The Bridge #5

T he Bridge

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IRAN’S FIRST INDEPENDENT JOURNAL IN MULTIPLE LANGUAGES

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Sunday, November 1, 2009

We’ll hit the Streets to Fight Executions, Suppression, and the Shameless Sentences Against Student Activists and the Workers’ Movement Lead Article:

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>NEWS<

he political situation in Iran today is such that a more advanced and more radical people than the intellectuals and political powers have entered the arena and are expressing their issues and desires in various statements. In this edition I’d like to assign the Editor’s note to a statement published by a group of Iran’s students, who in recent years have represented one of Iran’s political groups. Leftist and socialist students who have called people to the streets to protest against the status quo. These students who time and again [Continued on pg 20]

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hree Minors Rescued From Execution As Victims’ Families Join the Committee Against the Execution

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ilm Makers’ Statement Warning of the Elimination of Independent Cinema

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he Crisis of Capitalism and the tasks of the Marxists – Part Two

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W I hat is the significance of 13th of Aban for us?

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Prison Sentences for British Embassy Staff

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Official Complaint Filed Against Moussavi

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Latest News from Political Prisoners

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Iran Ranks a low 128 among 134 countries in Gender Discrimination

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Nuclear Inspectors Meet Fleeing Scientist Before Tehran Visit

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Dismissal of Baha'i Students from Semnan University

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Iran students carry on protests

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Iran opposition to apologise to US for embassy siege

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Britain, Russia, others urge Iran to respond to uranium proposal

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emembering Omid Reza “Let the first blogger to die in prison be the last”

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Russian Embassy Tightens Security for 4 November

Interview with Kiosk band

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rchive

ranian band Kiosk might be exiles from their country of origin, but that has not stopped them from becoming symbols for a new generation of Persian music fans.

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harles Darwin film 'too controversial for religious America'

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or Organizing

he Hinge of History

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Thinking

of Action

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Gearing up for 13 Aban

By Tara Mahtafar

Brave student defies the “Supreme Leader” of Iran

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o the outside world, street protests in Iran appear to have 'died down' since summer ended. Yet the opposition movement, driven underground, has strategically slated mass turnouts for calendar dates such as September's Qods Day, which turned the government's annual tradition of anti-Israel rallies on its head. By targeting dates of historic significance to the regime, opposition supporters aim to 'subvert' ideological symbols touted for 30 years by the Islamic Republic and thereby re-brand that date as an ideology-free 'green' day, the trademark color of the country's burgeoning pro-democracy movement.

Far from being "spontaneous" as some in the Western media described the last instance when, by many estimates, hundreds of thousands of protesters poured into the streets, antigovernment demonstrations are laboriously planned and promoted a month beforehand, originating online, as ever, and transmitted on the ground by word-of-mouth, leaflets, and other creative ways.

The next major rally date is November 4, known as "13 Aban" on the Iranian calendar, which marks the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Embassy takeover in Tehran. The designated route for the march is Talaghani Avenue in downtown Tehran and other streets near the former American embassy complex. Outside of the capital, protesters are set to march from the (public) State University to (private) Azad University campus in their city.

Initiatives to invite the public to attend 13 Aban rallies began well over a month ago.

Web-based promotion included bulletins on Reformist news sites and posters circulated in social media, especially Facebook. One poster urges protestors to drive their cars to the demonstration route and block the roads, if they fear coming to the streets on foot. Another poster calls on Iranians to chant Allah-o-Akbar from their rooftops at 10 pm on the night before the rally, almost like a collective war cry, except that the opposition is committed to nonviolent struggle.

Aware that Iran's internet penetration rate hovers around 30 percent, efforts to spread the word in the physical world have included the distribution of flyers and writing Green 13 Aban! on billboards, walls, and money bills.

"Money passes from hand to hand," an activist in Tehran involved in promotional efforts told Tehran Bureau. "The message gets out to everyone [that way]."

A post-election phrase popularized by the Facebook page of opposition figure Mir Hossein Mousavi to counter the state's stranglehold on broadcasting, tight censorship of newspapers, and filtering of websites has been: You are the Media. Iran's youth have taken this call to heart, and Wednesday's turnout will be a measure of their success to mobilize the public for symbolic, date-based street protests in sustained a campaign for change.

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brave Iranian student has openly criticised the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a formal annual meeting held between the leader and various intellectuals and academic figures on Wednesday.

In this meeting which is usually a place for students from across Iran to praise the leader and to show him their devotion, a mathematics student from Sharif University of Technology and a winner of the International Mathematics Olympiad courageously rose from amongst those present and requested to speak to the leader.

supervision of the leader. He also touched on the issue of the freedom of speech and the banning of newspapers and the atmosphere of fear that was dominant in the country, while calling on the need for open criticism of the leader himself.

“I have been following newspapers and magazines more seriously for four or five years now. During this time, I do not recall having read any piece that was critical of the leader.”

The student also expressed contempt towards what he described as a campaign to idolise the leader while questioning the “cycle of power” in the Islamic Republic The student then directly addressed the and the structure of the Guardians Council leader criticising him and the Islamic Re- and the Council of the Elite which many public for twenty minutes. His comments believe have compromised the people’s were followed by occasional applause and votes and their say in their own affairs. cheers from those present. Iranian staterun TV which was broadcasting live imThe comments made by this student were ages of the meeting was forced to stop air- actually the main reason for which Ayatoling the programme for some time. lah Khamenei brought up the issue of the elections and its aftermath on Wednesday.

During the meeting this daring student managed to grill Khamenei on a number According to unconfirmed reports, this of issues including the state-run TV’s one- Sharif University student was faced with sided performance during and after the security forces after the meeting was over. elections. State-run Television is under the

Iran's Economic Daily Sarmayeh Banned

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nother Iranian newspaper was shut down by the order of Iran’s ministry of culture.

ILNA reports that Sarmayeh (Capital) daily has lost its publishing privileges after “repeated violations” of specific media regulations.

Ministry officials claim that Sarmayeh was working outside its approved category as a specialized publication in the human sciences field with a research and educational approach.

Last month, Culture Minister Mohammad Hoseini described that the banning of newspapers in Iran “nothing out of the ordinary.”

In the post-election events at least six publications have been shut down.

Iran has been given some of the lowest grades in terms of freedom of press by Reporters without Borders and “Freedom House” media research organization.

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Russian Embassy Tightens Security for 4 November

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he Russian Embassy has demanded extreme security measures for its embassy in Tehran.

It is expected that people will gather outside the Embassy on Wednesday 4 November, Student Day (“fight against arrogance”), and protest against the country’s policies towards Iran.

Officially the day’s events are due to take place Taleghani Street, in front of former U.S Embassy. 4 November marks the 30th anniversary of the US Embassy siege by Iranian students.

Official Complaint Filed Against Moussavi

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he general prosecutor has reported some 100 House of Representatives complaints against Mir Hossein Moussavi.

In a meeting with journalists Hojjat al-Islam Gholam Hossein Mohseni Azhei stated: “Last Wednesday 21 October two members of the House of Representatives presented me with the motion involving a significant number of representatives. We have also have received documents from other organizations asking us to investigate this matter. However, the general prosecutor will not act directly, but we will prepare the case and send it to judicial authorities for further investigation.”

Azhei added: “Some of the charges raised against Mir Hossein Moussavi in the statement from the representatives are: collaboration and command of security disturbance and propaganda against the Islamic regime based on article 610 and 618 of Islamic criminal law.”

Prison Sentences for British Embassy Staff

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ran’s Fars news reports that Hossein Rassam’s lawyer has spoken of a court verdict against his client. Abdol Samad Khorramshahi said: “A verdict has been issued against my client but I have not been officially notified therefore, I’m not able to comment. However it has been communicated to me verbally.”

On Rassam’s whereabouts Khorramshahi said: “He was recently released from prison and until a few weeks a go I was certain that he had not left the country; however I’m no longer certain. Rasam was released from prison on bail and the conditions of his bail did not prohibit him from leaving the country.” Foreign media have reported that the Revolutionary Court has issued a four year prison sentence for Hossein Rassam.

Nuclear Inspectors Meet Fleeing Scientist Before Tehran Visit

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nternational Atomic Energy Agency inspectors had a meeting with Shahram Amini, a nuclear scientist who has recently fled Iran, in Frankfurt before leaving for Tehran.

Atomic Energy Agency inspectors arrived in Tehran on Sunday morning to visit the enrichment facilities in Qom city and it was declared yesterday that their mission was over.

Amini worked at this site and had previously given information about these facilities to western countries.

Earlier United Press International (UPI) had reported that exposing the nuclear facilities at Qom has increased doubts regarding the scope and purpose of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program and that the US and European officials are convinced that the facilities are for making atomic weapons.

These officials said that in terms of structure, the Qom facilities are suited to a military aim., expressing that there is no possible role for this facility for civilians.

Iran Ranks a low 128 among 134 countries in Gender Discrimination

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s in previous years Scandinavian countries have ranked in the top 14 countries regarding upholding gender rights. USA and Great Britain have declined in their ratings. According to the latest annual gender discrimination table, Iran has ranked 128 with an index of. This index varies between 0 and 1. This means that if an index is close to 0, gender discrimination is very low and the closer the index falls below 1, gender discrimination is higher. According to these figures presented by the World Economic Committee (organizer) 67% of the countries have apparently improved in gender discrimination issues while 33% of countries have deteriorated.

Economic opportunity, women’s participation, level of education and mediation are four areas used to measure the index. Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-large of Global Women’s Issues said: “We will not be able to solve the main challenges of our time without the presence of women. Women are key to economic growth while they do not have a place in decision making positions”.

According to a 2009 report observing the direct relationship between economic development and women’s presence in political fields, 43 countries have progressed in this field while most countries have progressed 83% in education and women’s participation in economic fields.

This year Iceland gained first place, which belonged to Norway last year. The interesting point is that the US ranking of 31compared to last year’s 27 is a downtrend for this country. USA ranked 23rd in 2006.

In 2006 Iran ranked 108 among 115 countries with an index of .580, 118 among 128 with an index of .590 in 2007 and 116 among 130 with an index of .602 in 2008.

Dismissal of Baha'i Students from Semnan University

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ojdeh Nourai, Farahnaz Felfeli and Ardalan Tanyanian who passed this year’s university entrance exam for Semnan University were dismissed by university guards after only one week of attendance and deprived of their right to education.

Herana agency reports that the students’ pursuit of this injustice with the university president and authorities has achieved nothing and their only response has been that the action was and “order from higher authorities". However no documentation of this is available to the students.

Human Rights Activists in Iran

last year. The speakers at stressed that there are no official, the conference refused to provide the figures, and Jafari accurate statistics of murders. n a meeting for "the reduc- He announced that in general the Dolatabadi commented that number of murder cases in Te- “providing figures and statistics tion of gender based viomay cause confrontation with lence” held by the Organi- hran in the first six months of zation for Defending Vic- 1388 (2009) is around 103 and the government”. He divided women's murder into four catetims of Violence, Tehran prose- that 27 percent were women. gories : Honour killings, spouse This number is an increase on cutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, murders, serial murders and or-

Murder Statistics for Women Not Revealed

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dinary murders. He added that the greatest number of honour killings are happening in Khouzestan province. Regarding the punishment of murderers, Tehran's prosecutor said that lots of defendants use amnesty laws or the victim’s family give a letter of consent.

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Film Makersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Statement Warning of the Elimination of Independent Cinema

University students protest visit of government official

Fans of Iran cinema, Cinema auditoriums are not showing some of our films and the ones that are screened are subject to numerous limitations yet there is no law to protect us.

Something stands between you and us. This drive wants the sovereignty of money and capitalism and whoever doesn't make films that support this sovereignty in public screening will be punished by capitalism.

At present the criteria for the public screening of a film is not a prominent and talented filmmaker or the calibre of the film. They want to do away with independent cinema and do us the maximum favor and

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ago. However, students had turned their backs to the podium and were ahmoud Ahmadi- chanting "turn off your cameras." nejad's former Harandi began calling students Minister of Culture and Islamic "uneducated" and "dictators," at Guidance was unable to deliver a which point students held up their speech at Khajeh Nasir Tousi Uni- shoes in a symbolic gesture. Haversity after student's started chant- randi called the students "illing slogans in support of the oppo- mannered" and said, "They had told sition. me [beforehand] that you had Upon arrival in the amphitheater brought in a sack of shoes [to throw where the speech was to take place, at me] but none of you has the Mohammad Hossein Saffar Hacourage of Montazer al-Zaydi to randi was overwhelmed with cries even throw your shoes at me." of "culture killer," "our culture minister, our shame," and "death to Students responded by saying, "My the dictator." shoes are too much for a liar."

Saffar-Harandi who was struggling After students began chanting "Oh keep it in patio. to maintain his calm, responded by Hossein, Mir Hossein" and "Iran Fans of Iranian cinema, we make these films for you and with your motivation. Direct communication with saying that Mohammad Khatami's will see Judgment Day if Karroubi people is the absolute right of any professional filmculture minister, "Ataollah Moha- is arrested." Harandi was forced to maker and it's the people's right to watch different jerani was better deserving of such quickly wrap-up his speech and films, but monopolization has closed the way. If the honorary titles," and asked students was escorted out of the venue by system for making films and showing them in cinemas to allow him to begin his speech. his bodyguards. does not change and if cultural and economical justice When students tried to follow Safdoesn't apply in the world of films, we will witness Students then began shouting "Liar, far-Harandi, his bodyguards reportthe end of Iranian cinema.

Liar where is your 63 percent." Ha- edly began attacking them. The randi replied by saying that this move infuriated students causing Signed: Saeed Ebrahimfar, Mohammad Ahmadi , Saeed Asadi, slogan better suited those who had them to gather outside the amphiSirous Alvand, Mohsen Amiryousefi, Alireza Amini, released a list of post-election casu- theater and chant, "Get lost, merceMohammad Bozorgnia, Rakhshan Banietemad, Ferial alties. "Where are your 73 vicnary," and "Saffar, what scared you Behzad, Habibollah Bahmani, Bahram Beizai, Kamtims?" he asked Students then be- off?" bozia Partovi, Kiomars Pourahmad, Nase Taqvai , gan to chant slogans requesting the Students then moved outside and Qasem Jafari, Mohammad Hossein Haqiqi, Manijeh release of political prisoners as they gathered in front of the university Hekmat, Azizollah Hamidnejad, Akbar Khajoui, help up photos of Mohsen Mirwhere they continued shouting sloAlireza Davoud, Nejad,Abolhasan Davoudi, Ahmad damadi, Mostafa Tajzadeh, Abdol- gans such as, "Iran has become PalReza Darvish, AmirshahabRezvanian, Abbas Rafei, lah Ramezanzadeh, Abdollah Mo- estine, people why are you still sitAli Jekan , Mohammad Ali Sajjadi,Siamak Shaeqi, Parviz Shahbazi, Yadollah Samadi,Kianoush meni and Ahmad Zeydabadi. ting," "Neither West, Nor East, Ayari, Naser Qolamrezai , Mehdi Fakhimzadeh , At this point, campus security be- Only a Green Iran," and "Dictator, Ebrahim Forouzesh , Mehrdad Farid, Majid Qarizadeh, gan filming the session and the stu- Dictator, this is our final message, Rahbar Qanbari, Iraj Karimi , Abbas Kiarostami, Abdents shouting in protest.

