The US is getting a bit nervous as its Saudi friends are drumming up support around the world for increased efforts at curbing Iran. The protesters in Bahrain are overwhelmingly Shia ruled by an absolute Monarchy Sunni minority. A favorite excuse for suppressing the uprising there is the danger that any gains made by the Shia population will be used by Iran to extend its influence in the area.
It's hard to read the reporting in the US capitalist media and not feel disgusted by it. The Wall Street Journal reports today that the Saudi's actions are of a grave concern to US capitalism as it might complicate "US efforts to guide popular uprisings in the Middle east toward a peaceful and democratic conclusion."
The reality is that the US's efforts for the past 50 years have been to support dictatorship after ruthless dictatorship in the region and to suppress any movements that arose for democratic reform. The US and Britain under the leadership of the CIA Agent, Kermit Roosevelt, orchestrated the coup that overthrew the Democratic secular regime of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran in 1953 and installed the murderous Shah. It is the role of US and British imperialism that has led to the current relationship between Iran and the west. The source of the rise of the Mullah's just like the rise of Bin laden, is US foreign policy. "All the Shah's Men" is an excellent book on the 1953 coup.
Prodded by the US, the Saudi feudal regime invaded Bahrain along with a few other stooges of the US in the region in order to crush the movement for reform. And this is the real reason it invaded; to suppress democratic reforms. The Bahrain movement has demanded an end to religious discrimination and for political change including calls from some quarters for a Republic. This is sacrilege to an absolute monarchy and the security of the thugs that rule Saudi Arabia with US military and economic support. The claims by the Saudi's and the US that it is to stop Iranian meddling are a smoke screen.
The Saudi city of Qatif, a city of 400,000 mostly Shiite Muslims has been the scene of protests by young people against discrimination, the right to freely practice their religion (what nerve) and for democratic reform. The city "isn't a representative of Saudi Arabia where there have been no other Arab spring street protests" the Wall Street Journal writes.
Well, let's qualify that a little bit. The Saudi royal family, basically a band of thugs that controls the economic and political life of a nation (sort of similar to the US but on a smaller scale) clamp down on any free expression with an iron fist. Remember, this is the place where the young woman who unfortunately left her house without the accompaniment of a male relative and was subsequently gang raped, was sentenced to 200 lashes for her infractions. The Saudi's have a religious police that ensure you are worshiping the right god and they are not favorable to Unions by any means.
Public protests are dealt with severely and many choose to voice their anger on social networking sites like Facebook. One woman was arrested because she got behind the wheel of her car and posted the image to Facebook.
So it is not that the Arab spring is not welcome in Saudi Arabia, it is that the regime is so ruthless and armed to the teeth by the US that if protests like those we see in Syria began in Saudi Arabia the ruling clique would make Assad look like an angel. The Saudi's have just gotten the OK to receive some $60 billion in arms from its largest supplier of weapons of mass destruction, the US Congress.
The instability in the Middle East and the obstacle to democratic secular regimes has been western capitalism, predominantly of the British and US kind. The uncritical support that US capitalism gives to the racist Zionist regime in Israel is a major factor in the violence that occurs in the region.
Here is a short clip with excerpts from the "official" British bourgeois media about the 1953 coup in Iran. When we understand a little about the history of the US and Britain with Iran we can appreciate more clearly this country's fears about the intentions of the crooks in Congress.
Iran and Iraq in particular have a rich history of trade Unionism and political resistance to imperialist control over the resources of their respective nations. Many Union activists, communists, socialists and genuine working class militants have died and their movements crushed at the hands of US puppet regimes like Sadaam Hussein and the Iranian Shah.
Capitalism cannot solve the problems that these societies face. Obama's hypocritical babble about democratic rights has no credibility in this region; it comes only after the movement of the masses entered the scene. US foreign policy is the problem but for them there is no alternative as this waning power struggles to stay competitive and influential on a world stage with many new and powerful actors---the Chinese in particular.
The only workable alternative is a democratic socialist federation of Middle East states that can collectively determine in the interests of the masses of the region how the areas resources are allocated and shared in the interests of all. I can hear those who claim this is a pipe dream and Utopian. Well, the alternative is no longer barbarism but the end of life as we know it.
And we should think of it this way. Imagine being a wage worker in the early period of capitalist development when the feudal system of economy still dominated and you say to a serf, a peasant working the land for their Lord of the manor that this way of life is bankrupt, it is ending, changes are taking place and you don't have to be tied to this feudal estate and its owner; you can go work in this workshop, get paid in money for it and you can be free.
"I am tied to the land" he would say. "I cannot move freely and sell my ability to work to anyone I please; this is the law, the way things are and always will be. I am bound by the laws of this system and its king who is king by god's will which gives his Lords a right to my bride on our wedding night. You can't change this."
"You have some nice ideas, your a nice guy" he says, "But you're nuts."
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