A-Infos (en) Britain, Anarchist Federation AF: Bread & Liberty - Iran:No to War, no to Theocracy

August 2008 saw at least 2 United States Aircraft Carriers set sail to the 
Persian Gulf, along with an Amphibious Assault Ship, a British Royal Naval 
Carrier and a French Nuclear Submarine. This was the latest in what appears 
almost certain preparations for war against Iran; from Israeli ?test strikes? to 
Operation Brimstone (when twelve UK, US and French naval ships took to the 
Atlantic Ocean in preparation for a possible confrontation with Iran) there can 
be little doubt that the American ruling class and their allies are determined 
to decimate the ?rouge state? of Iran.

August 2008 saw at least 2 United States Aircraft Carriers set sail to the 
Persian Gulf, along with an Amphibious Assault Ship, a British Royal Naval 
Carrier and a French Nuclear Submarine. This was the latest in what appears 
almost certain preparations for war against Iran; from Israeli ?test strikes? to 
Operation Brimstone (when twelve UK, US and French naval ships took to the 
Atlantic Ocean in preparation for a possible confrontation with Iran) there can 
be little doubt that the American ruling class and their allies are determined 
to decimate the ?rouge state? of Iran.

The latest ships to venture into the Persian Gulf are not alone, they are joined 
by over fifty other Naval forces including Guided Missile Cruisers,  Frigates, 
Hunter-Killer Submarines,  Destroyers and Assault Ships. This isn?t something 
straight out of some epic world war novel it?s occurring right now.

Add to this George Bush?s decision last year to ask Congress for $88 Billion 
(US) to modify the infamous B52 Stealth Bombers to enable them to carry a 
(13,600kg) bomb, (lovingly called Massive Ordinance Penetrator) this weapon is 
described as ?an air delivered weapon with an explosive capacity to destroy 
targets deep underground? (deep underground, just like for example the Iranian 
nuclear facilities!) These are aircraft that cost $2.5 billion EACH to produce, 
this is irrefutable proof, if proof were ever needed, that all war is an act of 
war against the poor, in the US they don?t have the money to provide non-private 
health care but has seemingly unlimited funds to carpet-bomb some of the poorest 
people in the world!

Sadly then, we shouldn?t be planning our action, but our reaction.

Hands off the Iranian regime??

Our role as anti-capitalists, anarchists and internationalists is threefold. 
Primarily our first concern is to avert imperialist designs on Iran at all 
costs, and where possible, to inflict sabotage, political or otherwise, on the 
military industrial complex. Secondly, we should not hide from exposing the 
reactionary nature of the Iranian theocratic regime and finally we should offer 
practical solidarity with oppressed groups in Iran such as trade unionists, 
women, LGBTQ peoples and students.

This is nothing revolutionary and should be covered in the opening chapter of ?A 
dummies guide to anti-war activity?, sadly however the above approach is 
contentious. Not least within the anti-war movement here in Britain, the 
wanna-be manifestation of which is the Stop the War Coalition (StW). StW like 
its puppet masters the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), withhold all criticism of 
the Iranian regime in order to be ?more anti-war?. You see, according to SWP 
?logic?, (for lack of a better word), exposing the brutal nature of the Iranian 
ruling class is to give credibility to the pro-war lobby. Better to ignore the 
plight of those that are oppressed within Iran and paint the Iranian theocracy 
as democratic; a pool of tolerance or even more laughable, as a beacon of 
anti-imperialist activity!

Disgracefully the StW do not stop at a ?see no evil, hear no evil? approach with 
regards to the Iranian regime, in their support for groups such as Campaigns 
Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII) they actually side 
with overt apologists for the Iranian theocracy. This is the very same CASMII 
who at the last StW annual conference (Oct, 2007) tried to lay to rest a few 
myths about the Iranian regime. A CASMII speaker named Somaye Zadeh took to the 
platform and began to tell of how Iran wasn?t how it was portrayed, it isn?t 
misogynistic for example, because it was the birth place of a female noble prize 
winner (so what?) and homophobia in Iran isn?t so black and white either 
apparently. According to Somaye the fact that homosexuals are killed in Iran for 
the crime of loving someone of the same sex, is of little significance because 
the regime does allow for sex-change operations - you couldn?t make this up! StW 
actually gave a platform to someone who thinks that lesbian, gay and bisexual 
peoples should find some condolence in the fact that whilst they are headed for 
the noose should they visit Iran, at least they can change genitals while they 
are there! The fact that this woman received such a warm applause from SWP 
members and their equally bad Stalinist acquaintances within StW, shows how 
completely bereft of any political direction StW has become.

