It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, October 06, 2022
Postal Services Have Ability to Catalyse Positive Actions across Range of Sectors, Says Secretary-General in Message for World Day
Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message for World Post Day, observed on 9 October:
On World Post Day, we celebrate the critical contributions of postal workers in connecting people around the world with essential services that improve their daily lives and boost the development of their communities.
With a global network and universal service mandate to ensure access for all, the postal sector is a key partner in our effort to deliver the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The theme of this year’s World Post Day — “Post for Planet” — recognizes the many ways in which postal services are finding cleaner, greener means to reach our doorsteps day in, day out.
“Post for Planet” is also a call to action for the postal sector to use its position as a connector between Governments, businesses and people to take a leading role in our fight against climate change.
Working with partners from across the logistics, financial and digital spheres, postal services have the power to catalyse positive actions across a wide range of other sectors.
I thank the Universal Postal Union for leading this call to action and look forward to working together towards a more prosperous and sustainable future for all.
WASHINGTON STATE Vancouver City Council bans large fossil fuel facilities
VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — The city council in Vancouver, Washington, has approved a permanent ban on new fossil fuel developments after years of temporary moratoriums.
While new facilities that distribute, extract, refine or process fossil fuels have been temporarily prohibited by the Vancouver City Council since 2020, the council this week unanimously made the ban permanent, The Columbian reported.
“We’re concerned fossil fuel facilities pose a risk to the area’s health and safety,” Chad Eiken, the city’s community development director, said in a news release. “There are currently six bulk facilities that are susceptible to liquefaction and hazardous materials could potentially flow into the Columbia River, wetlands and other wildlife habitats in the case of a seismic event. These code changes are intended to reduce this risk and also minimize greenhouse gas emissions.”
The ordinance is set to take effect in early November.
Residents who supported the ordinance filled the Vancouver City Council’s public hearing session, many of whom have followed the long process to permanently ban new bulk fossil fuel facilities. In 2018, Gov. Jay Inslee vetoed a plan to develop the nation’s largest crude-oil-by-rail terminal at the Port of Vancouver, after nearly five years of debate.
The council’s ordinance prohibits large new fossil fuel facilities in all zoning districts while facilities with a capacity of 60,000 gallons or less are permitted in industrial zones. Cleaner fuel facilities with a holding capacity up to one million gallons are permitted.
It also includes the capacity for existing bulk fossil fuel facilities to expand by 15% if switching to cleaner fuels and upgrading to seismic standards, subject to other requirements.
Pipefitter says BP used unskilled contractors on unit before fatal explosion at Toledo, Ohio refinery
Are you a worker at the BP Husky refinery? Please use the form below to send information about conditions at the refinery that could have led to the September 20 disaster, which killed Max and Ben Morrissey. Your identity will be kept anonymous.
It is two weeks since the September 20 explosion and fire that claimed the lives of two young workers at the BP Husky refinery in Oregon, Ohio. Two brothers, Max and Ben Morrissey, aged 34 and 32, respectively, suffered horrific burns in the fire and succumbed to their injuries the following day. The Morrissey brothers, who were also fathers of small children, were buried after a memorial attended by hundreds of family members, friends and co-workers at the refinery last week.
The BP/Husky oil refinery in Oregon, Ohio, on September 29, 2022
There is widespread suspicion among workers that cost-cutting measures by management contributed to the disaster. Workers have long complained about manpower shortages, management cutting corners on maintenance and repair, and the contracting out of jobs to non-union workers who lack knowledge and training. Operators have also warned that exhausting work schedules and the practice of shifting them from unit to unit, instead of keeping them on units where they have experience and specific knowledge, undermines safety.
BP, which is in the process of selling off its share of the refinery just east of Toledo to Calgary-based Cenovus, has not released any details about the September 20 fire. Nor have inspectors from the federal and state Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The United Steelworkers (USW), which has 315 members at the refinery, including the two deceased brothers, has not released any information either. Last week, Eric Sweeney, the District 1 staff representative for USW Local 1-346, told the Toledo Blade that “no one wants to rush to judgment.”
On September 26, the World Socialist Web Site published an article on the disaster that raised the following questions:
1. Was the turnaround process (when the refinery is shut down for repairs and maintenance) rushed or done without trained crews?
2. If BP was already in the process of selling off its stake for $300 million, did it delay or cancel any crucial repair work?
