In response to “Iran, a reflection“:
It’s good that the discussion has started on what action we could be taking now. I have too much experience to get all gung ho about organizing and that sort of thing. In my experience, “Iranian” and “organization” just don’t go together – which is good and bad. Bad, because a splintered body is not as strong as a consolidated one. But good, because it allows for a lot of genuine, flexible, and creative action. I guess I’m Iranian enough to secretly prefer the latter!
So let me get personal. I didn’t vote for Mousavi. I despise him and Rafsanjani every bit as much as I despise Ahmadinejad and Rahbar. I talked at length to my closest friends in Iran before the election. No, I’m not one to make pronouncements about Iranian People This and Iranian People That. I don’t know about Iranian People – I only had heart-to-heart talks with my old friends who are the doroun marzi version of me. They all voted for Mousavi. I have complete and utter respect for their reasoning and I am in awe of all those who took to the streets.
Here is another personal revelation: I read a lot of subversive stuff. I love conspiracy theories because even if they’re not entirely true they contain some truth somewhere in them. I believe that conspiracy theories arise not when we can’t find answers to our questions but when those questions are not asked. I think the ultimate form of censorship is not when answers are suppressed, but when questions are suppressed. I learned about this ultimate form of censorship in America. But I’ll write about that some other time, let’s go back to Iran.
A lot of the subversive stuff I read puts the events in Iran in a regional and global context. The caricaturized version of it would be something like this: Ahmadi and Rahbar are fighting the “full spectrum dominance” plans of US, UK and Israel – which is a good thing.The Rafsanjani coalition (Mousavi, Karroubi, and the moneyed class) lean toward “the West” which basically means privatization and the looting of the country – which is not a good thing. Given this world view, it would make sense for the US to be trying to meddle in who comes to power in Iran. There’s nothing “conspiracy theory” about the fact that countries have always tried to meddle in each others’ affairs and the recent elections in Iran are no exception.
Holding this perspective in my mind – in “brackets,” if you will – I was particularly turned off by the green cosmetic element of the Mousavi campaign. It reminded me too much of the “color” revolutions the US cooked up in Ukraine and Georgia, and indeed the velvet revolution the Islamic Republic is so afraid of. Now, not only do I not have an iota of trust in Mousavi who is responsible for a great deal of bloodshed back in the 80s, and not only do I deeply despise Rafsanjani and his ill-begotten wealth and empire, I also have great abhorrence for Washington DC think tanks and Madison Avenue PR firms and advertising agencies that design coups and fabricate “movements.” So I did not and will not display a speck of green on my person.
That said, what’s going on in Iran is a lot bigger than all of that. Green, Mousavi, Rafsanjani, Ahmaidnejad, Khamenei, “full spectrum dominance,” conspiracy theory, Washington DC, Madison Avenue, Hollywood – all of them be damned. This is you and I speaking. Let them tell us we don’t matter. Let them try to manipulate us. Let them try to “organize” us. Once we get going, we will bulldoze them over.
My neighbor came back last week from the Joan Baez concert in San Francisco where she sang We Shall Overcome dedicated to Iran (yawn) and handed me a nicely printed United4Iran.com card announcing the July 25 “Mega-Rally.” Okey dokey – another slick piece of communication material with heavy use of the color green, produced by “United for Iran, Northern California Chapter: A non-politically affiliated group of individuals and organizations united in solidarity with Iran.” (“Oh really, non-affiliated…?!” goes the little voice in my head.) It states the sponsors of the event as Shirin Ebadi (good enough), Human Rights Watch (no comment), and a string of organizations many of which no one has ever heard of. Look people, I have a nonprofit that I registered over 10 years ago and it has heleko helek-ed along all these years but it never amounted to much even when I worked really hard at it, let alone now after years of dormancy. Suppose I put that down as a “sponsor” of something – how in the world would you know that even though the organization is a legal entity it basically is nothing but a collection of papers on the bottom shelf of my bookcase? And you don’t even need me to tell you that you can list all kinds of sponsoring organizations that don’t even amount to that much!
OK, so you get the picture. I just don’t trust. I’ll say one more bad thing about this rally and then I’ll say the good I have to say.
On the front of the card advertising the rally there is a bit of fine print underneath a big old green arc: “We discourage the display of national flags. This policy is intended not to stifle freedom of expression but instead to prevent others from labeling us as a disingenuous political organization.” Wha, wha, wha, wha, what…? They are saying don’t bring the flag – the sabz, sorkh, sefid we grew up with. I know. I have followed the stupid and even vicious flag wars people have been fighting during recent demonstrations. I have been quite embarrassed by it. But it’s the old anti-organization tendency of Iranians. That simply is not going to go away. We will always fight our stupid wars the moment we are put anywhere together. Our dirty laundry always finds its way of airing itself with ancient pride. But this is who we are. I’m sorry that we are not capable of all putting our hands on our hearts at the sight of stars and stripes or rallying around a swastika. Win some, lose some. But what is this bullshit about “to prevent others from labeling us as a disingenuous political organization”? What the heck is this supposed to mean? Whose genius came up with that piece of lame wording? And as far as I’m concerned, no one has any business “discouraging” any Iranian from carrying any flag they want. Who do they think they are, our vali-ye faqih? What are they, shoraye maslehate nezam? Don’t they get it that we are just sick of being patronized “for our own good” — for some “maslehat”?
Now THAT said, I certainly am going to the rally. I am in fact grateful to whoever has organized it. Ross Mirkarimi (SF Supervisor) gives his name as contact person for the rally. I am grateful to him. We can be as irritatingly or charmingly chaotic as we want but somebody in the end has to do some organizational dirty work. I thank all those who are carrying out this thankless task. (Contact: humanrights4iran@gmail.com, 415-554-6783)
And you know why in the end I am going to the rally? Because this is bigger than any single power, or interest, or ego, or ideology. This is the old lion raising its head. This is us. And we’ve waited thirty years for it.
