UK Anti-War Candidate George Galloway Wins A Seat In British Parliament

NYC Book Reading For New York State Political Prisoner David Gilbert's Autobiography

Occupy Wall Street Movement Hits Streets Again In New York City

Time To Revisit `A People's History of Iran' Again: Conclusion

(All the 2012 GOP and Democratic presidential candidates in the USA—except for Ron Paul—apparently support the U.S. government’s current policy of waging economic warfare and covert war against people in Iran and threatening people in Iran with an overt US/Israeli military attack in 2012 or 2013. Yet most people in the United States know little about the history of people in Iran since foreign imperialist powers began undemocratically and illegally intervening in its internal political and economic affairs in the late 19th century. But here's the conclusion of "A People's History of Iran," from a few years ago--bf).

By 1997, young people in Iran composed 25 percent of Iran’s population of 67 million; and the number of university students in Iran had grown from only 160,000 in 1977 to 1.25 million in 1997, as a result of the Iranian government’s increased investment in Iranian higher education.

During the 1990s, however, the Iranian government began to privatize Iran’s economy more by transferring control of state-run enterprises to Islamic clergy-controlled private foundations, thus turning these foundations into powerful business corporations, according to the 2006 Democracy In Iran book.

The size of Iran’s college-educated middle-class also began to increase in the 1990s; and this seemed to lead to increased political support for Iranian electoral candidates who favored more liberalization and more democratization of Iranian society.

The conservative clerical political leadership in Iran, however, responded to the 1990s electoral success of candidates favoring more democratization and liberalization by shutting down 19 pro-reformist newspapers in Iran in May 1999; and by disqualifying 3,600 candidates who favored more democratization, including 80 incumbent candidates, from participating in the 2004 Iranian parliamentary elections.

Although U.S. Secretary of State Clinton’s husband-—former Democratic President Bill Clinton--signed an executive order banning all U.S. trade and investment in Iran in May 1995, European governments have adopted less hostile economic policies in relation to Iran than has the U.S. government, in recent years.

In Iran, “European multinational companies” have “formed business partnerships in various sectors of the economy—including oil and gas, telecommunications, consumer electronics and automotive—especially after a bill in 2002,” passed by Iran’s parliament, “eased some of the restrictions on foreign investments,” according to the Democracy In Iran book.

After the former Mayor of Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was elected president of Iran in June 2005 with 62 percent of the Iranian popular vote, on a platform of pledging to redistribute more of the wealth of Iran to the most impoverished people in Iran, both the Republican Bush Administration and the Israeli government seemed more eager to launch an overt military attack on Iran.

But, as this revisiting of Iran’s history has shown, people in Iran have suffered, historically, as a result of U.S. intervention in Iran’s internal political affairs since World War II. And a U.S. government-supported Israeli military attack against Iran in 2012 or 2013--regardless of which pretext is used by the Obama-Clinton Administration or the Netanyanu Israeli government--will likely create additional suffering for people in Iran.

So it’s not surprising that a February 2007 statement issued by the political committee of The Union of Iranian Socialists in North America declared that “The people of Iran vehemently oppose the intervention of any foreign power in their country” and “any kind of aggressive actions by the U.S. and its allies, either military or economic, should be condemned by progressive anti-war activists.” (end of article)

Time To Revisit `A People's History of Iran' Again: Part 29

(All the 2012 GOP and Democratic presidential candidates in the USA—except for Ron Paul—apparently support the U.S. government’s current policy of waging economic warfare and covert war against people in Iran and threatening people in Iran with an overt US/Israeli military attack in 2012 or 2013. Yet most people in the United States know little about the history of people in Iran since foreign imperialist powers began undemocratically and illegally intervening in its internal political and economic affairs in the late 19th century. But here's part 29 of "A People's History of Iran," from a few years ago--bf).

The economic destruction caused by the eight year Iraq-Iran War and the generally unfriendly policy of the U.S. government towards Iran during the years since the U.S. embassy was seized by Iranian students in 1979 (except during the “Iran-Contragate Scandal” period of the Republican Reagan Administration when the U.S. government arranged for weapons to be shipped to the Islamic Republic of Iran) hurt the post-revolutionary Iranian economy, prior to the death of Ayatollah Khomeini on June 3, 1989. But Iran’s oil wealth has enabled the Islamic Republic to apparently satisfy the economic needs of some people within Iranian society--although many other people in Iran still seem to be having economic difficulties.

