Survivors and families of the victims of Manchester Arena bombing to sue MI5
This is the first case of its kind against the intelligence service and threatens to unravel a massive state cover-up.
•Margot Miller, Robert Stevens
The 2009 imperialist-backed “Green Revolution” in Iran
The June 12, 2009, presidential election in Iran revealed a bitter split within the Islamic Republic’s political elite. Incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner over several rivals. Mass demonstrations ensued, mainly in the middle-class and upper-middle-class areas of Tehran, where the opposition candidates had their main base of support. The WSWS criticized the dubious claims of a supposed popular revolt in Iran, promoted as the “Green Revolution” by the Western media.
The WSWS based its approach to this crisis on a historical analysis of the Iranian Revolution and the fundamental lessons of the 20th century, above all the necessity for the working class to adopt an independent political standpoint rather than line up behind one or another faction of the bourgeoisie.
The crisis in Iran was seized on by the US and European governments to advance their own imperialist interests. In a fashion similar to that employed in backing various “color revolutions” in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union in order to install regimes more to its liking, the imperialist propaganda machine used a “human rights” campaign to orchestrate support for a favored wing of the bitterly divided political establishment in Tehran.
As the WSWS explained, the Obama administration, the European imperialist powers and their liberal backers like the New York Times and the Nation magazine had new allies in the campaign against Iran—the middle-class “left” groups that had opposed the Bush administration but now were lining up behind Obama. This would later be replicated in their support for the wars in Libya and Syria. The WSWS wrote:
The June 12 Iranian election has become the occasion for virtually the entire milieu of “progressive” and “left” organizations in the US and internationally to line up behind their own governments in support of the opposition movement headed by the defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi.
These groups have not only uncritically embraced Moussavi’s claims that the election was stolen, they have ignored the right-wing economic and foreign policies of the opposition, the bourgeois character of its leadership, and the fact that its main social base consists of better-off sections of the middle class. That the mass of Iranian workers abstained from the protests that followed the election, and that imperialist governments in the US and Europe have uniformly rallied behind the opposition, evokes no second thoughts about the Moussavi movement’s supposedly democratic and progressive character.
A broad-based political phenomenon such as that which has unfolded in response to the events in Iran is indicative of sharp shifts in the political orientation of definite social layers. In this case, it reflects the movement of middle-class layers that once dominated left-wing public opinion into the camp of the political right.
As the Iranian crisis dragged on for months, the trajectory of the middle-class protest movement that had coalesced around Moussavi became more and more clear, and in the process exposed the various pseudo-left organizations, including the French New Anti-capitalist Party (NPA) and the British International Marxist Tendency, which masquerade as socialist or Marxist.
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Iran publicly hangs second anti-government protester after show trial
The Iranian authorities’ resort to ever harsher repression is rooted in their fear that under conditions of ever deepening poverty and ever-widening social inequality, the working class will erupt onto the scene.
•Jean Shaoul, Keith Jones
Anti-government protests continue in Iran despite mounting repression
Industrial workers—including several thousand at the Isfahan Steel, Sanandaj Petrochemical, and Sepahan Cement works—and bus drivers in Mashhad joined the protests.
•Jean Shaoul, Keith Jones
The crisis of the Islamic Republic and the tasks of the Iranian working class
The mounting crisis of the Islamic Republic raises crucial questions of perspective for the Iranian and international working class.
•Keith Jones
Once again, on the ex-left and Iran
The latest orchestrated provocation over Iran’s nuclear program exposes the reactionary role of the middle-class backers of the “green” opposition in Iran.
•Joe Kishore
Obama follows Bush’s modus operandi on Iran
In a manner chillingly reminiscent of the Bush administration’s buildup to the Iraq war, top White House officials yesterday intensified the US propaganda offensive against Iran.
•Peter Symonds
Iranian opposition demonstrates under pro-imperialist slogans
Anti-government protests in Iran on Friday confirmed the openly right-wing character of the opposition movement led by defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi.
•Peter Symonds
US, Europe step up pressure on Iran
The US and the major European powers are stepping up demands that Iran curtail its nuclear research and development program in advance of a September 23 deadline, which coincides with the annual opening meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.
•Patrick Martin
Washington’s double standard: The elections in Iran and Afghanistan
The Obama administration and the American media, after denouncing the presidential election in Iran as “rigged” and undemocratic (without any evidence), now uphold the legitimacy of the presidential election in Afghanistan, despite growing evidence of vote fraud.
•Patrick Martin
Iranian election crisis continues amid growing US threats
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be sworn in today for his second four-year term as Iran’s president while a rift in the country’s ruling elite is being aggravated by US economic and military threats.
•James Cogan
Factional struggles deepen within Iranian ruling elites
Nearly two months after Iran’s presidential elections, the factional rivalry within the Islamic Republic’s ruling elites that erupted over the disputed results has become more bitter and entrenched.
•Peter Symonds
Tensions mount within Iran’s ruling establishment
The speech given last Friday by the billionaire former president Rafsanjani, a backer of the defeated opposition candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi, signals an escalation of the struggle within Iran’s ruling establishment.
•Bill Van Auken
The Nation promotes Iran’s “Green Wave”
Once again: Iran, imperialism and the “left”
The current issue of the Nation features a lengthy article by Dreyfuss entitled “Iran’s Green Wave.” What is remarkable about this article is its frank characterization of the forces that dominate the Iranian opposition and the reactionary and anti-working class policies upon which it is based.
•Barry Grey
Tehran and Tegucigalpa: A tale of two capitals
The contrasting coverage of events in Iran and Honduras says a great deal about the character and role of the American media.
•Barry Grey
Iran, imperialism, and the “left”
Recent developments have further confirmed the bourgeois and politically-reactionary character of the Iranian protest movement organized by supporters of defeated reformist presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi.
•Alex Lantier
The Mousavi campaign in Iran and the lessons of past “color revolutions”
The political movement of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, named the “Green Wave” due to its campaign color, has striking parallels with the US-backed “color revolutions” in the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Ukraine.
•Niall Green
Letters on Iran and public opinion
A selection of recent letters sent to the World Socialist Web Site on the Perspective “Iran and public opinion.”
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Denials of US interference in Iran not credible
The Obama administration has responded to Iranian allegations of manipulating opposition protests inside the country with flat denials. However, there is considerable evidence of extensive US operations against Iran, spanning a range of diplomatic, intelligence and military activities.
•Peter Symonds
Iran and public opinion
The World Socialist Web Site replies to a critic of its analysis of the crisis in Iran.
•Barry Grey, David North
Letters on Iran and the US media
A selection of recent letters sent to the World Socialist Web Site on the Iranian elections, the Nation, and the US media
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