Iran on the Brink: Rising Workers and Threats of War (Paperback)

by Andreas Malm (Author), Shora Esmailian (Author)
Key Phrases: millionaire mullahs, comprador bourgeoisie, peak oil, Middle East, Ayatollah Khomeini, May Day (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

-- An insider's account of Iran's people, its politics, and the threat of invasion --

This is the first book to explore the changes taking in place in Iran from the ground up. While the world keeps its eyes riveted on Iran's nuclear programme, the Islam

Book Description

-- An insider's account of Iran's people, its politics, and the threat of invasion -- This is the first book to explore the changes taking in place in Iran from the ground up. While the world keeps its eyes riveted on Iran's nuclear programme, the Islam

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Pluto Press (February 20, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 074532603X
• ISBN-13: 978-0745326030
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #270,161 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Why the world focuses on Iran , February 8, 2008

By	Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract.com" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Andreas Malm and Shora Esmailian provide a thorough if leftist history of the fall of the Shah of Iran and the rise of the ayatollahs. Their political perspective weights this complex story as they delve into the political parties, conflicts, motives and factional disputes that brought the ayatollahs to power. Today, Iran has a very complicated political environment as Communist and U.S. ideologies confront radical Islam. The authors reach a few odd conclusions, fall into hackneyed rhetoric about the bourgeoisie, and present very tainted views of Israel, though, if you must quote Ahmadinejad to meet your book's purpose, it's hard to avoid rhetoric straight from the source's mouth. The authors know Iran and analyze its politics in depth. They provide background on the leftist labor parties, their interactions with Islamic radicals, and Iran's controversial nuclear and oil policies. getAbstract thinks that those who read this with an awareness of its filters will find a telling, alternative perspective on a dangerous problem.

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Leftoid Account of Important Matters, July 29, 2008

By	Jazz It Up Baby - See all my reviews

As Patrick Clawson stated in the Middle East Quarterly, the dramatic polarization of American politics has led leftist critics of the Bush administration to assume that Iran's Islamic Republic cannot be all that bad if President George W. Bush describes it as part of an "axis of evil." Feeding this attitude are suspicions that the crisis over Iran's nuclear program is a tawdry rehash of the dubious intelligence about weapons of mass destruction that helped instigate the Iraq war, or the belief that displaying any concern for the Iranian people plays into the hands of Bush administration warmongers. This narrative leaves little room for concern about what is happening to the people of Iran--even the left-wing Iranian workers' movements that should be natural objects of leftist sympathy.

As reporters for the Swedish left-wing weekly Arbetaren (The worker), Malm and Esmailian approach Iran from a position of traditional left-wing concern about workers, human rights, and despotism. They spent much of 2004 traveling around Iran, meeting with those facing the growing repression to which the reform movement was subjected as it was being shut down. Their focus is on ordinary Iranian workers, not on the Westernized intellectuals who usually win foreigners' attention. Malm and Esmailian provide graphic accounts of those workers' suffering under the cruel tyranny of the Islamic Republic and of the vicious repression to which they are subject.

Make no mistake: This book is situated firmly in the camp of the hard Left, which sees Israel's evil hand everywhere and cannot imagine Bush ever doing anything good. Malm and Esmailian's discussion of nuclear issues is a mélange of conspiracy theories, ill-informed speculation, and plain error. Iran on the Brink can hardly be recommended as a guide to Iran and the challenges it poses to the region and to world peace. That said, it is nice to see some leftists who are willing to highlight the Islamic Republic's brutal treatment of the poor people of Iran.

Malm and Esmailian spend a great deal of time on Iranian history, primarily to highlight the evils inflicted on the country by Western imperialism--disregarding that the development of the country's oil resources is what allowed Iran to modernize under the shah. However, their historical account also brings out in detail what the Islamic Republic works so hard to suppress--namely, that the 1978-79 anti-shah revolution was a broad social movement that was hijacked by Islamists who were distinctly in the minority among the revolutionaries.