25.04.2007

'Don't criticise Iranian regime'

At the April 19 activists' meeting of Campaign Iran, our call for principled internationalism was met with SWP-backed nationalist accusations of displaying an "imperial and colonial" viewpoint, which was "catastrophic for the people of Iran". Tina Becker reports

This was the first members’ meeting in many months - in fact, it was the first one that I as a member of Action Iran had been invited to since June 2006. In October 2006, Action Iran (led by the Socialist Workers Party), Iran Solidarity and the Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (Casmii) merged to form a single organisation, called Campaign Iran. Confusingly, this campaign in turn is affiliated to the international Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (Casmii).

Although the whole merging process was carried through without any input from the membership, I cannot imagine that there was much trouble bringing the campaigns together. All three are united in their desire to concentrate solely on attacking imperialism’s war plans in the region. Following on from that position, Campaign Iran too refuses to voice any criticism of the theocratic regime.

Before the meeting, which was attended by about 20, mostly Iranian, people, we distributed leaflets put out by the Hands Off the People of Iran campaign (Hopi). This prompted Abbas Edalat, founder of Casmii UK, to spend much of his 20-minute introduction criticising Hopi’s policy of fighting against both the war plans of the imperialists and the oppressive regime in Iran. In the process, he exposed a frightening level of identification with the theocratic state.

He began by telling us about Iran’s right to develop its nuclear programme. There was “no evidence” that Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was planning to develop nuclear weapons (just as there is apparently “no evidence” that the Iranian regime supports ‘insurgents’ in Iraq). You see, “this islamic nation sees it as its right” to develop its nuclear programme and “this islamic nation is not going to back down, because we see this as a just struggle”.

Abbas thought it was “catastrophic” for any organisation to criticise the Iranian regime - this would only play into the hands of George W Bush. He attacked Hopi for displaying an “imperial, colonial mentality”, since it is only the peoples of Iran themselves who are allowed to criticise the regime, it seems. Exiled Iranians too should keep their mouths shut. He told the meeting that a group of recently released women protesters had demanded that “people outside Iran should not call for the overthrow of the regime”.

Naturally, we challenged him about this and told the meeting about the mass protests of teachers, students and trade unionists, who had explicitly welcomed the support from democrats outside the country. We conveyed the many greetings Hopi has received from inside Iran and how empowered they felt by people outside their country solidarising with their struggle.

Since then we have received a letter from students of Babolsar University in Teheran who are striking for the release of some of their fellow students and who are explicitly arguing for people from outside Iran to sign their online petition in order to show their solidarity. In this petition the students also make clear their opposition to the war: “Arrests continue and happen every day. As though this was not enough, we are faced with poverty, lack of rights and inflation resulting from economic sanctions. Life is harder than any other time and people are being suffocated. The nightmare of possible war has left people with fear and lack of security and has given opportunity to the government to impose yet more restrictions on people” (www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/petition-sign.cgi?jenifer).

Abbas Edalat, however, would have none of it. He told the meeting that today there “are no forces in Iran who are fighting against both the threat of an imperialist invasion and the regime”. He implied that all of those tens of thousands of teachers, students, women and workers who have been on strike and demonstrating in their universities were actively working - or at least hoping - for a US invasion to topple the regime.

Another speaker suggested we should “go to Iran and find out what it’s really like over there”, as we had obviously been fed with “falsified newspaper reports” and misleading information. Jubin Motamed, a member of the Casmii editorial board, went one step further. He tried to lecture us about the “very good union laws” in Iran, which make “working conditions in many respects better than those in the UK”. Many of the students who were expelled from university after they staged protests in December 2006 were simply “punished for their non-attendance”, not for their political viewpoints. And most of them had been egged on or were financed by the CIA anyway.

The chair of the meeting went on to explain the “many achievements” of Campaign Iran, which focused mainly on its complaint to the Press Complaints Committee against The Daily Telegraph for publishing an “unfounded” article, which stated that the Iranian regime was sponsoring the Taliban. A member of the audience explained that there are “many Iranians here - some for, some against the regime - who are prepared to put their money forward to sue such publications. We need to tap into that”. Much of the meeting therefore focused on setting up a ‘media monitoring group’ that can keep track of such articles.

To our knowledge, none of those present at the meeting were members of the SWP (at least nobody identified themselves as such). But, unfortunately, the SWP comrades have displayed an almost identical political viewpoint. A recent issue of Socialist Worker explained that “millions of ordinary people in Iran are determined to resist any new attempts by the US and Britain to undermine the Iranian government. The anti-war movement around the world must stand by them” (April 7).

That presumably means no support to the thousands of teachers and other workers who will again be protesting against privatisations and deteriorating working conditions on May 1 on the streets of Teheran - and will thereby “undermine” the Iranian government.

But clearly, there are tensions even within the SWP. The Weekly Worker reported how in an article on the recent strikes, Naz Massoumi (previously billed as a supporter of Action Iran and presumably a member of the SWP) called on “the anti-war movement in the west” to “play a key role in offering solidarity to the Iranian people, while resisting any attempt by rightwingers to use their struggles to justify a murderous military attack on the country” (Socialist Worker March 24).

No wonder there are tensions. This struggle goes right to the heart of what our fight for socialism means. By suspending their solidarity with those fighting the ‘little criminal’, comrades in the SWP are effectively giving up on an independent working class position. They are effectively saying that the fight for socialism and democracy is not relevant for today.

We say, the opposite is true. Hopi’s solidarity is real internationalism: it is supporting our brothers and sisters in their struggle against the theocracy in Iran, while at the same time opposing the imperialist plans of our own government.

Our suggestion to debate these issues properly with some Iranian members of Hopi was welcomed by the meeting - but we have yet to receive a reply from Casmii to our proposal.

Hands Off The People of Iran
News and meetings

Of course, in the UK, Hands Off the People of Iran is not the first campaign to oppose war against Iran, nor is it the only one acting in solidarity with the struggles of the long-suffering peoples of Iran against the theocratic regime. However, it is the only one stressing that these two aspects (against war, against the regime) must be inseparable parts of a single campaign.

New supporters include Ken Loach, comedian Mark Steel, Peggy Seeger (folk singer and songwriter), actor Tam Dean Burn, Rosemary Byrne (co-convenor of Solidarity) and the American Communist League. The Green Party in Britain has also signed up as an organization.

London Tuesday May 1, 5pm, The Harp, 47 Chandos Place, London WC2. Speakers include Torab Saleth (Workers Left Unity Iran). To be followed by a brief organising meeting.

Leeds Friday May 4, 1pm, room H301, School of Cultural Studies, Civic Campus, Metropolitan University.

Calderdale Friday May 11, 7pm, Halifax Central Library, Calderdale. Speakers: Linda Riordan MP (Halifax), Mehdi Kia (Hopi).

Cardiff Saturday May 12, 12noon, part of Communist University Wales, Holiday Inn Hotel, Cardiff. Speaker: Azar Sheibani (Hopi).

Irish launch

Cork Wednesday May 9, 7.30pm, Victoria Hotel, Patrick Street. Main speaker: Yassamine Mather (Hopi).

Dublin Thursday May 10, 7.30pm, Teachers Club, 36 Parnell Square.

Belfast Friday May 11, 7.30pm, Queens University, Belfast.