WORLD WORLDWIDE FRANCE News Journal Update - (en) France, OCL, CA #333: The situation in Iran and in Iranian exile (2) - Interview with an Iranian comrade (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 In January 2023, we conducted an interview with B, an Iranian

libertarian comrade living in Lyon. We completed it recently. Here we
present the second part. The first part appeared in the June issue.
http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article3823 ---- People's
Mojahedin Organization of Iran (OPMI) ---- Ideologically it is a mixture
of Marxist anti-imperialism and Islamism of the Muslim Brotherhood in
Shia version. They were trained by the Egyptian (Sunni) Muslim
Brotherhood. Khamenei, the current Supreme Leader, translated and
distributed some of their books.
The PMOI (established in 1965) was powerful in Iran before the
revolution and at its beginnings. It was closely linked to the regime of
the Islamic Republic of Iran before separating from it (attacks,
assassinations of religious political figures, etc.) and being brutally
repressed in 1981-1982.
Tens of thousands of them[including the ruling couple Massoud and Maryam
Rajavi]went into exile and took refuge in Iraq. They were able to create
a city there with a military camp, with heavy weapons (camp Ashraf).
They fought on the Iraqi side during the 1980-1989 war against Iran.
After the first Gulf War (August 1990-February 1991) and the oil embargo
against Iraq, they allowed Iraq to circumvent the embargo on oil sales,
by creating companies in Dubai which illegally sold Iraqi oil.
They thus enriched themselves and became a real financial power. They
have invested in real estate in many cities in Europe (in Paris, their
colony is behind the Stade de France) and in 2013 created a small city
of their own in Albania (Ashraf 3) which serves as their headquarters.
Currently, it is a real politico-religious sect led by Maryam Rajavi,
the widow of the historic leader.
Like monarchists, they can organize international meetings with
well-known personalities, like Mike Pompeo (former CIA director and
Trump's Secretary of State) for which they pay $25,000 per conference.
In Europe, they do not participate in any of the common demonstrations
of exile. They organize their own rallies by paying exiles from Lyon
(200 EUR generally) or from Sweden (they manage to fill 5 buses) to
crowd waving their flag in their rallies in Paris.
Their paramilitary ideology, their sectarian functioning, their
reactionary Islamism - after 40 years of exile in Paris, their women
still do not have the right to remove their veils - cannot please a
revolt whose watchword is "Women, Life, Freedom".
They think their money makes them powerful, but as Victor Hugo said in
essence, "No one can stop an idea whose time has come".
The OPMI claims to have a strong presence in Iran - more than 40,000 -
but this is false because no one saw them in the revolution. As in
addition they fought on the Iraqi side during the war, they are very
badly seen by the population.

The Left and the Republicans
There are no longer any left-wing organizations that are really active
in exile, be it the Tudeh[Communist party created in 1941, following the
Anglo-Soviet occupation of Iran]or the extreme -LEFT. The militants have
aged, and there has been no renewal. There are small groups but their
activity is mainly theoretical.
With the revolution, personalities from exile were happy to be invited
and to run on TV sets. We find them sympathetic, we can support them,
but it is not an organization. Because politics is not that: it is
practice, it is creating a committee, organizing something concrete.
Young people tried to create a left-wing political movement two years
ago, but there were many debates and disagreements. This is the problem
of the left: we continue on our disagreements and the enemy opposite
will perhaps win.
I recently participated in an online meeting. There were 5,000
registered and it spoke a lot about Karl Kautsky... I took the floor to
say that the important thing is not to go back to the debates of a
century ago but to act on the current reality. The tendencies found in
this discussion were those of alter-globalism, eco-socialism,
rebelliousness. It is no longer a Leninist left, but rather close to
what exists in Latin America with Lula.

Left-wing political organizations in Iran
The movement launched in September is the continuity of a long-term
social movement made up of mobilizations, revolts with deaths. It is
deeply revolutionary, but it lacks a political translation to create a
political balance of power in the country.
The problem is that there are no more left (or right) political parties
in Iran. In 40 years of dictatorship, the Tudeh has been exterminated,
the far-left groups have been crushed.
During the movement, the Republicans, the progressives, the
intellectuals, the people of the left who remain did not express
themselves and did not participate, because of the repression. But on
the other hand the Iranian workers (unions are prohibited) went on
strike and demonstrated.
Faced with this political vacuum, there are beginning to be discussions
to create neighborhood committees. Calls and texts circulated between
small self-organized struggle groups to come together and create something.
Some are now thinking of recreating political organizations, but the
problem is that they will be underground with all the problems that poses.
But I have not had more recent information (end of May).
In the relations between exile and Iran my position is clear: I am
against all the organizations which are outside Iran and give orders to
Iranians, because it is the one who revolts in the street who has the
right to think about the future, he is the one facing the bullets, not
me. So morally or politically, I have no right to tell them what to do.

Several demonstrations took place in Lyon. How did this come about?

