BBC report: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-62967381
A better source’s report: https://english.alaraby.co.uk/news/khamenei-aide-visits-mahsa-aminis-family-media
Tudeh (communist) Party of Iran statement: https://www.tudehpartyiran.org/en/2022/09/20/statement-of-the-tudeh-party-of-iran-down-with-the-dictator-there-is-no-end-to-the-regimes-murderous-thuggery/
A woman was seemingly murdered by the IRI’s religious police after being taken into custody for not wearing her hijab “properly”. Iranian officials deny this and claim she died of a heart attack. Looks like no one is buying this line.
Danny Haiphong thinks a color revolution is underway because of Iran’s pivot to the east. I haven’t seen this sort of line taken by anyone else yet, but I’m more keen to trust the Tudeh Party than a non-Iranian, as much as Haiphong is usually right. From my understanding and their own statements, Tudeh is not clamoring for some relationship with the West and are very aware of and against NATO, EU and U.S. imperialism. I doubt they’d be in favor of these protests if they thought they were spearheaded by western NGOs.
Lots of protests all over the country. Many chants recorded such as “long live socialism, long live communism” and “death to the dictator, down with Khamenei”. Complicating matters is that the murdered woman was Kurdish-Iranian and fittingly a lot of the protests began in heavily Kurdish regions of Iran. This is not to dismiss the plight of Kurdish people or their capacity for revolutionary struggle, but Kurds have been insidiously used and abused by the West to forment ethnic tensions in Iraq, Turkey, Syria and elsewhere before, and western media outlets are seemingly attempting to continue that legacy by drawing a clear divide by Iranian Kurds and non-Kurds.
There is a fog of reporting currently, with a lot of protest info being relayed to western media by Chatham House, a British think tank known recently as having been pushing a lot of anti-Russia stuff. U.S. officials also immediately “demanded accountability” of Iran and claimed the act was “unforgiveable”.
Any MENA comrades have thoughts? Do you think this could be a revolutionary moment, or a cynical attempt by NGOs to weaken Iran after they’ve closened to China?
Agreed. I think in an effort to express support for the anti-imperialist bloc, some criticism, some of the “critical” in “critical support” can go by the wayside, which is understandable, if sometimes it can lead to counter-revolutionary (in the literal sense) lines. Lenin said:
This is also not to forget the CIA and Five-Eyes influence globally, who fund and abet “communist” and “revolutionary movements” occasionally, such as their support for the Khmer Rouge, their alleged initial support for Iraqi ba’athists, their support for Maoists in Afghanistan and Eritrea, anti-communist trade unions in Eastern Europe like Solidarność, hell at one point feds made up almost the entirety of the Revolutionary Communist Party Avakianite cult in the U.S. This can, and should, lead to initial suspicion of and investigation into any movement calling for the overthrow of anti-western governments.
We also have not seen an actual successful communist revolution in a considerable amount of time, by that meaning the violent overthrow of the bourgeois state and the creation of a dictatorship of the proletariat. Communist parties world-round have, by and large, adopted more electoralist and legalist strategies, partially in a bid to remain legal and popular. Violent ‘revolutions’ and coup d’etats in the modern age more often than not lead to the installment of pro-Western puppets, and it’s healthy to be skeptical.
Things like support or disagreement in the age of globalized information and contact are difficult to traverse, especially without a new Internationale, and the importance of supporting communist movements worldwide has dwindled significantly with the fall of the USSR. I understand China’s refrain from formenting revolution internationally and their forming of bilateral relations with theocratic regimes, and I think it’s the right call, but it’s still depressing realpolitiking that I think is a far cry from true proletarian internationalism.
A question for the class: when a communist party like Tudeh, currently in exile from Iran across Europe, expresses support for the violent overthrow of their bourgeois, theocratic government, do you think it’s the right call? Does communist support or repudiation of that call to action actually even matter in an age without an Internationale? If non-Iranians express support for Tudeh online, does that only fuel the pro-imperialist fire, or is it an important expression of solidarity with a foreign workers’ movement?
Sorry for the very long post. Just thinking.