3. What did the United Steelworkers know about dangerous conditions and safety violations at the refinery?
The WSWS was recently contacted by a union pipefitter who worked at the BP Husky refinery before the September 20 explosion. In an email and subsequent interview, the worker detailed unsafe practices by refinery management in the days leading up to the disaster. The information he provided is based on personal experience, the experiences of co-workers who worked the shutdown at the refinery, and from union representatives.
In an initial email, the worker, whose identity we will keep anonymous to protect him from retaliation, said, “This past summer BP/Husky hired 55 percent non-union pipefitters to complete the spring 2022 shutdown! It is documented that the non-union outfit— ‘UNITED,’ we’ll call them—worked the unit that blew up. They were seen doing shabby work, not following proper procedures on taking valves, etc. to the wash pads, and had many other safety infractions! I blame the plant manager who decided to hire ‘UNITED.’ Most employees were from Texas, and they hired anyone.
“Seems too coincidental the Toledo refinery was 100 percent UNION pipefitters before this past shutdown and NEVER HAD AN INCIDENT AS THIS! OUR LEGISLATORS NEED TO MANDATE A LAW SIMILAR TO CALIFORNIA’S WHERE ONE MUST HAVE VERIFIED 5+ YEARS IN A CERTIFIED INDENTURED APPRENTICESHIP OR EQUIVALENT!”
In a subsequent discussion, the worker said, “I’m very familiar with conditions at the BP refinery. I am a union pipefitter who worked in and out of that refinery for years. I don’t want to throw the non-union contractors under the bus, they have families to feed too, but they lack the training and knowledge to do this work. The company is only interested in getting manpower and getting the job done quickly.
“I blame this on the plant manager. He had a meeting with union leaders of the three trades. He told them point blank: ‘I’m bringing in non-union pipefitters to do the work and when they mess it up, I’ll hire your guys to fix it.’ I really wonder if the plant manager has some interest in this United Piping out of Texas. These guys worked on the cv2 unit that exploded.
“This unit was very volatile. They were not taking the values to the wash pads, to clean the values according to specifications. They were using old gaskets and doing anything to get the job done. This is so the contractor can say, ‘We did the job in record time.’
“Over the last few years, the unionized pipefitters have also lost break time. It used to be two half-hour breaks during shutdown. Now its one 45-minute break. Management cracks the whip to get the job done and restart production as soon as possible. They put profits over people.
Friends and family mourn the death of Max and Ben Morrissey, picture right, at the celebration of life ceremony in Oregon, Ohio on Thursday, September 29, 2022 [Photo: WSWS]
“I’m glad your publication is putting the word out. This company doesn’t want to spend a few thousand dollars to pay trained pipe fitters even though they are making billions of dollars. They should not be able to get away with this. They can spend the money to get the proper equipment and materials.
“I don’t blame the contractors. But we never had a disaster like this before the shutdown. 55 percent were non-union. As a union pipe fitter, I have to take a five-year apprenticeship, and I am not allowed to be in a refinery until after three years. The workers they brought in don’t have an inkling of what a refinery is. They’re just given a wrench and told, ‘Go do the job.’ It’s sickening. They’re breaking flanges, not welding pipes properly. All of that requires training. I went to the Local 50 pipe fitting school to be top-notch.
“They try to say that union workers are lazy, and three guys just sit around to watch somebody else do a job. But it’s about equality, safety and training.
“BP management also constantly switches the union operators from the units they are familiar with. It makes much more sense for an operator to stay on that unit. Each unit has particular characteristics and demands. This is a very difficult and potentially dangerous process, especially after a turnaround when the refinery is starting up production again. If you’re unfamiliar with a unit, you don’t know what to expect. But management insists that operators get moved from unit to unit.
“What happened to the two young workers was horrible. The youngest one was only in the refinery for six months. They have wives and children who have lost their husbands and dads. The plant manager has to be investigated. The whole company and its practices have to be investigated.
“I’ve worked as a pipefitter in steel mills, refineries, power houses. Everywhere they are cutting corners and undermining safety. This is the richest and most powerful country in the world, and we have working conditions that are more like Mexico and other Third World countries.”
Responding to the fact that 340 workers a day die in industrial accidents and from exposure to toxic materials, the worker said, “In construction, we have suicides, falls and exposures to chemicals and hazards. It comes from the top, with corporate management. They are always skimping on equipment and training. I’ve seen guys use channel locks as hammers because they don’t have the right tools for the job. To me it’s all corporate laziness and greed that produce these tragedies.”
