Got this via a Facebook contact. Thought it might be of interest to LOBsters and others.
Mike B)
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Abbas Goya sent a message to the members of The History of undefeated -In commemoration of the 1979 Revolution!
-------------------- Subject: That damn cop stick started it all!!
Thanks for joining the group.
The 79 events in Iran, the brilliant analysis by M. Hekmat might after all appear a far distance event to you. Some of you might have experienced similar events, some might not. Some of my fellow WPI (Worker-communist Party) comrades in this group are actually too young to remember the 79 Revolution.
To me, the 79 Revolution was the link to my involvement in politics. A 16 year old who was 'told' about politics via a hit by a cop stick while passing an intersection! Really. I was minding my business passing the light when I felt a sudden painful hit of cop stick on my arm, not knowing that the cops were there to confront any young person as a potentially anti-Shah 'element'! Angry and young enough, I confronted the cop, giving him f-word, he now aimed my head. Just a luck that an older cop stopped him. That was my first connection to the revolution. I then sought what this is all about. I learned that Shah was a dictator, that Lenin was a great leader for social justice, ... Cautiously but surely participated in demos, study circles and protests, as much as my worried parents would let me. Nonetheless, I was labeled as ever-opposition in my circle of conservative family because I always argued against Shah, in defense of the revolution and later on
against the not-yet-born-IRI.
I remember what later on was known as "The Revolution", the two days that shook Iran for years to come, the uprising of 10th and 11th of February. The spontaneous attacks to military and all the other power bases of the Shah regime. The attacks quickly were led by the militant leftists, socialists of the time. I remember them, covered their face w/ black ink not to be recognized, I remember the pro-Khomeini mullas on the streets yelling via loudspeakers at people NOT to attack the military bases because 'Imam has not yet given Jihad'. No one cared. And I remember that Khomeini's first Fitwa(the very evening of Feb 11) was to disarm people. The armed people was his ultimate nightmare.
I remember how safe it was while almost everyone were armed, no crime whatsoever in a city of 4 million. Everyone helped everyone. That unfortunately didn't last long. As far as the IRI was concerned the Feb 10-11 should not happen in the first place. The agreement w/ the US was that the US General Heuiser in his negotiation w/ Shah's Army (Shah's General Nassiry in particular) would order the army not to resist Khomeini and commit itself to his regime. Feb 10 and 11 uprising ruined that elaborated plan. The immediate days after Feb 11, the IRI organized its initial armed-forces to disarm people, door-by-door they knocked and collected the arms. That was the first strong signal to distrust the IRI.
As much as a novice political activist could understand and manage, I was now opposed to Khomeini's reign in February of 1979! That was not what my Dad wished for. He had just reluctantly posted Khomeini's poster in our living room because he was worried to be targeted by pro-Khomeini's forces.
I soon joined an organization (a front consisting of a number of organizations) to learn and practice the socialist politics. Everyone those days would claimed that they were socialists or in some degrees influenced by it. The process in which I learned socialism was in fact by direct participation in a revolution, learned it in the middle of battle ground. Theories were developing right there in the battle ground reflecting the development of revolution:
* Defence of workers councils that were now popping up everywhere and the IRI was doing anything to dissolve them; * The Kurdistan issue that was now an imminent issue for the IRI (the IRI actually re-organized the dissolved Shah's military initially by sending troops to Kurdistan already in March 79); * The freedom of speech which soon was harshly attacked by initially shutting down a popular leftist daily paper that I actually was a distributor for; * The women's equality movement that was in offensive; * The student councils were built consisting almost entirely by leftists; * The universities the turne into the base for freedom of speech and organizing; ...
And then...parallel w/ the progress of revolution, the IRI, organized its facists groups, named Hizbollah, inofficially attacking, killing activists while the regime was doing its best to re-construct/re-organize its armed forces. In May 1980, I was part of the resistance against the so-called 'cutltural revolution' that aimed to shut down the U of Tehran. Nearly 30 were killed, tens injured, more arrested before the regime could occupy the universtiy in order to shut it down. I remember watching Bani-Sadr, the so-called liberal president of the time, walking in U o Tehran to celebrate the victory over the leftists students.
In the final stages of the defeat of the 79 Revolution, the daily fascists killings, followed a mass killing in a mass-demonstration (nearly 500 thousands) that I was a participant in it. I witnessed the killing of some of my best friends by the now-restructured army of the IRI; the mass-arrest and massacre followed, the hiding.
One evening I sneaked into my old neighborhood where I was confronted by an old 'friend' who now was a Tudehee. Tueh was the pro-soviet party in Iran. Tudeh party supported the IRI to the point that it officially asked its member to act as the intelligent service of the IRI in the middle of the IRI's brutal attacks against the opposition. Anyway, this old 'friend' was 'merciful' to me by just pushing me to the wall telling me "you show up again, you're history'. Ironically he was killed awhile later when he was serving as the IRI military officer in the war.
In short, February 10-11 uprising was a direct act of people, led by leftists, an event that terrified the Islamic trend; it ruined the elaborated manipulation of the anit-Shah movement by US and the Islamic trend. The uprising created an instability of the IRI in favor of the people and the revolution, to further develop it, to radicalize it. While the 79 Revolution was defeated in the end but a clear socialist movement emerged out of it. Next round of events belongs to us, the socialists.
Anyhow, in 30th commemoration of "The Revolution"(February 10 and 11) I couldn't help but wanting to share some sporadic memories of the events which all started by that damn cop stick hit on my!
Abbas Goya
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