Iran's Green Movement is ready for doreza Kahani, Manouchehr Masiri, Khosro Masoumi, Harandi attempted to continue his uprising."

Nader Moqadas, Mohammad Motevaselani, Asqar speech about the importance of the Hashemi, Mohammad Reza Honarmand U.S. Embassy takeover 30 years 4

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What is the significance of 13th of Aban for us?

By Bornak

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hen I think of all that’s happened in the past few months, I can't sit still. One can no longer live a normal carefree life, continuously waiting for something to happen. There is a wave of excitement in everyone everywhere. Let me explain the things I’m thinking of. The things we should have done, but haven't, the things we’ve never done all of our lives, but have now, like fighting Basijis, the police and starting up fires in the streets to defend ourselves against the tear gas thrown at us. Of the lessons we learned in school and the ones we learned in the streets - unlike all the years in school, this time we all passed our exams with flying colors. If only for the experiences we gained that no-one knows of, for all the hopes and desires that are achievable, for all the plans that we now carry in our heads, for carving a beautiful future ahead and turning all the impossibles to possibles.

In the past few months, the students engaged in activities that not only the regime officials but the parents of the students and even the students themselves couldn't believe. The Internet was filtered so to show all that was happening they took every illegal alternative. They were given trouble for wearing trendy jeans, female students were given disciplinary warnings in the streets from home to school,... from their families, neighbours and school faculty, hearing vulgar profanities from Basijis. The students who were disgusted by the religion and Islamic theology courses and wished for the time to fly so they could fill it with more informative courses...day and night, both in and out of school, in the streets and alleys, were controlled by Basij.

Throughout the world when a government oppresses with backward medieval laws, security forces, spies and intelligence agents, students play a pivotal role in striking out against such control. With their presence at every protest they have created a crack in the giant repressor and activated other forces. Their voices are sharp and cutting. Their screams are full of rebellion. Wasn't it just a couple of years ago in a protest against rising fuel prices that people took to the streets and gas stations were set on fire by these same students? Wasn't it a few months ago when the workers of the sugar factory, Haft Tappeh, hand in hand with their children and partners, carried out a successful march and strike? Importance should be given to the role of students in these protests. In the past months you could see the male and female students in the thick of events everywhere you turned.

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On an international level too, this vital role is apparent. In occupied Palestine these same adolescents and young students opened al- Intifada fire on the most savage and ferocious regime in the region. Only a year ago that students’ flared up anger illuminated Greece. Many of these radical young people in the streets and alleys were school students in groups with the university students who were going to battle with the police forces. Most recently, in protesting discriminatory laws against immigrants, expensive education fees…and in France, there have been numerous uprisings in which the students were present without exception.

Let’s take another look at Iran. We can see that throughout the history of Iranian people's struggle since schools were standing, students have followed . History does not only consist of the pages in our books. We should pay careful attention to it. Just as in the late 40s and early 50s in many areas of the world, people deeply believed that they could build another world free of oppression and exploitation, destroy power and establish real governments of the people. In Iran too this was the conviction of school and university students and it rapidly grew. The presence of students at the burial of Gholamreza Takhti (the most famous wrestler in Iranian history, to date a symbol of chivalry and sportsmanship, who was found dead in his hotel room in 1968. The government announced a verdict of suicide but claims of murder for his political activities against the Shah endure.) and again in the struggle against the price surge of bus tickets, in Tehran is memorable Without the fierce impact of the students on days such as 13th of Aban 1357 (4 November 1978) the Shah's regime would never have fallen. In the following years of ‘57 to ‘60 (19781981), students played an important role in expanding the ranks of revolutionary organizations and spreading revolutionary awareness across the country.

Many were responsible for distributing revolutionary and progressive publications among people, to scatter all the dreams and desires they carried for change in society, to be informed and to inform others. With all the deficiencies present, extensive student organizations and institutions were formed. These organizations were very active in arranging parades and demonstrations.

After the revolution, with the command of a cultural revolution in universities, the struggles of school and university students tangled more than before and there was loss in almost every aspect. It was all about fighting a reactionary order. This order was about the study of Islam, the life of the Imams and clerics that had replaced idiotic courses about kings and their lives. Iranians'

fake pride was supposed to turn from worshiping godlike kings to Mecca, the prophet and the 12 Shi’ite Imams. To replace the system's symbol from the Immortal Guard to the Revolutionary Guard. Students also had to decide whether they are with or against the regime.

In those years few students were pro-regime and most were against. During the month of Ordibehesht of 1357 (April-May 1978) when universities were attacked, many students helped the universities’ students and faculties to the point of losing their lives. A few years later, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s prisons were full of students whose crimes were supporting certain political organizations or participation in the opposition movement. Many of them were executed in the1360s (1980s). In Kurdestan, after the revolution, schools turned into centers of Kurdish resistance against the central government. Schools became centers for organizing campaigns for people's struggles and protest marches.

All the above illustrates the active role of the students throughout different courses of time. It represents the zest of youth and energy that they bring to people's struggle. The students' movement has been an important and determining factor in the youth movement.

After the fall of the 1357 (1978) revolution, for a long time a suffocating and oppressed atmosphere lingered in the country, until around 2nd of Khordad 1376 (June 1997) when the desire to change, brought many of the students to the ballot boxes to vote for Khatami. They thought that their votes would bring the change they wanted. However, very soon disappointment ensued and on the 18th of Tir 1378 (18 July 1999) a rupture between students and the regime in the university dormitories prompted Khatami to be nicknamed "the Liar" among students. With this a lot of disappointment and shame as the majority of the votes for "the Liar" had come from students and the younger generation in general. Of course, this was the Islamic regime's new tactic to control and waste the direction of people's energy especially that of the youth.

In the past 10 years, there have been many ups and downs in Iranian society. Students have also changed since the 1388 (2009) election. Many of the voters were youth who thought that by voting, they could get rid of Ahmadinejad. Looking at it from this angle, things are similar to the 2nd of Khordad 1376 election (23 May 1997) but the differences are also evident. This time around, the students were not only active and full of energy as before but they were also fearless, fed up with the situation and now had more experience.

[Continued pg 6]

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From pg 5 (What is the significance of 13th took over the American Embassy in 1358 of Aban for us? )…

(1979), and feed us these false values. The importance of the 13th of Aban is not down to their Imam's deportation in 1342, nor the The voting this time was not because they take over of the American Embassy in1358. knew Moussavi and Karubi well but purely Our 13th of Aban involves none of these to stop Ahmadinejad from getting elected cunning games, the tricks that brought these again. This time they were again disgusted to a society where our young have no future. with the misuse of their votes and took to the streets. In a day of chaos, the first tear gas For our generation, what is memorable is 13th was dropped and the first bullet fired towards of Aban 1357 (4 November 1978). The day the people and students were among those when school students in solidarity with other killed, bloodied, broken and hurt. The Stustudents shut the schools and headed to the dents’ cries were not any louder than others universities, dragging their teachers with but for the opposition forces, their presence them in battle with the Shah's regime, until was hard and heavy. Supposedly, the genthey were gunned down and bombarded with eration that was educated in their system bullets. The red blood of the solidarity of the would be obedient and followers of the Isstudents on 13 Aban1357 has determined our lamic authorities and values but the extensive direction towards13 Aban1388 (4 November

Rafsanjani's son on the defensive

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presence of the wilful students in the streets was the biggest defeat to these values and authorities.

Another generation has surfaced, knowing many secrets of the struggle of Khordad and the summer of 1388 (2009). Youth who at a blink, cry out, aim and organize themselves. They are no longer the defeated students of the 2nd of Khordad 1376 (1997 ). The electrical charge shines in their eyes. The chants and songs of change are on their lips. In their tightly closed fists are the cries of a crushed generation. They are waiting. Waiting for something to happen. Waiting for a moment. Waiting for a spark in a university, school, street, town square or park, and that is when these youths will turn the spark into a flame that will burn all aspects of oppression, lies and torture.

13th of Aban (4 November 4th) this year holds the key to all of these struggles.

13th of Aban in Iran's history has diverse significance and each of the political forces present makes this date exceptional each day. Believers of oppressors Ahmadinejad and Moussavi and their followers want to introduce and attribute this day to the date Imam Khomeini was deported to Turkey in 1342 (1963) and the date pro-Imam students 6

2009). A direction that reveals the hearts of the tyrants of force and deception. A direction that both Ahmadinejad’s camp and Moussavi's camp fear, and strive to block, again through force or deceit.

The color of our real path to liberation is red. The blood color of our solidarity should be the symbol of our determined and uncompromising struggle. We shall travel this path. This year, we will travel the distance. This year, we will scream this trail. This year we will carry a heavy load. We have struggled and fought many days alongside people, chanted slogans with students, cried with our hardworking fathers and mothers, built trenches with our friends, but this year on 13th of Aban, it is for us to host everyone else. We should write our red slogans on the walls. Yell, and invite people to fight back. Distribute our declarations and magazines to inform and elevate people's knowledge of the enemy and his cagey methods and to raise awareness of the true nature of the green wave. We still have no managers, office or organization. We have to build all of these. Once again, we will register our historical role on13th of Aban, but not in the name of the regime, and not in the name of Moussavi and the green wave!

n an undated video that has surfaced from a conference organized by the Tehran Municipality on the capital's planned 7th subway line, Mohsen Hashemi, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's oldest son, and CEO and president of the Tehran Urban and Suburban Railway Co., delivers an unexpected emotional speech in support of his family.

He denied allegations made by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during the presidential campaign accusing his family of financial corruption. In response to a widely held belief that Ahmadinejad picked up a significant amount of votes as a result of attacks on his father, he said, "If they allow [people to] talk about bigger people than Rafsanjani, they would get even more votes. Actually, if you put the whole revolution under question, you'd attract 70 million votes."

The 70-million reference is to the population of Iran.

More notable than what he says, is the tone of the outburst, which appears to be the product of great frustration and anger at the pressures on his family and a lack of access to state media to respond. Rafsanjani, once considered a pillar of the Islamic Republic, is now under such pressure that his son appears to need to use the rare chance of an official gathering to speak in defense of his father.

Iran to seek fuel supply guarantees in next round of talks

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fter holding three days of nuclear discussions with Western powers, Iran says it is ready for the next round of talks in order to ensure that its technical concerns regarding the issue of a guarantee for the supply of nuclear fuel are addressed.

Speaking to Press TV on Monday, Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency Ali-Asghar Soltaniyeh expressed the Islamic Republic's readiness to buy its needed nuclear fuel from global suppliers.

"We are ready to buy [the fuel] from any supplier under the full surveillance of the IAEA ... as we bought from Argentina about 20 years ago with the cooperation of the IAEA. The core issue is assurance and guarantee for [the] supply of the fuel," Soltaniyeh said.

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Three Minors Rescued From Execution As Victims’ Families Join the Committee Against the Execution time of the crime. She has asked Majid’s family for blood money that she will spend to create a charitable foundation to cherish her sister’s memory.

This is the reaction of the people who are fed up with misdemeanors, murders and the Islamic Republic overall. This is the response of victims’ families who have lost loved ones and are faced with a contemptuous justice system. Not only does this system pass unjust and feeble judgments, but it also fails to sympathize with a victim’s family. Instead, the justice system drags these families into another complex dilemma by subjecting them to deciding the fate of the defendant. Unable to bear the death of their loved ones, they are catapulted into a decision to take the life of another individual.

The International Committee Against Execution (ICAE) would ver the past 30 years of the Islamic Republic’s reign like to thank the mourning families of Massood Rouzbahani, Ali in Iran the execution of minors has been one of the Malekpour, and Taj-Parvar for their humane and civilized act in most controversial and malicious acts incorporated sparing the life of those on death row. In addition, the ICAE in the system. This vindictive and murderous regime would also like to thank all those who have been continuously shows no mercy towards children. Under the laws enforced by fighting to put an end to the death penalty. This is just part of this regime, convicted children are kept in the unsuitable envi- our movement to eliminate premeditated murders and bloodronment of prison and are physically and emotionally abused on thirstiness committed by the government. a regular basis. As soon as they reach the age of 18 they are executed.

Iranian lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei´s In reaction to such barbaric behaviour, people in Iran and many countries worldwide have voiced their resentment and hatred announces an International Account for towards the regime responsible for these abominable acts. Furdonations thermore, the Islamic Republic of Iran has faced vast international protests for the termination of such executions.

The Fund in Support of Teenagers in Threat of Execution Iran’s judicial system is remote from any contemporary judicial raised more than 30 million tomans today (300 million risystem and can be more closely linked to that of medieval times. als and approximately 33 thousand US dollars). We are This barbaric regime provides the most unjust and imprecise tri- hoping for this amount to increase so we can save three als for the defendants and the families of victims. In addition, teenagers from death. The early stages of negotiations with there is no accurate investigation or analysis of such proceedthe victim’s family are complete, but the final outcome deings. Furthermore the judiciary of Iran leaves the faith of the de- pends on the amount raised that needs to be paid. fendant’s life in the hands of the victim’s family. Is it not enough that the victim’s family have already suffered loss? But that they Many of our friends outside Iran who want to help out the must also make a critical decision, for another individual’s life, teenagers facing execution encountered problems using the in an unstable emotional state. previous Bank Melli account number I released. I have In the Islamic Republic of Iran, the judiciary is founded on the opened an account in a private bank that is able to receive old-fashioned “eye for an eye” notion. This being said, a man’s money from any bank in the world (except from the blood in the IRI system is worth double that of a woman, when United States). it comes to paying blood money.

In spite of many international oppositional movements against The following is the account information: the system administered in the Islamic Republic of Iran, many Account Number: 83080010732661, Bank Saman, Seyed minors have been executed in the past few years. Behnoud Sho- Jamaledin Asad Abadi Branch, Code 830. Swift Code for jai is the most recent case of minor execution in Iran that acthis bank is sabcirthxxx. knowledged worldwide to stimulate international awareness and hatred towards the regime.

You can also pay online.

According to most recent news, three individuals have been rescued from execution in the past week. The victims’ families To ensure the money will be spent to save the life of teenhave pardoned them and requested that their execution be anagers, both of these accounts are supervised by a member nuled. Amir Khaleghi, 18, who committed a murder at the age of the Association in Support of Children and Mothers of of 16 and Mostafa Naghdi, also convicted of murder, are two Peace. such individuals who were awaiting reaching the age of 18 to be executed. However, their lives were spared thanks to the vicSincerely Yours, tims’ families’ view opposing execution.

