Iran
- Thread starter J.C.Decaux
- Start date
too much pressure is being put on ordinary people by this globalisation process ... basic stuff like housing and even food in some places are the main issue here
well have to go through another global wave of socialism sooner or later ...this neoliberalism is just shit on every level
well have to go through another global wave of socialism sooner or later ...this neoliberalism is just shit on every level
phillm
Trolling through Life (TM)
Report: Ex-Iranian president Ahmadinejad arrested for inciting unrest
According to Arab paper, former leader's comments against Rouhani government amid rallies have led authorities to seek to place him under house arrest
Report: Ex-Iranian president Ahmadinejad arrested for inciting unrest
According to Arab paper, former leader's comments against Rouhani government amid rallies have led authorities to seek to place him under house arrest
Report: Ex-Iranian president Ahmadinejad arrested for inciting unrest
elbows
Well-Known Member
teqniq
DisMembered
camouflage
gaslit at scale.
fake news apparently.
camouflage
gaslit at scale.
Interesting interview with Muhammed Sahimi on the situation in Iran from a few days ago.
http://dissentradio.com/radio/18_01_03_sahimi.mp3
yes it's a libertarian podcast, no i'm not a libertarian, yes it's a good interview- and I'm very interested to know what anyone thinks about what Mo Sahimi sez about the issue.
http://dissentradio.com/radio/18_01_03_sahimi.mp3
yes it's a libertarian podcast, no i'm not a libertarian, yes it's a good interview- and I'm very interested to know what anyone thinks about what Mo Sahimi sez about the issue.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
Best piece yet- full of info/history/links/analysis - hits all the right targets. Won't pull any quotes as it covers a lot of important ground:
The Iran Protests: The Revolution is Dead. Long Live the Revolution!
The Iran Protests: The Revolution is Dead. Long Live the Revolution!
elbows
Well-Known Member
Excellent, thanks for the great and informative read.
Obviously there are many omissions and lack of analysis in mainstream articles but the extent to which many of the themes are in tune with the really good stuff has been reasonably impressive compared to the utter gulf we often get. Take for example this article which is 5 days or so old now but gives a brief glimpse of the economic situation in Doroud and at least vaguely touches some of the other bases that excellent article you linked to covers properly.
Iran's working class, facing dim prospects, fuels unrest
elbows
Well-Known Member
One of the links mentioned in the middle of that document was a real interesting read too. An old article about riots in the 1990's and the scale of squatting, migration to cities and informal communities in Iran. https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/9782/12_606_019.pdf
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
Yes - the author of that piece did a couple of really good books on same topic(s)
Street Politics: Poor People's Movements in Iran (not a great copy)
Life as Politics: How Ordinary People Change the Middle East
And a larger one on the Arab Spring (Revolution Without Revolutionaries) that's just come out and so haven't yet read.
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butchersapron
Bring back hanging
Some Kevan Harris stuff. He had a very interesting interview on Jacobin Radio a few days back in which he covered a lot of ground in a little time.
1) The areas where the recent protests happened have usually seen labour protests in the last few years - he has been compiling data on this as part of his UCLA job/research - and that this is part of a wider increase in countrywide industrial disputes. They don't seem to have released the database publicly yet.
2) That the austerity budgets (whether as a direct result of the IMF or not) are not actually examples of neo-liberalism but rather of attempts to technocratically modernise the state - simply put, the central state does not know or have control over the economy, over things it is supposed to own/control/tax etc - so moves to shut down on polycracy or examples of sectoral autonomy. He has some interesting stats on the growth of semi-state ownership of businesses - even outside of the usual military (see Egypt) areas that tie in with this.
3) Allied with this (and this is well accepted generally) is the attempts to draw in foreign - mainly European - capital. Which isn't happening - even those sectors with state guaranteed high profits are being shunned due to potential instability down the road. (I find this sort of undermines the argument that what's happening doesn't constitute neo-liberalism as the grounds on which capital will/are entering are being sweetened exactly by the austerity budgets along classical neo-liberal grounds).
4) There is potentially a regional anti-Tehran side to the protests and not just using Tehran as a shorthand for the theocracy and economic elites but in terms of all the recent advances on growth have gone there. In a sense, the 2009 protests were middle class reactions to the modernisation efforts at that point - those outside Tehran were left alone, until now - so this is the same process 10 years down the line.
5) Some interesting stuff in this report he did on Voter Behavior and Political Mobilization in Iran (full pdf) that shows things like those poorest are most likely to take part in political activity.
edit: he's alson on the board of MERIP who today finally have a piece out on recent stuff in Iran - not read it yet.
1) The areas where the recent protests happened have usually seen labour protests in the last few years - he has been compiling data on this as part of his UCLA job/research - and that this is part of a wider increase in countrywide industrial disputes. They don't seem to have released the database publicly yet.
2) That the austerity budgets (whether as a direct result of the IMF or not) are not actually examples of neo-liberalism but rather of attempts to technocratically modernise the state - simply put, the central state does not know or have control over the economy, over things it is supposed to own/control/tax etc - so moves to shut down on polycracy or examples of sectoral autonomy. He has some interesting stats on the growth of semi-state ownership of businesses - even outside of the usual military (see Egypt) areas that tie in with this.
3) Allied with this (and this is well accepted generally) is the attempts to draw in foreign - mainly European - capital. Which isn't happening - even those sectors with state guaranteed high profits are being shunned due to potential instability down the road. (I find this sort of undermines the argument that what's happening doesn't constitute neo-liberalism as the grounds on which capital will/are entering are being sweetened exactly by the austerity budgets along classical neo-liberal grounds).
