24.10.2007

Jack Conrad replies

Andrew Murray tries his best to create a thick smokescreen to hide the fact that the Stop the War Coalition is being refashioned. It is all sadly transparent, however. His wing of the Morning Star's Communist Party of Britain and crucially the John Rees-Lindsey German leadership of the Socialist Workers Party want to silence, want to close down, want to illegitimate leftwing criticisms of the Iranian theocracy inside the STWC.

The bar on Hopi and CS clearly violates the spirit of the STWC's aims: "Supporters of the coalition, whether organisations or individuals, will of course be free to develop their own analyses and organise their own actions"ï¿½ (www.stopwar.org.uk). For the STWC officers that would no longer appear to be the case "ï¿½ at least when it comes to analyses and actions directed against the Tehran regime.

Hopi has been targeted not because it "clouds"ï¿½ anything. On the contrary Hopi is unmistakably clear. "No to imperialist war!"ï¿½ reads the first demand of its founding statement. Hopi also uncompromisingly calls for the "immediate and unconditional withdrawal of US-UK troops from the Gulf region!"ï¿½

Clearly, the main danger, the prime driving force towards war in the world today is United States imperialism. British imperialism is merely a faithful ally. A junior partner. The so-called 'war on terror' is a cynical cover for ramping up arms spending, extending US power in the Middle East and engendering popular fear. Oil is a side issue. Declining US capitalism needs a Manichean enemy.

A 'pre-emptive' strike by Israel cannot be ruled out. The US has long used Israel as a regional policeman. Hence one of the key demands of Hopi is "opposition to Israeli expansionism and aggression!"ï¿½ (www.hopoi.org/main.html). A US-orchestrated 'colour' revolution is another possibility.

Hopi opposes US imperialism and all its plans in Iran. Including UN sanctions. Yet comrade Murray tries to associate Hopi, Communist Students and the CPGB with pro-war journalists like David Aaronovitch and pro-war websites such as Harry's Place. Frankly, this is not only dishonest and morally repugnant. It shows that comrade Murray is determined to throw filth at us in the hope that something will stick. The same goes for the barrel-scrapingly silly charge that the CPGB did not advertise or support the October 8 STWC demonstration. It did. The demonstration was also reported - albeit briefly (see Weekly Worker October 11).

Nor did the CPGB support the witch-hunt of George Galloway in 2003. An outright lie. The Weekly Worker did carry a back-page piece by Dave Osler, a non-aligned leftwing journalist and at the time a member of the Socialist Alliance. His article is the be-all and end-all of the 'evidence' that comrade Murray can cite in his vain attempt to prosecute the CPGB. Yes, comrade Osler criticised Galloway for his past association with Saddam Hussein, etc. But he pointedly recalled the 1921 'Zinoviev letter' and explicitly called for Galloway to be given the "benefit of the doubt"ï¿½ (April 24 2003).

What of the CPGB refusing to call for a general election vote for Jeremy Corbyn? That at least is true. Why did the CPGB take that seemingly perverse position? Comrade Murray does not elaborate. A significant silence. Although the STWC issued no advice about how to vote in 2005, the CPGB did. Voters were urged to back working class candidates who called for the "immediate and unconditional withdrawal of US-UK forces from Iraq"ï¿½. Unfortunately, despite our efforts, and much to our disappointment, comrade Corbyn felt unable to take such an elementary stand. Others did. Eg, John McDonnell.

Opposing US imperialism does not mean that the enemy of our enemy is our friend. We must go beyond such crude thinking because life itself is complex. The US-UK invasion of Iraq greatly increased the regional influence of Iran's rulers - it led to the election of the pro-Iranian shia government currently in power in Baghdad. Any support, even implicit, coming from the British anti-war movement for the Tehran regime therefore paradoxically gives support for the occupation government in Iraq.

One of the most effective propaganda weapons the US has is the ideological beliefs, endemic corruption and oppressive policies of the theocratic regime in Tehran. In all probability Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is bent on equipping Iran with nuclear weapons. Certainly the theocracy is using the international outcry against Iran's nuclear programme to divert popular attention away from growing socio-economic contradictions.

