Thirty years ago, during the several months past, my generation was restructuring social life in Iran, breaking down government doors previously impervious to people's demands, evicting a dictatorial bunch of idiots who had been imposed on us in 1953, in a coup inspired in the U.K. and carried out by the CIA.
And so it was, thirty years ago, during these very months past, that we stormed ministries, prisons and government buildings, sat down in school yards, refused to go to or teach classes, went on strike in factories, oil refineries and petrochemical plants, marched in the streets in hundreds, then thousands, and soon in hundreds of thousands.
The revolution had such a force that even in the most laidback towns, like Shiraz, people started taking to the streets in the tens and hundreds of thousands. In the famously mellow town of our beloved poets Sadi and Haafez, where martial law was declared last and lifted first, I saw hundreds of thousands in the streets and it was a sight to behold.
Back in those days thirty years ago, we were storming SAVAK buildings after pitch battles, some lasting hours some days, finding instruments of torture and files, files and more files. All those files that our rulers had indeed been keeping: on us, on our friends and classmates, our fathers, brothers, sisters, cousins and more. Those files, the cumulative result of diligent work, of years of training by the Israeli Mossad agents bringing the Shah's ability for secret information gathering up to par.
All those files that, just as swiftly as they were being unearthed, were trucked away to the mosques. For safe keeping they said. But, some knew better. Soon, those files would be added to. Soon, those files would be swallowed up by a far greater secret service that the theocrats had in mind.
Yes, truckloads of those files were quickly hurried to the mosques. A regime we did not see clearly -- or rather, a state of affairs we refused to believe was forming right in front of our very eyes -- was creeping slowly into formation, moving steady, gleeful and quietly smirking, ready to make the final leap, which it did soon enough.
Must hand it to them; the mullahs, these ruling class ideologues with a resume of sharing power running longer than a thousand years, successfully blind-sighted much of the left.
In Iran, we have a very telling and popular expression for 'being cheated' or 'burned', in cases where something honestly and deservedly belonging to someone gets stolen or taken away in an unfair fashion. The expression is: it [the stolen item] was 'eaten by the mullah' ('mollah-khor shod'). Popular street language that has traveled through the ages and generations more often than not carries lessons bitterly learned.
Our generation, by force of necessity, came to learn this socio-linguistic lesson bitterly, painfully and at a huge cost. No shame in saying it. We carried out a revolution with everybody else in the country. We became humans just like everybody else. We did our fighting and got our butts kicked. The fight is not over, though, and will not be any time soon. We are still here and still doing what we can, and the next generation of socialists inside the country has picked up beautifully where we got beat, imprisoned, executed or driven out of the country.
But, we learned and proved something that cannot be taken away. It is a lesson that puts the deepest fears in any dictatorial regime. We proved that it is possible to get rid of tyrants. Sure, it's easy when the armed forces step aside. True, but there is a lesson there, too: befriend the armed forces and make them your own! We proved how hollow Government was without the armed forces standing on its side to back up its lies, its bullying and irrationalities.
Thirty years ago right around these past months and the months to come, we didn't just take to the street. We took the street.
We turned the sidewalks into abundant libraries of literature previously banned. No longer were we bound by dictatorial rules banning books, a form of stupidity verging on insanity, dictating that reading a book like Bread and Wine (by Ignazio Silone) should land you in jail, served up with harsh interrogation methods available for the imbibers of such an extreme revolutionary manual.
I finally read the book in English when I was a student in England, not quite getting its full significance since I didn't know the historical background (a condition shared by all those millions who were banned from reading the same book during the Shah's dictatorship). I did not see all the fuss. Surely, a dictator should have been far more worried by really significant problems shaking the foundations of his little 'kingdom'!
* * *
After shaking off the Shah, we the Iranian people, everybody, had the streets. For a while.
It started to be take away soon enough, though, and by large chunks. First attacks targeted minority nationalities in Turkmenistan and particularly in Kurdistan. Then came the attacks on women, in the form of introduction of mandatory hejab (Islamic cover) and the backward 'reform' (legal regression to early 20th century Iranian laws) of family laws that eradicated a whole host of rights previously granted to women; social rights such as voting, and rights as married spouses and mothers in cases of divorce. These regressive reforms by the new regime set the women's rights back many decades, and were naturally opposed by a majority of women especially in urban areas. Their fight continues to this day, and will do so for a long time to come.
