In 1979, the Iranian communist party, Tudeh, actively supported Khomeini's Islamist revolution, convinced that it could capitalize on it once the Shah was overthrown. Tolerated for a few years for its showcase value to the West, the communist party was banned in February 1983 and its leaders were arrested; a significant portion of its militants are reported by Amnesty International to be among the thousands of leftist prisoners executed in absolute secrecy during the prison purges of the summer of 1988, one of the darkest and least known episodes of the 20th century in Iran.
The circumstantial ally did not survive its usefulness. This is not an Iranian anecdote, an isolated case; it is a recurring mechanism that Lenin himself was aware of and that Stalin frequently used to get rid of those "friends" who became a bit too bothersome.
For progressives and other revolutionaries, if your opinions no longer suit them, they treat you as an enemy to be eliminated, regardless of the help you may have provided in the past.
The alliance as a mere instrument
The revolutionary logic does not establish alliances based on shared conviction, but rather on calculation, because an ally is worth what they contribute, as long as they contribute. It is the same instrumental relationship that this tradition maintains with the truth. For this side, a fact only has value if it serves the cause, and an alliance only has value if it serves to conquer and maintain power.
In France, the controversy sparked in February 2021 by Minister Frédérique Vidal, who called for an investigation by the CNRS into Islamo-leftism in universities, brought to light what several figures from the left have been denouncing for years, namely, electoral alliances woven by certain leftist currents with community intermediaries close to political Islam, in a purely tactical logic.
Vidal's statements provoked a statement signed by over a hundred academics denouncing a witch hunt, proof that the topic remains explosive in the French debate. Parties like La France Insoumise, from the far left, rely on this community vote to grow and believe that this way they will reach power. Thus, discussing this is a bit complex.
