Re: Countering the Politics of Fear (was Tariq Ali at UCLA today)
On Oct 28, 2006, at 10:54 PM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
Western leftists
Are these Western leftists?
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/letter070706.html
[…]
It is regrettable that your web site has recently become so
apologetic about Iran’s Islamic regime. Many of us consider this to
be in total contrast to the radical traditions of Harry Magdoff, Paul
Sweezy, Ellen Woods . . . who considered anti-imperialist struggle as
inseparable from anti-capitalist struggles and the battle for
democracy. Your site’s support for — indeed, at times, adoration of
– one of the most brutal, militarist factions of the Islamic
Republic regime in Iran, and your inaccurate reporting of the
economic stance of the Iranian president, whose main allies include
German neo-Nazis (an inevitable consequence of his Holocaust denial
statements) is an insult to the Iranian working class and its
supporters worldwide.
We, Iranian feminist socialist activists are alarmed that your
political stance is damaging the reputation of your journal amongst
left wing activists inside and outside Iran. Lifelong translators of
left wing books and articles inside Iran have either been killed by
this regime and its death squads, e.g. Mohammad Mokhtari and Mohammad
Pouyande, or they are in prison for defending families of these dead
left-wing writers, e.g. Nasser Zarafshan — who happens to be a
regular translator of your journal’s articles to farsi. And yet you
show no hesitation in defending their executioners and jailers such
as Ahmadinejad.
We enclose for your attention links to a number of eyewitness
statements about the events of 12 June 2006, as well as some of the
recent statements by Iranian workers regarding this regime’s
continuation of the neo liberal economic policies of the last
decade. We can assure you that left-wing activists inside Iran will
not rest until they have exposed the sham reactionary anti-western
slogans of this president, dished out by your web site as anti-
imperialism.
After all, many of us remember the consequences of earlier shallow
anti-American sloganising, culminating in disasters such as
‘Irangate’ — when the ‘anti Imperialist’ ayatollah Khomeiny ended up
supporting Nicaraguan Contras through payment for Israeli arms, via
none other than Oliver North!!
6th July 2006
Ardeshir Mehrdad — Co-editor Iran Bulletin Middle East Forum
Shahrzad Mojab — Professor and director of the Women and Gender
Studies Institute at the University of Toronto, Canada
Haideh Moghissi — Professor of Sociology — York University, Canada
Cyrus Bina — Professor of Economics and Management — University of
Minnesota, USA
Yassamine Mather — Center for the Study of Socialist Theory and
Movements — Glasgow University, UK
Torab Saleth — Editorial board journal Critique
Saeed Rahnama — Professor of Political Sciences — York University,
Canada
Younes Parsa-Benab - Professor of Political Science at Strayer
University — Washington
Mehdi Kia — Co-editor Iran Bulletin Middle East Forum
Nasser Kkaksaz — Poet, Literary critic
Sulmaz Moradi — Socialist, feminist activist
Borzu Fuladvand — Socialist activist
Fereshteh Shoja — Socialist, feminist activist
Faramarz Dadvar — Center in Defense of Freedom & Democracy in Iran-
Chicago
Sadegh Tehrani — Socialist activist
Hassan Hessam — Poet
Dr Morteza Mohit