion, no to sexual slavery Long live freedom and equality Youth Communist Organization April, 4, 2013 The April 4th protest was covered by the following news agencies and many other media sources: Metro news, The Huffingtonpost, Friatider news, Sveriges radio, Demotix news, Alarabiya news
larger event: March 8th (The International Women’s Day). One of the women’s rights groups that have had a large media impact around the world recently is FEMEN. This Ukrainian based women’s rights group has held several nude protests against various dictators and religious icons such as the catholic pope and in solidarity with female activists such as the Egyptian protester Alia Al Mahdi. Different open groups associated with FEMEN have held demonstrations around the world. Currently FEMEN headquarters is based in Ukraine; however it is opening branches in various European cities, in Canada and the United States. The nude protest by the Communist Youth Organization of Iran was in part inspired by the FEMEN nude style activism that has had vast media impact (“my breasts are my weapons”) around the globe. Although the work of the CYO is more complex and specific (a prime focus on Iran) in nature, it shares close ties with FEMEN in its’ views in regards to women’s right and freedoms (one of the many branches existing in the Worker Communist Party). The two groups are planning joint demonstrations and various events in the future. The March 2nd protest was covered by the following news agencies and many other media sources:
The voice of Russia, Milliyet news, Blitzquotidiano news, Cedar news, Ekstrabladet news, Profi-Forex news, Hurriyet news, Actualidad news, Flashback news, Zing news, Albawaba news, Sun news network, Huffington post news network, The inquisitor news network, The digital journal, International Business Times, Huffington post United Kingdom, MSN news, Hidayatuallah news, Inilah news
No-one speaks for everyone but Amina speaks for me! Maryam Namazie The International day to defend 19 year old Tunisian FEMEN activist Amina was not “racism”, “colonialism”, or “cultural imperialism”as some have said. It was just good old fashioned human solidarity - across borders and boundaries (many of them constructed). Those who say otherwise have bought into the culturally-relativist notion that societies in the Middle East and North Africa (and even the “Muslim community” in the west) are “Islamic” and“conservative”. Whilst those in power determine the dominant culture, there is no one homogeneous culture anywhere. Those who consider nude protest as “foreign”and “culturally inappropriate” are only considering Islamism’s sensibilities and values, not that of the many who resist. Clearly, in the same way that there are opponents of nude protest and supporters of the veil in the “west”, there are also supporters of nude protest and opponents of the veil in the “east”. This shouldn’t be surprising. A large young population in many countries of the Middle East and North Africa brings with it challenges to the status quo as does the recent women-led revolutions and the backlash against Islamism. When one is faced with an Islamic movement that considers you to be worth half of a man and demands that you be bound, gagged, veiled, and segregated, then nudity becomes an important form of resistance and dissent as well as solidarity. Islamists want us covered up, hidden, and not seen and not heard; we refuse to comply. Those who claim outrage at our nudity on behalf of all “Muslim women” are merely attempting to conflate Islamist with“Muslim” (who comprise of innumerable people with countless characteristics). They do it so that Islamism can feign representation, restrict dissent, and prescribe the limits of “acceptable” expression. But no one speaks for everyone. Amina speaks for me and us, and for a new women’s liberation movement that is confronting misogyny head on. It’s a movement where nudity is seen to be an important challenge to the veil and Islamism. And “Islamic feminists” speak for their movement; for the abomination that is Sharia law, gender apartheid, and the veil. They are deafeningly silent on the death fatwa against Amina and countless others. And they are more concerned with defending Islamism and Islam, than defending women’s rights and equality. One such critic of the nude protests, Shohana Khan, who is described as a "London based freelance writer" in the Huffington Post, is in fact the deputy media representative of Hizb ut Tahrir, a far-Right Islamist organisation. Another “journalist”, Yvonne Ridley, has worked for Press TV, the propaganda arm of the Islamic regime of Iran and is a patron of an Islamist-front organisation called Cage Prisoners. The nude protest in support of Amina has nothing to do with “cultural imperialists” patronisingly “rescuing Muslim women” anymore than the fight for women’s suffrage was a rescue attempt and a form of cultural imperialism (after all the idea was “foreign” to begin with). Only those who see their rights and lives as separate and different from those deemed “other” and who have bought into (or are selling) Islamism’s narrative can see solidarity and the demand for equality in this warped way. In one article, a “feminist” goes so far as to say that the nude protest for Amina justifies “aggression, violence, and prejudice against Muslim communities”. But no violence was involved. Burning an Islamic flag and even protesting at a mosque does not violence make. In fact, the act of solidarity was in response to Islamism’s violence and threats of violence via a religious fatwa against a young girl whose only “crime” was to scrawl on her breasts: “my body belongs to me, and is not the source of anyone’s honour” and“fuck your morals”. No one “forced” nudity on “Muslim women”. Any force has always been from the Islamic movement against women – “Muslim”, ex-Muslim, and none.
