[Peace-discuss] Code Pink Visit to Iran

Mon Dec 3 09:16:51 UTC 2018

The question for us is US government policy, not Iranian government policy. 

We act not from some Olympian perspective: we are US citizens - ostensibly responsible for the policies of the US government, not the Iranian government.

If meetings with the latter help Americans to realize - thru the haze of the best propaganda system in history, US MSM - that the US government has been torturing Iran for more than 60 years and should stop - then they should be encouraged. 

Accurate analyses of the recent history and present politics of Iran are worthwhile. But suppose modern US history began in 1953, with an Iranian-engineered coup in Washington that overthrew the Eisenhower administration and established a member of the British royal family - say, Prince Charles - as the ruler of the US? 

That’s roughly what the Eisenhower administration did in Iran. How many Americans know about it? Or know what the Iranians have done in response to US-imposed dictatorial rule? To say nothing of Iranian government policy in the generations-long US attempt to control oil exports from the Gulf, as a weapon against US economic rivals from Germany to China? (That was what the 'Iran nuclear deal’ was all about.)  

The shameful and dangerous war policy of recent US administrations in Syria is what should be condemned, however we assess Iranian government actions there. We should be demanding that all US troops (and weapons) be brought home from the Mideast.

—CGE 

> On Dec 2, 2018, at 7:19 PM, Robert Naiman via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> This is BS. You know that, right? 
> 
> We have faced the same dynamic around Syria, we faced the same dynamic around Iran before, we faced the same dynamic around Russia before. We faced the same dynamic around Iraq before, when some people were trying to stop the war, when some people were trying to stop the sanctions that were starving Iraqi children to death. 
> 
> There are people who opportunistically attack people who are pushing for peace and diplomacy on the pretext of pursuing a human rights agenda. DUH. Is there anyone here who didn't already get the memo on this? 
> 
> The Iranian government is not magically wonderful. DUH. Is there anyone here who hasn't gotten the memo on this? Raise your hand if you didn't get the memo. There is torture in Iranian prisons. There is repression of religious minorities in Iran who are not "people of the Book." And so on and so forth. 
> 
> As an American, to do anything in Iran, you have to deal with the Iranian government. 
> 
> The U.S. government uses a faux human rights agenda to kick the crap out of other people's countries. 
> 
> Anyone here who didn't get the memo on all this stuff, raise your hand right now so people who know something about it can explain it to you. 
> 
> ===
> 
> Robert Reuel Naiman
> Policy Director
> Just Foreign Policy
> www.justforeignpolicy.org
> naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
> (202) 448-2898 x1
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Sun, Dec 2, 2018 at 6:08 PM David Green via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
> From Marxmail list:
> 
> 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 Iranian
> regime, both at home and in the US. We are requesting additional
> signatures. If you are willing to sign, please let me know, either on this
> list or to me personally. Please include how you wish to be identified.
> 
> Open Letter to Code Pink
> 
> December 1, 2018
> 
> 
> Dear Code Pink:
> 
> 
> You have recently announced
> <https://www.codepink.org/peace_with_iran_delegation_to_iran_2019?fbclid=IwAR2nNOZTkEVMADQa5HoAAOc9Wb6PYar6Uedbp_5iLrmbnggF-RDgn2K63pY>
> that you will be organizing a trip to Iran. You state the purpose is to help
> "move our two nations from a place of hostility and military threats to a
> place of mutual respect and peace with one another."
> 
> 
> 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. However, we also do not think
> that the issue is simply a matter of lack of “mutual respect” between this
> aggressive and repressive US government and, we have to say it, the smaller
> and less powerful but also aggressive and repressive capitalist government
> of Iran.
> 
> 
> We think that the real issue for discussion between Americans and Iranians
> is that of organizing links and mutual support between the working class
> and the oppressed peoples of our two countries. This is as opposed to
> talking about “mutual respect” between the “nations”, which always means
> between the governments. 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.
> 
> 
> We are concerned that your visit will actually help facilitate the
> repressive role of the Iranian government. We note that you plan to meet
> with “representatives of the Foreign Ministry and Parliament” - that is to
> say, representatives of the regime. You say you will be meeting students
