The situation in Iran is volatile and fluid and things could get much worse (there are already reports about Mousavi supporters being arrested with explosives!) and it is way too early to draw some deep conclusions about these events. One thing, however, is absolutely clear: the so-called “Left” showed no common sense, no critical thinking and no analytical capabilities whatsoever. Even the best Leftist websites and commentators (Pepe Escobar, Counterpunch, etc.) swallowed the propaganda of the Rafsanjani camp hook, line, and sinker. There is an amazing irony here: the events in Iran are just about the perfect example of a class struggle, and yet the Lefties missed that completely even though this story was not without precedent.
Indeed, what is going on today in Iran is in many ways very similar to what the “Gucci elites” in Caracas attempted to do against Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, another oil rich country. But since Chavez was a self-declared socialist, the Lefties supported him en masse. The problem with the Iranian situation is, of course, that the real target of the attack of the “Gucci elites” in Tehran is not a socialist general, but a Shia Muslim cleric: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (for those who did not get it yet, let me make something clear. This is not about Mousavi vs. Ahmadinejad, this is about Rafsanjani trying to overthrow Khamenei).
That is all it took to con our doubleplusgoodthinking Lefties: a cleric as the victim (they, of course, did not notice that another cleric, Rafsanjani, was the one who instigated it all!)
Call it the traditional anti-religious arrogance of the “enlightened” secularist, call it old grudges against the crushing of the Tudeh Party by the Islamic Revolution, call it a visceral dislike of anything clerical or Muslim, but the bottom line is the same: the Lefties, like lemmings, literally rushed over each other to draw the same outraged conclusions: “Iranian hardliners steal an election and violently crush the Tehran Spring”, bla bla bla bla bla.
The Lefties even completely missed something which should have given them at least some pause: their hero Hugo Chavez called Ahmadinejad to congratulate him on his election and said, quote, “Ahmadinejad’s victory was a win for the whole world and all free nations“!
But no, that did not give them pause. They had their “minute of hatred” a la 1984 without so much as even a small little doubt about what was really going on…
Now I am no Leftist at all, and most definitely not a Marxist. I do not believe that class warfare explains most, let alone all, the conflicts in history. I do find dialectical and historical materialism a very useful analytical tool, but I don’t live by its assumptions or conclusions. But even I clearly see that what is going on today in Iran is an attempt of a “Gucci coup d’etat”, this is class warfare at its best (worst?), and yes, this is a brazen attempt to steal an election, but the thieves are not Ahmadinehad and his putatively “hard line” supporters, but Mr Multi-Millionaire Rafsanjani and the elites who back him.
So, as Roger Waters once wrote, I ask all of you who fancy themselves to be on the “Left”
Expressed in dollars and cents,
Pounds, shillings and pence
Can’t you see, it all makes perfect sense
Yeah, right on point Saker.
Same happens in Palestine regarding Hamas. I mean regarding the fight struggle between Hamas and Fatah which actually is a class struggle among the corrupt elite and the more disenfranchised ones, represented by Hamas. All this within the fight against the occupation that currently is also led by Hamas. Like those Russian puppets, mind you. A struggle within a struggle.
Many leftists are reluctant to support Hamas, just because these are conservative and religiously oriented, or what is “worst” in the wester propaganda-driven-mind, islamic-religiously oriented. They rather forget the Hamas’s unbent nationalist stance, its fight for liberation, and forget too that liberation must come prior to any social change or even political option. Time will come for the palestinians to opt, if so they wish, between red and green.
The great George Habbash did understand this and said: “We tried and failed, let them try”.
That’s it.
In my view, those self-proclaimed leftits that are reluctant to acknowledge the Islamic nationalist movements, have yet another reason for acting so: They belong in an opposing sect, they are worshippers of the “secularist” religion.
where it reads. “regarding the fight struggle between Hamas and Fatah”
must say: regarding the power struggle etc.
and where it reads: Russian puppets, must say Russian dolls, the “matrioshkas”.
All we get to see on tv is the city elite people and the students. Of course they are angry. Ahmedinejad is not their candidate. Of course things need to change there too for the better. Not sure if either candidate can offer more work for the people, more safety, etc. But if it is so that the majority (people in the country, the villages) chose one candidate of only two, it should be accepted, even if it is not “our” candidate. If there was election fraud, then, just as it should be everywhere, elections should be called for again. I hope no one dies or is wounded anymore in clashes.
