Lenin's Red State Tomb

Lenin, the proprietor of the well visited British Lenin's Tomb blog, sometimes has some useful leftist thoughts and activism posts. He is on my blogroll for that reason. Lenin's real name, advertised at his own side, is Richard Seymour. He wrote a book:

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, a number of prominent thinkers on the Left found themselves increasingly aligned with their ideological opposites. Over the last decade, many of these thinkers have become close to Washington; forceful supporters of the War on Terror, they help frame arguments for policymakers and provide the moral and intellectual justification for Western military intervention across the globe. From Kanan Makiya, one of the chief architects of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, to Bernard Henri-Levy’s advocacy of “humanitarian” intervention, The Liberal Defence of Murder traces the journey of these figures from left to right and explores their critical role in the creation of the new American empire.

Lenin's book  The Liberal Defence of Murder seems to be about the travels of the neo-cons from the pseudo left to the militaristic right.

Today Lenin writes:

The attempt to drown the protests in rivers of blood have reportedly led to a "massacre" in Baharestan Square, outside the Iranian majles, today. Tens of thousands of basiji reportedly surrounded hundreds of protesters in this small square, and battered them, then opened fire on them. It's not just basiji - multiple reports indicate that young men without uniforms were given batons and let loose. How much of this is true is obviously impossible to tell, but given that dozens have been killed so far, the worst would not be surprising.
...

Okay - pretty energetic - now let's check Lenin's evidence.

The first link in Lenin's post is to a video that shows no violence at all but some 50 (stupid because they have no tactical advantage) young people advancing towards an equally strong line of riot police. In the background some teargas pops can be heard and some smoke is seen.There is no blood or violence in it at all.

The second Lenin link is to a Guardian live blog where a search finds these two 'blood' and 'massacre' items:

2.50pm: There are more disturbing reports on Twitter of injuries in Bahareston Square. One usually reliable source says it is like a war zone with blood everywhere and many nursing broken bones.
...
4.08pm: CNN just interviewed someone who was at Baharestan Square. She tells of a massacre and a massive assault by policemen. The witness was hysterical and speaking very fast.

Blood everywhere - via Twitter ... and an anonymous hysterical 'massacre' telephone account via 'someone' on CNN ...

Lenin's third link, to a different Guardian piece, has this 'massacre":

One woman told CNN that hundreds of unidentified men armed with clubs had emerged from a mosque to confront the protesters.

"They beat a woman so savagely that she was drenched in blood and her husband fainted. They were beating people like hell. It was a massacre," she said.

Yes, it is the same anonymous CNN caller as in the second link. Now that's confirmation!

Lenin's fourth link is to the Daily Mail,.one of those totally unreliable and lying British tabloids. But still the Daily Mail page Lenin links to says just simply nothing about "tenth of thousands of basiji" or "opening fire" at all. Where did Lenin get those fantasies from?

Now from less breathless accounts than Lenin's I gather that yesterday some 200+ people tried to demonstrate at the Baharestan/Parliament Square and that the small not licensed demonstration was send home by the typical means any police force on this planet uses in such cases. Up to now, 24 hours later, there is not one confirmed report that any shots were fired at all, that "rivers of blood" flew or that anything like a "massacre" happened there.

But starting from that linking fast of hearsay the very "leftist" Lenin criticizes the "left" and proclaims:

The bloodless lack of enthusiasm for what is manifestly a democratic movement in some of the commentary reflects not anti-imperialist sensibilities so much as political timidity.
The key here is universality: these protesters are no different from those who have been beaten or killed in Genoa, in London, in LA, in Athens, and everywhere that the state is challenged by a democratic movement and responds in this way. Their case for solidarity is not diminished by the fact that they live in a society that has been threatened by imperialism. On the contrary, it means we ought to redouble our efforts.

Sure - we certainly need more enthusiasm for a 'manifestly democratic movement' that wants one non-secular pseudo-democrat authoritarian, Mousavi, to replace another non-secular pseudo-democrat authoritarian, Ahmadinejad,  to redirect the oil-money flow from the Iranian military aligned faction, Khamenei, to the more theocratic aligned one, Rafsanjani.

Unfortunately Lenin does not offer at all what efforts he thinks should be redoubled. More protests in London? Walk outs in New York? Strikes in Berlin? But I am sure he is able double or triple his own. A copy of his post to Red State or the Freeper site would do just that.

And maybe he should reread and reflect on his book?

Posted by: B | Jun 25, 2009 4:17 PM

i am not surprised in the least that the so-called left that parviz wants to demonise - are foolishly follwing the affairs using only the iran desks of foxcnnbbcaljazeera

the philosopher zizek who normally has much interesting to say has also written a hysteric response to the events in iran which i will not bother linking to - because it is written deep from vanity's corruption

the so called left especially in the west has been especially vicious in relation to the 'people' annexed by political islam. the left through being liquidated by empire & its agents , through making thoughtless alliances & for allying themselves to the soviet union when their realities were substantially different - lost space to political islam & instead of analysing that defeat - they make alliances that are built on sand

there is something else which is just as worrying - for all the lipservice to the palestinian people - the left has done close to fuck all & a large reason behind this until recently is that iintellectual elites especially of the so called left have a phobia of the arab & persian people & this phobia riddles the thoughts of even a possibly great thinker like zizek

what i do not understand really is the hysteria - like our own slothrop - their shameless sourcing of cnn who no one in their right or left mind would do - even on a bad day

i think both you & i as individuals are prepare to say we are wrong, if we were wrong - but we aren't wrong & the preponderance of evidence supports that.