By 1989, 80 percent of the Iranian economy was still controlled by the Iranian government and banks, insurance companies and all major industries in Iran were now nationalized. Although one-third of Iranian workers were provided jobs by Iran’s public sector in 1988, during that same year about 30 percent of all Iranian workers were still apparently unemployed.

In 1989, the average inflation rate in Iran’s economy also apparently exceeded 23 percent; and by 1993 the annual inflation rate in Iran had increased to 40 percent. As a result, when the Iranian government announced cuts in price controls and government subsidies of basic necessities during the 1990s, street protests broke out in Tehran and other Iranian cities. (end of part 28)

120,000 Rally In Paris To Support French Left Front Election Campaign

NYC Cops Repress 6th Month Anniversary Occupy Wall Street Protest

Time To Revisit `A People's History of Iran' Again: Part 28

(All the 2012 GOP and Democratic presidential candidates in the USA—except for Ron Paul—apparently support the U.S. government’s current policy of waging economic warfare and covert war against people in Iran and threatening people in Iran with an overt US/Israeli military attack in 2012 or 2013. Yet most people in the United States know little about the history of people in Iran since foreign imperialist powers began undemocratically and illegally intervening in its internal political and economic affairs in the late 19th century. But here's part 28 of "A People's History of Iran," from a few years ago--bf).

In addition to providing the Iranian government with a pretext to repress secular anti-imperialist proponents of more democratization of Iranian society during the 1980s, the 1980 to 1988 Iraq-Iran War that Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath regime in Iraq started in September 1980 also produced great suffering for the people of both Iran and Iraq. Almost one million Iranians were maimed or killed, for example, as a result of the Iraq-Iran War of the 1980s; and many Iranian cities were extensively damaged during this war.

But on July 18, 1988, the Iranian government agreed to accept UN Security Council Resolution 598 which called for a cease-fire with Iraq; and the 1980 and 1988 Iraq-Iran War finally ended. Six days later, however, the People’s Mojahadeen guerrilla group launched a military incursion into Iran.

Iranian government authorities apparently then used this military attack as a pretext to carry out another round of mass executions of both imprisoned secular anti-imperialist left Iranian activists and imprisoned People’s Mojahadeen activists. According to the Human Rights Watch web site:

“In 1988, the Iranian government summarily and extra-judicially executed thousands of political prisoners held in Iranian jails…The majority of those executed were serving prison sentences for their political activities…Those who had been sentenced, however, had not been sentenced to death….”

Dissident Iranian activists and Amnesty International estimated that between 2,800 and 4,481 Iranian political prisoners were then executed in 1988 by Islamic Republic authorities. Although most of the executed Iranian political prisoners in 1988 were members and supporters of the People’s Mojahadeen group, hundreds of imprisoned members and supporters of the Tudeh Party, the Peoples’ Fedayeen group and the Kurdish Democratic Party were also apparently executed by the Iranian government authorities in 1988. (end of part 28)

Naomi Jaffee Speaks at Book Reading for U.S. Political Prisoner David Gilbert's `Love & Struggle'

U.S. Political Prisoners Read From David Gilbert's `Love & Struggle:' My Life in SDS, The Weather Underground & Beyond'

Time To Revisit `A People's History of Iran' Again: Part 27

(All the 2012 GOP and Democratic presidential candidates in the USA—except for Ron Paul—apparently support the U.S. government’s current policy of waging economic warfare and covert war against people in Iran and threatening people in Iran with an overt US/Israeli military attack in 2012 or 2013. Yet most people in the United States know little about the history of people in Iran since foreign imperialist powers began undemocratically and illegally intervening in its internal political and economic affairs in the late 19th century. But here's part 27 of "A People's History of Iran," from a few years ago--bf).

