United 4 Iran Global Day of Action, July 25th, San Francisco, noon

There will be a mega rally on Saturday, July 25th in front of San Francisco at City Hall Plaza from 12pm to 4pm to support the people of Iran during this remarkable time in their history. This event is to get the entire Bay Area together to stand for Iran. From the organizers:

This is going to be the biggest rally of NorCal Iranians on Ahmadinejad's inauguration day, please invite all your Iranian and non Iranian friends to this event.
There will be live performances by local and out of state artists in support of Iranian's struggle for democracy.
As before we ask you not to bring flags or signs, plain Iran flags with no sign in the middle please.
Let's get United 4 Iran.

If you are on Facebook join the event and invite all your friends.

Iran: from the revolution to today

I had been planning on writing a brief history of Iran to put the situation today in context, but someone more informed on the topic beat me to it. Since I know some people don't like reading really long articles I decided to paraphrase below. I still highly recommend reading the original article since it's full of great information. I still want to write a history on events before the 79 revolution.

WITH REPRESSION silencing most street protests for the moment as hardliners tighten their grip, is a democratic transformation--or revolutionary change--possible in Iran?

Lee Sustar begins at the revolution of 1979, when US-backed dictator, the Shah of Iran, was forced to flee the country, mainly due to general striked throughout Iran. Factory councils were initially set up but power centered around the clergy and middle-class and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The left was quickly divided and violently smashed and the 1980 invasion of Iran by Iraq backed by the United States allowed Khomeini and the clerics to consolidate power.

[In the post-revolutionary era] divisions broke out roughly into three camps: an Islamist left, which maintained some of the social rhetoric of the revolution; an Islamist right, based around the most conservative clergy; and a pragmatic right dominated by clerics who were close to, or had become part of, big business interests. Over the next two decades, these factions would clash over how Iran should engage with the world, economically, politically and culturally.

The Islamic left took power during the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88 with Mir Hussein Mousavi becoming prime minister. Mousavi justified social policies on religious grounds, saying "the way of Islam is to attend to social justice." After the war and Khomeini's death, factional struggles came into the open and cleric Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani eliminated the office of prime minister and was elected president. Ali Khamanei became the supreme leader replacing Khomeini. Despite his attemps to engage the West, workers' standards of living declined and lead to riots and repression.

Rafsanjani completed his two alotted terms as president and aligned himself with the Islamic left, who after the fall of the Soviet Union shifted toward pro-market, neoliberal policies. Reformist candidate Mohammad Khatami won the 1997 presidential election, but the Islamic right, with their support from Khamanei controlled the majority of the government. Students in the pro-democracy movement had no support from the president and workers suffered under privatization and deregulation. In addition the clerics' Guardian Council, which approves candidates in office, barred many reformers from running in parliamentary elections.

To counter the mortal threat from Khatami's reform program the right built up networks of former Revolutionary Guards and the basij. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose political connections as well as those with the basij became the right's candidate for the 2005 presidential election, then being mayor if Tehran. With Khamanei's support, and suspected voter fraud, Ahmadinejad one the post. He put himself forward as a populist against Rafsanjani who was seen as the cause for Iran's economic turmoil. Once in office Ahmadinejad embraced privatization, but on a model based on Russia and Eastern Europe, where entrepreneurs are able to create huge private monopolies from former state assets. These assets would go to allies of Ahmadinejad threatning Rafsanjani and the existing capitalist class in Iran.

Rafsanjani supported his old rival Mousavi to counter Ahmadinejad and Khamanei. At the same time the economic and social liberal position of Mousavi gave him backing of young people and the working class. The election took place, Ahmadinajad won and we are where we are today.


For those in the Bay Area, there is a huge rally planned for Saturday July 25th in front of San Francisco city hall. I'll post more as I get information. For now check the Bay Area for Iran group on Facebook.

from the past two days

News update from June 22nd and 23rd. There's a mention of the strikes, but I think this was not well organized and not a full-on general strike. We'll see when we get more confirmation.

23rd of June

- Today is a day of national strike. The massive security forces presence makes it much harder for protesters to join up each others, as the security forces beat up people and force them to separate everywhere in Tehran, including in metro stations.

- The Guardian Council has declared that they will not nullify the results of the Election, and that Ahmadinejad is still the winner. Ahmadinejad will be sworned in as President between July 26 and August 19.

- On the International Front, the Government is getting angry with the international reaction. The Iranian Government issued a formal condemnation of the Secretary General of the UN for involving himself. They also declared that the French riots a couple of years ago were much more violent, yet they were never referred to as a crisis. Finally, they have expulsed two British diplomats from Iran and decided to recall their ambassador from Britain, while Britain has ordered the expulsion of two Iranian diplomats in return.

- The UN has declared it is dismayed by the post-election violence. Journalists are still being rounded up, now the focus seems to be on Iranian journalist who serve as correspondents for foreign newspapers.

