Reese Erlich is a freelance journalist and author who's been covering recent events in Iran -- *from Iran* and not just his computer chair like many in the mainstream media have.

He recently countered "left-wing Doubting Thomas arguments" in an article on Common Dreams .org. In his arguments, I found these observations about Iranians "fighting for political, social and economic justice" inspiring.

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Assertion: The U.S. has a long history of meddling in Iran, so it must be behind the current unrest.

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Frankly, based on my observations, no one was leading the demonstrations. During the course of the week after the elections, the mass movement evolved from one protesting vote fraud into one calling for much broader freedoms. You could see it in the changing composition of the marches. There were not only upper middle class kids in tight jeans and designer sun glasses. There were growing numbers of workers and women in very conservative chadors.

Iranian youth particularly resented President Ahmadinejad's support for religious militia attacks on unmarried young men and women walking together and against women not covering enough hair with their hijab. Workers resented the 24 percent annual inflation that robbed them of real wage increases. Independent trade unionists were fighting for decent wages and for the right to organize.

Some demonstrators wanted a more moderate Islamic government. Others advocated a separation of mosque and state, and a return to parliamentary democracy they had before the 1953 coup. But virtually everyone believes that Iran has the right to develop nuclear power, including enriching uranium. Iranians support the Palestinians in their fight against Israeli occupation, and they want to see the U.S. get out of Iraq.

So if the [sic] CIA was manipulating the demonstrators, it was doing a piss poor job.

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See also Erlich's Iran is not a twitter revolution.