Iran’s workers will once again use May Day to remind the religious state and ‘reformist’ Islamists alike of their power, writes Yassamine Mather As May Day approaches, Iranian workers are preparing demonstrations in Tehran and other major cities. Over the last few weeks everyone from ‘reformist’ leader Mir-Hossein Moussavi to president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, from employers… Continue reading May Day Demands
Tag: yassamine mather
Opposition to imperialism does not mean support for Ahmadinejad
Mohammad Reza Shalgouni is a founder-member of the Organisation of Revolutionary Workers of Iran (Rahe Kargar) and has been elected as a member of its central committee on a number of occasions. He spent nine years as a political prisoner in Iran under the shah and today is an active supporter of Hands Off the… Continue reading Opposition to imperialism does not mean support for Ahmadinejad
Two wrongs don’t make a right: hypocrisy and dangers of Ahmadinejad’s nuclear programme
Yassamine Mather Yassamine Mather looks at the politics, hypocrisy and dangers of Ahmadinejad’s nuclear programme: There seems to be no end to the confrontation between western governments and Iran’s Islamic regime over the nuclear issue. In the latest phase of the continuing saga, on February 23, a day after the announcement by the head of… Continue reading Two wrongs don’t make a right: hypocrisy and dangers of Ahmadinejad’s nuclear programme
‘Reformists’ fear revolution
Repression and Resistance The attempt by the two wings of the Iranian regime to shelve their differences is unlikely to defuse the mass movement, writes Yassamine Mather More than two weeks after the demonstrations of December 27 2009, the political repercussions of these events, and the reaction to the anger and radicalism of… Continue reading ‘Reformists’ fear revolution
Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri (1922-2009)
The contradictory figure of Ayatollah Montazeri died in the early hours of Sunday, December 20. In one of his last statements, he warned that the current crisis in Iran was threatening the entire basis of the regime. Yet how did this man – originally a stalwart of the state, one of the main architects of… Continue reading Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri (1922-2009)
Yassamine Mather: Workers gain new courage
Iranian demonstrations have given a real boost to working class opponents of the regime, writes Yassamine Mather Every year November 4, the anniversary of the 1979 take-over of the US embassy in Tehran, is marked in Iran with a state-organised demonstration outside the building that used to house the American ambassador and his staff. On… Continue reading Yassamine Mather: Workers gain new courage
Green road to nowhere
The sham presidential election of June 2009 has unleashed a rainbow of political forces, writes Yassamine Mather, including an increasingly strong red component. The task of the left is to support and strengthen the red component of this rainbow, the Iranian working class, as the only force capable of bringing about democracy, and the only… Continue reading Green road to nowhere
Threats over uranium enrichment aid regime
Ahmadinejad uses the ‘enemy without’ to justify increased repression, arrests and the torture of the ‘enemy within’, writes Yassamine Mather The dramatic statements by Obama, Brown and Sarkozy about Iran’s undisclosed nuclear enrichment plant, made in a ‘breaking news’-style press conference on the first day of the G20 gathering in Pittsburgh, were clearly intended to… Continue reading Threats over uranium enrichment aid regime
Mass protests re-ignite
Yassamine Mather calls for support and solidarity for workers in Iran If anyone was in any doubt about the continuation of the political crisis in Iran, demonstrations on Friday September 18 in Tehran, Tabriz, Mashad, Shiraz, Isfahan and elsewhere put an end to that. Tens of thousands of Iranians, ignoring repeated warnings by the security… Continue reading Mass protests re-ignite
Misogynist torturers cling to power
Workers are growing in confidence, reports Yassamine Mather Over the last few weeks, following the show trials of ‘reformist’ personalities and the imposition of even more severe forms of repression in Iran, the nature of protests has changed considerably. However, demonstrations continue on a daily basis in Tehran and most other Iranian cities, with numbers… Continue reading Misogynist torturers cling to power