BP has a long record of safety violations. In 2020, Houston-based BP Products North America Inc. agreed to pay $2.6 million in fines to settle long-standing air pollution, monitoring, maintenance and record-keeping violations at its BP-Husky Refining LLC refinery. Investigators also found that cost-cutting and speed-up contributed to the 2005 explosion at BP’s Texas City, Texas refinery, which killed 15 workers and injured 180, and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster and oil spill, which killed 11 workers.
More than a dozen dead in separate Greece migrant sinkings: Coastguard
A cargo ship carries migrants during a rescue operation,
as it sails off the island of Crete, Greece, October 29, 2021.
AFP, Athens Published: 06 October ,2022:
Greece's coastguard on Thursday said it had recovered the bodies of 15 people after two separate migrant boat sinkings, with several more feared missing.
The 15 bodies were recovered near the island of Lesbos after a dinghy believed to be carrying about 40 people sank east of the island during high winds, the coastguard said in a statement
There was no official toll yet from a second sinking.
Kokkalas said nine other women had been rescued in the Lesbos incident, but another 14 people were believed to be missing.
“The women were utterly panicked,” he said.
A few hours earlier, the coastguard was alerted to a sailboat in distress near the island of Kythira, south of the Peloponnese peninsula.
The sailboat believed to be carrying around 95 people ran aground and sank near the island port of Diakofti.
Some of the survivors made it to shore, and a combined operation including vessels at sea and the fire service and police on land had managed to locate 80 people.
Information on the asylum seekers' nationalities in the Kythira incident was not immediately available.
Both operations were facing adverse wind conditions. In the Kythira area, winds were as high as 102 kilometres (63 miles) per hour,the coastguard said.
Greece has faced increased migration traffic this year, with smugglers often employing the longer and more perilous route south of the country, and sailing out from Lebanon instead of Turkey, to bypass patrols in the Aegean Sea and reach Italy. The coastguard has said it has rescued about 1,500 people in the first eight months of the year, up from fewer than 600 last year.
Greece has rejected persistent claims from rights groups that many more have been illegally pushed back to Turkey without being allowed to lodge asylum claims.
Oil giants' East Africa mega-project risks causing 'unacceptable' damage - report Gas is only an economically viable player in the energy sector if it plays a small role in providing fuel for peaking generation capacity.
A vast and controversial East African oil project led by French oil giant TotalEnergies risks inflicting "unacceptable" damage, a report by two NGOs warned on Wednesday.
Total and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) signed a $10-billion agreement earlier this year to develop Ugandan oilfields and ship crude through a 1 445-kilometre pipeline to Tanzania's Indian Ocean port of Tanga.
The mega-project has met strong opposition from rights activists and environmental groups, which say it threatens the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people and fragile ecosystems in the region.
The report by Friends of the Earth and the Survie (Survival) NGO said the pipeline would emit "up to 34 million tonnes of CO2 per year into the atmosphere — far more than the combined greenhouse gas emissions of Uganda and Tanzania".
It warned East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) infrastructure "risked a major oil accident" off the Tanzanian coast that could harm protected marine areas, and would "threaten more than 2 000 square kilometres of nature reserves" in the biodiverse country.
The report said communities were having to give up land "under duress and at an unfair price... to the EACOP consortium led by Total".
They faced "an interminable wait" for compensation, it added — "three to four years for the majority of people affected".
The NGOs said TotalEnergies had not "implemented adequate measures to put an end to these violations", and concluded that "the human, climatic and environmental costs of Total's oil mega-project are simply unacceptable".
In response, TotalEnergies said it would "do everything possible to make it an exemplary project in terms of transparency, shared prosperity, economic and social progress, sustainable development, environmental awareness and respect for human rights". Last month, the European Parliament adopted a resolution that also voiced concern over "human rights violations".
These included "wrongful imprisonment of human rights defenders, the arbitrary suspension of NGOs, arbitrary prison sentences and the eviction of hundreds of people from their land without fair and adequate compensation".
On Tuesday, police in Kampala arrested several Ugandan students during a demonstration against the project.
The StopEACOP campaign group has called for their "immediate release".
