Iranian Uprising and Arab Spring also inspire refugees
| The original text in Dutch (July 15th, 2013) Translated into English by Jet |
Almost 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall the old-style communism has all but disappeared in many countries, and young people everywhere are looking for new forms of resistance and organisation. In Iran the left was wiped out even earlier.
Zeinali: “After the Iranian Revolution of 1979 a large part of the left-wing opposition was executed or fled abroad. The others collaborated with the regime. As a result of this the new generation that was looking for freedom could not look to the former communists. In the years preceding the uprising of 2009 especially students talked constantly about effective forms of action and organisation, but all of this remained theory also due to the huge repression. In Iran there was an immense anti-religious sense of freedom, but most activists only truly became politicised during and because of the uprising. They became very anti-authoritarian and stood up against all parties, including the reformists.”
Millions of people took to the streets, how was this organised?
“The first protests were organised by the reformists but gradually they lost control. More and more people started deciding themselves what to do there and then. People who did not know each other met on the streets during the demonstrations and the fights with the police. They stood shoulder to shoulder and agreed to continue somewhere else the next day. There was no formal bottom-up organisation, but all kinds of groups of friends discussed daily on the streets about the strategy, about how the uprising could gain momentum. However, there was no front line taking the lead and the participants in the protests were not necessarily politically aware or class conscious. Gradually a large informal network did develop of small groups of friends who originally only knew each other in cyberspace, for example through their weblogs. These weblogs were used to pass on information.”
Were the methods of action and the slogans also decided in such a decentralised and ad hoc manner?
“Yes, the repression was increasing rapidly and the method of protesting was adapted to this all the time. If you went out to demonstrate, the police would strike immediately. The options were either to escape or to resist, and more and more radicals resisted. We grabbed what was there: bricks, traffic signs and street furniture. When they started using teargas we came back the next day with a cloth over our mouths and noses. We started fires. The more radical protests and slogans were not devised beforehand but developed in response to the repression and the general political situation. But ultimately the repression won, less and less people protested and the uprising was defeated.”
Are the refugees’ protests here directly influenced by the uprisings such as in Iran and the Arab countries?
“Many of the refugees became left-wing in Europe, as a result of the repression and exclusion they experienced daily. It is possible that the Arab Spring influenced this because it does make people think: if the people there have the courage to demand a better life then I can do the same here. By protesting against the strict rules here they will become more confident and gradually they will develop a more progressive view. Take for example the refugees protest in Germany that is comparable to the protest in the Netherlands. There it started with left-wing activists who had fled Iran. They were angry and because of their experience they saw possibilities to protest. They wanted to organise themselves together with others in the same circumstances but not to speak on behalf of those others, or on behalf of any party or organisation.”
In general, would you say the refugee protest groups have a left-wing identity?
“Absolutely. For instance, they make it a priority that everyone can participate, irrespective of their background. During the protests in Germany the activists were confronted with all kinds of racism and nationalism but they were able to solve this together. There were also extensive discussions on sexism and homophobia but these problems were more difficult to resolve. In order to build resistance and confront these kind of issues a left-wing inclination is needed. The refugees with liberal or conservative beliefs usually do not join the protests anyway. They prefer to invent arguments on why the government is forced to act this way. They think along the lines of the ruling power and criticise the left.”
Like the activists from Occupy and the Arab Spring the refugees are also building tent camps.
“In Germany the refugees started their campaign by putting up tents in the middle of the city. This is how they brought their story right into the centre of society. After all, refugee centres are always hidden far away out of sight of other people. And when it turned out that they still did not generate enough attention they started a hunger strike and some of them even sewed their lips together. That really had impact. After that they started to organise marches between various cities. In this manner they developed their protests in line with what was required by the situation they were in. Every action led to a reaction and to answer this they invented new actions or adapted the existing ones. No large-scale strategy was devised beforehand, and they do not know what will bring the solution in the end. That is also how things were in Iran and in the uprisings in the Arab countries after that.”
Ellen de Waard and Eric Krebbers