Re: [Marxism] request for signatures for letter to Code Pink

[John Reimann via Marxism]

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I think Rebecca Gould did not seriously read the letter. It is very clear.
It says: "As socialists, and as supporters of the international working
class, we, of course oppose any aggression – economic, political or
military – by US capitalism against Iran or any other country." It refers
to the US government as being "repressive and aggressive". It says: "Any
agreement reached between the US and Iranian governments will simply be an
agreement for how to “peacefully” loot, plunder and repress the peoples of
the world as well as the global environment." How could Trump - or the
liberal representatives of US imperialism for that matter - possibly be
happy with those comments?

In fact, in supporting all the protests in Iran - the strikes, the women
protests, the protests of various specially oppressed groups - it clearly
differs from the position of US imperialism, which has never really
supported such protests. They never did in Syria, for example!

Let's be concrete: What will be the practical effect of this Code Pink
visit? The Iranian regime will use it to trumpet that they are supported by
the "people" of the US. This will strengthen their position domestically.
In the US this visit will be followed by a round of "reports" from Code
Pink. In those reports, they will report back on the excellent and friendly
discussions they had with various officials, students, etc. To the extent
that they have any comments on the protests there they will pretend that
this shows there are (bourgeois) democratic norms there. Their role will be
to strengthen all the worst tendencies of the alt left/"peace" movement
here - the same movement that supports Assad and Putin... and also Rouhani.

John Reimann

-- 
*“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
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[Marxism] Did Julian Assange help Trump get elected? Does it matter? | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://louisproyect.org/2018/12/02/did-julian-assange-help-trump-get-elected-does-it-matter/
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[Marxism] Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism

[Richard Modiano via Marxism]

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" When women enjoy their own sources of income, and the state guarantees
social security in old age, illness, and disability, women have no economic
reason to stay in abusive, unfulfilling, or otherwise unhealthy
relationships. In countries such as Poland, Hungary Czechoslovakia,
Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and East Germany, women’s economic independence
translated into a culture in which personal relationships could be freed
from market influences. Women didn’t have to marry for money"

https://portside.org/2018-12-01/no-scrubs?fbclid=IwAR3pwtoQVp0XKR2wNG_MF2t89bcRuS1OjUpaOSMHSk-t6Nufu4_ys1S-MOE
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[Marxism] Harry Leslie Smith, ‘World’s Oldest Rebel,’ Is Dead at 95

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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NY Times, Dec. 2, 2018
Harry Leslie Smith, ‘World’s Oldest Rebel,’ Is Dead at 95
By Katharine Q. Seelye

He called himself “the world’s oldest rebel.” And when he railed against 
the system, he came across as the voice of experience, even as he deftly 
managed the young media environments of Twitter and podcasts.


Harry Leslie Smith made himself from nothing. He survived the Great 
Depression in abject poverty. He fought the Nazis in World War II. He 
created a comfortable life for his family but suffered two painful 
personal losses. In 1999, his wife of 52 years, Friede, died of cancer. 
A decade later, his middle son, Peter, who was in his 50s, died of a 
lung disease.


His son’s death finally tipped him over the edge to start writing his 
memoirs, at 87. His first was a book called “1923,” the year of his 
birth, published in 2010. Other books and essays spilled forth. An 
Englishman who lived part time in Canada, he wanted to shake the world 
into appreciating what had been won in World War II.


He went on to write four more books and was working on a sixth, about 
the refugee crisis, when he died on Wednesday at 95 in a hospital in 
Ontario.


His passion had earned him a column in The Guardian. Gradually, his 
defenses of the poor, his pleas for social justice and the wisdom of his 
age — as expressed in his last book, “Don’t Let My Past Be Your Future” 
(2017) — made him a must read for a new generation.


Such was his stature that upon his death, encomiums emanated from both 
sides of the Atlantic.


Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada wrote on Twitter, “Throughout 
his life, Harry Leslie Smith fought and worked to make the world a 
better place for everyone.” In London, Jeremy Corbyn, the British Labour 
leader, tweeted that Mr. Smith was “one of the giants whose shoulders we 
stand on.” He included a video clip of Mr. Smith describing the 
importance of England’s National Health Service.


In his writings and on the lecture circuit, Mr. Smith argued for the 
preservation of the social safety net and against austerity programs in 
England, Canada and the United States. His blood boiled over the 2008 
global economic collapse, when the little people had to bail out the 
banks while the banks went unpunished.


And as his television screen filled with images of refugees around the 
world fleeing their homelands — reminding him of the hundreds of 
thousands of people displaced by World War II — he became their champion.


“For me, old age has been a renaissance despite the tragedies of losing 
my beloved wife and son,” he wrote last year in The Guardian. “It’s why 
the greatest error anyone can make is to assume that, because an elderly 
person is in a wheelchair or speaks with quiet deliberation, they have 
nothing important to contribute to society.”