The sister of a murdered middle aged woman travelled from the Mohammad Mostafaie United States to Iran to attend court. She opposed the execution of the accused killer, Majid, because he was a juvenile at the

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Latest News from Political Prisoners

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he families of political prisoners gathered in front of the Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafari’s office, holding photographs of their loved ones on Wednesday 28 October. Families of about 80 prisoners including Fariba Pazhooh, Hengameh Shahidi, Mohammad Ali Abtahi, Mostafa Tajzadeh, Mohsen Mirdamadi, Massoud Bastani, Mohsen Safaie Farahani, Hossein Bastani Nezhad, Saeed Lailaz, Abdullah Momeni and Bahman Ahmadi Amooi participated in this gathering.

Some family members met with Tehran’s prosecutor and presented their grievance. On account of these, Jafari has promised to expedite the investigation. Others attempted to join the families in the gathering but were stopped by security forces. No one was arrested during this gathering which lasted until 2pm. The families finally left while chanting Allah Akbar (God is great).

Fariba Pazhooh, a journlalist, has been on hunger strike since last Monday. Judicial officials have shown no reaction to this action.

Fellow journalist Hengameh Shahidi has just been released on the sixth day of her hunger strike. Shahidi who was also on medication strike spent 121 days in prison, 50 of these in isolation. She shared a cell with Fariba Pazhooh.

The physical condition of detainees Hamed Roohinezhad and Jafar Ebrahimi is also getting worse every day. Hamed Roohinezhad is about to lose his vision due to an illness and Jafar Ebrahimi is suffering from hysteria.

About Rejai Shahr Prison in Karaj a prisoner by the name of Marjani obstructed another prisoner from administering an insulin injection for diabetes causing other prisoners to get upset and react against him leading to a crisis.

The cases of Mohsen Mirdamadi, Secretary and Mostafa Tajzadeh member of Mosharekat Committee have been referred to Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court after four months. Lawyer Houshang Poor Babaie who has not been

notified of his clients’ court cases told ILNA: “The case has been sent to Branch 15 with judge Salvati being in charge.”

After 45 days Ahmad Zeidabadi, Secretary of Graduate Organizations was able to have a short phone conversation with his wife. According to Advar news, the conversation lasted two minutes in which Ahmad told his wife that after four months he is still being kept in solitary confinement.

His wife Mahdieh Mohammadi was denied a visit with her husband this week. She stated: “I was told by the prosecutor’s office that I will be able to visit my husband today, but once again I was refused by the interrogator.”

Yasser Majidi, a political prisoner who is currently held at Rejai Shahr Prison is suffering from severe asthma and his physical condition is worsening. Human rights and democracy activists have reported: “Majidi was in Birjand for five years. Prison officials have denied this prisoner medical treatment and are using his illness as a way of physical and psychological torture”. Majidi was arrested in 2001 and has been sentenced to 28 years in prison.

Iman Sohrabpoor’s lawyer Alireza Jafarian, a defendant of the post election crisis has reported that his client has been sentenced to three years in prison. Jafarian told Fars news agency: “According to the law, we have 20 days to appeal against the verdict issued.” Sohrabpoor is charged with; acting against national security, collusion, intending to disrupt public security, propaganda against the Islamic regime via participation in illegal gatherings, creating doubt in election results, disrupting public through chaos and uproar, creating fear in society, and distributing illegal CDs and articles among the protestors.

Amnesty International has “expressed concern” about Mohammad Maleki’s situation.:” Iranian officials must release the 76 year old researcher who has been in detention with no contact with the outside for the past 41 days following peaceful criticism of the recent presidential election in Iran”. Amnesty has expressed concern about Maleki’s physical condition because “Dr. Maleki is suffering from serious illnesses”.

Tehran's acting police chief, Gen. Ahmad Reza Radan, warned Monday against any "illegal gatherings."

"Those who deceitfully invite and encourage people and youngsters to an illegal gathering should be held accountable for their actions," Radan was quoted as saying on Iran's official news agency, IRNA. Hardranian police warned the opposition Monday not to hold protests this week liners already have called on security forces that would coincide with annual state- to take tough action against any opposition sponsored demonstrations against the rally that day.

United States.

The warning comes days after two opposi- Calls to the opposition were not immediately returned Monday. tion leaders suggested they will call their supporters to the streets Wednesday, in what Thousands of people were arrested in a was seen as an attempt to reinvigorate their heavy crackdown this summer that crushed mass protests in support of opposition movement after a harsh crackdown killed dozens of protesters in postelection turmoil leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims the June 12 disputed presidential election over the summer. was stolen through massive vote fraud. DozWednesday marks the 30th anniversary of ens were killed in the crackdown. the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran It was the country's worst unrest since the by militant students following the Islamic 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Revolution — a day that typically draws thousands to the streets of Tehran.

>>Iran

police warn opposition over new demonstration

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On Monday, authorities also closed down a business newspaper known for criticizing the government.

The Culture Ministry ordered the newspaper closed because its content strayed from the business field, reported IRNA. The Sarmayeh newspaper was known for carrying articles critical of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's economic policies, which they say have impoverished the country.

Since 2000 more than 100 newspapers and periodicals were banned in Iran, mostly on security charges.

Also Monday, state television reported that the Iranian intelligence service arrested five "terrorist" suspects who allegedly planned to assassinate an official and confiscated weapons belonging to the group.

The report did not provide details, but it cited the intelligence service as saying the group had also planned an attack in early September to instigate more post-election turmoil.

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Britain, Russia, others urge Iran to respond to uranium proposal

Many who stormed US embassy now oppose Iran regime

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ritain, Russia and their international partners want a "prompt response" from Iran on a uranium enrichment proposal, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Monday.

"We both want to see a prompt response from the Iranian regime in respect of the Tehran research reactor proposal," Miliband said at a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.

"We both want to see a positive response to the offer that was agreed by the E3 +3 ... in May 2008."

The E3 + 3 refers to the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency -the United Nations' nuclear watchdog -- has given Iran another 48 hours "to come up with a serious response," Miliband said "That's what we all want to see," he added.

Last week, Iran said it tentatively agreed to the IAEA's proposal, but then proposed its own conditions.

The initial draft was supported by the United States, France and Russia. It calls for Iran to ship low-enriched uranium outside the country for refinement, possibly to Russia. The material would be shipped back to Iran in a form usable for civilian purposes.

However, Tehran proposes that its uranium be enriched on Iranian soil by a third country, under IAEA supervision, ElBaradei said last week. Iran said another possibility would be sending out the uranium in several shipments, not in one bulk stockpile, he said.

Iran says the IAEA is responsible for sending it 20 percent-enriched uranium, which Iran says is needed for the reactor at Tehran University. That concentration is insufficient for making weapons.

The United States and other nations are trying to eliminate Iran's weapon-making capabilities, although Iran says it wants uranium solely for civilian purposes.

Speaking on Monday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner also called on Iran to respond quickly to the offer or, he warned, France would not accept Tehran's response.

In his final speech to the U.N. General Assembly, ElBaradei on Monday said Iran needs "to be as forthcoming as possible in responding soon to my recent proposal, based on the initiative of the U.S., Russia and France, which aimed to engage Iran in a series of measures that could build confidence and trust and open the way for comprehensive and substantive dialogue between Iran and the international community.

"This is a unique and fleeting opportunity to reverse course from confrontation to cooperation and should, therefore, not be missed," he said.

CNN

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A group of pro-regime agitators took over the US embassy in Tehran in 1979, leading to a decisive break between Iran and the US Photo: AFP

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any of the Iranians who led the storming of the US embassy in Tehran 30 years ago, inspired by the newly-created Islamic Republic, have become severe critics of the regime they helped to establish.

The students who captured the city centre compound of "The Great Satan" and who took more than 50 US diplomats hostage said they acted in response to Washington's refusal to hand over deposed shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

They feared a repetition of US interference such as the CIA-organised coup in 1953 that overthrew nationalist prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh.

Chants of "Death to America" reverberated through the streets of Tehran as Iranian masses sang the praises of the daring move against the embassy. Related article: Decades of bad blood Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic regime, dubbed the building's capture a "second revolution."

But many leading participants such as Massoumeh Ebtekar, Abbas Abdi and Mohsen Mirdamadi have since developed into reformists highly critical of the conservative government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Mirdamadi, who played a key role in the embassy capture on November 4 1979, went on to head the influential national security and foreign policy committee of Iran's majlis (parliament).

He is now in prison accused of trying to topple the government.

Abdi too has served time in an Iranian jail for his work on opinion polls saying that Iranians want diplomatic relations with the United States.

Many attribute the failure of Jimmy Carter, US Democratic president from 1977 to 1981,

to win a second term in office to his mismanagement of the hostage crisis when a failed rescue operation led to the crash of two aircraft and the deaths of eight American servicemen.

The 52 staff were released only in January 1981 following 444 days in captivity, just moments after Republican Ronald Reagan replaced Carter in the White House.

Washington broke off official relations during the crisis, a rupture that has yet to be healed. Iran still lauds the seizure as a revolutionary act while Washington condemns it as an abuse of human rights.

Nowadays the annual event opposite the former US embassy, known locally as the "Den of Spies," continues to draw a massive crowd, composed mainly of schoolchildren, since the day is also known as "student day."

They listen dutifully to a keynote speaker designated by the government, often someone who was not involved in the hostagetaking.

Iranian state-run television still broadcasts footage of the radical students parading the US diplomats blindfolded around the compound and burning the American flag.

The embassy building, now under the control of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, is used as an educational centre where occasional exhibitions highlight the "crimes" of the United States.

This year the annual anti-US day could also be marked by street protests against Ahmadinejad, whose disputed re-election on June 12 triggered the worst political crisis in the Islamic Republic's history.

Ahmadinejad's main rivals have rejected what they say is his "fraudulent victory" and their supporters have demonstrated in vast numbers against the hardliner.

(AFP)

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The Crisis of Capitalism and the tasks of the Marxists – Part Two

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he present world crisis of capitalism means we have entered a new period in which the workers will face a situation of permanent austerity, with cuts in welfare and attacks on working conditions. This is already having a radicalising affect on millions of workers and youth, particularly in Latin America and other underdeveloped parts of the world and it is spreading to the advanced countries also.

A whole period of austerity

manded that workers work for nothing, “we can’t afford to pay your wages,” they say. In January the Teamsters, which is a powerful section of the working class of the USA, accepted a wage cut of ten percent.

What conclusions does one draw from this?

Do we say that there’s a low level of consciousness, that the workers are not revolutionary, the usual nonsense we hear from the revisionists and the sects? No! We don’t draw any conclusion like that. Things like this are an inevitable consequence of the present phase through which we’re passing Over a period of fifty years, thanks to the – the transition from one period to another, economic upswing, in the advanced capital- very different, period. ist countries (Europe, the United States, Japan, Australia, etc.), the working class and Ferment in society its organizations were able to conquer at least semi-civilized conditions of existence. What we have described is not a simple or They considered these conditions to be nor- uniform process. There are some quite bitter mal because they have never known anystrikes taking place, even now. There have thing else. But the last fifty years were not been factory occupations, not just in South normal at all. This was an historical excep- America, but even in Britain there have been tion, not the normal state of affairs under some factory occupations. One week ago capitalism. there was a factory occupation in the Isle of Take the question for example of pensions. Wight. I don’t know if the comrades have The first man to introduce pensions was Bis- ever heard of the Isle of Wight? It’s a little marck. This reactionary Bonapartist kindly island on the south coast of England where introduced pensions for everybody over 70 rich people go to play with their yachts, years of age. At that time in Germany, the where people go on holidays, where the average life expectancy was 45. Bismarck Conservative Party always wins by big mawas a really smart man! Nowadays workers jorities. For the Venezuelan comrades, it’s a in many countries consider it a right that bit like the Isle of Margarita, except that it when they finish working at 60 or 65 they rains all the time. Otherwise it would be have the right to some money from the state. very nice.

They think it is normal, an automatic right. There was a factory occupation a week ago But it is not normal and it’s not an automatic on the Isle of Wight. That’s a fact, and quite right. a significant fact, but we must be careful Now the bourgeois are saying this publicly: about this. If I said that was the general picwe can’t afford this. We can’t afford to ture of workers in Britain that would be maintain so many old and unproductive peo- false; it’s not the general picture, at this ple. The problem is that people are living stage. That will come later. But it is not yet too long. They should do us a favour and die the case. However, one cannot draw an autoa bit earlier! Let me quote The Economist matic parallel between strikes and radicalieditorial of the 27th of June. “Whether we zation, which can express itself in many like it or not, we are going back to the pre- ways. Marxists would not expect immediBismarckian world where work had no for- ately a lot of strike activity in a deep crisis: mal stopping point.” In other words you this would be completely unreal. There’s a work until you drop dead. very low level of strikes as a matter of fact: Pensions will be under attack, beginning in in Britain, in Italy, in France, in the USA. the United States. President Obama repreBut that does not exhaust the question. sents the smiling mask of capitalism. The There is a tremendous ferment in society, man wears a permanent smile that resembles there’s a widespread questioning of the capian advertisement for toothpaste. But this talist system which was not there before. nice smiling reasonable mask is going to slip This is our terrain; it’s a terrain in which our very quickly, and behind the smiling mask ideas can make a big impact. This is a the people will see the real brutal, savage, change, and it is an important change. It ugly face of capitalism. It’s not a question of must create favourable conditions for the stupidity, or because they’re vicious development of the Marxist tendency. I said (although they are vicious) it’s a question of in America from 1929 to 1933 there were absolute necessity. From a capitalist stand- almost no strikes, but the American Compoint, they have no choice except to do this. munist Party grew quite rapidly in those When they say we can’t afford these redays, among the unemployed and blacks in forms, from the standpoint of market ecoparticular. nomics, they’re telling the truth: they must cut, and cut, and cut again, even when The “Third World” there’s a boom. British Airways recently de10

What is true for the advanced capitalist countries is ten times truer for the so-called “third world.” I don’t like the expression “third world,” I think it’s an unscientific expression but I can’t think of an alternative.

We’re referring to parts of Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

When Marx said the choice for humanity was socialism or barbarism, that is literally true. Sub-Saharan Africa was an absolute nightmare situation, even during the boom: a terrible genocide in Rwanda, a horrific civil war in the Congo which no one even talked about, in which at least five or six million people were slaughtered. Now there’s a savage war taking place in Somalia. Recently an American strategist said “you’re all worried about Afghanistan, you should be more worried about Pakistan and Somalia where you can have a similar developments taking place.”

But even in Africa there are key countries where there is a powerful working class: Nigeria, Egypt, where there have been big strikes. But the key country in black Africa is South Africa. The ANC came to power on the basis of a betrayal, a complete sell-out.

