CONTRA IRAN
Added 2026-01-15 08:27:53 +0000 UTCThis week we dig deep into Iran. We go all the way back to the country’s entree into modernity and its role as a nominally independent nation amidst and between competing empires in The Great Game. We also go a bit deeper into the political forces that gave rise to the first Shah of Iran, which is a real Fourth Reich fairytale involving Nazis, Brits, and of course that black gold, oil.
You know we dig into the rise and fall of the great lost hope for democracy, Mohammed Mossadegh. All he wanted was for Iran to get half the profits from his country’s oil, and instead he got ousted and replaced by a 26-year long dictatorship, replaced by the Islamic Republic in 1979.
Basically we cover about 250 years of Iranian history and tell a story that we just have not been hearing in the news these days. We then take it to the present day and give our analysis on the current protests and the factional formations popping up to prepare a hostile takeover of the roiling nation. It is a time for clear thinking, for historical understanding, for only through consciousness of our role in reality can we act in history. And act we must.
Comments
An Intense and personal episode. Thank you Don for sharing. My dad is Lur, from the shah persecution diaspora era. Our whole community is from that generation. (if you ever want to go to seizde bedar in San Jose - you have an open invite.) My father still talks in a halting voice of the assassination of Ahmad Kasravi in front of the court. I have to take this in chunks. But Am Extremely grateful even if I catch sobs in my throat and take a break. Thank you gentle friends.❤️
malpertuis
2026-01-16 16:07:28 +0000 UTCYou all really outdo yourselves every time! I'm sharing this with everyone I know, it answered so many blanks in history I had in my mind for years. I've been highly recommended to read Ervand Abrahamian as well for anyone looking to dive deeper into Iranian history and politics. This episode also cemented my desire to visit Armenia and Iran someday!
Ravyn
2026-01-16 14:33:23 +0000 UTCAwesome three hours. Deep thanks. ❤️ Motherfucking Cornel "Everyone's a fascist except me" West calls for the overthrow of Iran: https://www.aol.com/articles/online-communists-come-unglued-cornel-191959913.html
EJK
2026-01-16 02:32:32 +0000 UTCFor sure! Not sure if the links will work but here is a collection of them: This one is by Kouros Sarhangzadeh. The song is called Payk Saheri: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6ICFvhyegU
Don and Dick
2026-01-15 22:41:55 +0000 UTCFirstly, thank you Dick for your informative discourse on the Ajar and Pallavi (sp?) rulers and their opium addled collaboration with the rapacious Western powers for both their personal enrichment. What I do know of the corruption and brutality of the Shah's regime prior to 1969 was my conversations with a young Iranian University student in the early 1980's. He was a member of the Iranian Communist Party and told me of the gruesome torture techniques of he Shah's secret police, the Savak. I can vividly recall the profuse praise that Tricky Dick Nixon gave in honor of the lavishly decadent celebration given by Shah Reza Pahlavi on the 2500 anniversary of the Persian Empire. A spectacle of tawdry dimensions while the mass of the Iranians lived in poverty under a brutal dictatorship. A replica wet dream of our oligarchic rulers and perverted plutocrats.
Tovarishch Morozko
2026-01-15 22:05:06 +0000 UTCIt's the legendary Iranian vocalist Kouros Sarhangzadeh. The song is called "Payk Saheri." You can find it on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6ICFvhyegU
Don and Dick
2026-01-15 21:21:44 +0000 UTCwho is doing that beautiful singing just after the 2 hr mark?
m
2026-01-15 20:31:51 +0000 UTCExtremely timely and informative episode. Appreciate all you guys do! Any chance you can provide a list of some of the music throughout the episode?? Excellent stuff as always
Jeff
2026-01-15 17:01:41 +0000 UTC"The fascists stop at nothing. They try to find the weak spot. They invent the most ridiculous lies. They try to create terror and unrest among the people by telling the most outrageous lies. Their appeal is always to the gutter instincts: hatred, fear, racism, economic insecurity, selfishness, ignorance. They feed off of keeping people stupid. They resort to every method they can think of. And what do fascists do when their own institutions no longer guarantee their domination? How do they react when the mechanisms they've depended on historically to maintain their domination fail them? They simply go ahead and destroy those institutions, without a moment's look back. The fascists stop at nothing." -- Brother Fidel
EJK
2026-01-15 14:11:23 +0000 UTC"France is for French, England is for the english, Germany is for Germans and America is for Americans! That's just how it has to be!" Iran: I have a dozen ethnicities Russia: I have 120 ethnicities, give or take China: I have around 60 I think? Westerners: you....you can't do that....
Doug Cartel
2026-01-15 13:40:14 +0000 UTCWeeks where decades happen, indeed. Thanks for the dispatch, dudes.
Melanie K.
2026-01-15 11:31:21 +0000 UTC
