Translating "The Street" Newspaper Circulating Among Iran Protesters

Via Babylon and Beyond, I read this morning of an underground newspaper named Khiaban “The Street” that is circulating among protesters in Iran.  I have found a PDF of the paper here.   Its first issue is dated from Thursday the 19th.  What follows is a translation of the front material, headlines and lead editorial.   This strikes me as an extremely important resource for all interested in what is going on, and we should try to get the full four pages translated as soon as possible.  If anyone is interested in contributing a translation, please contact me ASAP. -WW

UPDATE 1:  Scroll down further for  the translation of another article from the paper “We rely on the streets.”  Translation thanks to A. Pedram!

UPDATE 2: Meedan is working on getting this into Arabic as well.  Check it out and lend a hand here.

UPDATE 3: I have appended my translation of the poem by Hadi Khorsandi that appears on the left of page two.

Writings.  Eyewitness accounts.  Send your own articles to us at xyaban@gmail.com

For subscriptions email khyaboon@gmail.com

Long live popular sovereignty!  Long live resistance to the Coup D’état!  Death to dictatorship!

The Street

Issue 1 – 29 Khordad 1388  (June 19, 2009)

Aiming to negate students’ impact on the current developments:  University dormitories ordered closed

Iran in a bloodbath

Workers of [car maker] Iran Khodro on Strike

Hundreds of thousands protesters march from Tupkhaneh Square to Haft Tir

In the provinces, coup-makers practice violent oppression

“Media and the streets” (page 1, center)

A bloody page in Iran’s modern history seems to be turning in the events we are witnessing.  In past days and nights, Tehran and many Iranian cities have not stayed calm as peoples’ burning rage has thrown daily life into flux.  The people in the streets are playing a game of cat and mouse with violent thugs; youth are in revolt, and the elderly  rack their memories for re-learned lessons of the calamitous events of the 1979 revolution to pass on to the young.

Again, after thirty years, people are leaving the doors of their homes open [to give refuge] to courageous youth, and we hear from many how great people are, and how quickly they can change.  Over the past days’ witness to events, we were different people, different slogans.  During the campaign until election day, the huge crowds of people that had taken to the street with the green wave were spirited, the bliss of unawareness reigning over them.  Yet since the results were announced, the situation changed and people became angry, and sought the crest of the wave to propel them beyond the ignorance, repression and hundreds of lies.  During recent days and nights, the tide has again turned.

Like Azar of 1953 [CIA-backed anti-Mossadegh coup] and Tir of 1999 [reformist protests and regime crackdown], and – according to many present at the time – even like the protests of the revolutionary years and 1963 [clergy-led anti-shah protests]!!!  Yes, we are seeing the naked face of repression.  We see the green wave of reformism in its entire expanse, as it brings us into a shared arena with the existing system

Killing us and calls for calm have only made the situation more acute.  Now we have more questions; more than just issues with vote counting.  We want a different voice.  We do not want to be sacrificed to corruption and graft again, for the nth time, our interests ignored.  We do not want a slaughter that would set society back thirty years.  We do not want a repeat of the fraud of 1979.  We do not have any media but the world has gotten smaller so we no longer see one thing on the streets but read something else  in world media.  We do not want the next generation to be ignorant about what happened on the streets of Tehran, Esfahan, Tabriz, Shiraz, Mashhad, Ahvaz, Kermanshah, and the rest of the cities, large and small.  We will represent a new voice in this power play: the voice of the people crying out in the streets.  The people who have no delusions about colors and who demand change.  Khiaban Newspaper

“We rely on the streets” (page 4, bottom)

By Simin Mesgari

Mousavi knows too well how deep the wound is. He also knows that his green bandage is only a first aid cover for this wound and not a cure.

Mousavi knows that he cant be both the cause of pain and cure at the same time.

Mousavi knows that not all “this” is for him.

He knows very well, and we also know very well that had there been a “better” candidate than Mousavi with a “lesser evil past” which had chosen yellow colour for his campaign, the nation would have gone yellow and Mousavi would have demoted to Ahmadinejad’s position. …..

One can’t know all this and not be scared about the consequences of what has been unleashed. These protests can get out of control.

The ultimate demand of this campaign is far from presidency of Mousavi, even though its official colour is still green.

Velayat-e Faqih or the “Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists” is the red line which Mousavi has expressed he won’t cross – this red line is now being crossed by those wearing green.

No longer can either of the political camps – [reformists and conservatives] – control the streets, however both of them are trying to. One with guns and batons, the other by inviting people to mourn for the dead at mosques – which are traditionally the political powerbase for the Revolutionary Guards and Basiji (the voluntary paramilitary group) who are practicing their aiming skills on the bodies of our brother and sisters.

Streets are dangerous, not just for us but more for them. That’s why they are trying to pull us from the street by inviting us to attend the Friday prayers after we have mourned for our dead brothers and cried over our destroyed homes. Ironically it is Mousavi who is inviting us to attend. To make a joke out of our protest, they are inviting us to attend mosques, because they are scared of “streets” but they should know that “we rely on the streets”.

A Poem by Hadi Khorsandi (page 2, bottom)

The thief has come
The thief has come, armed with sticks and knife
The murdering bandit has come, armed with the leader’s order

The thief has come
More eloquent than the rest; well-connected, fuller of shit
Mean and unjust, wearing a halo of his booty

A thief more fearsome than this, with a terrible sweat
Not timid to drink blood cause he got less of the take

The thief has come
With a hundred hopes and masterkey in hand
His new scheme brought a new mob for the land

The thief has come
The thief has come, armed with sticks and knife
The murdering bandit, armed with the leader’s order