After the overthrow of the monarchy, there was naturally a public arena opened up by the revolutionary leap made by the people. The old-timers knew and warned that a fiercer dictatorship was in the offing, and perhaps had foreseen hints of it in more detailed horror, I am sure, but somewhere in the back of everybody's mind there were suspicions that what we were experiencing in that one-year between the overthrow of the Shah and the total consolidation of the new regime -- a period of what I would call absolute political freedom -- was just too good to last long.
The attacks started to widen in scope. At the time the attacks started picking up, I was a first year university student in Shiraz, and was a supporter of the Marxist left organization, Fedayeen Khalq. Soon, we faced a situation where our demonstrations were disrupted and attacked by Hezbollahi vigilantes, already in formation. Whereas previously, in the forward leap to overthrow the monarchy, people had indulged greedily and joyously in absolute unity of purpose and will, the deep abyss and walls separating the secularists and the religionists were being chiseled out in front of us, and, as our demonstrations would witness, those attacks would become more frequent, more violent.
This war of beating back the left and dispersing our forces, and not letting us gain any deep roots, started early, only a few months into the new revolutionary government, a wide coalition of religionists, nationalists and religious-oriented liberals. Leftists like myself can surely remember many an occasion, when peddling leftist papers in working class neighborhoods, while setting up sidewalk shop, being shown the way out of the neighborhood after being relieved of our newspapers, not to be read but all torn up or burned right in front of us. The beating was optional and dependent mostly on how cooperative we were in leaving.
As leftist demonstrators, we soon found that along our rally routes, we should expect to face well organized contingents of very energetic, very hard looking, mostly lumpen proletarian vigilantes, backed with deliveries of truck loads of bricks to be thrown at us and at our banners for nationality rights, women's rights, workers' rights, freedom of expression and against new laws banning one after another of our newly gained rights.
These skirmishes would widen and broaden until there was the final assault, which was inaugurated by the seizure of the American Embassy in Tehran, an event whose importance in the consolidation of the theocracy cannot be over-emphasized.
Some months after that, in March of 1980, about two weeks after I, pushed persistently by parental foresight, had left the country, the new regime shut down all universities, strongholds of leftist organizing. They would remain closed for two years, during which all leftists were systematically pursued and silenced one way or another. The arrests, tortures and summary executions followed.
The final plank in the consolidation of the new regime came as a gift from Saddam Hussain, whose armies invaded Iran in September 1980. Imam Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of the religionists, in fact, declared the war as a gift from god. The Iran-Iraq war was on, and any opposition to the new regime could be branded as treason. More arrests, tortures and summary executions would follow.
The circle of the new religious state's intrusive authorities kept widening until every form of a civil society's daily and hourly behavior had a sanctioned manual issued for it. In the words of Shamloo (1925-2000), our greatest contemporary poet, writer and journalist, in a poem on the intrusiveness of the religionists' rules of conduct, which look into every private space they shouldn't: "They smell your breath, lest you have said, 'I love you!'"
* * *
The crimes committed by the Islamic Republic against the people of Iran started from the earliest stages of the regime's life. It started with the graveyard-shift kangaroo 'courts' that tried, and executed by the next morning, the civilian and military leaders of the previous regime. This was a crime since it is the people (not just a posse of religious vigilantes headed by a mullah) who had the right, the fundamental right in any revolution, to try previous leaders for accountability.
People, not a posse deputized by the neighborhood mullah or Imam, had the sovereign right to try the leaders of Shah's regime, overthrown by the people. The real and meaningful objective of any such trial is not, and must not be, revenge. The objective is to get a detailed account of all the crimes committed by the previous regime, so as to make sure no future government can repeat those crimes. But, the way the new regime dealt with those 'trials', no enlightenment came of them. Only blood.
The Islamic Republic's crimes against the people continued when it started its campaign of terror against all opposition in all spheres, imprisoning thousands based purely on political affiliations; torturing people with impunity, executing hundreds after phony 'trials', in which no right of attorney was ever considered. Those imprisoned and executed included people who did not even directly oppose the new religious state. The Tudeh Pary, for example, the most rightwing of the leftist parties, stayed loyal to the new state and even collaborated with its security forces, identifying other leftists. But, even they, after their services were no longer needed, came under the blade.
