Iran: The West Prepares Yet Another Regime Change War

13-11-2023: In what seems to be rather convenient, a war between the Israeli state and Palestine has broken out, in response to the indiscriminate terrorist acts of Hamas on October 7. It comes just at the time when the NATO armed Nazified forces in Ukraine had come to a standstill with a completely failed “offensive” in which the Western proxies reportedly lost 90 000 servicemen dead, 600 destroyed tanks and around 1900 armoured vehicles.[1] Following on from a fraudulent “Covid pandemic”, and NATO’s blundering proxy war against Russia, “all of a sudden” the Israel/Palestine issue has taken the headlines. Yet this latest scenario, which has reportedly taken around 9000 Palestinian lives[2] alongside around 1300 Israeli lives[3] is arguably one more deadly ploy to provide cover for another catastrophe – a US led war for regime change on the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). In what appears as a grotesque bait and switch, Washington and its imperialist allies have set off a powder keg situation backed by 75 years of injustice against Palestine as a foil for Wall Street to finally be given an excuse to topple the Iranian revolution which has been a thorn in their side since 1979.

Target Iran

Iran is the clear target of the US carrier strike groups operating in the Middle East since October 7, which have just been joined by the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower and its strike group, which transited the Suez Canal and entered the Red Sea on November 5. They join some 11 000 US troops conducting exercises there, with F-15, F-16 and A-10 fighter aircraft.[4] This huge US military build up is hardly going to target Hamas – which are more or less a terror proxy force utilised by the Israeli state and Washington. They may be used to target Hezbollah, a genuine Shia resistance force based in Lebanon, which has mass support in that country and the region due to its history of using arms to guard against Israeli state assaults. However, the sheer size of the US military mobilisation is a stark indicator that neither Israeli civilians nor Palestinian civilians are a concern for the Pentagon. In fact, it appears that both can be sacrificed if it provides a pretext for strikes on Iran.

Potentially the apparent strategy of distracting the masses with the sheer horror of US backed Israeli state slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza may pay gruesome dividends. While millions understandably mobilise in mass demonstrations in an effort to prevent the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) from levelling Gaza, Washington knows that far fewer numbers will mobilise to defend Iran. This is largely due to the fact that Iran and its 1979 revolution has been demonised by the West’s propagandists to a level approaching that meted out to the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea or “North Korea”). It is not just that Iran overthrew the US backed Shah in 1979, nor that Iran publicly opposes Israeli state crimes in the region. Patently, Washington is not irked about a theocratic government in Tehran, nor about “women’s rights” or other claimed concerns. There are many more valid reasons why Wall Street desperately seeks the reversal of the 44-year triumph of Iran’s unique revolution.

Iranian Islamic Socialism ?

Press TV journalist Ramin Mazaheri published a book in 2020 titled: Socialism’s Ignored Success: Iranian Islamic Socialism.[5] A comprehensive reply to this work would require a careful study. Yet the basic argumentation of R Mazaheri appears to be that the 1979 Iranian revolution was motivated by revolutionary Shi’ism, which at its core is based on socialist principles. In 2018, R Mazaheri wrote an 11 part article series in response to a critique of the concept of “Islamic Socialism” by the Socialist Equality Party (SEP), written as a three part series.[6] In this debate, R Mazaheri was undoubtedly correct to denounce the SEP for aiding imperialism by backing one of the many Western sponsored regime change attempts via demonstrations that took place in Iran at the end of 2017. The SEP did not back the 2009 pro-Western “Green Revolution” in Iran, but later capitulated to Western elites bent on regime change by throwing their weight behind the counter-revolutionary demonstrations over the 2017-2018 new year.

An indication of how they were co-ordinated from abroad was the fact that Masih Alinejad called for women to remove their headscarves during the anti-government actions – from New York…! Alinejad is paid at least $85 000 per year by the Broadcasting Board of Governors, an official outlet of the US state department. She has worked for Voice of America’s (VoA) Farsi language program OnTen for at least 10 years.[7] What is more, some of the demonstrations were joined and sometimes led by the terrorist MEK (Mojahedin-e Khalq), a despised and loathed cult which acts as a proxy force for the US and Israeli states.[8] The MEK fought on the side of Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war of 1980 to 1988, when Iraq was egged on by the US government to wage war in an attempt to overturn Iran’s triumphant 1979 revolution. Needless to say, the MEK cannot today exist in Iran and remains in exile. By spruiking for regime change destabilisation more or less openly orchestrated from the West, the SEP joined forces with the very imperialism it repeatedly claims to stand against.