In their 2006 book Democracy In Iran: History and the Quest for Liberty, University of San Diego Professor of History and Political Science Ali Gheissari and Vali Nasr described how the religious, anti-communist supporters of Khomeini’s Islamic Republic regime apparently also started to violate the democratic rights of leftist Iranian supporters of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, after the Democratic Carter Administration refused to extradite the deposed Shah of Iran and the U.S. Embassy in Tehran was seized:

“Fundamentalists began to constrict the Left’s room to maneuver, purging their members from positions of power, attacking their offices, gatherings, and demonstrations, and intimidating or arresting their members and supporters. For instance, they attacked university campuses, intimidated and arrested students and faculty, and in June 1980 set in motion a `cultural revolution’ to cleanse the universities of the Left. Fundamentalists permanently occupied Tehran University by making its grounds the site for the official Friday Prayers…”

In an article that appeared in the June 21, 2003 issue of the Asia Times, B Raman also asserted that in Iran “after seizing power with the help of the communist students, the clerics ruthlessly suppressed the communists, arresting and executing many of them;” and “those who escaped arrest and death at the hands of the clerics managed to flee to West Europe and started organizing their activities from there.” According to the 2006 Democracy In Iran book, the secular Iranian leftist activists “were portrayed by fundamentalists as American stooges, and resistance to religion’s prominence in society was depicted as a Western ploy to destabilize the revolution.” (end of part 27)

Time To Revisit `A People's History of Iran' Again: Part 26

(All the 2012 GOP and Democratic presidential candidates in the USA—except for Ron Paul—apparently support the U.S. government’s current policy of waging economic warfare and covert war against people in Iran and threatening people in Iran with an overt US/Israeli military attack in 2012 or 2013. Yet most people in the United States know little about the history of people in Iran since foreign imperialist powers began undemocratically and illegally intervening in its internal political and economic affairs in the late 19th century. But here's part 26 of "A People's History of Iran," from a few years ago--bf).

Unlike the People’s Mojahadeen group, the Tudeh Party and the People’s Fedayeen group continued to express support for Khomeini’s Islamic Republic regime after June 1981 and both the Tudeh Party and the People’s Fedayeen group continued to be allowed to operate openly by Iranian government authorities.

But after the Tudeh Party criticized the Islamic Republic’s conduct of its war with Iraq and the Khomeini regime’s intention--after the Iranian military forces recaptured the Iranian land that Iraq had occupied early in the Iraq-Iran War--to now invade Iraq, some top Tudeh Party leaders were arrested by Iranian government authorities in February 1983.

Subsequently, the Tudeh Party was outlawed on May 4, 1983 by the Iranian government; and 670 civilian members of the Tudeh Party and 100 Iranian military officers who supported the Tudeh Party were also arrested.

Then, in December 1983, the 100 Iranian military officers who were Tudeh Party supporters were put on trial. And on February 25, 1984, ten of these Tudeh Party supporters within the Iranian military's officer corps were executed by Islamic Republic authorities.

Thirty members of the People’s Fedayeen group were also arrested in the Fall of 1983. And, after the Iranian government declared that the People’s Fedayeen group was subversive and anti-Islamic in December 1983, the People’s Fedayeen group was also outlawed in February 1984. (end of part 26)

Time To Revisit `A People's History of Iran' Again: Part 25

(All the 2012 GOP and Democratic presidential candidates in the USA—except for Ron Paul—apparently support the U.S. government’s current policy of waging economic warfare and covert war against people in Iran and threatening people in Iran with an overt US/Israeli military attack in 2012 or 2013. Yet most people in the United States know little about the history of people in Iran since foreign imperialist powers began undemocratically and illegally intervening in its internal political and economic affairs in the late 19th century. But here's part 25 of "A People's History of Iran," from a few years ago--bf).

After opposing the Khomeini regime’s decision to release the U.S. Embassy hostages to the new Reagan Administration (following a failed attempt by the Democratic Carter Administration to “rescue” the U.S. Embassy hostages by sending some U.S. military commandos into Iran) and the Islamic Republic’s press censorship law in January 1981, the People’s Mojahadeen declared its opposition to the Khomeini regime in a June 20, 1981 street march. Twenty young Iranian women People’s Mojahadeen protesters were then arrested by Khomeini’s regime and quickly executed.

