Six years of freedom from cultism!

by

and who shall stand
Amid the rocking earthquake steadfast still
But Laon? on high Freedom’s desert land
A tower whose marble walls the leaguèd storms withstand!

-Percy Bysshe Shelley, ‘The Revolt of Islam’, Canto Second, Verse 14

On the sixth anniversary of my desertion of the International Marxist Tendency (now known as the Revolutionary Communist International), I feel, more than ever, a kinship with all those fighting to free themselves of the yoke of totalitarianism. Most recently, the people of Iran have been struggling to throw off the chains of a monstrous theocracy that has been beating, butchering and exploiting them for the last half a century, has killed thousands of Iranians, Jews and Westerners, spread terrorism throughout the world, and been a menace to civilisation. Finally, this vile and wretched regime is getting its just deserts as big, beautiful bombs of liberation fall all over the country of Iran and take out criminal regime personnel, most noticeably killing the butcher-in-chief, Ali Khamenei (may his name be erased).

I have been listening a lot to a beautiful duet from Verdi’s Don Carlos, in which Carlos and Rodrigo pledge their brotherhood in the fight against the tyranny of King Philip. It is a wonderful musical moment which is the perfect bit of artistic inspiration as all freedom-loving people hope for the Iranian people to throw off the yoke of totalitarianism:

And as it is International Woman’s Day, what better way to mark the occasion than quote some fine passages of Shelley celebrating the emancipation of women – words to bear in mind as women of Iran fight for their freedom.

        XLIII
 `Can man be free if woman be a slave?
 Chain one who lives, and breathes this boundless air,
 To the corruption of a closèd grave!
 Can they, whose mates are beasts condemned to bear
 Scorn heavier far than toil or anguish, dare
 To trample their oppressors? In their home,
 Among their babes, thou knowest a curse would wear
 The shape of woman--hoary Crime would come

Behind, and Fraud rebuild Religion’s tottering dome.

-Canto Second, Verse 43

          XIV
'"Man seeks for gold in mines that he may weave
 A lasting chain for his own slavery;
 In fear and restless care that he may live
 He toils for others who must ever be
 The joyless thralls of like captivity;
 He murders, for his chiefs delight in ruin;
 He builds the altar that its idol's fee
 May be his very blood; he is pursuing--

Oh, blind and willing wretch!–his own obscure undoing.

             XV
'"Woman!--she is his slave, she has become
 A thing I weep to speak--the child of scorn,
 The outcast of a desolated home;
 Falsehood, and fear, and toil, like waves have worn
 Channels upon her cheek, which smiles adorn
 As calm decks the false Ocean:--well ye know
 What Woman is, for none of Woman born
 Can choose but drain the bitter dregs of woe,

Which ever from the oppressed to the oppressors flow.

Canto Eight, Verses 14-15

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