Iran Revolution Casts a Long Shadow

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Nobody should believe that the treaty recently signed by Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat will usher in an era of peace in the Middle East, or anywhere else for that matter.

In fact, the effect is quite likely to be the reverse.

Since the downfall of the Shah of Iran political and military alignments in the Middle East have been in the melting pot.

Fear of further such mass movements has been the force driving Carter, Begin and Sadat closer into each other's embrace.

Every despot in the area, (and there are many), has also suddenly begun to feel nervous of his position.

Luxury

The Saudi regime,, for instance, decided in the aftermath of the mass overthrow of the Shah that it couldn't afford the luxury of Saudi troops in the Lebanon, and immediately began preparations to bring them home.

Fighting between South and North Yemen, near neighbours of the Saudis provided the immediate reason.

Likewise Syria has begun preparations to withdraw troops from the Lebanon and re-position them opposite Israeli troops on the Golan Heights.

Redeployed

Here, the immediate reason was furnished by Sadat's "separate peace" with Begin, a natural conclusion of which will be that' Israeli troops are redeployed away from the Egyptian front (where they are being replaced by American weaponry given as part of the "peace" package) and used against the other Arab states.

The net effect of all these troop movements, if carried through will be to leave the Lebanese government exposed and without an army at a time when rank and file Palestinian guerrillas, strengthened by the Iranian events, are particularly combativé, and at a time when the Israeli government can use this as an excuse to pay some attention to its northern Further Israeli incursions into the Lebanon can be expected as the Israeli government beats a temporary retreat on the southern • Meanwhile, Israeli officials have expressed their wish to open their borders with, and step up economic links with Egypt.

This will guarantee a new flow of cheap labour for Israeli capitalists and market for their products.

This is an extension of existing Israeli policy in the area, reminiscent in some respects of South African policy vis-a-vis the Bantustans.

Egypt, on the other hand, is now at the receiving end of increased aid from the US, and also stands to benefit from increased trade with both Israel and the rest of the imperialist world, given that the Egyptian government can now break formally with the notional '"Arab Boycott" of all companies which trade with It remains to be seen whether, or not the other reactionary regimes in the area can hang together long enough to implement any sort of boycott against Egypt.

Sadat at least must believe that, even if they can, he stands to gain more from a deal with the Israeli and US governments than he does from pursuing a policy of half-hearted confrontation.

Meanwhile the fear of an extension of the Iranian revolution has created some strange bedfellows.

It has driven the Ba'athists of Damascus and Baghdad back towards each other in search of comfort.

Understanding

It has forced the Iraqi and Saudi regimes to renew their military understanding.

The first fruits of that strengthened agreement have already been seen in their defen ce of the reactionary Yemen Arab Republic.

Above all, that fear presided over every session of the Arab League's Baghdad summit.

The Arab leaders knew how the example and support of the Iranian revolution would spur on the determination of the Palestinian people to win their liberation struggle.

Detest

They also knew how deeply the masses in their own countries identify with that struggle, and how violently they detest the treachery of Sadat.

The Arab League had to be seen to do something. But they know that the boycott of Egypt is no more than a fraud.

Before he signed the peace treaty, Sadat had already pledged his lifelong service to the imperialist powers.

When the Iranian forces withdrew from Oman, Sadat immediately sent in Egyptian iroops as a gesture of good faith to suppress the liberation struggle in Dhofar.

Every minister in Baghdad knew as well as Sadat that the US imperialists and their allies would, Arafat with Khomeini exchange, protect Egypt against the effects of any movement by the other Arab states.

The Palestinian liberation struggle will not be won by any number of boycotts or other actions from the Arab nationalist leaders.

The workers and peasants of Iran have clearly shown the way-only mass mobilisations of the oppressed classes can lift the yoke of imperialism in the But already those workers and peasants who formed the driving force of the. Iranian revolution have come into conflict with their new leaders.

Bigotry

The latest struggles of women, the struggles of the Kurds, Turkomenis and other oppressed .. nationalities for their democratic rights, have all been in opposition to the religious bigotry of Khomeini and the bourgeois nationalism of Bazargan.

Inevitably such leaders will attack and betray the masses whose strength brought them to power.

The problem is not confined to Iran; it is the central problem which faces the whole of the international working class.

Just within the Middle East, the "left" bourgeois nationalists in Baghdad slaughtered thousands of militants from the Iraqi Communist Party and brutally deny the Kurdish people their right to self-determination.

Support for Amin

• The "socialist" regime of Gaddafi's military dictatorship is even now protecting with its troops that reactionary butcher Idi Amin.

Arafat and the petty bourgeois nationalist leadership of the PLO itself struck a huge blow against the Palestinian revolution when it surrendered bases in the Lebanon. to the Arab League and the United Nations.

As revolutionary communists we do not attempt to conceal the true character of such leaders. Unlike the 'Marxists' of the Workers Revolutionary Party, we do not latch on to certain aspects of their words or actions and then give them uncritical Solidarity We, of course, declare our unconditional solidarity and give our full material support to all those people fighting against imperialism.

But we recognise that the needs and aspirations of the workers and peasants in the Middle East , can be won only by a struggle against such traitors within. the fight for a new revolutionary leadership. Our task is to build such parties and reconstruct the Fourth The liberation of Palestine will not be won by Arab League boycotts, but by mobilising the masses throughout the Middle East on the basis of a socialist programme that can meet their needs.

The Palestinian revolution will not be led to victory by the bourgeois nationalist leaders of the PLO PLO; adership armed with armed with the programme, method and experience of the communist movement.

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