BACKGROUND: Bob Avakian on the global clash between imperialism and Islamic fundamentalism

Some of us working on the Campaign have been inspired by the ground-breaking analysis of the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian on the global clash between imperialism and Islamic fundamentalism.  We find this analysis to be an accurate framework to understand the global dynamics and symbiotic relations between these two contending oppressive powers.  We wanted to share this with IEC supporters and activists, and others fighting on behalf of Iran’s political prisoners even as it has bigger applicability in our current world (e.g. US vs Afghanistan, Russia vs Chechnya, etc).  

In BAsics – from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian (1:28), he writes,

What we see in contention here with Jihad on the one hand and McWorld/McCrusade [increasingly globalized western imperialism] on the other hand, are historically outmoded strata among colonized and oppressed humanity up against historically outmoded ruling strata of the imperialist system. These two reactionary poles reinforce each other, even while opposing each other. If you side with either of these "outmodeds," you end up strengthening both.

While this is a very important formulation and is crucial to understanding much of the dynamics driving things in the world in this period, at the same time we do have to be clear about which of these "historically outmodeds" has done the greater damage and poses the greater threat to humanity: It is the historically outmoded ruling strata of the imperialist system, and in particular the U.S. imperialists.

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