Emerging radical left in Iran: a brief introduction

Vahid Valizadeh

Last year, in  4^th December, in commemoration of the student day in Iran, which is held annually by students of universities across the country, a protest demonstration took place in Tehran University, organized by young Marxist students against government’s policies. This followed by similar protest held by smaller groups of Marxist student in some other cities. More than 60 were arrested in Tehran, abducted in streets and classrooms, or detained in their rooms. They are awaiting their trials. Some flee, forced to exile. Then police took action in other cities, several students spent their summer holidays in prison.. But last week’s protests in different universities showed that this new emerging movement is vivid, active in the whole country, and enable to organize itself, addressing  issues that no official opposition would like to address them aloud[1].

Last year’s event was the first notable appearance of Marxist movement in contemporary Iran, after brutal and bloody repression of leftist groups and individuals in 1980`s. in early 1980`s, Marxist groups and movement, flourished by revolution, were all removed from universities, factories and streets forcefully by bloody Islamic regime’s terror. Many were executed, murdered, forced to flee. Those who were lucky enough not to be immediate removal, sentenced to long time prison. But the regime with a task to suppress a revolution did not feel secure and in a truly political genocide, those who insisted on their political beliefs in prison were all executed in black summer of 1988. Their dead bodies were secretly transferred in covered trucks and buried in mass graves.  This crime against humanity remained untold, just in recent years its horrible stories are subjected to limited discussions and publications, mostly among exiled communities [2]. It seemed like Marxian and leftist movements are obliterated forever and they would be replaced by those who would not challenge the regime deeply and radically. The social landscape seemed free of any Marxist movements by the observers, journalists and commentators who saw the surface, not the depth of social dynamics.

But last year’s re-emergence of Marxist student movement in a remarkable scale that was interpreted by journalist as surprising [3], rooted in latest developments in a revival of Marxist milieu in Iran. There were some circles and groups that took the role of organizing highly critical students and youth around Marxian analysis of society and leftist revolutionary concepts and views on contemporary culture. Among them, Khak, a socio-political student newspaper, began its publication more than 4 years ago, giving a voice to Marxian and revolutionary views on current everyday events and issues in Iran. Its publication reached to 3000 copies just before it was banned due to "assault on authorities".

Two other initiatives are Artcult and Mindmotor[4], former was a pdf-based journal and latter an artistic and theoretic website. These circles were the main collective-building spaces that brought together radical thinkers, writers and artists. Incorporating new media such as graffiti and urban art into preestablished Iranian leftist art body, mainly based on literature, Mindmotor opened the mutual door between contemporary critical artistic practices and new Marxian movement. While main concern of Mindmotor was artistic practice, Artcult`s main concern is theory. Published only in electronic version to avoid any possible censorship in production and distribution process, it seeks to introduce and synthesize emancipatory theories. Issues about Situationist International, Russian constructivists and productivists, Fredric Jameson`s idea and concepts, leftist feminists , and …, as well as articles about certain Iranian and non-Iranian artworks and cultural products, made this journal influential in raising the new critical awareness deeply rooted in left tradition.

These publications are not confined to words, but they are part of new dynamism that is searching connections between thought, organization, action and art, emphasizing politicization of social sphere, and at the same time, collectivization of current elitist political scene. In last year, many of their writers were arrested, subjected to torture or forced to exile. This "pain of class" is not new. The new is developments beneath Iranian contemporary society that are making possible a multitude movement including young women (suffering from Islamic patriarchy laws), working class and unemployed (suffering from rapid privatization supported by neoliberal policy of government), youth (suffering from a repressive medieval system), and other oppressed groups.

But under globalization of artillery, bombs, emergency security conditions, and so on, it is impossible to act alone, isolated in own borders, covered by media broadcasting capital’s interests. International solidarity and cooperation is needed to battle against waves that are originally global. Unfortunately, Iran`s regime is embraced by many socialists and leftists in the world. Its anti-American claims supposed to be a revolutionary tendency, and its anti-modern and anti-western values are regarded as a multicultural otherness. A closer look will show them that class division in Iran is much deeper than any country. free expression is only a dream. worker activists are in prison, and the whole society is under control of big multinational companies. Creating any resistance (or revolution?) in global level needs  more networks, relations and communications. Global resistance does not mean a camp of coalition between states of Iran, Venezuela , Cuba, Nicaragua and even Russia on the one side, and the camp of Obama`s administration, NATO, and others on the other side. It means another polarization, another global conflict. another international, called oppressed

[1] Reports in Persian can be found in www.azady-barabary.com

[2] See Abrahamian, Ervand. Tortured Confessions: Prisons and Public Recantations in Modern Iran. Berkeley:  University of California Press,  c1999 1999. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft3s2005jq/

[3] For example see a biased view in New York times: NAZILA FATHI, Radical Left, Iran's Last Legal Dissidents, Until Now, Published: January 20, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/world/middleeast/20iran.html

[4] http://www.mindmotor.com/

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