- The split now seems to reach ever higher in the Conservative movement as Ali Larijani, speaker of the Majlis, is attacked by Ahmadinejad's supporters for staying neutral and even unofficially supporting the protesters. He is the one yesterday who called for a revision of the Iran-UK ties in light of recent events.

Sickening story of the day: Parents forced to pay a $3,000 fee for the bullet that killed their son

At the crack of dawn, his father began searching at police stations, then hospitals and then the morgue.

Upon learning of his son's death, the elder Mr. Alipour was told the family had to pay an equivalent of $3,000 as a "bullet fee"-a fee for the bullet used by security forces-before taking the body back, relatives said.

Mr. Alipour told officials that his entire possessions wouldn't amount to $3,000, arguing they should waive the fee because he is a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war. According to relatives, morgue officials finally agreed, but demanded that the family do no funeral or burial in Tehran. Kaveh Alipour's body was quietly transported to the city of Rasht, where there is family.

Worrying report: Iran is now considering setting up courts in order to streamline the prosecution of all those arrested while protesting.

22nd of June.

- Mousavi announced today that there would be a day of mourning for the martyrs killed since the protests began this Thursday, in sync with the demands of Grand Ayatollah Montazeri. He also called on everyone around the world to show support for the plight of the Iranian people. Tomorrow, a national strike will take place. Karroubi for himself released a statement calling on the Iranian government to provide care to those injured during the violence, release journalists and other political prisoners and return the bodies of those killed to their families.

- Members of the Parliament have commented that they are getting ready to hold Mousavi legally responsible for the protests and ensuing riots. They have also called for a possible ending of relationship with the United Kingdom. In response to Mousavi's calls for a general strike, they have also declared that anyone not going to work tomorrow will be fired. An Interior Ministry official followed-up the declaration that the votes were tampered with in 50 cities, saying the results of each box will be published in the near future.

- The Guardian Council has further clarified its claims about voting irregularities, and declared that there were in fact 3 million extra votes cast total. Qom is still an epicenter of rumours, where discussions about Ayatollah Rafsanjani's behind-the-scene indicate that he possibly has the support of the Army and plans to topple the government. This is still rumours, but a rumour that has been persistent since the beginning of these protests and has now been picked up as real by Al Arabiya.

- Protesters have tried to protest peacefully and hold vigils, but were attacked by security and basij forces the second they were more than a couple of people together. Thousands of them have been roaming Tehran in order to block any protests from happening. IRIB is claiming that the government has quelled the protests and they are now things of the past.

- There are reports that one of the highest commanders of the IRG has been arrested for refusing to follow Khamenei's orders to start a heavy crackdown on protesters. Basij and security forces have stormed one of the biggest newspapers in Iran, arresting members of the Staff. The British Embassy has evacuated all non-essential personal, fearing that the increasingly anti-British rhetoric will lead to another hostage situation at an embassy.

source

mass protests erupt in Iran over election results

Mass protests have broken out after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the Iranian presidential election with more than 62 percent of the vote. Ahmadinejad needed over 50 percent of the vote to prevent a runoff election between him and top contender, reformist candidate Mir Hussein Mousavi. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei endorsed the results despite many claims of election fraud. There were expectations of neither candidate acquiring the required 50 percent of the vote and a runoff election taking place. It is estimated that over 100,000 anti-Ahmadinejad protesters have claimed the streets of Tehran, sometimes sparking violence in confrontations with police. The media has been blocked from leaving Iran so size of protests outside Tehran is unknown. Internet websites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube along with pro-Mousavi sites have been blocked by the government. An AP photographer has reported that at least one person was killed as the militia fired on a rally. More than 130 prominent Mousavi supporters have been rounded up by police including Mohammad Reza Khatami, the brother of former President Mahmoud Khatami, a former speaker of the parliament, and the son-in-law of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a leader of the 1979 Islamist revolution.

The protests can be seen not just as a challenge to Ahmadinejad but also to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Moderate youth in Iran see a disconnect between their lives and ideas and the Ayatollah's hard-lined religious views. Ahmadinejad was elected as a populist, with policies helping the poor. But constant inflation, harsh penalties against unions, and rollbacks of government subsidies on staples has alienated the working class and poor. Mousavi has called for greater women's rights and political freedom strengthening his support among students and the middle class, but has made no outreach to the working class and poor living the group open to Ahmadinejad.

Even though neither candidate is truly the best choice, mainly due to required approval from the Supreme Leader to run, Mousavi's election would give Iranian people greater freedom to organize and have more control over their country. More importantly, this mass rising is a great opportunity for organization to be formed among the people for sustained grassroots control to not just elect a leader but hold them accountable, something I wish would happen with Obama's presidency. It is unknown if Khamenei will compromise with Mousavi some way or just wait for the protests to die down or crush them if they don't.

UPDATE: James sent me a link with some really good photos from Tehran.