Support The Iranian People, Oppose Tehran's Clerical Fascism, By Pet

Peter Tatchell says solidarity with the Iranian freedom struggle isnon-negotiable, no matter how much the US threatens a military strike Principled, consistent left-wingers do not base their politics on theunprincipled, inconsistent geo-political manoeuvres of western powers. We standwith the oppressed against their oppressors, regardless of what the west (oranyone else) demands or threatens.US sabre-rattling against Iran is worrying. A military attack must be resisted.However, opposition to Washington's war-mongering and neo-imperial designs is noreason for socialists, greens and other progressives to go soft on Tehran.Iran is an Islamo-fascist state - a clerical form of fascism based on aconfluence of Islamic fundamentalism and police state methods. It differs, ofcourse, from traditional European-style fascism, being rooted in religious dogmaand autocracy. This makes it no less barbaric. Iran under the ayatollahs has ahistory of repression that is even bloodier than Franco's clerical fascistregime in Spain. Sadly, it merits far less outrage by the left.Tehran's tyrannical religious state embodies many (though not all) thecharacteristics of classical fascism: a substantially corporatist political andeconomic system maintained by a highly centralised repressive state apparatus.This repression includes bans on non-Islamist political parties and free tradeunions, and a regime of unfair trials, detention without charge, torture,executions, media censorship, gender apartheid, violent suppression of peacefulprotests and strikes, and the persecution of left-wingers, students, feminists,journalists, gay people and religious and ethnic minorities. Even lawyers andhuman rights defenders - are imprisoned and tortured.The government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is also pursuing a racist,neo-colonial policy against Iran's minority nationalities, such as the Arabs(who are abused even more harshly than the Israelis abuse the Palestinians),Kurds and Baluchs.It used to be axiomatic that left and progressive movements fought fascism,wherever it is found and whatever its form. We do not appease or collude. Well,not until recently. Nowadays, there is a whole section of the left that hasabandoned the freedom struggle in Iran. It goes to extraordinary lengths todownplay the excesses of the tyrants in Tehran.The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament invited the Iranian ambassador as a guestspeaker to its 2005 annual conference. It preferred to host the representativeof an Islamo-fascist regime, rather than the leaders of Iran's left-wingopposition and anti-nuclear peace movement. Indeed, CND members who objected tothe feting of the ambassador of a dictatorship were forcibly ejected from theconference.A similar fate befell Iranian refugees who joined the Stop the War Coalitionmarches. When they backed the call `Don't Attack Iran' they were welcomed, butas soon as they also condemned Tehran's depotism they were denounced by some ofthe left and shoved out the of the demonstration by thuggish StWC stewards.No democracyWe are told by these muscular leftists that Iran is a democracy and thatPresident Ahmadinejad is elected. Nonsense. But even if this were true, so what?Tony Blair was elected but that did not make the Iraq war right. Israel is ademocracy but this is no justification for its indiscriminate bombing of Gazaand its occupation of Palestine.The truth is that Iran is no democracy. Liberal, secular, green, socialist andnational minority political parties are outlawed. All candidates for electionare vetted by a clerical council and those who dissent from the mullah'sorthodoxy are barred from standing for public office. Moreover, the conservativemedia favours establishment candidates and denies, or restricts, coverage ofreformists and progressive ideas.Human rights abuses in Iran are often dismissed by sections of theanti-imperialist left as `exaggerated' or `neo con fiction', despiteincontrovertible evidence from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch andfrom Iran's underground left-wing, student and trade union movements. Thisshocking denialism is wholly divorced from reality and is a sordid betrayal ofthe Iranian people's struggle for liberty and justice.Some left-wingers argue that since the US is the main upholder of the unjustglobal economic system we must therefore support those who oppose the US.Because Tehran is against the US, we should support, or at least not undermine,the Iranian regime.The left groups and activists who hold this view are the mirror image of the neocons. Their stance on Iran is determined by an international political agendaand power play, not by the interests and rights of the Iranian people. They haveallowed opposition to US imperialism to trump social justice and human rights inIran.For nearly 40 years I have campaigned in solidarity with the Iranian people,supporting their struggle against dictatorship - first against thewestern-backed Shah and then, since 1979, against the ayatollahs.The Shah was bad enough, but the Islamists who overthrew him are far worse. Theyhave out-butchered the Shah many times over; executing or assassinating anestimated 100,000 Iranians in the last 30 years. Many of those murdered -usually after gruesome torture - were left-wingers, trade unionists and otherprogressive Iranians.The traditional socialist maxim used to be: fight the tyrants, support theirvictims; solidarity with oppressed people everywhere. This was the response ofthe entire left to the Shah's brutal misrule. It stood shoulder-to-shoulder withthe Iranian freedom struggle.But in 1979, defying all its historic values and ideals, large chunks of theIranian and international left backed the Islamist revolution of AyatollahKhomeini. Their reasoning was that by supporting an anti-US movement this wouldhelp weaken US global hegemony. Many of us warned at the time that thisopportunistic alliance with fundamentalist Islam would spell disaster for theIranian left and progressive movements.Sure enough, beginning a couple of years after the Islamists seized power, tensof thousands of