Noam Chomsky on “Woman, Life, Freedom” Movement in Iran | Exclusive Interview

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Chomsky is institute professor emeritus in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT and laureate professor of linguistics and Agnese Nelms Haury Chair in the Program in Environment and Social Justice at the University of Arizona. One of the world’s most-cited scholars and a public intellectual regarded by millions of people as a national and international treasure, Chomsky has published more than 150 books in linguistics, political and social thought, political economy, media studies, U.S. foreign policy, and world affairs.

Summary:
The issues of capitalism and exploitation are right at the heart of the crises of Western societies today. And they will be for Iran if Iran can free itself from the cruel clerical dictatorship Iran has an immediate problem of the Women, Life, Freedom problem. Minimal conditions for open participation in a free participatory society must be established before these questions can arise.
Iran has separate problems. The immediate problem is to free Iranian society from the harsh cruel repressive clerical stranglehold of the clerical regime. That's what the Women, Life, Freedom movement is about to achieve. The broader questions of capitalism and colonialism can not be seriously confronted because the population has no means of engagement.
The Chinese intervention to lead to a Saudi-Iranian accommodation of some kind could be a substantial relief. Might offer an opportunity for internal forces to have more range and freedom to achieve the basic freedoms that are essential for a society to move forward.
There is an immense irremediable problem that may make all of this completely moot. That's simply the boiling of the environment. There is a background issue, which cannot be forgotten. It's going to destroy everything in the region unless this is quickly taken care of it. That means that these societies of the Middle East which includes Iran and Saudi Arabia in particular, right at their borders is the main oil-producing and petroleum-producing region in the world. They are going to have to both move quickly and expeditiously to eliminate the use of fossil fuels. If they don't, there is no future for the whole region in fact for the world. That is a problem that can't be ignored.On top of the desperate need to achieve elementary human rights is to eliminate the sanctions regime. Brutal savage sanctions regime, which is destroying the Iranian economy moving towards a multi-polar international system.
Harsh repressive systems delight in moving confrontation to the level of violence. That's where their strength is. Their weakness is in areas of non-violence. Those are the directions in which popular movements must move not only in Iran but everywhere else.
There is a lot of talk about the decline of the United States and the rise of China This has been going on for 30 years and has not happened. The United States' overwhelming power remains. You can see it. China is indeed developing but the other part of the story is that US hegemony is in fact overwhelming.Iran can do nothing with a nuclear weapon. If Iran even begin to prepare to mount a weapon on a missile, the country would be destroyed. The US and Israel are just almost salivating with gleam hoping for that opportunity. and that would allow the US to carry out a major attack against Iran If it began to even think about using nuclear weapons so that if they're thinking rationally in planning circles They will not be planning to develop a nuclear weapon. It's not a deterrent for anything.Imposing nuclear weapons free zone in the region with extensive inspections is the only way we have to for peace in the Middle East.
Any try to for changing the situation should be in solidarity with the secular democratic forces in Iran that are calling for women's rights and human rights. Or the same ones that are trying to do the same under even harsher conditions in Saudi Arabia and the same ones in the US and in Western Europe are trying to reverse the move towards more autocratic systems with a high concentration of wealth and precarious existence for everyone else. We're all working together. These are the elements of the global order that have to work together in solidarity to overcome the enormous crises that humanity faces in many dimensions.

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