Socialist Action /January 2000
Student Protests Resume in Iran
By KAMRAN NAYERI
Thousands of students at several colleges and universities in Tehran
have returned to the streets in recent weeks to protest the jailing of Abdullah
Nouri and closing down of his newspaper, Khordad.
Nouri, a central leader of the reform wing of the Islamic Republic regime,
was tried by a "special court for clergy" in late November and
convicted on the heresy charges. Nouri was sentenced to five years in jail.
He was also ordered not to participate in any political activities for five
years and to pay a sum equal to $5000.
These recent actions are the first since the suppression of the student
protests of July 8-13. The July events began as peaceful protest against
the closing of another reform minded newspaper, Salaam, but quickly radicalized
and spread to over 13 Iranian cities after a bloody attack on the student
dormitories in Tehran (see December 1999 issue of Socialist Action).
There are no reports of harassment of students during the recent demonstrations.
In one of these demonstrations, some 800 students of the Allameh Tabatabai
University symbolically carried copies of the banned newspaper, Khordad,
while covering their mouth with tapes. In another, some 3000 students gathered
outside of Tehran University mosque-some carrying portraits of Nouri and
Khatami, the Islamic Republic President.
The Bureau for Consolidation of Unity (BCU) was the major organizer of
these events. The organizers of these protests told the British Broadcasting
Corporation that they are also pressing their demand for a public trial
of those responsible for the fatal attacks on student dormitories in July.
The BCU was founded on the basis of the existing Islamic Student Associations
in 1981. These student organizations rallied behind Khomeini and actively
opposed his secular and religious rivals.
In May 1981, after a speech by Rafsanjani at the University of Tabriz,
the BCU seized its central offices and demanded a "cultural revolution."
Within days, all other student organizations were banned, their offices
confiscated, and their leaders and activists were subjected to arrest. Leaders
of the Islamic Republic proclaimed a "Cultural Revolution" and
all universities were closed down for two years.
All students and faculty, who were not to proclaim views considered at
odds with the regime, including socialist views, were purged. The curriculum
became the subject of constant censorship to ensure it meets the demands
of the clergy.
However, the BCU suffered a split under the impact of factional struggles
within the Islamic Republic. And, in the 1990s, smaller non-religious student
organizations appeared on campuses. The BCU itself has come to ally itself
with the reform wing within the Islamic Republic.
In the student protests of last July, BCU leaders took their distance
from the radicalizing students who showed a distrust of various factions
of the Islamic Republic. While broad layers of the Iranian society, including
students, show a preference for reform politicians, such as Khatami and
Nouri, this is because of their support for democratic freedoms.
After Khatami spoke to 5000 students at the Science and Industry University
urging them to vote for the reform politicians in the February parliamentary
election, a student told an Associated Press reporter: "But reforms
must be speeded up. We young people do not understand [Khatami's slow pace],
all we know is that we want social reforms and freedoms."
Intensification of factional struggle
The trial and conviction of Nouri marked the deepening crisis of the
Islamic Republic. Nouri had resigned his recently won seat on the Tehran
city council to run in the coming parliamentary election. He has been widely
viewed as the most likely candidate for the speaker of the parliament, the
third highest office in the Islamic Republic. Supporters of Khatami and
Nouri contend that his recent conviction was an attempt to abort their impending
victory.
As a compromise measure, Hashemi Rafsanjani, who served as the speaker
of the parliament during the Iran-Iraq war and as two-term president after
the war, has declared his intentions to run in the election. He also has
been favored by sections of the international capitalist class in the United
States and elsewhere.
During the July crisis, The New York Times op-ed page columnist Friedman
argued in favor of the return to center stage by "Ayatollah Deng."
The Wall Street Journal supported him as someone who has worked for integrating
the Iranian economy into the capitalist world economy.
Indeed, Rafsanjani and Khatami agree on neo-liberal economic policies
to prop up the crisis-ridden Iranian economy. Khatami has continued the
austerity campaign waged by Rafsanjani. His new balanced budget includes
provisions for privatization of important sectors of the economy such as
railroads and telecommunications, and opening up to private investment industries
such as tobacco, sugar, and tea.
They disagree on how to deal with the crisis of legitimacy of the regime.
Khatami and his co-thinkers, including Nouri, consider a certain degree
of political liberalization necessary to co-opt the rising bourgeois democratic
sentiments. During his trial Nouri argued: "The essence of my defense
is reformism. I expect that reforms can bring back the real authority and
elevate the legitimacy of political rule in the Islamic Republic."
Nouri is in a good position to know. He served as the ideological and
political director of the Revolution Guards on Khomeini's orders. He was
the Minister of Interior in the cabinets of Rafsanjani and Khatami. He was
a vice president to Khatami.
Fight to free all detained students
In the aftermath of the July protests, hundreds of students were detained
and some tortured and forced to make "confessions." The current
political situation inside and outside Iran makes it possible to wage an
effective international campaign to win the release of detained students.
Inside Iran, the campaign for their freedom has fallen essentially on
their immediate families. Meanwhile, the Islamic Republic regime has refused
to make public the names and charges of those arrested. Based on various
reports in the Iranian press, we have compiled a partial list of detained
students and their current status (see box on this page).
An additional obstacle is the policies of organizations engaged in the
defense effort. Many of the organizations are not defense committees but
political groups that subordinate the fight to win the freedom of the detained
students to their own sectarian objectives.
The BCU, for instance, has not campaigned for the release of detained
students. Instead, it has gone on a campaign to rally students to vote for
the reform candidates and support President Khatami.
But Khatami took a "law and order" position during the student
protests. While he has denounced the attack on the student dormitories in
July, he has refused to call for the release of those arrested.
The BCU strategy is based on their continued support for the Islamic
Republic and attempts to salvage it in the face of its mounting crisis.
Thus they oppose any independent organization and action that is focused
on winning the freedom of those detained.
Outside of Iran, the wave of protests against the crackdown on the student
protests in July has subsided because of a lack of a long-term, independent
perspective to fight for democratic freedoms. The majority of organizations
still active in the fight to win freedom for the detained students do so
either by hoping for eventual dominance of the reform wing of the Islamic
Republic that promises a "civil society" or by relying on imperialist
governments and politician or institutions under their control.
For instance, an organization called "Student Movement Coordination
Committee" calls for an appeal to "Free Countries Dignitaries"
such as U.S. President Clinton and Secretary of State Albright and other
leaders of imperialist countries to press for freedom of the detained students.
The modern history of Iran is rich in lessons of interventions by these
powers to suppress any attempt at self-determination and democratic organization
of the society by the Iranian peoples.
What is required is the dissemination of facts and consistent work to
educate the public about the struggle of the Iranian students for democratic
freedoms. It is through such a mass mobilization strategy that principled
defenders of democratic rights and organizations of students, workers, women,
and others can add their voice in solidarity with their brothers and sisters
in Iran to demand the release of the detained students.
Indeed, as the attacks on the democratic rights of working people are
international in scope, so is the fight in their defense. The struggle for
democratic freedoms is international in character. It is through joining
of these struggles that we can learn from each other and build upon each
other's successes.
Kamran Nayeri is a founder of the Committee
in Defense of Democratic Freedoms in Iran (CDDFI). To join the effort to
win the freedom of the university students and other political prisoners
in Iran, contact CDDFI at CDDFI@hotmail.com
or CDDFI, P.O. Box 6583, Albany, CA 94706-0583.
Socialist Action /January 2000 |