Mousavi Issues Statement

Naj @ Neo Resistance has posted the latest statement from Mir Hossein Mousavi and an English translation. It is very interesting to read and his most radical demand is for annulling the vote and repeating the election and he asks for space to be given to protest and not for the security forces to repress them violently. I post it below also so you may read and make up your own minds-

It Doesn’t Matter Who You Vote For…

Authoritarians Have Riot Police.

It’s very depressing what is happening today in Iran, apparently foreign embassies are taking in wounded, which is a bad sign in many ways, of the level of violence, of foreign powers becoming more involved. Did America rerun its election when Bush stole it? Which is to say Iran’s establishment is not acting any different to any other. But in a nation of such long history and rich culture combined with a young demographic a chance to break the mould is perhaps still alive. A fresh election with cross party observers at every stage could have led a way forward, one can argue fraud/not fraud interference etc endlessly, there are clearly enough Iranians unhappy with their government that they are making the kind of protest our Western organisers can barely dream of. It can’t all be the CIA, MI6, Mossad, even Rafsanjani pulling strings for his neoliberal wet dream (and there are those who say Ahmadinejad is not that different economically, his help to the poorer Iranians largely to gain support while he sells off assets to allies in the Revolutionary Guard). This level of sustained outpouring of frustration is not a phantom, the protesters do not want to overthrow the regime for some Western puppet, they want a government worthy of their talents and ambitions, a revival perhaps of the Islamic Revolution before it turned on the idealists and had them silenced. You can’t translate Chavez vs. neoliberal puppets -or whatever- to Iran, the structure and politics of the Islamic republic is entirely different, the history is different. But they do share enemies, which is where this crackdown makes the least sense. Perhaps they believe or have absolute proof this is an attempt at agitation & regime change, but the clever way of defusing that would have been an election rerun monitored by all sides, (even invite Jimmy Carter and his chums to watch!). I know that doesn’t guarantee results that would be accepted universally, ask a Palestinian, but it would resolve much of the current tension. Instead those in charge (and there is some debate whether this is Khamenei or an element of the Revolutionary Guard) have shown their authoritarian nature, just as ours and many other governments do, faced with mass disproval of their activities they ignore dialogue then repress. What right do I have to expect Iran to operate better than my own country? None. But I can show solidarity with Iranians and reject outside powers interference for their own agendas. Authoritarianism of the left, right, religious, secular, whatever is never supportable.

Theatre Tackles The Jean Charles deMenezes Killing

This appears it will be considerably better than the ITV ‘docudrama’ which came off like a 24 copy, overwhelmed with a melodramatic score and deference to the establishment. Imagine using the public execution of an innocent man to sell advertising to an action friendly audience demographic, ain’t commercial teevee grand.

Via Justice4Jean

OH WELL NEVER MIND BYE by Steven Lally
Directed by Tom Mansfield
Cast: Matthew Duggan, Susanna Fiore, Charlotte Flintham, Benjamin Peters

16 June – 4 July
Union Theatre, 204 Union Street, London SE1 0LX
Tues-Sat 7.30pm

Tickets £12 full/£10 concessions
Gala Night Saturday 20 June – call Box Office for info
Box Office 020 7261 9876

“They should know that people are forcing us to take sides. That our paper is susceptible to whichever pressure group shouts the loudest, to the point where it changes facts and stops us doing our jobs.”

 21 July 2005. James Fisher’s news team are struggling to report the day’s events in time to meet their evening deadline. When police marksmen shoot a man dead at Stockwell underground station the next morning, the team are caught between the need to report the truth and a combination of political pressure, professional rivalry, and personal resentment.

 Written after extensive research and interviews with working journalists, Oh Well Never Mind Bye is a daring, compelling and darkly comic political drama exploring the workings of the media and the rise of “churnalism” in the era of 24-hour news, set against the background of the July 2005 terrorist attacks on London and the shooting by police of innocent Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes.

In the offices of a fictional newspaper, news editor James Fisher is struggling to keep his team on task as they report the failed bombings of July 21st, 2005. Charlotte, his most talented reporter, has been taken off essential duties after a report she sent from the occupied West Bank angered a pro-Israel pressure group. The team’s new addition, George, is beginning to ask awkward questions about the accuracy of the reports coming in off the wire. Only the cynical Fin seems to actually get the job done. When news comes in the next morning of a police shooting at Stockwell underground station, the divisions within the team become even more pronounced as Charlotte seeks to bypass the paper’s pro-security editorial line and report the unpalatable truth.

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