Lenin’s Tomb
This, the South Korean SWP and the CWI's Kazahkstan section are all currently under repression.
http://www.revleft.com/vb/solida...7299/
index.html
All are really important.
We also need to call out the large internet companies for collaborating with dictatorialism.
Dictatorialism? Isn't that a bit racialist?
Opposing nuking Iran could only
be construded as "apologetics" by a
racist pratt.
Once again the witless slander that anyone who doesn't support committing mass-murder (by means of sanctions, bombing or full-scale invasion) against the people of a country is supporting that country's government.
I really doubt any Socialist has any particular love for theocracy. However, we should certainly be opposed to the propaganda against Iran, which often sounds remarkably similar to that used against Iraq before the invasion.
Politically, this binary division of the world into "liberal democracies" & "dictatorships" is total bullshit. Iran has as much claim to be Democratic as America or Britain (IE: not much). In both cases, what you have is a controlled, strictly limited 'democracy.'
Of course Iran shouldn't have nuclear weapons, but then neither should anyone else, least of all the US. If the intention is to avoid proliferation & use of nuclear weapons, the way to do that would be negotiation & disarmament. But that isn't the intention of the US government & their allies.
No one is claiming that the Iranian government is wonderful. We should obviously support the struggle for greater Democracy in Iran, as in EVERY other country, including our own. (If anyone knows how that can be done in practical terms...?)
Murdering Iranians with sanctions & bombs as US/UK politicians keep threatening to do is unlikely to improve the situation.
We are not on the side of Iran's government in oppressing the people; we are against our own governments killing them. Can anyone HONESTLY not see the difference?
We are for solidarity.
We are against murderous, terrorist interventions on false pretences of "humanitarianism," "security" & "Democracy."
_as a reasonably intelligent, if boiler-plate man_
probably the best description I could think of for richard as well as 95% of the SWP
Who the fuck is Jim Denham?
Im not surprised if the blogger is kidnapped by the zionist instead of the gov. think about it. once he disappeared, whatever it is, the iran gov will draw flak.
Sad, sad, sad news: Adrian Mitchell has died. The greatest.
Guy Sorman on the European Left and the present economic crisis:
http://www.dailystaregypt.com/
ar...ArticleID=18543
It seems Noam Chomsky's wife, Dr Carol Chomsky, has also died.
Oh, I knew her work on child acquisition of language. It has become very influential.
Len., can you run a post on Adrian? Even just a notice?
While Lenin's thinking:
Tell me lies about Vietnam
I was run over by the truth one day.
Ever since the accident I've walked this way
So stick my legs in plaster
Tell me lies about Vietnam.
Heard the alarm clock screaming with pain,
Couldn't find myself so I went back to sleep again
So fill my ears with silver
Stick my legs in plaster
Tell me lies about Vietnam.
Every time I shut my eyes all I see is flames
Made a marble phone book and I carved all the names
So coat my eyes with butter
Fill my ears with silver
Stick my legs in plaster
Tell me lies about Vietnam.
I smell something burning, hope it's just my brains.
They're only dropping peppermints and daisy-chains
So stuff my nose with garlic
Coat my eyes with butter
Fill my ears with silver
Stick my legs in plaster
Tell me lies about Vietnam.
Where were you at the time of the crime?
Down by the Cenotaph drinking slime
So chain my tongue with whisky
Stuff my nose with garlic
Coat my eyes with butter
Fill my ears with silver
Stick my legs in plaster
Tell me lies about Vietnam.
You put your bombers in, you put your conscience out,
You take the human being and you twist it all about
So scrub my skin with women,
Chain my tongue with whisky
Stuff my nose with garlic
Coat my eyes with butter
Fill my ears with silver
Stick my legs in plaster
Tell me lies about Vietnam.
Carol Chomsky was interviewed in a documentary made about her husband's visit to Canada in 2002. Links to part 5, part 6, and part 7 of it.
Outofbox:
Out of the box and into the tinfoil hat for you, methinks.
Thanks for raising this Yoshie, I didn't know about it and it's important.
It's okay to criticise Iran now? I can't keep up.
'Sad, sad, sad news: Adrian Mitchell has died. The greatest.' - that he was. Sad day.
It's okay to criticise Iran now? I can't keep up.
It's an odd sort of question because, not only has it never been asserted here that it was not okay to criticise Iran, Iran has not been criticised in this post. The Iranian state, or rather the police and intelligence services, have. Yet, it is as if those who reject propaganda are being accused of stifling free expression: bad lefties don't want to let the Bush administration lie through its teeth, no fair! Censorship!
It's just difficult to tell which criticism of Iran - sorry, Iran's government - is okay, and which is vicious islamophobic apologia for neocon bombing runs.
I guess the key is to be found in who's doing it. And how cosy that particular source is feeling towards muslims at the given moment.
It isn't that difficult, CheeseHead. If the criticism is a lie, just say so. If it is based on poisonous drivel, point it out. If there is misrepresentation or hyperbole involved, draw attention to it. If, on the other hand, it is serious and important, then second the criticism. I fail to see any mystery here.
Voltaire's Priest wrote: "Thanks for raising this Yoshie, I didn't know about it and it's important."
You're welcome. It would be great if you and others could help these Iranian bloggers spread the word. It's been difficult to develop a campaign because the initial reports of the arrest were solely based on anonymous sources, so some thought, or hoped (including myself), that perhaps the reports were based on a mistake in the rumor mill.
Besides, Derakhshan, because of his (sometimes sharply worded) political opinion, has made many enemies in both Iran and the West: the Western powers, the Rafsanjani and reformist factions, various "democracy-promoting" NGOs, assorted liberal Iranian intellectuals, and so on. Some opponents of Hoder even went so far as to claim that he's an IRI agent! It's a baseless claim, as this arrest tragically proves, but paranoid skepticism has deep roots in the Iranian diaspora. Derakhshan's family are not poor but not politically active, so they have been at a loss as to what to do. All these factors make his situation a particularly precarious one.
As Lenin says, criticism in itself is not difficult.
The complexity lies in practice: e.g., "I personally talked to his sister, too. She is very worried about Hossein. We should be careful with the way we spread the news not to have a negative effect. Absolutley no neocon propaganda shit." (emphasis added, "Hossein Derakhshan (Hoder) Is Really Arrested," Lady Sun, 8 December 2008). We don't want to do things that can backfire on people we want to help. This applies to all cases of activism, not just Hoder's case.
More movement by the cops in Iran:
http://www.atlargely.com/2008/12...ded-
closed.html
marc b.
Regarding the closure of Shirin Ebadi's office, there's a CodePink petition that you can sign.
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