> and professors. But who will be selecting the students and professors you
> will be meeting? In the absence of any hint to the contrary, we think it is
> safe to say it will be the same regime that will be selecting those
> students, professors and anybody else you will meet with.
> 
> Your plans to meet with Iranian regime officials fly in the face of what
> has been happening in Iran this year.
> 
> 
> 
> There have been a number of major labor strikes in Iran. These include
> the strikes of 4500 Haft Tapeh sugar cane workers and of 4000 workers at
> the National Steel of Ahvaz. (See Alliance of Middle East Socialists
> <https://www.allianceofmesocialists.org/new-wave-of-strikes-protests-in-iran-need-solidarity-from-international-socialists-and-progressives>
> )
> 
> There have been protests of ethnic Arabs in Iran, and these protests
> have been viciously repressed, complete with sweeping arrests and even
> executions. (See Amnesty International
> <https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/11/iran-hundreds-arrested-in-vicious-crackdown-on-ahwazi-arabs/>.)
> The Iranian government has also executed Kurdish political prisoners and
> continues to imprison other Kurdish political prisoners.
> 
> We have seen the courageous acts of Iranian women who have taken off
> their head scarves in public. They too have been repressed, arrested and
> imprisoned. Other feminist human rights activists such as Nasrin Sotudeh,
> Narges Mohammadi, Zeynab Jalalian, Golrokh Iraee, Atena Daemi as well as
> feminist men such as Farhad Meysami and Arash Sadeghi languish in prison.
> Some are currently on hunger strike.
> 
> There is also the continued mistreatment of Afghan migrants/refugees who
> do not have basic civil rights and are treated as a source of even cheaper
> labor.
> 
> Finally, we note that the Iranian regime has been involved in mass
> murder and ethnic cleansing in Syria, and intervening militarily and
> politically in Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen as well.
> 
> We are alarmed that while you will be hearing the position of the
> repressive right-wing government in Iran, you evidently have no plans to
> hear from any of the progressive opposition forces mentioned above. That
> can only mean that the end result of your visit will be to help legitimize
> this right-wing, repressive and reactionary regime.
> 
> Recognizing the nature of the Iranian regime does not mean supporting the
> capitalist / imperialist government of the United States. We can and should
> oppose both by supporting the struggles of the oppressed and exploited in
> both countries and around the world. The enemy of my enemy is not
> necessarily my friend.
> 
> We hope you will reconsider your plans for your visit to Iran.
> 
> Our true allies in Iran are all those struggling against this regime, not
> the regime that is even more repressive than the Trump regime.
> 
> Yours for international working class solidarity and for socialism,
> 
> John Reimann,
> 
> former recording secretary, Carpenters Local 713
> 
> Editor, www.oaklandsocialist.com
> 
> 
> Cheryl Zuur
> 
> former president, AFSCME Local Union 444
> 
> 
> Sarah Morken
> 
> former candidate, Tacoma City Council
> 
> ______________________________________
> 
> Re: [Marxism] request for signatures for letter to Code Pink
> 
> 
> As someone who has spent significant time in Iran over the past few years,
> who has written <https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:18855/> about my
> research
> <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321730298_Literature_as_a_tribunal_the_modern_Iranian_prose_of_incarceration>
> 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
> <https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-irans-currency-in-free-fall-as-american-sanctions-loom/>
> 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
> <https://inferno-magazine.com/2018/07/08/festival-davignon-interview-amir-reza-koohestani-summerless-in-english/>
> by Iranians (in Iran) or travelling to Iran (with this delegation or
> separately).
> 
> Best wishes,
> Rebecca Gould
> 
> -- 
> 
> Rebecca Ruth Gould <https://bham.academia.edu/RebeccaGould/>
> 
> Professor, Islamic World & Comparative Literature
> 
> College of Arts & Law | University of Birmingham
> 
> Author, Writers and Rebels
> <https://www.amazon.com/Writers-Rebels-Literature-Insurgency-Caucasus/dp/0300200641>
> (Yale
> UP, 2016)
> 
> Director, "Global Literary Theory: Caucasus Literatures Compared
> <https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/lcahm/departments/languages/research/projects/globallit/index.aspx>
> "
> 
> University Profile
> <https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/languages/gould-rebecca.aspx>
> Website <https://rrgould.hcommons.org/> Twitter
> <https://twitter.com/rrgould>
> ______________________________________
> 
> Re: [Marxism] request for signatures for letter to Code Pink
> 
> 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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