Saturday Demonstrations

[KC]

You can follow the events of today's demonstrations as they unfold in this post (http://riseoftheiranianpeople.com/2009/06/20/660/), which will be updated as info comes in.

[Guerrilla22]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090620/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_election

Apparently protesters are already clashing with police. The police are using tear gas and water cannons against them.

[KC]

Helicopters are also dumping what was originally thought to be boiling water but has actually been confirmed to be a normal temperature agent that causes feelings of burning. It is unconfirmed what it actually is, though.

[KC]

An Iranian-American talks to Iran contacts: "worth noting
people in iran are hearing that others are coming out to join. people are leaving work now and going to join."

[GPDP]

An Iranian-American talks to Iran contacts: "worth noting
people in iran are hearing that others are coming out to join. people are leaving work now and going to join."

Awesome.

[KurtFF8]

Suicide bomber attacks Khomeini shrine in Iran (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090620/ts_nm/us_iran_election)




By Dominic Evans and Fredrik Dahl Dominic Evans And Fredrik Dahl – 56 mins ago
TEHRAN (Reuters) – A suicide bomber blew himself up at the mausoleum of the father of Iran's revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, state media said Saturday, in an attack coinciding with more unrest over a disputed presidential vote.
EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.
"A few minutes ago a suicide bomber exploded himself in the shrine," police official Hossein Sajedinia was quoted by the semi-official Mehr news agency as saying.
Press TV said the attacker died and eight people were injured. It said the attack took place at the northern entrance to the Imam Khomeini shrine.
Supporters of defeated presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi set on fire a building in southern Tehran used by backers of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a witness said.
The witness also said police shot into the air to disperse rival supporters in Tehran's south Karegar street.
Elsewhere in Tehran, riot police deployed in force, firing teargas, batons and water cannons to disperse protesters defying a ban on demonstrations, state media said.
Witnesses said 2,000 to 3,000 people had gathered, far fewer than the hundreds of thousands involved in earlier rallies.
The reported attack on Khomeini's mausoleum seemed likely to stir outrage among Iranians who deeply revere the Shi'ite cleric who led the 1979 revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed shah.
The past week of protests have been the most widespread expression of anti-government feeling since the revolution.
Iran's highest legislative body said it was ready to recount a random 10 percent of the votes cast in the June 12 poll to meet the complaints of Mousavi and two other candidates who lost to Ahmadinejad.
Mousavi, whose supporters have staged vast unauthorized rallies in the past week, has demanded the election be annulled.
Security forces had turned out in strength to prevent any further rallies in the Iranian capital, a day after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told protest leaders they would be responsible for any bloodshed if unrest continued.
WAFTS OF TEARGAS
Teargas billowed up from Enghelab (Revolution) Square as riot police confronted demonstrators, a witness said.
A witness said protesters had decided to spread out into smaller groups in the Iranian capital because of the massive police presence in the square.
A police commander said earlier that his forces would deal firmly with any more street protests over the June 12 vote.
The Etemad-e Melli party of losing candidate Mehdi Karoubi said plans for a rally had been scrapped for lack of a permit and an ally of Mousavi said the moderate politician had not summoned his followers back to the streets.
The 12-man Guardian Council, which must certify the result of the election, announced plans for a partial recount.
"Although the Guardian Council is not legally obliged ... we are ready to recount 10 percent of the (ballot) boxes randomly in the presence of representatives of the three (defeated) candidates," a council spokesman said.
The council had invited Mousavi, Karoubi and a third candidate, Mohsen Rezaie, to raise their complaints at a special session. But only Rezaie, a conservative who is a former Revolutionary Guard commander, attended.
Witnesses said they had seen Basij Islamic militia deploying across Tehran and one resident saw at least three buses full of Basij heading for the capital from the nearby city of Karaj on Saturday, as well as four trucks full of the motorcycles used by Basij militiamen during previous demonstrations.
"If there is any bloodshed, leaders of the protests will be held directly responsible," the white-bearded Khamenei told huge crowds thronging Tehran University for Friday prayers.
State media have reported seven or eight people killed in unrest since the election outcome was published on June 13.
Scores of reformists have been arrested and authorities have cracked down on foreign and domestic media.
U.S. President Barack Obama condemned the violence carried out by security forces and believed Iranians should be free to protest, his spokesman said Friday after Khamenei's speech, sharpening the White House's rhetoric over the post-election events.
In a sign of defiance, Mousavi backers took to Tehran rooftops after nightfall Friday to shout Allahu Akbar (God is greatest), a deliberate echo of tactics in the 1979 revolution.
Khamenei called for calm in his country, a major oil exporter embroiled in dispute with major powers over its nuclear program, which the West suspects could be used to make bombs. Tehran says its nuclear work is peaceful.
He also attacked what he called interference by foreign powers who had questioned the result of the election.
The election result showed Mousavi won 34 percent of the votes to Ahmadinejad's tally of nearly 63 percent.
Iran's national security council dismissed a complaint Mousavi had written earlier this week about plainclothesmen using sticks and metal rods to attack protesters.
"Your national duty and responsibility would require that instead of raising charges against police or army forces ... to try to avoid such illegal gatherings and not support them," Fars News Agency quoted its secretary Abbas Mohtaj as saying.
(Editing by Alistair Lyon)

[REDSOX]

Awesom!!! Are you fucking having a laugh. According to Reuters and other news casters the demos are only a few thousand with not a working class protestor in site. These people are middle class fucks being leaned on by a faction of the clerical bourgeois. There needs to be hundreds upon hundreds of thousands on the streets to threaten the clerics and from what i can see they haven'nt got the numbers, and why have'nt they got the numbers and the clout its because the working class has not entered the arena in a significant way and if that continues then the protesters are fucked and a faction of the clerical bourgeois has been defeated.

