jscotl...@aol.com wrote: > Ahamdinejad is certainly no progessive in the mould of Chavez, but within > the parameters of an Islamic State he has played a progressive role > vis-a-vis his orientation towards the poor and lowest strata of the working > class > in Iran and in his opposition to US imperialism and Israeli expansionism in > the region.
But the movement is challenging the parameters of "an Islamic state". We support that state's right to develop nuclear energy (of course, while retaining our critique of that kind of energy), oppose economic sanctions, and Israel's military threats. But Marxists are dead-set opposed to clerical rule. Part of the confusion over this can be attributed to the giddy response of sectors of the left during the rise of the Sunni resistance in Iraq, and Hizbollah and Hamas's refusal to kowtow to Israel. This led to an ideological blurring that was best expressed by the character Sukant Chandan who was subbed here briefly. I urge people to visit his website to get a taste of that kind of politics. Chandan was not bright enough to write his own material but he did have a certain skill at aggregating this kind of anti-Marxist nonsense: http://ouraim.blogspot.com/2007/11/hezbollah-proletarian-party-with.html Friday, 23 November 2007 HEZBOLLAH: A PROLETARIAN PARTY WITH AN ISLAMIC MANIFESTO A Sociopolitical Analysis of Islamist Populism in Lebanon and the Middle East Authors: Imad Salamey a; Frederic Pearson b Affiliations: a Political Science and International Affairs, Lebanese American University, Center for Peace and Conflict Studies and Political Science Department, Wayne State University An Anti-Bourgeois Vanguard Party While general sympathies have been growing across many sectors of Middle Eastern society, hardcore support for Islamist parties tends to come from within the poorest urban slums, from workers in factories and from the rural villages where support for Islamist groups such as Hezbollah is nurtured and cultivated as a counterweight to what is seen as class-based exploitation. According to a nationwide public opinion poll conducted by Statistics Lebanon with 400 participants in June 2006, Hezbollah drew most of its support from lower socio-economic groups; 81 per cent of those expressing support for Hezbollah were of lower socio-economic strata with monthly income below US$1,000; 38.6 per cent had below middle school education, 45.6 per cent received secondary education, and only 15.8 per cent had college education. Having been left out of the processes of globalisation, democratisation, modernisation and state building; with hardly enough to eat or a place to sleep, the poorest classes in Lebanon have created their own political allegiances. For those who have nothing to lose, Hezbollah has shown the way: there are a whole world and a heaven to conquer. --- I mean who needs Marxism when the Quran and adroit guerrilla tactics will suffice. ________________________________________________ YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
