February 27th, 2020

Comrades,

The topic before you reflects some important discussions take place in Iraq and Iran. Contribution of the internationalists in these discussions is important and much appreciated, although the class struggle could be pushed back for a short time on the pretext of the war on the coronavirus, which is confirmed in Iran, and Iraqi authorities recommend travel ban to and from Iran.
We will translate and publish your opinion, where we publish the topic: www.myinternetpages.com
Please use a name, any name, and please write intensively; it makes our job easier.

Anwar/Iraq
21 / 2 / 2020

Iraq and Iran: Class Contradictions and Polarisation of Classes

Twelve years on from the global crisis of 2008, it is now clear that there will never be a return to the normal economic life in the world. Since 1970 there were six global crises; the last one was the Great Recession 2008–09, which was the longest since the World War II and the worst global economic meltdown since the Great Depression (1929). It exactly means that the next one is always on the horizon, and expecting to record the most dangerous in our modern history; the evidence is the last turbulent decade through which expanded trade war, capitalist destructive war, class conflicts, mass migration, poverty and unemployment.

Now it is clear that the next crisis is close to us and prepare the way for larger military and wider class collisions in the world, and the world’s interconnectedness give necessarily all local and regional movements an international trend. The local conflicts are just mirrors for the global collisions, even though many Socialist sects in Iraq and Iran, as well as in the whole world derive different conclusions based on the sporadic and undeveloped level of the class struggle in respective country, and set up sectarian principles of their own and try to mold the whole movement in a particular theory or ideology that present local solutions for a global crisis. Their conclusion doesn’t exceed antagonism between wages and profits. That is the most actual reason that they remain within the same horizon as political economy, which seen nothing of the current global epidemics other than lack of resources. Their criticisms of the capitalist society do not go beyond those of humanitarian organisations and NGOs that are active in both Iraq and Iran: human rights, equality between men and women, environmental concerns, conflicts between religion and secularism, etc. The central axis of this school of Socialism is development of human, technological and financial resources achieved by productivity of labour, planning, and control by the state. That is the same myth of the Nationalist Socialism, which is theoretically a natural extension and development of the Political Economy: LACK OF RESOURCES!

In contrast to the observation of this school of Socialism, the destructive nature of the current productive forces shown by periodical global crises is a clear evidence of absolute over-production rather than lack of resources. The global crisis generates all conflicts between competitors in the world market: Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iran, USA, Libya, as well as all collisions between contradictory classes all over the world: Lebanon, France, Iraq, Iran, Hong Kong, Chile, etc. These collisions are the main events that sum up all global conflicts, behind which class struggle takes more and more an international form, discontinuous class struggle breaks out into uprising, and occasional collisions turn into permanent revolts. That is the most strength in the proletarian international movement, although it is still characterized by a particular weakness: the need of a permanent association, which serves the proletarian as a revolutionary organ for development of its movement internationally.

Thus, the historical question for the proletarian is neither lack of recourses, nor national economic growth, which is the demand of the leftist that follows the track of the liberal bourgeois. In contrast to this illusion, the real development of the proletarian is organising the numerous local struggles into one united movement nationally and thereby internationally: Workers’ Council, which is an organ for class collaboration resulting from long periods of crises, common battles against the bourgeois, and POLARISATION of social classes. This is the first step for the proletarian to organise itself as a CLASS. So, the only lack for the proletarian is class organisation, which appears from the class POLARISATION.

Thus, the question is not about more justice of distribution of national wealth between rich and poor, but it is rather about a homogenised proletariat, which becomes a historical true through the proletarian continuous class struggle in both national and international areas. The issue is not to discover a scientific treatment for the growth of lack of resources and recovery of the national economy for the poor class. The global society owns all necessary resources, but the growth of resources within the system of capitalist competition is leading to the entire ecological collapse in the world, in which we all are global citizens, whatsoever our language is. We all are facing the same global problems, whatsoever our location is. The global climate change, as well as the global recessions, economic imbalances, poverty, militarisation and wars affect the global community without exception of any country. That is enough to recognise capitalism as a global system that necessarily makes the goal of the proletarian global rather than local in scope. So, it is not by chance to see that the human society is more and more splitting up into two contradictory camps: The camp of the bourgeoisie, which is the conservative side of the society, and the camp of the proletarian, which is the destructive side of the society. The bourgeoisie and its state everywhere belong to the first camp and the Socialists have belonged to the second camp everywhere.

