Rang de Basanti from the film Rang de Basanti (2006)
Teri Mehfil Mein from the film Mughal-e-Azam (1960)
Rob Van Dam wins the WWE Championship at One Night Stand (2006)
CM Punk wins the World Heavyweight Championship (2008)
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The following is adapted from a series of releases and posts by Freedom and Equality Seeking Students (FESS) We have just been informed that Mr. Davood Bagheri, a member of the "Freedom and Equality Seeking Students" has attempted to commit suicide while in prison. The unbearable conditions of his detention and the inhumane treatment he has suffered at the hands of the Turkish detention guards pushed Davood into deep despair prior to his suicide attempt.
Davood fled Iran months ago in the wake of severe repression following the Students Day crackdown in December 2007, but shortly after his arrival in Turkey, he was arrested for "illegal entrance" and he has languished in custody for the past four months. He is presently held in the Aderneh Prison hospital and it is believed he is in critical condition.
We call on all human rights organizations and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees to urgently intervene to save the life of Davood Bagheri.
Freedom and Equality Seeking Students (FESS) (supported by Friends of FESS)
Yet another release! To members of Friends of the Equality and Freedom Seeking University Students of Iran
Mike B. June 5 at 9:58am
According to some friends who are close to the situation in Iran, Ali Kantouri was released on May 25, 2008, on $150,000 bail. He is second accused in the case of the Equality and Freedom Seeking Students, and he is currently awaiting trial.
Aluta continua! M.
The Call for Supporting the Campaign to free Davood Bagheri, Iranian activist Imprisoned in Turkey
To members of Friends of the Equality and Freedom Seeking University Students of Iran
Clara Statello Today at 3:55am
Active member of the Freedom and Equality Seeking Students Movement, Davood Bagheri was forced to flee Iran on winter 200…, after the recent wave of crackdowns on the group by the Islamic government's Intelligence Service agents. Mr. Bagheri arrived in Turkey with the intention to seek asylum where he was captured by the police before he was able to inform UNHCR about his condition in that country. He has been kept in Aderna’s refugee camp under horrific conditions since.
It is in our best knowledge and belief that the Turkey government and the police have acted against Amnesty International’s Refugee Commissary’s Laws and Regulations. Freedom and Equality Seeking Students urge all Human Rights activists and all who believe in social justice and the rights of people who under the threat of their country of origin seek refuge in safer parts of the world, to join this campaign and help us free him from the refugee camp detention center. Davood Bagheri has been treated harshly and brutally in this camp since he was taken into custody. He has attempted suicide in the camp where detainees take their own life as the shortest way to free themselves from the horrors and their hopeless situation in that center.
Freedom and Equality Seeking Students
Sign the petition below and pass it on, please. It's urgent!
We have received word from Hooman K. of the site "Nothing Can Stop Us!" that Peyman Piran was released on bail on May 1. Again, this is some relatively good news. However, we should remember that Ali Kantouri remains in jail and many DAB members await trial on very serious charges.
We will provide more information as it becomes available.
We have received word that Equality and Freedom Seeking Students (DAB) Behrouz Karimizadeh and Majid Majedi are now out of jail, which is a very positive development. They were apparently released in mid-April. Of course, "freedom" in today's Iran is a very relative term and it is important to remember that our friends continue to suffer from the physical and mental consequences of their detention and torture. Further, they are awaiting trial on very serious charges and these charges carry significant penalties in the event that convictions are returned. Moreover, as of this date, some DAB students remain imprisoned under harsh conditions.
Our friends need our support now more than ever!
We say "NO" to repressive theocracy AND to U.S. Imperialism!
It is just a few days after the arrival of Nowruz, the new year in Iran, and some of the Equality and Freedom Seeking University Students still remain locked in the notorious Evin prison, located in the Iranian capital of Tehran. They remain in jail due mostly to the incredibly high bails placed on the students -- in some cases as high as US$400,000. Families of some students have attempted to post percentages of these bail amounts, but even one-tenth of the bail amounts to a significant sum.
Visit the blog "Nothing Can Stop Us" for more information. (Note: The link may prompt an "Content Warning," likely due to the political content of the site. Click "I UNDERSTAND AND I WISH TO CONTINUE" to view the official site of the Iranian Students.)
It is important to maintain solidarity with these students. They need as much support as possible throughout the course of their struggles.
