No Nukes for Iran!

international | environment | other press Saturday September 01, 2007 14:01 by Reza Fiyouzat

A progressive, anti-imperialist, Iranian case against Iran's nuclear program

Here an Iranian Socialist and Anti-Imperialist explains why it is not a good idea for Iran to develop or to maintain Nuclear Power stations. Full text at the link.

Those in the Iranian socialist opposition arguing for a nuclear-free Iran
have either been absent from the Western left's discourse or have been
getting the short end of the stick from some in the US left. Trapped in a
mentality as simplistic as that of George Bush's, a good part of the US left
has been repeating a similar logic, by saying that either you go along with
the imperialists' plans and support Bush or find excuses to support Iran's
government's pursuit of nuclear energy.

This, in spite of the fact that the same American left-leaning activists and
writers have a strong tradition of anti-nuclear stance when it has come to
the US society. May E. P. Thompson's soul rest in eternal peace, but I know
that his spirit must be spinning in his grave.

What those so-called leftists do not understand, or willfully ignore, is
that imperialism feeds on oppressed, un-represented people. To the extent
that the Iranian regime stifles 'its own people' and their potentials by
increasingly exposing them to larger harms, without providing any
opportunities for their flourishing and development, to the extent that
Iranian people are undermined by their government, they as a whole are more
likely to be swallowed up by the plans and designs of the imperialists.
Empowered people are the best defense against imperialist aggression.

Those who, like the Islamic regime in Iran, insist that pursuing nuclear
power is an automatic right, must also be prepared to bear the
responsibility to fully account and be accountable for any and all
activities relating to the handling of nuclear materials, especially if
nuclear facilities are built near dense population areas, and most
definitely if those reactors are located on active tectonic plates, as is
the case with the Bushehr reactor.

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