Despite such treachery, the SEP is partially correct to point out that “Islamic socialism” in Iran is not based on working class struggle per se, nor does it aim to extend class struggle internationally in an effort to end capitalism. As R Mazaheri would admit, “Iranian Islamic Socialism” is patriotic within Iran, which is generally counterposed to an international working-class struggle for international socialism. However, R Mazaheri makes the very valid point that the international assistance that the IRI constantly offers and supplies to those forces which are in combat with imperialism is extensive. Despite being under massive and unrelenting economic sanctions from the West, Iran continually sends material, diplomatic and political backing to Hezbollah in Lebanon, a series of Shia militias in the Middle East such as the Popular Mobilisation Units in Iraq, to Afghanistan, and to Bolivia (before Evo Morales was overthrown). Iran indeed stands shoulder to shoulder with Russia, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Syria, Venezuela and Cuba, despite incurring the wrath of imperialism for doing so.[9]

While the IRI also extends some support to the terrorist Hamas organisation in Palestine, arguably it does so in an attempt to influence it to become a genuine resistance movement such as Hezbollah. This course of action is perhaps mistaken given the fact that Hamas was created and formed by the Israeli state[10] partially in order to counter the secular Palestinian Liberation Organisation. Nevertheless, the IRI has remained one of the staunchest supporters of Palestine for decades. It sustains the “axis of resistance” in the Middle East, which is an informal alliance of both Sunni and Shia Muslim militias and governments in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon (Hezbollah), Gaza and Iraq.[11] The IRI fell out with Hamas during the US led war on Syria, when Hamas fought on the side of the Israeli state, ISIS/Al Qaeda and the US military – demonstrating where it really stands. The Quds Force, a special operations branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) is targeted by the Pentagon[12] precisely due to its effectiveness in leading and marshalling various militia in Syria and Iraq which are working their way towards expelling the US military from both countries, despite enormous difficulties.

Iranian economy off limits to Western plunder

If Iran’s measured but extensive military resistance to imperialism in the region was not enough to draw an imperialist target on its back, its vast economy on its own is well qualified for such a badge of honour. For example, anti-Iran groups complain that state-owned companies in Iran “devour” some 70% of Iran’s budget.[13] This is of course a benefit for Iran’s working class, even if Iran’s state-owned companies do not directly equate to state-owned firms in bureaucratically deformed workers’ states such as China or Vietnam. Some write that the Iranian economy is divided into three distinct sectors – public, private and “semi-state”. The “semi-state” includes religious, revolutionary and military foundations and cooperatives, as well as social security and pension funds. The IRGC apparently dominates ownership in the semi-state. Some estimate that the public sector contributes 35% to Iranian Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the private sector about 25%, and the semi-state sector approximately 40%.[14] So, if around 75% of the Iranian economy does not run on the basis of production for private profit, claims of “Iranian Islamic Socialism” certainly cannot be discounted.

Alas, the Iranian government genuflected before imperialism with its bogus “Covid pandemic”, as it was seemingly unable to see through that particular barrage of propaganda. Subsequently, there was a huge decline in Iranian GDP during 2020, but it has since rebounded to pre-Covid levels.[15] Undoubtedly, the huge proportion of state ownership of industry aided this recovery. From 2005 to 2014, Iran underwent a “privatisation” drive – but this was “privatisation” unlike any seen in the capitalist West. Even conservative economic observers in the West admit that the IRGC was excluded from this “selling off”. In fact, the IRGC was one of the main beneficiaries of this process. This means that the IRGC own or control firms concentrated in the key strategic economic sectors such as oil, mining, telecommunications, petrochemicals, automotive, banking and construction.[16] If this was not Iran, Western corporate propaganda would decry this as “communist” ! Indeed, in some ways it mirrors the economy of today’s China, which also has its major strategic industries firmly state-owned. Some say that Iran’s economy is a “masterpiece of structural ambiguity”,[17] where it is impossible to draw clear lines between the public and the private.

