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?

  • @PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
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    2 years ago

    Problem with such situations is that even completely justified and legit protests tend to be quickly pumped by by USA infiltrators, influences and money and turn into colour coups.

  • @KrupskayaPraxis@lemmygrad.ml
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    302 years ago

    The thing is that the people’s anger in Iran is completely justified, but sadly regime change would be a bad thing since the alternative is worse

  • 小莱卡
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    222 years ago

    Idk, promoted by mainstream media and my instagram feed is now filled with this. This all points to a color revolution.

    • @Iri@lemmygrad.ml
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      12 years ago

      I’ve seen plenty videos asking for ppl from the world to “intervene” (i guess that’s the word) they all seem very sketchy tho.

  • Drstrange2love
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    182 years ago

    Even though the protest and claims are legitimate, the support that the western media is giving makes people suspect that it is a color revolution at worst and at best there are instigating agents infiltrated in these protests

  • @Aria@lemmygrad.ml
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    2 years ago

    If there are any videos anyone would like translated I can try. This might be a naïve take but I think the USA is more scared of socialism taking hold than starting a war without provocation. So socialist slogans is probably a strong indicator they didn’t instigate. Though watch as all socialist rhetoric will be drowned out by pro-USA rhetoric.

    • @jucheguevara@lemmygrad.ml
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      112 years ago

      perhaps so, but playing devil’s advocate, there was lots of left wing aesthetics being toted around in support of US proxies in Syria (Rojava, Democratic Confederalism bullshit, feminism, so much so that they even attracted left-wing political podcaster Brace Belden of TrueAnon which is the most lucrative Patreon podcast to this day. … the CIA’s Special Activities Division is pretty smart these days I will say)

  • d-RLY?
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    132 years ago

    If a revolution does take hold, I hope that the socialists/communists are the ones to bring it. I am really only against the current Iran government personally due to the religious stuff. Same goes for any theocracy due to how they end up oppressing those that aren’t believers (or “true believers” when they oppress fellow followers that don’t agree enough). Too many of the ultra religious folks turn to fascism in the same horrible ways that the capitalists do. The difference is the capital being used/seeked being delusional narcissistic purity of faith. There isn’t a way to work collectively with folks that see everything as a literal holy war. The US has been allowing the religious fascists to run more and more elements of its own government for decades. And now we see them actually seeing purity and holiness in people that unironically would fit the bill for being some versions of the Antichrist. To be clear, I am not speaking of all followers of all faiths. While I am an atheist, I very much respect beliefs that bring people hope and support followers. But the religious fascists and monarchs that wish to see regression in knowledge in order to keep the masses stupid can’t be allowed to reign. I fully support the non-religious parts of Iran’s stance against allowing the US to just fuck with every other nation. So I don’t wish to see the US or NATO roll in to prop-up a new puppet government. Given the support that the US keeps giving to Israel and Saudi Arabia, we know that they wouldn’t give any fucks about this situation if the current government of Iran were pro-USA. The masses of all faiths should be free to live their lives without morality police and without police that are there to protect the elites. The US needs to lose its hold on the rest of the world, and it isn’t the only oppressor that needs to be stopped (it is just the largest one impacting the most nations and peoples).

    • SovereignStateOP
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      2 years ago

      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.

    • @jucheguevara@lemmygrad.ml
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      62 years ago

      A common refrain in Iran is “Not capitalism, but Islam”

      “Too many of the ultra religious folks turn to fascism in the same horrible ways that the capitalists do” what, then, of Stalin’s reconstitution of the church and promotion of socialist morality on the basis of orthodox teachings? Or do you agree with the CIA’s Hannah Arendt’s claim that communism is just “successful fascism”?

      Religion can take many forms. It can be a tool of the oppressor (Christianity’s use in colonialism) or it can be a tool of the oppressed (Christianity’s use in Liberation Theology to fight against colonialism) … so too is Islam being used progressively to fight against imperialism and to fight on behalf of the oppressed (Iran has throughout its history lent support to oppressed peoples and their leaders such as the Black Panther Party)

      I support women’s rights. I also expect more details surrounding these current events to continue to come out in due time. but first and foremost I will not criticize that which is in the crosshairs of US imperialism. I lend my full support to the Iranian government in its struggle against imperialism, and as a matter of secondary importance I lend support to those within Iran seeking to reform it in a non-western, non-capitalist way.

