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?

–  Mansoor Hekmat
The History of the Undefeated
A few words in commemoration of the 1979 Revolution
(1985)

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.