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Iran 3 - Keith Bennett I

536 views · Published 14 November 2009 · 10:02 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: Proletarian TV · 2009 · Entertainment

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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.

Keith Bennett, Member of the CPGB-ML and expert on Asian politics, introduces the history of the working class movement (Marxism) in Iran, stressing its early origin and the influence of the Great Socialist October Revolution.

He discusses the weakening of the workers movement with the international split in the camp of socialism (between communist china and Khruhschevite revisionist Russia, subsequently Albania), and the Tudeh partys adoption of revisionism, giving up revolutionary positions and sinking to its current low of openly calling for imperialist intervention in Iran.

The leadership of the anti-imperialist movement therefore fell to the bourgeoisie, and the repressive nature of the Shahs regime gave fertile ground to encourage splits in the workers movement on the one hand, and consolidate the position of the clerical representatives of the national bourgeoisie on the other.


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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