Who of these survivors of the 1979 revolution can shut their eyes for a moment, think about the past...years and have one pleasant recollection? Millions of people have been condemned to life under the most reactionary and brutal social system, a society based on terror, poverty, and lies in which happiness is forbidden, being a woman is a crime, living is torment and escape impossible. An entire generation, perhaps more than half the population, has been born in this hell and has no other recollection than this. And for many others, the most living memory is that of the unforgettable faces of admirable human beings who were slaughtered. Wasn't 1979 – the year of the revolution – the beginning of this nightmare?
Several weeks ago, I posted two articles regarding the struggle of leftist students in Iran (Dec. 8 | Dec. 9). Regular readers of our site might recall that the Students' Day articles were written and/or shared by friends in Iran who are intimately familiar with the current political struggles in that county. They have seen the crimes of the Iranian ruling clique with their own eyes and, in efforts to engender solidarity with progressives and radicals worldwide, they have shared their stories with me and others like me in hopes that they might garner further support in their struggle. It was in this spirit that I shared the Students' Day articles with other individuals, including representatives from local and regional progressive and anti-war groups. After reading the articles, an organizer from one such regional group responded to me rather quickly with a reply that was – to say the least – both unexpected and unfortunate. The short reply I received effectively questioned the wisdom of publicizing the crimes of the Iranian ruling clique as such facts might ostensibly weaken the anti-war movement in America by providing fodder for the pro-war propaganda machine. Also included in the writer's reply was the clear inference that the US had incited the Students' Day unrest as part of a larger effort to destabilize the regime in Iran. Additionally, the writer questioned the veracity of the Students' Day stories by noting that the events had not been reported by the "mainstream press." I had, of course, met with such attitudes before but I have never become accustomed to such ignorance and indifference and I found the response to be thoroughly frustrating. I was later advised by an Iranian friend in London that he had encountered similar responses from European "progressives" on the matter of political repression in Iran.
Over one month has passed – almost two months, really – and the bourgeois press has finally picked up the story. The January 20, 2008 edition of The New York Times featured an article penned by Nazila Fathi called "Radical Left, Iran's Last Legal Dissidents, Until Now" which included some discussion of the Students' Day crackdown, along with a broader discussion regarding the systematic repression of leftists in Iran since the hijacking of the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Fathi's article is an interesting introduction to the current political situation with Iran for those who rely solely on the mainstream press to form opinions regarding relevant issues of the day. But it is hard to predict whether or not the "legitimacy" afforded to this story by some fleeting coverage by the mainstream press will do much to change the callous indifference displayed by American liberals and "progressives" towards Iranian workers and students.
To the doubters and the dogmatists of the American left who continue to treat the plight of real working-class radicals in Iran with extreme indifference and suspicion, I will repeat here what I have said before, both publicly and privately: To ignore or to cover up evidence that an oppressive regime is torturing and murdering individuals who are, in fact, our brothers and sisters in arms, is more than unfortunate...It is scandalous. The Iranian ruling clique has built its regime on the bodies of women, workers, students and political opponents of every stripe – but especially through the severe repression of political opponents from the radical left. To suggest that these brave people act merely as pawns of imperialist provocation and to subsequently fail to recognize their political struggle is nothing shy of an insult to their efforts. No measure of fleeting attention from the bourgeois press can effectively "legitimize" a revolutionary movement. Only the working class and its allies can establish and maintain a legitimate and principled struggle against reactionaries, imperialists and oppressors of all types.
The following message regarding the continuing aftermath of the University Students’ Day was passed along by our friend “K.” I have made a few corrections to address minor grammatical and spelling errors.
As can be seen in the following address, our society has witnessed a huge number of arrests, before, during and after the ceremony celebrating the University Students' Day in Iran. The pivot of this ceremony held by the students known as "Equality and Freedom Seeking" was opposition with war and sanctions.
We do need your support by your signature and widespread circulation and condemnation of this act.
If we can not have international support, everything may happen to the arrested students – now numbering more than 30 – their respective families.
You may be kind enough to pass this over to as many people, organizations and universities as possible.
Please announce your condemnation of this act by sending an email to: seeking.committee@gmail.com . More information may be found at: http://13azar.blogspot.com
Do not forget that we do need your support. Proclamation of the arrests on the University Students’ Day
On the threshold of the 16th of Azar (December 7) the University Students’ Day in Iran, more than 30 “Equality and Freedom-seeking Students” have been arrested. Surprisingly, 16th of Azar – the symbol of the struggle against dictatorship of the ex-imperial regime – is not tolerated by the Islamic government either.
