The State of Things in Iran - What should be our stand?

[il Commy]

I ofcourse support the students who are fighting against the clerics. But I thought to myself, aren't they gonna form a liberal-capitalist society if they'll win? The clerics became the ruling class because of a proletarian revolution who had shitty results, wouldn't a bourgeois-democratic revolution would be as shitty? (I'm sorry for my choice of words, me and English don't go so well today). There is no socialist/communist party in Iran, won't a new revolution will also cause troubles?

And another question, since we know Iran will have nuclear weapon in 2005, shouldn't we support imperialist invasion to it? I mean, I oppose imperialism, but i also hate the idea that the near by islamic clerics will be able to earase humanity.

[Severian]

1. Currently, Iran is a bourgeois state. So its not a question of reestablishing capitalism or something, but of the expansion of democratic rights that would give workers more space to organize.

Some of the political currents in Iran, bourgeois liberals who look to imperialism for support, are of course not worthy of support. Others have a more progressive dynamic.

E.g. the current wave of protests was sparked by a protest against university privatization. The regime's privatized other stuff recently, and this has been resisted.

At the end of this post, I'm gonna paste in a couple excerpts from articles that shed light on subterranean political developments inside Iran.

2. Huh? As opposed to imperialism having the ability to wipe out the world? The immediate effect of Iran developing nuclear weapons would be to even the imbalance of power in the region, esp. through deterring nuclear-armed Israel from launching any new war of conquest.

In general, as the number of states with nuclear weapons increases, the risk of somebody using them does go up. However, this is the product of a technology that cannot be "un-invented" or suppressed forever. Imperialism cannot solve this problem - in fact, the U.S. invasion of Iraq has greatly increased the incentive to develop nuclear weapons in order to deter U.S. aggression.

OK, here's the excerpts. The first is from 2001, the others from recent weeks:

In their fights to resist the bosses' attacks on their jobs and wages, workers in Iran have recently held mass actions outside factories and government offices demanding action to address their grievances. Most of the protests have been at companies sold by the state to capitalists who have simply stripped the factories of their assets, leaving workers without pay or a job.
Workers in the Kashmir Wool Works in the Kurdish city of Kermanshah held a demonstration July 4 in front of the provincial office of Labor and Social Affairs to protest the agency's decision to uphold the layoffs of their coworkers, reported the Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA). Some of the coworkers who were laid off had worked there for 10 years and had not received wages or benefits since 1999.

This action followed a successful demonstration by textile workers in Tehran that attracted national attention. Eight hundred workers from the Cheet-e-rey textile factory mobilized in front of the Majles (parliament) June 12. They had not been paid for two months and the new bosses who bought the factory last year had stopped production.

The owners had purchased the plant from Bonyade Mostazefan va Jonbazan (BMJ, Foundation of the Oppressed and Disabled Veterans), one of the bonyads, or foundations, that was created after the 1979 revolution. After many large landowners and capitalists fled the country following the revolution, the factories were taken over by workers and run by shoras (councils) for a brief period of time. The authorities then organized the bonyads and took over the factories and other confiscated property. BMJ took major responsibility for aiding wounded veterans of the Iran-Iraq war and helping the families of those who gave their lives to defend the revolution. In recent years, as part of the government's drive for privatization, the bonyads have begun to sell off some factories.

link (http://www.themilitant.com/2001/6528/652802.html)

“A group of women in Tehran launched Farsi-language editions of Pathfinder’s Problems of Women’s Liberation and Cosmetics, Fashions, and the Exploitation of Women, on March 8, International Women’s Day,” said Shirvani, “the first time since the 1979 revolution that overthrew the U.S.-backed shah that this anniversary has been celebrated publicly.” He had recently returned from helping staff the Pathfinder stall at the May 4-14 Tehran International Book Fair.

The March 8 celebration was put together by the organization of women publishers in Iran. Books on women’s emancipation were among Pathfinder’s best sellers at the fair. The two titles were translated and published by the Iranian publisher Golâzin. A representative of the new enterprise told Shirvani that “something clicked” when she read Problems of Women’s Liberation by Evelyn Reed. She said Golâzin plans to publish a Farsi-language edition of Pathfinder’s Marianas in Combat: Teté Puebla and the Mariana Grajales Women’s Platoon in Cuba’s Revolutionary War, 1956-58.