The mass of black workers got hardly anything out of that deal. All that happened was that there was a black bourgeoisie and a black middle class that fused with the white exploiters and there was a bourgeois section of the ANC led by Thabo Mbeki. He was a Stalinist and then became a complete bourgeois and as a result there was an open split in the ANC. South Africa is severely affected by the economic crisis, although they had no crisis for 17 years. Now they have a deep recession, the official unemployment rate is 23.5%, the real rate is much higher. Zuma replaced Mbeki and it’s clear that the mass of black workers thought Zuma was going to be on the left, that he was going to defend their interests. But last week there was a massive strike in South Africa. It started with the bus workers, but on Monday and Tuesday of this week there have been big strikes in all the major cities of South Africa, not just the buses but the clinics, the traffic officers, the libraries, the parks, the public sector in general. The municipal workers’ union is demanding a wage increase of 15%. And it looks as if they’re going to get it. But there have been clashes with the police, barricades have been set up and the police are firing rubber bullets against the workers. At least 12 workers were injured in these clashes, and this is continuing. So now the revolutionary movement is spreading to the key country in Africa, which is South Africa.

[Continued on pg 11]

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From pg 10 (The Crisis of Capitalism and the tasks of the Marxists – Part Two)...

I won’t say much about Latin America because we have discussed that quite a lot. It remains, of course, an absolutely key sector of the world revolution. In Venezuela the revolution has lasted for over ten years, which is an incredible state of affairs, unknown in history that the situation should last as long as that. But here there is a problem of leadership. Chavez is a very courageous and honest man, but he’s proceeding empirically, improvising, making up a programme as he goes along. He is trying to balance between the working class and the bourgeoisie. And that is impossible. It cannot be maintained.

He was able to do this for quite a long time because of the economic situation. As Lenin said, politics is concentrated economics. The high price of oil saved them. They were able to make concessions, reforms, the missions, and so on, but that’s finished. The price of oil has fallen. It has recovered a little bit but that’s not enough. According to the figures I’ve seen, inflations is at about 30%. Therefore there has been a fall in real wages.

Many of the welfare schemes are being cut and unemployment is increasing.

I don’t doubt that the Venezuelan workers still remain loyal to Chavez, but I also have no doubt whatsoever that many workers, even dedicated Chavistas, are saying, and thinking: what sort of a Revolution is this?

What sort of Socialism is this? Are we going to solve these problems or not? And that must have a reflection within the Socialist Party, within the PSUV, which is holding its Congress in the autumn.

The Party has been heavily bureaucratized and the leadership is dominated by reformists, but the pressure from below will be there. There is a sharp polarization between the left and the right within Venezuela and this polarization must be reflected within the Bolivarian movement itself. And that should be a very favourable condition for the Marxist tendency.

You can see how correct we were, when we insisted so persistently on the central role of the mass organizations. In South Africa we said the movement would go through the ANC and the South African Communist Party and of course the trade unions COSATU. It was a little bit delayed, and in general the processes have been delayed because of the economic situation. We have to be patient. But in South Africa our perspectives are taking place before our eyes.

And in Venezuela it will be the same, because the comrades have done marvellous work in Venezuela, combining theoretical firmness with the necessary tactical flexibility, always stressing the role of the Bolivarian movement and the PSUV. In the next couple of years I believe the foundation will be laid for a mass left-wing opposition within the PSUV, in which we will partici11

pate, of course, fertilizing it with the ideas of Marxism.

In Mexico, again, we see the importance of leadership. In 2006, Lopez Obrador would have only had to lift his little finger and he could have had a successful socialist revolution in Mexico, where millions of people were on the streets. But because Lopez Obrador is who he is, I think he was more terrified of the movement than even Calderon, he tried to put the brakes on the movement. And therefore logically people are disappointed. In the recent elections, the PRD suffered a defeat and the old PRI got big support.

Does that mean to say the Mexican workers are reactionary, or that they have suddenly become conservatives? We must understand the psychology of the Mexican workers.

They supported the PRD, they supported Lopez Obrador, but there’s a very serious economic crisis in Mexico. Whole areas of Mexico depend on the immigrants working in the United States (this is even more true of Central America, as you saw in Honduras, or El Salvador). When these immigrant workers are laid off, they can’t send money back to their families. It is a catastrophe.

That explains the convulsions in Honduras.

There will be similar convulsions in all the countries of Central America.

But workers are very practical people. A Mexican worker looks at the PRD and its leaders, and he says: “these people are hopeless, they’re not doing anything. I need to eat. I need a job. When the PRI were in power, we knew they were corrupt gangsters, but at least they gave me something to eat, I had a job.” So many people voted in the PRI, to see if they would do something for them. They will not, and the PRI will soon discredit itself. The PRD will recover on the basis of a further move to the left.

Threat of Fascism?

In this situation – a transitional situation we will find all kinds of contradictions, not just in South America but in Europe and in general. In the recent European elections, the Social Democrats in particular suffered a heavy defeat and in some countries the ultra-right gained some support. We know that the ultra-left sects have got serious psychological problems. They suffer from a nervous tic, and whenever the ultra-right parties get a little bit of extra votes, they immediately start to sound the tom-toms, and shout: “Fascism, Fascism, Fascism!”

This is crazy nonsense. The correlation of class forces in all countries rules out the possibility of fascism at this stage.

Before the war, in countries like Italy, and Germany even, and Spain, the working class was a minority. Even in Germany there was a huge peasantry with could be easily recruited by the demagogic arguments of extreme right-wing

and fascist parties. Even in France that was the case, before the war. Now all that has finished. The peasantry has almost disappeared in most European countries and the working class is now a decisive majority in society.

In the 1930s the students in all countries were the sons (there were very few females in the universities then) of the rich.

Most were conservative and a large number were fascists and Nazis. In Britain in 1926 the students were strike-breakers.

In Germany, Italy and Austria, most of the students were fascists. Is that the position now? You name me any country in the world where the Fascists control the students. On the contrary, in almost all countries the students are left-wing or even revolutionary.

Therefore it’s ridiculous to talk about fascism in the same terms as the 1930s. Insofar as they exist, the fascists are small organizations, in the main. They can be particularly vicious, violent and engage in provocations, but there’s no question of them taking power. In any case, the ruling class would only resort to open reaction after the working class has suffered a series of very heavy defeats. That was the case in Germany, it was the case in Italy also, and Spain also in the period 1919-39. Therefore, long before the question of reaction is posed, the workers of Europe and Latin America will try time and time again to take power. That is the real situation.

In Bolivia you could say there’s a fascist movement. At least there are fascists involved in the right-wing opposition movement. The heroic Bolivian working class in the last few years, on at least two occasions, could have taken power easily.

If they did not take power, it was not their fault, but the confusion and the inadequacy of the leadership. The Bolivian workers staged two insurrections. They overthrew two governments. I ask of you, what more can you ask of the Bolivian workers? What more are they expected to do? But they failed because of the leadership who had no perspective of taking power.

Therefore you ended up with the reformist government of Evo Morales. This has opened up a period of sharp class struggle in Bolivia, which is not yet resolved.

It depends on the capacity of the Bolivian Marxists to build the leadership and I’m very pleased to announce that the IMT has just approved the affiliation of two very important sections: the Bolivian section and the Moroccan section.

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Latest Reports on Prisoners (November 2nd): Prisoners Prepare to Face Trial Davari is the editor-in-chief of the EtemadMeli website. He was arrested on September Monday, November 2nd, 2009 8th, 2009 and is yet to be charged.

The cases of Abtahi and Zaid-Abadi were sent before the Revolutionary Court. Court Extends Remand for Isa Sahar-Khiz Isa Shahar-Khiz had his first court hearing Ahmad Zaid-Abadi was transferred to on Monday. Sahar-khiz is the founder of the the general ward in Evin.

Association for Freedom of Press and is a he Tehran Prosecutor ordered well know journalist. The court extended his Ahmad Zaid-Abadi’s transfer to remand for another 2 months. Sahar-Khiz the general ward in Evin. Zaidsuffers from a broken rib caused by torture.

Abadi met with his family yester- The prison and judiciary authorities have day after being held incommunicado for 50 completely ignored his condition, which redays. The public relation’s office of the mains untreated. Sahar-Khiz has been prosecutor’s office also announced that Zaid-Abadi case has been sent before the Evolutionary Court and that he will be tried shortly. ZaidAbadi is the secretary general of the Graduate Students’ Organization.

Mohammad-Ali Abathi’s case was also sent to the Revolutionary Court, which has referred it to its 15th branch. Abtahi’s family say the trial will be held in the coming days.

Zaid-Abadi was arrested on June 13th, 2009, whereas Abtahi was arrested on June 16th, 2009.

Sahram Boloori Still Remanded Despite charged for insulting the Leader and disPosting Bail seminating propaganda against the regime, a More than 4 months after his initial arrest, charge that traces its origins to an interview Shahram Boloori remains detained in Ward he had given. He confessed to and accepted 209 of Evin. He was arrested after the presi- responsibility for the charge. His lawyer, dential election in June. Boloori’s family Nasrin Sotoodeh, thinks that, under the cirposted the $35,000 bail one month ago and cumstances, there is no justification for her was expecting him to be released. client’s detention.

Boloori has been charged for acting against Sahar-Khiz was arrested on July 3rd, 2009 national security by talking to foreign radio following a wave of arrests that targeted stations. He was arrested on June 23rd and journalists and political activists. He has has been detained in Evin since. been detained in solitary confinement since No News on Mohammad Davari’s Status his arrest.

50 days after his initial arrest, there is no Mirdamadi and Taj-Zadeh Meet with their news on the progress of Mohammad DaLawyer vari’s case. Davari has only contacted his More than 140 days after their arrest, Mirfamily once, and his lawyer, Mina Jaffari, damadi and Taj-Zadeh met with their lawhas not been able to access his file despite yers in Evin. Mirdamadi is the secretary her repeated requests to the Court. general of the Participation Front and Taj-

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Zadeh is a senior member of the Participation Front and the Mojahedin of Islamic Revolution Organization.

Hooshang Babai, who represents both men, said he met separately with them this morning. The lawyer visits took place in Evin and lasted 1 hour for Taj’Zadeh and a half hour for Mirdamadi.

Babai said both his clients are in good health condition and described their spirits as being extraordinary. He added, “Since the trial for both my clients will be held in the coming day, Mr. Hossein-Abadi and I will be preparing the defense together. Mirdamadi and Faizollah Arab-Sorkhi are detained in the same ward, and Taja-Zadeh is detained in the same ward as Mohsen Aminzadeh.

Mirdamadi and Taj-Zadeh were arrested in June and have been detained since.

Families of Political Prisoners Gathered outside Majlis The families of political prisoners started their gathering at 11 AM today. The family members of several political prisoners were among the crowd of protesters.

The gathering was held in silence and the families held pictures of their loved ones; they protested the ongoing detention of journalists and reformist activists.

The families also held signs that read “Where is the independence of the Judiciary?”, “Is taking part in Komail prayer a crime?”, and “Free political prisoners”.

There was a very noticeable presence of intelligence agents and plainclothes officers around the demonstrators. The families were asking the officials to put a stop to temporary detentions, heavy sentences, lack of access to lawyer, and trials that are not inline with legal procedures.

Editor:

Saeed Valadbaygi Associate Editor: Negar Esfandyari Advice & assistance: Abbas,Amin,Ana,Babak Translation: Sara,Navid,Elham,Negin,Mahan,Cristina,Pascal,Shohre,Keyvan, Arsham,Bahareh,Pegah &…

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Iran's underground pop gypsies Their sound might be a long way from underground, and its folksy style belies its serious, political content.

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ranian band Kiosk might be exiles from their country of origin, but that has not stopped them from becoming symbols for a new generation of Persian music fans.

>Global zoo

The band's guitarist and manager Babak Khiavchi says the band does not want to be tied to any particular genre, they prefer to simply play the music they like and is fun for them.

The band started out in a basement in Iran nearly 18 years ago.

"We are trying to go our own alternative direction which is differIt is a story that is familiar to many contemporary musicians in ent from the mainstream Persian pop music scene which is mostly Iran. cheesy lyrics and recycled ideas and dance music," he says.

Many bands decide to go literally underground, wary of the govern- But he also is quick to point out that despite the fun they are havment's strict censorship laws, and limited tolerance of criticism, set- ing, their lyrics are a social commentary on the issues that affect the ting up makeshift studios in underground basements of friends and daily lives of Iranians all over the world. families.

"We feel that there is a lot more potential in music The band's lead singer and songwriter Arash We feel that there is a for talking about social and cultural problems," he Sobhani says that these makeshift studios are lot more potential in mu- says. called "kiosks" - which is where the band's sic for talking about so- "It doesn't matter which country we are living in name comes from. right now, we do feel like we are modern day gypcial and cultural probSpeaking to the BBC World Service, he says sies, but we still have the same problems that we there are thousands of them all around the Ira- lems used to have as a culture whether in Iran or outside Babak Khiavchi nian capital, Tehran.

Iran."

"Fifteen years ago there was no music stores The band says the album's title Global Zoo is a reand even carrying a electric guitar was not something you'd want to flection of not just Iran but the world. do on the streets," he explains.

"When you look at the world it's more really a zoo, it's not even a This type of cultural restriction sent many young musicians and jungle - you're captured you're in a cage and monkeys are running bands into hiding. the world and so it's more like a zoo than a village," explains Sobhani. >Fraught with danger With the benefit of distance, does the band ever feel like they Even releasing albums is fraught with danger, particularly if the would like to return to Iran? lyrics are seen to be critical of the government or the clergy, mak- There are after all presidential elections scheduled for June, and ing it very difficult for musicians playing modern or western to Iran's former president, and pro-reformist, Mohammad Khatami has make a living in Iran. said that he is planning to run in them.

"That's why we have the underground music movement in Iran...

BBC correspondents say he has a good chance of unseating the curpeople are really connecting to these kinds of lyrics and music," rent President, conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Sobhani says.

"Its very unpredictable, there's no really easy way of These days he says the situation has improved doing long term planning when it comes to Iran and The whole world is a little, but there is still a long way to go. its regulations," Sobhani says. really confused about "Its got better because the population started And to make matters worse, Iran still remains in the to get younger and the government had to al- Iran. Do we have a bomb eyes of many in the West, a global pariah, part of or we don't have a bomb? former US President George W Bush's axis of evil. low for some of these things, but still, compared to the number of bands and musicians We don't know either! "[The Iranian government] keep changing their statewe have inside Iran the situation is not good," Babak Khiavchi ments every day. Its more like mind games than talkhe says. ing about facts and statics," says an exasperated For Kiosk, the strict laws and censorship eventually forced them to Sobhani. move overseas.

"The whole world is really confused about Iran. Do we have a The band has been based in the US since 2006, they have just rebomb or we don't have a bomb? We don't know either!" leased their third studio album Global Zoo and these days their studio and their fan base is very much above ground. ď&#x201A;ˇď&#x20AC; Kiosk is a Persian Blues/Rock/Jazz band estabLast year they were awarded the Best Blues Band of 2008 by the lished by some friends , some years ago in a baseWorld Academy of Arts, Literature, and Media. ment somewhere in Tehran.