What has happened during this ceremony – the main pivot of which was the opposition with war and sanction – is the repetition of the same scenes of the previous government.
The commemoration of the University Students’ Day is the tradition of more than 50 years and the ones who have been arrested this year are the most honest children of our country. We want the unconditional and immediate release of our captivated students.
A friend has shared news of the arrest, detention and torture of students affiliated with the radical left of Iran following the Iranian government’s violent suppression of peaceful “Students' Day” demonstrations at the University of Iran. Several revisions have been made to the text to address minor grammatical and spelling errors.
Dear Friends,
Below is a letter from students in Iran, regarding the arrest of students before, during and after the demonstrations of “Students' Day”. They are currently being held in solitary confinement and are subject to intense interrogation, including torture. They need our support! Please demand their immediate release by sending letters to Iranian officials.
05 December 2007
The Complete Report of the Arrests in the Latter Days and the Students' Day Demonstration
Yesterday the demonstration of the "Students' Day" was held in the University of Tehran, by the Radical Leftist students of Iran. Some days before the demonstration, many left activists were threatened by the government, and were urged in order not to dispose this demonstration. Since the Iranian students have been holding this program for about 54 years (honoring 3 martyr comrades killed by the former regime in the engineering faculty of the University of Tehran for protesting against Nixon's trip to Iran) In the past year, all the social movements in Iran--including the workers’, women’s and students’ movements--have been repressed by the regime, and because of this, the students decided to hold the demonstration by any means possible. On Saturday December 2nd, 2007, while the students were preparing for the demonstration, the government was preparing to suppress them. The arrests started on Saturday at 9 AM when Mehdi Gerailoo (student of geophysics) and Nader Ahsani were kidnapped from their respective homes by the security forces and were taken to an unknown location. The same afternoon, two of the Sociology Faculty of the University of Tehran, Victoria Jamshidi and Anoosheh Azadbar"were arrested at their homes without any explanation. The arrests continued until December 4 at 2 PM and by this time almost 26 students from different universities had been arrested. The complete list of arrests is follows the conclusion of this letter.
But the demonstration was held as planned by the Radical Leftist students exactly on time, at 12 PM Tuesday, at the University of Tehran in front of the Engineering Faculty. The demonstration started with the singing of revolutionary songs by the students. Many students carried posters and slogans defining their wants and aims on them such as "The University Is Not Garrison" , "Liberty of Women Is Liberty of the Society" , "NO WAR" , "Hands Off the People of Iran", "Free the Political Prisoners" , "There IS an Alternative" , "Free Our Classmates" , "The Students Movement Allied with the Workers and Women movements", "We Want Independent Unions" and "FREEDOM EQUALITY".
Then some of the radical left students made speeches: Behzad Bagheri (student of Archeology) made speech about the pressures in the past year and about the arrested students.
Bita Samimizad (student of physics) made a speech against the war which may happen in Iran and about the repression of the women’s and workers’ movements in the past year.
Bijan Sabbagh (student of chemical engineering from University of Mazandaran) delivered a speech about the arrested students in the University of Mazandaran, Tehran, and Ahvaz and others.
Kaveh Abbasian (student of cinema), the representative of the students who were not allowed to continue their studies by the government, talked about these students and the problems they faced, and about how he himself was almost arrested when he tried to come to Tehran for the demonstration. He reminded the government that a movement which is supported by society cannot be ruined by the system.
Then Roozbeh Safshekan read the declaration of the Radical Leftist students. He was then arrested IN THE UNIVERSITY by security forces exactly after the demonstration.
Peyman Piran (the ex-political prisoner), Ali Ajami (student of law) and Kamran Akhshi (student of political sciences) and some other students talked about different political and social matters.
