[R-G] Fwd: The Ayatollah Throws Down the Gauntlet

[Ed Pearl]

I've been getting your emails for some time.  How can I post
anything on the list.  I want to pass on a couple of articles not
yet posted, about the Iran situation.  Sid Shniad is on my daily
email digest.

Ed Pearl

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gregory Meyerson" <gmeyerson at triad.rr.com>
To: <epearlag at earthlink.net>
Sent: Saturday, June 20, 2009 6:27 AM
Subject: [R-G] Fwd: The Ayatollah Throws Down the Gauntlet


Read this liberal post side by side with those posted by Yoshie.  I   
would also recommend James Petras's piece, which casts doubt on the  
massive fraud claims.



how the dialectic will play out between clerical right wing populism  
and the forces represented by Mousavi and backed by virtually all  
liberal imperialists is anybody's guess, but it's crucial we not be  
one sided in the marxist sense.



Dreyfuss's essay it seems to me plays right into the hands of the  
administration, and right wing forces like the Israeli govt--due to a  
hope (which we should still take seriously) that there are millions  
of left wing populists ready to move the "green movement" to the left.


Note that the article below says nothing about the imperial context-- 
China/U.S./Israel/SCO.

Begin forwarded message:

> From: moderator at PORTSIDE.ORG
> Date: June 19, 2009 11:05:09 PM EDT
> To: PORTSIDE at LISTS.PORTSIDE.ORG
> Subject: The Ayatollah Throws Down the Gauntlet
> Reply-To: moderator at PORTSIDE.ORG
>
> The Ayatollah Throws Down the Gauntlet
>
> posted by ROBERT DREYFUSS
> 06/19/2009 @ 09:54am
> http://www.thenation.com/blogs/dreyfuss/444679/ 
> the_ayatollah_throws_down_the_gauntlet
>
> Speaking to a government-organized throng bused in from
> around Tehran and as far away as Qom, Iran's religious
> capital, and other cities -- a crowd, no doubt, vastly
> inflated by dutiful members of the Iranian
> Revolutionary Guard Corps and the fascist, mosque-based
> Basij thugs -- Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threw down the
> gauntlet against the Green Wave.
>
> He said:
>
>      Nothing can be changed. It's finished, the
>      Presidential campaign."
>
> He added, as if we didn't know, that he's on the side
> of President Ahmadinejad. "The President was closest to
> my point of view," huffed the Leader. And he issued
> not-so-veiled warnings to Iranian citizens to behave,
> to "be careful how they are acting, careful what they
> are saying."
>
> The election he said, was "a sign from God." And in
> case people didn't get God's message, he warned of
> "bloodshed and chaos" if the street protests continue.
> "Street challenge is not acceptable," he said.
>
> Make no mistake: it's by far the most serious, even
> existential crisis for the Islamic Republic since its
> founding in 1979. By blatantly rigging the vote, and by
> their heavy-handed crackdown in the wake of the
> travesty, the regime has shattered its legitimacy. Its
> leadership, including Khamenei and Ahmadinejad, are
> isolated from virtually every important segment of
> Iranian society -- students, workers, intellectuals,
> the business class, and even the very clergy that is at
> the heart of the system -- and they stand revealed as a
> repressive, reactionary military dictatorship.
>
> What remains to be seen is whether the opposition will
> back down in the face of that repressive power.
>
> We'll know soon. The real explosion could some within a
> few days, when the so-called Guardian Council -- a
> group of twelve bearded old clerics slavishly loyal to
> Khamenei -- confirms the bogus election results. If
> they do, as expected, sometime mid-week, it's possible
> that the sustained street protests could become a
> revolution.
>
> From an Iranian source, it appears that for Mir Hossein
> Mousavi, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Medhi Karroubi,
> and other leaders of the movement, there's no backing
> down. Here's what he said:
>
>      Mousavi and the others cannot compromise. They
>      know that if Ahmadinejad remains in power, he will
>      try to eliminate all of them. All of them. And it
>      will be violent.
>
>      The Ahmadinejad people are trying to weaken and
>      destroy the 'republic' part of 'Islamic republic.'
>      They dislike democracy, they dislike elections,
>      they dislike accountability. What they want is to
>      establish a regime with an unelected Islamic
>      leader, something like a caliph, who has absolute,
>      unchallenged authority."
>
> On the other hand, although many of the protestors --
> including Mousavi and Rafanjani, the wily wheeler-
> dealer -- have impeccable establishment credentials,
> it's increasingly clear that most if not all of the
> opposition leaders want a fundamental change in the way
> Iran is organized.
>
> That, highly informed Iranian sources say, would
> include replacing Khamenei with a council of leaders,
> radically reinterpreting the Constitutional requirement
> for a Leader, or rahbar, who represents the velayat-e
> faqih principle ("rule of the jurisprudent") with a far
> more flexible, collegial body. Were this to happen, it
> wouldn't mean the fall of the Islamic Republic, but it
> would represent a huge step toward eliminating its
> worst features.
>
> Many supporters of the opposition -- as I learned
> during nearly two weeks in Iran -- don't want the
> clergy to rule at all. "The mullahs are like idols,"
> one government official told me. "They must be broken."
>
> Rafsanjani is a two-term president (1989-1997), an
> extremely well-connected, wealthy power broker, and
> chairman of the Expediency Council. Back in the 1980s,
> he helped to elevate Khamenei, who was president of
> Iran from 1981 to 1989, to the post of Leader --
> succeeding Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder --
> in exchange for Khamenei's support for Rafsanjani
> becoming president. Since then he's shuttled back and
> forth between the hardline camp and the reformist camp,
> while maintaining a pragmatic (opportunist) stance. Now
> it seems he's irrevocably thrown his lot in with the
> reformists, including Mousavi and former President
> Khatami. And it's Rafsanjani who, if he chose to, might
> be able to manipulate the levers of power in Iran to
> oust Khamenei as Leader.
>
> So far, it's still unlikely. The ruling clique has the
> army, the Guard, the intelligence service, and courts,
> the police, the media, and its street thugs to support
> them -- and, according to some reports, Rafsanjani is
> under house arrest. But the opposition has the streets.
>
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