In response, the People’s Mojahadeen group bombed the headquarters of the pro-Khomeini Islamic Republican Party [IRP] headquarters on June 28, 1981 and eliminated almost the entire leadership of the Islamic Republican Party, whose members held the majority of seats in the Iranian parliament. By means of an armed uprising the People’s Mojahadeen guerrillas apparently hoped to then overthrow Khomeini’s Islamic Republic in the same way they had helped to previously overthrow the Shah’s regime during the late 1970s.

The Islamic Republic authorities responded to the People’s Mojahadeen armed revolt during Iran’s war with Iraq by quickly executing 100 more of its domestic Iranian political opponents in retaliation for the June 28, 1981 bombing of the Islamic Republican Party’s headquarters. But on August 30, 1981, the People’s Mojahadeen insurgents next bombed the headquarters of the Islamic Republic’s Prime Minister, killing 130 top leaders of the Islamic Republican Party, including Iran’s President and Premier.

In retaliation, 7,746 Iranians were then either executed by the Khomeini regime or killed in clashes with the security forces of the Kohmeini regime by 1984. Of these 7,746 Iranians, 6,221 were members of the People’s Mojahadeen, including 933 women members of the People’s Mojahadeen. (end of part 25)

Australian Anti-War Activist Joan Coxsedge Criticizes Political Manipulation By `Merciless Murdoch and His Media Empire'

Australian anti-war and Cuban solidarity activist and writer Joan Coxsedge recently criticized both the political manipulation role of Billionaire Australian global media baron Rupert Murdoch and the hypocritical foreign policy of the Democratic Obama Administration in a letter of February 26, 2012, in which she states the following:

Dear Comrades,

It’s shaping up to be a shocker of a year, both at home and abroad. Long-held Labor hatreds have hit the airwaves, manna from heaven for Abbott and his junta, so God help us all. Freaky KRudd pretends to be the ‘people’s man’ when he’s an egotistical maniac using desperate tactics to regain his crown, but when it comes to crucial areas like state aid and taking an independent stance on foreign policy, the difference between them is thin to the point of invisibility. Labor lost its heart and soul a long time ago – the Libs wouldn’t know what you’re talking about - and caved in to the big end of town.

In the background, pulling many strings and using manipulated opinion polls, merciless Murdoch and his media empire have unleashed a one-sided onslaught, just like he did against Whitlam in 1975. Whatever happens, hypocrisy and lies will take centre stage.

Like they are in Syria and everywhere else. The sight of war criminals Obama, Clinton (I wonder what she said to Rudd) and the US Ambassador to the UN lecturing Assad and his besieged government on human rights was sick-making. Is Obama a simple hypocrite, an idiot or simply doesn’t care?

Washington’s now in its second decade of murdering Muslim men, women and children in six countries, dropping bombs on schools, hospitals, weddings and funerals, naturally in the name of human rights. 800,000 or 1.3 million dead Iraqis and four million displaced, a destroyed country with entire cities bombed and burnt to a cinder with white phosphorus. Ditto Afghanistan. Ditto Libya, now a dismembered country where banditry, torture and summary executions by hundreds of out-of-control militias are the order of the day. In Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia Washington’s drones deliver western-style human rights to the people. And I haven’t mentioned those bastions of freedom, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and the secret CIA torture centres.

You really have to ask is the world so mad, so deranged that Washington and its surrogates can continue murdering innocent people year in and year out and still claim to be the defender of human rights? According to their template, rulers of countries that don’t belong to the Western club - NATO countries, Israel, the emirs of the Gulf States and the ruling family of Saudi Arabia - are ‘dictators’ and theirs for the taking. It’s therefore OK for rebels (?) to get rid of them in order to enjoy western-style ‘democracy’, naturally supported by the ‘people’ and when government forces counter-attack, ‘the dictators are killing their own people’ and the international community (NATO) must step in. The ‘goodies’ don’t give a toss when the country they ‘helped’ sinks into chaos as armed thugs roam, prisoners are tortured, women are put back in their box, salaries are unpaid, education and social welfare are ignored, but oil is pumped and the West moves on to ‘liberate’ the next country. Syria and Iran?