The demonstration continued in front of the main gate of the university. The students sang revolutionary songs and yelled out their wants so everyone in the street could hear: "Free the Imprisoned Students", "I'll Kill Them Who Killed my Brother", "Taking Part in Elections Is a Betrayal", "Down with the Dictator", "We Don't Want Savage Government and Police", "Ahmadinejad! Pinochet! Iran's not going to Be Chile"... The crowd came back to the faculty of Law and Political Sciences and ended the demonstration. Half an hour later, the security forces started to arrest the students who were active during the demonstration (especially the speech-makers). They first caught Roozbeh Safshekan who read the declaration of the Radical Leftist students and his wife, "Mina" (His wife was released some hours later). The security forces followed students and tried to arrest Kaveh Abbasian and Bijan Sabbagh in front of the Engineering Faculty. But they were not successful because the other students had surrounded them so that Kaveh and Bijan could escape. By 7 PM, all the activists had changed their appearances and the clothing and left the university. All of the remaining activists are now in hiding. The government still seeks to arrest them.
(click here to view a complete list of arrested students)
No matter how many they arrest or what ever they do to us, our movement will go ahead.
Long live FREEDOM and EQUALITY
Thanks to our friend “B.” for sharing this information.
Islamist, Socialist Revolutions Don't Mix By Kimia Sanati
TEHRAN, Oct 3 (IPS) - An attempt to rope in the son and daughter of the Argentine revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara to forge a parallel between Iran’s Islamist revolution and the socialist revolution in Latin America through a four-day conference has ended in fiasco.
After Aleida Guevara protested from the podium against perceived distortions of her father’s ideology by the first Iranian speaker, Haj Saeed Ghasemi, the four-day ‘Che Like Chamran’ conference, that started Sep. 25, was aborted and the Latin American guests whisked away.
Che looks to the horizon
[...]
...Ghasemi, who is associated with Iran’s Esteshhadiyoun (volunteers of suicide operations) must take credit for scuttling the conference. Referring to a translated version of a Che Guevara book that he held in his hand, he said Che Guevara was religious and believed in God. "The people of Cuba, Fidel (Casro) and Che Guevara were never socialists or communists. Fidel has several times admitted that he and Che and the people of Cuba hated the Soviets for all they had done.’’
''Today communism has been thrown into the trash bin of history as it was predicted by Ayatollah Khomeini," Ghasemi told the conference and added that the only way to save the world was through the ‘’the religious, pro-justice movement’’.
An indignant Aleida, however, started her own address "in the name of the people of Cuba". "We are a socialist nation," she asserted. She also said the people of Cuba were grateful to the Soviet Union and there had never been any discord between the two nations, as mentioned by Ghasemi. She advised him to "always refer to original sources instead of translations to find out about Che Guevara’s beliefs".
"My father never talked about God. He never met God. My father knew there was no absolute truth,’’ Aleida said, responding to Ghasemi’s speech. The coverage of her address by state-sponsored news agencies like ISNA was brief and excluded most of her contradictory remarks.
At a meeting later with students of Amir Kabir University of Technology, where the leftist groups are particularly strong, Camilo Guevara told students he approved of all that his sister had said at the conference, ISNA reported.
[...]
Mohammad Jaffar Irani, a reformist student activist, was quoted by ISNA as pointing out that the same group that organised the conference had always considered Che Guevara an atheist. "If anyone other than the (hardline) group that organised this event had done so they would have gotten into a great deal of trouble,’’ he was quoted saying.
"The organisers of the event were hardline supporters of Ahmadinejad who have nothing in common with leftists, even the Islamic leftists of the early days of the (Iranian) revolution. President Ahmadinejad has in fact much in common with President Bush, although he may sound very ‘leftist’," an observer in Tehran told IPS on condition of anonymity.
"Leftist countries must realise that if the issues that make the Iranian hardliners confront the West such as its demand to be accepted to the nuclear club are resolved, today’s leftist allies may instantly turn into their common enemies," he said.
Back in early August, I attended a local Hiroshima Remembrance Day program. The topic of the program was “Iran: The Next Hiroshima” and the basic agenda of the program appeared to be rather sound. Among the talking points were the increasing tensions between the US and Iran and the potential consequences should the US use nuclear weapons in a future conflict with Iran. All of these are important matters, for sure. But as the program went on, I noticed a very troubling pattern in the presentations of the selected speakers. At least two of the featured speakers that night openly embraced the ruling clique of Iran as champions of peace, one of them going so far as to read an extensive quote from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The irony of presenting Ahmadinejad and his cronies as champions of tolerance and peace seemed completely lost on most of the audience, who – much to my surprise – responded to this idea with enthusiastic applause. At that point in time, I had thought – and actually hoped – that this display was an isolated misunderstanding but some things that I have read since Ahmadinejad’s recent visit to the US suggest otherwise.