Those who equate the nude protest in support of Amina with racism and an attack on “Muslim” immigrants erroneously see an attack on misogynist beliefs and movements as an attack on people and choose to side with culture and religion over the lives and rights of human beings. This culturally relativist perspective implies that women’s liberation is only for those who are ”white” and ”western”; the rest of us are only allowed “freedom” within the cultural and religious confines of Islam. But no religion frees women, particularly not one that has access to political power and is spearheading an inquisition. Women are freer the less of a role religion plays in the public space, in the state, in the judicial system- not the other way around. And since when are rights “western”?Islamists use the latest technology to advance their barbarity but when it comes to women’s rights, it’s “western” and “foreign”. Even if rights are western (which they are not), they were fought for by progressive social movements and the working class and belong to all humanity. In the words of women’s rights campaigners who chanted on the streets of Tehran in 1979 in opposition to compulsory veiling: “Neither eastern nor western, women’s rights are universal”and “Freedom is our culture”. Of course, there are many wonderful women’s rights defenders who are Muslim, secular and anti-Islamism who oppose nudity as a form of protest. They feel it is offensive. But anything that breaks taboos and demands fundamental change will offend existing sensibilities. Nudity outrages and offends because the actuality and frankness of women’s bodies as a form of protest upsets the religious, patriarchal, pornographic and commodified image that is separate from the reality of women’s bodies, minds and lives. Nudity is deemed offensive because it dares to reclaim a tool used for women’s suppression for women’s liberation. They say nudity is shocking and shakes the very foundations of our societies. But that is exactly the whole point. In the fine words of Amina: “my body belongs to me, and is not the source of anyone’s honour”
Jacque Fresco’s Resource-based economic model A brief look at the principles behind a “resource-based economy” There is no profit in abundance
As we go on our daily routine in life we can observe much abundance provided by natural environment such as the fresh air we breathe, such as trees and their shades on hot days, as well as the water we drink, sunlight, and much more. We even enjoy abundance in our person to person relationships such making new friends and finding significant others. These and much more come at almost no cost to us. Things such as these come with no price tags and society does not directly charge us for them. Most companies and corporations also find it difficult to put a price tag on simple things such as enjoying the shade of the tree since there is an abundance of it all around us. It is difficult to charge people also for the air we breathe since that is also abundance. Turing something into a commodity such as for example natural spring water (as opposed to tap water), requires for it to be in short supply where a person lives and is in demand by the people living there, it also needs to have some kind of use value. The price of the water bottle would be then contingent on the costs of producing it (variable costs plus the concrete capital costs). Natural spring water in the outskirts of the mountains, or fresh water from the lakes, may come with no cost to the people living there, since it is simply abundant and it is difficult for a company to put a price tag on it. Natural vs. Artificial Scarcity There are many things in life that is naturally scarce in the geolocation of where one lives. As a simple example: if one lives in the northern parts of the American continent than one has to purchase the avocado fruit from the market, something that grows easily in countries in the southern climate such as Guyana and Jamaica where one can grow an avocado tree in one’s backyard and enjoy an abundance of this fruit. On a larger scale lumber is an abundant resource in Canada, however it is less so in the United States. Oil is rich in the Middle-East and less so in China and this list goes on. Simply speaking the natural resources of the world is not divided equally between all nations, and even between the areas within the same country or even within the same province of a country. In this way the country state or a national or an international company has relative control of the resource and is in a position to commodify the resource for a market price. However a closer look at the natural geo-location relative resources (if something is abundant where you live than it comes free or at a very cheap market price) has also proven to become misleading or an incorrect assumption at best. There is one key factor that must be considered here and it alone decides what is scarce and what is abundant: control. Who has the control of the resource is the key: it is also the most important factor involved in what is considered abundant and what is considered scarce in any geo-location on earth. For example if you own an apple tree in your backyard, you control that apple resource, and enjoying an apple in the autumn season comes almost free of charge to you. Further, if you are the only person in the area that owns an apple tree you have the ability to charge for the fruits of that apple if you wish to (consider that it is in demand). The reality of today’s world is that a resource that may have been abundant in a particular geo-location for the people living there can become a scarcity almost overnight. All this requires is a corporation to buy the resource and to fence it away from the citizens of the area. For