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ISSE demonstrates in New York to demand release of jailed
Iranian students
By Bill Van Auken
18 February 2008

The International Students for Social Equality held a demonstration
Saturday, February 16 to protest the Iranian government’s
arrest of more than 40 left-wing students and demand their immediate
release.

ISSE members and supporters, together with a group of Iranian
students attending university in the US, rallied outside the Mission
of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations in midtown
Manhattan. The demonstrators carried signs condemning the arrests
and put up display boards bearing photographs of a number of those
who are now imprisoned by the Iranian government. The students
formed a picket line, marching in front of the entrance to the
building on Third Ave. in Manhattan, where the mission has its
offices, chanting, “Free the Iranian students, no to war
against Iran.”

After the demonstration, the Socialist Equality Party and ISSE
held a meeting in which there was a lively discussion about the
present political situation in both Iran and the US, the political
issues posed in the development of the Iranian student movement
and the struggle for Trotskyism.

Those arrested in Iran are part of the group Students for Freedom
and Equality, also known as the Radical Left. In December, the
group organized an independent demonstration to denounce US war
plans, while also opposing all factions of the Iranian government.
More than 30 students were arrested after the demonstrations,
and another 10 were arrested on January 15.

Some students have been released on bail, while others have
been unable to meet the extremely high bail fees of up to $100,000.
Other students, including alleged leaders of the group, are not
eligible for release and have not had contact with friends or
family outside of prison. Some students have said they suspect
that these prisoners are being tortured to elicit televised confessions.
(See “Iranian government
intensifies crackdown on left-wing opposition”)

At Saturday’s rally, Joe Kay, a member of the ISSE Steering
Committee, addressed the demonstrators and read out a letter drafted
by the ISSE to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad demanding
the immediate release of the imprisoned students. The ISSE will
be submitting this letter together with other letters sent by
our readers to the Iranian government’s representatives.
The WSWS calls on its readers to continue sending letters of protest
to the Iranian Interests Section in the United States at requests@daftar.org.
Please send copies to the WSWS.

We will soon be posting a more complete report on the ISSE
demonstration on the WSWS.

The text of the ISSE letter follows:

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
President Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Khamenei:

We are writing to demand the immediate release of all members
of the group Azady Barabary (Students for Freedom and Equality)
currently held by the government of Iran. Charges against these
students must be dropped. They have committed no crime but to
engage in legitimate protest against war plans of the United States
and the policies of your government. The freed students must be
given the right to demonstrate and voice their political opinions
openly on campuses.

A list of the names of those students arrested is included
below. These students are not affiliated with our organization,
but we, along with students and workers all over the world, are
following their treatment carefully. We will continue to follow
and publicize their cases until they are freed and their unjust
persecution ends.

We are outraged by reports that these students have been subject
to torture and myriad forms of physical and psychological interrogation.
They may also be under pressure to agree to false confessions
before television cameras.

These methods recall the atrocities of the Shah’s regime.
It should be noted that the first wave of student arrests in December
occurred after a demonstration marking Students’ Day, which
commemorates the murder of four students by the Shah during the
visit of then-US Vice President Richard Nixon in 1953. The killing
occurred shortly after the US-sponsored coup overthrowing the
government of Mohammad Mossadegh.

The ISSE speaks on behalf of students and workers in the United
States and around the world who are deeply opposed to the past
and present warmongering policies of the US government against
Iran. The students that you have placed behind bars were engaged
in protests against US imperialism. Their arrest will only damage
the struggle against war that endangers the population of the
entire region.

Your imprisonment and mistreatment of these courageous students
is a grievous assault on democratic and human rights. It plays
into the hands of the imperialist militarists, who exploit the
injustice committed by your government to justify their plans
for an assault against Iran.

We once again demand the immediate release and the dropping
of charges against the following students:

Amin Ghazaie, Bijan Sabagh, Soroush Dashtestani, Anahita Hosseini,
Morteza Eslahchi, Bita Samimizad, Behzad Bagheri, Morteza Khedmatloo,
Soroush Sabet, Mohammad Pourabdollah, Mohammad Zera’ati,
Farzad Hasanzadeh, Saeed Habibi, Peyman Piran, Mehdi Gerailoo,
Nader Ehsani, Behrooz Karimizadeh, Ali Salem, Ali Kolaie, Abed
Tavancheh, Sadra Pirhayati, Saeed Aghamali, Keyvan Amiri Elyasi,
Hadi Salari, Amir Aghaie, Soroush Hashempour, Mehdi Allahyari,
Majid Ashrafnejad, Reza Arab, Mohammad Saleh Aboman, Sohrab Karimi,
Farshid Doostipour, Javad Alizadeh, Anoosheh Azadbar, Ilnaz Jamshidi,
Roozbeh Safshekan, Roozbehan Amiri, Farshid Farhadi Ahangaran,
Milad Omrani, Mohsen Ghamin, Nasim Soltanbeigi, Amirhossein Mehrzad,
Mahsa Mohebi, Saeed Aghakhani, Okhtai Hosseini, Arash Pakzad.

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