Shirvani reported “renewed interests by young people in the history of anti-imperialist struggles in the region”—especially the 1945-46 revolution in Azerbaijan, which forged a workers and peasants government only to be betrayed by the Stalinist movement. He displayed a special issue of a magazine published by Turkish students at Tehran University commemorating that revolution. The issue included a biography of Jafar Pishevari, a founder of Iran’s Communist Party at the time of the October 1917 Russian Revolution.

“This was the first time I have heard of a magazine in Iran celebrating that event and not facing prosecution,” said Shirvani. “It is an example of how new generations are reaching out to the past to learn.” These realities are part of the reason why U.S. imperialism would have a hard time launching a military assault on Iran, he said.

link (http://www.themilitant.com/2003/6722/672250.html)

Hundreds of thousands of people visited the 16th Tehran International Book Fair, a major cultural event in the world. For the 11th year in a row, Pathfinder Distribution London had a booth at the fair, exhibiting books in the foreign publishers’ subsidized hall.
Interest was especially high in Pathfinder’s books on the Cuban Revolution, women’s rights, the imperialist war drive, and the roots of the conflict in the Middle East.....
Books on the Cuban Revolution, and particularly by Ernesto Che Guevara, a central leader of that revolution, were once again the top sellers for Pathfinder...... Malcolm X titles were also in demand.....Pathfinder’s books on women’s rights were the second-most popular subject. But there was welcome competition from good-quality Farsi translations that exist of two Pathfinder titles: Cosmetics, Fashions and the Exploitation of Women and Problems of Women’s Liberation, published by the Iranian publisher Golazin. Of these Farsi editions, 2,000 copies of Cosmetics, Fashions and the Exploitation of Women and more than 3,000 of Problems of Women’s Liberation have been sold to date.

Growing range of Farsi translations
Many people who currently speak or read little English visited the foreign publishers’ hall. Groups of high-school-age youth were often attracted into the Pathfinder stand by the displays of enlarged copies of covers of Pathfinder titles. Some of these youth were happy to learn that they could obtain Farsi translations of some of Pathfinder’s titles at the stands of two Iranian publishers—Golazin and Talaye Porsoo—in the local section of the fair. Talaye Porsoo has published Farsi translations of 13 Pathfinder titles, three of which sold more than 50 copies at the book fair, the publisher reported.

There appeared to be a broader interest and wider availability of books by and about Karl Marx than in previous years. Several new Farsi-language translations of writings of Marx were on sale, including Grundrisse, written as part of Marx’s preparation of Capital. Translations of the Marxist classics Reform or Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg and Fundamental Problems of Marxism by Georgi Plekhanov had also been published within the last year.

link (http://www.themilitant.com/2003/6719/671960.html)

Also, here's a short historical summary of the Iranian revolution. (http://www.themilitant.com/2003/6715/671558.html) For background. It's part of a series.

[nz revolution]

I'm sure the Tudah Party still exists over there unless Khomeini wiped them out.

Yeah the Bureaucratic SWP (US no relation to the Brit one) did well in the Book Fair over there, more money for the leader. WHat ever happened to the 20 Mil (US) that the got from real estate? Is it invested in capitalism on the stock market?

[redstar2000]

Yeah the Bureaucratic SWP (US no relation to the Brit one) did well in the Book Fair over there, more money for the leader. What ever happened to the 20 Mil (US) that they got from real estate? Is it invested in capitalism on the stock market?

I hadn't heard that one...and wouldn't at all mind hearing the details.

It's good to hear that some stuff by Marx and Luxemburg is making it into print in Farsi; but it would not surprise me if some Leninist outfit does well there in the coming decades. It's the same old recipe: small but relatively advanced urban working class and large peasantry mired deep in superstition...fertile ground for a new "great leader" and a tightly-disciplined "combat organization".

If successful, things will be better there than they are now...but not by all that much.

:cool:

[nz revolution]

I'll try and get some details on it and post up letters and the details, because anyone can check who owns shares in what, I'll try find their alternative name for the market.

[il Commy]

Thank you Severian, you brought up some interesting points.

[CienfuegosJnr]

Most Iranian Commies left Iran because of the 'Ayoatollah', back in the 80's -
So being a commie probably doesn't go down well in those circules-
Also like I said in another post U.S soldiers fought with Syrian border guards today,... whats next??

[Severian]

Quote: from il Commy on 2:20 pm on June 24, 2003
Thank you Severian, you brought up some interesting points.

You're welcome.

Gossipmongers: take it to another thread, willya?

[redstar2000]

Gossipmongers: take it to another thread, willya?

Come on, Severian, what do you know and when did you know it? :biggrin:

:cool:

[Kez]

http://www.marxist.com/Asia/iran_student0603.html