Their music is a distinct blend, mixing the traditions of blues, country and Persian music.

Kiosk has never been limited by music style or location. It continues to evolve and experiment by using music and lyrics to express itself and connect to its worldwide audience.

Current Lineup: Ali Kamali - Bass Guitar Babak Khiavchi - Guitars Shahrouz Molaei - Drums Ardalan Payvar - Keyboards Arash Sobhani - Guitars & Vocals

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The revolution began as a mass movement marked by a strike of 30,000 oil workers, courageous demonstrations by working people, defying violence was well under way in several big cities including Tehran, Isfahan, Tabriz, Ghazn 11 February 1979 Tehran vin, Gachsaran, and Kurdistan Province. radio announced the victory In Tehran, the leftist organizations had of the Iranian initially mobilized several redundant and Revolution. The victory day expelled worker groups (kargaran-i biwas the culmination of over eighteen kaar-shudehs). Before long they joined months of mass demonstrations, bloody forces in a loosely-knit Organization of confrontations, large-scale industrial ac- Unemployed and Seasonal Workers, tions, a general strike and many political which included laborers laid off from manoeuvres. Although the revolution manufacturing, construction, and other ended up with the current regime in industries. power, it began as a genuinely popular mass movement. It was marked by a CAMPAIGNS IN strike of 30,000 oil workers and massive, TEHRAN courageous demonstrations by working people, defying violence.

On 2 March 1979, a small group of laidoff workers gathered in the MinisThe Onset try of Labor to publicize their plight. LaSome three months prior to the victory of bor Minister Dariush Foruhar - a the revolution, over 13,000 seasonal or liberal follower of Mosaddeq - addressed project workers in the city of Abadan, the gathering. Disappointed in when their companies discontinued op- the minister, the workers concluded their erations. The workers had lost their jobs protest by reading a resolution but considered their unemployment inwhich called for job creation, a meeting significant compared to the revolutionary struggles around them. Even those who still held their jobs were on strike. Yet, for these workers, the extraordinary days of unity and sacrifice were coming to an end. The revolution was entering a new stage in which groups and individuals would reveal their true colors.

A small number of workers gathered frequently in local tea houses to discuss their plight and to decide on a course of action. Out of these and subsequent meetings emerged the Syndicate of the Unemployed place for a syndicate organization, Project Workers of Abadan (SUPW). a 40-hour work week and unemployment This solidarity marked the start of collec- benefits. Soon the group returned better tive actions taken by the unemployed. prepared and with over 2,000 members.

Within five months, the campaigns suc- Over the next two weeks, they visited the cessfully secured jobs and unemployministry more than five times. During the ment benefits. Several demonstrations, subsequent meetings they also demanded all repressed by the Pasdaran, were orrecognition for their organization and naganized in pursuit of these objectives. tional radio and television coverage of Two months later, on 13 April 1979, as their grievances.12 Facing mounting social struggles intensified, some pressure in its first few weeks in office, 400 laborers resorted to a sit-in in the the Ministry of Labor decided to estabsyndicate headquarters and lish an "unemployed loan fund". threatened to go on a hunger strike. The protest movement of the unemployed ď&#x201A;ˇď&#x20AC;

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The plan envisioned loans of between Rls 7,500 and Rls 9,000 per month for a maximum of six months.

Workers aged 26 to 60 who had paid social security for at least one year would be eligible.13 This requirement effectively excluded casual laborers and recent high school graduates. In the debate that followed, the unemployed turned down this concession, demanding that the age and social security contribution requirements be eliminated. They further insisted that the payments be based on family size, and that representatives of the unemployed supervise the program.

Most importantly, they demanded that the loan concept (vaam-i bikaari) be changed to a benefit plan (haqq-i bikaari). In the meeting, Sherkat-i Vahid, a worker who had been laid off from the Tehran bus services, echoed the concern of those who considered the loan idea a sell-out for the working-class struggle as a whole: We represent all the suffering Iranian workers. Our demand is not an individual claim. Unfortunately, it was announced today that everybody will receive one thousand tumans and abandon the cause. Is it really fair to let these few pennies spoil the spirit of workers' struggle?

How can they call themselves workers, those whose character is worth only one thousand tumans.

One hundred thousand were killed [for the revolution], and still our demands are not met!" A representative of the unemployed offered his support in rejecting the plan. Addressing the laborers, he said: you are the source of our power. We will act according to your decisions. I am glad that the group has consciously expressed its criticism and unwillingness to accept the offer. This decision proves that hunger is not our only concern. Rationality must prevail. Faith, conviction, and consciousness give us power.'

[Continued on pg 15]

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From pg 14 (The revolution began as a mass movement marked by a strike of 30,000 oil workers, courageous demonstrations by working people, defying violence)...

The loan versus benefits issue became the fundamental source of confrontation between the unemployed and the Provisional Government.

Undoubtedly, the left was instrumental in articulating and radicalizing the workers' demands. As people who had supported and endured hardships during the revolution, this group of unemployed felt entitled to impose demands on the new leadership. The influence of the left on their movement did not affect their conviction that their demands were legitimate.

The Labor Minister insisted that the term "loan" could not be changed. On 12 March 1979 he told the workers' representatives: "I do not want to suggest that this is a grant without any repayment due. Workers' honor is above charity. I want this plan to be understood merely as a loan.'" Following a meeting on 17 March, therefore, over 3,000 jobless laborers began a sit-in in the labor ministry compound. When subsequent negotiations with the ministry proved futile, some 700 participants went on a hunger strike in the late afternoon in their frustration and anguish.20 Three days later,

in an effort to mobilize support from other citizens, they issued a statement that was distributed in Tehran: We are the unemployed workers who have staged a sit-in at the Ministry of Labor. Since the authorities have not responded to our demands, we have been on a hunger strike since 17 March (1:00 a.m.) and will pursue our strike to the point of our death, unless our grievances are considered. We request that our laboring brothers distribute this note and publicize our situation among the working people, so that they may all join us.

As we finish this writing, [the authorities] have come to us shooting their guns.

Immediately after the hunger strike started, the Labor Minister met with the workers' representatives at 1.00 a.m.

An hour of negotiations failed to bring agreement. A spokesperson for the strikers indicated that the minister had insisted on the loan issue, which was unacceptable to the strikers.

An additional attempt was made to appease the strikers, this time by a clergyman who tried to impose his religious authority. His appeals, however, fell upon deaf ears, and the workers continued their sit-in. On the first night, hizbullahis (pro-regime street thugs) marched into the ministry to attack the strikers.

Outside the compound, leftist students joined groups of unemployed

Iran needs additional $3.8 billion for gasoline through March 2010

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senior Iranian official said the Islamic Republic needs to pay an additional $3.8 billion for gasoline imports through March 2010, and domestic gasoline rations may be reduced this winter, the Jam-e-Jam daily newspaper reported Tuesday.

"Iran needs $3.8 billion to import gasoline by the end of the current (Iranian) year," said Mohammad Royanian,who heads Iran's Fuel Transport and Management Organization, according to the Jam-e-Jam newspaper .

The Iranian year ends March 20.

Royanian said the government Fuel Transport and Management Organization had received expert recommendations to cut gasoline rations for the winter season, reports the newspaper.

"Some experts have recommended to the Fuel Transport and Management Organization headquarters that gasoline rations for cars be cut in the winter," Jam-e-Jam cites Royanian as saying.

Under Iran's current gasoline rationing scheme, which was launched in June 2007 15

to curb consumption and redirect money to shore up the nation's oil infrastructure, the monthly quotas for government-subsidized gasoline is 100 liters a month for individual drivers at a subsidized price of 1,000 rials a liter. Drivers can buy gasoline beyond the monthly quota for 4,000 rials a liter.

According to government officials, Iran pays between $35 billion to $45 billion a year on fuel subsidies. Subsidized fuels primarily include gasoline, gasoil, kerosene, liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG, and fuel oil.

Reuters on Tuesday quoted gasoline traders as saying that Iran is struggling to finance its international gasoline purchases. "They are struggling to raise money for their international oil purchases, and are trying to keep costs down...it doesn't help that oil prices are on the rise as well," said a a Middle East based gasoline trader, according to Reuters.

"Their initial bid price was pretty low, about 25, 30 percent off the market but there was no way anyone was going to deal at those levels," the trader added.

workers to express their solidarity with the strikers despite repeated clashes with the pro-regime thugs. Inside, however, frustration and determination to continue the struggle characterized the protesters. Workers felt betrayed and cheated by the new politicians whom they had trusted. They sensed a kind of moral outrage and suspected their leaders of violating the tacit social contract that had evolved in the course of the revolution. They expected respect as well as material rewards, but felt they had obtained neither. Zahra Dorostka, one of the women strikers, angrily vented this feeling at the compound: â&#x20AC;&#x153;I want to know why radio and television do not broadcast our grievances to inform the world of our sufferings and to make them appreciate how little [the authorities] are offering us. If they broadcast this injustice, the people will no longer be misinformed |by the government] that pretends to give us our due. We have gathered here and are on a hunger strike because we want unemployment benefits [haqq-i hikaari]. We do not expect charity. If there are jobs, we are prepared to work. Otherwise, our living expenses must be insured. We all cried out that we wanted Mr Khomeini; we supported the religious leaders. Now we expect them to address our problems.â&#x20AC;?

Extract from Workless Revolutionaries: The Unemployed Movement in Revolutionary Iran by Asef Bayat

Reformist journalist released on bail, hospitalized

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fter 124 days in detention, reformist journalist Hengameh Shahidi was released on a bail of 90,000 dollars, then transferred to a hospital.

Branch 26 of the Revolution Court issued the order for Shahidi's release on bail.

Shahidi requested more time to prepare her defense during her first court appearance, which was held in the same branch on Sunday. The judge granted a stay.

[Source: Norooz] Shahidi, who had been detained on June 30, suffers from severe heart problems requiring her to take 28 pills a day. Before her release, she was on her eighth day of a hunger and a medication strike to protest stagnation in her case.

The Shahidi family said she was in poor health and seeking medical attention.

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of communists, and creation of a minimum of coordination based on collective understanding and agreement is possible and more adaptable for social action.

A weakness of this type of work is the time it takes to reach collective agreements; obviFrom Khiaban #40 ously a centralized leadership can reach deBy Milad S. cisions more quickly. In my view, however, . In the current struggle, the main this weakness can be compensated for with force is the people. ‘The people’ the improvement of the means of communimeans the laboring forces, the incation, especially with the help of the infradustrial workers, teachers and stustructure available outside the country. dents, employees of the health and services On the other hand, the very process of sectors and the office workers, university reaching collective decisions and agreestudents, the unemployed and the poor. Dif- ments is part of the very definition and disferent segments of the population have tinguishing feature of the communists’ joined the street protests to different dework. In this very process, we can correct grees, ranging from general mobilization in the tone and content of our ideas. In other some parts to hesitance and waiting in other words, the central committee is this very parts.

The foundational principle is that the laboring forces, in widely varied working situations and at times without cultural or organizational continuity in a country consisting of different peoples, do not need centralized guidelines; rather, they need a multiplicity of guidelines, and different kinds and fields of activities.

Therefore, based on the heterogeneous conditions of the existence of laboring forces, the first principle of organizing is the definiteness of place.

This principle has two components.

Undoubtedly, organizing industrial workers and organizing low-ranking office workers/staff or teachers are subjected pluralistic network, the communist ideal is to different circumstances, their demands the work of independent organizing of the too vary, and likewise the situation in a people, and the polit-bureau too is the colsmall town in Kurdistan is not the same as lective decisions. that in the country’s capital. In the course of However, these communist groups are not the collective overall organization of these the same as the people’s independent ordemands, the heterogeneity of places redis- ganizations. The goal of the organization of cover each other through all-encompassing the labor force is putting forward people’s demands and move in the same direction. demands and creating conditions for interThe decisive factor here is that this covention in the process of production of sodirection of the movement, which based on cial wealth. Groups of communist activists its logic is a passing phenomenon, does not either bring forth the idea of forming these eliminate the place-specific multiplicity of organizations, or in their actions they atdemands. The second component of the tempt to belong to such organizations or to principle is the logic of belonging. If we ex- their leadership. pend effort for the betterment of life in a To imagine that the mere formation of a specific neighborhood, the Shiite and the communist group, reading some books and Baha’i, the Jewish and the Muslim, women engaging in theoretical discussions is the and men, they all belong to this neighborsame as communist activity is completely hood. mistaken. The end result of the communists’ If we are attempting to organize a strike in a work should be the organization of the peofactory, the Afghan workers, the Baluchi ple. and Khuzestani workers too work in that Any theory, any level of competence in disfactory, in that location. This belonging to cussing the details of the French or the Octhis very place must be obtained as a right in tober Revolution, or any sociological theory its real effectiveness. can help our work and help solidify our 2. The second point is about the difference knowledge of organizing, but these cannot between organizations of intellectuals or replace the people’s organizations. An assosupporters of the communist ideal and the ciation of communists is only a part of the people’s organizations. At this historical people’s organizations. If this principle is moment and due to the existence of new not forgotten, the group itself can find ways communications capabilities, forming of a of avoiding cliquishness and ossification of network comprising numerous small groups their internal relations.

For Organizing

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In some experiences, for example, in order to reduce the danger of becoming a closed circle, simple formal mechanisms have been used, such as limiting the number of members to an odd number, e.g. three, five or seven to a group. The oddness of number disturbs an internal relations based on pair relations and symbiosis to a certain extent.

Another experience is that when unanimity of ideas is impossible while the conditions are pressing, based on a lottery, one person is chosen as the leader for a short period of time, such as several weeks. This person’s role is to cast the decisive vote when a group cannot reach consensus. This role is completely based on drawing lots, and not on any individual characteristics of the person.

Specific actions: writing and distribution of night-fliers; or creating a preliminary cell in order to form a workers’ organization in a factory, or in order to create a support fund for a teachers’ or university students’ organization, in order to create a secret or publicly announced local free health clinic or a free school; or any other project that is needed and doable, is an effort directed toward presence in a people’s organization in their places of work or living.

3. Organizing of people is not a means or a tool; organizing the people around time- and place-specific demands is the realization of the communist movement.

In today’s Iran, this very principle is in fact the only way out of the endemic crisis that has engulfed all the social spheres. To escape this historical crisis, no device or technique deployed by the state will solve the problems. The people’s organized presence, without any ideological affixes or titles, is not only the dam blocking the way of the capitalist state apparatuses’ aggression against the people’s livelihood and integrity, but today even their body.

These organizations of the labor force, and the possibility of their spread to the poor, is the way out of the crisis for the entirety of the society.

To clarify the principle of the independent organization of people, a line must be drawn against a phenomenon that has become prevalent in the last two decades.

