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

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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:

>   POSTING RULES & NOTES  
> #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
> #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
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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 Irania