The persecuted thoughts were not limited to the realm of politics. Members of the Bahai faith, a minority sect of Islam created in the 19th century in Iran, were likewise pursued.
Other crimes of the regime includes the constant and systematic attack on women's rights and freedoms, including the suspension of their right to initiate divorce or have child custody, the suspension of their right to travel (regardless of their father, husband or some other male relative having given them permission), halving of the worth of women's court testimony, halving of damages permitted in a law suit, halving of a woman's inheritance, and the barbaric introduction of stoning to death in cases of adultery.
The Islamic Republic's crimes against our people includes also a most ghastly case of an en-masse execution of hundreds of political prisoners in the summer of 1988, and the mass burial of the bodies in Khavaran grave site, in south Tehran. Ever since the summer of 1988, the families of political prisoners who were summarily killed extra-judicially have been demanding to be given exact details of the executions and places of burial of their loved ones. To no avail.
Not only has the Iranian government not pursued any legal actions against those involved in the mass killings of the political prisoners in the summer of 1988, starting in January of this year, the government has started a project even more ominous and sinister. According to Iranian human rights activists inside and outside Iran, and according to Amnesty International (see: www.amnesty.org), starting in early-to-mid-January 2009, the government began moving tons of earth onto the Khavaran grave site, covering the graves with a thick layer of earth, with trees being planted every two or three meters. In other words, the Iranian government is now attempting to literally cover up a key site (evidence) of one of its most heinous crimes. This is the mullahs' gift, on this thirtieth anniversary of the revolution, to the families of all political prisoners.
That is sadly one of the legacies of the national uprising that took place in Iran thirty years ago, the legacy of how a revolution was stolen, and how a new dictatorship has been attempting to bury the gains of a popular revolution.
Thirty years ago these past months and for several more to come, we were free. We were free to read whatever we wanted. We were free to write and say whatever we wanted. We freely printed and handed out fliers with whatever message or information about a gathering we wished to announce to the world, unafraid of a secretive police that would snatch us in the middle of the night to dark dungeons to torture us. In the aftermath of the overthrow of the Shah, we held impromptu street discussions on social subjects that mattered to us, we deliberated on social forces affecting us. We held street parliaments, debating those willing to give us an argument.
In those days, we did not feel fearful facing the religionists, because, unlike now, back then we were equals, both equally human, equally rightful to have our opinions and political thoughts, both equally justified to have a say in the political matters of our lives. Certain religious-minded thugs would attack our demonstrations, but in presenting our ideas and thoughts and in an argument we were unafraid. We had just carried out a revolution and kicked out a most arrogant state, exactly to assert our right to free speech, to freedom of assembly and to form our political organizations, to freedom from state harassment based purely on our political ideas. Who was anybody to want to drive us back to the same fearful corner, just because of our political thoughts? We were righteous and we were free.
Thirty years ago we had a moment. An opening. Universities were used by political organizations to hold free classes, in which we learned about any ideas we had been denied the right to even study. We were learning. We were growing.
Building democracy and democratic institutions requires not only the absolute freedoms we had just gained. But such an immense social task requires time, too. Time that we thought we would have plenty of. Or, rather, time that we wished we had plenty of.
To a lot of Iranians it became clear soon that we were not to be given much time to develop much of anything resembling democracy.
A vote-producing machinery, a purely perfunctory facade, was soon erected by the new regime, one in which the public would be given vote-casting opportunities, with tightly narrow political range limited to the religious right; but absolutely no real democracy. The parliament (or, majlis) may pass laws, but those laws are subject to review by two other extra-parliamentary bodies (Guardian Council and Expediency Council), and finally by the Supreme Leader (the faqhih), rendering the parliament a farce. To make parliament a further farce, numerous ideological requirements, including explicitly stated requirements for holding a very narrow definition of Islam as your guiding ideology, are applied to determine eligibility and the right to run as the representative of a community. And this fraud is sold internationally as holding 'elections'.
So, we had a moment, but the moment was stolen. The thieves are still in possession of our jewels. We, however, have not died out. Worse for the mullahs, those who hate their rule constitute an absolute majority of the Iranian population. Yes, indeed, we have not gone away. The thieves may be in power, but everybody knows they are thieves. They have no credibility, and that is why they have to employ vast networks of terror against any existing or potential opposition, even if the opposition is merely in thought.