NGOs, or Non-Governmental Organizations, are deeply ideological structures. The boundaries of NGO activities are defined by the space separating the state power from the particular interests of different sociocultural groups in society. This space, the civil society, has been defined in contrast to the private space based on private property, and in contrast to the state as the public discourse. This definition and this position, is historically specific to bourgeois societies. It is now decades since, in advanced capitalist societies, capital itself obliterated the boundaries between the private space and the public domain.

[Continued on pg 17]

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From pg 16 ( For Organizing)...

Today, capital is extremely social and no bourgeois is anywhere in sight; today, the suburb itself is a factory for producing surplus value. Capital has left no room for civil society, and there are no neutral or separating spaces in their bourgeois sense. Besides, capital’s progress has never shied from aggression against the private space or the public/social resources. Contrary to what the orthodox would say, cultural products and creations, including cultural identities too, are not super-structural things. I don’t understand the meaning of ‘super-structure’ exactly. The dominant culture, the media and visual representations today are part of the cycle of production and accumulation of profit in a modern society; sexuality, historical traditions and even childhood are commoditized and are spheres of investment.

Today, the defense of civility does not occur in the suspended space between the state and capital. Exactly for this reason, a true liberal, not these pretences of being liberal in academic environs, but freedom -seekers and those truly against totalitarianism, had better join the communists.

The people’s independent organizations are separate from state power, and this independence is gained by them based on their connections to the labor force, to the production process and the places of living. This means that these organizations, in any place where possible, will turn to self-management. To put it more theoretically, the operational space for these organizations is not the ‘public space’, but a space based on the definition of a common cause while forming these organizations.

That which distinguishes the work of communist groups from that of the NGOs is firstly the control that the people assume over their organizations, and secondly going beyond the civil society as an artificial space under the control of capital.

Let it be said too that, in my view, in today’s Iran the space of social negotiation between particular interests and the state will either rapidly be transformed and move beyond the limits of particular interests, or become an appendage of the state, a charitable activity.

As a result, under conditions whereby the existing choices for a communist group is either passivity or engaging in cliquish discussions, being active in such organizations while being aware of their ideological limitations, can help in gaining an initial experience of social work.

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4. Along the same lines, we must pay attention to a misunderstanding. To be a Muslim, either in good faith or just in pretences, doesn’t have a jot to do with “Islamist”, as in an adjective for [a particular kind of] social interventionism.

Being a Muslim is an individual concern, and we can probably find as many kinds of personal Islamic beliefs as there are Muslims in Iran. One Muslim can be working alongside communists in a popular organization and still remain a very pious human, while another can be a torturer in the basement rooms in the Evin prison. And both could pray five times a day.

These beliefs are not the determining criteria for social behavior. The adjective ‘Islamist’, however, is a completely different creature.

The problem of the Islamists in Iran, both those ruling and those currently condemned, during these past decades is the conflation of the adjective ‘Islamic’ and being a Muslim.

This is an ideological and totalitarian manipulation of some people’s Muslim-ness.

And all this, based on fiqh [religious jurisprudence], meaning the same legal rulings of the 16th century, which were left behind almost one hundred years ago. A Sixteenth century jurist does what we see they try to do now. He cuts off people’s hands in Sattar Khan highway (a highway in Tehran, named after one of the leaders of the Constitutional Revolution, 1906, which abolished religious interference in jurisprudence).

So, as you see, for the Islamists, “Islamic democracy” means the Islamist people, whose similarities with being a Muslim occur only in name and in truth cannot be anything but the state’s functionaries, choose the best suited among themselves, but claim this selection should be valid for all Iranian people.

Such a fictitious line of thought is fundamentally incapable of understanding a thing called ‘society’. Let alone democracy.

5. In order to spread a single word among the people, it takes efforts proving that one can be trusted. Those who want to shortcut history, make announcements in the name of the people, and proceed forward by manufacturing public opinion — they consider people dupes and want them to remain thus. Without having any roots in people’s organizations, and without a people who have gained social consciousness in the process of fighting for their rights, calling on the people to engage in massive projects, no matter how radical they may seem, at least for the communists is meaningless.

Human Rights Lawyer Indicted for Criticizing Execution of Minor

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awyer and human rights advocate, Mohammad Oliyaifard was indicted for criticizing actions of the Judiciary and talking publicly about them.

HRA- The freedom of expression unit of HRA reports that Mohammad Oliyaifard, defense lawyer and human rights advocate, defended himself against all charges during a hearing held today at 10.30 am before the first branch of Public Servants Tribunal in Tehran.

The prosecution has accused Oliyaifard of propagating against the regime, disturbing the public mind, talking publicly about the execution of Behnoud Shojai and criticizing actions of the Judiciary.

Oliyafard defended his actions and was released on $50,000 bail pending next court hearing.

This is the second court case against the well known jurist who is already in the middle of fighting another case for insulting the agents of the Intelligence Ministry.

Baha'i Citizen Arrested in Yasouj

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Baha’i resident of Yasuj was arrested by security forces.

HRA- The Bahai’ rights committee of HRA reports that at 11 am on October 31, 2009 the officers of Yasuj Intelligence Office went to the house of a Baha’i resident called “Ali Bakhsh Bazrafkan” and after showing their warrant, they inspected his house and confiscated all his books and personal belongings. Later, they accompanied him to visit his son “Arman Bazrafkan” where they also inspected his house and confiscated all his religious books.

After completing the inspection which lasted for about 2 hours, the officers arrested Ali Bakhsh Bazrafkan and it has been reported that he is still in detention.

It should be mentioned that Ali Bakhsh Bazrafkan had been previously a member of the Yasuj Managing Bahais’ Council. This council was shut down last March as ordered by the Revolutionary Court Prosecutor, and Mr Bazrafkan has not had any responsibility of any kind among the Baha’i Community of Yasuj since then.

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The Hinge of History

By ROGER COHEN

lay the weakness (as they see it) of Mikhail Gorbachev, the man who would not ver since June 15 in Tehran open fire.

I’ve been asking the most alThe history of 1989 is still being written luring and treacherous of his- — a plethora of new books testify to that. torical questions: “What if?”

The history of Iran in 2009 will also be written many times over. Truth is elusive, In history, of course, the hypothetical has but it’s worth recalling that beyond the inlittle value even if at any one moment — exorable historical forces at work in molike that one in the Iranian capital three ments of crisis, there often lies one perdays after the disputed election — any son’s decision in a particular confused monumber of outcomes was as plausible as ment. what came to pass.What if the vast protest- The hinge of history hangs on a heartbeat. ing crowd of perhaps three million people Harald Jaeger is a good reminder of that. I had turned from Azadi (Freedom) Square first met him in Berlin a decade ago. He’s toward the presidential complex? What if the former officer in the East German borMir Hussein Moussavi, the opposition leader, had stood before the throng and said, “Here I stand with you and here I will fall?”

What, in short, if Azadi had been Prague’s Wenceslas Square of 20 years ago and Moussavi had been Vaclav Havel?

Retrospective determinism (Henri Bergson’s phrase) now makes it hard to imagine anything other than the brutal clampdown that has pushed Iranian anger beneath the surface. Yet of course things might have ended differently.

In 1989, the revolutionary year, the Tiananmen Square massacre happened in Beijing and, five months later, the division of Europe ended with the fall of the Wall in Berlin. Could it have been other- der guards who, on the night of Nov. 9, wise? Might China have opened to greater 1989, opened the gate at Berlin’s Bornholdemocracy while European uprisings were mer Strasse, ending the Cold War. shot down?

Now 66, Jaeger recently retired to a small We cannot know any more than we know town near Berlin where he cultivates his what lies on the road not taken or what a garden. When I saw him a few weeks ago, pregnant glance exchanged but never ex- he was wearing a blue T-shirt and goldplored might have yielded. rimmed spectacles: an ordinary-looking All we know, as Timothy Garton Ash ob- gray-haired guy with a frank gaze. He’s serves in The New York Review of Books, not been invited to the elaborate 20this, “The fact that Tiananmen happened in anniversary celebrations but bears no ranChina is one of the reasons it did not hap- cor. “To put it in a nutshell,” he told me, pen in Europe.”

“It was a lucky moment.”

And now those events of 20 years ago — I tried to imagine him at his post 20 years Europe’s 11/9 — are pored over by histori- ago, facing a growing crowd, defending ans in search of definitive answers to how the border that had been his life, knowing that world-changing moment transpired, that a senior official (Günter Schabowski) and pored over by 21st-century repressive had just said East Germans could travel governments to ascertain wherein exactly “without meeting special provisions,” un-

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able to get clear orders from his superior, wavering, alone.

Just after 11 P.M., he gave the order to open the gate. How did he feel? “Sweat was pouring down my neck and my legs were trembling. I knew what I had done. I knew immediately. That’s it, I thought, East Germany is finished.”

Jaeger had not set out to terminate a country. Behind him lay great forces: Pope John Paul II; Lech Walesa and the heroic Poles of Solidarity; Soviet economic collapse; Ronald Reagan’s “tear down this wall;” Gorbachev’s refusal to go the Tiananmen route; the irrepressible stirring of the myriad European souls imprisoned at Yalta.

Yet, despite all this (history’s long arc), the event itself — the unimaginable event — still needed a single beleaguered officer to open a gate rather than open fire. A decade ago, Jaeger told me: “I did not free Europe.

It was the crowd in front of me, and the hopeless confusion of my leadership, that opened those gates.”

Having been in that Tehran crowd, I know the force was with it. I felt myself how fear evaporates with such numbers.

Nobody, not in 2009, can slay millions. Behind those Iranians, too, lay greater forces, all Iran’s centennial and unquenchable quest for some stable balance between representative government and religious faith.

The millions didn’t want to overthrow the Islamic Republic; they just wanted the second word in that revolutionary name to mean something — enough, anyway, for their votes to count.

What if they had wheeled and borne down on the fissured heart of power in the instant of its disarray? What if this had been Iran’s “lucky moment?”

I have no answer to my “what if?” but 1989 suggests this: One day the dam must break when a repressive regime and the society it rules march in opposite directions.

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Revolutionary Guards warn against Nov. 4th "disturbances"

Remembering Omid Reza “Let the first blogger to die in prison be the last” 

VOTE

Name: Remembering Omid Reza “Let the first blogger to die in prison be the last” URL: http://www.march18.org, http:// www.globalvoices.org, http:// www.committeetoprotectbloggers.org

O

n March 18, blogger Omid Reza Mir Sayafi died in prison after being sentenced to two and a half years in prison. He had been charged with insulting religious leaders and spreading propaganda about the Islamic Republic of Iran.

There were reports of Mir Sayafi—who primarily wrote about Persian music and culture—being depressed, of him taking sedative pills or receiving an overdose, of being described by his alsojailed doctor as “not at all fit for confinement” and the prison hospital failing to provide adequate care. People spoke of how use of torture was an open secret in Iranian prisons, and how someone accused of libelous blogging could be kept near more violent criminals.

Mir Sayafi’s death under mysterious circumstances—and the whys and hows of a blogger being jailed in the first place—prompted outcry by members of the international community, followed by action. The March 18 movement started in part as a memorial to Mir Sayafi (with March 18 denoted as a day of remembrance), and in part to ensure that “the first blogger to die in prison be the last” as more bloggers around the world become victims of more than just government censorship.

Founded by Hamid Tehrani and Mideast Youth, an interfaith youth network, the March 18 movement seeks to expand the world’s understanding of bloggers as de facto journalists, and extend the protections

normally accorded to journalists to all those who share information and stories of repression and corruption online–sometimes at risk of violence or other harm.

March18.org asks supporters to join them by following the movement on Twitter, Facebook and the movement’s blog. The blog and Twitter feed post on movement-relevant issues and news: Recent posts include news about a freed female reformist blogger and information on how to help bloggers currently being persecuted in Vietnam.

The motivations of the March 18 movement and similar initiatives are not unlike those of “Reporter Without Borders” – the longestablished activist organization for journalists’ rights that has spoken out about continued persecution of bloggers in Iran. Mir Sayafi’s death, and the role bloggers and active Twitter users played in the civil unrest following Iran’s presidential elections this year, has drawn attention to the bloggers’ rights movement, represented by sites like Global Voices and the Committee to Protect Bloggers.

The Basics: WHO: Omid Reza Mir Sayafi and people around the world trying to ensure that what happened to him doesn’t happen to other bloggers.

WHAT: Mir Sayafi was one of a number of bloggers that have been arrested in Iran; he was reportedly the first to die in prison.

Movements and memorials have sprung up in his memory, and his story — and the greater story of persecuted bloggers in Iran, and the yet greater story of bloggers under oppressive regimes around the world — has also drawn attention to bloggers’ rights and safety campaigns worldwide.

WHERE: Worldwide.

HOW to get involved: Follow the March 18 blog, Twitter and Facebook feeds. Become a member on the web site. Check out Global Voices, Reporters Without Borders and Committee to Protect Bloggers for new.

ZEDBAZI

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ran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards, the elite corps largely responsible for the crackdown on the protesters of the June presidential elections, published an announcement today to warn against the proposed protest march being organized by the opposition for November 4.

In their statement, the Guards invite people from every walk of life to join the ceremonies for the day and to limit their slogans to anti-US content. They cautioned that “collaborators of the enemy and deceived people may attempt to create disturbances and riots.”

In Iran, the anniversary of occupation of the US embassy on November 4th, 1979 is held with demonstrations against US policies against the Islamic Republic.

Supporters of disputing candidates of the June presidential election, Mir Hosein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi have announced their intention to stage their own demonstrations on the day to protest the alleged fraud in the presidential elections that secured Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s victory.

People have been rallied by individual calls for protest from Mir Hosein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, Ayatollah Yousef Sanei and the Association of Combatant Clerics.

Protesters also staged protests on Iran’s annual anti-Israel day of demonstrations on September 18, chanting their own slogans of protests against the June elections and the post-election government.

The Revolutionary Guards new statement maintains that Iranian people “will not allow any movement to taint their determined will by creating deviating slogans and false issues.” They also condemned the US of starting a “soft war” against the Islamic Republic regime.

Headquarters of Iran’s armed forces has announced that in the past 30 years, especially in the recent events, they have learned how to “confront the dominating US policies with astuteness.”

Deputy Commander of police forces has also announced that illegal gatherings will not be tolerated on November 4th. Ahmadreza Radan has warned: “Those who intend to join illegal gatherings and those who have deceived people and invited them to join these illegal gatherings will have to answer for their deeds.”

Iran police commander had announced earlier that any gathering will require police permission.

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From pg 1(We’ll hit the Streets to Fight Executions, Suppression, and the Shameless Sentences Against Student Activists and the Workers’ Movement )...

T

he political situation in Iran today is such that a more advanced and more radical people than the intellectuals and political powers have entered the arena and are expressing their issues and desires in various statements. In this edition I’d like to assign the Editor’s note to a statement published by a group of Iran’s students, who in recent years have represented one of Iran’s political groups. Leftist and socialist students who have called people to the streets to protest against the status quo. These students who time and again have in their protests and activities announced that they stand in solidarity with the workers’ and women’s movements and plan to build strong ties between the classes and various movements.

