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?