Iran can learn a lesson from UK schoolboy

via youtube.com

Video: 15 year old Barnaby Raine, addressing the Coalition of Resistance National conference in Camden, London on November 27th.

 

As university and school students continue into their third week of protests and sit-ins, one voice speaks volumes of wisdom. The student resistance in the UK is not a bunch of disgruntled and greedy kids demanding free cash handouts from the government. They are a leaderless, but intelligent and self-detrined coalition of groups who are taking a stand against the governments increasing trend of prioritising corporate interests over those of people. As New Statesman columnist Laurie Penny explained to Laura Sanders in an interview on GritTV, this is the generation of whom it has been said 'Youth in the UK don't do politics'. In fact, as we are seeing now, mainstream politics in the UK doesn't 'do' youth.

 

Where is the lesson for Iran's popular opposition movement? It is in the way these young people in the UK have immediately embraced the resistance being demonstrated by workers. For example, thousands of them have already begun to show solidarity with striking transport workers in the capital. This opportunity exists in Iran and has been highlighted recently by prominent Iranian student activists, such as Majid Tavakoli. But in a country like Iran, where internet access, communication, media and movement is restricted, forging these alliances is extremely difficult. That is not to say it can't be done, but it requires much more planning, care and effort. A student in Iran can't simply click 'like' on a FaceBook group page to establish solidarity and show support for other resistance groups. 

 

For the resistance in Iran, and in the UK, there are both obvious and hidden risks. A crackdown against protesters has clearly been mounted in the UK, just as it is in Iran. This is what Barnaby Raine has to say in the video about the police, and the motives behind their tactics:

 

They think that if they kettle us now we’re not going to come on a demonstration ever again. … They can’t stop us demonstrating. … Those are our streets. We are the generation at the heart of the fight back.

 

A less obvious but highly dangerous risk is the vulnerability created by being "leaderless". It is an open invitation for established groups with their own agenda to infiltrate and attempt to establish dominance. That may work to the advantage of the resistance, or it may increase risk. In Iran for example, the influence of the banned militant resistance PMOI (MKO) would place everyone at immediate risk of execution. In the UK, the influence of extremist political groups would intensify the police crackdown and introduce a violent element. Where the UK's students throw paper air planes, militant extremists - be they left or right wing - would be more inclined to throw something much more violent and destructive. I hope that, even as they voice their vision of a better future, peaceful protesters are not deaf or blind to these risks.

 

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Posted via email from lissping