[Marxism] 2 views on the Iran election

[Politicus E.]

Proyect wrote:  "We should not oversimplify."

I agree that we should not oversimplify.  And thank you for these two
articles.  I understand that there are students influenced by various
Marxisms at certain universities in Iran.  However, their influence on
the present political situation remains unclear.  I also continue to
maintain that the Iranian state, in its present constitution, is not
fascist irrespective of the claims in these articles.

In the spirit of not wanting to oversimplify, moreover, I refer
interested comrades to the following extract of an article from the
New York Times (23 October 2007) entitled "In Northern Iraq, Conflict
Simmers on a Second Kurdish Front."  It suggests that "guerrillas from
the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan, or P.J.A.K., have been waging a
deadly insurgency in Iran and they are an offshoot of the Kurdistan
Workers' Party, known as the P.K.K., the Kurdish guerrillas who fight
Turkey."  However, "while the Americans call the P.K.K. terrorists,
guerrilla commanders say P.J.A.K. has had 'direct or indirect
discussions' with American officials. They would not divulge any
details of the discussions or the level of the officials involved, but
they noted that the group's leader, Rahman Haj-Ahmadi, visited
Washington last summer."

There appears to be a measure of political heterogeneity among the
demonstrators and I do not know if the Mousavi faction is able to
contain what has been unleashed.  Nevertheless, I have little doubt
that U.S. imperialism will try to take advantage of the situation.

epoliticus

*****
Deadly raids into Turkey by Kurdish militants holed up in northern
Iraq are the focus of urgent diplomacy, with Turkey threatening
invasion of Iraq and the United States begging for restraint while
expressing solidarity with Turkish anger.

Yet out of the public eye, a chillingly similar battle has been under
way on the Iraqi border with Iran. Kurdish guerrillas ambush and kill
Iranian forces and retreat to their hide-outs in Iraq. The Americans
offer Iran little sympathy. Tehran even says Washington aids the
Iranian guerrillas, a charge the United States denies. True or not,
that conflict, like the Turkish one, has explosive potential.

Salih Shevger, an Iranian Kurdish guerrilla, was interviewed recently
as he lay flat on a slab of rock atop a 10,000-foot mountain on the
Iran-Iraq border, with binoculars pressed to his face as he kept watch
on Iranian military outposts perched on peaks about four miles away.

He and his comrades recounted how they ambushed an Iranian patrol
between the bases a few days before, killing three soldiers and
capturing another. ''They were sitting and talking on top of a hill,
and we approached, hiding ourselves, and fired on them from two
sides,'' said Bayram Gabar, who commanded the raid, and who like all
the fighters here uses a nom de guerre.

The guerrillas from the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan, or P.J.A.K.,
have been waging a deadly insurgency in Iran and they are an offshoot
of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, known as the P.K.K., the Kurdish
guerrillas who fight Turkey.

Like the P.K.K., the Iranian Kurds control much of the craggy,
boulder-strewn frontier and routinely ambush patrols on the other
side. But while the Americans call the P.K.K. terrorists, guerrilla
commanders say P.J.A.K. has had ''direct or indirect discussions''
with American officials. They would not divulge any details of the
discussions or the level of the officials involved, but they noted
that the group's leader, Rahman Haj-Ahmadi, visited Washington last
summer.

Biryar Gabar, one of 11 members of the group's leadership, said there
had been ''normal dialogue'' with American officials, declining
specifics. One of his bodyguards said officials of the group met with
Americans in Kirkuk last year.

Iranian officials have accused the United States of supplying the
fighters and using them in a proxy war, though those assertions were
denied by the American military. ''The consensus is that U.S. forces
are not working with or advising the P.J.A.K.,'' said an American
military spokesman in Baghdad, Cmdr. Scott Rye of the Navy.

A senior American diplomat said that there had not been any official
contacts with the group and that he was unaware of its having received
any support from the United States. He also said that Mr. Haj-Ahmadi,
while in Washington, did not meet with administration officials.

Because the P.K.K. is on the State Department's list of terrorist
organizations and aiding such groups is illegal, the United States is
eager to avoid any hint of cooperation with the P.J.A.K.

Guerrilla leaders said the Americans classify the P.K.K. as a
terrorist group because it is fighting Turkey, an important American
ally, while the P.J.A.K. is not labeled as such because it is fighting
Iran.

In fact, the two groups appear to a large extent to be one and the
same, and share the same goal: fighting campaigns to win new autonomy
and rights for Kurds in Iran and Turkey. They share leadership,
logistics and allegiance to Abdullah Ocalan, the P.K.K. leader
imprisoned in Turkey.

While most Kurds are Sunni Muslims, the guerrillas reject Islamic
fundamentalism. Instead, they trace their roots to a Marxist past.
They still espouse what they call ''scientific socialism'' and promote
women's rights ....
*****