The Euro-American Left Are Still Clinging To 19th Century Slogans Which Have No Relevance To Anti-Imperialist Struggles

When it comes to the question of support for national liberation movements the Trotskyites routinely mislead their followers.. The cases of Hezbollah, Hamas, Ansar Allah put and the Iranian revolution have all caught them out and revealed the Trotskyites pro-imperialist nature. The common complaint from the Trotskyites when it comes to movements which are rooted in religious traditions is that these are “backward” or inherently reactionary and that Marxists cannot possibly support them. Currently the British trots are wailing about how no one should support Hezbollah because they are a group inspired by the ideals of Shia Islam. The Trots proclaim that it should be secular Arab nationalists leading this struggle not those inspired by Islam. That’s a rather funny statement when you know the history of Trotskyism because 50 years ago, when Arab natinalism was still a real force, the Trots denounced them as “stalinists”. Even as late as 2011 the British Trots took an objectively pro-war position when it came to the war on Libya, they called for the overthrow of Gadaffi and echoed every single imperialist lie about the Libyan government.

The Trots are laughable but their decepitons point us to a far bigger problem in the imperialist countries and that is the total inability of the so called Marxists to analyse imperialism in a serious way. They also lack any tactical awareness when it comes to prioritising which contradictions are primary. The question of religion is one that always catches the Euro-American left out because they take the European leftist tradition and impose it upon other areas of the world with no real understanding of how national liberation struggles alter the religions of these countries. In Europe it was the case that the Church hierarchy all backed up the feudal remnants and then stoood solidly behind the capitalist order, frequently collaborating with fascism as well. In colonised and oppressed nations the religious question is more complex. In some cases the religious hierarchies did side with the landlords, capitalists and reactionaries against Communist Parties in the last century. The defeat of communist and nationalist forces in West Asia though has produced something of a change though. The demand for national liberation in Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq and Yemen is still there even after the Arab left collapsed, this demand is so urgent that it enters into the Mosques and produces nationalist movements which use Islam as their inspiration. The struggle for national liberation produces versions of Islam which are totally at odds with the ultra reactionary, pro-imperialist versions of it which are actually propagated by the allies of US imperialism in the Gulf states.

The Iranian revolution is also crucial to understand in terms of it being a specifically anti-imperialist event and Khomeinism having anti-capitalist elements within it. Hezbollah too are principally independence fighters who arose from the poverty stricken Shia areas of Lebanon but who came to play the vanguard role in the struggle for Lebanese independence. The failure of the Euro-American left to understand any of this stems from the fact that they don’t actually understand nations like Palestine and Lebanon the primary contradiction is imperialism. Until they are freed from occupation and neo-colonial control then the class struggle cannot even be fully realised. Lenin and Stalin both understood this very well. This is why Stalin said in 1925 that the Communists of the oppressed nations should unite with all forces opposing imperialism. Mao also understood this when the CPC prioritised the defeat of Japanese imperialism over and above everything else because unless the Japanese were defeated nothing else could be achieved.

Hezbollah are the force leading the resistance to US imperialism in Lebanon right now, in Palestine it is Hamas playing the lead role in Yemen it is Ansar Allah and the role of the Islamic Republic of Iran is crucial in supporting all of these. It is they who are waging the struggle for national liberation across West Asia right now. It is they who are in the firing line, battling the brutal and murderous forces of US imperialism. Until US imperialism and its criminal allies are defeated there can be no progress, in the East or the West. Those struggling against US imperialism are our natural allies because we have a shared interest in the defeat of the imperialist system. As Ayatollah Khamenei’s latest sermon emphasises there is a firm anti-imperialist understanding amongst many in Iran and this is shared in Palestine and Lebanon. They in fact have a far better understanding of the situation than the delusional Euro-American leftists do.

The failure of the Euro-American left is a reflection of their failure to actually comprehend imperialism as a system. They do not see it is the primary contradiction because they have failed to adequately analyse it and why it is both the enemy of workers domestically and those it oppresses internationally. These leftist endlessly repeat slogan from the European anti clerical struggles, when the clergy were firmly on the side of the landlords and capitalists, and try to repeat them in the case of nations where religion has been mobilised in support of the struggles of the oppressed. In these cases slogans which were revolutionary in 19th century Europe become utterly reactionary as they form a barrier between us and those actually fighting imperialism in the here and now.