The disunited colours of Iran's Bourgeois camps

The political and organisational disintegration of the Labour Pary may be on everyones lips at the moment, yet in Iran, our comrades are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Bourgeois factions are entering into open war on the streets and in the media. It is "Greens" versus the "Reds" in Iran at the moment, Karoubi's "Whites" have very little chance in this election, one thing can be sure whatever coloured camp wins, the people will lose in this election either way. As the main tendencies of the Iranian bourgeoisie go into battle the imperialists are desperately trying to influence the outcome of the election. This is what is behind Obama's recent appeals to Muslims.

Supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi have taken up the colour green and have been out onto the streets rallying and demonstrating. This has caused outrage, with right wing papers attacking the use of the "sacred colour" and aiming to copy the colour revolutions that took place in former Soviet Republics. The charge of a colour revolution could actually stick, as no doubt Mousavi is the most desireable candidate for the USA. Ayatollah Khamenei has commented on this, and railed against the wests "meddling" in Iran.

In the North of Tehran, youths in sport cars are driving around waving green flags in support of leading opposition candidate Mousavi. In the South of Tehran, things are a little different. Members of the Basij are out in force attacking opposition and reformist youths, so are Ahmadinejad's supporters, they are sporting red attire, which has been denounced by Ahmadinejad's campaign manager, but is continuing regardless as young Iranians are flocking to the three political centres intent on victory in this election. One Daneshjouyan-e Azadi Khah va Beraber Talab (DAB) member has told me that the South of Tehran looks increasingly like a war zone as rival factions clash. A young Mousavi supporter in the Eastern city of Mashhad has been killed by Ahmadinejad's boot boys, comrades described him as a "boy" who just wanted to see the back of the hated Ahmadinejad. That killing goes on top of the 25 killed in a bomb attack on a Mosque and the five killed in clashes on Monday.

Ahmadinejad is at the moment is visibly losing the election along with his marbles, his behaviour in a television debate was denounced by Ayatollah Khamenei in his address celebrating Ruhalla Khomeini's life and marking 25 years since his death. Ahmadinejad supporters along with the Basij are doing everything in their power to keep him in power, it is not beyond the power or the imagination of Ahmadinjad and his conservative allies to rig the election. The only thing he needs is backing from Khamenei, whatever the number is of those who vote against him, he will remain in power.

I am backing the "Blues", which as a Villa fan, is a hard thing to do. That is the colour the democratic opponents of the Theocratic regime have taken up; they are not calling for a vote for any of the candidates. They are calling for an abstention, since none of the candidates offer anything other than repression, violence and poverty for the working masses.