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Trump and Western imperialism hands off the Iranian protests

Marxist Theory · 2017-12-28

Core Argument

The article argues that Western imperialist powers — led by the United States, Britain, and the EU — are cynically exploiting the 2017–18 Iranian protests to advance a regime-change agenda, while bearing direct responsibility for the economic conditions that sparked the uprising. The central claim is that the same powers that imposed devastating economic sanctions on Iran, causing mass unemployment, inflation, and destitution, cannot pose as defenders of the Iranian people's rights. The protests represent a genuine spontaneous eruption of working-class and lower-middle-class anger against the clerical elite's corruption and the poverty produced by both the sanctions regime and the Iranian ruling class's own capitalist management. The article insists that the movement must reject all overtures from Western imperialism and its local proxies — the monarchist Reza Pahlavi and the reactionary People's Mujahedin Organization (PMOI) — and instead build independent working-class organisation. The Iranian regime's pseudo-anti-imperialism is also exposed: it cooperates with US imperialism in Iraq and Afghanistan while using the threat of foreign intervention to discredit the domestic opposition.

Theoretical Grounding

The analysis is rooted in the classical Marxist understanding of imperialism as a system of economic domination and geopolitical competition, drawing on Lenin's theory of imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism. The article applies this framework concretely: Western sanctions are not merely diplomatic tools but instruments of economic warfare designed to force Iran into submission, with the primary burden falling on workers and the poor. This is consistent with the Marxist tradition's insistence that imperialism operates through economic pressure, not just military intervention.

The article also deploys a class analysis of the Iranian state, rejecting the notion that the clerical regime is genuinely anti-imperialist. Instead, it is characterised as a capitalist ruling class that competes with Western imperialism for a share of regional spoils while cooperating when convenient. This aligns with the Trotskyist tradition's critique of "Bonapartist" or "bureaucratic-capitalist" regimes that pose as anti-imperialist while serving capitalist interests at home.

The argument that the protests must be organised and led by the working class, and that only independent working-class organisation can prevent the movement from being hijacked by reactionary forces, reflects the Leninist conception of the revolutionary party and the necessity of proletarian leadership in democratic struggles. The article's rejection of reformism is implicit in its insistence that neither the Iranian regime nor Western imperialism can offer a way forward — only the self-organisation of the working class can.

Conjunctural Relevance

The article was written in January 2018, at the height of the first wave of the "2017–18 Iranian protests" that began in Mashhad on 28 December 2017 and spread to over 80 cities. The specific conjuncture is defined by several factors:

  • The economic impact of sanctions: The article details how the 2012 sanctions regime caused Iran's oil exports to collapse from 2.5 million to 1 million barrels per day, the automobile sector to contract by nearly 60%, and the economy to shrink by 9% between 2012 and 2014. Unemployment reached 20% in 2014, with youth unemployment much higher. Prices for essentials — electricity, fuel, water, bread, cooking oil — multiplied. Access to medicines was severely restricted.

  • The nuclear deal's limited effect: The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) lifted some sanctions, allowing oil exports to recover, but significant US sanctions remained. Trump had already threatened to withdraw from the deal by October 2017, and the article notes his decision was imminent. This created uncertainty that halted foreign investment.

  • Geopolitical realignment: The article situates the protests within the broader regional power struggle. US interventions in Iraq and Syria had backfired, strengthening Iran's regional influence. The US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel sought to destabilise Iran as a countermeasure. The protests provided an opportunity for these powers to pursue regime change.

  • The weakness of the protest movement: The article notes that the movement had not drawn in broader layers because many Iranians feared becoming pawns of US imperialism. The regime exploited this sentiment, claiming "enemies of Iran" were behind the unrest. The movement lacked organisation and working-class leadership.

The article's analysis remains relevant to the present conjuncture. The "Woman, Life, Freedom" uprising of 2022–23, which erupted after the murder of Mahsa Amini, was far larger and more sustained than the 2017–18 protests. The same dynamics are at play: Western powers express support for protesters while maintaining sanctions that devastate the Iranian economy; the regime uses the threat of foreign intervention to discredit the movement; and the question of working-class leadership and independent organisation remains unresolved. The article's warning that the regime's pseudo-anti-imperialism can rally a section of the population behind it has been borne out repeatedly.