Coordinator Omar Elmawi said: "It is sad that in our time, innocent citizens are being arrested for simply exercising their right to speak out... about the EACOP project and the damage it will do to people, nature and the climate". The European Parliament resolution said more than 100 000 people were at risk of being displaced by the pipeline and called for them to be adequately compensated.
It also urged TotalEnergies to take a year before launching the project to study the feasibility of an alternative route "to better safeguard protected and sensitive ecosystems and the water resources of Uganda and Tanzania".
MUMBAI (Reuters Breakingviews) - A global downturn could boost demand for Indian real estate. Thanks largely to Blackstone, there’s now an easier way in. The investor-cum-landlord led by Steve Schwarzman has played a big role in developing a local market for real estate investment trusts. Now it’s preparing to float a collection of glitzy shopping malls in what would be only the country’s fourth publicly traded REIT. It’s well timed.
Blackstone, whose overall real-estate portfolio tops out near $580 billion, started buying at scale in India in 2011. It’s now the country’s largest owner of office buildings, focusing on corporate parks and leasing more than half of its space to technology-focused clients from Cisco to Sony. India has bagged 47% of Blackstone’s $8 billion of Asia-targeted property acquisitions since 2016, per Dealogic.
The asset manager floated India’s first two REITs: in 2019 came Embassy Office Parks, Asia’s largest by area, with Mindspace Business Parks a year later. In a sign of a well-developing market, Blackstone engineered a successful sale of 8% of its Embassy stake last week, having exited Mindspace in full in January. Brookfield Asset Management took a third REIT public last year.
The structure has brought a bit of discipline to an often unruly market. It lets investors cash out while keeping the building’s management in place to ensure tenants remain well-served. Earlier, buildings were sold floor by floor.
Embassy’s dividend yield is 6.2% against 7.4% for the coupons on India’s 10-year bonds. But there’s capital appreciation, too: India’s office REITs delivered returns of up to 27% in the past year, compared with a 2% decline in the Nifty 50 Index where dividend yields average less than 2%. Office-focused real estate trusts like Embassy might fare well even if the world tips into recession. Its leverage is low and past downturns have prompted international companies to outsource more jobs to India. Physical occupancy is steadily rising as employees go back to the workplace.
Blackstone’s shopping malls are likely to prove a similar hit. There’s a limited supply of nice ones, and rich Indians have emerged from the pandemic largely unscathed, which bodes well for premium retail rents. The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority was a buyer for some of the Embassy shares through a realty fund partner. Other global funds looking to put a good roof over their long-term investment needs will follow
Blackstone-owned Nexus Malls is preparing to float a portfolio of Indian shopping malls. The offer could be worth up to $500 million, per Refinitiv publication IFR.
On Sept. 27, Blackstone raised $325 million from selling an 8.1% stake in Embassy Office Parks REIT, per IFR. Kotak Realty, a fund backed by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, bought shares in the block deal, Indian media reported.
(Editing by Antony Currie and Thomas Shum)
Uncontrolled migration led to Leicester unrest, says UK home secretary
British Home Secretary Suella Braverman on Tuesday blamed uncontrolled migrations into the United Kingdom for the recent tensions between Hindus and Muslims in Leicester.
“The unexamined drive towards multiculturalism as an end in itself combined with the corrosive aspects of identity politics has led us astray,” Braverman said at the annual conference of the Conservative Party, held in Birmingham on Tuesday evening.
Braverman also described Leicester as a “melting pot of culture that was riddled with the civil disorder” because the United Kingdom had failed to integrate “a large number of newcomers”.
The home secretary added that it was not racist of her to want to tighten the country’s borders.
“It is not bigoted to say that we have too many asylum seekers who are abusing the system,” she said. “It is not xenophobic to say that mass and rapid migration places pressure on housing, public services and community relations,” she said.
Braverman, who was born to a couple who had immigrated from India, said that her parents came to the United Kingdom through legal means and integrated themselves into the community and embraced British values.
The home secretary also said that integration did not mean abandoning her Indian heritage, but meant adopting the British identity.
“This is the best place on earth to come and live in, but I fear that we are losing sight of the core values and the culture that made it so,” she warned.
Braverman said that she will also put in effect the scheme to deport illegal migrants from the United Kingdom to Rwanda, which was formulated by her predecessor Priti Patel.