Statement from the Socialist students of the universities of Iran Against execution, suppression and the shameless sentences against student activists and the workers’ movement.

The people’s protest movement against dictatorship and the corruption of Islamic socio-political capitalism continues and in various new forms, moment by moment confusing the dictatorship further. At a time when street campaigns are taking place at long intervals, the student movement has entered the battlefield with the start of the new academic year and every day we witness the successive protests and campaigns that from university to university, in the spirit of solidarity with one another and the movement, has gained momentum and mass appeal.

Students have rightly realized that they must adopt the people’s street slogans in universities and in the process pursue the issues and desires of the workers, women, teachers and all sections of society for equality and freedom.

The workers’ movement in the past few months following the electoral coup d’etat, has become one of the most critical and most sensitive issues in the social and political arena. On the one hand the economic and living conditions of the workers has made them resort to successive strikes in factories and industrial centres large and small.

And on the other the presence of workers in recent protests, though not organized, their public campaign against the dictatorship is linked and a new horizon is open to them. Therefore the workers’ protest and struggle has en20

tered a new phase, towards progress and achievement.

The coup d’etat government, from the moment of the people’s eruption, has constantly strived to employ its institutional suppressors to stop this surge.

Now that the coup d’etat government is at the peak of confusion and international, regional and domestic disturbance, after it riddled large numbers of freedom seeking people with its bullets, after the killing, the imprisoning, the torture and disappearance of large numbers of women and men who were only seeking equality and freedom, it’s now the turn of the social movements, especially the activists and leaders of the worker’s movement and student’s movement who have been subjected to heavy and shameless prison sentences.

Heavy sentences of two to five years that have been issued in the last month. Disciplinary sentences that deprive students from study, alongside enforcing an atmosphere of high security in universities, are the coup d’etat government’s measures against the new conitunuous campaigns and protests of the university students throughout the country that has brought it to its knees.

Likewise the arrests of labour activists, suppression of strikes and issue of shameless prison sentences at the hands of the Islamic dictatorship in the pursuit of its project to crush the movement, achieves nothing but an end to protest, the right of the people.

The sum of these suppressions, of the coup d’etat government’s efforts, that include political suppression and the suppression of social movements and confrontational initiatives and the removal of social institutions such as NGOs - especially those active in the field of children’s rights and the struggle against the exploitation and shameless abuse of children - create an atmosphere of public intimidation where capital punishment and particularly that of children and young people applies.

The death penalty, the hideous tool of organized murder at the hands of dic-

tatorship governments, advances with rash process, the most disastrous form of which is the execution of young people and Iran, in helping the oppressive capitalist Islamic government, was the pioneer of this and has the highest per capita rating. And we have seen how inefficient pressure and formal recommendations from international institutions has been in putting a stop to it.

All these desperate efforts on the part of the coup d’etat government demonstrate its troubled state. And neither a return to pre electoral coup d’etat times is possible nor advancement and putting a stop to the people’s protest.that is becoming more radical, by the desperate Islamic capitalist creation of an atmosphere of oppression and intimidation. It cannot build a dam against this movement. Social movements, particularly the worker’s movement will gain strength as they take greater shape and unite with other campaigns and will guarantee their power in the struggle. In the same way the worker’s movement, as with the expectations of the masses in the people’s movement, will be the pioneers of this struggle and take a huge step towards the horizon for the struggle of the past 30 years.

The socialist students of Iran’s universities in condemning repression and the shameless sentencing against labour activists and student activists, and the rash and abhorrent executions of the coup d’etat government, defend the people’s anti-dictatorship struggle for freedom and equality and democratic rights. We pronounce our solidarity with the struggle and resistance against dictatorship and all our efforts are for the advancement of the public demands of social, freedom seeking movements. And we will engage fully with all actions that look towards this horizon.

Long live the mass campaign against dictatorship!

Long live freedom and equality!

Long live socialism!

Socialist Students of Iran

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Iran: Some Journalists Freed, Many Still In Prison

Britain slams Iran over reported jailing of embassy worker cially been informed of the embassy worker's sentence, and he does not know where Rassam is, he told Iranian media.

Abdolsamad Khorramshahi told the Fars News Agency that the terms of Rassam's bail did not prevent him from leaving the country. He said Rassam had been in Iran recently, but he did not know his current whereabouts.

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eports that Iran has sentenced a British embassy employee to four years in prison are "deeply concerning," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Thursday.

He said he could not express an opinion on the verdict before the court officially informs him of it, which he said normally happens after it is issued.

The European Union condemned the reported verdict as Hossein Rassam "is a hardwork- "unjustified and harsh," and ing embassy official" who was urged "the Iranian authorities to "doing work that was wholly overturn it swiftly," the Swedish within the boundaries of diplo- presidency of the 27-nation bloc matic work," Miliband said at a said in a statement Thursday. news conference in Brussels, Belgium.

"Any action against one EU country (a citizen or member of The reported sentence is "wholly embassy staff) is considered an unjustified and represents further action against the entire EU, and harassment of embassy staff for will be treated accordingly," the going about their normal and le- statement said. gitimate duties," Miliband had said earlier, in a statement issued France also condemned the senWednesday. tencing of Rassam.

Rassam is one of several British embassy employees arrested in the wake of Iran's disputed June 12 presidential election. Thousands of Iranians took to the streets to protest the official results declaring President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner.

Iran accused Britain and the United States of fomenting the unrest.

Miliband said he understood the sentence could be appealed and urged "the authorities to conduct this quickly and overturn this harsh sentence."

"This will be seen as an attack against the entire diplomatic community in Iran," he said in a statement late Wednesday.

The Foreign Office summoned the Iranian ambassador to LonRassam was put on trial in Au- don, and Britain's envoy in Tegust. The European Union, hran spoke to Iran's deputy forFrance and the United Kingdom eign minister, Miliband said. denounced the proceeding.

Rassam's lawyer has not offi21



Amnesty International Urgent Action

M

aziar Bahari and Mohammad Ghouchani were released on bail on 17 and 29 October respectively. At least three other journalists are still detained in Evin prison, Tehran, where they are at risk of ill-treatment. They are prisoners of con-

science.

Mohammad Ghouchani, the editor of the newspaper Etemad-e Melli, was released on the night of 29 October, two months after payment of one billion rials (approx. US$100,000) bail. Maziar Bahari, a Canadian-Iranian reporter for the magazine Newsweek, was released on bail of three billion rials. He was allowed to leave Iran and arrived in the UK three days later, in time for the birth of his first child.

Bahman Ahmadi Amou’i, husband of journalist Zhila Bani Ya'qoub (who was released on 19 August) has been held without charge since his arrest on 20 June. Saeed Laylaz, a writer for the magazine Sarmayeh, appeared before Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran on 23 September to appeal against a twomonth extension of his detention order, despite an earlier order setting bail at two billion rials. He is still in solitary confinement, despite a court order for him to be moved to an open section of the prison. He was allowed to phone home on his birthday, 1 October, and his wife visited him briefly in prison on 5 October.

Keyvan Samimi Behbehani, editor of the banned magazine Nameh, is in solitary confinement in Section 209 of Evin Prison.

In August, during a family visit, he said he had been severely beaten, requiring treatment in the prison's medical facility. Rouhollah Shahsavar is now known to have been released on 25 June.

PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY in Persian, Arabic, English, French or your own language: Welcoming the release on bail of Mohammad Ghouchani and Maziar Bahari, and asking for details of any charges they may be facing; Calling on the authorities to release Bahman Ahmadi Amou’i, Saeed Laylaz and Keyvan Samimi Behbehani immediately and unconditionally, as they are being detained solely for their peaceful exercise of the right to freedom of expression; Urging the authorities to ensure they are not tortured or otherwise ill-treated, and that reports of torture or other illtreatment are thoroughly investigated and anyone found responsible is brought to justice in fair proceedings.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 8 DECEMBER 2009 TO: Leader of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei The Office of the Supreme Leader [Continued on pg 22] The Bridge welcomes contributions from talented writers, graphic designers, artists. Please contact us at: thebridgejournal@gmail.com Be the first to read The Bridge . Join our mailing list to receive regular updates. Write to : thebridgejournal@gmail.com with SUBSCRIBE in the subject box.

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From pg 21 (Iran: Some Journalists Freed,

Many Still In Prison )...

The Office of the Supreme Leader Islamic Republic Street " End of Shahid Keshvar Doust Street, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran Email: via website: http://www.leader.ir/ langs/en/index.php?p=letter (English) http://www.leader.ir/langs/fa/index.php? p=letter (Persian) Salutation: Your Excellency Head of the Judiciary Ayatollah Sadeqh Larijani Howzeh Riyasat-e Qoveh Qazaiyeh (Office of the Head of the Judiciary) Pasteur St., Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e Jomhouri, Tehran 1316814737, Islamic Republic of Iran Email: via website http://www.dadiran.ir/ tabid/75/Default.aspx Salutation: Your Excellency And copies to: Head of the Iranian Journalists’ Association Rajabali Mazrooei No. 87, 7th St., Kabkanian St. Keshavarz Boulevard Tehran Islamic Republic of Iran E-mail: generalsecretary@aoij.org Fax: 98 21 896 35 39 Salutation: Dear Mr Mazrooei Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date. This is the third update of UA 171/09 (MDE 13/062/2009).

Further information: www.amnesty.org/en/ library/info/MDE13/062/2009/en and http:// www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ MDE13/092/2009/en

ADditional Information After 65 days of solitary confinement in Evin Prison, Bahman Ahmadi Amou’i was moved in late August to a cell in Section 209 of the prison, measuring 3.5 m² which he shares with two other detainees. His lawyer has been unable to meet him or access his file. Branch 2 of the Revolutionary Court only acknowledged they were investigating him at the beginning of October but as the investigation was still incomplete they would not allow the lawyer to see the file.

Bahman Ahmadi Amou'i has been allowed three family visits.

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Detainees in Section 209 of Evin Prison are only allowed out into the open air three times a week, for a maximum of 20 minutes.

They have limited access to toilets and showers: they can only use the toilets four times a day at set times. Consequently many have developed kidney and bladder infections. Access to medical treatment is limited and health care is sometimes denied, apparently to increase pressure on detainees.

Mass trial sessions of hundreds that started on 4 August were grossly unfair, including the latest, which was held on 25 August. Detainees "confessed" to vaguely worded charges, often not recognizably criminal offences. These "confessions," apparently obtained under duress, were accepted by the court. Some of those on trial were filmed making similar "confessions," which were aired on TV before their trials took place. At In the days following the 13 June announce- least four people have been sentenced to ment that incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadine- death, and more could face the death penjad had won the presidential election, hun- alty. Dozens are said to have been sentenced to prison terms, including at least one dreds of thousands of Iranians took part in of 15 years. generally peaceful mass demonstrations throughout the country, disputing the election results. The authorities quickly imposed sweeping restrictions on freedom of expres- Iranian officials have confirmed that at least sion, association and assembly and telesome of those detained after the postphone and internet systems were severely election protests have been tortured or otherdisrupted. Iranian publications were banned wise ill-treated, and that abuses took place from publishing in at least one information about detention centhe nationwide untre, Kahrizak, rest and foreign outside Tejournalists were hran, since banned from the closed on the streets, their visas order of Iran's not renewed and Supreme some arrested or Leader, Ayaexpelled from the tollah Khamecountry. Around nei. Twelve 20 journalists depolice offitained since the cials and a disputed presidenjudge who tial elections on 12 had been inJune are believed volved in to be still detained transferring detainees to or imprisoned.

Kahrizak are In response to the said to be facmass protests, the ing trial for security forces, their role in notably the parathe military Basij, were widely deployed. At abuses. On 9 September, Farhad Tajari, a least 4,000 were arrested in the three to four member of the Iranian parliament's Special weeks following the election, including Parliamentary Committee set up to review prominent political figures close to either post-election arrests, told the Fars News presidential candidates Mir Hossein Agency that a "court hearing for addressing Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, or former law violations by suspects in the Kahrizak President Khatami, who supported Mir case will be held in the near future.

Hossein Mousavi’s campaign. Some human rights defenders and journalists were also detained. They have been denied access to legal representation, but have generally been On 7 September, Iranian security officials closed the office of the committee coable to meet family members. Arrests of others have continued sporadically, includ- founded by Mehdi Karroubi and Mir ing students who have continued to protest Hossein Mousavi. They confiscated testimonies the committee had gathered on abuses on campuses since the new academic year of protesters and detainees in the course of began in September. the demonstrations following the presidential election. Amnesty International expressed concern that its confiscation would The security forces used excessive force, place those who had provided testimony at killing dozens of protestors and injuring risk of reprisals by the security forces (see hundreds more. Some died later of their in- report). juries. Others have been injured and died as Further information on UA: 171/09 Index; a result of torture while in custody.

MDE 13/115/2009 Issue Date: 30 October 2009

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main symbol of the Islamic Republic, i.e., velayat-e faqih [rule of religious jurists], and in effect stand alongside the people (not just in words, but in social objectivity), this is indicative of the fact that the Islamic Republic separated its path from that of the revoluFrom Khiaban #18 tion, which amounts to the political suicide

By Milad S. of the regime. From this point on, the 1979 Translated by “A Friend of the Movement” revolution will anew seek its own identity The purpose of this note is to point out some and fate, is no longer an Islamic revolution of the obstacles to the expansion of the Ira- as this regime called it; what it is will be determined by this very movement in its refernian communists’ activities.

1. For taking further and well-thought steps, ences to that revolutionary memory.

The easiest example is the ‘Allah-o Akbar’ we have to discard a number of erroneous slogan. The slogan was first used during the notions. The first misconception is to peruprising in 1978-1979. Today, it is emceive contemporary Iran as a ‘postrevolutionary’ society. Iran is not in a post- ployed against the regime that once had transformed that symbol of protest to an revolutionary situation, in which another ideological alibi for establishing political revolution is necessary.

The current movement is a new sequence of Islam. By employing the same phrase, people indicate the radical level of their demand the revolutionary process that started in that goes beyond the phrase. People are em1978. The internal conflicts of the ruling factions, the machinery of oppression and the forms that people’s struggle take, their slogans and demands, all these are parts of a historical period that started with the Iranian Revolution in 1978.

We should perceive the present popular movement in such a broader context, and discard any prevalent sort of sociological analysis, even those that in appearance seem class-based. We will explain this. This means that the movement that started on June 15 [2009] is a continuation of the people’s struggle in answering questions, which ploying the religious Arabic wording ‘Allahthey themselves had posed in the society o Akbar’ as a metaphor for something else through the overthrow of Shah’s regime: in Persian: Death to the dictator. Here the How can we establish freedom, independcontent goes beyond the phrase. If we don’t ence and a people’s republic in Iran? How see this difference, we will misunderstand can we run the society based on people’s sovereignty, and without relying on any of people’s slogans and, worst of all, we will the pre-capitalistic institutions, without the move away from the people and leave the initiative to others. Therefore, in the first inroyal court and its allies?

