Iran Protests are Increasingly Revolutionary

I'm taking a break from a weekend full of articling applications (ugh) to note a new development in Iran. There seems to have been a sea-change in the protests there. They have gone from being about an election result to about bringing down the government. This is a good thing. Iran's system of theocracy is deeply corrupt and needs to change. A revolution is the only true way to do that.

Persiankiwi (http://twitter.com/persiankiwi) has some very interesting tips on how to disable the Iranian government, which indicate this trend.

I promise I will try to get to something on domestic politics, but that might be a few days off. Suffice to say, Iggy = Stephane II.

Developments in Iran

The situation in Iran seems to continue to degenerate. I am getting worried for the tweeter at Change_for_Iran since he last tweeted that he was going to the Mousavi rally and hasn't tweeted since. I hope he is alright. Another excellent twitter is persiankiwi. He has been reporting increasing violence by both state police and civilian militias. It sounds like the opposition is not backing down. New marches are planned for tomorrow. This is beginning to resemble a revolutionary moment. This may be the chance that Iran needs to throw off the shackles of their reactionary theocracy.

My hope now is for a relatively peaceful revolution, but that is looking increasingly unlikely, as the state appears to be using steadily increasing violence as it attempts to maintain control. This uprising is driven by new media, and increasingly resembles the lead up to the massacre in Iiananmen Square in 1989. That uprising was driven by cellphones and faxes. This one appears to be driven by Twitter, as students share information and knowledge. I haven't heard anything more about the members of Ansar-e Hezbollah captured at Tehran University.

I'm doing my best to keep abreast of the situation.

Later tonight I will try to put together something on today's developments in federal politics.

I'm Back

It's been far to long, but I'm back.

I stopped blogging for a while because of school and then got caught in the intertia. I've been dragged back in by the events in Iran.

I've been monitoring a twitter feed by a student in Tehran. It is something that could turn out to be to the stolen election what Riverbend's blog was to the occupation of Iraq. You can find it at twitter.com/change_for_iran

The latest tweets from him suggest that he is being attacked by pro-government militias:

bastards just attacked us for no reason, I lost count of how much tear gas they launched at us!

my friend saying more than 100 students arrested, I can't confirm this but the numbers are high

to other sources: this isn't the police! police is still outside! we're under attack by Ansar-Hezbolah

unfortunately the entrance door is completely destroyed and there is no way of barricading it

typing as fastest as I can in both English & Farsi, Still we need outside help, I really don't want to be captured by Ansar

For some unknown reason there is still power in here and DSL line is working. but there is no dial tone

Stop burning tires & trash cans! come to our aid it's getting worse than 18tir already!

We're trying to stop Masood from going outside! there is no way they will listen to us right now.

the other buildings are now chanting "Ey Iran" song

This sounds like an increasingly brutal crackdown in progress.

As I've said elsewhere, I could see Ahmedinejad winning, but not with a ridiculous margin like that claimed. To suggest that he got 63% of the vote is absurd and smacks of vote rigging.

I'm going to keep following this. In the coming days I'll also blog about my response to the Nova Scotia election.

Update: Iranian Student is now reporting that two paramilitaries from Ansar-e Hezbollah (the group leading the siege of Tehran University) have been captured by students. Not sure what this will mean, but it's a big event.