As Iranians, we have had strands of socialist thinking in our own local, historical consciousness in the form of Mazdak (died c. 525), a popular and true maverick leader of old who advocated for the equality of all and for fair distribution of all wealth. This is simply a positive affirmation that socialist desires are historically just and have existed in different forms and expressions throughout the ages in different regions of the world, expressed by people wishing to establish societies without the horrible destructions associated with class-based societies.
And so, on this thirtieth anniversary of an immense uprising that was suppressed, we look forward to a future when we the Iranian people will be free from all forms of dictatorship, when we have gender equality, when we have social justice, when our thoughts will not be subject to persecution, when our mouths will not be smelled by religious police in search of evidence of sin. And we look forward to a time when clerical tyranny can be looked back at, with rejoicing sighs of relief at the passing of that horror.
The Iranian Revolution of 1978 is not dead. Long Live the Revolution!
Reza Fiyouzat can be reached at: rfiyouzat@yahoo.com
He keeps a blog at: revolutionaryflowerpot.blogspot.com
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we the Iranian people will be free from dictatorship when....
by Faribors Maleknasri M.D. (not verified) on Sat Feb 14, 2009 01:04 PM PST.... we have left the west.
Greeting
Ms. Mehrnaz,
by Bijan A M on Sat Feb 14, 2009 12:39 PM PSTMy apologies for delayed response.
Before I open my mouth please let me declare that history and politics are not my strong suits. Having said that, I envision the next revolution be violent and bloody. This by no means suggests that I believe a foreign intervention will lead to the next revolution. Completely the opposite. An Iraq style regime change will only postpone the true revolution by several generations. The revolution I envision will grow from within by the Iranians who believe first and foremost in human rights. They ideologically believe in separation of church and state. They believe in freedom of expression and religion without promoting any brand of spirituality.
IMHO, such growth from within takes time. Educating masses is a slow process. They have to sense it, feel it and believe in it. It is only then, they will be willing to risk their lives to get it. I have no idea who will be leading it but I am certain a leader will emerge. I don’t believe under current geopolitical environment the conditions are favorable for such growth. Sanctions and the threat of war, will definitely slow or even stop such growth. But, there is no doubt in my mind that it will happen (with or without outside help). I won’t be around to witness it (unfortunately) but my great, great, great… grandchildren will hopefully share the pride of having ties to the freest nation in the community of nations.
When I say “returning to the stature that Iran used to have”, I refer to the era of Cyrus the Great when Iran laid the cornerstones and foundation of human rights.
I have never been a dreamy individual and I hope my response does not portray me as such. It is just a sincere expression of my thoughts.
Thank you Ms. Mehrnaz for your interest.
Regards,
Bijan
Reza, Here is Why Mollahs Hate the Baha'is
by Nasser P. (not verified) on Sat Feb 14, 2009 12:16 PM PSTMollahs believe the writings of Baha'u'llah, the Prophet founder of the Baha'i Faith will corrupt the fragile Iranian minds.
You decide:
//bahaiprayers.org/
Mollahs believe it's best if Iranians don't learn about the source of these ideas or his life's mission.
You decide:
//www.bahaullah.org/
Mollahs believe the teachings of Baha'u'llah that he put forth for the advancement of the peoples of the world 164 years ago are abhorrent.
You decide:
//info.bahai.org/bahaullah-basic-teachings.ht...
Mollahs believe Iranian women are weak and stupid thus not able to distinguish between good or bad.
You decide:
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=l33rFvckE6U
2,500+ years ago Cyrus the Great introduced the First Charter of the Declaration of Human Rights and declared Freedom of Religion throughout the Persian Empire.
Baha'u'llah magnified that charter 164 years ago through his teachings and declared that the Whole World is One Country and Mankind its Citizens with equal rights for women and all ethnic and religious minorities.
You decide!
Yes You Can!!
Persepolis 2 (Trailer) - Safeguard the Innocent
by Reza R. (not verified) on Sat Feb 14, 2009 11:17 AM PSTThis is about Islamic Republic of Iran trying to destroy people who have found a peaceful loving God which is in accordance with Persian way of life rather than the destructive god of mollahs.