The road to Damascus and on to Armageddon? Pollsters should put that question to citizens of the United States and the European Union and if they had a modicum of common sense you’d reckon they’d opt to avoid WW3. Washington’s money is also putting anti-Putin Russians on to the streets. As Karl Marx said: ‘money turns everything into a commodity that can be bought and sold…all other values are defeated…nothing remains but filthy lucre.’ This is the way that Washington rules. The western media are complicit if not key to this appalling state of affairs.

Once upon a time there was diplomacy and an organisational structure called the United Nations, but the US decided that as a sole superpower it didn’t need diplomacy and turned the UN into an instrument of US policy, currently led by the obsequious Ban Ki-moon who has the gall to rabbit on about ‘moral responsibility’. Adding to the nightmare, the European Union is now a reactionary outfit and authoritarian lapdog of the United States. Assad’s no angel but knows what he’s in for if he loses. Saddam Hussein? Qaddafi?

Greece has also become a test case for far-right social engineering, a form of carpet-bombing of what’s left of hard-won rights. The ‘austerity package’ seeks to impose terms that no-one could accept. Huge cuts in wages, pensions, health care and wholesale privatisation of public assets sold at rock-bottom prices, all of it supervised by unelected outsiders. For the first time since WW2 large slabs of Greek society are facing pauperisation, with soup kitchens, homelessness and migration on the rise. At stake is an attempt by the EU-IMF-ECB troika, along with sections of the Greek bourgeoisie, to violently impose ‘regime change’ turning Greece into a Special Economic Zone for investors. The ‘bailout’ won’t help Greeks. It’s a bailout for the global financial system – the banks, hedge funds and pension funds of other EU members – and is callous and won’t work. The real problem is the Euro, which increased imbalances, benefiting a few core countries like Germany.

We must do whatever we can to fight against the dreadful neo-fascist path we’re being taken down. Supporting Cuba is a positive thing to do, which is why it was so good having Cuban Ambassador Pedro Monzon and Celia spend a few days with us, meeting trade unionists, talking with people and opening the cartoon exhibition by Gerardo Hernandez, which attracted a great deal of genuine interest and lifted the profile of the Cuban Five. In a few weeks, we’ll be holding our National Consultation in Canberra, once again giving us a chance to catch up with each other and share ideas. Viva!

Black Male Worker `Not Seasonally Adjusted' Jobless Rate Jumps To 15.2 Percent Under Obama & GOP House of Representatives

The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Black male workers over 20 years-of-age in the United States jumped from 14 to 15.2 percent between January and February 2012; while the “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Black female workers over 20 years-of-age was still 11.8 percent in February 2012, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Between January and February 2012, the “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed Black male workers over 20 years-of-age also increased by 90,000 (from 1,155,000 to 1,245,000); while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of Black male workers over 20 years-of-age with jobs dropped by 91,000 (from 7,083,000 to 6,942,000) during the same period.

The “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Black youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age was still 33.1 percent in February 2012; while the “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for all Black workers in the United States (male, female and youth) was still 14.1 percent during that same month.

Between January and February 2012, the official “seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all Hispanic or Latino workers in the United States also increased from 10.5 to 10.7 percent; and the “seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed Hispanic or Latino workers increased by 47,000 (from 2,532,000 to 2,579,000) during the same period.

The “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Hispanic or Latino youth between 16 and 19 years-of-age also increased from 24.9 to 27.5 percent between January and February 2012; while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed Hispanic or Latino youth increased by 46,000 (from 248,000 to 294,000) during the same period.

The “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Hispanic or Latina female workers over 20 years-of-age was still 11 percent in February 2012; while the “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Hispanic or Latino male workers over 20 years-of-age was still 10.4 percent during that same month.

The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for white youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age was still 21.8 percent in February 2012; while the “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for white male workers over 20 years-of-age was still 7.9 percent during that same month.

In February 2012, the “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for white female workers over 20 years-of-age was still 6.9 percent; while the “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all women workers over 20 years-of-age in the United States was still 7.6 percent during that same month.

According to the “seasonally adjusted” data, the total number of unemployed U.S. workers increased by 48,000 (from 12,758,000 to 12,806,000) between January and February 2012; and the official “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for all U.S. workers was still 8.3 percent in February 2012.

