On Oct 28, 2006, at 10:54 PM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> Western leftists
Are these Western leftists?
<http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/letter070706.html>
[...]
It is regrettable that your web site has recently become so apologetic about Iran's Islamic regime. Many of us consider this to be in total contrast to the radical traditions of Harry Magdoff, Paul Sweezy, Ellen Woods . . . who considered anti-imperialist struggle as inseparable from anti-capitalist struggles and the battle for democracy. Your site's support for -- indeed, at times, adoration of -- one of the most brutal, militarist factions of the Islamic Republic regime in Iran, and your inaccurate reporting of the economic stance of the Iranian president, whose main allies include German neo-Nazis (an inevitable consequence of his Holocaust denial statements) is an insult to the Iranian working class and its supporters worldwide.
We, Iranian feminist socialist activists are alarmed that your political stance is damaging the reputation of your journal amongst left wing activists inside and outside Iran. Lifelong translators of left wing books and articles inside Iran have either been killed by this regime and its death squads, e.g. Mohammad Mokhtari and Mohammad Pouyande, or they are in prison for defending families of these dead left-wing writers, e.g. Nasser Zarafshan -- who happens to be a regular translator of your journal's articles to farsi. And yet you show no hesitation in defending their executioners and jailers such as Ahmadinejad.
We enclose for your attention links to a number of eyewitness statements about the events of 12 June 2006, as well as some of the recent statements by Iranian workers regarding this regime's continuation of the neo liberal economic policies of the last decade. We can assure you that left-wing activists inside Iran will not rest until they have exposed the sham reactionary anti-western slogans of this president, dished out by your web site as anti- imperialism.
After all, many of us remember the consequences of earlier shallow anti-American sloganising, culminating in disasters such as 'Irangate' -- when the 'anti Imperialist' ayatollah Khomeiny ended up supporting Nicaraguan Contras through payment for Israeli arms, via none other than Oliver North!!
6th July 2006
Ardeshir Mehrdad -- Co-editor Iran Bulletin Middle East Forum Shahrzad Mojab -- Professor and director of the Women and Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto, Canada Haideh Moghissi -- Professor of Sociology -- York University, Canada Cyrus Bina -- Professor of Economics and Management -- University of Minnesota, USA Yassamine Mather -- Center for the Study of Socialist Theory and Movements -- Glasgow University, UK Torab Saleth -- Editorial board journal Critique Saeed Rahnama -- Professor of Political Sciences -- York University, Canada Younes Parsa-Benab - Professor of Political Science at Strayer University -- Washington Mehdi Kia -- Co-editor Iran Bulletin Middle East Forum Nasser Kkaksaz -- Poet, Literary critic Sulmaz Moradi -- Socialist, feminist activist Borzu Fuladvand -- Socialist activist Fereshteh Shoja -- Socialist, feminist activist Faramarz Dadvar -- Center in Defense of Freedom & Democracy in Iran- Chicago Sadegh Tehrani -- Socialist activist Hassan Hessam -- Poet Dr Morteza Mohit