Imperialism And Resistance

La guerra suave
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Al-Zahra University in Tehran, Iran

International Conference on Academic Imperialism (Part One) from TV Multiversity on Vimeo.

International Conference on Academic Imperialism (Part Two) from TV Multiversity on Vimeo.

Complete interview – play list, you may experience brief breaks between videos

Fidel Castro has been speaking out against the US threats to Iran over the past few weeks – and warning the world of the dangers of any imperialist attack on Iran. The leader of the Cuban Revolution puts to shame the Muslim (puppet) leadership who, out of fear of their masters, remain silent.

HAVANA, Cuba, Jul 16 (acn) The leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel
Castro, met today at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters in
Havana with Cuban ambassadors to whom he spoke about the serious
dangers currently threatening mankind.

Fidel referred to the possibility of an attack against Iran or the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, reports the www.cubadebate.cu
website.

“What they are doing to Iran is a carbon copy of what they did to
Mohamed Mossadegh, the former Iranian prime minister ousted after a
coup encouraged by Washington and other Western powers when he began
a process of nationalization of Iranian resources in the 1950s,” he
said

During the meeting that lasted just over an hour and a half, he
answered questions or comments from the diplomats and reviewed news
wires and political analysis from diverse sources.

Fidel went over some of the questions he left to the specialists of
the Research Center of the World Economy during his recent visit to
this institution.

These include one that almost no one would have raised 20 or 15 years
ago: “Can the Empire survive if the market disappears and would the
dollar have any value if there were no world market?” he wondered.

Again, the Cuban leader referred to the arsenal of more than 20,000
strategic and non-strategic weapons in the hands of the great powers.

He also wondered what makes what they call today ‘conventional
weapons’ different —weapons that Washington intends to promote as an
alternative— if the weaponry technological development of recent
years gives them all similar destructive power.

Fidel warned that it is ridiculous to think of a nuclear suitcase
with a button, which was the panic of the early years of the Cold
War. In this sense he abounded that all the answers are already
programmed, as it is only a matter of seconds, he said.

He also pointed out that, although several sources exclude the data,
it is known that Israel is the world’s sixth nuclear power.

Workers with the Cuban Foreign Affairs Ministry (MINREX) and
neighbours from the capital district of El Vedado, who spontaneously
gathered when they heard of Fidel’s presence at the Foreign Ministry,
said good-bye to Fidel with a standing ovation.

From the crowd gathered on the sidewalk, a young college graduate
raised her diploma, and dedicated it to the Cuban leader with
gratitude.

Vineyard of the Saker has an important blog post on “My love-hate relationship with Marxists” – I identify with much of what he writes in this post, especially regarding how Marxists (and the North American left in general) relate (or rather do not relate, or understand) religion – especially Islam – and the role Islam plays in authentic liberation struggles amongst Muslims. I also agree with him on his assessment of the contemporary Latin American left movements, that do appear to be qualitatively different than their predecessors, in that they are not out to denigrate the people’s religious values, but are more interested in correcting the manipulation of religion by the oligarchies.

Many Marxists have also supported the “Gucci Revolution” in Iran only because they perceived the power of “the mullahs” (as they would put it) as being “reactionary” and “theocratic” (hence – very bad). Such Marxists have never read Ayatollah Khomenei, they know nothing of the progressive reforms introduced by the Islamic Revolution in Iran and they are oblivious to the fact that the leaders of the “Gucci Revolution” were representing the reactionary multi-millionaire and bourgeois classes of Tehran. For some mysterious reason, most Marxists when looking at Iran completely forgot about class interest and class warfare. That is what ideological blindness does to them. If religion is reactionary, then the mullahs are bad, and any movement which attempts to overthrow the Islamic Republic (which is what he “Gucci Revolution” was all about, of course) is worthy of support, even if it is CIA sponsored.

In all fairness, I have to admit that the new generation of Marxists is changing, at least in Latin America where leaders like Chavez or even Castro have considerably toned down their opposition to religion. I have some very real hope that the new “Bolivarian Socialism” or “Bolivarianism” will resolutely turn away from the deep errors of 20th century “classical” Marxism and, in the words of Hugo Chavez, “a new type of socialism, a humanist one, which puts humans and not machines or the state ahead of everything”. Hopefully, this new type of socialism will, unlike Leninism and Trotskysm, value each individual life and never use terror. And hopefully this new type of socialism will accept and embrace the diversity of human spirituality and not designate any religion as the class enemy. Such a new socialism will be able to fully integrate the Marxist, Leninist and Trotskyst analysis and critique of the Capitalist system and ideology, but will reject their methods and prescriptions. After all, a “progressive” must – by definition – learn from past mistakes and yearn for a new, better, way.

Eva Golinger reports on US intervention in Venezuela and funding of a fraudulent press:

Documents reveal multimillion-dollar funding to journalists and media in Venezuela

US State Department documents declassified under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) evidence more than $4 million USD in funding to journalists and private media in Venezuela during the last three years. This funding is part of the more than $40 million USD international agencies are investing annually in anti-Chavez groups in Venezuela in an attempt to provoke regime change

The funding has been channeled directly by the State Department through three US agencies: Panamerican Development Foundation (PADF), Freedom House, and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Press TV has had some interesting programs that are available on their YouTube channel – check out Shahram Amiri’s interview, and A short history of sanctions against Iran. Click here for Press TV’s YouTube channel

Not translatable to written English – if, for some unfortunate reason, you don’t speak Spanish, find a friend who does, who can translate into spoken English (If you have no friends, please stop spending so much time reading blogs – and go out and make some)