[Marxism] A touching appeal from an old friend

[Marv Gandall]

Louis writes:


Shawn Redden wrote:

> Fighting tears, shah's son calls crisis a 'moment of truth'
>
[...]

It must be added, however, that the clerics running Iran today were only
able to take advantage of the openings in 1979 because the Shah
preferred to hammer the left rather than them.

In fact, the clerics were one of the main blocs that collaborated with
the CIA to overthrow Mossadegh.
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It needs to be added further that the irrelevant exiled royalists, the
Rafsanjani-Mousavi faction of the ruling regime, and the demonstrating
students and youth have different and often conflicting values and
interests - inevitably the case when very diverse forces coalesce in any
social upheaval. That the shah's son wants to see the clerical regime
toppled is a trivial footnote to what has been happening in Iran during the
past week.

Those who worry about the return of Iran to the imperialist camp need, it
seems to me, to address several questions:

1) Is a struggle for democratic rights inconsistent with a struggle against
imperialism?

2) If it's not, under what circumstances would the critics of the present
eruption support a mass movement for democratic rights aimed at replacing
the Ahmadinejad government?

3) In what way(s) would such a movement differ from the one which presently
exists, which attracts both wealthy bourgeois Iranians with pro-Western
sympathies and anti-imperialist nationalists invoking the legacy of
Mossadegh? How would they propose to exclude the former from participating
in the demonstrations?