President Ahmadinejad's speech at Columbia University This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.
Maoist Internationalist Movement

President Ahmadinejad's speech at Columbia University

October 11 2007

On questions of the principal contradiction, it is a matter of grasping what is the main thing and then subordinating the rest. In the contradiction between the oppressed nations and the imperialists, sometimes sacrifices are necessary on secondary contradictions in order to prevail on others.

Sometimes as communists we are asked what can you do that is better in the Iran situation for instance. It's a very tough question, because militants of many years came to power with a correct attack on Great Satan, U.$. imperialism. So how can we do better than that, when the people did not support Maoism.

The answer is we can't do better than that right now. It's important to leave Ahmadinejad there and not go for "regime change" or ideas that would amount to that. Then we continue to work for better things on the side, slowly, not with help from Uncle $am. We don't have a huge mass of Maoists about to seize power in Iran, but we continue to have our obligation on the principal contradiction; even though, we are not in power in Iran and can't make things perfect. We will have to overlook lesser points, some things we would do differently in Iran if we were in charge in Iran's parliament. As it is, the Maoists cannot even really show up there. If we were in Iran, we would be obliged to negotiate continuously to fulfill our obligations against U.$. imperialism, even though the theocrats would not let us speak in Parliament.

Likewise, in the Burma situation, John McCain has called the rulers there "thugs."(1) And so in such a situation, where things are not perfect, nonetheless, MIM would like to prevent U.$. intervention as part of our duty on the principal contradiction. If the rulers in Myanmar were not "thugs" and everything were already perfect, we would not have to discuss the "principal contradiction."

So we must always push on the principal contradiction to prevail now at this moment, and into the future. If all people of peaceful intentions do not work toward this end by pushing forward on the principal contradiction, the result is ever-intensifying war.

Bollinger's remarks against Iran's president at Columbia University were philistine. Nonetheless, if that is what it took to get Iran's president a chance to speak there, then so be it. That would be another example of grasping the principal contradiction. Sometimes it's a tough question about how to best continue to prevail on the principal contradiction. The campus paper pointed out some of the ramifications of Bollinger's speech: "Some students also claimed that Bollinger's remarks created a politically charged and unsafe atmosphere that they say contributed to the racist and Islamophobic graffiti discovered in a Scool of International and Public Affairs restroom soon after Ahmadinejad’s appearance."(2) Mitt Romney was saying he would not have provided police protection for the Iranian president. We can imagine in that hostile situation, we would be wrong to egg on Ahmadinejad to speak.

Columbia University is a private institution of great wealth. There is a joke about whether he received an honorarium to speak as is customary in speeches that draw big audiences for a college.(3) Of course as a duty to his country, Ahmadinejad should also bear the insult of not having an honorarium if that is what it takes to get maybe a few column-inches of coverage in the warmongering imperialist media.

We apologize to President Ahmadinejad and the oppressed people of Iran for not addressing his huge speech at Columbia University sooner.(4) He went into the hornest's nest of Great Satan and came out on top.

Notes:
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/us/politics/07mccain.html?ref=politics
2. http://www.columbiaspectator.com/?q=node/27347
3. http://www.redstate.com/blogs/capn_hidalgo_slashface/2007/sep/24/groundhog_day_at_columbia_university
4. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/24/AR2007092401042.html