Where the Argument Continues

The article is a relatively short intervention focused on a specific moment, and several threads are left underdeveloped:

  • The internal dynamics of the Iranian ruling class: The article mentions "reformist" politicians attacking protesters but does not analyse the factional struggle between the "principalists" (hardliners) and "reformists" (associated with Rouhani and Zarif). This is a crucial dimension for understanding how the regime manages dissent and adapts to crises. Later IDOM articles on Iran, particularly during the 2022 uprising, develop this analysis.

  • The question of working-class organisation in Iran: The article calls for building a Marxist revolutionary tendency but does not assess the existing workers' movement, trade unions, or leftist groups in Iran. The practical question of how to organise under a repressive regime is left open. This is addressed in other IDOM pieces on Iran's labour movement and the experience of the 1979 revolution.

  • The relationship between the protests and the broader regional crisis: The article notes Iran's role in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan but does not explore how the protests might affect Iran's regional position or the dynamics of the Saudi-Iranian rivalry. Later articles on the Yemen war, the Syrian civil war, and the US "maximum pressure" campaign fill this gap.

  • The economic crisis in greater depth: The article provides concrete data on sanctions' impact but does not analyse the internal contradictions of the Iranian economy — the role of the bonyads (parastatal foundations), the corruption of the clerical elite, or the long-term effects of deindustrialisation. These are explored in IDOM's economic analyses of Iran.

The argument continues in IDOM articles on the 2022 Iranian uprising, the "maximum pressure" sanctions, and the regional balance of power. Against the Stream episodes on Iran and the Middle East also develop these themes.

Connections

  • Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism: The theoretical foundation for understanding Western sanctions as instruments of imperialist domination rather than humanitarian concern.

  • Trotsky, The Revolution Betrayed: The analysis of a regime that poses as anti-imperialist while serving capitalist interests at home echoes Trotsky's critique of the Stalinist bureaucracy.

  • IDOM articles on the 2022 Iranian uprising: These develop the analysis of the regime's factional struggles, the role of women in the movement, and the question of working-class leadership.

  • IDOM articles on US sanctions against Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba: These apply the same framework to other cases of imperialist economic warfare.

  • Against the Stream episodes on the Middle East: These provide broader geopolitical context, particularly on the Saudi-Iranian rivalry and the US role in the region.

  • The experience of the 1979 Iranian Revolution: The article's warning about the danger of the movement being hijacked by pro-imperialist forces echoes the lessons of the revolution, which overthrew the US-backed Shah but was ultimately captured by the clerical regime.

Key Quotes

  1. "The declarations of support from Western leaders cannot help but leave a bitter taste in the mouth of the protesters. The US and Western European powers have pursued a policy of brutal sanctions against Iran for decades, which intensified into a near-complete embargo in 2012."

  2. "The sympathy and support offered by Western leaders to protests that have erupted against inflation, poverty and unemployment cannot be understood as anything other than manipulative and hypocritical. These same powers carried out a policy to push the Iranian masses into a state of economic desperation and destitution for the sole purpose of asserting their dominance over Iran and the Middle-East."

  3. "The bloody track record of Western imperialism in Iran and the Middle-East is enough to show that it can play no progressive role whatsoever in the struggle of the Iranian masses against the regime."

  4. "In reality of course, the Mullah regime is not anti-imperialist at all. In fact, in Afghanistan and Iraq, Iran and the US have cooperated on many occasions... The Iranian regime's 'fight' against Western imperialism is only a fight to be allowed to sit at the same tables and to get a share of the pie."

  5. "The masses cannot trust US imperialism or any other elements from the ruling class. They can only trust their own forces. The key to breaking the isolation of the present movement and to prevent it from degenerating, is to organise it and to reach out to the working class."

  6. "Our task in the West is to organise independent working class solidarity with the Iranian masses and actively mobilise the struggle against our own imperialist ruling class. At the same time, as internationalists, we must reach out to Iranian workers and youth to build a Marxist revolutionary tendency, which could lead the coming Iranian revolution."