Revolution#117, January 27, 2008
European Demo Supports Iranian Student Protesters:
“The World Is Hungry for a New Voice”
The December 22, 2007 demonstration in Brussels, Belgium to demand the release of the arrested students in Iran was called by an organizing committee that put out a statement titled: “No to Military Intervention of U.S. Imperialism in Iran! No to the Reactionary Islamic Republic of Iran!”
The committee stated, in part (complete statement is available at committe2007.blogfa.com):
“We have a voice!
“We are an echo of struggle of the people of the world against the politics of invasion and military intervention of U.S. imperialism in Iran!
“We are the voice of the Iranian people against the Islamic Republic of Iran!
“We are the voice of workers, women, teachers, students, and oppressed nations against foreign intervention and internal tyranny!
“...At the moment, Bush and his European allies as well as the Islamic Republic of Iran, are trying to convince people that our only choice is between neo-liberal slavery and Islamic fundamentalism. It is up to those who believe in freedom to create and fortify a new path, a new way of thinking. Imperialists and Islamic fundamentalists are two faces of the same system and any support given to one, will in reality and inevitably lead to strengthening the other.”
A message of solidarity to the December 22 protest was sent by Sunsara Taylor, a writer for Revolution newspaper. The message said in part:
“As the U.S. threatens to expand their aggression into Iran—a move that could enflame the whole Middle East and massively escalate the deadly global dynamic of McWorld vs. Jihad—the protests by Iranian students and others on December 22 stand out as all the more critical. With the future at stake, the world is hungry for a new voice and new songs to animate a struggle to bring a whole new, emancipated world into being.
“Having been on dozens of campuses across this country, building resistance to the crimes against humanity of the Bush regime and spreading revolution, I have seen and tasted how deeply a new generation in the U.S. is disgusted, disturbed, and enraged by what is being done in their names. But I also know how deeply this is paralyzed by the way it appears that the only choices out there are McWorld or Jihad. How big a difference it will make for them to see and hear you, as part of a new voice emerging.
“How big a responsibility those of us living in the U.S. have to bring forward resistance to ‘our own’ government—mass political resistance that is so powerful it cannot be hidden from the victims of the U.S.’s wars, who are justifiably seething with hatred for all this brings down on them…”
And Sunsara pointed to the crucial role of youth:
“As the cries of the imperialists and the reactionary fundamentalists escalate towards a confrontation in Iran, do not underestimate how hungry humanity is for another way. Play the role that youth have always played—get way out front, build uncompromising mass political resistance to any moves towards U.S. war on Iran and to the repression carried out by the Islamic Republic of Iran, refuse to be confined by the limitations of what now exists, reject everything that is reactionary, challenge the passivity of others, and dare to struggle and sacrifice in the service of dreams big and liberating enough to offer real hope for humanity. Do it with urgency, do it with determination, and do it with tremendous joy—for there is nothing that could matter more.”
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