The Week to 25th January 2026
Hands Off Iran
Last summer, we called an emergency demo in support of Iran, which was well supported by anti-imperialists including Clare Daly and Mick Wallace, who spoke clearly about the Zionist expansionist project in the Levant to Iran.
However, much of the liberal left ignored the protest, and Israel’s attack on Iran.
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Criticism of Iran rests on a politics of purity that refuses to grapple with the real contradictions of the global order. No state in the Global South that asserts national sovereignty under conditions of imperial pressure can be free of contradictions, whether political, social, or economic. To denounce such states as irredeemably illegitimate from an abstract moral high ground is not a radical position, but a privileged one. It is an attempt to stand outside history rather than within it. These critiques systematically erase the central role of imperialism: sanctions, hybrid warfare, military encirclement, and ideological demonisation designed to suffocate any government that resists incorporation into the Western-led order.
As we know, this is not a new problem. Mao Zedong addressed it in On Contradiction (1937), where he wrote that “the law of contradiction in things, that is, the law of the unity of opposites, is the fundamental law of materialist dialectics.” Mao insisted that revolutionaries must identify the principal contradiction shaping a given historical moment, rather than dissolving struggle into moral abstraction
Today, for countries like Iran, the principal contradiction is imperialist domination versus national sovereignty. To ignore this, and instead fixate on secondary contradictions as a pretext for political disengagement or alignment with imperial and Zionist narratives, is to abandon materialist analysis altogether. Genuine internationalism does not mean endorsing every policy of a targeted state; it means understanding history as a process shaped by struggle, contradiction and power, and refusing first and foremost to side, even indirectly, with the forces of imperial coercion.
With salute Iran for its steadfast commitment to resisting Zionism, a threat to Palestine and the stability of West Asia, and indeed us all.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DTpdVdwDD_n/?igsh=OHMyd2I1cnMya3Vu
USA’s regime-change operation in Iran
What is its true content? How should we understand those on the self-identifying ‘left’ who are voicing support for allegedly ‘peaceful, pro-democracy protestors’ and denouncing ‘regime violence’?
Our Experience of Break the Academic Chains of Zionism Encampment at UCD
The above recording is an important historical document which records testimonies and insights from the main, but certainly not ALL participants in the historic Break the Academic Chains of Zionism Encampment.
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Many thanks to all who supported the encampment. Resources acquired to sustain the encampment were all confiscated last week including a laptop, several chargers, drills, timber, banners, flags, paint. It might not appear to be a big deal, and these can of course be replaced, but the purchasing and replenishing of flags, leaflets, bedding supplies, insulation and OSB and other materials including work tools and equipment could not have happened without generous donations made to the encampment. We will attempt to retrieve as much as possible of course, but as the video showed, much of what was built was deliberately destroyed by the removals team.
Again, it must be said that even though some people were not there every day, their contribution was nonetheless very important. Take John Hurley, for example. The only councillor to show up, and actually stay overnight too. There are too many to mention, but the Israel Out Of Horizon demo was also very significant and thanks to tireless people like Michelle that event would not have happened, bringing together so many other important groups before Xmas.
Then there were those who partook in the rolling 24 hour fast. Quietly. Humbly. And with such dignity. Another woman used to come by and wash the duvets and sleeping bags, never looking for glory or any attention.
The quiet, unassuming support of people without any personal agenda other than the cause is what keeps any movement going. Struggle is not glamorous. It is not about individuals. It is about putting cause before the personal, always.
There is so much more to write and record. And this will be part of the next phase. Please remember that 2 brave students also face disciplinary hearing, hanging over them since before Xmas.
We welcome written pieces from anyone who played a role in the encampment, for submission. Or if anyone would like to do a quick interview with us about a favourite memory of the encampment, please get in touch. Long live the people’s university! Long live Leila Khaled University!
https://villagemagazine.ie/ucd-squashes-gaza-protest-encampment-using-dubious-methods/
Venezuela
Testimony of a surviving Cuban fighter who defended President Maduro.
Michael Parenti
Marxist historian and political scientist Michael Parenti has passed away at the age of 92.
He devoted his life to dissenting from the mainstream, challenging power and institutions, exposing contradictions, and ripping the mask off of propaganda.
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The system doesn’t just manufacture consent. It also manufactures dissent and decides which dissidents you’re allowed to hear.
Michael Parenti published “Inventing Reality” in 1986. Chomsky’s “Manufacturing Consent” came out in 1988.
Chomsky cited Parenti exactly once, for an article, not the book that preceded his own on the same subject.
Same thesis: media serves power. But the books are not the same.
On “conspiracy”: Chomsky dismisses structural analysis that names actors as “conspiracy theorism.” Parenti: “The alternative to a conspiracy theory is an innocence theory… the CIA is by definition a conspiracy.”
Chomsky wanted you to protest… abstractly. Never name the names.
Right-wing anticommunism is obvious. But they needed someone to attack socialism from the left, to gut-punch communism from inside the tent. Enter Chomsky.
Chomsky equates Stalin with Goebbels, called Leninism “counterrevolution.”
Parenti documented the real gains: full employment, free healthcare, free education, free housing.
He wrote about how the existence of the USSR forced concessions in the capitalist countries: social programs, worker rights, formal decolonization.
Capital had to compete with an alternative Chomsky made sure you wouldn’t defend.
On empire: Chomsky framed US foreign policy as blunders and mistakes. Parenti said “the Iraq war has not been a mistake”, it succeeded for the class it serves. Your taxes, your children’s lives. Their profits, their reconstruction contracts. Externalized costs, privatized gains.
On intervention: Chomsky supported the NATO no-fly zone over Libya. Parenti opposed it, listed what Libyans would never see again after “liberation.”
On elections: Chomsky did the “lesser evil” dance every four years, vote Democrat in swing states. Parenti broke with Bernie Sanders over the bombing of Yugoslavia.
Chomsky got MIT, The Guardian, documentaries, Jacobin. Parenti barely got lecture halls and public access TV.
Parenti was the one they didn’t want you listening to, so they put Chomsky in front of you.