There are now multiple, reliable reports of the government of Iran using rape, multiple times, as a deliberate way to emotionally and psychologically destroy jailed protesters.
Bizarrely, the hard left is still having a argument as to whether the government of Ahmadinejad should be supported either because it supposedly opposes imperialism or because the US sometimes does horrid stuff, as witness Mumia dancing around the issue before proclaiming that outsiders should do nothing. Gosh, that’s certainly a stirring defense of freedom and liberty, isn’t it? Just sit back and say and do nothing.
The Iranian government is paranoid not because they are crazy, but because many remember the U.S. and British supported coup.
And although the corporate media has pronounced the notion ‘loony’ that the U.S. has supported the anti-government protests, in truth the U.S. has supported anti-government terrorism against Iran.
All of which has nothing to do with the recent protests in Iran which were homegrown and which the US clearly had little if anything to do with. And note how Mumia excuses the behavior of Iran because of past actions of the US.
Iranians must decide the form their government will take: not the U.S., nor the British.
The Iranian people will decide whether the ungodly repression they face will stall them, or spur them on to demand more than the change of faces at the top.
Notably absent here is any call for people outside Iran to protest the actions of the Iranian government. On that, Mumia is utterly silent. Perhaps he suffers from the quaint delusion that the enemy of my enemy must be a friend.
Both on Iran and with the current financial crisis, the hard left in the US, Britain, and Europe has been almost entirely absent from action. No solidarity statements. No organizing. No protests. Just crickets, really.
I’m with you on your take on the hard left, but Iran I can’t go along with.
Sure, the hard left can get involved, but it will get a lot of people killed. Do you think Iranian security services care about the difference between ANSWER and CIA? Trust me, they don’t care about the difference between reporters and spies, or dissidents and insurgents, they really won’t give a damn about some podunk American opposition group.
Not getting involved doesn’t mean you’re a pussy about your ideals, it means you care about the fate of those you’re supposedly fighting for. As a political prisoner(!!!), maybe Mumia knows a thing or two about this.
I didn’t mean outsiders should fight on the ground there. That would be insane. But certainly there could be with demos, protests, solidarity statements, etc. Like the left did against the Iraq war or with any number of other issues. Make some noise. Try to bring political pressure.
My larger point is the left is mostly totally absent now from issues it should be involved with – like Iran and the financial crisis. It’s just not doing anything. The financial crisis is custom-made for the left to organize on – a real-life once in a generation, full-tilt crisis of capitalism. So where’s the outrage, where are the protests? Because there aren’t any. Why is this?
“But certainly there could be with demos, protests, solidarity statements, etc. Like the left did against the Iraq war or with any number of other issues. Make some noise. Try to bring political pressure.”
I understand better where you’re going now, but in this regard, political pressure on who? To what end? Is the goal to get the Obama administration to pay attention to Iran? He’s on it already. Do we want him to bring pressure on Iran? As if the threats of nuclear annihilation levied by the Bush administration, or the sanctions that Obama continues aren’t pressure enough?
I think the hard left’s problem, as you’ve already said many times, is that they’re ignoring the issues that should be their forte, ie economics and workers’ rights. Iran, for a variety of reasons, should really be none of their business, institutionally speaking.
Well, the more world focus on what’s happening there the better. Doesn’t have to be governmental, just public opinion. It does have an effect. And let’s those inside Iran know that people are paying attention.
The Left frequently makes human rights an issue, but the hard left too often trips all over itself because, y’know, the US doesn’t like that tyrant, so maybe we should support him. Then wonders why not many are paying any attention to what they say.