example, a river that may have crossed through a village where the people there may have used it for many purposes (drinking, swimming, bathing, leisure etc...) can be fenced away from them. Although the river that was once a natural resource that was in abundance for people to use and enjoy, perhaps for centuries, is now an overnight scarcity: the people in that village are placed in a position to have to pay to use it. Examples of this scenario are abundant in today’s world and more examples date back centuries. Simply put, there is no profit in abundance and a great deal of profit if a resource is made scares, even when it was naturally abundant it can be made artificially scarce at almost a moment’s notice. The same scheme of thought can be applied to technology. The patents on technology are an artificial contract with consumers about who can and who cannot have access to the commodity and regulated by the market and state governance. This artificial control
encompasses everything from television and fridges all the way to medical technology including patent control on medication and general treatment of patients with a variety of diseases and ailments. Advancements in electrical technologies have also been in this way patented and controlled to maintain the need for fossil fuel, a scarce resource. Ever since the day Nikola Tesla was able to use water current as a source electric energy and made the first designs of the electric car, the stage was set to make the use of fossil fuels redundant as a source of energy. Adding Tesla´s inventions to solar power, geothermal and wind energy, one really needs to consider the special interests behind the maintenance of the demand for the use of fossil fuels since electrical energy is now abundance and no longer a scarce resource: an energy source that has limitless potential. The artificial creation of scarcity also has another face: artificially manufacturing a “human need” for an item and controlling the distribution of it via market pricing. One everyday example of this is women and men’s cosmetic which has a large global market. The “need” to have hair products for men for example, only became popular and in demand after mass advertising and the manufacturing of a man’s image in the media which dates back decades now. After the corporations having manufactured the need (or manipulated other human needs such as the need for relatedness) in the human psyche when it really never existed before, the hair products became increasingly in demand. Other examples of manufacturing and or the manipulation of existing human needs to create a market for a product can be seen everywhere: larger television, new cars, larger houses etc… This is creating profit through manufacturing an artificial “need” and thus demand and controlling the commodity market to satisfy that “need”: thus a market value through an artificially made scarcity of product since the corporations will control the distribution of it. Resource-based economy theory exclaims that as long as there is a limited number of an item that satisfies a human need of any sort, be it as useful as energy, or as useless as gold, there will be the people that try to control it or comodify it. There will be the need for laws to regulate it and for the police to enforce it. It creates a world where it necessitates an education system that will teach people to accept living in a world where almost everything is scarce and one needs to slave for it via alienating work to have it. The Venus Project Jacque Fresco, the principle theorist behind the resource-based economy provides an alternative model to the capitalist based economy. The Venus Project is a futuristic look at the way humanity could live considering the abundances of natural resources that are available to us today. His premise for this society is based on one important factor: the division of all natural resources available on earth without any divisions based on arbitrary and artificial country and nation state borders. In this way the uneven distribution of resources that may have made them a scarcity in on country and perhaps abundance in another will be nullified: thus eliminating the ability of one person or a group to profit from it. Fresco uses the example of gold to explain his ideas of abundance vs. scarcity: if it were to start raining gold one day then it will have no market value, people may hoard it for a day, but will soon star brushing it out of their houses and driveways. Frasco underscores the fact that in today’s world the there is already the technology and the natural and human resources necessary to satisfy all human needs if divided equally and consumed wisely. Fresco considers technology as a vehicle to free humanity from “work” and for allowing humanity to live without servitude, and not in competition with the increasing productivity of labour via technological advancement that comes with the cost of losing jobs to more productive machines: technology as an extension of humanity rather than in competition with it. Fresco also highlights how incentives change in a resource-based economy when important contemporary human needs such as owning a home, a car, travelling etc ... are met. The idea of satisfying basic necessities such as owning a home or a car as an incentive becomes negated when all human needs are met via the abundance provided by equal redistribution of resources and a better use of technology. Instead of being without incentive people will be guided by their interests in different arts and scientific ventures rather than being enslaved to an alienating job or work: meaningfully contributing to society. He describes a world without anyone being subservient to another, and without social stratification, elitism or state.
