Iran linkorama

Note: I posted this yesterday because the uprising in Iran is continuing, alongside a ferocious and desperate crackdown on it by the government - and yet te mainstream media in the West seems to have absolutely no interest. While some attention is paying paid to Iran's nuclear ambitions, the struggle for democracy seems to be yesterday's news. We need to continue to show our solidarity with the people in Iran. A couple of links added near the bottom.

Iran Solidarity

News from the struggles in Iran
LabourStart;
Azarmehr:
Raye Man Kojast
Guardian
Euston Manifesto
Alliance for Workers Liberty/Campaign for Peace and Democracy
Entdinglichung
And, while we're here, a voice from the other side: more disgusting regime apologetics from our old friend Mehdi Hasan. Oh, and here's the probably clinically insane uber-contrarian Slavoj Zizek arguing that we should give Iran's nukes a chance (via Petra).

And here's one more. You thought that CND was about nuclear disarmanement? As in unilateral? As in no more nuclear weapons? Well, no, its chair, Kate Hudson, is in favour of nuclear weapons actually! Well, if they're Iranian... Here she is, from 2006, interviewed by the supposedly anti-Stalinist SWP (via Champagne Charlie).

Comments

ross said…
"and yet te mainstream media in the West seems to have absolutely no interest"

i was thinking exactly the same thing yesterday about the absolute indifference of the left/blogosphere AND mainstream media to the 157 people murdered in Guinea yesterday as a result of troop crackdown on ongoing opposition presidential demonstrations, not to mention the use of rape and sexual assualt by govt troops employed as a tactic against female protestor, plus many more people injured, detained and arrested as a result of a peaceful demonstration

the wrong type of vibrant?
bob said…
Thanks Ross. I had absolutely no idea about Conakry until I read about it at Entdinglichung a few minutes ago.

I'm not sure I approve of the Meanwhile at the Bar contrast to Iran, as (obviously) I think the Iranian revolution is becoming under-reported now it's past its fashionable moment. But certainly the left seems fixated on the Middle East and has absolutely no interest in Africa. In Congo, people are dying at the rate of 45,000 per month, and the death toll during the spike in the conflict there that coincided with the Gaza war far exceeded that.

Apologies for the poor spelling of the intro I added this morning - will correct! And I'm adding a couple of links too.
ross said…
"I'm not sure I approve of the Meanwhile at the Bar contrast to Iran, as (obviously) I think the Iranian revolution is becoming under-reported now it's past its fashionable moment"

it was me who wrote that post on MATB - as far as the contrast is concerned I don't think it's that unreasonable. If you compare the coverage (mainstream, lefty, blogosphere) of what happened in Iran in the first few days of the protests with the coverage in Guinea in the last few days there's an enormous difference (and this difference will if anything continue to grow) - but the underlying situations are not a million miles apart and don't seem to justify the huge differential in both coverage and concern/support/solidarity from those who are inclined to do so for similar situations in other (more fashionable) locations:-

- opposition movement dissatisfied with presidential shenanigans tries to assert themselves against an undemocratic regime through mass protest
- violent & murderous reactions from authorities to that opposition resulting in many deaths injuries, detainees and disappeared
- protestors vowing to continue their defiance in spite of massive state repression
- both areas rich in natural resources

I agree that there's only a certain amount of time/resource that people/groups can give to things and it would be impossible to cover every injustice in the world equally and at a level comensurate to its severity - however this time/resource constraint doesn't explain why some situations receive massive (relative) coverage, from mainstream and fringe, and others precious little

you hit the nail on the head though with the use of the word fasionable - some attrocities/uprisings/ruptures are fashionable others aren't - i'm interested in why this is the case - i can understand why this is so in terms of mainstream media reporting, but it's much harder to explain why this is the case from other sources, be they new/fringe media or old lefties.
BuJ said…
you make a very worrying point Bob.. that the world's (or the West's?) fear of Iran's nuclear ambition is greater than its interest in Iranian democracy (via the anti-government demonstrations).

Even here in Dubai, with Iran at our door step, we haven't heard much in the news lately about the demos, so have they stopped demonstrating or stopped reporting?

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