The Kasama Report: June 17, 2009

The Kasama Report shares thoughtful writing about this world's difficult passages and the possibilities of radical change.

IRAN: THEY ARE RIGHT TO REBEL! AND WE HAVE RESPONSIBILITIES

by Mike Ely This is being written quickly. We urge you to help us spread the word about the atrocities the people face, their heroism in the face of brutal suppression, and the existance of revolutionary currents among them. Take time to think through ways of mobilizing networks of people in this work. We have long strongly and correctly opposed the sinister threats of both the U.S. and Israel against the people of Iran. And certainly these are moments when we all need to redouble those efforts together. There is no excuse for allowing these events to become some sick new justification for a criminal U.S. grab for Mideast hegemony. [Read on] Related stories: · Iran's Maoists to Regime: "You Wanted a Fight? Let's Fight!" · Reports from Iran · Youth Upsurge in Iran

PHOTOS FROM IRAN'S ANTI-REGIME STRUGGLE
· Photos from Iran's Upsurge of Anti-Regime Struggle · Photos from Tehran University

IRAN AND SOCIAL MEDIA: SOMETHING NEW IS HAPPENING

It is going to take a while to understand what is happening around Iran, and all the creative ways that people are exploiting the new media (and all the ways that the authorities in Iran, the U.S. and elsewhere are trying to manipulate it). On one level, it is clear that in unprecedented ways it has become very difficult for individual regimes to suppress certain kinds of information - and this has long range implications for politics and power in the next century. The new media have themselves become a battleground between governments - with the U.S. pressing Twitter to give uninterupted service to Iran, and the Iranian government trying to suppress youtube, google, twitter etc. It will also be seen how much the use of social media will enable the repressive forces to identify and round up active rebels - including after the upsurge itself. How will these records and messages be used (after the fact) by police? [Read on]

"FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION": AN EMPIRE'S FAUCET

The U.S. is loudly posturing as the global patron of freely-flowing information (and of freedom generally, of course). As the Iranian regime cuts off text messenging and as it tries to shut down Twitter, the U.S. State Department made a direct (and unprecedented) request of Twitter's owners that they postpone a scheduled maintenance shutdown so that Twitter coverage would be uninterrupted in Iran. However, no one should be allowed to overlook that the U.S. and its allies has been quite willing to shut down social networking and electronic communications when it suited them. The fact is that the new media will be encouraged when it serves their empire, and will shut off when it doesn't. [Read on]

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