But according to the “not seasonally adjusted” data, the jobless rate for all U.S. male workers over 16 years-of-age was still 9.3 percent in February 2012; and the “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed U.S. workers was still 13,430,000 during that same month.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ March 9, 2012 press release:

“…The unemployment rate was unchanged at 8.3 percent…The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) was little changed at 5.4 million in February. These individuals accounted for 42.6 percent of the unemployed…

“The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was essentially unchanged at 8.1 million in February. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job…

“In February, 2.6 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, essentially unchanged from a year earlier…These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey…

“Among the marginally attached, there were 1.0 million discouraged workers in February, about the same as a year earlier…Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them…

“Professional and business services added 82,000 jobs in February. Just over half of the increase occurred in temporary help services (+45,000)…

“Construction employment changed little in February…Over the month, employment fell by 14,000 in nonresidential specialty trade contractors…

“Overall, employment in retail trade changed little in February. A large job loss in general merchandise stores (-35,000) more than offset an increase in January…”

Time To Revisit `A People's History of Iran' Again: Part 24

(All the 2012 GOP and Democratic presidential candidates in the USA—except for Ron Paul—apparently support the U.S. government’s current policy of waging economic warfare and covert war against people in Iran and threatening people in Iran with an overt US/Israeli military attack in 2012. Yet most people in the United States know little about the history of people in Iran since foreign imperialist powers began undemocratically and illegally intervening in its internal political and economic affairs in the late 19th century. But here's part 24 of "A People's History of Iran," from a few years ago--bf).

On December 1, 1979 the new Islamic Republic’s Constitution was approved by Iranian voters. The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran of October 24, 1979 (and as later amended on July 28, 1989) does appear to contain many democratic articles. Article 13, for example, guarantees religious freedom and Article 38 prohibits torture. Article 29 guarantees the Iranian people the right to universal health care and Article 31 guarantees the Iranian people their right to housing. Article 79 of the Islamic Republic’s Constitution also prohibits martial law, Article 81 prohibits the granting of economic concessions in Iran to foreign imperialists and Article 146 prohibits the establishment of foreign military bases in Iran.

With respect to freedom of the press rights in Iran, Article 24 of the Islamic Republic’s Constitution guarantees freedom of the press “except when detrimental to fundamental principles of Islam.” And marches and demonstrations are allowed under Article 27 of the Islamic Republic’s Constitution, as long as arms are not carried by demonstrators and the demonstration is “not detrimental to Islamic principles.” Under the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran “the mass-communications media, radio and television, must” also “serve the diffusion of Islamic culture.”

After the Islamic Republic’s Constitution was approved by Iraqi voters, the Islamic Republic’s first Majlis (parliament) of 270 members was subsequently elected in the Summer of 1980. Fifteen percent of the 11 million Iraqi voters chose to vote for People’s Mohjadeen-supported parliamentary candidates.

On September 22, 1980, however, the then-pro-U.S. imperialist Ba’ath Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein launched a military attack on Iran. And the new external Iraqi military threat to Iran’s national security apparently gave Khomeini’s Islamic Republic officials an internal security pretext for restricting democratic rights in post-Shah Iran. (end of part 24)

Time To Revisit `A People's History of Iran' Again: Part 23

(All the 2012 GOP and Democratic presidential candidates in the USA—except for Ron Paul—apparently support the U.S. government’s current policy of waging economic warfare and covert war against people in Iran and threatening people in Iran with an overt US/Israeli military attack in 2012. Yet most people in the United States know little about the history of people in Iran since foreign imperialist powers began undemocratically and illegally intervening in its internal political and economic affairs in the late 19th century. But here's part 23 of "A People's History of Iran," from a few years ago--bf).

It was the traditional Islamic opposition groups led by the anti-communist religious Iranian Bazaar merchant class and the anti-communist Iranian clerical hierarchy, not the Tudeh Party, the People’s Fedayeen guerrilla group or the People’s Mojahadeen guerrilla group which soon ended up gaining Iranian state power following the collapse of the Shah of Iran’s regime in early 1979.

Led by Ayatollah Khomeini, the traditional Islamic groups were apparently able to gain political power by default because of the absence of mass-based working-class organizations in Iran in the late 1970s and the degree to which the Iranian masses were still strongly religious in 1979. Despite their hatred for the Shah of Iran’s police-state regime and the U.S. government that had installed and backed the Shah’s dictatorial regime, the Iranian masses in 1979 were apparently not willing to now throw their political support behind an effort to establish a new anti-imperialist, secular, democratic, leftist revolutionary regime in Iran.

