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Mumia Abu Jamal's Blog

Web Address: http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/mumiaabu-jamal
Bio: Mumia Abu-Jamal is an acclaimed American journalist and author who has been writing from Death Row for more than twenty-five years.    Mumia was sentenced to death afte... (More)

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Freedom to Protest?

By Mumia Abu Jamal at Jun 29, 2009

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As politicians rush resolutions through Congress supporting the protesters in Tehran, defending the principle of freedom to protest, their hypocrisy is even more blinding than their own myopia.

 

For, it takes only a moment's reflection to recognize that they don't give a tinker's damn about the protesters.  This is about using resolutions as a weapon to further mark Iran as the enemy, the dangerous other which "threatens" U.S. hegemony.

 

As proof of political hypocrisy, one can cock an ear to hear the hiss of silence when protests erupt here in America, and demonstrators get beaten, locked up and prosecuted for practicing their alleged rights under the First Amendment.

 

Think back to the massive street protests against the police murder of Oscar Grant in Oakland, California.  People were beaten, busted and had their cell phone cameras confiscated by the police.

 

Did Congress support these protesters?  Well, not yet.

 

State and local politicians, when they said anything, called for calm, an end to protests -- and some dissed the protesters as "animals."

 

Sound familiar?

 

I don't speak Farsi, but it's my guess that they don't sound too different in tone from Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- in other words, 'the system works -- trust the system!'

 

Why?  Because that's what states always say.

 

Protesters here in the U.S. have had their butts kicked for years -- yes, years -- in spite of so called guarantees in the constitution to free expression and the right to protest.

 

Indeed, we need look no farther than the hallowed halls of Congress itself, specifically Rep. John Lewis, (D.-GA), whose head still sports the scars from the police batons that battered him in Selma, when he protested against American apartheid.

 

A half a century later, and protesters still get beat downs, from coast to coast, for demonstrating -- and if they don't get beat down physically, they get beaten economically, by lawyers, judges and DA's, who squeeze them -- as they pay for the right to practice the freedom to demonstrate.

 

The U.S. Congress, which just a few generations ago, supported the brutal, savage reign of repression over Iran under the Shah (Mohammad Reza Pahlavi), and also supported his nuclear ambitions, could care less about the Iranian people.

 

This is politics -- pure and simple -- and about using these protests as pretexts for other, more nefarious goals.

 

Because of the brutish, bone-headed policies of the Bush Regime, Iran emerged from the carnage of the Iraq war period as the strongest player on the board.  That's because the U.S. took down their deadliest enemy, Saddam Hussein.

 

The U.S. wants to reset the wheel, by sparking internal conflict, and thereby weakening the Iranian government.

 

We have been here before -- and it didn't turn out well the last time.

Comment On This Blog Post  See All Comments (2)

694186

Re: Freedom to Protest?

By Earle, Christopher at Aug 31, 2009 19:21 PM

I often wonder what is not being run when there are days and days of coverage of a particular topic that generates little new information. The 7x24x365 news cycle runs constant loops of tape while repeating near religious mantras until they become burned in our conciousness as fact. I know a thing or two about Iran, and the reality is it doesn't matter who won or who rules. Violent bands of thugs will continue to break into homes at night and rip men and women from their families.

We have already become accustomed to a state of constant war in the U.S.. From WWII to the "Cold" War to Vietnam. 1955, 1957, 1959 are the only three years that I can find without an armed conflict somewhere in the world, and if you consider the Cold War as a war, then every year of the 20th century saw American troops in combat somewhere in the world. I don't expect the 21st century to be much different. Now that Iraq has been brought into the Empire, the focus will shift to Afghanastan. After Afghanastan, there are two likely candidates: Iran and North Korea. Libya is also an possibility.

The coverage of the Iranian protests was most definitely setting Iran up as a possible candiate for invasion. The American economy is based on very little these days. We make a few cars here and there and make an awful lot of military hardware. We aren't making that hardware as collector's items.

Good piece here, I was in Denver during the DNC working as a credentialed photographer. There was a group of several hundred people detained. I was assured by the police that journalists would be allowed our of the cordon before they started tear gassing the trapped protesters. Having been in Seattle durring the WTO demonstrations, I knew that I was getting in a dicey situation. We were not allowed to leave. The police brutally beat a homeless man who was delusional and tried to leave. From what I hear, RNC in Minneapolis was far, far worse.

The U.S. has no real credibility internationally. What we have is a military which prevents people from pointing out that the Emperor is buck nekkid'...

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By Pishdadi, Shireen at Jul 06, 2009 16:51 PM

as-salamu alaykum. thanks for your perspective, well said. i want to add that in addition to the 'ulterior motives' of the west towards Iran's supposed protests, there is another element - and that is the the real story of what is going on there. it seems to me that this is a replay of what happened with mousadegh, and that turned out to be a HUGE mistake that the iranians made, too bad they dont learn from history. the fact is that ahmadinejad won by landslide victory and the media is doing what they tried to do with chavez's victory. only they blew it with chavez.

one of the reasons i had to stop watching mainstream media (actually i dont watch any television) is because no matter how critical one tries to remain, they will be affected to some degree by the images and soundbytes. it may be hard for even the most critical of americans to accept that ahmadinejad could be a good guy, and that is why america hates him so much. who knows!

 

 

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