The first answer, the Islamic Republic, has stance, any radical political force in Iran failed that test. It was not the Iranian revolu- must synchronize its behavior, position and tion that failed the test; such a statement is outlook with the calendar and sequences of the Iranian Revolution. meaningless. Those political alternatives This means: Don’t interpret! Don’t make up pertaining to the first sequence failed. slogans that seem revolutionary! Be the The revolution itself, however, is still young. This is not to say that the course of thought for an action. (The word employed the events, forms of the struggle and the be- in the title of the article in Persian is “eqdam” which means the initial, commenchavior of the forces in this sequence are a repetition of what happened between 1977 ing phase of an action, the intentional comand 1980. Quite the contrary, this movement ponent of an undertaking. The title of the is different in form and content, and its en- text reads “fekr-e eqdam”, thought of/for an action, which is deliberately ambiguous; it emy is not the classic dictatorship of the Shah, but an Islamic regime, which emerged both means a thought or idea discernable through action and the deliberations before from the same revolutionary process and claims to have inherited the demand for re- an action.) An idea that pertains to such an publicanism, freedom and the independence action is the articulation of the very people’s demands. Its point of departure is the peoof the Iranian people (this is a reference to the emblematic tripartite central slogan dur- ple’s — all the people’s — pain and suffering, their capabilities as well as shortcoming winter 1978-79, trans.note). ings.

In the historical events of June 15 [2009], The Iranian people, when they take the inithis claim was unambiguously taken back from the ruling regime. When Moussavi and tiative to wrest back the political cause from their rulers, are not Muslims, nor idolaters, the Participation Front [jebhey-e nor liberals or royalists, nor demanding the mosharekat] end up in opposition to the overthrow of anything, nor a sect wishing to 23

Thinking of Action

establish a socialist republic based on premeditated plans. No people have ever been like that. If a people have overthrown any system, it has been because that system blocked the collective movement of the people; if a people in some places transformed their councils/soviets into a new form of republic, this was because in the course of their struggles, they achieved allencompassing and universal goals, for which that form (the councils, soviets, etc.) was found to be optimal; if they rose to do away with private property in a factory, some neighborhood, this city, a given country, this was because in their daily battles they realized that this form of property was an obstacle to the realization of a humane life. We must think of communism as an equivalent to these conditioned propositions, which means we must free our ideals from burdensome clichés. Anyone who wants to stage the last scene of another revolution as the first act of a revolution here is not thinking of any concrete measures for action. He is, at best, a plagiarist.

2. In the writings of leftist activists in Iran, we see two burdensome concepts, which have caused the scattered, oppressed and wounded figure of the left to turn even more scattered.

One is the seemingly unproblematic concept of the ‘middle class’. Interesting that this concept is seen precisely in such analyses that most certainly contain class in their titles, and in which quotations from Marx or Lenin abound.

However, Marx has never used anything called middle class, with the particular meaning envisioned by these writers, in his historical analyses. On the contrary, this is a contemporary sociological concept.

‘Middle class’ is a deeply vague and ideological concept. Middle of what, and how did this middle become a class? In the present misery, hospital workers and staff, our school teachers, the factory workers and the youth who have been deprived of employment and who live in dormitories are not middle class. In the midst of the summer solstice in the third world, what middle class?

These are laboring forces, the very thing you have been looking for, and right in front of your eyes, in the streets of selfrepresentation and in the alleys of common interests. They have, at least momentarily, felt their capacity to impose their presence in the public arena of our cities and from now on nothing will remain the same as before, including the meaning of democracy.

The ashes of petty-bourgeois academism is incapable of understanding the simple fact that people who, reliant on solidarity, claim a common objective for all are no longer the same as a formless mass.

[Continued on pg 24]

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From pg 23(Thinking of Action)...

Besides this, this movement has as yet not benefited fully from the independent presence of the organized poor. The current presence of a section of the rulers alongside the movement has also caused some confusion. The most wrongheaded policy in the current situation is to busy ourselves with polemics with this segment of the rulers to prove that they cannot be our fellow travelers. From the people’s point of view, such arguments, no matter how brimming with revolutionary phrases, resemble the arguments of the two factions of the rulers. Such is not communist activity.

Expansion of people’s movement means helping to build popular organizations amongst those people whose voice is not counted, not recognized by the state. Joining of the poor alongside presence of the laboring forces will show any petty-bourgeois ideological illusion to be what they are: moralistic speech making. It is at such a [historical] moment, but not earlier, that those few journalists advocating neo-liberalism will be forgotten. Do you see how the difference between people and their enemies is cognizable?

It suffices that people organize themselves around all-encompassing demands and grasp their own representation in a common cause.

Slogans such as “Give me back my vote!” has, neither immediately nor necessarily, anything to do with acceptance of the elections game or parliamentarianism. We see that many people who had boycotted the elections participated in the rallies. It does not even relate immediately to Ahmadinejad and the overthrow of the Islamic Republic, but goes farther and deeper than these things.

This lack of immediate relation must be taken as our point of departure. The important point is the collective uprising to claim our crushed rights; this readiness to rise up for the right to have a vote must be understood the way it actually is, beyond ideological imageries about elections, and must be expanded to include other rights of the people.

3. The second reason for lack of cohesion, I think, relates to a mistake by the communists about who the addressee is.

One component of such a mistake concerns the concept of ‘enemy’. In short, it is simplistic to think that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and, vice versa, to consider those who are not friends of the people as the enemy. Enemy and friend are asymmetrical terms. We don’t determine the enemy by their beliefs and speech, but the criterion is their objective behavior in concrete conditions.

The enemies are those who take up arms against the expansion of the people’s movement and are destroying their organizations. ‘Enemy’ is a concept, whose use is akin to that of a weapon, which must be pointed in a particular direction and at a certain target. Friends who are fond of Marx should believe that this is exactly what Marx says. Running hurriedly into the arena, and without any popular backing calling the people whose flags are not our desired colors ‘the enemy’, is akin to firing an empty gun in the darkness. Let us reach some conclusions from these three points: A. If the communists are on the side of revolution, and are capable of discerning the historical demands of the Iranian Revolution, and are able to understand the logic of its development, then 24

they must welcome the disintegration of the governmental coalition called Islamic Republic, and must welcome the joining with their ranks of segments of a republican system that claimed to have answers to the demands of the Iranian Revolution.

They must not forget that this split among the different factions of rulers was caused by the very movement of the people, and not by the infighting of the two factions, as declared in sociological analyses. No! Any infighting within the ruling system occurs against the background of a revolutionary society, and always has three sides.

If we look at the behavior of the people from this angle, we can easily see how the people in effect are constantly pushing forward this segment of rulers [that has joined them] with all its resources, and at least for the short-term. Once, a while ago, it was possible for Khatami to avoid such a position, but for Moussavi any retreat is tantamount to political suicide or even a threat to his life. Intellectual friends, militant comrades!

Abandon exposing every inconsistency in their statements; in doing such things, you are actually looking at the whole thing from the top, and staring wide-eyed only at the surface appearance of their infighting, and by necessity you will be limited to playing the role of the permanent pen-wielding critic of the policies of those upstairs, without giving any space or chance to communism as a positive idea to be constructed.

From the point of view of the people’s movement and its inventiveness, the separation of a segment of the rulers and its alignment alongside the people’s demands is a non-negligible victory.

Without having any illusions about this segment or its historical background, this victory should be protected. Otherwise, and by proposing ideas about the class nature of this segment and by repeating hasty misreadings of the separating line between ‘proletariat’ and ‘bourgeois’, you would be underestimating the present force of the people’s movement.

Instead of this petty-bourgeois incredulity, turn to organizing the labor forces, turn to expanding the struggle among the poor and the workers, disseminate awareness among the people based on tangible given demands, get to work alongside them for formulating concrete and relevant demands, and thereby acknowledge yourself as part of a common cause.

B. The relationship between the people and the communist activists and intellectuals is not one of a passive ‘addressee’ and an active ‘agent’. A lot of friends in the Iranian left seem unable to inspire confidence. They are trapped in intellectual labyrinths, in which workers or poor people can not recognize themselves, and at times they produce road maps such as would befit those by parties boasting millions of members. For communists, the dialectic of addressing is a complex one.

If an intellectual or an activist has more time to read and think, this does not make them a popular movement’s engineer or an expert on budgeting and planning for the people’s movement.

This type of engineer-like thinking among the left has its own reasons. But, what is important here is that, the people, when in a struggle or when voicing slogans in a demonstration, are both ‘addressees’ and ‘agents’.

Every time we address the people, it is because we want to make their own voices heard, and to make possible their right to address all.

This important fact must be present in the very first words that we utter publicly. This means that if we voice a slogan, it must express a demand that is achievable even though it appears for now impossible, and is based on a responsible examination of reality and real capacities of social forces; meaning, our slogans are consistently a minimal expression that can embrace a maximum of imaginable objectives, not a blind maximalism that bears no relation to the real conditions.

This means that our slogans are part of the collective understanding and our enthusiasm a coconspirator in the plans that the people, before us, have forged against the dominant grammar of power. “Do not fear, do not fear; We are all together here!” This slogan engages in no exaggerations, nor does it encourage any singular voice, and is not vague, either. It is effective and encouraging, and paves the way.

This togetherness of all for a common claim beyond the governmental powers and the media discourse is a thousand times more radical and revolutionary than using worn out clichés. This inventiveness of the people is the source of strength for the communists. Please do not say that you would separate out and arrange two camps facing each other, and that “co-presence of all” is a bourgeois slogan. That is not the case.

In its best form, capitalism can only guarantee the wellbeing of a minority among the millions of people deprived of their rights. ‘All’ is both the ‘addressee’ and the ‘addresser’, a historical moment that extends beyond the limits of capitalism; class struggle signifies that a certaingroup, as a social class, stands on the way of this progression.

To misread Marx, Lenin and others is worse than not reading them at all. That which is encouraging for our young forces, is their objectively better possibility of success, compared to the period of 1978-1981. The weakness and the scatteredness of the leftist militants from the 1978 revolution, at this moment can be a positive point for the creation of new communist forces that have learned from the past, and stand alongside the people to solve crucial problems of the movement, using their ideas and without concepts that are estranged from our lived experience.

I will end this note with a reminder: one of the best articles about the conditions of realization of historical demands of the 1978 revolution was written by the reformist thinker Sa’eed Hajjarian, published a few days before the [June 12, 2009] elections.

Hajjarian’s thesis, in a reference to Rosa Luxembourg’s slogan, ‘Socialism or Barbarity’, was that in today’s Iran, the choice is between barbarity and civility. We must read this thesis correctly, meaning with the opposite intention of the writer. You have the best chance of success, because the Iranian Revolution at each new phase, each time clearer than before, shows that socialism, or better to say communism, is the only possible civility for the future of a free Iran.

If we do not act thoughtfully and intelligently, tomorrow we will end up looking blindly for the spent shells after shooting those bullet-less guns; something that some left-leaning friends have been busy doing for too many years.

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Charles Darwin film 'too controversial for religious America' Charles Darwin film 'too controversial "Charles Darwin is, I suppose, the hero of the film. But we tried to make the film in a for religious America' very even-handed way. Darwin wasn't saying 'kill all religion', he never said such a thing, but he is a totem for people."

tions spurned the film out of hand as they will find it even-handed and wise."

Mr Thomas, whose previous films include The Last Emperor and Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, said he hoped the reviews would help to secure a distributor. In the UK, special screenings have been set up for Christian groups.

A British film about Charles Darwin has failed to find a US distributor beComments: cause his theory of evolution is too controversial for American audiences, ac- Creation was developed by BBC Films and  "Have just read an article about the UK Film Council, and stars Bettany's cording to its producer.

"Should America Grow Up". The real-life wife Jennifer Connelly as Darwin's deeply religious wife, Emma. It is based on The film was chosen to open the Toronto the book, Annie's Box, by Darwin's greatFilm Festival and has its British premiere on great-grandson, Randal Keynes, and porSunday. It has been sold in almost every ter- trays the naturalist as a family man torritory around the world, from Australia to Scandinavia.

However, US distributors have resolutely passed on a film which will prove hugely divisive in a country where, according to a Gallup poll conducted in February, only 39 per cent of Americans believe in the theory of evolution.

Movieguide.org, an influential site which reviews films from a Christian perspective, described Darwin as the father of eugenics and denounced him as "a racist, a bigot and an 1800s naturalist whose legacy is mass murder". His "half-baked theory" directly influenced Adolf Hitler and led to "atrocities, crimes against humanity, cloning and genetic engineering", the site stated.

The film has sparked fierce debate on US Christian websites, with a typical comment dismissing evolution as "a silly theory with a serious lack of evidence to support it despite over a century of trying".

Jeremy Thomas, the Oscar-winning producer of Creation, said he was astonished that such attitudes exist 150 years after On The Origin of Species was published.

"That's what we're up against. In 2009. It's amazing," he said.

"The film has no distributor in America. It has got a deal everywhere else in the world but in the US, and it's because of what the film is about.

People have been saying this is the best film they've seen all year, yet nobody in the US has picked it up.

"It is unbelievable to us that this is still a really hot potato in America. There's still a great belief that He made the world in six days. It's quite difficult for we in the UK to imagine religion in America. We live in a country which is no longer so religious. But in the US, outside of New York and LA, religion rules.

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question of religion is perhaps one of the reasons for the article. As a nation that considers itself to be a leader, how on earth could so many people bury there head in the sand. As Richard Dawkins says "Think for your self"."

"The frightening thing here, is not whether the film promotes a debate on whether God exists or not, but the fact that it has been decided that Americans are not allowed to watch a movie. Surely we should be able to make our own choices whether to see a movie or not. I hardly think seeing a film about a grief stricken scientist who lost his daughter and subsequently questioned God's existence would challenge any religious persons mind about their own religious beliefs. I find this a bit frightening that we would be controlled this way. It looks like a well made interesting film to me, and I am shocked that someone else has decided for me that I cannot see it." 

"Charles Darwin undoubtedly is one of the greatest minds that have appeared. Like Galileo he was rediculed for his great discoveries&#65279; by the religious oracles. Unfortunately, throughout the history of mankind we have seen that monothesitic religions only crop up the seeds of hatred and disrespect notably towards scientific intellectuals. This is why I believe in a secular society as progress is achieved through logical factualities and not mythological and mystical speculations." 

"As an American, it brings me great shame to read articles like these. Maybe if more of us read mented by the death in 1851 of Annie, his favourite child. She is played in the film by the founding fathers' writings, we would 10-year-old newcomer Martha West, the see that America was never meant to be daughter of The Wire star Dominic West. a Christian nation Frankly, I am surEarly reviews have raved about the film.

The Hollywood Reporter said: "It would be prised that they had the balls to show a great shame if those with religious convic- Idiocracy.