Thus, the same historical conditions with the same social contradiction everywhere have been a base for the emergence of many Socialist groups everywhere, facing the same situation and the same obstacles. The question is, then, what their present tasks are. How they overcome these obstacles? How they move and organise activities within the international camp of the proletarian?

کوردی

2/27/2020

February 27th, 2020

12 Comments

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12 Comments

samfanto France

2/27/2020 09:12:11 am

Sorry – but I find this text not at all useful. especially for those outside of Iran and Iraq. I guess the misery of daily life in Iran and Iraq, with massive repression, war and constant survival hassles doesn’t help, but it can’t totally explain this very general and rather hack text. “The suppression of alienation necessarily follows the same path as alienation” (The Poverty of Student Life, 1966), which for me, amongst other things, means we have to unravel specificities before we can reach wider conclusions . So, particularly for those outside of these countries, rather than leap into generalisations which are probably obvious to all those on this list, it would be far more interesting to analyse, for instance, how religion plays a part not just in dividing proletarians off from each other but also how it defines daily behaviour, or any other specific aspect of life, ideology and ideas that are peculiar to these 2 countries (eg specifric contradictions in environmental destruction and how people try to oppose it) . Obviously such things are not invariably the same in every country throughout the world – we know what’s the same, but differences are also important and are part of the struggle for a subversive communication/community, the struggle to understand and go beyond our different histories and different kinds of misery. Of course, it’s a bit awkward of me to suggest things to you – but this statement just seems like yet another politically correct declaration to show your organisation exists and to give yourselves the idea that you’re doing something through such a very general declaration which contributes no new insights.

Anwar N Nori

2/27/2020 09:13:55 am

Edit
samfanto France
You are right that this text is not useful for you at all. “We can reach wider conclusions”, as you say, but not through explaining “how religion plays a part not just in dividing proletarians off from each other but also how it defines daily behaviour, or any other specific aspect of life, ideology and ideas that are peculiar to these 2 countries (eg specific contradictions in environmental destruction and how people try to oppose it)” in Iraq and Iran, or anywhere in the world. The class contradiction in Iraq and Iran goes beyond the humanitarian organisations and NGOs, as I mentioned in the text; it is beyond:
1) The illusions of the struggle against God or religion, as we have a real struggle: Class Struggle, which can only occur because existing social classes have come into a higher stage of the contradiction.
2) The illusion of the environmental movement, which has nothing to offer more than the change in the state policies. The only thing distracting the environmentalists is an evolution of the current state to the modern Green State.
Anyway, even though you are not require to participate in the discussion, it was better to reflect some lessons from the class struggle in France, which is for us a part of the current stage of the international class collisions.
Just to know, there is no “MY organisation” to show. The whole question is just to discuss some questions related to the international collisions.

samfanto France

2/27/2020 09:15:44 am

You think everybody who attacks symptoms of ecological horror is only focused on a “change in the state policies”? The movement against the oil pipelines at Standing Rock in North Dakota (2016-17) or currently in Wet’suwet’en (Canada)? Or the current occupation of an abandoned high security police station in London by anti-capitalist ecologists –
greenanticapitalist.org/paddington-gree.../ ?
Do you think "The class contradiction in Iraq and Iran " doesn’t also entail, amongst other things, examining how religion divides proletarians – that this is a topic that only the NGO rackets have a monopoly of?
As for France, I constantly participate in aspects of the movements here – and have written stuff about them. For example:
dialectical-delinquents.com/class-strug.../
dialectical-delinquents.com/2013-a-to-z.../
dialectical-delinquents.com/2013-a-to-z.../
And you can see, on and off, various things about France here:
dialectical-delinquents.com/news-of-opp.../
and a lot more here:
dialectical-delinquents.com/2013-a-to-z.../
I’d be interested to hear what you think of some of these “lessons from the class struggle in France”.