Between September and January, monthly demonstrations were organized in
Lyon bringing together 200 to 300 people. A national demonstration took
place there in January 2023 following the suicide of Mohammad Moradi, an
Iranian student in Lyon. It brought together a thousand people.
 From the second day of demonstration in Iran, we said to ourselves that
we had to demonstrate. The first demonstration in Lyon was organized by
a few individuals, then other Iranians joined us.
In our gatherings, where the world could come, there was a free
microphone because people need to speak even if they say anything or if
it is not my ideas.
Thus, I am against the monarchist flag but I do not see myself banning
them. Because in politics and reality this will change. Because whoever
comes with the monarchist flag today, can change his mind with the
discussions.
The team was more on the left. There is a group of Iranian students and
ex-students from Lyon with whom we had a lot of problems because they
tried to impose a whole series of bans on the collective.
During our first rally, an old lady from "Femmes Solidaires" (a
reformist and secular feminist association) spoke up to defend the
movement of Iranian women against religious oppression while criticizing
the pro-veil currents in France.
They said that she was far-right and that we should not talk about the
issue of the veil in France in our demonstrations, no more than the
closure of the Iranian embassy in France, nor the freezing Pasdaran
assets abroad.
After heated discussions, they left.
It is a problem of a part of the Iranian left, which still believes that
the Iranian regime is anti-imperialist and anti-American, while it has
ongoing relations with the United States but different interests. They
are as liberal as the American leaders. Its elites continue to send
their children to study in the USA. This is the case of Masume Ebketar,
former student spokesperson during the 1979 hostage crisis, twice
vice-president of Iran (1997-2005 and 2013-2017) whose son studied in
the United States. United from 2015. This is also the case of Khomeini's
nephew who lives there.

In France who comes to the demonstrations?

They are mostly Iranian and some French. Normal people, families,
activists, lots of women.
There was quickly a strong monarchist presence, which gave the
impression of an organized force, and which attracted people because
people said to themselves "if the son of the Shah can bring down the
regime, I support him even if I don't am not a monarchist.
The left and the Iranian republicans do not understand that it is
necessary to organize and have proposals in the face of these rich
organizations, the most presentable of which is the monarchist. These
put forward as models the democratic and constitutional monarchies that
exist in the world (English, Belgian, etc.) and score points.

What was the support of the French left in the broad sense?

A step back is necessary. I arrived in France in 2013 and I met members
of the Parti de Gauche (ancestor of LFI) with whom I campaigned on
international issues.

In 2019, I took part in the meeting intended to establish LFI's
electoral strategy, in order to conquer working-class neighborhoods and
also young urbanites.
For me that meant conquering the sores of the St Martin canal and the
young people of the estates. This strategy ignored the workers.
The supreme guide of LFI answered me that the question did not arise
because the workers and the trade unionists were obliged to vote
Mélenchon. When no, the workers vote for the FN.
There was a pro-Russian pro-Chavez and Lula line and when Obono and the
others arrived, there was also a decolonial, Islamistophile line. And,
LFI participated in the demonstration against Islamophobia at the end of
2019. I no longer found my place there because I want to defend human
rights in a universal way. So I left them, keeping in touch.
When the movement started in Iran, I contacted Manuel Bompard. As the
right-wing deputies were organizing a meeting with the monarchists in
the Assembly, it was therefore necessary for the left to take a position
quickly to support the revolt and organize meetings with the Iranian left.
Bompard has never responded and LFI has never supported the
demonstrations of Iranian opponents in France because they are in an
electoral clientelist approach.
In our opinion, it was necessary, on the one hand, to freeze the assets
of the Pasdarans and the regime and, on the other hand, to obtain the
closure of the Iranian embassy. This is used to monitor and spy on exile
and the secret services put pressure on families in Iran.
But part of the left refuses these kinds of initiatives because they are
also supported by the United States, and for them, anything that seems
to come from the United States is necessarily bad. We have also seen it
for the sanctions against Russia.
Sandrine Rousseau (EELV) and Manon Aubry (LFI) were booed on Sunday
October 2, 2022 at one of the demonstrations in support of the
revolution. This is normal because they have chosen to be on the side of
political Islam and the Iranians in exile do not want that.
In Lyon, the mayor refused to come to the rallies (although he was very
present for Ukraine). This is normal because he is very close to Piolle,
the mayor of Grenoble. Their ideas on Islam and the veil therefore
prevent them from coming to a demonstration of Iranians who support
women who refuse the obligation to wear the veil. However, green elected
officials were present. The question is therefore complex.
The NPA Trotskyists participated in some demonstrations and also
organized public meetings of support.
The libertarians did not organize anything and we did not see them much
in the demonstrations. They are in the same problem as the left. Before
they said "Neither God nor master" but now they accept gods and masters.
How can one be a Christian and an anarchist? For me it is unacceptable
just like being pro-Islam and anar.
More broadly, it is a neo-colonialist position of certain activists who
believe that emancipation is not for women in neighborhoods and suburbs.
For me, all women, of all countries, of all cultures want emancipation.
Who wants to be a prisoner of anything?
We cannot say that freedom is good for me who lives in France and refuse
it to an Iranian or a Senegalese who should continue with his culture.
If there are in a certain number of African countries terrible actions
against women, should we let it happen because it would be their culture?
Since when is culture something that is put higher than the universal
right to freedom?
This is a problem of current anarchism and there is no debate on these
issues. But how can one live as a political activist without being able
to read, debate, criticize?

Olive Oyl and Eugene the Jeep

http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article3905
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca