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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.
I've been doing some work in our Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya archives, adding images from my small collection of ephemera. The most notable new addition in this area is a page featuring images of some Soviet-era post cards. My favorite of the post cards is one which I recently acquired from an eBay seller in Bulgaria. The image is one from a set featuring young heroes from the Great Patriotic War. The set most likely dates from the late 1940s (probably 1949).
Over the next few weeks, I'll be adding pictures and descriptions of other memorabilia related to Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, including some propaganda posters, sculptures and an authentic Soviet-era oil painting.
My good friend Zdravko Saveski recently translated the Wikipedia biography of Pandelis Pouliopoulos into Macedonian for the Marxists Internet Archive. When I expressed an interest in posting portions of Zdravko’s new translation on our website – alongside Greek and English translations of the biography of Pouliopoulos – Zdravko kindly agreed to write an introductory text for greeklish.org. Solidarity between the Greek Left and the Macedonian Left is alive and well!
Pandelis Pouliopoulos
Introductionby Zdravko Saveski Nationalists in every nation build idealistic and inflated versions of the history of their people and country. In doing so, they perceive the neighbour peoples and countries as enemies that have, throughout the history, conspired against the nationalists' people and country. The purpose of the leftists, who are internationalists by definition, is to overcome the ethnic prejudices, to present the real instead of romanticized view on history and to build bridges among peoples.
Macedonian nationalism and Greek nationalism were both recently resurrected by the redundant "name dispute". Paradoxically, the Greek nationalists help Macedonian nationalists to increase its support in the Republic of Macedonia, and vice versa. To counteract the influence of Macedonian nationalists, I have started to popularize the stances of the Greek leftists who have friendly attitudes towards Republic of Macedonia and Macedonians so the Macedonian public can see that "all Greeks aren't bad." Among others, I have written the biography of Pandelis Pouliopoulos for the Macedonian section of the Marxists Internet Archive and for the Macedonian Wikipedia, and I want to thank Mike for supporting my efforts. The Greek Left is much stronger than Macedonian Left and I am looking forward to future cooperation with our Greek comrades. Excerpt from the biography of Pandelis Pouliopoulos from the new Macedonian translation by Zdravko Saveski: Пантелис Пулјопулос (10 март 1900 година – 6 јуни 1943 година) е грчки троцкист, некогашен генерален секретар на Комунистичката партија на Грција и основач на троцкистичкото движење во Грција. Ги бранеше правата на етничките малцинства, вклучително и на македонското, во Грција и тоа беше една од причините за судирот со КПГ.
Во 1919 година Пулјопулос се запишува на Универзитетот во Атина, каде студира право. Истата година се приклучува кон Социјалистичката работничка партија на Грција (претходник на Комунистичката партија на Грција). Во 1920 година, за време на Грчко-турската војна 1919-1922, е регрутиран во грчката војска. Во 1922 година е уапсен за антивоено делување, но со крајот на војната е ослободен. Во периодот 1923-1925 година е активен во движењето на воените ветерани, а во 1924 година е избран и за претседател на Панхеленската федерација на ветераните. (full text) Excerpt from the biography of Pandelis Pouliopoulos in Greek, provided by Nikos Loudos: Ο Παντελής Πουλιόπουλος (10 Μαρτίου 1900 6 Ιουνίου 1943) ήταν έλληνας κομμουνιστής και ο πρώτος γενικός γραμματέας του Κομμουνιστικού Κόμματος Ελλάδας (ΚΚΕ). Υπεράσπισε το διεθνιστικό και επαναστατικό χαρακτήρα του κομμουνιστικού κινήματος. Είναι ο ιδρυτής του τροτσκιστικού κινήματος στην Ελλάδα.
Γεννήθηκε στη Θήβα το 1900 και το 1919 πήγε στην Αθήνα για να σπουδάσει νομικά στο Πανεπιστήμιο. Την ίδια χρονιά, εντάχθηκε στο Σοσιαλιστικό Εργατικό Κόμμα Ελλάδος (ΣΕΚΕ), τον πολιτικό πρόγονο του ΚΚΕ. Το 1920 επιστρατεύθηκε για να πολεμήσει στον ελληνοτουρκικό πόλεμο του 1919-1922. Το 1922 συνελήφθη για αντιπολεμική δράση, αλλά απελευθερώθηκε με το τέλος του πολέμου.
Από το 1923 ως το 1925 έπαιξε ηγετικό ρόλο στο κίνημα των βετεράνων του πολέμου και το 1924 εκλέχτηκε πρόεδρος της Πανελλήνια Ομοσπονδία Παλαιών Πολεμιστών και Θυμάτων Στρατών..., η οποία κυκλοφορεί την εφημερίδα "Παλαιός Πολεμιστής" με κυκλοφορία που φτάνει τα 20 χιλιάδες φύλλα. Excerpt from the English language Wikipedia biography of Pandelis Pouliopoulos: Pandelis Pouliopoulos (10 March 1900-6 June 1943) was a Greek communist and onetime general secretary of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). He stood for the internationalist and revolutionary character of the communist movement. He is the founder of the trotskyist movement in Greece.