@lucia: In my view, those self-proclaimed leftits that are reluctant to acknowledge the Islamic nationalist movements, have yet another reason for acting so: They belong in an opposing sect, they are worshippers of the “secularist” religion.
Correct. By I am not a Shia either, nor even a Muslim for that matter. I also belong to another group: I am an Orthodox Christian. But does that really matter?! Isn’t the truth something “objective”.
Malcolm X, a Sunni Muslim, said it best:
“I am for truth, no matter who tells it”
I very much support a secular socialist like Chavez, I support a Shia Muslim like Nasrallah, and I deeply admire a secularist like Gilad Atzmon. None of these guys share my own religious or philosophical beliefs, but does that have to make me blind to the fundamental justice of their struggles?!
I HATE doubleplusgoodthinking political (or religious) bigotry in all its forms and manifestations.
It is a DISGRACE that some religous Orthodox Christian like myself would have to tell some worldwide famous Lefties like Pepe Escobar or the folks at Counterpunch of something which THEY should me more, not less, sensitive to: the class aspect of all this.
SHAME on the Lefties for not even being true to THEIR OWN values and ideals.
Thank God there are still people out there – like Chavez – who are the “real thing”.
Most of the so-called “Left” today is what the French call “La Gauche caviar”, the “Caviar Left”.
No wonder they support “Gucci revolutions” when they themselves wear Gucci (at least in their minds)!
I agree with you here and can add one more:
the first day following the election results, I was distractedly watching the news, and they kept repeating about how it was hard to film things, and what have you, but they manged to sneak their sneaky camer in. Let me say this, I got more attentive. They described, in unmistakeable prose that there were riots, unrest, tension, police charges on the marchers, etc… but in the images… there were just folks walking around minding their own business, no broken things on the streets, etc. That is: if I just listened (or read?) I would have seen something that was totally different from what my eyes were telling me.
Later, possibly, things have changed, but I could not get over the surreal experience of them describing a situation that my eyes could only see as the opposite. There is more trouble here at the end of any football match than in what they were showing!!
By the way, PTT has had some reporting on this that did not fall into the way you depict the in your paper here. We talked about the media spinning, and Nima Shirazi does some great papers on this.
ps, lucia makes great points.
Ha, ha, my dear, since it is THE TRUTH, it must be pretty difficult to discuss it. I wonder if it is divinely inspired…
Anyway, OK, Chávez congratulated Ahmadinejad, they get along quite well, it seems. After all, the two are at odds with the empire, but I think they have not very much in common, perhaps that they are straightforward. But as far as their policies are concerned…Don’t forget that Iraq’s and Afghanistan’s presidents, who are usually called stooges of the Empire, were quick in congratulating him too. Therefore that adds nothing to our enlightenment.
Now you complain the “stupid” left criticizes the Iranian regime and supports the Venezuelan democracy, just because the latter is called socialist…
It is more than just names, it is contents.
Nobody is arrested overnight in Caracas, in fact there is no political prisoner. There is no woman clubbed by any religious police because of any code dress, in fact there is no code dress. Nobody is executed publicly or in prison, in fact nobody is executed in Venezuela. Elections in Venezuela are monitored by independent bodies, both international and domestic, also by the parties, and the results don’t depend on a behind closed-door counting in a ministry of interior. And the Bolivarian Revolution is empowering the people through grassroots movements, such as the communal committees, and redistributing oil wealth through 50 Misiones, which are managed by the people, and not by making avuncular visits and giving the people some potatoe gift, and then arresting trade-unionists, intellectuals, opposition activists… And there is no censorship in Venezuela, unlike Iran where even Garcia Marquez’s latest novel was banned!
And by the way, Venezuela’s religious hierarchy is apart from the government, even at odds with Chavez…
So please no comparison between the socialist, participative democracy in Venezuela, and the oppressive, obscurantist theocracy in Iran.
And also please don’t play the victim about their being muslims, because the main victims of the regime are also muslims, the millions who are angry for being robbed their ballot are also muslims. But perhaps they want to live their religion in freedom, and not under the abuse of power of corrupt so-called guards of revolution, with huge interests in national economy and finance.
But of course all this is not true, because I don’t enjoy the grace of divine truths, and I’m human, and may err…
@Enrique: So please no comparison between the socialist, participative democracy in Venezuela, and the oppressive, obscurantist theocracy in Iran.
And where did you see me make that comparison?!
I only compared the GUCCI REVOLUTIONARIES in both countries, not the regime in power. And I did mention that, by some coincidence, both countries were oil-rich. That’s it.