leftists, workers, secularists, students and women's rightscampaigners were arrested, tortured and executed.Despite this bloody history of tyranny, some left-wingers and anti-imperialistsstill shy away from campaigning against the Tehran regime.The police-state oppression in Iran is some of the worst in the world. Accordingto Human Rights Watch, in March 2008 an Iranian parliament member, Hossein AliShahryari, confirmed that 700 people were awaiting execution in Sistan andBaluchistan province, which is only one of Iran's 30 provinces. Many of those ondeath row are Baluch political prisoners. This staggering number of deathsentences is evidence of the intense, violent repression that is taking placeunder the leadership of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.The regime's terror is wide-ranging. Student leader Meisam Lofti was executed in2007 on false charges of being a gang member.Members of minority faiths, like the Baha'is and, sometimes, Sunni Muslims,suffer severe harassment.Truly barbaricThe regime's crackdown includes the enforcement of harsh morality laws. In 2004,in the city of Neka, a 16-year-old girl, Atefah Rajabi Sahaaleh, who had beenraped and sexually abused by men for many years, was convicted of `crimesagainst chastity'. She was hanged by the method of slow, painful strangulation,hoisted by a crane in a public square. This strangulation technique, sanctionedby the Iranian President, is deliberately designed to prolong the suffering ofthe victim. As you can see here, the hanged person is left dangling and writhingfor several minutes before they eventually asphyxiate and die. Truly barbaric.On 5 December 2007, Makvan Mouloodzadeh, a 21-year-old Iranian man, was hangedin Kermanshah Central Prison, after an unfair trial. A member of Iran'spersecuted Kurdish minority, he was executed on charges of raping other boyswhen he was 13. In other words, he committed these alleged acts when he was achild. According to Iranian law, a boy under 15 is a minor and cannot beexecuted.At Makvan's mockery of a trial, which was condemned by Human Rights Watch, thealleged rape victims retracted their previous statements, saying they had madetheir allegations under duress. Makvan pleaded not guilty, telling the courtthat his confession was made during torture.He was hanged anyway, without a shred of credible evidence that he had even hadsex with the boys, let alone raped them. The lies, defamation and homophobia ofthe debauched Iranian legal system was exposed when hundreds of villagersattended Makvan's funeral. People don't mourn rapists.Labour activists are also victimised. Mansour Osanloo, leader of Tehran's busworkers syndicate, remains in jail - together with other trade unionists. He wassentenced to five years jail in July 2007 for his peaceful, lawful defence ofworker's rights.Oppressing his own people is not enough for Ahmadinejad. His regime also exportsterror abroad. It supports the Hezbollah fundamentalists in Lebanon, who, likeIsrael, indiscriminately attack civilian areas. In addition, many of the deathsquads in Iraq are trained, armed and funded by Tehran. These include ex-BadrBrigade members who, during the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, lived andtrained across the border in south-east Iran. Nowadays, they assassinatepolitical, sexual and religious dissidents; usually gunning them down in theirhome, workplace or street. No trial. No evidence. Summary execution, aided byAhmadinejad's government.Regime change from withinThe case for regime change in Iran is overwhelming, but it must come from within- by and for the Iranian people themselves - not as a result of US neo-imperialdiktat.Many Iranians hope for a non-violent Czech-style `people power' democraticrevolution, involving mass strikes and street protests by socialists, liberals,secularists, democrats, women, students, trade unionists, religious dissentersand minority nationalities. Others believe that the nascent insurrections byArabs, Baluchs, Azeris and Kurds will burgeon into full-scale revolutionary warthat will encircle and topple the Tehran regime.Progress towards securing a democratic, progressive Iranian government is one ofbest ways to thwart a possible military strike by Washington. Such a governmentwould pose no threat to anyone. This would make it much harder for the neo consto persuade the American public and military to go to war. They would no longerhave the excuse that Iran is a terroristic, fundamentalist, anti-semiticdictatorship that is striving to develop nuclear weapons and which poses aserious threat to international peace and security.If Iran ceased to be a fanatical religious tyranny, the case for war would beseriously weakened. The pro-war Republicans and Democrats in the US would losethe battle for hearts and minds. Most public opinion would desert them. Anti-warUS politicians and activists would be empowered and enhanced.In contrast, a US military attack on Iran would strengthen the position of thehardliners in Tehran; allowing President Ahmadinejad to play the nationalistcard and portray himself as a heroic war leader. It would also give him anexcuse to further crack down on dissent, using the pretext of safeguardingnational security and defending the country against US imperialism. This wouldset back the Iranian struggle for democracy and human rights.Moreover, a US attack on Muslim Iran would increase the sense of grievance feltby Muslims worldwide; radicalising Muslim youth, fanning the flames offundamentalism, increasing support for Islamist parties and resulting inthousands of new recruits to the ranks of Jihadis and suicide bombers.Tragically, the leadership of the UK and US anti-war movements have beensleep-walking into making the same mistakes over Iran as they made over Iraq.They are silent about the regime's despotism and oppression. Mirroring the neocon indifference to human rights abuses in Iran, they refuse to show solidaritywith the Iranian peoples' struggle for secularism, democracy, social justice,human rights and self-determination for national minorities. There is nothingremotely left-wing about this is sad and cruel betrayal. Put bluntly: it iscollusion with tyranny.