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Reza Alijani

Reformists are generally focused on elections, but reformists believe that different sections of society, as well as civil, political, and trade movements, can use all peaceful means to bring about change in their individual and collective lives and destinies.

The tools that can create “change” in the lives of citizens, more or less, in different sizes, are: ballot boxes, efforts and struggles of demand-oriented professional, trade union, civil and political organizations, street gatherings and protests, labor and civil strikes, and so on.

Each of these tools, depending on specific circumstances or subject, can be a facilitator for improving living conditions and bringing about change and transformation in the lives of citizens (life policy). However, it is well known that these changes often face obstacles and walls connected to political interests and power structures. This is why there needs to be a delicate and precise integration and combination between “life policy” and “liberation policy”, and these two strategies must be in harmony with each other. The key to advancing the demand-oriented approach and facilitating major structural changes lies in this integration.

When some members of a specific class protest or strike (such as truck drivers, farmers, or workers of a company who have not received their wages), what are the activists of this protest looking for? The advocates of overthrow quickly incorporate each of these phenomena into their own assumptions and essentially confiscate it as a desired mental model, interpreting it as an attempt to overthrow and confront the overall power structure. But those who are closely connected to these events know well that if the specific demands of each group of protesters or strikers are met, they will have achieved their goal and will end their protest. Most of them, or the majority, are “only” seeking a specific and defined demand for the welfare of their own class, not more. Of course, in the process of protest, larger slogans may also be raised. It is in the context of these actions that some of the protesters come to an individualistic approach and learn and gain experience that their small and specific demands are linked to larger issues.

Based on this, the field of protest has two important aspects. From the perspective of the politics of life and the politics of liberation. From the first perspective, this “right” belongs to the class and group that seeks a better life and strives for their reasonable and logical demands. If the power also supports these demands and takes action, both the right and the power have been achieved, and the power has learned that it cannot ignore the demands, requests, and interests of different segments of the people and govern against their will and interests. And if it does not submit to the just and logical demands of the protesting spectrum, the protesters will learn that without changes in the power and important parts of its policies and structures, achieving these rights is impossible (from the second perspective; the politics of liberation).

From a political standpoint, the issue of liberation arises, but the important and urgent problem is that the government “will not” fulfill the demands of the people, or due to some internal or external policies, it may not be able to practically fulfill these demands and “cannot” do so, for example, due to economic crises (caused by poor internal management or costly foreign policies that have put the country in a state of financial crisis), fulfill them.

In the first case, when the government fundamentally “does not want” to accept legitimate demands for various reasons, it naturally tries to silence protesters through pressure and suppression. In the second case, even though it may attempt to fulfill these demands, it may not have the ability to do so. Therefore, despite initial attempts to manage protests peacefully, it ultimately has to resort to suppression and force. This is where in both cases, the ball is in the court of the protesting people. If they succumb to these pressures and suppressions and remain calm and silent, the power regains its strength and continues with its previous policies with logic from one pillar to another. However, if the protesting people, for whatever reason (such as being unable to ignore their demands, such as receiving overdue wages, which are necessary for daily expenses and minimum comfort, and not being satisfied with crumbs), return to the scene of protest and strike, the ball is placed more seriously in the court of power.

In this new situation, the government must accept more changes and in fact more transformations in at least some of its policies and structures in order to respond to demands and essentially move backwards (which is better and is itself gradual but fundamental steps towards transformation), or it must resort to harsher and even bloodier suppression, which will face more legitimacy crises both domestically and internationally, and may also face collapses and crises within the forces that have pledged allegiance to it for suppression. Because a significant portion of these forces are brainwashed and prepared through intense religious propaganda and indoctrination with the false concepts of justice and deprivation, and are deceived into believing that they are fighting against the “enemy’s instrument”, they are being prepared for suppression. Beating the hungry and shooting bullets at the chests of equal citizens is more difficult than using these same tools to suppress intellectuals and advocates of civil and human rights. In this way, the government will experience even harder days of power.

In this complex scene, what can make suppression more justifiable and the force behind it more susceptible to deception and brainwashing in service of established power, which has corrupted the structure to the core, is the acts of violence by protesters and demanding groups. These acts of violence and destruction can provide a promotional and provocative platform for suppression. Showing violent films and bombarding advertisements about “destruction of public property” and sometimes the injury and victimization of certain individuals, in line with the power, can create a ground for the owners of suppression to sing their praises. Apart from the fact that these acts are truly deserving of criticism and condemnation, even if they were done in an emotional and passionate state.

Security forces and police are responsible for suppressing and controlling these types of protests, which is a weakness that is sometimes exploited in a deceptive and complex manner, directly leading to destruction, violence, and other actions, or driven by infiltrators within the protests to reach this point and engage in these types of actions.

Based on this, the forces of change, whose destiny of the people and the country is more important to them than the destiny of the system and established power, are strongly advised to act with caution, vigilance, and compassion for this land and its people, and to refrain from any form of violence, destruction, etc. Unfortunately, some revolutionaries justify and sometimes even encourage violence in the name of their goal (overthrowing the government, which they see as more important than the well-being of the people and the country) through deceptive slogans such as the right to self-defense. Some of these revolutionaries are emotionally reactive to difficult life circumstances and, of course, some are also seeking power and personal or group ambitions.

It is a source of happiness that a significant part of the young Iranian society has been able to use the experiences of the past few decades, various and diverse efforts, and their own self-awareness or even unconscious but collective conscience, to guide their actions and move forward with increasing foresight and comprehensive perspective.

The intelligent, patient, and suffering people of Iran deserve a freer, more prosperous, and more dignified life. Unfortunately, the rulers do not recognize the worth of these people. The longer they wait to hear the voice of the people, the less they will be trusted; if by then the patience of these patient people, especially the underprivileged and oppressed, has not run out.