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Iran 7 - Harpal Brar

1,689 views · Published 14 November 2009 · 10:18 · Indexed 30 October 2026

Channel: Proletarian TV · 2009 · Education

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Iran -- What should our position be?

Panel discussion following short presentations on various aspects of Iran's domestic and international politics.

Part 7: Harpal Brar, Chairman of the CPGB-ML makes comments following the Iran discussion.

We wish the working calss to lead the anti-imperialist struggle, he says, but if - in the "third" world, in the colonised nations - national bourgeois parties and classes are in the vanguard of the struggle, it is in our class interests and it is our duty to support them.

He touches on the Anti-War movement's claims to reject thorough going anti-imperialism on grounds of being "broad".

In particular, he points out that if the Tories, Quakers or whoever are expected to be able to share the anti-war platform and say anything they like, then why should it be anti-imperialist politics alone which is proscribed as "narrow"?

In the last analysis, this "I support the resistance, and call for a defeat of imperialism, but we can't possibly say that as it would offend the Quakers..." line, is the subterfuge of opportunists (who advance the interests of those very imperialist forces who are waging wars in Afghanistan and Iraq) within the working class movement.

Let all views be heard and the working class will be the final arbiter, he argues.


All Videos:
Part 1:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSmkCDJ2WDQ
Giles Shorter: Imperialism's interests. Stop the War.
Part 2:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiY-RY1VxSA
Ella Rule: History of the Iranian Revolution. Liberation Theology. Ali Shariati (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Shariati). Women. Development. Nuclear weapons.
Part 3:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTIOIPrLQC0
Keith Bennett: Influence of the October Revolution. Soviet Azerbijan. Azeri's second largest nationality in Iran. The Great Game. Baku. Stalin. History of Marxism in Iran -- predates October Revolution. Great tradition of Marxism. Tudeh Party - Revolutionary and reformist. China.
Part 4:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhpw3L4OF2k
Keith Bennett:  communist movement weak and divided -- theological leadership of Iranian revolution almost from outset. Elections and democracy.
Part 5:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0FlIbn2uPQ
Discussion.
Part 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAhKHhOSTIE&feature=related
Ivor Kenna: Holocaust denial? No! Ahmedinajad in fact condemns the historical record of Zionism. History of the Revolution.
Part 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_iggUCvIA8
Harpal Brar: Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Distinction between imperialist and oppressed countries. Leadership of the working class in imperialist countries. Leadership in the oppressed countries: anti-imperialism can be led by non-communist, bourgeois led movements. While waiting for and supporting the independent action of the working class to lead the struggle, we must not condemn anti-imperialist movements on the basis that they are not communist. Stop the War Coalition and the CPB.

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