Support Iranian Students' Demands for Social Justice

What started with student demonstrations at Tehran University and the streets around it has swept up the whole country with widespread protests by students and their supporters. The demonstrations began with a protest against privatization of universities but soon turned anti-clerical and in support of democratic rights of the Iranian people.

The protests are an antecedent to the July 9th student uprising of 1999. Four years ago that wave of mass protests were violently suppressed and even student dorms were raided by government-backed thugs. Later in July 2000, a conservative military court acquitted the Tehran police chief and 17 other officers of the charge of ordering the dormitory raid (which led to the murder of a student as well as injuries to many others); Today, the perpetrators of these crimes are free to attack student protests again while many student leaders are enduring torture and long prison terms.

The demand for separation of religion from state, establishment of a democratic republic, freedom of the press, and freedom and equal rights for women, freedom of _expression of youth culture, ... has been gaining a great deal of momentum, not only among intellectuals, but also among a broad section of the Iranian population. Vast unemployment and blatant corruption of officials contributes to people's outrage and support for reform in Iran also.

The tug-of-war between the different factions in power as well as the popular movement, are a natural and integral part of the Iranian progress and struggle for freedom in society which - if left alone by the U.S. and its lackey's - can only lead to further democratization of the country, although it seems that the reformist faction within the government echoes popular aspirations only with an eyes to building closer relations with the United States and further integration into the world capitalist system.

What is NOT a part of this natural process and could in fact be quite detrimental is interference by the United States government and its lackeys, the Royalists. All Iranians with a bit of historical memory recall how the democratic process in Iran came to a violent halt after the CIA-sponsored coup in 1953 which restored the Shah and his reign of terror. Clearly today's fundamentalist rule in Iran is a direct result of close to 30 years of US support for the Shah's dictatorship, but neither the US nor the Royalists are willing to accept the facts today. Also, the U.S. assertion that Iran has nuclear weapons or is hiding and supporting terrorists is but a thinly veiled sham. The neo-conservative agenda is rapacious bullying of the world community and the Middle East region all for oil and domination.

Today, the royalist-controlled television stations broadcast propaganda out of Los Angeles, California, provoke the Iranian population and place them in harms way. The former dictator's son, Reza Pahlavi II has shamelessly picked as his advisor former SAVAK torturer and PR guy Parviz Sabeti. Royalist personalities such as Dariush Homayoun, Zia Atabai, and others preach violence to the Iranian people while they sit comfortably in their Los Angeles Satellite T.V. studios and praise and support US interventionist policies in the Middle East. Interestingly enough, the Los Angeles television stations have maintained silence with respect to anti-privatization demands of the Tehran University students.

The fact remains, however, that the struggles of the Iranian people for democracy and social justice need to be supported. The Iranian students have always been in the forefront of these struggles standing up to the Shah's dictatorship as well as the regressive dictates of the conservative mullahs.

The Iranian people's demands for political freedoms and social justice cannot be stopped. These struggles will continue, but they must be protected from US intervention.

Bay Area Iranians for Peace & Social Justice
http://www.geocities.com/iforpeace/
July 2003