Statement, March 21 2009
Barack Obama’s ‘diplomacy’ initiative is no new beginning
Much has been made of Barack Obama’s Newroz message, which is supposed to represent a “new beginning” for relations between the US and the Islamic Republic.
But we should take a closer look at Obama's project in the Middle East and what he is looking to gain from Iran.
This clearly is no new beginning. The speech is part and parcel of the gunpoint diplomacy initiated by George W. Bush and continued under Barack Obama. Bush himself gave out numerous messages of a similar nature during his presidency. The only difference is that Obama actually addresses the people and leaders of the Islamic Republic directly.
But his demands remain the same:
Iran should give up uranium enrichment and accept international offers to provide fuel for nuclear power
Iran should stop arming Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza
Iran should stop threatening Israel
Iran must help in achieving peace in Afghanistan and Iraq
Iran's supreme Leader Ayatollah Khameni wasted little time dismissing the message as “words”, adding he had seen no change in America's “attitude or policy”. Obama knows that it would be political suicide for the Islamic regime to accept those demands. It might be able to keep going by accepting one of the four, but this in turn would not be acceptable for Obama.
In reality, Obama is trying to influence the Iranian presidential elections, which take place in June. Through sanctions, sable-rattling, diplomatic pressure and the enormous funding for organisations who pursue US-sanctioned ‘regime change’, the US are trying to set the political agenda of these elections in an attempt to force a politically pliant government.
He is pursuing regime change from above, in other words. But the example of Iraq clearly shows that real democracy must come from below, from the people themselves. Just like George W. Bush, Barack Obama has no confidence in the Iranian people to liberate themselves. In fact, by ratcheting up the existing sanctions against Iran - and by threatening even stricter sanctions - he actually undermines the work and efforts of many workers, students and women’s organisations who are fighting against the theocracy. Sanctions disorganise the working class as people squander their fighting energies on day-to-day struggles to simply survive. Sanctions dramatically degrade the ability of the working people to struggle collectively on their own account, to radically refashion society in their own image, to organise and fight.
It is rather strange that Obama has used Iran’s support for ‘terrorism’ as the justification for his new round of sanctions. After all, the US are very keen on getting Iran to attend their ‘Afghanistan conference’. It seems that when the Iranian government acts in the interests of the US, they make a perfectly acceptable ‘partner’.
Hands Off the People of Iran is clear: US-led imperialism, whoever is at its helm, is the greatest enemy of the people of Iran and indeed the peoples of the whole world. There can be no ‘peace’ based on gunpoint diplomacy or a ‘deal’ between one section of the Iranian theocracy and US imperialism - this would actually entrench the US project in the Middle East and provide backing for the disastrous war in Afghanistan, currently being stepped up by Obama. Hopi fights for a nuclear-free Middle East as a step towards a nuclear-free world.
Our campaign also fights for:
No to imperialist war! For the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of US/UK troops from Iraq and all the Gulf region!
No to any imperialist intervention. The immediate and unconditional end to sanctions on Iran.
No to the theocratic regime
Opposition to Israeli expansionism and aggression
Support to all working class and progressive struggles in Iran against poverty and repression
Support for socialism, democracy and workers' control in Iran
America's “attitude or policy”. Obama knows that it would be political suicide for the Islamic regime to accept those demands. It might be able to keep going by accepting one of the four, but this in turn would not be acceptable for Obama.