Re: [Marxism] Ahmadinejad popularity soars

["Yoshie Furuhashi" <critical.montages@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 6/20/06, Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Ahmadinejad 'has 70% approval rating'
>
> Ewen MacAskill and Simon Tisdall in Tehran
> Tuesday June 20, 2006
>
> Guardian
> The popularity of Iran's controversial leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is
> surging almost a year after he unexpectedly won closely contested
> presidential elections, Iranian officials and western diplomats said on
> Tuesday.
>
> Attributing his success to his populist style and fortnightly
> meet-the-people tours of the country, the sources said, as matters stand,
> Mr Ahmadinejad was the clear favourite to win a second term in 2009. The
> perception that the president was standing up to the US over the nuclear
> issue was also boosting his standing.
>
> "He's more popular now than a year ago. He's on the rise," said Nasser
> Hadian-Jazy, a professor of political science at Tehran University. "I
> guess he has a 70% approval rating right now. He portrays himself as a
> simple man doing an honest job. He's comfortable communicating with
> ordinary people."

Naturally, I'm very pleased to hear this.  Now, like Chavez,
Ahmadinejad has to think about what to do with the term limits thingy.
:->

> Mohammad Atrianfar, founder of the leading reformist newspaper Shargh and
> an ally of Hashemi Rafsanjani, the president's rival, said Mr Ahmadinejad
> would not have it all his own way. "The reform movement is alive, despite
> last year's defeat," he said, although he added it would take some time to
> regroup. Meanwhile, the government was mishandling economic policy, and
> that could be its undoing.

It is true that the President of Iran has yet to get control of the
oil industry and the central bank in Iran -- even the parliament, let
alone the guardian and expediency councils, is not quite on his side
on structural economic changes beyond fiscal policy.

I added this bit from IRNA to Ross Pourzal's latest
<http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/pourzal180606.html>:

<blockquote>"President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad . . . criticized the
ongoing privatization scheme, which has turned into a means for the
'looting of national wealth.'

'I've heard that a factory, worth rls 300 billion (USD 32.715
million), is offered at rls 1.050 billion (USD 114,504) . . . . Had
the law allowed, we would have given the production unit to laborers
free of charge so that it would both remain active and earn profit for
the government,' said Ahmadinejad in a speech to the locals.

He said his government does support private investment and business,
while believing that the policy should not encourage bankruptcy of
workshops, low production, lay-offs and plunder of national wealth.

He insisted, 'The Iranian nation does not accept the sort of
privatization at all'" ("Ahmadinejad Protests Plundering National
Wealth," IRNA, 9 June 2006).</blockquote>

I hope that, soon, he will be so popular that he will be able to pass
a law that would allow laborers to get factories free of charge and
run them!

--
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>
<http://mrzine.org>
<http://monthlyreview.org/>

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