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEI8RxFL7Zs
that "left" needs to be left behind (to Benjamin)
by Anonym7 (not verified) on Sat Feb 14, 2009 11:12 AM PSTBenjamin says: "...but I agree with his view that the Mullahs capitalized on the illitrate people that all they knew was their local Mullah."
Banjamin, as you mentioned you were 8 when all that happened, but I was quite a few years older than you around that time. Don't be offended, but one of the major reasons the left (including MEK) failed, was that kind of attitude. Leftist intelectualls talked about "masses" and "khalgh" but instead of working with them called them "mortage" (reactionary), illiterate ,..., etc.
A typical leftist or mojahed would go to a few "gorohe motaleati" or some big shot's lecture (e.g Rajavi's sokhanrani) and come out worshiping the "khalgh" and at the same time demonizing it, the masses sensed that and they showed their finger to their false worshipers....
DON'T get me wrong Benjamin, I wasn't a Muslim then and I am not a Muslim now.... furthermore I believe left is good IF that kind of "left" is left behind.
Dear Mehrnaz: Why do you
by vnc (not verified) on Sat Feb 14, 2009 11:02 AM PSTDear Mehrnaz:
Why do you think Iran can avoid a civil war between the secularists and Islamists??
Why do you think the secularists should not fight against armed and violent Islamists ruling class?
Do you think the Islamists have the right to be as violent as they can be while other groups should stay non-violent?
Do you support armed Islmaists ruling over Iranians?
Fooled Me Once...
by Anonymous9000 (not verified) on Sat Feb 14, 2009 10:19 AM PSTwe should remember that the keepers of "strands of socialist thinking" were the first ones who helped and empowered the theocratic regime in Iran.
بزرگترهایشان، بین «اسلام ناب محمدی» و «سویالیسم» تفاوتی بیشتر از یک تار مو ندیدند و کوچکترهایشان هم خودشان را روی سقف و کاپوت اتومبیل حامل خمینی از فرودگاه تا قبرستان ولو کردند تا «بلاگردان» وجودش گردند.
حالا حرف حسابتان چیست؟ «گلکاری» دفعه قبل کافی نبود؟
Insightful rendition of a
by vnc (not verified) on Sat Feb 14, 2009 09:50 AM PSTInsightful rendition of a nation's dream interrupted.
I think the next revolution will be very bloody whetehr we like or not.
Those who have aided and abetted the regime whether directly or indirectly should be brought up to justice for prolonging the death and misery of the Iranian people. Justice is never given but taken.
Want to Show REAL Leadership In Human Rights in Iran?
by NO rights in Iran (not verified) on Sat Feb 14, 2009 09:49 AM PSTTake Action:
Human rights violations still persist in Iran 30 years after Iran's earthly dynasty was replaced by ISLAMIC HEAVENLY Dynasty.
Let them know what you think:
Leader of the Islamic Heaven
Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei
Email: info_leader@leader.ir
President of the Islamic Heaven
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Fax: + 98 21 6 649 5880
Email: via website: //www.president.ir/email
Head of the Judiciary of the Islamic Heaven
Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Email: shahroudi@dadgostary-tehran.ir
Amnesty International:
//www.amnesty.org/en/region/iran
Intresting!!!
by Benyamin on Sat Feb 14, 2009 09:35 AM PSTI was 8 years old when all that happened. But I have to comment on this article. I agree with Fiyouzat when he says"out revolution Mullah khor shod" I believe he means by OUR=people of Iran and not just the people that were a member of a certain political party. Because the revolution was never anybody`d property right, it was not bought by religionists ot marxisists or women`s group or any body, but it was/is owned by all of the people of Iran. If you guys remember almost everyone was certain about leaving Shah`s regeme behind and move forward with SOMETHING. That SOMETHING was in the mind of everyone SOMETHING tataly different from each other.
I remember I watched a movie a few years back called"Wyatt Earp" regardless if the movie was true or not but I learned why really the Islamic government is in power!