  • @Shrimpy@lemmygrad.ml
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    122 years ago

    Not sure if the same lady but there is a video on the Telegram channel “Mango Press” where there is CCTV footage of a woman just dropping dead in public. The short message read along the lines of “the video that shows that Wester media is lying about how this woman died”.

        • SovereignStateOP
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          I can’t read Persian and I could totally see this being an attempted pro-west coup, but the proof that these redditors seem to be putting forward is… unconvincing imo, grainy CCTV footage + instagram posts of brain scans aren’t exactly authoritative sources.

          I will say that kneejerk reactions against trusting IRI govt officials as well as Iranian doctors is just chauvinism while the facts are still cloudy and everything’s still being reviewed, but I also think using insta posts/unverified CCTV footage as ‘proof’ of anything uncritically is a recipe for ignorance. Saw some commentors say that the woman in question was a drug addict and a (insert misogynistic slur beginning with w here) who should have been following the hijab mandate, praising the morality police, etc. so although that sub may serve a valuable purpose in propagating anti-imperialist support for Iran, it’s obvious there’s an agenda behind proving/disproving these things that goes beyond anti-imperialism and Iranian national sovereignty for a lot of the posters.

          • @fruityloop@lemmygrad.ml
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            132 years ago

            Yeah the way they were talking about the (murdered!) woman on the reddit post doesn’t inspire any confidence in what they’re claiming. They may be anti-imperialists but plenty of those can be misogynist fucks who couldn’t be trusted to say anything good about a woman.

            You can’t really blindly trust anyone who labels themselves anti-imperialist because they could be reactionary in many other ways. I see this a lot where I’m from, some person having an okay take about american imperialism but goes on a tangent about (((them))) turning the kids gay/trans using Netlix or whatever western streaming service.

  • @fruityloop@lemmygrad.ml
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    122 years ago

    I don’t necessarily think it’s a color revolution, it’s likely that the women are just fed up with how horribly they’re treated. However I didn’t know the woman who died was kurdish, there might be more to her murder than just not wearing hijab “properly”.

    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”.

    Sounds about right for Iranians from what I know, this makes me think it’s a colour revolution even less. But that doesn’t mean that America won’t be jumping at the chance of capitalizing on any internal strife.

    I would’ve said to read about this from Arabic media but a bunch of Arab countries have grudges against Iran, no idea if there would be that kind of bias in the reporting. I’ll try to look for something and put it here.

    • SovereignStateOP
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      172 years ago

      alaraby is a pan-Arabist outlet that has pretty good articles from what I’ve seen. They take a progressive line and have a great article on how equating the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe V Wade with sharia was islamophobic and that most Muslim nations guarantee access, altho limited, to abortion.

      • @fruityloop@lemmygrad.ml
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        I just noticed that you posted a link from them as your source lol, I shouldn’t have been replying when I just woke up.

        I’ll make sure to check the article on roe v wade, sounds interesting.

        edit: removed part of my comment as i mixed up with something else

    • SovereignStateOP
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      112 years ago

      Thanks for sharing comrade… disturbing stuff. Reminiscent of the Hong Kong riots and Tiananmen.

      Setting people on fire like this is always, always indicative of a fascistic movement. It’s pure unadulterated torture, and revolutionaries do not deal in torture. The only exception may be molotovs, but those are typically reserved for waves of riot police, vehicles and infrastructure.

    • @cayde6ml@lemmygrad.ml
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      -12 years ago

      Its hard for me to say that’s proof of a color revolution. Iran is a theocracy, and if the religious police are responsible for the murder and religious oppression, I’m okay with them being set on fire. I’m cautioned.

      • CritiGalDesist∞
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        2 years ago

        Do you find any similarities between these riots and the HK riot??

        I understand every criticism we might have against the obvious brutality and misogyny of the Iranian regime. Does that mean that we should support a foreign-led coup?

        If Iran’s economy and stability thrives the situation for women will get ten times better than if it turns into a disaster like Syria or Afghanistan because of US-backed regime change.

        More for reading