No binary between freedom and resistance
JVL Introduction
Martin Shaw writes that:
“An Open Letter to Iranian political prisoners by a group of mainly US-based intellectuals—including Angela Davis, Rashid Khalidi and Judith Butler—has provoked widespread criticism, even denunciation.”
At stake is what solidarity is all about and who it is with. Clearly many opponents of the US war against Iran have come to identify with the Islamic Republic itself.
In opposition to this, the letter argues that you can and should denounce both the US-Israeli aggression unconditionally and, at the same time, the Iranian regime’s repressive policies, rejecting “the false binary of imperialism and hollow anti-imperialism”.
Or, as Shaw puts it, “genuine solidarity must be directed towards the people rather than the Islamic Republic”.
This article was originally published by Martin Shaw's Substack on Mon 24 Aug 2026. Read the original here.
No binary between freedom and resistance
Weaknesses in the controversial Open Letter to Iranian political prisoners do not negate the validity of its premise that we can oppose the regime and the war at the same time.
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Yes it is important to say that we give solidarity to the Iranian regime against Trump and the imperialists and we give solidarity and support to the people against the regime.
The imperialists care nothing about the iranian people and their protestations to the contrary are completely hollow. We must not fall into the trap of supporting Iran against imperialism and thereby giving uncritical support to the regime.
Irrespective of the validity or not of the content of their letter, I find it unforgivable that they chose this moment in time when Iran is the only country standing up – successfully – against the far greater evil of the US and its cohorts. I agree with Vijay Prashad when he says “I feel that this letter at this time plays a politically damaging role”, playing into the hands of Trump’s supporters just when Iran has military weakened the USA.
If UK and US had not conspired to oust the thoroughly secular president Mossadeq in 1953, the outcome may have been quite different.
This is the kind of drivel that condemns progressive forces to eternal defeat. Using terms like ‘the evil Iranian regime’ plays into the hands of Imperialism. Look at the timing! We may not like what the Iranian regime does BUT that is for them to resolve. Now we must give them solidarity and support against the much greater ‘evil’. The major fight in the world is against US Imperialism. To forget that is suicidal. What an earth is Angela Davis doing being associated with this tosh!
We don’t want to fall into the trap Western Communists fell into from the 1930s onwards. That is ignoring or denying the evils of Stalinism because it was felt that this would weaken opposition to the greater evil of capitalism. George Orwell too was accused of playing into the hands of the west for the very same reasons Vijay Prajad cites. However it seems at the time, In the longterm, being truthful and consistent serves the aims of socialism best.
I have been sharing this piece from the start, and always find Martin Shaw’s substack valuable for its judgements. It’s unconscionable that he has been blanked by so much of the heritage media. But of course, in that, he joins many other respected experts on genocide.
A decent ripose to this a-historical nonsense here. The attack on Iran MUST be opposed. Those who signed this letter have massively discredited themselves. I will never take them seriously again.
https://scheerpost.com/2026/08/29/guardian-letter-the-anti-imperialist-scholars-collective-responds/