> Oddly, the same dichotomy surfaces even in the far left rhetoric:
> e.g., "Under increasing pressure from the US government, which has
> classified Iran as part of its 'axis of evil', there has been a recent
> escalation of conflicts within the Islamic regime" (Justus Leicht,
> "Social Tensions Escalate Conflicts within Iranian Regime," 6
> September 2002,"
> <http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/sep2002/iran-s06.shtml>).
You forgot to quote these bits:
> In recent months the governmental right wing had gone on the
> offensive. Liberal newspapers were banned, journalists and
> intellectuals locked up and whipped, cultural meetings suppressed
> and youth terrorised by religious militias for all sorts of
> “immoral behaviour”—from having parties, to holding hands or
> wearing headscarves secured “too loosely”.
>
> [...]
>
> He pointed out that the judiciary banned newspapers and jailed
> intellectuals behind closed doors, without a jury and
> unconstitutionally. The media—with the state radio and television
> all in the hands of the right-wing hardliners—had repeatedly
> published the accusations levelled against those accused, but never
> printed the arguments of the defence.
>
> [...]
>
> The election of Khatami was the result of a broad desire for
> democratic reforms. Under conditions where the only candidates for
> the election were those ratified by the Guardian Council, Khatami
> seemed to be the best guarantor for a policy aimed at loosening
> somewhat the dictatorship of the conservative clerics. In his five
> years in power, however, Khatami has proved to be incapable of
> fulfilling the hopes invested in him. He revealed himself not as a
> fighter for democracy, but rather as a left fig leaf for the ruling
> clerics, with the task of intercepting and neutralising the
> democratic opposition.
>
> Far more than their right-wing opponents, Khatami and his
> supporters fear a genuine popular mobilisation for democratic
> rights. Protesting workers and students—who have been beaten up by
> the police and militia, then arrested, locked up, tortured and
> murdered—were denounced by Khatami as “hooligans”, “traitors” and
> “provocateurs”, even when they had taken to the streets bearing his
> picture and shouting his name, as in July 1999.
Apparently you're incapable of opposing war on Iran, or even Bush- style regime change, and at the same time acknowledging that the Iranian state is run by authoritarian mullahs. Instead, you suggest (or publish works by that apologist Pourzal suggesting) that feminists aren't beaten, merely arrested, and that bus drivers trying to form a union are puppets of Langley.
> On 9/9/07, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>> If you think this is an example, then you're really reaching. Zunes
>> advocates "regime change" in Iran done by Iranians, not foreigners. I
>> suspect what annoys you is that he's referring to you as one of the
>> credulous bloggers and editors, while curiously failing to name
>> MRZine.
>>
>> You forgot to quote this paragraph:
>>
>>> In apparent recognition of this trend, Congress last year approved
>>> $75 million in funding for an administration request to support
>>> various Iranian opposition groups. However, most of these groups
>>> are led by exiles who have virtually no following within Iran or
>>> any experience with the kinds of grassroots mobilization necessary
>>> to build a popular movement that could threaten the regime's
>>> survival. By contrast, most of the credible opposition within Iran
>>> has renounced this U.S. initiative and has asserted that it has
>>> simply made it easier for the regime to claim that all pro-
>>> democracy groups and activists are paid agents of the United States.
>>
>> So you really have nothing.
>
> Just where does Zunes, or do you, think $75 million has gone? Not at
> all to any of the "certain Western nongovernmental organizations" and
> their Iranian associates? What are those "Western nongovernmental
> organizations" whose work in Iran Zunes and you appear to think is
> good or harmless? One remains curious.
Huh? Zunes clearly says that the $75m has gone to groups with no legitimacy or standing at all, and I wouldn't disagree. They're promoting another "color" revolution that's either doomed, hollow, or phony. Neither he nor I think their work is "good or harmless," and there's nothing in what he or I wrote to suggest otherwise. You're just making shit up now.
What rubs you the wrong way is the idea that there are a substantial number of Iranians who don't like being ruled by reactionary theocrats - especially now that your boy Ahmadinejad has delivered little more than 15-20% inflation.
Doug