[Marxism] A velvet revolution in Iran?

[Jscotlive at aol.com]

Louis:
 
The post-election crisis in Iran has prompted individuals and groups on  
the left to reduce it to an imperialist plot to foment a “color” or  
“velvet” revolution
 
Reply:
 
Conversely, the crisis has prompted individuals and groups on the left to  
reduce it to a crusade for democracy against tyranny, despite as yet NO 
concrete  evidence that election fraud took place, despite the polls carried out 
prior to  the election by western pollsters which predicted an Ahamdinejad 
victory.  Without any meaningful analysis of the social forces involved, 
we've had  hysterical cheerleading of protesters in the streets, images brought 
to us  courtesy of CNN, the BBC, and other western news organisations. 
 
Historical precedent should tells us that when we find ourselves on the  
same side as the British foreign office and the US State Dept alarm bells 
should  start ringing, even within those whose conception of the world is stuck 
in  events which happened 30 years ago in 1979.
 
The middle class and more privileged layers of society are capable of  
taking to the streets to struggle for their class interests every bit as much as 
 the working class and the poor in the wake of an election that doesn't go 
their  way. Chile in 1973 and Venezuela in 2002 springs immediately to mind.
 
Sorry, but however much we might wish it to disappear, the geopolitical  
context in which this crisis is unfolding cannot be so easily cast aside or  
derided as naivety on the part of those who choose to factor it into their  
analysis.
 
The regime led by Ahamdinejad may not be socialist, but in its resistance  
to US hegemony, in its material aid to the Arab resistance against Israeli  
expansionism, it plays a progressive role. 
 
In all of the attacks on the Iranian govt I've read thus far on the left,  
I've yet to read anything other than reductive arguments against  
Ahamdinejad, similar in tone and vitriol to those which were levelled against  Saddam 
starting back in the early 1990s and then again post  9/11.
 
It's called preparing the ground.  
 
Finally, may I suggest an excellent piece on the crisis in Iran by Guardian 
 columnist, Seumas Milne.
 
_http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/18/iran-elections-us-forei
gn-policy_ 
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/18/iran-elections-us-foreign-policy)