[Marxism] Communists link up with Islamic radicals (WSJ)

[Louis Proyect]

Walter wrote:
>Some find it dismaying these days that there's a convergence of
>views among those now resisting Washington's occupation of Iraq,
>Israel's invasion of Lebanon, and all those who oppose US threats
>to invade Iran, or at least, to unleash Isreal to do the dirty
>deed on Washington's behalf. Iran and Venezuela, for example,
>have found strong common ground on the economic level, joining
>forces to mutually strenghen their interests.

What exactly is the convergence of views? Populism? Marxism? Shia 
radicalism? Hezbollah is basically a charity from the economics 
standpoint. It gains support among the Shia poor in the same way that 
Hamas does in the occupied territories. Marxism is about workers 
asserting themselves politically and economically until they finally 
seize power and become the new ruling class. This is what Marx meant 
by socialism. If people fight American occupation, we should 
obviously support their struggle but we have our own ideas about 
society which will never converge with radical Islam. When Malcolm X 
came around the SWP, it was because he was becoming interested in 
socialist ideas. I don't think that the SWP was about to converge 
with the Nation of Islam. You don't want to antagonize somebody like 
Malcolm or whoever by making a huge to-do about the universe being 
made of atoms but that's about it.

>This Wall Street Journal report contains a heavy dose of red-
>baiting, particularly aimed at London's Mayor Ken Livingstone.
>And it goes particularly ballistic at the growing convergence
>of revolutionary left and pro-Cuban radicals with the Islamic
>resistance movement such as Hezbollah, the group which fought
>Israel to a standstill earlier this year, for the first time
>that had ever taken place.

I would not pay much attention to the WSJ article, which smacks of 
their editorial page rather than the usual high quality of reporting. 
Actually, come to think of it, it reminds me more of David Horowitz's 
psychotic amalgams. You know, when he tries to tie George Soros to 
Osama Bin Laden--that sort of thing. Here's a sample from the WSJ 
article: "Back in Tehran, Mr. Ahmadinejad in November hosted 
Zimbabwe's authoritarian Prime Minister Robert Mugabe, an erstwhile 
devotee of Mao Zedong." You see, Ahmadinejad is connected to Mugabe 
who is an "erstwhile devotee of Mao Zedong". And of course, from this 
six degrees of separation approach, I too am connected to Ahmadinejad 
since I assisted Jared Israel when he was setting up The Emperor's 
New Clothes. And everybody knows that Jared was a leading Maoist in 
1969. However, it is possible that Ahmadinejad is connected to Israel 
since Jared Israel has become a raving Likudite lunatic lately...