“Don’t Let My Past Be Your Future,” Mr. Smith’s last book, was published 
in 2017. At his death, he was working on a book about the refugee crisis.


He added: “It’s equally important not to say to yourself if you are in 
the bloom of youth: ‘I’d rather be dead than live like that.’ As long as 
there is sentience and an ability to love and show love, there is 
purpose to existence.”


Born on Feb. 25, 1923, in Barnsley, England, Mr. Smith grew up in the 
slums of Yorkshire. His father, Albert, was a coal miner. His mother, 
Lillian (Dean) Smith, kept house for her husband and three children. The 
family, destitute once Albert lost his job after an injury, scrounged 
for scraps of food and was often on the move, a step ahead of the rent 
collector.


Harry started work at age 7 and quit school at 14 when he landed a job 
as a grocer’s assistant, his son John — who confirmed his death, from 
pneumonia — said in a telephone interview.


One of Mr. Smith’s two sisters, Marion, contracted spinal tuberculosis, 
a victim of the slum’s foul living conditions. As she wasted away, their 
parents pawned their best clothes to hire a horse-drawn cart to take her 
to a workhouse infirmary, where she awaited her death, according to a 
2017 profile of Mr. Smith in The Toronto Star. At 10, Marion was buried 
in an unmarked pauper’s grave.


Mr. Smith never forgot his family’s inability to pay for medical care 
for his sister. That led to his adamant support for the National Health 
Service, which was created in 1946 and started in 1948.


He and his wife, whom he married in 1947, moved to Canada in the 1950s. 
He made a successful living there in the Oriental carpet trade.


Over the next decades he grew angrier at the direction of the world, 
disgusted by everything from apartheid in South Africa to the 
austerities of the Reagan 

[Marxism] G20, trade and financial stability | Michael Roberts Blog

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2018/12/02/g20-trade-and-financial-stability/
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Re: [Marxism] request for signatures for letter to Code Pink

[Rebecca Ruth Gould via Marxism]

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As someone who has spent significant time in Iran over the past few years,
who has written  about my
research

there, and who maintains contact with many leftist colleagues in Iran, I
want to offer a different perspective to the one contained in this letter.
I don't dispute any factual claim made in the letter and have no wish to
trivialise those documented abuses. It is right that they should be
denounced and that we protest them. But, together with my Iranian
colleagues, I fully support 'legitimizising' the regime as much as
possible. I am struck by how welcome this letter would be to the current US
administration because it perfectly supports their agenda with regard to
Iran: violent regime overthrow, and starvation of the Iranian people until
that happens. This would inflict much greater harm on the Iranian people
than the normalisation of its current authoritarian system.

Iranians today are excluded from the global economy. They cannot access
basic technology. They cannot travel freely. Most importantly, their
currency has entered a free fall

due to US sanctions which dramatically increases their economic insecurity.
All of this is being done by the US, and often under the cover of the same
reasons given in this letter.

During my many trips to Iran (2012-6), what most impressed me was the
strong mobilisation among the youth for democratic change. The voter
turnout in the last Iranian Presidential elections was higher than in any
Western democracy. Women constantly violate and challenge the hijab
restrictions, and, yes, sometimes they are punished, but often they are
not. The latest Iranian elections were conducted more openly than the
recent US elections and the reformist candidate won by running on a
platform of decriminalising the refusal to wear hijab and promoting civil
liberties for all. Afghan migrants are brutally mistreated, but (in
contrast to US treatment of its migrants) they can also access free
university educations. There is a strong movement for reform within Iran
and many progressives are active in politics. That they are being silenced
and overpowered by hardliners due to US sanctions is the biggest tragedy of
all, and a threat to peace in the Middle East. I very much hope US leftists
and socialists will oppose the US agenda.

Finally, my understanding of the Haft Tapeh strike is that the workers are
seeking economic justice, as do workers everywhere. This is great, but
hardly a reason to refuse contact with the Iranian regime, or to support
its overthrow.

In geopolitical terms, the only alternatives are normalisation of the
Iranian regime or its violent overthrow by the US. We can speculate about
other long-term goals (such as a true democracy and a socialist government)
but there is no other geopolitical option at present. I therefore strongly
support normalisation, and hope others will do the same, whether through
campaigning against the US agenda, reading and watching work

by Iranians (in Iran) or travelling to Iran (with this delegation or
separately).

Best wishes,
Rebecca Gould

-- 

Rebecca Ruth Gould 

Professor, Islamic World & Comparative Literature

College of Arts & Law | University of Birmingham

Author, Writers and Rebels

(Yale
UP, 2016)

Director, "Global Literary Theory: Caucasus Literatures Compared

"

University Profile

Website  Twitter




On Sat, Dec 1, 2018 at 9:31 PM John Reimann via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
> The following is an open letter to Code Pink, which is organizing a "peace
> delegation" to Iran. This delegation will be used to legitimize the