A Glimpse of Hope
Regarding the Current Protests in Iraq Esam Shoukry A big wave of mass protests are gripping Iraq today especially in the provinces of Anbar, Mosul, Salahuddin and Kirkuk. These protests embody the aspirations of hundreds of thousands of deprived and hopeless young people and workers. Although these protests seemed at first as a direct response to the arrest of Finance Minister Rafie al-Issawi’s bodyguards, the course of events has revealed that this arrest was a detonator which inflamed the emotions of anger and frustration built up for years from deprivation, oppression, and complete alienation. . At first, the demonstrations’ character seemed extremely sectarian, as a result of Sunni Islamic and Baath party’s influence, and also the possible influence and threats of Al-Qaeda and its militias' “Amirs”, the accomplice tribal leaders, to achieve their own agendas. But the overwhelming mass demands quickly overwhelmed. Social demands have begun to take shape and voices seeking freedom were louder than those of sectarianism and religion (despite the fear and intimidation). The demonstrations started to look away from the religious and sectarian forces and began to gain growing sympathy (including inevitably the southern cities). Their demands revolved around the release of prisoners detained by Maliki troops, the abolition of the Terrorism Act (called Law no. 4 – terrorism), and the halt of arbitrary arrests, exposing all cases of rape of women prisoners and torture widely practiced against detainees, and stopping all mass executions, mock trials, in addition to other demands. The situation in Iraq is not an outcome of a sectarian conflict, as some want us to believe, but rather a reflection of a deep class struggle which finds more channels to express itself, no matter how hard they try to cover it with a pile of religious and tribal garbage. In another scene, in the capitol Baghdad, and before the outbreak of protests, heavy rains flooded the impoverished city, literally cutting off most of its neighborhoods. The stormwater swept across many residential areas leading to flooding of thousands of homes. The level of water reached half a meter inside the houses. This water was contaminated due to the mixing of sewage and rainwater which formed a real danger to the people. Both Baghdad Municipal Council and the Municipality of Baghdad are considered responsible for this disaster. But members of both institutions blame each other for negligence in an attempt to escape responsibility (it’s worth noting that councilors of Baghdad Municipal Council and Baghdad Municipality, are all members in the Islamic ruling parties; Da’wa, the Supreme Islamic Council, or Muktada Al Sadr group). Iraqi TVs showed bedrooms of thousands of families flooded. Iraqi families have no beds due to their poverty and therefore the damage was furthered by this and the fact that most families live in ramshackle houses. Apart from this flood, social and living conditions are deteriorating in Iraq; not only at the level of basic services, electricity, water, sewer, services, but also due to rampant unemployment, impoverishment caused by
unemployment of millions of young people. This material deterioration in living conditions is coupled with lack of individual and social liberties due to oppressive practices and continuing Islamic terrorism despite the fact that the latter is dwindling and loosing popularity and mass support. This situation is important to know as it gives a background to the true story of the Iraqi people at large. In the mean time, the crippled Iraqi government headed by Maliki is trying in vain to achieve the so-called National Participation. This aim has been clashing with the true nature of the parties controlling the government and their religious, anti-civil, and sectarian composition. For that, Maliki himself appears to be in disarray. Every time he tries to negotiate a deal with a rebellious bloc to silence it, another ones screams to protest his so-called “unbearable” dictatorship!. These “democratic” outcries are in fact trying to cover deeper political conflicts between the ruling religious factions, i.e. the ones caused by the escalating events in Syria. Maliki and his main supporter, the Islamic Republic of Iran, is clearly under attack due to the weakening position of Assad regime. Maliki played a role in stopping the advancement of the Syrian revolution through supporting the regime and smuggled weapons and fighters from the Islamic Republic. With this situation on the ground, the nationalist Kurds, who have long enjoyed the fruits of their “cooperation” with the