The UK had announced the Rwanda asylum plan in April, the BBC reported. It intends to give some asylum seekers who cross the English Channel to the UK a one-way ticket to Rwanda. Some of the asylum seekers, who were being deported to the African country in June, had claimed that they were being treated like criminals.
Large Demonstration In Budapest Demands Better Conditions For Teachers
The protest later grew into the biggest anti-government demonstration since Prime Minister Viktor Orban's reelection in April.VIDEO
Tens of thousands of Hungarians have demonstrated in Budapest against low pay and poor working conditions for teachers, who have launched an "I want to teach" campaign and called for civil disobedience to demand higher wages.
The demonstration on October 5 started with students forming a chain stretching for kilometers across Budapest, and students temporarily blocking a downtown bridge in the morning.
The protest later grew into the biggest anti-government demonstration since Prime Minister Viktor Orban's reelection in April.
Protesters carried posters that read "We are with our teachers" and "No teachers, no future." One banner said, "Do not fire our teachers" and another said, "For a glimpse of the future, look at the schools of the present."
The demonstration was organized by civilians in solidarity with teachers who were fired due to civil disobedience actions.
Orban's government has said it can only meet teachers' demands once the European Union releases billions of euros of long-held-up pandemic recovery funds.
Brussels has not yet signed off on the release because of corruption concerns and rule-of-law disputes.
A month ago, thousands demonstrated for better working conditions for teachers, some of whom temporarily stopped work in protest as schools reopened after summer recess.
With reporting by Reuters and AFP
Iran attacks exiled Kurdish groups in Iraq as protests rage
Tehran has cracked down on demonstrations sparked by the death of a young Kurdish woman A screen grab from a video released by the Iranian military. Tehran has carried out strikes on Kurdish groups in Iraq. EPA
AFP Oct 06, 2022
As protests flare across Iran over the death of young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, the Kurdistan region of Iraq has come under bombardment from Iranian forces.
The target has been the long-exiled Iranian Kurdish opposition, installed in Iraq under Saddam Hussein during the war with Iran in the 1980s.
Tehran considers the armed factions to be terrorists and said they were responsible for attacks on its territory.
An Iranian general has accused Kurdish opposition groups of inciting the protests in parts of Iran with a large Kurdish population.
Tehran has cracked down on the nationwide protest movement sparked by Amini's death on September 16. She had been detained by the morality police in Tehran over accusations she breached rules on clothing.
Angry demonstrators across Iran have taken to the streets to denounce the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died while in police custody. AFP
Adel Bakawan, director of the French Centre for Research on Iraq, said Iran needed to "find an enemy" to blame for the protests.
"The weakest link that could be targeted without provoking consequences was the Iranian Kurds," he said.
On September 28, Iran launched attacks on positions held by Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, killing at least 13 and wounding 58, including civilians.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said the groups were a threat to national security.
But experts say the groups have practically ceased all military activity, focusing instead on political action.
Protected presence
Any fighters among the groups could be viewed as reservists, experts say.
Iranian Kurdish journalist Raza Manochari said the groups agreed to end military activities in a deal with the authorities in Iraq's Kurdistan region.
The agreement, which has been in place since the 1990s, protects their deployment in exchange for ceasing activities that could cause problems for relations with Iran, he said.
Manochari, who has lived in Iraq for eight years, emphasised the ties between Kurds in the two countries — they speak the same Sorani dialect and many have relatives on both sides of the border.
Masoud Barzani, leader of Iraq's Kurdistan Democratic Party and former president of the Kurdistan region, was born in Iran in 1946.
He is the son of Kurdish nationalist leader Mustafa Barzani, who led the only breakaway state in Kurdish history. It was founded in 1945 in the north-western Iranian town of Mahabad and was crushed by Iranian troops after a year.
Today, Iran's Kurdish minority — about 10 million out of a population of 83 million — complain of marginalisation.
"In Iran, the Kurds don't have many basic cultural and political rights," said Shivan Fazil, a researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
"The right of education in their mother tongue continues to be outlawed." 'Never use Iraqi soil'
Kurds face a bleaker situation in Iran than elsewhere in the region, Mr Fazil said, referring to Kurds serving in Turkey's Parliament since 2015 and the regional government in Iraq's Kurdistan region.
The Iranian Kurdish party KDPI was a target of Tehran's strikes last month but Aso Saleh, an executive committee member of the party, said it had "never used the soil or the territory of Iraq to launch any attack on Iranian forces".
