Sunday
May022010
Iran Analysis: The Scattering of Protest is Still Protest
Sunday, May 2, 2010 at 8:00
0630 GMT: It was difficult at first to get a reading of Iran's May Day, given the regime's comprehensive effort to block any dissent or evidence of opposition. Even that blanket attempt offered an important lesson, however: in the most incisive comment of the day, an observer noted, “For a Government so sure that Green Movement is over and done with, they have a lot of security out on the streets.”
Eventually, as some video --- shot in secret, with the cameraperson at risk of detention --- made its way through and reports could be cross-checked and verified: the pattern emerged.
The protests are scattered, but they persist.
Perhaps the most striking incident of the day was at Tehran University. the President wished to give a speech on the campus. Yet, 10 1/2 months after the election and despite his supposed legitimacy and assured rule, Ahmadinejad was trying to reach the University unannounced.
The effort failed. Someone got word, spread it, and hundreds of students gathered to give Ahmadinejad a special greeting. The chants and songs, be they of affirmation for the opposition, denuncation of the Government, or a willingness to sacrifice, cannot be mistaken: this was a persistent, demonstration that the demands for justice and accountability may be suppressed but they are not vanquished.
And on May Day, despite the Government's restrictions on unions, despite the threats of retribution, despite memories of last year's violent response by the regime, the workers also gathered. They often did so in clusters, often in muted presence rather than vocal demonstration, but they still came out.
At the end of the day, this was still a messy story. It offers no clarity on the political and economic situation in Iran. There was no resolution, despite the attempt of Iran's state media to ignore everything and of the editors of America's top newspaper to declare a victory for the regime.
Yet, in one more step along this post-election path, the significance is simply that these scattered events occurred. Turmoil continues but so does hope, repression is redoubled but so is defiance.
There will come a day of reckoning --- symbolically, the stakes are being raised for 12 June, the anniversary of the Revolution --- but this May Day was primarily to offer some sign of resistance.
Scattering of protest is far, far different from no protest at all.
Eventually, as some video --- shot in secret, with the cameraperson at risk of detention --- made its way through and reports could be cross-checked and verified: the pattern emerged.
Iran Eyewitness: “The Movement Is Still Strong and Vibrant”
The protests are scattered, but they persist.
Perhaps the most striking incident of the day was at Tehran University. the President wished to give a speech on the campus. Yet, 10 1/2 months after the election and despite his supposed legitimacy and assured rule, Ahmadinejad was trying to reach the University unannounced.
The effort failed. Someone got word, spread it, and hundreds of students gathered to give Ahmadinejad a special greeting. The chants and songs, be they of affirmation for the opposition, denuncation of the Government, or a willingness to sacrifice, cannot be mistaken: this was a persistent, demonstration that the demands for justice and accountability may be suppressed but they are not vanquished.
And on May Day, despite the Government's restrictions on unions, despite the threats of retribution, despite memories of last year's violent response by the regime, the workers also gathered. They often did so in clusters, often in muted presence rather than vocal demonstration, but they still came out.
At the end of the day, this was still a messy story. It offers no clarity on the political and economic situation in Iran. There was no resolution, despite the attempt of Iran's state media to ignore everything and of the editors of America's top newspaper to declare a victory for the regime.
Yet, in one more step along this post-election path, the significance is simply that these scattered events occurred. Turmoil continues but so does hope, repression is redoubled but so is defiance.
There will come a day of reckoning --- symbolically, the stakes are being raised for 12 June, the anniversary of the Revolution --- but this May Day was primarily to offer some sign of resistance.
Scattering of protest is far, far different from no protest at all.