Re: [Marxism] Iran's rural vote and election fraud

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Suresh: Louis, it's hard to notice that the 'reforms' that are being 
vaguely alluded to here are inevitably of the "much-needed" neo-liberal 
variety. If we're now taking Kautsky's and Plekhanov's line, and are 
arguing on behalf of another period of capitalist development of the 
progressive forces in state-dominated dirigiste economies like Iran (or 
maybe Belarus, Zimbabwe, Myanmar etc.), let's just come out and say it.


---

We are not taking Kautsky's line. We are taking Lenin's line. The 
working class needs democratic rights in order to press its class 
demands. In my post on whether a velvet revolution was unfolding in 
Iran, I quoted a passage from "What is to be Done" that illustrated 
Lenin's idea of how a vanguard functioned:

Why is there not a single political event in Germany that does not add 
to the authority and prestige of the Social-Democracy? Because 
Social-Democracy is always found to be in advance of all the others in 
furnishing the most revolutionary appraisal of every given event and in 
championing every protest against tyrannyâIt intervenes in every sphere 
and in every question of social and political life; in the matter of 
Wilhelmâs refusal to endorse a bourgeois progressive as city mayor (our 
Economists have not managed to educate the Germans to the understanding 
that such an act is, in fact, a compromise with liberalism!); in the 
matter of the law against âobsceneâ publications and pictures; in the 
matter of governmental influence on the election of professors, etc., 
etc. Everywhere the Social-Democrats are found in the forefront, rousing 
political discontent among all classes, rousing the sluggards, 
stimulating the laggards, and providing a wealth of material for the 
development of the political consciousness and the political activity of 
the proletariat. [emphasis added]

---

Which led me to state:

I rather like this V.I. Lenin, whose chief concerns seem so 
diametrically opposed to the Marxist partisans of Ahmadinejad whose sole 
litmus test consists of the amount of calories an Iranian family enjoys 
each day. I would not be one to diminish such a criterion, but Leninâs 
attention to matters such as laws against âobsceneâ publications and 
art, and governmental influence on the election of professors would 
likely cause him to retch at the material now circulating in defense of 
Ahmadinejad.

________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40archives.econ.utah.edu