[Pen-l] MRZine and polling the Iranians

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

An article posted on MRZine has unleashed a flurry of angry responses 
from Iranian leftists. Titled “What Do Iranians Think of Their Own 
Government?“, it originally appeared on the website of 
WorldPublicOpinion.org, a polling outfit. It begins:

"Iranians largely express satisfaction with their government. Two out of 
three say that Iran is generally going in the right direction, though a 
plurality is dissatisfied with the Iranian economy. Half say they trust 
the government to do what is right most of the time, while another 
quarter say they trust it at least some of the time. Two-thirds express 
satisfaction with Iran’s relations with the world as a whole. Large 
majorities approve of how President Ahmadinejad is handling his job at 
home and his dealings with other countries, though this support is 
considerably lower among more educated and higher-income Iranians."

Since the article appears without any introduction by MRZine, the reader 
is not quite sure what to make of it. It is open to multiple 
interpretations. If it is meant to refute war propaganda about Iran 
needing to be “liberated”, it might have some value in the sense that 
Central America activists in the 1980s often pointed out how fair and 
democratic Nicaraguan elections were. How could Nicaragua be a communist 
dictatorship when pro-US parties were running openly against the 
Sandinistas?

The other interpretation is not so benign. It might indicate that the 
ostensible popularity of Ahmadinejad is an invitation for the Western 
left to throw its support behind the Islamic Republic. After all, how 
can it be so popular, especially among the poor, if it is not fostering 
an egalitarian economic program?

MRZine editor Yoshie Furuhashi posted an introduction to this article 
that also appears on the popular Lenin’s Tomb blog, where her musings on 
Iran have appeared on a fairly regular basis. She states:

"Contrary to what much of the Western media, leftist as well as 
capitalist, would have us believe, the Iranian government apparently 
enjoys a high level of popular support, according to the latest World 
Public Opinion poll, which also clarifies the class base of support for 
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Would-be regime changers ought to take a hint and 
stop the economic sanctions, covert actions, “democracy assistance,” 
media propaganda, and other measures against Iran, all of which only 
undermine the Iranian people’s attempts to further democratize their 
government and make it truly reflect the will of the people. The Iranian 
government, in turn, should take a deep breath and lighten up: the best 
defense against imperialism is the deepening of democracy, including 
industrial democracy, and improvement of the economic lot of working 
people, not the My Uncle Napoleon syndrome."

When reading this paragraph, I felt tempted to say something along the 
lines of what my wonderful Turkish teacher says when I hand in a paper 
riddled with grammatical and spelling errors: “What wonderful mistakes. 
It gives us a great opportunity to deepen our understanding.”

full: 
http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2008/04/16/mrzine-and-polling-the-iranians/
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