Re: My Reply to the "Open Letter to Monthly Review Editors"

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

> Yassamine Mather was and probably still is a member of the
> coordinating committee of an outfit called Workers Left Unity Iran
> <http://archive.workersliberty.org/australia/Newsletter/WL29.pdf>. The
> outfit's Web site is www.etehadchap.org/. It espouses the type of
> politics that Workers' Liberty in the UK and the like champion. Mather
> is also a deputy editor of Critique, Journal of Socialist Theory
> <http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/journal.asp?issn=0301-7605&linktype=5>,
> on whose advisory board Torab Saleth sits. Critique's editor is Hillel
> Ticktin. It's a tiny political current from which this "open letter"
> comes. I wish Mather had made her political affiliation clear from the
> outset, instead of simply listing her academic institution, which is
> irrelevant to understanding the letter.

Yes, we should be clear that this controversy is being used as a wedge by
people like Danny Postrel of Opendemocracy, a website that is co-edited by
him and Todd Gitlin, as a battering ram against Islamic backwardness, etc.
Doug Ireland has also posted the open letter. Doug writes some useful
things on gay rights but tends to follow the left-liberal crowd on the
usual talking points about Islam.

That being said, I have stated my differences with Yoshie on how to
appraise Ahmadinejad. I think he should be defended against imperialism and
against the bazaar bourgeoisie in Iran but he is no Chavez. Chavez is not
just a populist, he has made important statements in favor of socialism and
seeks to build ties with Marxists. At his best, Ahmadinejad is more like
Qaddafi.