This isn?t merely the ranting of an alienated anti-war activist; there are 
important conclusions to be drawn from the inadequacies of the majority of 
groups that constitute the StW coalition. Such cross-class collaborations 
between socialists, greens and liberals etc. are doomed to failure and should be 
avoided at all costs by anarchist communists. We know this because we can see 
clearly what has happened to StW and their utter incompetence when faced with a 
potential, indeed probable, nuclear decimation of Iran. Principled politics 
cannot be watered down, not in the name of getting more people to march and 
certainly not in the name of accommodating political Islam, Shia nationalists or 
those who believe the Iranian regime to be anti-imperialist!

Iran - the reality

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his clerical allies are no friend of 
the anti-war movement here in Britain. It is our job not to side with the 
Iranian national bourgeoisie but with the Iranian people! When faced with lies 
from the bankrupt left here in Britain then, we have to be clear on what our 
aims are.

When those on the left call for ?a defeat of imperialism?, or some equally 
abstract sound-bite, they leave open the question of the agency of that defeat. 
We as anarchist communists are explicitly clear on this; it isn?t sufficient to 
call for a defeat of imperialism, because imperialism is not an isolated 
phenomena; it is how capitalism works. Just as a domestic market requires the 
State to enforce contracts and a generally stable environment, the world market 
requires co-operation between nations, it is when the markets of the imperialist 
powers are under threat that we see the rhetoric of ?sanctions?, ?weapons of 
mass destruction? and ?rouge states? once again come to the forefront of the media.

Given this, we must seek to build alliances with the only independent force in 
the Middle East that is capable of consistent anti-imperialism, that of the 
Iranian working class. Only the Iranian workers, united with popular mass 
support can stand a chance against the military might of America. We must also 
not fall into the trap of believing the Iranian ruling class to be 
anti-imperialist. Iran not only supported both the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, 
but ironically the war in Iraq has led to the election of a pro-Iranian 
government that has made Iran little short of a regional sledgehammer, much to 
the dismay of Israel.

Iran is a country where privatisation, neoliberal economics, casualisation and 
denial of basic workers rights and the norm. Inflation is a massive 30% 
[FOOTNOTE ONE: See article ?Sanctions hit workers, not theocratic regime?, - 
http://hopoi.org/articles.html] (that?s ten times higher than national growth) 
and according to the government?s own statistics poverty is at 20%, although the 
reformist faction of the Iranian regime puts this poverty percentage much higher 
at a staggering 50%!

Iran then is not an easy place to live if you?re working class and it is 
painfully obvious that Iranian workers are placed in a battle against both their 
own government as well as those who wish to impose external regime change upon 
them. If more proof were needed that the Iranian theocracy is not our ally then 
we need only look at the devastating repression of social movements that are to 
be found right across Iran. From the workers movement to the feminist and 
students movements there are signs that regime change from below, by the workers 
themselves is a real possibility and it?s never been more important for anti-war 
activists to stand up and show real solidarity with these oppressed groups 
whilst they are imprisoned, brutalised and tortured by the barbarous regime.

That is why any attempt to portray the Iranian regime as something it isn?t by 
anyone should be exposed. By siding with the regime these very same liberals, 
leftists and pacifists are doing nothing but aiding the state in its oppression 
of the Iranian workers.

Persian Bomb?

Much of the rhetoric from the pro-war lobby and their friends in the media lends 
itself to discussion of how awful it would be if Iran were to acquire nuclear 
capabilities. This is because Iran acquiring a nuclear bomb would indeed be 
something to frown about, fortunately however most people agree Iran is not 
doing so. In fact a United States CIA intelligence report in December 2007 
suggested that Iran?s nuclear weapons programme, had it ever had one, was halted 
back in 2002/3! This rebuttal of common pro-war arguments came form the 
imperialist themselves and was added to similar arguments made by Israeli 
academics, United Nations officials as well as, well, everyone except George 
Bush and his allies in both the Whitehouse and Westminster (with the notable 
exception of course from the ultra-trot group the Alliance for Workers Liberty 
(AWL).)

In fact anyone with even a basic knowledge of the Iranian ruling elite will know 
full well that nuclear weapons, at least in the foreseeable future is not in 
their interests at all. This is why ex-Iranian President Mohammad Khatami has 
repeatedly denounced ?hard-liners? and called for US-Iranian negotiations and 
for the use of civilian nuclear energy only. Furthermore Iranian ?Supreme 
Leader? Ali Khamenei issued at Fatwa against the development, stockpiling or use 
of nuclear weapons as recently as 2005. In a theocracy like Iran and coming from 
an Ayatollah a fatwa is not to be taken lightly.

