BEATS BEAT SANCTIONS!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

hip-hop night & fundraiser opposing sanctions on Iran

LOWKEY http://www.myspace.com/lowkeyuk  leading British Iraqi rapper

“One of the best lyricists in the Western Hemisphere” Benjamin Zephaniah

REVEAL http://www.myspace.com/revealpoison  leading british Iranian rapper

PERSIA http://www.myspace.com/persiauk  up and coming female British Iranian rapper

POETIC PILGRIMAGE http://www.myspace.com/poeticpilgrimage  female Muslim rappers

Thursday 25th Feb @ The Quad

London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE (Nearest tube Holborn/Temple)

Book online: http://www.beatsbeatsanctions.co.uk

Email: info@beatsbeatsanctions.co.uk

Hosted by LSE Stop the War Society. All proceeds to Campaign Iran

Mousavi emphasizes inclusiveness of Green Movement

Radio Zamaneh, 9th Feb 2010

Iranian opposition leader, MirHosein Mousavi renewed his call to supporters of the Green Movement to join the February 11 events “while preserving their unique identities.” He maintained that the Green Movement is a young and independent movement that is inclusive of numerous small groups. He also emphasized that it is not affected by pressure and only moves in accordance to “national interests.”

Speaking to a group of university students, he added that not only is the Green movement independent from any foreign connections; it in fact “does not allow foreign interference in its affairs.”

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Spiegel interview with Karroubi

Feb 6th 2010, Spiegel Online

In an interview with SPIEGEL, opposition politician and former president of the Iranian parliament Mahdi Karroubi, 72, discusses allegations that he has bowed under pressure from the government in Tehran.

SPIEGEL: Hojatoleslam Karroubi, you are supposed to have recognized Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president in an interview with a pro-government news agency last week. Is that true?

Mahdi Karroubi: I also told the news agency that this government is not legitimate. And I stand by my opinion that the election was not conducted correctly. But this government is now taking care of the daily political business. Even if a government comes to power via a putsch, it has to bear responsibility for what happens. 

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Senate Passes AIPAC’s Iran Sanctions Bill in Five Minutes

MJ Rosenburg, Huffington Post

Anyone who has followed the Senate’s handling of health care reform can’t help but be impressed (or depressed) by the glacial pace at which things move in that place. In fact, it appears that Senate sloth contributed mightily to the failure of reform (by comparison, the House is a model of streamlined efficiency).

But the Senate can and does move with dispatch when it wants to (or is unable to resist the pressure to move). Sometimes a president can get the Senate to move as quickly as he wants. FDR and LBJ were famous for that. More often than Presidents, powerful interest groups can light a fire under the self-proclaimed “world’s most deliberative body.”

For instance, just last week the Senate passed comprehensive sanctions on Iran — a bill being pushed by AIPAC neocons and the other “usual suspects” — in record time. It was brought up with only three senators on the floor; there was a five minute debate and it passed by voice vote. Just like that.

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Iran – a fight on two fronts

Dominic Kouros , February 2010, Socialist Review

When the Iranian people took to the streets in July to demonstrate against tyranny they were met with brutal repression. Six months on, the same people have refused to give up their fight. Meanwhile, global leaders are circulating plans to capitalise on the unrest. The people of Iran are challenging not only their own leaders but also the threat of crippling foreign sanctions and military engagement.

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The Iran sanctions dilemma

James Denselow
guardian.co.uk
Feb 1st 2010

Are US sanctions against Iranian airlines punishing the state or simply endangering innocent passengers?

The stakes were dramatically raised in the Middle East at the weekend by news that the US is deploying defensive missile systems throughout the Gulf. Writing in the Guardian, Robert Tait warned that the deployment “may strengthen radical elements in the revolutionary guards”. It is for this reason that President Obama should realise the importance of balancing bigger sticks with bigger carrots, including the reduction of sanctions against Iranian civilian airlines.

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Upcoming Campaign Iran meeting

IRAN: WHAT LIES AHEAD?
THE MOVEMENT, SANCTIONS AND THE WEST

The exciting, powerful and determined resistance movement, which emerged during last summer’s election fall-out, has created one of the most serious political crises in Iran since the revolution of 1979. And it refuses to go away. Meanwhile, Western leaders talk of increasing sanctions, repeating hypocritical accusations of Iran’s nuclear programme.

Campaign Iran invites you to discuss the challenges ahead for the movement, and how best we can lend support to its potential success, without the interference from foreign powers.

With
Ali Ansari, Professor of Iranian History at the University of St Andrews

Ali Fathollah-Nejad, Political Scientist & Visiting Lecturer in Globalization and
Development, University of Westminster

Lindsey German, Convenor of the Stop the War Coalition

Wednesday 3rd February 7:30pm

Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church
235 Shaftesbury Avenue, LONDON
WC2H 8EP

Map: http://tinyurl.com/yd46uuq

Suggested donation on the door: £1
*Filming not permitted*

Email dontattackiran@campaigniran.co.uk for more info…

The wrong approach to Iran

Saeed Kamali Dehghan
guardian.co.uk Comment Thu 7 Jan 2010

Extending sanctions and increasing support for external opposition is no solution to Britain’s troubled relations with Iran

The Conservative MP Brian Binley is wrong about Iran. In his article for Cif yesterday, he uses the British government’s handling of the Peter Moore case as proof of its appeasement policy towards the Iranian regime. The Foreign Office can be reproached for denying Iran’s involvement in Moore’s kidnapping, but this doesn’t mean that it has a softly-softly approach to Tehran in general, nor that Britain has “a blinkered view” of Iran’s negative role in the Middle East.

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My hopes for Iran in the decade ahead

Saeed Kamali Dehghan
guardian.co.uk Tues 5 January

As an Iranian, my biggest hope for the coming decade in my country is freedom. A free Iran is what many people are hoping for. Freedom was the main goal for many protesters who were killed during the demonstrations after the disputed Iranian presidential election on 12 June 2009. It was also the main dream of Neda Agha Soltan, who became the symbol of Iranian opposition, as well as many other young Iranians who were killed in the protests such as Ashkan Sohrabi, Sohrab Arabi and Kianoush Asa.

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Interview with Kadivar

Der Spiegel 26/12/09

In a SPIEGEL interview, Iranian Ayatollah Mohsen Kadivar, currently a visiting research professor at America’s Duke University, discusses the recent death of opposition leader Hossein Ali Montazeri, the frustrations Iranians have with their regime, the future of the green movement and the prospect of an escalation.

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