On 8/7/06, Louis Proyect <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Yoshie:
>Lou, do you realize that the Tudeh Party doesn't exist in Iran now?
>What doesn't exist can't do anything, leading to disaster or triumph
>or whatever.
But this is not about what is going on in Iran today. You have become
embroiled (whether you know it or not) in Iranian exile politics. The line
that you are pushing in MRZine is identical to the current in the Iranian
left that wants to subordinate itself to Ahmadinejad.
Which "current"? The only Iranian leftist I know who takes a view
_remotely_ similar to mine is Ross Pourzal, who arrived at his
politics completely independent of me. One person doesn't constitute
a "current." :-> I've yet to hear anything about the prospect of
passive revolution in Iran that I've been talking about from Ross,
though. :->
Besides, I've published a wide variety of leftist opinions on Iran,
from MEK-loving Ron Jacobs to MEK-hating Ross, those who buy the story
of Iran's executions of gay men like Michael Steinberg to those who
take that story with a giant grain of salt like myself, ISO kids like
Pham Binh to postmodernist Oxford scholars like Arshin Adib-Moghaddam.
I even published an open letter criticizing Ross and MRZine. As it
happens, I like almost all of them -- Ross and Mohit, Haideh Moghissi
and Val Moghadam, Ron and Michael, the really charming Arshin -- as
scholars and activists, though naturally I prefer my own opinion to
all others' (otherwise, I wouldn't hold it). :->
In any event, Iranian leftists in exile, whatever opinion they
espouse, are completely irrelevant to the choices that masses in Iran
make -- they have no organized following in Iran.
The only Iranian exiles who matter are royalists, MEK, neoliberal
reformists, Trita Parsi (a Republican who is an advisor to Bob Ney and
President of National Iranian American Council) and the like in whom
the multinational empire takes some interest, but even they are of no
consequence in the big picture. They are not the driving force. They
are mere tools Washington may or may not pick up.
The Workers World
Party had a debate in which Ardeshir Ommani, head of the American-Iranian
Friendship Committee, defended your analysis against that of Morteza Mohit,
a MR contributor who signed the open letter attacking your pro-Ahmadinejad
propaganda. People can read WWP's obviously biased account at:
http://www.workers.org/2005/world/iran-0922/index.html. This debate
reflects the omnipresent Manichean tendency in Marcyite politics that puts
a plus where the USA puts a minus.
If you got a problem with the Workers World, go pick a fight with Lou
Paulsen on your list.
I don't care for the WW. If I did, I'd join it.
--
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>
<http://mrzine.org>
<http://monthlyreview.org/>