Mr Saleh, who lives in Sweden, said the movement was "predominantly located inside Iranian Kurdistan".
He said "the leadership and bureaucratic apparatus" were in Iraq.
"This movement is trying to bring democracy and federalism to Iran," he said.
Edris Abdi of the Komala Iranian Kurdish nationalist group in Iraq said it did not engage in military activity.
Hardi Mahdi Mika, a political scientist at the University of Sulaimani in northern Iraq, said the Iranian government neglected the country's Kurdish regions.
"In terms of economic growth and unemployment, the Kurdish regions are the poorest," he said.
Kurdish workers in Iran cross the border into Iraq every day in search of temporary jobs that offer better pay.
Even in Iranian provinces where they are in the majority, "the Kurds have no say in local governance", Mr Mika said.
UPDATES
TEEN AGERS Iranian students stand up to regime
More and more Iranian students, including schoolchildren, are joining the protest wave. Iranian security forces are resorting to increasingly brutal measures to quell the demonstrations.
Iranian students remove their headscarves during a protest in Tehran
Every day, new pictures and videos of Iranian protesters from all parts of the country are shared online, despite moves to restrict internet access. Students have also joined the protests and many have been arrested and jailed.
On Tuesday, videos were posted of demonstrations at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran's second largest university, calling for the release of their fellow students, especially those from the elite Sharif University of Technology in the capital Tehran. Students there were arrested on Sunday evening after staging a peaceful campus protest.
Police and security forces surrounded the campus and fired on students with shotguns. Numerous videos posted online show students being hunted down. Several lecturers were beaten with batons. It is not yet known whether any individuals were killed or injured in the crackdown. Iranian media, meanwhile, report that at least 37 students were arrested.
Riot police have been used to supress protests in Tehran and across the country
"This is supposed to intimidate other students," 50-year-old Maryam from Tehran, whose real name has been withheld for security reasons, told DW. She has two children, both of whom are studying. "Every time they leave the apartment, my heart starts racing and I feel nauseous until they return," she said.
"We are not doing well; we are sad and angry.The death of Mahsa Amini was a shock for us, she could have been my daughter." Deadly violence
This protest wave was initially sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died after being arrested by Iranian morality police for allegedly breaching the country's strict rules on head coverings. The exact cause of Amini's death remains disputed.
Iranian security forces have attempted to suppress rallies with brute force. Until Tuesday, at least 154 people have been killed in connection with the protests, according to NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR), many of them by gunshots.
In late September, human rights organization Amnesty International reported that Iranian authorities are making deliberate use of lethal force, and said they "have mobilized their well-honed machinery of repression to ruthlessly crackdown on nationwide protests."
"This show of solidarity among students for [other Iranian] protesters could pose a challenge for the state leadership," says Iran expert Hamidreza Azizi of Berlin's German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), who was an assistant professor at Tehran's Shahid Beheshti University from 2016 to 2020.
Iran, a country of 84 million, has over 200 universities and academies. Traditionally, students have played a key role in Iranian protest movements, for instance "during the 1979 revolution, and also later, for example during the protest waves of 1998 und 2009," said Azizi.
"Students supply intellectual backing and have the potential to mobilize different sectors of society, because they, too, come from different parts of society."
Iran's leadership is well-ware of the students' potential for protest, through so far, there is no organized student movement. Following nationwide protests in 2009, all independent student organizations were shut down and leading members arrested.
"On top of that, new rules concerning the localized assignment of university places were pushed through," said Aziz. "The idea is to keep many young people studying close to home to keep them under their family's supervision, instead of living in student accommodation in constant contact with others."
An Iranian protester writes "Death to the dictator!" on a wall in Tehran
"Student residences, especially those in Tehran, are among the first places to be monitored; in 1998 and 2009,security forces stormed student residences and randomly arrested residents," said Aziz. Last Sunday, he added, halls of residence were raided at Sharif University. "Students may not be organized, but they cannot be underestimated, just like school protests." School protests
In Iran, boys and girls are taught separately from the very first day right up until graduation. Even so, Iranian schools impose strict dress codes on girls. Countless videos have circulated online showing schoolgirls burning headscarves and shouting "death to the dictator." Boys schools, too, have been gripped by strikes and protests in solidarity with Iranian girls. "Unfortunately they have not been coordinated," Iranian journalist Moloud Hajizadeh told DW.
