[Marxism] Iran: Not a Twitter revolution (not Twitter, not Made in USA, and not a revolution either)

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Author Archive
June 26th, 2009
It's not a Twitter revolution in Iran
Posted by: Reese Erlich
- Reese Erlich is a freelance foreign correspondent who covered the Iranian
elections and is author of The Iran Agenda: the Real Story of U.S. Policy
and the Middle East Crisis (Polipoint Press) The views expressed are his
own. - 

Iran is not undergoing a Twitter Revolution. The term simultaneously
mischaracterizes and trivializes the important mass movement developing in
Iran.

Here's how it all began. The Iranian government prohibited foreign reporters
from traveling outside Tehran without special permission, and later confined
them to their hotel rooms and offices. CNN and other cable networks were
particularly desperate to find ways to show the large demonstrations and
government repression. So they turned to Internet sites such as Facebook and
Twitter in a frantic effort to get information. Since reporters were getting
most of their information from Tweets and You Tube video clips, the notion
of a "Twitter Revolution" was born.

We reporters love a catch phrase and, Twitter being all a flutter in the
west, it seemed to fit. It's a catchy phrase but highly misleading.

First of all the vast majority of Iranians have no access to Twitter. While
reporting in Tehran, I personally didn't encounter anyone who used it
regularly. A relatively small number of young, economically well off
Iranians do use Twitter. A larger number have access to the Internet.
However, in the beginning, most demonstrations were organized through word
of mouth, mobile phone calls and text messaging.

But somehow "Text Messaging Revolution" doesn't have that modern, sexy ring,
especially if you have to type it with your thumbs on a tiny keyboard.

More importantly, by focusing on the latest in Internet communications,
cable TV networks intentionally or unintentionally characterize a genuine
mass movement as something supported mainly by the Twittering classes.

I witnessed tens of thousands of mostly young people coming out into the
streets in spontaneous campaign rallies in the days leading up to the
election - most of whom had never heard of Twitter.

They shared a common joy not only campaigning for reformist Mirhossein
Mousavi, but in being able to freely express themselves for the first time
in many years. When the government announced an overwhelming victory for
hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad only two hours after the polls closed, people
became furious.

Over the next few days, hundreds of thousands of Iranians poured into the
streets in Tehran and cities around the country. They organized silent
marches through word of mouth and phone calls since the government had shut
down text messaging just prior to the election. Contrary to popular
perception, these gatherings included women in chadors, workers and clerics
- not just the Twittering classes. Spontaneous marches took place in south
Tehran, a decidedly poorer section of town and supposedly a stronghold for
Ahmadinejad.

Iranians initially protested what they perceived as massive vote fraud, but
that quickly evolved as the protests grew in size and breadth. In the week
after the June 14 election, millions of Iranians vented 30 years of pent up
anger at a repressive system.

Iranian youth particularly resented President Ahmadinejad's support for
religious militia attacks on unmarried young men and women walking together
and against women not covering enough hair with their hijab. Workers
resented the 24 percent annual inflation that robbed them of real wage
increases. Independent trade unionists had been fighting for decent wages
and for the right to organize.

Some demonstrators wanted a more moderate Islamic government. Others
advocated a separation of mosque and state, and a return to parliamentary
democracy. They are well aware that when Iran had a genuine parliamentary
system under Prime Minister Mossadegh, the CIA overthrew it in 1953 in order
to promote the Shah as dictator. I didn't meet any Iranians calling for U.S.
intervention; that's strictly a debate inside the Washington beltway.

Some Iranian friends have asked me why Supreme Leader Sayyed Ali Khamenei
would throw his support behind Ahmadinejad when his presidency was so
clearly damaging the country at home and abroad. Initially, Khamenei
supported the president because they share common ideological and political
positions. Later, the top clerical leaders saw the mass movement that
coalesced around Mousavi's campaign as a direct threat to government
stability and their future rule.

Since June 21, the top clerics, military and intelligence services have
mobilized their entire apparatus to crush the movement for social and
economic change.

The mass movement that sprang forth in the past few weeks has been 30 years
in coming. It's not a Twitter Revolution, nor even a "velvet revolution"
like those in Eastern Europe.

It's a genuine Iranian mass movement made up of students, workers, women,
and middle class folks. It may not be strong enough to topple the system
today but is sowing the seeds for future struggles.

Bio
Reese Erlich is a freelance journalist and author from the United States.
His books include the 2003 best-seller, Target Iraq: What the News Media
Didn't Tell You, 2007's The Iran Agenda: The Real Story of US Policy and the
Middle-East Crisis, and his newest release Dateline Havana: The Real Story
of US Policy and the Future of Cuba. He has produced many radio
documentaries, including a series hosted by Walter Cronkite.




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