However this evidence showing that Iran is not acquiring nuclear weapons seems 
to have gone completely unnoticed by the AWL. Their 21st August edition of 
?Solidarity? for example, noted that ?the drive by the Iranian regime to acquire 
nuclear weapons is a drive to achieve the power to inflict mass murder? 
[FOOTNOTE TWO: http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2008/08/21/no-mullahs-bomb]. 
Not only does this ignore all evidence, but it shows the complete lack of 
anti-war credentials of groups such as the AWL who continue to pay lip-service 
to what is essentially a non-debate.

Iran is a country under strangling sanctions, it would something little short of 
a miracle if Iran could develop nuclear weapons given such sanctions. However 
that is not the point, what we should be clear on is that the so-called ?nuclear 
question? is high on the agenda for the media and those with imperialist designs 
on Iran for a specific reason. It is also no coincidence that President 
Ahmadinejad echo?s the concerns of the US/UK pro-war lobby by refusing to give 
unquestionable proof of Iran?s true nuclear ambitions. This is because this 
?nuclear question? is hysteria whipped up by both the American and Iranian 
ruling class; by America to fasten the beating of their war drums and by Iran to 
mask endemic internal problems and to justify ever-harsher oppression against 
the Iranian people.

When there exists such little evidence then that Iran is developing nuclear 
questions we should be showing this ?nuclear debate? to be nothing more than a 
façade.


Already at war?

Something that is often overlooked is the fact that war on Iran has already 
begun. Some thirty years ago in fact! No, Iran hasn?t been bombed by B52 
bombers, nor has any strategic strikes on nuclear facilities occurred - but be 
under no illusion, the United States and it?s Western imperialist lapdogs are 
already at war with Iran.

History teaches us that sanctions are not a negotiation or compromise that makes 
war unnecessary, but a prelude to war; a form of ?soft-war? even. Whilst the 
rich and ruling class in Iran have the means to escape sanctions and the money 
to remedy their ill-effects. The poor do not, so they are forced to starve or go 
without sanctioned necessities.

The first sanctions upon Iran were placed back in 1979 at the time of the 
Islamic revolution (read: counter-revolution). Recently however in a bid to whip 
up ever more exhausting hysteria over nuclear capabilities the UN have passed 
three series of harsher sanctions, which mainly concern proliferation risks. In 
2006 UN Resolution 1737 was passed (unanimously), which froze the assets of 
individuals associated with nuclear-related technology, banned supplies of such 
technology and placed further restrictions upon the already hindered freedom of 
Iranians to travel. Next came UN Resolution 1747 (again, passed unanimously) 
that banned all Iranian arms exports (but of course not imports, the US still 
needs that market firmly open). Lastly came sanctions placed this year in March 
via UN Resolution 1803, which included travel bans and a call on States not to 
provide financial support for Iran.

We know that sanctions do not hurt the ruling class of any nation they are 
imposed upon, they hurt the nation?s people - the workers. Iranian officials 
have already largely moved their money out of Iran, leaving it financially 
wrecked and with unstable political conditions ensuring no internal nor external 
long-term investment, things can only worsen for the Iranian workers.

At such a time, any internationalist worthy of being taken seriously must make 
solidarity with oppressed Iranian trade unionists, anarchists, LGBTQ peoples, 
women and workers their primary concern. We should also recognise however that 
our main enemy lies at home, as it is our national bourgeoisie and its 
imperialist ambitions that will see Iran become a bloodbath. We know however 
that this doesn?t mean colluding with, or cuddling up to the Iranian ruling 
class, as this would mean allying oneself with a manifestation of reaction and 
an overt anti-working class machine.

As anarchist communists we have a proud history of opposing war vehemently and 
with principled politics. In the case of Iran this means opposing both war on 
Iran, but simultaneously we must not fool ourselves into believing we can form 
any alliance with the Iranian ruling class. Imperialism is always the greater 
enemy, but the barbarous theocratic regime in Iran will always be our foe.

We want genuine liberation for the Iranian people and so push for regime change, 
but this must come from below; from the only progressive and fully 
anti-imperialist force in the region, the working class. Simultaneously at such 
a time of strife, we must be explicitly clear in our calls to resist any 
attempts by Iranian workers to utilise the State to their advantage as proved so 
disastrous in 1979 - this we know, is a fatal tactic.

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