samfanto France

2/27/2020 09:17:15 am

I should also add that, on the 2 most recent demonstrations against the reform of pensions in France, I distributed the French version of this:
NO VICTORY WITHOUT SOLIDARITY IN THE STRUGGLE
12/11/19:
An anonymous response to events which followed the demonstration on Tuesday 10 December in Alès, found on the internet.
It was with bitterness and anger that we ended the day of mobilization yesterday. Discouraged and outraged by what happened at the end of the event.
At the end of the demonstration, an action to block the economy was planned. The need to block the economy to add weight to the balance of forces had been discussed several times in interprofessional General Assemblies.
And the action planned for yesterday was decided in the assembly of the GJs yellow vests and offered to teachers by the GJs that morning, who had accepted the idea.
At the end of the event, around a hundred people left in procession to reach the place to be blocked that had been decided in the morning. Others there went by car. Arriving at the roundabout of avenue Carnot, the procession on foot was forced by the CRS to go back to the station. And there a trap was formed. Part of the demonstrators, GJs, teachers, workers found themselves surrounded by the CRS and at the mercy of their humiliations and their insults.
All this took place about ten meters from the CGT barbecue with railway workers in which trade unionists, GJs etc. participated. One of the kettled comrades having managed to get out of the kettel, went to tell everyone who was at the barbecue, thinking logically he’d obtain solidarity from comrades in struggle.
There were very few reactions. Worse still: some people who wanted to come and show their solidarity were prevented by a union official who ordered them to stay at the barbecue. Various people, including so-called GJs, went to explain to the CRS that they had nothing to do with the kettled protesters. A so-called GJ was also seen preventing people from coming along to express solidarity together. Unspeakable.
Result: a grotesque, scandalous and distressing picture which Macron must have revelled in!
On the one side of the fence, demonstrators were kettled, humiliated and insulted by twice as many robocops as them.
On the other side, an aperitif and grilled meat, with loud music. A few people who from time to time came to observe the police operation, laughing 🤮. Some people tried to come to
support the demonstrators who were trapped but were prevented from doing so by a
union official and some GJs who did not hesitate to dissociate themselves, screaming at the ketttled demonstrators.
And people went explain to power’s guard dogs that “They are not with them!” “,” That they have nothing to do with it! ".
6 arrests including two with violence and two taken into custody, observed by the complicity of people we thought were on our side in the struggle.
A sad sight.
Troubling.
All the kettled demonstrators, GJs, teachers, various workers, all had the same thought: fortunately it’s not 1940… shivers down our spine. Last night all of us suffered a great bitterness, very upset.
What to conclude from this?
Where has class solidarity gone, necessary for any victory against power and capitalism?
We will not win like that.
Without some rapid attack of conscience/consciousness by some , we will all go to the wall.
We reaffirm our respect for all those in struggle and for all forms of struggle: from the little grandpa at the roundabouts to the young man who throws a stone, via the worker blocking his factory and the anonymous people who sabotage a speed camera.
We also reaffirm our solidarity with all the comrades who face repression.
We believe that the union of all workers, the unemployed, the precarious, of all origins is the necessary condition for any victory, if we do not want to be satisfied with victories for just single categories.
Especially if we fight for the honor of the workers and for a better world! em> - SF
But yesterday, this union, we did not live it.
Hopefully the struggle will see better days.

