As good an example of any as the way some prominent left commentators use geopolitics to undermine the existence of actual class struggle.
Mazda Majidi, the interviewee has written several articles for the Party of Socialism and Liberation (PSL).
Taken from the Moderate Rebels podcast.
https://moderaterebels.libsyn.com/understanding-irans-protests-and-the-dangers-of-foreign-meddling-with-mazda-majidi-ep-12
For an honest account of the 2018 protests in Iran see this article we published by an Iranian activist.
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Jan 7, 2018
“Max Blumenthal: We’ve seen protests mostly in smaller towns where there’s less ability to repress protests, but they’ve been generally small in nature. Then they took a turn for the worse, became violent, as external forces activated their assets. This is again a narrative i’ve been hearing, I’m not stating it as my own analysis. What do you make of this narrative?
Majidi : I think that’s far closer to reality than the typical narrative you hear in the mainstream media, I would agree with that narrative. Both Mashhad and Qom are very religious cities, very traditional sites of pilgrimages for shia muslims. These are not the places where you would expect the same social forces as the Green movement in 2009 to come out… Very clear that at least the beginning in Mashhad and Qom and at least to some extent in other places, this was not a movement for the overthrow of the Islamic republic it was a protest against specific policies of the Rouhani administration. […] The first few protest went without incident. But then what happened, and this is the role of people who probably have connections to Saudi Arabia, Israel the US come in. Because then what started out as protests with economic demands turned into burning down police cars, burning down buildings. Then in a couple of days armed actions against police stations attempting to confiscate the weapons and so on.”
Comments
What a pair of complete and
What a pair of complete and utter plonkers.
Ben Norton once accused us of
Ben Norton once accused us of being Nazi sympathisers because we host content about Hungary '56 - if anything that's an understatement of how he put it.
Do they provide transcripts,
Do they provide transcripts, or did you have to dig through and type it down yourself? Part of me thinks it'd be worth getting a better understanding of the exact arguments these clowns are making, but all of me feels that life's too short to sit there and listen to them witter at each other for an hour at a time, or however long it is.
If they do I couldn't find
If they do I couldn't find one, I literally typed that excerpt up a year ago to document the shit they were up to, but was not sure what to do with it. However Blumenthal's about to have a book out with Verso on the Middle East so figured dumping it in here is better than nothing.
Also, a more recent example
Also, a more recent example of the wit and wisdom of Max Blumenthal: he's just published a new article on why anyone who talks about red-brown alliances is being manipulated by the state, and talking about red-brown alliances means "to shamelessly smear and denounce leftists over the most crudely manufactured links to the far-right"... co-written with Mark Ames, of "running a magazine publishing a regular column by the founder of the National Bolshevik party" fame. Truly astonishing stuff. There's a reply here, if one is needed, beyond just "Mark Ames? Seriously?"
Not yet four years since Ben
Not yet four years since Ben Norton wrote this criticising 'red brown alliances'. From what I've gathered he was an ISO member before he went full campist. https://bennorton.com/vladimir-putin-the-fascist-supporting-neoliberal-faux-anti-imperialist/