Iran confronts core contradictions
Asia Times / Ardeshir Ommani
26-Jan-2010 (one comment)

As the protests in Iran intensified, and as a majority of the people, pro-Ahmadinejad and even those in the Mousavi camp, realized that the true objective of the opposition went far beyond the presidential election results, and as the core of the protestors turned ever-more violent, the liberal leaders of the mobs, Mousavi himself and Mehdi Karoubi, removed themselves from the daily activities of the protesters.

The greatest damage that Mousavi and Karoubi inflicted was not on the so-called Principalist, an ideological trend that Ahmadinejad represents, but ironically on the ideals of the reform movement, which was years in the making. Such a bourgeois-liberal movement, if it had the chance to mature, and follow the path of reform as they preached, would have been able to strengthen the republican side of the state and soften its side of theocracy.

The negative feature of the reform movement, should it ever succeed, would be its strong belief in the tenets of neo-liberal economic theories and believing in free market concepts and US rhetoric about democracy at its face value.

Time to retreat
Belatedly realizing the strong opposition of a great majority of the Iranian people to the damages inflicted on Iran’s international and domestic credibility, Mousavi and his sympathizers have come up with the idea of "national unity" to avoid facing prosecution for their role in the destabilization, that was demanded by some key clerical, political and... >>>

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On the point

by IranMilitaryForum.net on Wed Jan 27, 2010 09:04 AM PST

In other words, the third factor in destabilization is the problem inherent in capitalist development, particularly manifested in high rates of unemployment among the young people (college educated or otherwise), the high cost of shelter and a government bureaucracy that generally disregards the rule of law.

The low rate of labor productivity in both the private and state sectors, not to mention corruption and lack of transparency in government projects (contract auctions, and issuance of import-export licenses) no doubt diminishes the trust and confidence of the masses with regards to the character of the state.

In other words, the laboring classes in Iran are doubly burdened by the theocracy on one hand and capitalist development on the other.

 


Very well said!


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