I agree with Bijan when he syas the Mullahs just knew how to capitalize on the mass and their emotions. and also agree with marx1. although i don`t agree whith his language but I agree with his view that the Mullahs capitalized on the illitrate people that all they knew was their local Mullah.
but back to Wyatt Earp, at one scene in the movie, he was holding up a common criminal that killed a few people, in the middle of the night an angry and pumped up gang showed up which were about 20 to 30 armed people all very capable and skilled. And legenery Wyatt was alone one man. but also very skilled with his pistol. The leader of the gang told Wyatt we are here to hang the prisoner you are holding, Wyatt, being known as a very cool and yet quick man, told them: he is protecting him to uphold the law and he doesn`t have any sympathy for the guy. But the leader of the mob isisted and made some threats against Wyatt. So Wyatt walk a bit in to the mob and then went back on the porch and took his pistol out but instead of making empty threats he made a speech and here what he said: sure you are a mob of so many and sure you will kill me but I make a promise to you, before you do that I will take some of you with me, like you and he pointed at the leader of the mob and then he pointed at another influencial person and then his brother and another one. at this time the leader knew he will loose his life knowing what Wyatt is capable of he commanded the mob and the mob of 20 to 30 left the scene and did nothing to ONE man.
The lesson is: what the Mullahs did was exact the same thing and to this day they continue doing it, they never went against every group at the same time and they never treated them the same way the did treated every political party differently than the others and seperated them from each other the result was weakening the oppositions and taking over so the phrase"Mullah kho shod" stands because in todays Iran only a minority is in charge and we all know why. because they are skilled killers and they are cool and emotionless in killings they are indeed upholding the law !!! but that law is Islamic law which I can say for real majority of people in iran don`t believe in them as laws!
the solustion is to out brave bunch of hired Hezzballah which in recent years are turning to foreigners such as lebeneese or palestinians or iraqi members in that group.this group is not that big but like Wyatt Earp they are skilled killers and moreover they truely belive when they kill it is for ALLAH there for it is sanctioned by law(which is Islamic) and by authorities and they have no bad feelings since it is a SAVAB and they will go to heaven!!!
As you see we need to counter such evile in so many levels.
I believe the revolution was indeed stolen and I believe people of Iran would never become nor accept communism. But democracy is not about rejection, democracy is about accepting all other views. we need to nurture the culture of agreeing to disagree, we need to develope a language that we can be dead against each other but respectfully so after a heated discussion we can go out and have a drink! we need to practice democracy in our own private lives and be honest with ourselves and each other. and yet be respectful. we need to be united for freedom. and that mean compromise and yet not giving up the side of humanity. we need to inevent a line that shall not be crossed. we need to smile and make a joke when even we loose a debate.
Simple things, but important.
BTW: does anyone know where that ALLAH symbol has come from? I mean is it me or it sure looks alot like the symbol of the SIECKs in India?
Thank you for the piece
by Jahanshah Rashidian on Mon Feb 16, 2009 07:03 AM PSTDuring and after the revolution, I was a sympathiser of the left and kept my sympathy years after the revolution for those leftist groups which remained anti-IRI.
In 1980, I used my summer holidays in France and rushed to Iran to take part in the anti-Shah demonstrations. Of course I was young and inexperienced, and like most of those enthusiastic youth who were not religious, I was dreaming of a socialist revolution. During my 2 month- stay and being in some demonstrations we, the left, were disappointedly harassed and dispersed by Hezbollahis rather than by the army or police. Here, I realised that the left has no immediate future in Iran.
Maybe, the left and secular forces should have supported Bakhtiar's government with the hope of a compromised transition from monarchy into a democratic republic. I agree with you that monarchy had no merit and no chance to survive, but I think that Mullahs had the supremacy on the revolution from the beginning on, so, there was no chance for another output of the revolution, especially no objective conditions for a socialist revolution.
Furthermore, today I know that the form of socialist state was presented by Iranian left could not be less harmful than any other dictatorship. Today, we know that their Socialism in a sense of "Dictatorship of
Proletariat" is an official denial of democracy and historically long
dead with Stalinism. Socialism in a form of Social Democracy and adaptive to our objective conditions and productive relations has never been introduced in political culture of Iran.
