"Am I therefore become your enemy,because I TELL YOU THE TRUTH...?"
(Galatians 4:16)

Radical left challenging authority in Iran

TEHRAN: In early December, a surprising scene played out at Tehran University: 500 Marxist students held aloft portraits of Che Guevara to protest President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's policies. Smaller groups of Marxist students staged similar protests in several other cities.Political protest has been harshly suppressed under the current Iranian government, especially dissent linked to the West. But the radical left, despite its anti-religious and anti-government message, has been permitted relative freedom. This may be because, like the government, it rejects the liberal reform movement, analysts say."The government practically permitted the left to operate since five years ago so that they would confront religious liberals," said Saeed Leylaz, a political analyst in Tehran. "But that led to the spread of a new virus."In recent weeks, the leaders of the Marxist student movement have been arrested, suggesting that the government is worrying about the size of the demonstrations and the growing attraction of an ideology that is deeply antithetical to its own.Morad Saghafi, a political analyst and the editor in chief of Goftegoo magazine, said that it was not strange that there were leftist ideas but that it was important "how they were appearing in the form of radicalism.""They are showing a kind of radicalism to reform religion and the current situation," he said. "Radicalism emerges when there is no agenda."Even those who object to Ahmadinejad say that permitting the growth of Marxist student movements is dangerous.For example, former President Mohammad Khatami, a moderate by Iranian standards, recently raised concern over the growth of leftist groups at universities. He drew a comparison with the struggles before the 1979 revolution and said that after the shah's government had banned religious groups, leftist groups encouraged armed struggle against the him, the state news agency ISNA reported.Leftist students use an anti-imperialist discourse toward the United States and say they do not have plans to overthrow the Iranian government. But they refer to the government as a capitalist regime and condemn reformist politicians as bourgeois.In one of their publications, called Khak, or Earth, one member who was jailed wrote in an editorial in May that "in this leftist movement we need to move based on the ideas of Marx, Engels and Lenin." He stressed that members needed "grass roots and radical social movements."Another member, a woman with an anonymous Web log, wrote: "Reform died. Long live revolution.""We think the regime is a capitalist regime and Ahmadinejad is a true fascist," said one leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisal.Members are atheists and attack poverty in Iran as well as other countries, including the West. They say that no socialist country is their role model, and that they oppose pro-democracy students, accusing them of trying to reform a system that cannot be reformed.Yet they do not have a specific agenda for change and seem almost nihilistic at times."We don't think we can change anything in the near future," said a 22-year-old student at Tehran University and a member of the Radical Marxists who asked to be called Ayda. "But as students we think we can transfer our knowledge about class, capitalism and equality to society, especially the workers."Another member, Shahin, 21, whose father was also a Marxist and was executed by the government in 1988, said the students ultimately wanted "free education, free health care and higher salaries for workers."Analysts familiar with the groups said students started showing leftist tendencies earlier in the decade when the reform movement was suffering setbacks and many of their supporters were becoming disillusioned. The government ignored the leftist students until December, when the crackdown against their leaders began.As in many countries, and dating back to the 19th century, the majority of intellectuals in Iran have been influenced by Marxist ideas. Much of the literature written since then is closely interwoven with leftist notions.But Marxists never gained power here. They played an important role in the victory of the 1979 revolution, but they were soon marginalized by the Islamists and their members were forced to go into exile. Many were executed in 1988.The authorities allowed all of Marx's works to be published after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. One bookstore said that leftist books sold very well these days. The store said the most popular were those written about the confederation of Iranian students, the most active organized opposition during the two decades before the 1979 revolution. Many of those activists were influenced by leftist ideas.
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