Re: Rethinking Liberalism (was IWW piece on Iranian labor situation)
On Apr 20, 2007, at 3:16 PM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
Doug probably agrees with Fred Halliday that leftists should line up with liberals, even if they are imperialists (”Cooler Elites”), against religious, anti-imperialist populists who are fundamentally or may become illiberals:
The events of 1979 bring out what was, in my view, the central avoidable error of most of the Iranian Left -- its catastrophic stand on 'liberalism'.
In retrospect, Halliday’s position seems hard to argue with, but who
knew at the time? Who knew that Khomeini would turn out so clever &
treacherous that he’d turn so effectively on his former allies? What
is inexcusable, however, is 28 years after the fact, making excuses
for him & his heirs - to the point that you’re claiming that
Ahmadinejad is reclaiming the anti-imperialist and social justice
agenda of Khomeinism. Yuck.
Doug