[Marxism] The consequences of reading Garcia Lorca in Tehran

[Jscotlive at aol.com]

Interesting that just as the US has Iran in its sights, we are  subjected to 
a rash of anti-Iranian regime books, newspaper articles and  political 
commentary. Perhaps the saddest aspect to all this is how so  many so-called 
progressives and socialists in the US and the West in general  have succumbed to this 
nonsense.
 
It really is very simple: any contradictions that are present in Iranian  
society between progressive and regressive tendencies are there as a result  of 
the devastating and dislocating impact of Western imperialism. This goes for  
the Middle East in its entirety and indeed, wider, any part of the world that  
has been subject to the economic or military penetration of the West.
 
Of course, with regard to Iran, our focus turns to the nature of a state  
which calls itself a democracy and makes a mockery of the word; a  state that 
oppresses women, workers, that spies on its students,  that punishes dissent, 
that imprisons those who dare oppose its rule, a  state committed to nuclear 
weapons and which constitutes a clear and present  danger to the security and 
stability of the Middle East.
 
We are of course referring to the United States and its allies. 
 
The dagger that was plunged into the heart of Iraq remains unsheathed  and is 
now pointed at Iran. The hand of the US government is on the handle of  this 
dagger. The task of socialists, Marxists and progressives in the  imperialist 
centres like the US and the UK at this time is to do their utmost  to weaken 
the ability of their respective governments to continue an  imperialist project 
to colonise the region and turn it into a free market  desert. This in the 
interests of the international working class.
 
Enough of this garbage about how evil the Iranian regime is. The common  
enemy of humanity in the current period is the USA and its various  allies - 
specifically the UK and Israel. The material conditions  responsible for the 
retardation of societies in the Middle East and elsewhere  have been set by the role 
of the US, Israel and other western powers in  that region, going back to the 
Sykes-Picot Agreement in 1916. If those societies  are to develop and 
progress they need to emerge from under the iron heel of  imperialism.
 
This is a time to hold fast, not to succumb to the propaganda of our own  
bourgeoisie. 
 
J