by Ardeshir Ommani, Mathaba, July 22, 2009
At this juncture that the Iranian people and government are trying to resolve their actual or perceived differences regarding the results of the election, anti-Iranian groups in the U.S. and Europe, pretending to be on the side of the Iranian working class, are paving the way for Washington and the Zionist state to accomplish the murderous acts that G.W. Bush could not commit: Bring Down the Islamic Republic of Iran, this time under the Obama Administration.
We suggest that the truly progressive Americans and Iranians should refrain from jumping on the bandwagon of individuals and groups who are financed, outfitted, and promoted in the U.S. media by the intelligence services of the American government, such as the NED, USAID, and dozens of “anti-Islamic” Iranian groups. Clothed in the façade of “democracy, human rights and social freedoms”, these groups are deeply involved in de-stabilization of the Iranian society, promoting civil strife, and using the oldest trick in the bag of the imperialists prior to the actualization of war – demonization of the leaders and government of that country.
The people in the U.S. have a long history of supporting the sovereignty and independence of countries in the crosshairs of the imperialists, as evidenced by their actions during the Vietnam War, their support for liberation struggles in Africa and Latin America, and most recently in their six+ years of struggle to end the war on Iraq. Some individuals and groups who claim to represent the interests of the Iranian working class are advocating the over-throw of the Islamic Republic of Iran, so as to bring a ‘workers democracy’ to Iran. These groups living in the United States, whether Iranian or American who supposedly speak for the Iranian people have not been in Iran for decades, do not read Iranian newspapers and are hardly in communication with any segment of the Iranian working class and poor.
Among these individuals and groups who hope to use their previous anti-Iraq war credentials are Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone. On their regularly scheduled Tuesday radio show aired on WBAI in NY on July 21, under the title: The Iranian Working Class Resists the Theocratic State, they spent the entire hour reading stories from so-called “documents” and “evidences” of torture, jailing, anti-worker beatings, suppression of teachers and workers rights, failure to give back pays, etc, etc., all at the hands of the anti-worker, anti-freedom government of the Islamic Republic, but especially condemning the current president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Their claims of facts and events, many which they made two decades ago, are presented today as “current events” and representative of present-day Iranian society.
We are quite familiar with these phony statistics and claims which came entirely out of the bulletin of a tiny “ultra-left” infamous cult, now being promoted as the champion of the Iranian working class. How did this Osanloo go from an insignificant group with a crude newsletter on line to a “champion” of the Iranian working class with a color bulletin and excellent English, crying about workers and teachers rights is beyond the Iranian people. Osanloo is getting notoriety from his political friends in America. Was his political and perhaps financial support from the infamous International Labour Organisation (ILO) yet another form of interference?
These groups enjoy the protection and security of the US imperialist power to demonize and rail against other countries’ governments, using the media apparatus that has been made available to them through implanting themselves in the WBAI and KPFK broadcasts. If these individuals and shady groups are sincere and brave enough to defend the Iranian working class’ rights to organize, then why as Americans do they not mobilize, organize and unionize the US working class, whose union membership hardly exceeds 10% of the working population in this country?
Secondly, if these champions of the international working class are serious about their intentions, why don’t they buy plane tickets, take a trip to Iran and at least meet their clients? Or do they expect, in place of them, the Obama administration to dispatch a few military divisions, consisting of poor blacks, Latin Americans and whites to actualize their dreams of human rights, women’s rights and their Maoist, Trotskyite and anarchist socialism? But no, these champions of the working people of other countries let the real job go to the Twitter operators, the National Endowment for Democracy, International Republic Institute, the US military and the CIA. The common characteristic of these small groups with their comrades in arms in the Department of State is that both despise Muslim nations who challenge Washington and defend their sovereignty and independence.
Strangely enough, at this time that the hated figure of G.W. Bush, the symbol of war and aggression, is out of the field, and President Obama has talked about “peace and dialogue”, a handful of organizations pretending to be progressive or even left are joining the fray as a fifth column of the United States military aiming at creating a condition of upheaval and de-stabilization inside Iran.
The Iranian people, the same way that they hate to see foreign troops on their soil, no doubt will resent the interference of “pro-democracy” pro-human rights, pro gay rights, etc. groups who are fundamentally fighting against the Islamic peoples’ culture and traditions, as well as their societal structure. That’s why their Hunger Strikes and anti-government demonstrations have to take place outside of Iran in front of the UN and some other parliaments in London and Paris, buttressed by Hollywood names and corporate media, instead of with the real working majority inside Iran.
The Iranian people are still in the process of recovering from the eight year war and 30-year sanctions imposed upon them. Any further imposition and attacks by groups in the U.S. and Europe would be interpreted as another plan at re-establishing U.S. hegemony in the Middle East region.
At the exact time that the United States has escalated the troops in Afghanistan, the attacks on the people of the Waziristan region of Pakistan, and the Zionists have sent their nuclear-armed warships into the missile reach of Iran, the interference of groups under any name or cause would constitute another hostile action against the country.
--Ardeshir Ommani is an Iranian-born writer and an activist in the U.S. anti-war and anti-imperialist struggle for over 40 years, including against the Vietnam and Iraq wars. He has participated in the U.S. peace movement, working to promote dialogue and peace among nations and to prevent a U.S.-spurred war on Iran. Co-founder of the American Iranian Friendship Committee, (AIFC), he writes articles of analysis on Iran -U.S. relations, the U.S.-Iran economy and has translated articles and books from English into Farsi, the Persian language. Please visit AIFC’s website to learn more about Iran and Global issues at: http://www.iranaifc.com
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