Matt McCarten: left and right is an outdated paradigm in the Middle East

I don't know who posted this, but its only the intro that is not McCarten.

"It's time for a new type of red-green coalition! Well, it would be if the quotes McCarten gives us from Nasrallah weren't made up out of thin air..."

But as it stands the intro is wrong, first, McCarten didnt make up the quotes, and second this does not justify a 'redgreen coalition'.

McCarten is quoting from an interview that appeared in a Turkish Newspaper.
http://www.emep.org/girisen.htm

There has been some questioning of the veracity of this interview, but the general opinion so far is that it is real, because of Nasrallah's comments about Deniz Gezmis whom he personally knew and admired.

Here is the section he quotes from:

[snip]

Interviewer:
"What is the current state of your relations with the Socialist movement?

Hasan Nasrallah:
The socialist movement, which has been away from international struggle, now for a considerable time, at last began to become a moral support for us once again. The most concrete example of this has been Hugo Chavez, the President of Venezuela. What most of the Muslim states could not do has been done by Chavez by the withdrawal of their ambassador to Israel. He furthermore communicated to us his support for our resistance. This has been an immense source of moral for us. We can observe a similar reaction within the Turkish Revolutionary Movement. We had socialist brothers from Turkey who went to Palestine in 1960s to fight against Israel. And one of them still remains in my memory and my heart; Deniz Gezmis..!

What is the importance of Denizs for you?

Hasan Nasrallah: We now want new Denizs. Our ranks are always open to new Denizs against the oppressors. Deniz will always live in the hearts of the peoples of Palestine and Lebanon� No-one should doubt this. Unfortunately, there is no longer a common fight and fraternity against the common enemy left over by the Denizs. What we would have liked is for our socialist brothers in Lebanon to fight against imperialism and Zionism shoulder to shoulder. This fight is not only our fight. It is the common fight of all those oppressed across the world. Don�t forget that if the peoples of Palestine and Lebanon lose this war, this will mean the defeat of all the oppressed people of the world. In our fight against imperialism, the revolutionaries should also undertake a responsibility and should become in the hearts of our people of Palestine and Lebanon, Denizs once again.

It is possible to see the posters of Che, Chavez, Ahmedinecad ve Hezbollah side by side in the streets of Beirut. Are these the signs of a new polarisation?

Hasan Nasrallah: We salute the leaders and the peoples of Latin America. They have resisted heroically against the American bandits and have been a source of moral for us. They are guiding the way for the oppressed peoples. Go and wonder around our streets..! You will witness how our people have embraced Chavez and Ernesto Che Guevara. Nearly in every house, you will come across posters of Che or Chavez. What we are saying to our socialist friends who want fight together with us for fraternity and freedom, do not come at all if you are going to say �Religion is an opiate�. We do not agree with this analysis. Here is the biggest proof of this in our streets with the pictures of Chavez, Che, Sadr and Hamaney waving along together. These leaders are saluting our people in unison. So long as we respect your beliefs, and you respect ours, there is no imperialist power we cannot defeat!

Returning to threats in the region, western governments are intensifying their pressure on Damascus and Tehran for which they are proposing a �change of regime.� Some sources are of the view that the attack on Lebanon will be directed on Syria. According to your point of view, is a regional war possible?

Hasan Nasrallah: The centres of imperialist power want to make collaborators of our region as a whole. They expect us to kneel before them. Syria, Iran and we are opposing this. The provocation concerning the former Lebanese Prime Minister Refik Hariri and the efforts to secure the withdrawal of Syrian army from Lebanon and going even further, their wish to attack callously on to Tehran and Damascus are all due to this reason. Syria, with Iran and Hezbollah will certainly resist this. We are going to resist for our motherland and freedom. We are going to resist in order not kneel before them. The imperialists of the west are seeking to make a second Kosovo out of Lebanon and our region. They are seeking to create a clash in between sects. But we have spoiled this trick. In our streets, the whole of Lebanon, with its Christian, Sunnis and Shias, are flying the flags of Hezbollah. Again, �the unipolar world� has already been left back in history. There is us, there is Iran, there is Syria, there is Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea. There are the resisting peoples of Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan! As long as there is imperialism and occupations, these people will continue resisting. They can forget about peace. If they want peace, they should now respect the freedom of peoples and should eliminate the collaborating gangs. God willing, the victory will be ours. They are not going to be able to turn our country and region into a Kosovo. Now our people are aware of everything and will not play into imperialist tricks.
We will absolutely not permit them to attack Iran or Syria. We are going to fight for our freedom to the last drop of our blood. Let no-one doubt this. They are claiming that Iran has nuclear weapons at its disposal. On the contrary, most of the nuclear weapons are in the hands of the collaborating gang of Israel and the US. Furthermore, nuclear weapons are nothing but excuses put forward in order to create collaborating regimes in the region."

[snip]

Two points. First, even if the interview is a fake Nasrallah's willingness to collaborate with 'socialists' like Chavez does not surprise me. They are both fighting a massive attack by US and Israel to recolonise their countries and regions. Their national interests in avoiding recolonsation, makes them obvious allies.

Second, while both Chavez and Nasrallah are popular leaders in the anti-imperialist fight, they are only opposed to US/Zionist oppression, and not the capitalist system that makes this oppression necessary and inevitable. They have illusions in Mr Clean capitalism which they hope to create by doing deals with 'democratic' and 'peaceloving' capitalists.

So neither can be trusted to carry that fight to the end as they are already making deals with imperialism against the interests of the masses in their countries. Nasrallah agreed to the UN occupation of Southern Lebanon.

On a smaller scale, McCarten has the same perspective, he is for aspiring populist leaders like himself, basking in the hero worship of the millions who worship Chavez and Nasrallah, to save kiwi workers by reforming capitalism.

The only way that the imperialists can be defeated is for the masses to take the leadership of the anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist struggles out of the hands of their populist, 'socialist', Islamists leaders.