Yoshie also points out that the left in Iran is powerless. The power invested in the Iranian theocratic State makes sure that this powerlessness remains so. The argument that one is aiding and abetting the enemy by criticizing the ruling class State one likes or lives within is mirrored by the right. "It's you damn leftists who are undermining OUR President and causin' more of our troops to be killed by terrs. Go live in Iran, iffn' you like it so much. Hey fellas, get that noose. Let's settle this matter now." or...."Bury the woman to her neck and let the ants and sun take care of the rest."
As far as critiques go, I think a class analysis would help clarify these issues. Who is ruling the States of the world? Who is benefitting from the wealth created by the producing class(es)? For too long the left has been mired in notions that this or that *nation* should be supported and that one not supported. Granted, Marx supported the Union against the Confederacy in the U.S. Civil War. But, that didn't mean that Marx turned a blind eye toward wage-slavery or ceased doing class analyses of the world situation. The left ideological baggage of supporting the *good*, anti-imperialist States against the imperialist States goes back to the more or less uncritical defense of "Socialism in one country". "Must turn a blind eye towards Stasi spying so as not to undermine 'our' DDR." Liebknecht and Luxemburg went to the slammer back in WWI days for saying that the workers have no interest in fighting each other--"they have no country". Lots of other socialists, revolutionary unionists and self-described anarchists met the same fate. Of course, they were "powerless" in the face of State law and violence.
There's no reason why workers of the USA or Iran should be encouraged to kill each other in wars which only serve to enrich and ensconce their masters' class power over them. Instead....and this is not a *moral* appeal...IMO, workers should demonstrate solidarity with other workers and other producers in the world who are having the shit kicked out of them for various and sundry rationalizations, made up mostly by their rulers and all too often "believed in" by the people they rule. Social conservatism deserves lots of criticism, heaps of it...yes, even if there is a democratic windowdressing covering it up.
Class rule puts the fear of god and the State into the minds and lives of human beings.
Mike B)
Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer." - W. C. Fields http://www.iww.org/culture/official/preamble.shtml
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