Born in Thiva, Greece, Pouliopoulos enrolled at Athens University in 1919 to study law. In 1919, he joined the Socialist Labour Party of Greece (SEKE), the forerunner of the Communist Party of Greece.
In 1920, he was conscripted to fight in the Greek-Turkish war of 1919-1922. He was arrested in 1922 for anti-war activity, but was freed with the end of the war.
You know, there's a lot of important stuff going on these days, but I haven't had a lot of time to write anything original lately. So, I'll just say for now that I am really enjoying the push that Jeff Hardy is getting from WWE. Monday night's steel cage match featuring Hardy versus Umaga (01/07/08) was a terrific show, indeed. I know wrestling is all staged, but some things are just too impressive to call "fake." Hardy's big "Whisper in the Wind" move off the top of the cage was one of these amazing moments. The whole match is on YouTube, but if you can't sit through the whole match, just check out this short clip below. Awesome.
The next blog article will be about something meaningful...I promise!
God help me, we are women, and this whole cursed abortion thing is a part of the war on women. Do you understand? Try to understand, because I need you. We have to do it together, women and men, and it's a long road to go."
– Abigail Goodman from the conclusion of Howard Fast's The Trial of Abigail Goodman
But I want to point out that the first step, in my view, is that Roe v. Wade be overturned...I am fighting for an overturning of Roe v. Wade.
– Mitt Romey on the Dec. 16, 2007 edition of Meet the Press
A couple of Sundays ago, I was laying in bed, still half-asleep as I watched Meet the Press. Mitt Romney was the big guest for the hour and the interview was pretty run-of-the mill and boring until Russert brought up the topic of abortion. Romney, who was unabashedly pro-choice until recently, struggled to in vain to explain the sense behind his major about-face on the matter. Even after Russert aired an old video clip of Romney pledging, "I will preserve and protect a woman's right to choose and am devoted and dedicated to honoring my word in that regard," Romney continued to attempt to present his current political line as being largely unchanged from previous periods. Ultimately, Romney told Russert that it was, in his mind, of the utmost importance that Roe v. Wade be overturned as the first means of banning abortion in the US. With that, Romney fell right into line with the other right-wing zealots of his party. (Read the full transcript here) It's not that this is that much of a surprise to me, but sometimes it takes something like this to really impress me as to how much trouble we're really in these days. Romney's comments about Roe reminded me at once of the novel The Trial of Abigail Goodman by the great novelist Howard Fast. I picked up a cheap copy of the book at an estate sale a few years back, buying it not so much for its content but because I recognized Fast's name from previously reading his work on Josip Tito and also from reading pieces of Fast's own autobiography, Being Red. I read the dust jacket of Abigail Goodman on the way home the day that I had purchased it and the plot was rather intriguing as it was a fictionalized account of what might follow if abortion was banned in the United States. In the book, 41 year-old Abigail Goodman, college professor and mother of two grown children, is put on trial in a small southern town after it is learned that she had an abortion. Regrettably, at the time that I purchased it, Abigail Goodman became so much like many other books that I have acquired in recent years. It is certainly a cliche to say this, but as the saying goes, "So many books, so little time..."
Seeing the Romney interview again piqued my curiosity regarding the Fast novel and thankfully, my home library is not in too much disarray, so I was able to locate the book quickly. Abigail Goodman is a short book and something of a fast read. It only took me a few evenings and afternoons to polish it off. Now, I don't read a lot of novels and I really hesitate to put too much stock into a fictionalized "what if" tale, but Fast's work on Abigail Goodman is very good at a number of levels. Of particular importance is Fast's portrayal of American attitudes towards abortion as having specific class distinctions that are, in real life, both painfully apparent and seldom discussed. Moreover, Fast had the foresight to publish Abigail Goodman in 1993 – the early years of the Clinton Administration – at a time in which most dyed-in-the wool American liberals were content to rest on their collective laurels in the belief that our civil liberties would be secure for the foreseeable future. (As if the Democratic Party's neoliberals won't compromise the reproductive rights of women for political gain if it means winning a dogfight with the Republicans...)
Abigail Goodman is, at the very least, a great piece of literature by a wonderful author. In many respects, though, it is a warning to Americans at what we face from the Romney, Huckabee and many others like them. It is certainly a "must-read" for a time in which our civil liberties – and our common sense – are slowly slipping away amidst very little fanfare.
When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.
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.