Almost immediately after the 1979 Revolution in Iran, the People’s Mojahadeen group and the pro-Khomeini Islamic groups began to split apart. Then, in April 1979, a referendum to abolish the Iranian monarchical system of government and set up an Islamic Republic in Iran controlled by Iran’s fundamentalist clerical hierarchy under Ayatollah Khomeini’s leadership was held. Although all the secular Iranian political groups were opposed to the creation of this kind of Sh'ia-led Islamic theocracy (with Khomeini as the supreme and divine authority) within Iran, on the grounds that it would create an undemocratic post-revolutionary Iranian society, an Islamic Republic was soon established in Iran.

Ayatollah Khomeini had initially promised to organize a popularly-elected Constituent Assembly in Iran to draft the Islamic Republic’s new Constitution. But, fearing that a popularly-elected Constituent Assembly in Iran would give some representation to the People’s Mojahadeen group activists who now opposed him politically, Khomeini broke his promise. Instead, the Ayatollah set up a smaller, Islamic clergy-dominated Assembly of Experts which began drafting the Constitution for the Islamic Republic in the summer of 1979.

This new Constitution was completed around ten days before the U.S. Embassy and U.S. Embassy employees in Tehran were taken hostage on November 4, 1979 by young Iranian political activists--who were protesting against the Democratic Carter Administration’s refusal to extradite the [now-deceased] former Shah of Iran back to the new government in Iran to face a post-revolutionary Iranian war crimes tribunal. (end of part 23)

Time To Revisit `A People's History of Iran' Again: Part 22

(All the 2012 GOP and Democratic presidential candidates in the USA—except for Ron Paul—apparently support the U.S. government’s current policy of waging economic warfare and covert war against people in Iran and threatening people in Iran with an overt US/Israeli military attack in 2012. Yet most people in the United States know little about the history of people in Iran since foreign imperialist powers began undemocratically and illegally intervening in its internal political and economic affairs in the late 19th century. But here's part 22 of "A People's History of Iran," from a few years ago--bf).

The preamble to the October 24, 1979 Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran described how the people of Iran were able to create the 1979 Iranian Revolution:

“….The employees of all government establishments took an active part in the effort to overthrow the tyrannical regime by calling a general strike and participating in street demonstrations. The wide-spread solidarity of men and women of all segments of society and of all political and religious factions, played a clearly determining role in the struggle. Especially the women were actively and massively present in the most conspicuous manner at all stages of this great struggle. The common sight of mothers with infants in their arms rushing towards the scene of battle and in front of the barrels of machineguns indicated the essential and decisive role played by this major segment of society in the struggle.”

In response to the large pro-democratization demonstrations in Iran in 1978, the Shah of Iran’s regime also agreed to release some of its Iranian political prisoners before it finally collapsed on February 12, 1979. About 200 members of the People’s Mojahadeen group, for example, were released from prison in the summer of 1978, while another 700 People’s Mojahadeen members were allowed to return to Iran from exile at the same time. By the time the mass demonstrations and general strike had finally succeeded in bringing down the Shah of Iran’s government, about 3,000 to 5,000 Iranian activists were now members of the People’s Mojahadeen group. (end of part 22)

George Galloway Speaks Out Against US/Israeli Government War Threats Against Iranian People

Time To Revisit `A People's History of Iran' Again: Part 21

(All the 2012 GOP and Democratic presidential candidates in the USA—except for Ron Paul—apparently support the U.S. government’s current policy of waging economic warfare and covert war against people in Iran and threatening people in Iran with an overt US/Israeli military attack in 2012. Yet most people in the United States know little about the history of people in Iran since foreign imperialist powers began undemocratically and illegally intervening in its internal political and economic affairs in the late 19th century. But here's part 21 of "A People's History of Iran," from a few years ago--bf).