BRICS +

In addition to organising, leading and partially funding military resistance to US imperialism in its own region, the IRI is now well and truly part of the rising Eurasian bloc, which is exposing the rapid economic and political deterioration of the fading Western powers in the US and Europe. For close to two centuries, the Western powers have effectively ruled the globe through colonial means. Today, the capitalist system has long since failed to provide substantial economic growth, reflected in the winnowing away of manufacturing in favour of financial speculation. By contrast, the BRICS alliance (Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa) is anchored by the gargantuan socialistic economic powerhouse of mainland China. Real economic wealth is generated here, as it is largely based on manufacturing. This provides enormous benefits to the Chinese working class, and indirectly to the world’s working class by providing access to affordable but high-quality consumer goods.[18] The West, with its production for private profit basis, cannot hope to compete with China’s state backed economy which primarily operates on a basis of providing goods and services for its people. Despite being politically led by a conservative Stalinist caste, the Chinese masses reap the benefits of its 1949 socialist revolution.

The IRI has deep fraternal relations with the PRC, exemplified by the 25-year Iran-China trade, investment and defence pact signed in 2021. This deal, which was in the works for five years, will reportedly result in $400 billion worth of PRC investment in Iran.[19] This deal alone was a blow to Washington, plus later that year Iran was admitted to full membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), which contains the BRICS members Russia, China and India, and covers one third of the world’s land mass.[20] Naturally, this means Iran becomes a central pillar of the PRC’s flagship Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a multi-trillion dollar trade and infrastructure linking mega-project. To top it off, in August this year, Iran was named as one of the six states which will join the expanded BRICS alliance from 1 January, 2024.[21] Every such move fortifies the defence of Iran against the non-stop Western backed internal and external attempts at counter-revolution.

It is in the vital interests of workers internationally to stridently oppose US/European attempts to bring about regime change in Iran either internally (colour revolution) or externally (imperialist war). Despite the Islamic nature of Iran’s “socialism”, it remains a steadfast opponent of imperialism, and combines with its BRICS partners to provide an alternative to the rotting edifice of Western capitalism. The only scenario where a new revolution in Iran could be supported would be IF it was clearly led by political forces which were more anti-imperialist and more pro-working class than the current leadership AND if it had no association whatsoever with the deep states based in Washington, London and Brussels. In the meantime, working people should form a tactical bloc with the IRI against imperialist war in the Middle East and beyond. To be sure, the building of authentic Marxist vanguard parties in Iran and the region based on Permanent Revolution remains a necessary task. Working alongside the Iranian masses while taking into account revolutionary Shi’ism and acknowledging the martyrs that have already fallen defending 1979 against imperialist sabotage will involve a high degree of deference where appropriate, together with flexible and tactical argumentation for international class struggle socialism, i.e., genuine Trotskyism. No War on Iran! US troops out of the Middle East!

WORKERS LEAGUE

www.redfireonline.com

E: workersleague@protonmail.com

[1] www.sputnikglobe.com/20231030/ukraine-lost-more-than-90000-servicemen-since-beginning-of-counteroffensive—shoigu-1114588707.html (07-11-2023)

[2] www.abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/live-updates-calls-humanitarian-pause-increase-palestinians-gaza-104626887 (07-11-2023)

[3] www.timesofisrael.com/us-jewish-progressives-are-grappling-with-how-to-respond-to-hamas-terror-onslaught/ (07-11-2023)

[4] www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2023/11/06/eisenhower-strike-group-submarine-arrive-in-middle-east/ (07-11-2023)

[5] www.annas-archive.org/md5/a95f18104ccb6f02b345d00c4aab02ef (08-11-2023)

[6] www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/02/14/maz1-f14.html (08-11-2023)

[7] www.redfireonline.com/2018/06/03/iran-regime-change-is-war/ (08-11-2023)

[8] www.lobelog.com/the-iran-protests-regime-change-and-mek/ (08-11-2023)

[9] www.greanvillepost.com/2020/05/15/iran-socialist-internationalist-powerful-and-determined/ (08-11-2023)

[10] www.theintercept.com/2018/02/19/hamas-israel-palestine-conflict/ (08-11-2023)

[11] www.npr.org/2023/10/26/1208456496/iran-hamas-axis-of-resistance-hezbollah-israel (08-11-2023)