as i mentioned in another thread watch how the emergent countries interprets events in iran & in their vast majority they support the government of iran while the oppressors in their vast majority have aligned themselves aganst iran

that a so called lenininst can cry to high heaven based on nothing than a tweet - is a sad testimony to the loss of analysts on the left in the west

& the context - the immeadiate context is from 1991 to today - the middle east has been the site of the worst crimes of empire & the government of iran & the masses have every right to fear destabilisation & worse. iran possesses enemies who wish her ill & have proved it. she has even made alliances with the empire (in iraq & afghanistan) to prevent harm coming to her immediately but i believe there is overwhelming evidence that the empire is practicing the darkest arts

lenin's tomb & i start from diametrically opposed positions - it regards cnn as a reliable source - i regard cnn as one of the chief operators of inverting & fabricating reality - both for entertainment & for the cheneyian notion of creating history outside of history

the masses of the iranian people will make the real decisions

there is not, even in the slightest degree - the masses on the streets of iran. there iare considerable number of people who are supporting putchists within the elite

if you remember 2002 in venezuela - the hysteria of the privatised television tried to create the basis of support by the putchists there - but were defeated by the people - but in the moments leading to that putsch demonstrations of a considerable number of people never represented the masses in their vast majority. the immediate defeat of the putsch was more than proof of that with the death of michael jackson we'll see how quick huffington post changes their priorities.

really, really, the ghouls have no shame

but if i was khamenei's publicist i'd advise him to do the moonwalk at this mornings prayer

so i suppose zizek will write something conflating michael with mousavi

OK, I too lament when blood flows (as it has to some degree in Iran). Nevertheless, the stark contrast between the huge amount of attention given to the situation in Iran versus the (relatively) little given the far more serious (and ongoing) war against Palestinians in Gaza has me flabbergasted. I guarantee you that if the basiji were to do to the Iranian public half of what the Israelis did to the Palestinians during the recent war against Gaza, a coalition of the Western willing would already be gathering on the borders of Iran, as well as fleets of aircraft carriers offshore, in preparation for an Iraq style "shock and awe" invasion!

Posted by: D. Mathews | Jun 25, 2009 7:20:36 PM | 4

d mathews

really for me, the hatred they feel for the arab people is perfectly expressed in the silence of that very same media to the situation of the palestinians. remember how quick they wanted balance - to balance the terrible slaughter of innocents with a couple of firecrackers thrown on occupied palestinan land

perhaps edward said has been surpassed by other scholars but no one has written of this hatred more exactly. it is perhaps not so strange that the scholar he most resembles is raul hilberg in their meticulous examination. testing us as a people with their ruthless & noble studies

if i was an iranian i would just look across the borders to see how destructive american involvement can be

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jun 25, 2009 7:35:31 PM | 5

b

Why is that you focus on the way the Western media "depicts" the demonstrations however warped that is, instead of dealing straight with whether the demonstrators pursue a worthy cause or not?

Suppose you show that the MSM is biased. I will go even one step further and say suppose you can even show that they are coordinating their coverage with the foreign policy of the U.S. and the E.U. and Israel and whoever else that does not like the Iranian government.

Then what?

Does that mean the people in the rallies are demonstrating for a fake cause?

Posted by: Dragonfly | Jun 25, 2009 8:26:04 PM | 6

I’ve been reading, in between marathon readings at the MOA, a book that has brought together a huge neural database of disparate information into a more inclusive gestalt for me. It delves into the network of moles (Wiktionary 3. An internal spy, a person who involves himself or herself with an organization to determine its secrets from within.) within the US government and their use of patsies ((Wiktionary 1. (informal, derogatory) A person who is taken advantage of, especially by being cheated or blamed for something.) in effectuating synthetic terror, i.e. strategy of tension, to manipulate foreign policy in their favor.

9/11, less four years, marked the 400th anniversary of Guy Fawkes Day. Maybe Guy issued in a reoccurring prevalent Machiavellian Western Governmental strategy of using unsuspecting dupes i.e. patsies to further imperial expansion. Guy’s set up led to the war with Spain which essentially shifted the British Empire into high gear. The sinking of the USS Maine in Havana harbor was what got the nonexistent (according to some) US Empire off and sailing. And we’ve been roving the seas ever since. There many examples of American expansionist policies along the way, Gulf of Tonkin off the top of my head, but the basic strategy hasn’t been lost, it’s been refined. To deny that the American government, administration through administration since 1898, hasn’t been implementing these actions around the globe wherever or whenever anything threatens their imperialistic designs, is either not informed or purposely distorting the data, at best probably through complete denial. It is not less than prima facie that American and allied foreign agents are actively attempting to influence any region of economic, military or ideological importance to them in every instance around the globe.

Whatever the truth is concerning Baharestan Square, the appearance of a mole deliberately disseminating disinformation certainly follows a well worn pattern of American interference in important elections. Whatever the corruption of any regime in question, if we don’t factor in this almost certain fact, we’re denying, evading or purposely obfuscating. The agents of the empire(moles) and their assets (patsies) are not part of a conspiracy dementia on the part of the observer. They are an well established reality of American foreign policy. I have no doubt they exist everywhere there is a strong popular impulse counter to their agendas.

That said, I have to admit to being a conspiracy theorist. I believe a conspiracy exist whenever two or more candidly plan any future event. So there is an almost infinite number of conspiracies and conspiracies within conspiracies. To believe that the top operatives within government aren’t conspiratorial is not just naive but stupid. In some cases around this establishment I believe purposely so. I have little doubt that the MOA has attained a respectability and reputation that is a threat to the disinformation line fed the general populous. And so it is prima facie to me that this blog is being watched and interfered with. My experience here of the past two weeks confirms my suspicions.

Moon of Alabama