There seems to be a growing misconception that opposing imperialism means that it is somehow necessary to embrace the governments of those people threatened by imperialism, no matter how despotic they might be. Ahmadinejad and the ruling clique are certainly as despotic as they come. But this fact is distorted more and more by well intentioned yet misinformed individuals who are ignoring the repressive nature of Iran’s current regime. Consider the “Joint news release of International Action Center and the Stop War on Iran” that was circulated earlier this week. The press release was entitled “Stop the war drive against Iran: No to the demonization of President Ahmadinejad.” The following is an excerpt from the release:
Before the 1979 revolution, Iran was a virtual U.S. colony ruled by the brutal Shah. The nationalization of Iran's oil industry since 1979 has meant social programs, education and literacy for both women and men, health care and other social benefits. The Iranian people, whether or not they support the Islamic establishment or the current government in Tehran, are determined to protect the gains of their anti-colonial revolution. Like the resisting Iraqi population, they will not return quietly to the days of Pentagon and Wall Street domination.
[...]
We stand with the President Ahmadinejad and the Iranian people to say: Stop the war drive against Iran! (read full statement)
There is no doubt that progressive groups like Ramsey Clark’s International Action Center and Stop War on Iran have the best of intentions at heart. However, their careful attempt to straddle a very narrow fence has reduced their efforts to popular-frontist muddle at best. Indifference to the question of whether or not the Iranian people “support the Islamic establishment or the current government in Tehran” strikes a blow to the collective struggles of millions of oppressed Iranians by reducing their peril to a mere triviality. True progressives and the world’s radical left and workers’ organizations should be encouraging the people of Iran to rise up against their oppressors instead of embracing their oppressors. This is a fundamental point which requires consideration, organization and action.
Police beating women demonstrators in Tehran, June 12, 2006
The Islamic Republic of Iran has a well-documented history of severe repression and persecution of women, homosexuals, labor leaders and political dissidents. But it is not the mainstream media or US propaganda outlets who have led the campaign to spread the truth about Iran’s ruling clique. Those organizations are far too concerned with saber rattling and doomsday prophecies to address the plight of the Iranian people. Iranian opposition groups from within Iran, working in conjunction with similar groups outside of the country have led the effort to educate the world community on the horrors of life inside the repressive theocracy of today’s Iran. The Iran Civil Rights Committee, WPI, and The Third Camp make this information through public demonstrations, publications, Internet sites and other outlets. The information is obtained and compiled through the efforts of volunteers and workers who sometimes go so far as to risk their personal safety to expose the conditions in Iran. To ignore their brave and noble efforts and those of affiliated organizations is a disservice to their efforts and an affront to the struggling Iranian people.
Ernesto "Che" Guevara: His comrades are persecuted in today's Iran
Perhaps one of the most regrettable displays of naïveté came during a recent visit to Iran by a contingent of Marxists. They reportedly expressed their support for Iran’s current regime in a display of relative indifference as to the extent of political repression within the “Islamic Republic.” (They did retract their statements and break with the regime just a short time later.) Marxism is, of course, illegal in Iran and today’s Iranian Marxists study and work in secret as they risk imprisonment and execution as the penalty for political dissent. Marxists have, in fact, been executed by the government of Iran since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Che Guevara was a Marxist-Leninist. There is little room for debate on the matter. That Lenin was clear on the matter of separation of church and state is also undeniable, as he clearly expressed a coherent position on the matter in his work Socialism and Religion:
Complete separation of Church and State is what the socialist proletariat demands of the modern state and the modern church.
Progressive, radical and revolutionary movements worldwide must be clear on their opposition to any and all political systems built on religious dogma, intolerance, racism and political repression. This most definitely includes the ruling clique of the Islamic Republic of Iran with respect to their crimes against working people, women, homosexuals and political opponents. To stand with the people of Iran in opposition to imperialism and war is essential. But to stand with Ahmadinejad and his cronies extends an implicit endorsement of their draconian tactics and their heinous crimes. At the end of the day, the lesser of two evils is still evil.
We have just been informed that Mr. Davood Bagheri, a member of the "Freedom and Equality Seeking Students" has attempted to commit suicide while in prison. The unbearable conditions of his detention and the inhumane treatment he has suffered at the hands of the Turkish detention guards pushed Davood into deep despair prior to his suicide attempt. 
To members of Friends of the Equality and Freedom Seeking University Students of Iran
