MARXIST SUPPORT GENERAL STRIKE JUNE 23

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Marxists support of Mousavi is less surprising considering the man's background. Looking at Mir-Hossein Mousavi's unusual career arc Borzou Daragahi and Ramin Mostaghim and Kim Murphy note:

Before the revolution, Mousavi was a follower both of Khomeini and Iranian activist Ali Shariati, who combined Marxist and Islamist doctrine in speeches he presented at the Hosseinieh Ershad, a famous mosque in north Tehran.

But during the 1990s and since, Mousavi also began expanding his understanding of the world, acquainting himself with thinkers such as Michel Foucault, Juergen Habermas and Edward Said, according to Said Hosseinian, a friend and colleague who served in his campaign.

"He is an open-minded technocrat with religious ideology," said Saleh Nikbakht, a Tehran attorney who knows him."Though he admits that he follows the late Khomeini's path, in fact he belongs to a moderate school with a nationalist democratic legacy and a tolerance of other opinions."

Though Ahmadinejad fashions himself as a populist in support of the poor, Hosseinian said Mousavi always leaned toward the left in his outlook."He believed the poor have suffered more than the others," he said.