Re: [Marxism] Iranians praise rare Western concert

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Walter Lippmann wrote:
> Only in a world
> which is perfect, with socialism everywhere, would there be no
> repression. There's repression in Cuba, too. Who could say there
> isn't? It's a one-party system, and that means anyone who wants 
> to set up something else isn't allowed to do so. REPRESSION!

Walter, you should read "State and Revolution", particularly the 
passages that deal with the dictatorship of the proletariat. Socialist 
countries are forced to repress the bourgeoisie in order to defend 
socialist property relations. Capitalist countries repress the workers 
in order to defend capitalist property relations. In other words, there 
is a class criterion. In Cuba, they lined up Batista's torturers against 
the wall in 1960 and shot them. In Iran, they lined up Marxist 
guerrillas in 1980-83 and shot them. The reason Khomeini made this 
decision is that he saw Marxist guerrillas as a threat to 
theocratic/capitalism, while the Cubans were trying to consolidate a 
revolution against capitalism. Do you understand the difference? 
Hello... Is anybody home...

> My objection is to the CAMPAIGNING which some Western radicals
> engage in regarding Iran, which dovetails nicely with the big
> campaign to manufacture consent for a US military attack on
> Iran. It's the CAMPAIGNING which some tendencies engage in 
> that I object to. Not the discussion, the CAMPAIGNING.

Excuse me? I don't think writing email to Marxmail constitutes 
campaigning. If I marched around the Columbia campus at noon with Hillel 
students under a huge banner "Bomb Iran"--that would be campaigning. Do 
you understand the difference? Hello... Is anybody there...

> If this campaign were directed toward any of the other Islamic
> regime, like the one in Saudi Arabia, I might look at this in a
> different way. But it's the CONSTANT DRUM-BEAT OF CAMPAIGNING
> to which objection is raised. 

Well, nobody has illusions in Saudi Arabia. Our problem is that there is 
confusion about Ahmadinejad. Because of his diplomatic initiatives, he 
is seen in some quarters as an anti-imperialist fighter. But that 
ignores the Islamic Republic's deals with Oliver North, its collusion 
with the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and its support of SCIRI, an 
Iraqi Shiite group that worked with the CIA.

> Also, the reference to "Everybody Knows" was to Leonard Cohen's
> ironically-worded song about how war is over, which reminds me
> of the balmy reassurances of those who don't think Washington is
> gunning for the Islamic Republic.

It is understood that Iran is on Washington's hit-list. So was the USSR 
in the 1950s. Does that mean that the Militant newspaper was wrong to 
call attention to the idiotic "Doctor's Plot"? God, come to think of it, 
you probably would have called that giving aid and comfort to the CIA.



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