Sanctions as imperialist economic warfare

This is a free preview of the episode "Iran Pt. 2: The Impacts of Economic Strangulation w/ Elina Xenophontos." You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast

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In Part 2 of our ongoing series on Iran, Elina Xenophontos joins us to discuss the history and impacts of sanctions on Iran—including the impacts on the current crisis in the country. Elina Xenophontos is an international law and economic globalisation specialist. She produces much of her own material on her Substack and is also featured regularly on the Colonial Outcasts podcast.

Our conversation begins with a very deep dive into the history of the sanctions imposed on Iran from the 1979 Islamic Revolution to the present, providing a detailed understanding of exactly how the sanctions have impacted the Islamic Republic's economic and political spheres for the past half decade. We then situate the unrest in Iran in the context of the sanctions, urging those in the West to understand what's happening in Iran from a dialectical and historical materialist analysis which understands Iranian agency and grievances as a direct result of imperialist strangulation. Elina then gives us a 101 on the Islamic Republic's internal political forces and factions, outlining their tensions, dynamics, and ideological orientations. We then discuss Iran's political economy, discussing how the sanctions have shaped Iran's class dynamics and its society more broadly and how the sanctions are a barrier to working class organization and revolution in Iran because they engender a rentier economy not rooted in production but in survival and perpetual crisis.

Further resources:

• Elina Xenophontos on Substack
• Iran's Indigenous Labor Movement and Working Class Sovereignty
• The harsh effects of sanctions on Iranian health," by Payman Salamatia & Claudia Chaufanb (The Lancet)

Related episodes:

• Listen to our ongoing series on Iran
• Listen to our ongoing series on Venezuela
• Listen to our ongoing series on China
• Listen to our ongoing series on Mexico
• US Labor & Imperialism Pt. 1: the War Against Communism w/ Jeff Schuhrke

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