Iranian officials are eagerly portraying the demonstrations as a fatal flaw in the US political and economic system, terming the protests the “autumn of capitalism” that will bring the end of both the American government and economic system.
The demonstrations have received immense coverage in the Iranian media—far more coverage than given the much larger protests in Iran after the 2009 elections. Support for the protestors and fierce criticism of America have come from editorial writers, Majlis deputies and assorted officials, all the way up to the president and even the Supreme Leader himself.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi said the US crackdown on protestors is anti-democratic and violates their human rights and freedom of speech.
“After the self-proclaimed supporters of freedom of speech were compelled to acknowledge this protest movement, they launched a crackdown on it and demonstrated the true nature of their claims of advocacy of freedom of speech, human rights and freedom of communities in the system of capitalism and liberal democracy,” he said to a gathering of thousands in Kermanshah.
He said that although the US is cracking down on the protestors, the demonstrations will grow and ultimately topple the United States government.
“The roots of this movement will grow in such a way that it will knock the US and Western capitalist system to the ground.”
He also said that the US was attempting to hide the “crisis” at home by accusing Iran of plotting to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington, DC.
The Iranian news coverage focuses on the arrests and portrays them as arrests for opposing US policy, not for blocking traffic or other offenses.
One of the prayer leaders of Tehran, Hojatoleslam Kazem Sadeqi, predicted the doom of Europe, and then some, in his sermon last week.
“They may silence the voice for a while through force, but the movement will end up in the full annihilation of the US, Europe and the capitalists, just as the Islamic awakening will definitely destroy the fake Israeli regime,” he said.
As if following the same set of talking points, Pasdar General Masud Jazayeri predicted the fall of the US government as a result of the protests. “The American people are more and more following the path chosen by the people in the Arab world,” he said. “America’s domineering government will face uprisings similar to those in Tunisia and Egypt.”
The general tenor of the comments shows that officials do not see—or do not wish the public to see—that protests in democracies and dictatorships tend to be different, with protests in democracies generally seeking a change in policy rather than a change in government.
Majlis Deputy Laleh Eftekhari said the American protestors were inspired by the wave of protests that swept across the Middle East and toppled longstanding regimes. She called the Occupy Wall Street protests the “American Spring,” borrowing the term used to describe the protests in the Middle East. She also said the American Spring will be the “autumn of capitalism.”
“Although these protests have faced a strong clampdown by the US police, they will overwhelm the United States soon because a majority of the people in the US are from the poor and deprived class of the society,” she said.
Although several city police forces have resorted to arrests—including 700 briefly detained in New York City for blocking the Brooklyn bridge—the level of force pales in comparison with Iran’s crackdown on the Green protestors in the wake of the controversial 2009 presidential protests. Iranian media also gave a great deal of attention to the “police brutality” of a building guard using mace against protesters pushing into a Washington museum.
There has been no recognition in the coverage that protesters in the United States often seek to be arrested as a rite of passage, knowing they will be fined and usually released in a matter of hours.
Some of the commentary in Iran has not focused on “police brutality” so much as portraying the protests as a manifestation of the influence of the Islamic Republic on the world.
Majlis Deputy Samad Marashi said that the protests were an example of Iran’s “soft power.” This soft power has shifted the “war front” from Iran and the Muslim world to the European borders and the heart of capitalism, the Fars news agency quoted him as saying.
A frequent refrain is that the protests in the West take their inspiration from Iran’s 1979 revolution.