Hajizadeh has been arrested numerous times for covering the suppression of Iranian protest movements. Most recently, in January 2021, she was sentenced to one year in jail. Yet just before starting her jail sentence, Hajizadeh fled Iran. She now lives in Norway.
"These protests are occurring in isolation from each other and do not last very long," said the journalist.
"Students have always been at the forefront of important protest movements in Iran; [now] they will have to leave their walled-off campuses, where can be easily encircled, and join others in the streets, taking a leading role even."
Only then, she said, "will the protest movement take on a new dimension, with enough power to bring about big changes."
Shervin Hajipour has been released on bail and is awaiting trail. He was detained by police shortly after his song in support of feminist protests across the country went viral.
Thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets in protest against the government, and have been venting their anger online. Dissidents claim that some of their posts on Instagram were deleted.
Anti-government protests in Iran are not abating. The unrest was triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini, who died in custody of the country's morality police. Her death has also drawn international condemnation and solidarity rallies.
Iran organises more counter-demonstrations as protests continue
Many of the recently arrested protesters have been teenagers, according to a senior IRGC official.
Iranian demonstrators took to the streets of the capital Tehran during a protest for Mahsa Amini, days after she died in police custody [AFP] By Maziar Motamedi
Published On 5 Oct 2022
Tehran, Iran – Another round of counter-demonstrations have been organised in support of the Iranian state as protests that formed after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody on September 16 approach the end of their third week.
Pro-government demonstrations in northern Tehran began in the early afternoon on Wednesday and are expected to last several hours. Like the two previous rounds, they were announced via state media and mass text messages, and were expected to condemn “recent riots and the crimes of seditionists”.
Wednesday marked the 19th day since the start of the protests, during which dozens have been killed and many arrested. The authorities have not released an official tally.
Ali Salehi, the capital’s attorney general, announced Tuesday that 400 people arrested in “riots” in Tehran have been released so far after committing never to repeat their acts.
A senior lawmaker briefed by intelligence authorities said the same day that an unknown number of “leaders of the riots” will remain imprisoned.
With the school year having started, videos of school children and teenagers taking their hijabs off and chanting slogans have been widely shared on social media.
Ali Fadavi, the second-highest commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said on Wednesday that the “average age of the many of the recently arrested is 15 years” and that many of them had fallen “victim” to a narrative pushed on social media and foreign-based outlets.
Meanwhile, the death of a teenage girl who joined the protests in Tehran has been widely shared on social media. Nika Shakarami went missing for 10 days just before she turned 17 before her family finally found her body in a morgue in Tehran. She had reportedly suffered severe head trauma.
An investigation into her death has been launched, but authorities have rejected allegations that she may have been beaten by security forces.
State-affiliated media reported on Wednesday that Shakarami’s body was found in the courtyard of a home after falling from the roof of a neighbouring house, and eight people who were in the vicinity at the time have been arrested.
University students have also featured prominently in the protests so far on campuses across the country. Riot police earlier this week surrounded the prestigious Sharif University of Technology in Tehran and arrested an unknown number. Officials have since said that “most” of the students have been released.
Online activity surrounding the protests has also continued, with Amini’s name prominently used on Twitter.
Judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei said on Tuesday that the time it took from Amini’s arrest by Iran’s so-called “morality police” in Tehran on September 13 until her collapse from an apparent stroke in a police “re-education” centre was less than an hour.
His remarks came in support of assertions by Iranian authorities that Amini was not mistreated or beaten, and suffered from pre-existing conditions, something her family have rejected. An investigation into her death is expected to yield results within days. ‘Foreign intervention’
As the protests have continued amid lingering internet restrictions, top Iranian authorities have repeatedly condemned what they have called a “foreign presence” behind the unrest.
Officials have also condemned statements and sanctions by the US in support of the protests. The European Union has also signalled that it is considering human rights sanctions against Tehran.
“We are unhappy with positions and interventions by some European officials on recent events, and if the EU wishes to make a hasty and uncalculated move showing double standards, it must await the effective and reciprocating act by the Islamic Republic,” Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian warned his Italian counterpart in a phone call on Wednesday.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Iranian foreign ministry had summoned the United Kingdom ambassador, Simon Shercliff, for a second time in 10 days to “strongly condemn interventionist statements” by British officials.
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