| "The
one thing history has taught us is that no government can defy
the will of its people for long. The whole world is
moving toward greater human rights and democracy. All people
want these things. No one wants dictatorship. No government is
powerful enough to stand against the will of the people for
Press Release: Portland stands with
Iranian People
Portland Stands with Iran / P.O. Box 1235 /
Portland, OR. 97207-1235 ever.
Chile, Argentina, Yugoslavia, etc. All of these dictatorships eventually
collapsed, and the same thing will happen in Iran. The people of
Iran have turned on a light. The flame may dim a bit now and again, but
it will never die. This is a long war, a gradual process. It
may take another 30 years, but freedom and democracy will come to
Iran." Reza Aslan http://www.thedaily
beast.com/ blogs-and- stories/2010- 07-08/an- iranian-icon- on-todays-
protests/
Students struggle with
security on Tehran University campus:
http://www.bbc.
co.uk/persian/ iran/2010/ 07/090709_ ad-ba-demos. shtml |
|
As Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sworn in today
for a second term as Iran's president, reports of protests outside
Iran's Parliament building have appeared online. The Lede is tracking
news of the protests on the Web.
|
http://thelede.
blogs.nytimes. com/ http://niacblog.
wordpress. com/
The
reason that the left in Iran is so sparse is because of the
post-revolution repression of the Ayatollahs, who killed thousands of
leftist activists while attempting to cement their own place in power. We
are thus left with a vacuum for options. But in the real world
vacuums are quickly filled; the Iranians are on the move -
this genie will not be easily put back in its bottle.
This
movement will be filled with searches for organization and leadership
capable of expressing the economic and political wishes of the Iranian
people; with the realization that these wishes are not achievable
under the current economic and political system. A society-wide
radicalization will thus continue. The protests are far from over,
even though they may be inconsistent and characterized by both lulls
and flare-ups.
The
protests in Iran have already begun to wake up Iranian society as a
whole. The workers, restricted from striking, have taken notice
and some have already come out in support of the movement. It
must not be forgotten that the oil workers were the ones who put the
nail in the Shah's coffin in 1979. When the organized working
class puts its full weight behind the movement, the current regime
will dissolve.
This
is because unions and other workers organizations represent the
general interests of the working class as a whole, making their
involvement imperative if the movement is to succeed. If the
workers, through their unions, reached out to the middle classes and
offered both organizational and leadership experience, the movement
would be overpowering. Once the radical traditions of Iranian society
are re-discovered and properly organized, the inevitable conclusion
will be a democratic social system, directed towards meeting the needs
of its people, not the profits of businessmen or Mullahs.
Shamus
Cooke is a social service worker, trade unionist,
and
writer for Workers Action http://www.workerscompass.org
. He
can be reached at shamuscook@yahoo.com
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
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|
 The
picture at the right is of armed thugs representing
the Amadinejad regime beating
Iranian citizens who
only want justice and for their votes to count.
Portland
Stands with Iran, a non-partisan group of ordinary people from the
Portland Metropolitan
area and from Vancouver, WA
will continue Friday night vigils in solidarity with the
courageous people in Iran who have been protesting ever since
the election results were announced and their will was
disregarded. We came together because we are heartbroken by the
violence inflicted upon the Iranian people. We are also
tremendously proud of our fellow Iranians for their perseverance
and non-violent presence in streets demanding change and justice.
We unite with people in Iran in
demanding an end to the violence, the release of all those
detained and democracy for Iran. We share President Obama’s
message of concern while refraining from direct US intervention.
You
can also download a "Portland Stands with Iran"
poster from this website and display it in your house, your car or
your favorite stores:
http://portlandstandswithiran.org
http://activismnewsletterat.blogspot.com/
|
|
Iranian
regime targets family of 'Angel of Freedom' Neda
Agha Soltan 
- 5 hours ago
Iranian security officials have begun pulling down posters of Neda
Agha Soltan, the young woman who has become the face of the
country's pro-democracy ...
|
Supporters of Mousavi, as they listen to his speech at a
demonstration in Tehran on Thursday June, 18, 2010.