Hopi sees no reason to hold back on telling the truth about the theocracy, no reason to suspend our solidarity with Iran's workers, students, women and national minorities, no reason to turn the anti-war movement into a platform for tame apologists. To do so directly plays into the hands of the warmongers and thereby undermines, diverts and weakens the anti-war movement. To fight the warmongers and strengthen the anti-war movement Hopi supports "all working class and progressive struggles in Iran against poverty and repression!"ï¿½

What of national self-determination? Comrade Murray makes great play of supporting what should be a negative slogan. Where there is a national problem, where there is colonial oppression, it is quite correct to raise this slogan. On the other hand, if different peoples are happily living alongside each other, mixing and merging, then this slogan becomes unnecessary. To raise it under those circumstances would be absurd and reactionary. National self-determination, however, does not mean that it is wrong to take sides and support the forces of the working class and socialism. Comrade Murray seems be equating this with outside interference. We call it proletarian internationalism.

Of course, the peoples of Iran must be able to determine their own future. But for such a right to be real, and not fake, the population has to have the wide space to openly organise, freedom to speak without fear, the ability to elect whomsoever they wish and genuine control over the commanding heights of the economy. Hence the necessity of democracy and political power passing from the capitalist mullahs and into the hands of the working class.

Comrade Murray deliberately blurs together Hopi and the CPGB. However, the two organisations ought to be separated. They are hardly one and the same thing. Yes, CPGBers helped initiate Hopi. They did so in cooperation with Iranian comrades exiled in Britain. Hopi is, though, not "controlled"ï¿½ by the CPGB. Nor for that matter is it "controlled"ï¿½ by Workers Left Unity or Rahe Kargar.

Hopi has won a very impressive range of supporters in politics, in the arts and in academia. Eg, John McDonnell, Ken Loach, Mark Steel, John Pilger, Caroline Lucas, Tommy Sheridan, Rosemary Byrne, Dick Gaughan, Lisa Goldman, Michael Mansfield, Tom Robinson, Noam Chomsky, Manali Desai, Rumy Hasan, Hillel Ticktin, Cliff Slaughter, Hilary Rose and Teresa Hayter. December 8 will see Hopi's first national conference. Hopi will move from being an ad hoc campaign to a properly constituted organisation. Control will be exercised by the membership through an elected and recallable committee.

Comrade Murray says our intention is to replace the STWC. Simply not the case. Hopi, as its name suggests, is primarily concerned with Iran. "We recognise that there is an urgent need to establish a principled solidarity campaign with the people of Iran. The contradictions between the interests of the neo-conservatives in power in the USA and the defenders of the rule of capital in the islamic republic have entered a dangerous new phase"ï¿½ (Hopi founding statement).

However, if comrade Murray and the other officers were being consistent they would be proposing that the CPGB be expelled from the STWC (an affiliate since its foundation). After all, comrade Murray says the CPGB does nothing to build and actually opposes the STWC.

In fact, the CPGB opposes the existing leadership and strategy of the STWC. Hardly the same thing. Not surprisingly comrade Murray and his Socialist Workers Party allies do not like our criticisms. He defensively, childishly, accuses us of being "abusive"ï¿½ and complains we did not back him up when he came under sustained media attack in 2003. Instead of having these argument out politically, Murray and his close comrades resort to organisational methods such as bans.

The CPGB opposes all laws which attempt to, or even tend to, restrict political organisations or censor their views. Comrade Murray and his CPB co-thinkers being no exception. However, we shall use every opportunity, every avenue, to tell the truth, including when necessary about him and his politics.

Comrade Murray is a longstanding Stalinite. He was a supporter of the Straight Left faction in the 'official' CPGB. That is the truth. It celebrated the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin as a shining example of a genuine socialist society. Today comrade Murray does exactly the same with Cuba, Vietnam, North Korea "ï¿½ and China? He thought it obligatory for communists to defend the Soviet Union and virtually everything its regime did. In the post-USSR world he extends that approach to cover 'anti-imperialist' regimes such as Iran. That is the truth.

Such nonsense brings discredit to Marxism because it is done under the name of Marxism. Comrade Murray's politics are anti-democratic and anti-socialist; they are the politics of the labour bureaucracy, not Marxism and working class self-liberation. That does not mean that we cannot work with comrade Murray and his like. However, any principled alliance must go hand in hand with criticism.

What of the SWP? Under Rees and German the SWP has embraced the same popular frontist - ie, cross-class - politics as the CPB. The crisis-wracked Respect is the main organisational form this takes at the moment. From this flows the Rees-German attitude towards Tehran. Citing an anti-imperialism eerily reminiscent of the CPB's, the SWP lines up internationally against the working class.

Comrade Murray damns us for playing a "disruptive role "ï¿½ in our movement over the last 25 years"ï¿½. What he is really railing against is that we consistently and undeviatingly champion Marxism and the international class struggle - and that necessarily means striving to tell the truth always and everywhere.