[Marxism] Ahmadinejad: Capitalism nearing collapse

[Louis Proyect]

Walter Lippmann wrote:
> The Islamic Republic of Iran is a socially conservative, but at
> the same time NATIONALIST government. It strives, by its own means
> and methods, to defend the national interests of the Iranian nation.

Well, you can say the same thing about Stalin. And, my guess, is that 
you got in a time machine and went back to 1938, you would be saying it 
back then.

> It's been doing that for going on thirty years now. And while surely
> some of the architects of Marxmail think that they could do a better
> job defending Iran's interests, the Iranians haven't as yet come to
> the same conclusion, apparently. Ahmadinejad did win an election not
> long ago in his home country, for those who might have forgotten it.

In Iran, you have reformist Islamists running against conservative 
Islamists, while a Zogby poll taken 2 years ago indicated that 31 
percent of the country wanted it to become more secular and liberal 
while a mere 5 percent more wanted to keep the status quo. What kind of 
elections excludes such a huge chunk of the country? Imagine 31 percent 
of Americans not being able to contest elections because they didn't 
think that Jesus was the son of god and that masturbation wouldn't lead 
to eternal damnation?

> Perhaps if Iranian Marxists had not been excluded from the ballot, 
> they might have defeated Ahmadinijad, just as Marxists here in the 
> United States might have defeated the Democrats and Republicans were 
> it not for the undemocratic election laws which predominate in this 
> country. In Argentina, the Kirchners are leading the government of
> that country, under a nationalist and not a Marxist program. 

Walter, you surely understand that Marxists in the U.S. at least have 
the right to sell their newspapers on the street. In Iran that can get 
you beaten up or worse.

> Unless I'm not mistaken, Marxists haven't found quite the same
> following in Argentina than the Kirchners have developed.

Part of the problem is that they were exterminated in the thousands just 
as they were in Iran at the very same time. Exterminating Marxists tends 
to weaken the Marxist movement.

> The idea that a bourgeois national government cannot do that is not
> in accord with the facts, but it IS in accord with the schema which
> insists that it can NOT do that. The world today is filled with many
> governments which maintain capitalist private property relationships
> while fighting to defend national interests against imperialist ones.
> One has to be blind not to see that. Some remain quite blind.

Of course many governments are in a struggle with the U.S. but Marxists 
are under no obligation to genuflect before them as you do before the 
altar of China and the Islamic Republic. How do you treat the callouses 
on your forehead by the way? Vaseline?

> This has led some people to fantasize that the Islamic Republic 
> is colluding with the government of the United States when, what
> is actually happening, is that the Islamic Republic is trying to
> postpone conflict with the United States as far as possible, and,
> at the same time, defending its own interests by encouraging the
> opposition to Washington elsewhere.

Was that the purpose of Oliver North being received as a guest of the 
Iranian government in 1987?

> This is why the Iranians evidently see more in common with Cuba
> and Venezuela, in relation to their fundamental adversaries in
> Washington, and Cuba and Venezuela have the same non-sectarian
> approach. Would that Marxists in the United States of America
> and Europe have as practical a grasp of the political reality! 

Walter, we here on Marxmail are not in the business of diplomacy and 
trade. If in the next few years we seize some territory and set up a 
state, you will be first in line to the Secretary of State with your 
finely honed diplomatic skills--albeit their Walter Mitty character.

> 
> Sometimes I wish that the world were different than it is,
> but my wishes alone won't make it so, unfortunately.

I think you are doing pretty good in the fantasy business.