Abroad, during the late 1960s and 1970s, Iranian students who were members of the Confederation of Iranian Students, which had been founded in the mid-1960s, also organized protests against the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran’s dictatorial regime. When the Shah of Iran's wife, Empress Farah Pahlavi, was awarded a Columbia University presidential citation by former Columbia University President (and former member of the Texaco oil company board of directors) William McGill in July 1977, for example,, a large anti-Shah protest in Manhattan led by foreign students from Iran who wore masks (to avoid being identified by SAVAK agents) was organized by the Confederation of Iranian Students’ local members.

Mass opposition in Iran to the Shah of Iran’s dictatorial regime grew rapidly during the late 1970s. Yet the Democratic Carter Administration continued to provide support for the Shah of Iran’s regime during 1978, when the Shah of Iran tried to retain political power in Iran by ordering his troops to shoot down unarmed Iranian civilian demonstrators who dared to protest against his pro-imperialist Iranian police state.

Over 60,000 Iranian civilian demonstrators were killed and about 100,000 Iranian civilian demonstrators were wounded and disabled in 1978 by the Shah of Iran’s troops before the people of Iran were finally able to overthrow the Shah of Iran’s regime on February 12, 1979. (end of part 21)

Time To Revisit `A People's History of Iran' Again: Part 20

(All the 2012 GOP and Democratic presidential candidates in the USA—except for Ron Paul—apparently support the U.S. government’s current policy of waging economic warfare and covert war against people in Iran and threatening people in Iran with an overt US/Israeli military attack in 2012. Yet most people in the United States know little about the history of people in Iran since foreign imperialist powers began undemocratically and illegally intervening in its internal political and economic affairs in the late 19th century. But here's part 20 of "A People's History of Iran," from a few years ago--bf).

After 1965, an Iranian New Left of younger Iranian activists developed which worked for the overthrow of the Shah of Iran’s U.S.-backed dictatorship. Influenced by the Cuban Revolution, the Chinese Revolution and the Vietnamese Revolution, two New Left groups were formed in Iran which waged guerrilla warfare against the Shah of Iran’s regime between 1966 and 1978: The People’s Fedayeen and the People’s Mojahadeen.

Formed by defectors from the outlawed Tudeh Party’s youth group, in 1963 the People’s Fedayeen group was secular and Marxist-Leninist in its political orientation. Its founder, Bijan Jazani and three other former Tudeh Party Youth organization activists, had met while in prison in 1955. In 1966, Bijan Jazani and other People’s Fedayeen leaders concluded that the Shah of Iran regime’s limited land reform program had changed Iranian society internally from one dominated by feudalist Iranian landlords to one dominated by pro-imperialist Iranian businesspeople.

In 1968, the original New Left leaders of the People’s Fedayeen were arrested by the Shah of Iran’s secret police, the CIA-trained SAVAK, and sentenced to a long period of imprisonment. During the 1970s, Bijan Jazani was, subsequently, executed in Iran’s Evin Prison by the Shah of Iran’s regime. Other People’s Fedayeen leaders, like Hassan Zarif and Aziz Sarmedi, were also murdered while in prison by the Shah of Iran’s regime in the 1970s.

Despite the imprisonment and repression of its leaders, however, between 1971 and 1978 membership in the People’s Fedayeen guerrilla group grew to around 2,175. And prior to the early 1979 overthrow of the Shah’s regime, the People’s Fedayeen organized politically effective strike committees in Iran.

The founders of the religiously-oriented People’s Mojahedeen guerrilla group were former members of the non-communist National Front. Its leaders concluded in a 1969 position paper that under the Shah of Iran’s regime:

“Iran was essentially a police state where the armed forces constituted the ultimate power base. The strength and political stability of the regime was based on the effective functioning of its security bases, which were directed by the American Central Intelligence Agency.”

Given this 1969 political analysis’ conclusion, the People’s Mojahadeen group, not surprisingly, decided that the only way to establish a democratic, Islamic-oriented society in Iran was to begin urban guerrilla warfare against the Shah of Iran’s regime in 1970.

Unlike the People’s Mojahadeen, the People’s Fedayeen generally waged guerrilla warfare in rural areas of Iran, not in Iran’s cities. But both the People’s Fedayeen and the People’s Mojahadeen guerrilla groups held U.S. imperialist government policies responsible for the political repression and mass poverty that existed in Iran under the Shah’s regime. (end of part 20)