Among Iranian groups and admirers of "Dictatorship of Proletariat", Marxist-Leninist "OIPFG" (People's Organisation of Fedayeen Guerrillas), was the most popular leftist movement of contemporary Iran. Most young intellectuals had sympathy for it. However, its "socialist" credentials laid open to ridicule when after the 1980 split into two opposite factions, Minority / Majority, the Majority, which in fact comprised most members of the Central Committee, not the majority of members and sympathisers, made alliance with the pro-Soviet Tudeh to unconditionally support the brutal Mullah's regime. From this time on, the left has been irreparably stained with co-religionists and this is a stain which has not been removed since the collaboration with the IRI. But one cannot generalise the treachery of Tudeh / Majority as a failure for the entire Iranian left. Most leftists fought to the death the Mullahs' regime and lost many lives for their audacity.
Apart from international failure of Communism, the left in Iran is marked with the treachery of the Tudeh and Co. Fedayeens rapidly grew during and after the revolution because it opposed Tudehist line at the beginning. Therefore, it could gather few hundred thousands sympathisers in Tehran, but its Central Committee cheated the sympathisers and the ideals of the left by joining along with the Tudeh Party the camp of the most reactionary and anti-socialist Mullahs and even collaborating with their repressive organs against other leftists.
By revolution or other methods, the extent of a legitimised removal of the IRI is an open debate, but I am sure a socialist revolution is an utopia. The remainder of the left has a better chance by joining a secular and democratic front against the IRI.
relax
by MRX1 on Sat Feb 14, 2009 07:03 AM PSTGet a bootle of jack daniels and chill. Mullah's had far more influence than you commi's ever did in a deeply religous, khorafati and backward society and as a result Angelo Ameican allaince used it very effictively to overthrough the shah and the rest is history. Good luck resurecting mumbo jumbo marxist stuff. you will have a better luck selling it in beatn down U.S under the guidance of community activist than in Iran.
I Agree with Bijan
by ganselmi on Sat Feb 14, 2009 05:18 AM PSTYoung people in Iran want free markets as much as they want free minds. They want to be rewarded for unleashing their incredible talents -- socialism is the last thing they want.
Bijan
by Mehrnaz (not verified) on Sat Feb 14, 2009 03:41 AM PSTBecause you mentioned you were present at the time of the revolution and supporting the same group as Mr Fiyouzat, I am just curious about your vision or Iran. I am not agreeing or disagreeing, but just wondering what you really mean and envision as a compatriot concerned about the fate of our country, a concern that I share.
When you say,
"The coming revolution will be by democratic patriots who will return Iran to the stature that she used to have",
- Do you expect there to be another revolution of a violent nature?
- Who are the democratic patriots in your view who will do it? Who would lead it, who would follow and fight, ideologically, socially, politically?
- And which period do you refer to when you reminisce the "stature that she [Iran] used to have"?
Thank you.
Not so...
by Bijan A M on Fri Feb 13, 2009 11:39 PM PSTWith all due respect Mr. Fiyouzat, I disagree with some of your claims, assertions and conclusions. As a Marxist left you claim the ownership of the revolution which I absolutely consider as a misrepresentation. I was there, and I was loosely (at least ideologically) a member of your group. The truth is that the clergy could better capitalize on the explosive state of a frustrated nation than all the left could muster.
The clergy mobilized the masses by their sermons in the mosques. When we (the lefts of all varieties) sensed the blind excitement of the crowd, we decided to join the movement and make it what was eventually labeled as revolution.
Hundreds of thounsands of people have been demonstrating in major cities before the left seriously got into the picture by organizing strikes in major industries, government agencies, and most importantly in the oil industry. Assassinating the head of Oil Services Co and a few key workers in Ahwaz accomplished the goal. Yes, you helped the movement succeed but it wasn’t your revolution. You assumed, once Shah was overthrown, it would be a cinch to take control and turn government into a Marxist, socialist regime. Wrong assumption…..It didn’t take long to realize Mullahs were a lot more ruthless than Shah could even dream of being. So, please don’t say that your revolution “molla khor shod”.
You helped a group with the intention of steeling its revolution and you failed. As simple as that. 30 years later, I’m glad that you/we didn’t succeed. Socialism with all its ideals and nice slogans of equality, etc…has proved to be a faulty economic system.
After 30 years you still think “your” revolution is alive. I beg to differ. Your help that turned a riot into a revolution will not be welcomed in the future. Your revolution died the day it was born... The coming revolution will be by democratic patriots who will return Iran to the stature that she used to have.