West and US invasion of Iraq, have found themselves lining up with another reactionary Islamic alliance that is of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey, supported by the US. But regardless of the media skirmishes between the axis of the Islamic Republic and that of Saudi Arabia-Qatar-Turkey, the clashes between the militias of Maliki and the Kurdish Peshmerga in Duz-Khurmatu have caused few casualties and gave both reactionary sides a test of power. The masses in that city, and all other so called disputed areas, have shown different position. They refused both sides and exposed their attempts to drag the people into a bloody catastrophe. When Maliki tested his limits with the nationalist Kurds, he lead the situation to a stand-still, preferring to return to his other “annoying” Sunni opponents within his government (called allies in the “political process”, i.e. Al Iraqiya bloc). The latter has been trying to hamper Maliki central authority, finding in the Saudi-Qatari-Turkish support to Islamic pro-Western groups in the “Arab Spring” countries, a glimpse of hope. But so far, it seems that Maliki is winning the battle. He succeeded to fight the attempts of the Islamic party (pro-West group supported by Saudi Arabia and the Wahabis). He first put Tarek Al Hashimi on trial for terrorism, and then proceeded to surround other prominent figures in that bloc using his infamous (law no. 4 - terrorism). After 10 years of their imposition by the US occupation, this shows the failure of these groups to lead the so-called Political Process and to establish any degree of a State that can actually be considered a modern body of governance for the bourgeoisie. The mass protests, on the other hand, demonstrate in practical terms, that the peoples increasingly distance themselves from the influence of the rival sectarian sections of the government (i.e. the Shiite and the Sunnis).
Much of this decline is due to the failure of the government on the basic levels but also to its diminishing attempts to further deceive the masses in its ability to rule; it denotes the diminishing role of Political Islam to rule. But there is another essential element which may not be as obvious, however, effective. It is the growing presence of the Left and worker -communist’s influence. True, this force is still small, but in a situation where society is searching for an alternative, sectors of the working class, secularists, and revolutionary angry youth started to show interest in the left, secularism, and socialism that is very clearly represented in worker communism and especially the Left worker-communist party of Iraq, as a revolutionary force. Finally, it is worth saying something about the speech of Izzat al-Duri, a prominent aide to Saddam Hussein before the U.S. invasion and major representative of the Baath party and Pan-Arabism. In his speech, he addressed the demonstrators promoting Chauvinism as alternative to Maliki’s so-called “Safavi” rule, but in vain. The trend represented by al-Duri is in fact defeated, not today but much longer before the US uprooted it from power in 2003. The Baath party has chosen, after the bankruptcy of Arab Nationalism to ally itself with the Islamic Wahabi Sunni trend supported by Saudi Arabia and became a part of the proWest political Islam. The people of Iraq have long condemned this party’s fascism and bloody ideology. No matter what Al Duri claims, there is little chance for him to advance or gain any significant political gains by trying to hijack the demonstrations. Within this reality that seems complicated, emerge two simple facts; first that there are mass protests sweeping across Iraq to protest deprivation and lack of freedoms and dignity, working class that protests its impoverishment and lack of decent jobs, women deprived of all rights to the worst level under the control of the Islamists and tribal leaders and clerics and seek salvation. The other fact is being the beginning of emergence of the Left within the camp of people, the increase of secular and civilized tendency among the protesting youth. Indeed the first reality stands out as “inevitable” due to the impact “Arab spring”. Yet the second is not as inevitable. It requires our involvement, the involvement of communists, socialists, workers, women, secularists, egalitarians, and freedom loving people. All those who have a great hope and aspiration to make a profound change, are duty bound to intervene and lead the growing protests.
Editors: Chia Barsen Editors' Assistant: Siavash Shahabi iran.cyo@gmail.com http://cyo-iran.blogspot.se youtube.com/user/sjknews facebook.com/cyoiran