29.03.2006

Consistant democracy

Mary Godwin reports on the debate at the London Communist Forum where comrade Mehdi Kia spoke

A good number of exiles from Iran and their descendants, including supporters of the communist group, Rahe Kargar, heard a speech from the CPGB's Anne Mc Shane as well as comrade Mehdi Kia.

Comrade Mc Shane focused on the response of the British left, especially the Socialist Workers Party and Respect, to the impending US attack on Iran. The SWP's latest front organisation, Action Iran, and George Galloway's pamphlet Target Iran - why the US wants war both claim the islamic regime ruling Iran is legitimate and should be defended. They have a one-sided approach, correctly opposing the US imperialists but downplaying the oppressive nature of the islamic regime and its attacks on progressive forces in Iran fighting for democracy and women's and national rights. The SWP and its co-thinkers either dismiss the movement for democracy as a US-inspired provocation intended to destabilise the country, or pretend that the regime's attacks on working class organisations are solely a response to imperialist pressure.

The defeat of imperialism is not an end in itself, declared comrade Peter Manson in the debate that followed - we seek to defeat imperialism in order to advance the cause of the working class. If, however, such a defeat leads to the ascendancy of reactionary anti-imperialists, as was the case with Iran in 1979, then that will set back, not advance, the working class cause.

Therefore it is a mistake to say, as the SWP and its allies do, 'My enemy's enemy is my friend'. The massacre of the left after 1979 and the rise of anti-working class islamism across the whole region show what such an approach can lead to.

A Rahe Kargar comrade who was in Iran during the 1979 revolution which deposed the shah and the subsequent islamist counterrevolution said the first victims of the islamic regime were women and the first group attacked was the women's movement. There was no threat of US or other outside aggression then, she pointed out - it is wrong to place the entire blame for the oppression conducted by various regimes on imperialism alone.

As comrades observed, the correct stance for communists in Iran should be revolutionary defeatism, not defence of the Tehran regime. But the SWP avoids criticising the islamists for fear of antagonising the muslim establishment.

As Alan Stevens points out in his review of Galloway's pamphlet, Iranian compliance with the nuclear non-proliferation treaty is emphasised by defenders of the regime (Weekly Worker March 23). Comrade Kia stated that Iran's nuclear weapons will not be developed for at least five years, and are not intended to attack Israel or the USA. Their only function is to strengthen the regime.

He sketched some of the complexities of the relationship between the Iranian regime and other forces in the region. It negotiates with the US and supports some US policies, although it needs to keep up anti-US and anti-Israeli rhetoric in public to cohere support at home.

Comrade Mark Fischer said the tasks of the anti-war movement are twofold: in relation to our own government on the one hand and the Iranian regime on the other. Workers must fight on two fronts. To follow the same path of uncritical support towards the Iran regime as it did to reactionary anti-imperialism in Iraq would be a grave mistake by the anti-war movement. Marxists should fight to prevent such an error by presenting a more profound analysis than we can expect from Galloway and the SWP. Comrades from Iran itself are correctly taking the lead in promoting a more balanced view, he added.

Comrade Fischer related how SWP comrades have claimed that talk of democracy for Iran betrays a kind of pro-imperialist chauvinism. This demonstrates an appallingly reactionary cultural relativism, which shows a profound ignorance of the actual working class and democratic movement in Iran, he added, to the evident agreement of Rahe Kargar comrades present. The SWP implicitly agrees with the bourgeoisie that democracy 'belongs' to the capitalists, whereas in reality the only consistently democratic class is the proletariat.

Communists are intransigent anti-imperialists, while simultaneously supporting the working masses in their struggle for democracy from below. We seek to build direct links of solidarity with workers' movements internationally, bypassing charities and corrupt bourgeois governments.

Replying to the debate, comrade Mc Shane said that in the coming period the Weekly Worker will have a crucial role in providing a platform for the democratic and workers' movements in Iran, in order to make it clear that communists do not call on the masses to suspend their resistance to the regime.

Our role will be to provide a voice for the working class of Iran, helping to boost its confidence and build solidarity with its struggles.