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Jun. 12th, 2010 09:01 pmSo I attended the Iranian human rights rally at Copley Square. It was a small affair, 40-50 people, mostly local Iranians. For the counterprotest, there was David Rolde and two of his fellow nutcases. They were using megaphones to try to heckle the speech, and some of the things they said made the irony just delicious. One nutcase, in Muslim garb but very much a paleface (convert zeal, no doubt) was channeling Father Coughlin talking about how Zionist Jews own the media. The best part of this was talking the Zionist Jews using US soldiers to fight their battles, all the while saying "long live the Islamic Republic of Iran," because he wants a fight against Israel and wants Iranian soldiers to fight this battle for him.
But the less said of those creeps, the better. The best part is who came in to speak. There was a Nigerian activist comparing Iran's experience to the Nigerian election of 1993, which also happened on June 12 and which was also annulled when the results came out.
There was a man from Lybia whose brother was recently killed for trying to organize a union, raising the memory of an Iranian who recently suffered the same fate for the same "crime."
There was a lady from south of the border, speaking of her own experience in Iran helping organize women's civic groups.
And in the crowd, there was me, an Israeli, and several Arabs, talking about Iran. And just Iran.
So there it is. There is, in fact, a world-encompassing movement of social democrats for whom the Israel-Arab conflict is not a litmus test for anything, and who can meet together to make a stand for such things and anti-Zionist nutjobs are NOT INVITED.
Fuck, yeah.
But the less said of those creeps, the better. The best part is who came in to speak. There was a Nigerian activist comparing Iran's experience to the Nigerian election of 1993, which also happened on June 12 and which was also annulled when the results came out.
There was a man from Lybia whose brother was recently killed for trying to organize a union, raising the memory of an Iranian who recently suffered the same fate for the same "crime."
There was a lady from south of the border, speaking of her own experience in Iran helping organize women's civic groups.
And in the crowd, there was me, an Israeli, and several Arabs, talking about Iran. And just Iran.
So there it is. There is, in fact, a world-encompassing movement of social democrats for whom the Israel-Arab conflict is not a litmus test for anything, and who can meet together to make a stand for such things and anti-Zionist nutjobs are NOT INVITED.
Fuck, yeah.