Mickael Magid

2/27/2020 09:18:24 am

""""""Thus, the historical question for the proletarian is neither lack of resources, nor national economic growth, which is the demand of the leftist that follows the track of the liberal bourgeois. In contrast to this illusion, the real development of the proletarian is organising the numerous local struggles into one united movement nationally and thereby internationally: Workers’ Council, which is an organ for class collaboration resulting from long periods of crises, common battles against the bourgeois, and POLARISATION of social classes. This is the first step for the proletarian to organise itself as a CLASS. So, the only lack for the proletarian is class organisation, which appears from the class POLARISATION.""""’’’———————————--
Anwar Nori is this your text? I ask because I don’t always understand who wrote what on this forum.
I would say a few words.
I agree that the main modern weakness of the proletariat is the absence of a network (Federation, Association) of workers ’ councils at both the national and international levels. The root of this problem is that proletarians today do not recognize themselves as a class-for-themselves anywhere in the world. Public uprisings from Iran and Iraq to Chile and Ecuador are a magnificent event, because we see them cover entire groups of countries at the same time.
To my great regret, it is also a sad sight. The proletariat does not create its own class structures of self-organization (councils), it does not separate itself anywhere from bourgeois ideologies and movements, either supporting populists such as Muqtada Sadr in Iraq (fortunately, its time and popularity are dwindling), or reformers in Iran, or simply making demands of a leaderless crowd gathered via the Internet, and then leaving the squares. Even if the proletarians remain in the squares, they make strange demands, such as creating a government of effective non-party managers (Iraq, Lebanon), or fair elections instead of the Islamic Republic (Iran), or a new Constitution (possibly Chile). One of the reasons for this is that all these social movements and street meetings are multi-class, including a significant portion of businessmen and the clientele of bourgeois parties. In addition, factories (as well as hospitals, ports, power plants) rarely go on strike. In Iran alone, in 2018, workers may have set up several councils during strikes. This non-inclusion of factory in the struggle and the concentration of the struggle on the street contributes to the disintegration of class consciousness, temporary or permanent alliances with the bourgeoisie and its class organizations (opposition parties, Shiite clerics such as Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani in Iraq, some NGOs in Lebanon etc). Moreover, if during the revolution in Iran in 1979, some Shiite clerics opposed to Khomeini talked about the power of workers ’ councils in a classless society (Ayatollah Taleghany the leader of the Shiites in Tehran), now we are talking about semi-liberal clerics.
(I understand the situation in the United States and Europe worse, but it seems to me that the same role is played by the bourgeois movement of fans of “Saint Greta Tumberg”, Bernie Sanders, as well as various nationalists, populists and anti-migrant fighters. This whole bourgeois company integrates various protests to a greater or lesser extent. However, I repeat, I understand these countries worse.)
I believe that such powerful and frequent proletarian protests as today contribute to the crystallization of the international proletarian current in the future, in the spirit of the ideas of Pannekuk, Rule or the Friends of Durruti. (I do not mean to say that all these people are obliged to read Pannekuk, etc., I mean a certain spirit of these ideas of proletarian emancipation and self-organization). But this is a very complex process which can take decades, and I would like to create something like cores that could help accelerate crystallization in different countries.
I would start by thinking about simply gathering a network of activists from different countries who see the point in workers ’ councils, in the radical separation of the proletariat from the vanguard parties, trade unions, and the bourgeoisie in the course of street protests and strikes. I hope to meet such people from Iran, China, India, and South America. Unfortunately even a friend from India, who is here, is silent almost all the time, although I would like to ask him a lot of questions. And we need to make sure that there are as many such people as possible. For example, I would like to see friends here from Tunisia, whom you know, perhaps from Turkey etc (especially now, when the threat of the 14th Russian-Turkish war is brewing). This is not an easy task and it requires a lot of activity. I think we need to bring all these people together, at least so that we c

Mickael Magid

2/27/2020 09:19:37 am

P.S.
“1) The illusions of the struggle against God or religion, as we have a real struggle: Class Struggle, which can only occur because existing social classes have come into a higher stage of the contradiction.
2) The illusion of the environmental movement, which has nothing to offer more than the change in the state policies. The only thing distracting the environmentalists is an evolution of the current state to the modern Green State.”——————-
I would also add that the class struggle goes beyond national ideas and anti-fascism ;)
I don’t trust purely environmental movements. Usually they require the closure of a factory or road, or pipelines and this can make life easier for some people, but at the same time deprives other people of work. In Russia environmentalists sometimes got into conflicts with workers, and this was a very bad decision. On the other hand, environmental issues should be integrated into the proletarian movement.

Anwar N Nori

2/27/2020 09:20:43 am

Edit
Your addition is correct: “the class struggle goes beyond nationalism and anti-fascism”.
That is right too, during the Iran 1979 uprising, we faced the bourgeois under Islamic cover; today we are facing it under the liberalist cover. And I share your opinion about “gathering a network of activists from different countries who see the point in workers’ councils”, especially when we see the nucleus of this movement in Iraq. There are a lot of revolutionaries in Iraq who working on it. Previously, I expressed my opinion about that in two texts: Time to Build an International Network! As I mentioned before, the lefties talk about the Workers’ Councils too, but the councils they are talking about are the state councils. That is the main contradiction between the supporters of Workers’ Council and the supporters of Government Council. At this point, your contribution is of great importance, particularly in reflecting the historical lessons from the proletarian class struggle: Russia and German 1917-1918, Hungarian 1956, Paris 1968, Poland 1980, etc.
Depending on the participation on Riseup International Discussion, we will publish the subject in Kurdish on: myinternetpages.com
Depending on the number of participants, we try to translate texts from English to Kurdish and from Kurdish and Arabic to English.
Your contributions are of great importance.

Mikael Magid

2/27/2020 09:42:32 am

Thank you !
Here is my text about the role of workers ’ councils during revolutions
we.riseup.net/cussndiscussinternational...