4) There is potentially a regional anti-Tehran side to the protests and not just using Tehran as a shorthand for the theocracy and economic elites but in terms of all the recent advances on growth have gone there. In a sense, the 2009 protests were middle class reactions to the modernisation efforts at that point - those outside Tehran were left alone, until now - so this is the same process 10 years down the line.
5) Some interesting stuff in this report he did on Voter Behavior and Political Mobilization in Iran (full pdf) that shows things like those poorest are most likely to take part in political activity.
edit: he's alson on the board of MERIP who today finally have a piece out on recent stuff in Iran - not read it yet.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
This is related to a particular sufi group - they've killed 5 plod (think they were hit by a car) so are going to fully get it now.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
I think it pretty much has to be yes.
teqniq
DisMembered
I don't know whether this is wishful thinking on the part of the tweetee (is that even a word?) but protests are continuing. I think the interesting thing and what makes these protests different from the green movement that preceded it is that there a lot of disenchanted workers involved who see Iran's foreign adventures as an unnecessary drain on resources particularly when as it says they haven't been paid in months.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
This is worth a read
Iran: sedition, revolt, revolution and social disintegration
The contradiction between the state and its political regime has reached fever pitch. Who will replace the “supreme leader” has a direct effect on how the capitalist system can resolve the current crisis and survive. During Ahmadinejad’s presidency – that is, more than a deacde ago – the World Bank estimated that Iran needed at least 700 billion dollars in foreign loans or investments, just for its current projects. This sum is probably now well over a trillion dollars. In its most optimistic projections, Rouhani’s government has forecast for 60 billion dollars of foreign investment annually. In reality it has so far not achieved anything above 5 billion dollars annually. This figure does not even match the flight of capital from Iran abroad. Of course if the nuclear deal holds the Europeans will certainly want to invest in Iran but will they be able to hold their line in the face of US sanctions remains to be seen.
Iranian capitalism has only two solutions; either bring under control all the main financial resources of the state that are now under the caliphate of the supreme leader, and thereby force its various “foundations” to pay taxes … or multiply the foreign investments a hundredfold. Either of these is simply total fantasy. The first possibility would require the complete dismantling of the client caliphate state with its tens of millions of sponsored supporters – and there is more chance that Trump will give all his money to the poor than that anyone can make a mullah pay back what he owes. After all the recent protests that shook the regime to its foundations, one of the most abhorrent of the mullahs, the Friday Prayers leader in Tehran, Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi, even complained that the government is not devoting a greater part of its budget to the religious foundations.
The second solution requires an unprecedented growth of foreign investment in Iran, which seems extremely unlikely, especially in the current unstable political situation. Trump has put the nuclear deal in limbo, which is really not very different in its effect on foreign investment to complete annulment. We can only expect a worsening of the crisis, i.e. an increase in poverty and unemployment. The recent upheavals proved that even a caliphate cannot suppress mass protests of such nature and scale. The next uprising will be even more co-ordinated and better organised
Iran: sedition, revolt, revolution and social disintegration
The contradiction between the state and its political regime has reached fever pitch. Who will replace the “supreme leader” has a direct effect on how the capitalist system can resolve the current crisis and survive. During Ahmadinejad’s presidency – that is, more than a deacde ago – the World Bank estimated that Iran needed at least 700 billion dollars in foreign loans or investments, just for its current projects. This sum is probably now well over a trillion dollars. In its most optimistic projections, Rouhani’s government has forecast for 60 billion dollars of foreign investment annually. In reality it has so far not achieved anything above 5 billion dollars annually. This figure does not even match the flight of capital from Iran abroad. Of course if the nuclear deal holds the Europeans will certainly want to invest in Iran but will they be able to hold their line in the face of US sanctions remains to be seen.
Iranian capitalism has only two solutions; either bring under control all the main financial resources of the state that are now under the caliphate of the supreme leader, and thereby force its various “foundations” to pay taxes … or multiply the foreign investments a hundredfold. Either of these is simply total fantasy. The first possibility would require the complete dismantling of the client caliphate state with its tens of millions of sponsored supporters – and there is more chance that Trump will give all his money to the poor than that anyone can make a mullah pay back what he owes. After all the recent protests that shook the regime to its foundations, one of the most abhorrent of the mullahs, the Friday Prayers leader in Tehran, Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi, even complained that the government is not devoting a greater part of its budget to the religious foundations.
The second solution requires an unprecedented growth of foreign investment in Iran, which seems extremely unlikely, especially in the current unstable political situation. Trump has put the nuclear deal in limbo, which is really not very different in its effect on foreign investment to complete annulment. We can only expect a worsening of the crisis, i.e. an increase in poverty and unemployment. The recent upheavals proved that even a caliphate cannot suppress mass protests of such nature and scale. The next uprising will be even more co-ordinated and better organised
camouflage
gaslit at scale.
Excellent. Have our boys at Cambridge Analytica or something intensify their efforts and don't forget to arrange more shipments of wahhabs and AKs from the Libya operation for when the country implodes. Sooon.
elbows
Well-Known Member
Waste of time arguing with camouflage about such matters, the detail will seldom fit with his comic book version of the world.
People seeking freedoms reduced to mere pawns in his eyes. Sacrificed and made irrelevant via a thought process that is not worlds away from the 'lives are expendable for the greater good' mentality of the powers that be that the likes of camouflage caricature so crudely.
People seeking freedoms reduced to mere pawns in his eyes. Sacrificed and made irrelevant via a thought process that is not worlds away from the 'lives are expendable for the greater good' mentality of the powers that be that the likes of camouflage caricature so crudely.
camouflage
gaslit at scale.
Yes, the war must go on for as long as possible and for the greater good, make sure that's the narrative. I can see you've experience in the sort of thinking called for here, good man.
camouflage
gaslit at scale.
Well I know there's not a war in Iran yet, duh. Be patient.
seventh bullet
sovietwave
Give it a rest, space cadet.
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