[KC]

Awesom!!! Are you fucking having a laugh. According to Reuters and other news casters the demos are only a few thousand with not a working class protestor in site. These people are middle class fucks being leaned on by a faction of the clerical bourgeois. There needs to be hundreds upon hundreds of thousands on the streets to threaten the clerics and from what i can see they haven'nt got the numbers, and why have'nt they got the numbers and the clout its because the working class has not entered the arena in a significant way and if that continues then the protesters are fucked and a faction of the clerical bourgeois has been defeated.

What a waste of a post.

[Sean]

Awesom!!! Are you fucking having a laugh. According to Reuters and other news casters the demos are only a few thousand with not a working class protestor in site. These people are middle class fucks being leaned on by a faction of the clerical bourgeois. There needs to be hundreds upon hundreds of thousands on the streets to threaten the clerics and from what i can see they haven'nt got the numbers, and why have'nt they got the numbers and the clout its because the working class has not entered the arena in a significant way and if that continues then the protesters are fucked and a faction of the clerical bourgeois has been defeated.
Yeah, fuck revolution.

[REDSOX]

Not a waste of a post just being factual. As far as i can analyse things the demos have been getting smaller and smaller and the working class, peasentry and poor have not entered the arena because my student revolutionary wannabees comrades they SEE QUITE CLEARLY THAT NONE OF THESE FACTIONS REPRESENTS THEIR INTERESTS!!!!. This is a faction fight between two opposing groups and dont forget the ahmadinejad faction has millions of supporters as well to call on as well as the brutal repression of the cleric state. Now i am not ruling out the working class entering the arena and changing the dynamic as long as moussavi does not use them for his purposes, but as things stand at the moment this movement is dying and dying fast as the moussavi faction lose heart and call of their supporters protests. The position we as communists must take is what is in the class interest and it is not in the interest to support middle class fucks or ahmadinejads thugs.

No to the cleric bourgeois factions
No to imperialist intervention in any way
For a workers and peasents state

[Enragé]

FUCK CNN AND THEIR 'I-REPORT'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW3HVHGvgkE

HUGE protest, today

judging from the vid, 10.000 at the very least in that location alone

riots are reported in Isfahan, Shariz, Teheran, Ahwaz, Mashad

www.twitter.com/persiankiwi

[REDSOX]

Afraid not new kind of soldier according to the newswires its about 3000 people and they are getting a fucking good hiding from the clerical thugs. This is no fucking proletarian revolution. Where are the workers Where are the heavy duty boys like the Oil workers. Where are the poor and dispossessed. NO FUCKING WHERE. If the working class of Iran will not move then the Ahmadinejad faction is safe, if it does move into revolutionay action then it is fucked.

[Enragé]

Will you shut up about what the mainstream media reports, i dont give a fuck. Look at the pictures, judge for yourself. And would u please stop talking like you're there while the only thing you have to go on is western media.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGcSU7FcgQw

when the state employs these methods (shooting, trying to control the internet, disrupting civil communication systems) there is more going on than a few thousand disgruntled people. Oh and, all protests were outlawed today, yet so many still go on the streets!

[REDSOX]

I have looked at the pictures my friend and not just on the mainstream media. I repeat THE working class has not entered the political arena because none of these fucks represent them and their interests. I dont rule out them doing this but

1. The working class must not back ahmadinejad or mousavi

2. They must raise proletarian anti/capitalist and anti imperialist views

If they dont then that is not in the class interest.

Neither ahmadinejad nor moussavi but proletarian revolution

[Enragé]

THE working class is not some mythical something, THE working class is comprised of workers, people. Some of which will be on the streets now, some of which will not be - all i can is express my support for those who are. No, this will not lead to the overthrowal of capitalism, but hopefully it will lead to the overthrowal of theocratic dictatorship, thereby opening up possibilities for the now underground iranian revolutionary left. This can be seen as a February-situation (as in february 1917 in russia)

[REDSOX]

New kind of soldier you are raving mad. The protesters are predominately middle class petit bourgeois types being leaned on by Moussavi in his attempted power grab. I for one dont want any part of his plots and schemes. Does it not strike you as odd that as of yet the working class has not entered this arena despite frequent calls for general strikes and the like. Now it may well do though i hope it is for its own interests and not moussavi's interests. I despise the clerics and the regime but i despise all factions of it moussavi ahmadinejad et al and i like many other communists am not going to back one faction and their supporters over another. This is not class war but factional war. As to your assertion that overthrowing the clerics will lead to opportunities for the underground left as you put it this is reactionary bollocks because you seem to be asserting that even a liberal democratic system would be prferable to the cleric regime. I prefer neither i prefer proletarian revolution

[Enragé]

proletarian revolution is not born out of nothing. You say socialism or death, well, right now you're choosing death. Revolution comes only in the wake of great revolts.


As to your assertion that overthrowing the clerics will lead to opportunities for the underground left as you put it this is reactionary bollocks because you seem to be asserting that even a liberal democratic system would be prferable to the cleric regime

well ofcourse!! A system with at least the pretense of freedom of speech and freedom of organisation gives infinitely more possibilities for the organisation of a revolutionary left than a system in which the clergy decides what is 'proper' and what isnt based on whatever feudal scripture.

I fail to see how that is reactionary bollocks - clericalism/theocracy is reactionary bollocks compared to western 'democracy'.