The kind of “logic” which says that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” is plain stupid. You can intensely dislike Ahmadinejad, Khamenei, the Shia cleric, Islam and even all religions without falling into the trap of thinking that Mousavi and his (clerical) financeer and puppet-master Rafsanjani represent any kind of “change”, “democratization” or “progress”.
That kind of thinking is plain dumb.
There is absolutely no need for any Divine inspiration to see what is going on. Again, I very much doubt that Hugo Chavez, or Medvedev, first went into a long prayer session before deciding to fully back the legitimacy of Ahmadinejad’s election.
I do not complain that the stupid Left criticizes the Iranian regime. I complain about the stupid Left mindlessly parrotting the propaganda of the Rafsanjani camp without realizing that Rafsanjani & Co. will screw the Iranian people much, much worse than anything the current regime has done.
Please read all the articles I just published in the last 24 hours, including those of an American union member and the one of a Socialist opponent to the current regime and, for Pete’s sake, THINK!!!!!
We have got used to the so-called revolutions after elections: Serbia, Ukraine, Georgia. “They” tried it in Belarus, “they” had their so-called cedar revolution in Lebanon (never mind that Hezbullah is part of a coalition comprising Christian parties too) – what else – Kyrgyzstan I seem to remember, which did not work out according to CIA-standards either.
It is not who counts the vote but whoever wins the battle over the so-called fraudulent count who wins.
A US-sponsored coup in Iran is unlikely – they had it in 1953 and that will not happen again. An internal coup however would not be the first one since 1979, whoever wins. Most of the actually powerful did not like Ahmedinejad in 2005, there is no reason why they should like him now, so I’d say the battle is still open.
It may however be just like with Milosevic and Shevardnadze (or even Mugabe, for that matter, another Democrator not liked by International Community Esq.): probably they would have won anyway but they still thought it necessary to rig the election – this may have happened in Iran too.
Angry Arab is from the left and he gets it.
Maryam’s grandmother
“Conversation with Grandma after Iran’s elections”
Posted by As’ad at 6:31 PM
http://southissouth.wordpress.com/2009/06/14/conversation-with-grandma-after-irans-elections/
@Ritalin: Angry Arab is from the left and he gets it
Dunno, I did not check yes site (but I will as soon as I have a sec).
But let me be clear – I am not saying that ALL the Left does not get it.
I am saying that in the so-called “Left” there is a sadly large, if not huge, section of “Caviar Left” and plain old idiots who either cannot get it, or do not want to get it. And I am really, really disgusted with them.
But you are correct, there still is a *real* Left out there, and I, for sure, thank God for it.
VS
One last thought, regarding my previous comment. Sometimes people do not get in the street unless someone encourages them to do so. It is a psychological affect, perhaps, “may I?” “yes please do”.. that we noticed very much in the Cedar revolution. I don’t recall who posted the pics, perhaps Razan Al Ghazzawi, of the woman who had her Philippean domestic worker carry her sign for her. There were 4 or 5 pro-Hariri marches where this couple were photograhed. I wish I kept that url. Anyway, I believe that if many have taken to the streets, it is because they have been encouraged to do so. Whether or not there have been irregularities (and the evidence points to NO), people generally do not protest the result of an election unless they feel they can obtain something from it, that otherwise they may not be able to get. In this case, the support of the West (etc) who do not understand the mechanism, probably are ill-informed and the journalists who participate with instructions to film and report violence when obstensibly… there is none in sight. Later, it can be created and then this time-elapsing can be forgotten.
My first attempt at this post didn’t take so I apologize if a double post pops up later.
VS,I don’t find anything in your piece unacceptably provocative or inflammatory,
though the term “Totally mindless idiocy” in the title would be to many! ;)
Class war, IMHO, is all too real, and though it is ignored or denied by many, or most,(The Pope used to say it didn’t exist! Many on the right say it is a myth made up by bitter lefties!;) ,our own US society is being consumed in a huge class war conflagration at this very moment!!! Check out Hedges latest: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090614_the_american_empire_is_bankrupt/
Alot of people are more into ideology than truth. They are easily offended. So what? That can’t be helped.
I do agree that the word “truth” is problematic in the post modern world so I, at the suggestion of Chomsky himself, replaced the word truth with “the actual facts on the ground in the real world”(or as close to that as we can get. Or as Wittgenstein used to say, “If not the truth, then at least true enough!” :).