Anwar N Nori

2/27/2020 09:43:21 am

Edit
Class Struggle in France
As you know, we are trying to define the most important points related to the strengths and weaknesses of the proletarian international movement. The central axis in this movement everywhere, in Iraq and Iran as well as in France is the proletarian organisation. The proletariat in France as well as in Iraq is still incapable of going beyond the living conditions. The class movement in France is still moves in the same circle as the international movement: the prime necessities of life, although many took part in the Yellow Vest movement: students, railway workers, health workers and other parts of the public sector, but still the state and unions hand in hand control the movement through the movement of reduction of taxes on fuel, pension reform, etc. But continues of clashes between bourgeois and proletarian pushed the movement from single struggles towards class SOLIDARITY between the proletarian in both France as well as internationally; although the state everywhere declares repeatedly that it soon overcome the recession and recovers the national economy which leads to the increasing of production, decreasing of the poverty, unemployment, ect. Thus, the movement is still currying common characteristics everywhere. And we see that the global crisis deepens year by year, the class collisions intensify all over the world; France is waiting to regain the memories of 1968, while the proletarian in Iran and Iraq are working to exceed the stage of the uprising of 1978 and 1991, although the demands under the national flag are “more democracy”, “secular state”, etc.
Thus, the proletarian in France can’t go beyond its current stage, if it can’t go further to the next step: Class Organisation through which workers self-management of workplace arise in the form of Workers’ Council.

Mikael Magid

2/27/2020 09:44:48 am

Anwar Nori This is an offtop here, but pay attention to this. There is a real threat of a Russian-Turkish war. Today russian aircraft attacked a Turkish base in Syria and killed 13 Turkish soldiers.
we.riseup.net/cussndiscussinternational...

Anwar N Nori

2/27/2020 09:45:45 am

I have read “The core of revolution”. Let us discuss the most important points around it: Social revolution, as you say “… is trying to solve different or even conflicting tasks. I repeat this again) material consumption, establish collective management of production.”
As we all know, there is no consumption without production. Therefore, the process starts from reorganising of the production rather than increasing the amount of necessary needs, as the matter is not related to the lack of products and material consumption or lack of resources, as I mentioned above. The whole process is settled by a set of economic laws: law of value, law of price, law of profit, supply and demand, etc., and all together constitute a complete chaotic system of economic life. So, the change that takes place between capitalism and Socialism/Communism is the change of the economic laws; it is the change of the relations of production which contains production, distribution, exchange, and consumption. Then, the starting-point of the Social Revolution is destruction of the hierarchical organization of the society, decentralisation of production, establishment of the co-operative production, which puts an end to the constant chaotic production and periodical disaster of crisis based on over-production.
To achieve this goal, proletarian needs a revolutionary organ: Workers’ Council, which organises the daily struggle, and takes over the administration of the whole society and reorganise production through presenting new economic laws and a new measure of distribution: “Each According to His Ability”, which is based upon bourgeois relations of production, must be changed to “Each According to His Needs”, which is based upon Socialist/Communist relations of production, from which self-management of the producers or self-organised co-operative production will arise. So, the socialist movement arise as a result of the natural contradiction of the laws of capitalist production, and its goal is to abolish the law of value which is the ground of the life of capitalism.

Samfanto France

3/5/2020 02:18:49 pm

In a town in the South of France (Alès), the following took place on 10th December 2019 during the strikes of many public sector workers and actions of yellow vests (YVs) and disparate supporters:

At the end of a demonstration, an action to block a section of the economy had been planned, having been discussed and decided in General Assemblies, both of strikers and YVs. Over a hundred went to enact this idea but were pushed back by the riot cops who then surrounded them and kettled them in, being insulted and humiliated by the cops. One of the kettled comrades managed to get out of the kettle to inform a CGT union barbecue taking place just 10 meters away, involving railway workers, other trade unionists, YVs etc. There were few reactions, but some people who wanted to come and show their solidarity were prevented by a union official who ordered them to stay at the barbecue. Various people, including so-called YVs, went to explain to the CRS riot cops that they had nothing to do with the kettled protesters. A YV was also seen preventing people from coming along to express solidarity. Some YVs openly dissociated themselves from the kettled protesters and screamed at them. Some even went to the riot cops to say they had nothing to do with those who were being kettled, of whom 6 were arrested including two with violence and two taken into custody. All this observed with the complicity of people the kettled demonstrators had thought were on their side in the struggle.

February 27th, 2020

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