-
At the heart of the Green Wave sweeping Iran
are the fearless young men and women who have few
illusions about the complexity of the reforms they seek.
www.thenation.com/doc/20100713/sarfaraz
|
|
|
Iran's
Disputed Election
About Iran's
Presidential Election, Tehran and other cities have seen the largest
street protests and rioting since the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
Supporters of reform candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, upset at the fraud,
took to the streets. Iranian security forces and hardline
volunteer militia members responded with force, arrests, beatings, and
executions. Mousavi has encouraged peaceful demonstrations and called
for calm.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called for an
official inquiry into accusations of election irregularities. (38
photos total (plus 3)) |
Supreme leader Ali Khamenei
supports hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, while
reformers such as Rafsanjani back Mousavi. Rafsanjani, 75, is
a member of two influential organizations, one of which can
elect and dismiss the supreme leader.
In the aftermath of Saturday's demonstrations, in which at
least 13 people were killed, there was an atmosphere of blame
and recrimination as security forces labeled protesters
'terrorists' and demonstrators condemned the harsh tactics of
government-backed militias. The International Campaign for
Human Rights in Iran said dozens of injured protesters were
arrested when they sought medical treatment.
"The arrest of citizens seeking care for wounds suffered
at the hands of security forces when they attempted to
exercise rights guaranteed under their own constitution and
international law is deplorable," said Hadi Ghaemi,
spokesman for the campaign, denouncing the alleged arrests as
"a sign of profound disrespect by the state for the
well-being of its own people."
|
"The government of Iran should be ashamed of itself,"
he added. "Right now, in front of the whole world, it is
showing its violent actions."
...Mousavi, a moderate, has
continued to reject official government election results showing
he lost to hard-line incumbent Ahmadinejad in the June 12
election. On Saturday, he delivered a lengthy letter detailing
his complaints of irregularities to the Guardian Council, the
constitutional watchdog assigned to examine the vote.
President Obama, who has been treading carefully lest opposition
figures be painted as American dupes, issued a statement calling
on Iran to respect the rights of its citizens.
"The Iranian government must understand that the world is
watching," he said in the statement. "We call on the
Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions
against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and
free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with
all who seek to exercise those rights."
A series of peaceful rallies last week captured the imagination
of the West but angered Iranian authorities, who have described
them as part of a Western plot to foment a "velvet
revolution."
|
  |
TEHRAN LATEST
Jeremy Bowen, BBC News, Tehran
Mr Rafsanjani is one of the most influential figures in Iran.
He is also an opponent of President Ahmadinejad. He's been
silent during this crisis, but it's certain he's active behind
the scenes.
Mr Rafsanjani did not go to the
prayer session in which Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah
Khamenei made a very tough speech endorsing the election
result and saying that opposition leaders would be responsible
for any bloodshed. That was another sign of the fracture in
the leadership of this country.
|
Neda Agha Sultan
The young Iranian woman whose death by gunfire on a Tehran
street was captured on video shown throughout the world had no
preference for either key presidential candidate in Iran, even
though she has become a symbol for democratic reform, according
to a Toronto friend.
Armin Abedi, who knew Neda Agha-Soltan and is a cousin of her
fiancé, Caspian Makan, spoke with CBC's Heather Hiscox on
Monday. The Toronto-area man said he heard the couple wanted to
marry this summer.
Abedi said Agha-Soltan, 26, loved
music, painting and singing, but was definitely not a supporter
of Mir Hossein Moussavi, the reform candidate whose defeat on
June 12 and allegations of a fraudulent vote count sparked a
series of protests.
|
|
Other headline news item
|
|
|
02/24/2010 05:11:06 PM
The
picture at the right is of armed thugs representing
