Yoshie:
So do Venezuela and the rest of Latin America today. Changes within the overall capitalist relations of production matter.
But Iran and Venezuela's government have different goals. Chavez is promoting workers power through institutions like the Bolivarian circles. When the Iran workers asserted their power through 'shoras', or workers councils, goons in the revolutionary guards did everything they could to smash the shoras and make the workers heel the line through forced prayer meetings, show trials and outright beatings and killings. The goal was to consolidate Iranian capitalism under a new ruling class. They have been successful for an extended period but with the new restiveness in the working class, they have been forced to throw them some crumbs. That was what Ahmadinejad stands for, some more crumbs.
