[Marxism] Iranian people proclaim their right to nuclear technology

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Socialist Voice

Marxist Perspectives for the workers' movement

         Number 93, September 7, 2006                                
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Iranians Proclaim Their 
Right to Nuclear Technology


By Bahar Mast

As the U.S.-led campaign to prepare economic and military assault on
Iran gathers momentum, Iranians are uniting in defense of their
country's dignity and sovereignty. "Nuclear energy is our legitimate
right," is the opinion most often heard from Iranians both inside and
outside the country.

Many Iranians have said that they are worried that the transfer of
Iran's nuclear case to the United Nations Security Council could lead to
sanctions against the Islamic Republic. As the Iraq war has shown, such
sanctions serve as the first step toward open war. But a survey of
Internet resources in Farsi, Iran's national language, reveals that few
Iranians favour bowing to such blackmail.

Polling Results

According to the Iranian state polling agency (ISPA), summarizing a
February 2006 survey, "Some 85 percent of Iranian citizens are in favor
of a continuation of the country's nuclear activities." The poll also
showed that "about 75 percent of the citizens called for an expansion of
nuclear technology," even in the case of a hostile ruling by the UN
Security Council." 

Capitalist media discount such evidence from Iran's own polling
institutions. Yet the imperialists' own efforts to survey Iranian
opinion have yielded similar results.

Consider the recent survey by Radio Farda, a short-wave radio service
generously funded by the U.S. government, together with the Voice of
America, Persian Service, in order to "support the aspirations of the
Iranian people for freedom in their own country." Obviously, its
listeners are found among Iranians most receptive to the U.S. propaganda
line. 

Yet the Radio Farda survey concluded that about 75 percent of Iranians
called for an expansion of nuclear technology, even in the case of
sanctions against their country. 

A caller from Iran told Radio Farda, "I'm calling from Tehran regarding
the UN Security Council; I think we have to resist," He added that he
also believes "despite increasing pressure Iran should continue its
peaceful nuclear activity. Why does U.S. speak about the rights of the
Iranian people such as the right to freedom of expression but it does
not recognize a peaceful nuclear program as a right of Iran? Why should
Israel have nuclear weapons but the Iranian people be deprived of having
a peaceful program."

Other imperialist-backed readings of Iranian opinion have come up with
similar results. Thus a survey by Zogby, a leading U.S.-based agency,
concluded, "A recent poll of the Iranian populace reveals widespread
agreement with the radical views of their president, including with his
quest for nuclear weapons.. To make matters even worse, the survey was
conducted before the present crisis . opinion today would probably be
even more radicalized." (as reported by TheTrumpet.com, a right-wing
website run by the Philadelphia Church of God).

On Friday, September 1, a British government agency, BBC News, quoted
Ali Rabie, a 21-year-old Electrical Engineering student in Tehran: "I
know many Iranian who are opposed to this government; but they are even
more opposed to other countries thinking they can dictate what goes on
here.. This is our culture, this is our ideology-and we are going to
export ours, not import yours."

Chat Groups

In the last Iranian presidential elections, the Western media gave some
attention to Internet chat groups based within the country, noting that
many opinions friendly to the U.S. government were being expressed
there. The election results showed that most participants in these
groups, drawn from the more privileged layers of Iranian society, were
quite out of touch with popular opinion. 

Based on my own survey last month of Iranian chat groups, I would say
they are less out of touch today. Most participants, including those who
reside outside Iran and those inside who are hostile to the Iranian
regime, are convinced that Europe and America, with their long record of
hostility to Iran, are fundamentally against Iran's technological
advances and are simply continuing their policies of colonial times. As
one participant said, "We have the right to develop nuclear technology
or any other technology." 

Many Iranians writing in these groups view the nuclear program a matter
of national pride. Some refer to the heritage of the ancient "Great
Persian Empire." One contributor wrote, "We have a very long, rich
history and we could be as strong as we were before." 

Some argue that regionally, Iran is surrounded by nuclear powers
including not only the United States and Israel but Pakistan, India, and
Russia. Why should Iran be denied nuclear weapons? Some writers point to
the double standards in Western foreign policy. Why the West is silent
on Israel, which is already a nuclear armed power? 

`Enriching the peas'

Similar sentiments find expression in a very popular TV comedy series in
Iran called Barareh Nights, set in a small fictional village called
Barareh some 70 years ago. The series takes a sarcastic look on social
and economic issues in today's Iran. One of its sub-plots involves an
Anglo-American profiteer, who goes about asking villagers to let him
"enrich their peas," that is, to soak the dried peas in order to prepare
Iranian villagers' most popular snack. 

The reference is obviously to the request by the U.S. and Europe that
Iran let them enrich its uranium abroad. Enriching uranium can serve,
among other purposes, as a preparatory step toward building nuclear
weapons. 

In the show, the profiteer fattens the peas by soaking them in water and
then tries to sell them back to the villagers at twice the price.

Monarchist warning

I was able to locate only one Iranian political current that has
indicated any sympathy with U.S. policy on the nuclear issue: the
Mujahedeen Khalgh (MKO). The Mujahedeen, which was prominent among
organizations resisting the Shah in the 1970s and the Khomeini regime
after the revolution, broke its ties with the Iranian masses by
collaborating with Saddam Hussein in his war against Iran during the
1980s. Recently, it associated itself with U.S. Iranian policy by
reporting details of the Iranian nuclear program to the imperialist
countries. 

Meanwhile, the monarchists, who have a more realistic hope of emerging
as Washington's governmental alternative in a war to overthrow the
Islamic Republic, take more care not to frontally oppose Iranian
national sentiment. The former Iranian royal family and its backers have
kept silent on the nuclear question. Moreover, in an interview with BBC,
the former Crown Prince and pretender to the Iranian throne, Reza Cyrus
Pahlavi, warned the U.S. government against any thought of military
assault against Iran. "The Americans should support democracy in Iran,"
he said.

The fact that even the profoundly anti-democratic and pro-U.S.
monarchists feel compelled to criticize U.S. policy, is vivid testimony
to the strength and unanimity of popular opinion in Iran.

The near-unanimity of Iranian opinion has led to warnings by some U.S.
ruling-class voices against Washington's aggressive intentions. Thus in
a July 20 report before the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and
governmental Affairs subcommittee, Ilan Berman, Vice-President for
Policy of the American Foreign Policy Council, said:

"Since Iran's nuclear program is one of very few issues that is
supported both by ordinary Iranians and regime hard-liners within the
Islamic Republic, military action is likely to result in a `rally around
the flag' effect that strengthens -- rather than weakens -- the current
regime in Tehran."

Needless to say, there is little popular support in the United States
for a war of conquest against Iran.

Solidarity Task

The U.S. warmakers will attempt, as in the case of Iraq, to brush away
the opposition both of the Iranian people and their own citizens, aiming
to achieve their goals through reliance on military power alone. They
are aware of the risks, but lured by the prize -- the hope that conquest
of Iran could give the U.S. effective world domination. 

North American and European imperialism face a much more formidable
antagonist in Iran than they encountered in the Iraq of Saddam Hussein.
They have recently absorbed setbacks in Iraq, Lebanon, and many
countries in Latin America. But the U.S. government hopes to make all
that good by doubling the stakes through military escalation. Their
campaign against Iran can be defeated, but it will take a united effort
by the Iranian people, international allies such as Venezuela and Cuba,
and friends of peace and national sovereignty around the world.

 


 
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