Lucia, spot on. Really nice to see you again. You knew me as Datta over at Tony’s PP blog back in the day. Just reconnected finally with Fatima the other day. We both miss you. Take care.
Regards,
Curt
WOW! Datta-Curt, nice to meet you. Hope you’re doing fine.
I am doing well and finally appear to be over a major health crisis. Been trying to find you since you left PP.
Please email me sometime at
datta23@gmail.com
Best,
Curt
The usual refrain re: Chavez and Ahmadinejad is that they are friends ’cause they are both ant-imperialists, and have a common enemy.
This relationship that Iran has cultivated is actually a result of implementing what is part of the Iranian constitution: to support the struggle of oppressed peoples worldwide, while not interfering in other nations (i know there is some contradiction – but besides the point).
Previous governments in Iran did implement some aspects of this section of the constitution, but it was really Ahmadinejad who took it to heart – and went all out in building this relationship – going beyond only supporting Muslim (mostly Shi’a) movements.
And for this Mousavi-Rafsanjani were very critical towards A, claiming he abandoned the neighborhood in favor of far off countries. So, once again we see the absurdity of the mostly “western” left support for the Mousavi movement, that is not in favor of Iran building relationships with what are left governments in Latin America.
I will fault A for building a relationship mostly at a governmental level, and not so much at a people-people level with Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Bolivia etc. — I hope that in the next four years, more effort will be made to build a deeper level of relationship. There are of-course, cultural obstacles — but I think those can be overcome.
Bottom line – Mousavists want to improve relations with the Americans, Ahmadinejad’s movement wants to improve relations with those governments that are independent, and, in fact, are left-socialists. So, i can only attribute this anti-Ahmadinejad attitude of most of the western left to what you’ve mentioned – an anti-religion/Islamophobic mentality.
Current events in Iran demonstrate the utter betrayal of the Islamic Revolution by all Iranian parliamentary political factions – who are all universally nationalist. Mousavi follows a long line of Westernising liberal democratic traitors: Rafsanjani, Khatami, etc.
Ahmedinajad is no alternative. This populist demagogue is even more nationalistic and has does immense harm to the cause of Islamic revolution, by the viciousness of his state apparatus. His criminal misleadership in the name of true Islam provides the open enemies of Islam with fertile propaganda, enabling them to portray genuine Islam as authoritarian dictatorship which persecutes ordinary Muslims and wrecks their economy.
And, while Mousavi and other liberals want to more or less openly capitulate to US foreign policy goals, Ahmedinajad only pretends to oppose the US intransigently. His Government has openly supported the US successive puppet regimes in Iraq (obscenely dubbing them ‘Islamic!’) and secretly sought collaboration with the US in Afghanistan, to assist America in murdering Muslims. These are enormous crimes against Islam.
To paraphrase the Holy Qur’an, the solution is ‘neither East nor West’: neither Ahmedinajad nor Mousavi; neither populist demagoguery nor Westernising liberalism, but true Islam. Khilafah – the unity of ALL Muslims, firstly in our reclaimed Muslim lands in a single state of the ‘Ummah of Allah (SWT) – is the road we must take.
Iran today shows the utter failure of taking nationalistic path of Islamic revolution in a single state. Margbar demokrasi! Khilafah zindabad!
Don’t tar all the Left with the same brush, Saker.
Have a read of what has been posted at Lenin’s Tomb and in the comments section.
You’ll find a healthy Left that hasn’t swallowed the usual propaganda against the so-called ‘Islamists’ of Hamas, Hezbollah and against Ahmedinejad.
http://leninology.blogspot.com/2009/06/ahmadinejad-won.html
http://leninology.blogspot.com/2009/06/iran-vote-and-protests.html
http://leninology.blogspot.com/2009/06/what-can-opposition-win.html
Greetings,
anticapitalista
OK about Musavi and Rafsanjani, they are not the revolutionaries we’d like. But what I’m interested in is the mass movement against an untenable internal situation.
The problem with Ahmadinejad is not his rantings about the holocaust (of little help for the Palestinian struggle btw)and other international topics, as they may be judged as self-subservient for his internal expediencies.
The problem is he has reinforced a ruthless paramilitary power base, the guards of the Revolution (who control now even more economic and financial vital sections in Iran than Rafsanjani and his friends)and the thuggish Basiji, paid voluntary militiamen, who terrorize the population and have taken Iran to a stifling and oppressive daily life, as far as arts, culture, “code dress”, women, and economic plight is concerned.
Frankly I think the people, or at least half the people (the most informed) are fed up.
Enrique