While Karroubi went for the liberal option of differentiating people
into identity groups with different demands (women, students,
intellectuals, ethnicities, religious minorities, etc), Musavi
emphasized the universal demands of ‘people’ who wanted to be heard and
counted as political subjects. This subjectivity, emphasized by Musavi
during his campaign and fully incarnated in the rallies of the past few
days, is constituted by political intuition, creativity and
recollection of the ‘79 revolution (no wonder that people so quickly
reached an unexpected maturity, best manifested in the abstention from
violence in their silent demonstrations).

Musavi’s ‘people’ is also
easily, but strongly, distinguished from Ahmadinejad’s anonymous masses
dependent on state charity. Musavi’s people, as the collective
appearing in the rallies, is made of religious women covered in chador
walking hand in hand with westernized young women who are usually
prosecuted for their appearance; veterans of war in wheelchairs next to
young boys for whom the Iran-Iraq war is only an anecdote; and working
class who have sacrificed their daily salary to participate in the
rally next to the middle classes. This story is not limited to Tehran.
Shiraz (two confirmed dead), Isfahan (one confirmed dead), Tabriz,
Oroomiye are also part of this movement and other cities are joining
with a predictable delay (as it was the case in 79 revolution).