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This is not some naive or utopian uprising. The masses of working and middle class people, particularly the hundreds and thousands of women at the forefronts of these protests, comprehend very well the potential costs involved in destabilizing a highly hegemonic, patriarchal, reactionary, sectarian and fragile militarized state. People know very well that the current uprising can take any turn, in good or bad directions. But they also know that a long oppressed, alternative, non-sectarian, inter-ethnic conversation about struggle in Iran has finally (and unexpectedly) found its way into the public space. Whatever the outcome of the protests, it is important not torely on the usual victim blaming and regime normalizing tropes of “what did people expect?” or “people should know better” or “don’t play with fire”. These are the same frameworks that are continually deployed to dehumanize or erase local agency in the Syrian struggle. We cannot expect people living anywhere under unbearable economic, social, and political circumstances to solve all the inherent and deep contradictions of market capitalism, global imperialism, and patriarchy before demanding their basic right to bread, dignity, equality, justice and freedom. What we can do is resist easy explanations and convenient readings of history to describe a protest that by its nature defies them, and listen to the voices on the street. http://www.mangalmedia.net/english//rapid-diverse-decentralized-three-features-of-growing-protests-in-iran _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
