07.02.2008

Apologetics and violence

Chris Strafford reports on how the Iranian regime's supporters treat debate

Manchester Students Union Iranian Society and the Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (Casmii) hosted a meeting titled ‘Nuclear Iran, uncut and uncensored’. The whole thing was filmed by Press TV, the English-language state channel from Iran, and was constantly interrupted by scuffles, as comrades from the Worker-communist Party of Iran-Hekmatist (WCPI-H) and Hopi asked pointed questions and heckled the pro-regime speakers.

Hopi North West, which has been building up links with the Iranian community to help push forward our principled anti-war politics, had enquired about holding a stall, but the chair of the Iranian Society, Hadi Ziaei, told us that “unauthorised postering, flyering or distribution of materials is prohibited and the select number of groups allowed to do so have arranged with us well in advance”. The two institutions allowed to push their propaganda were Campaign Iran and the Iranian state. However, amid the chaos Hopi and the WCPI-H were able to hand out plenty of anti-war, pro-solidarity leaflets.

The event was opened by the reading of a passage from the Koran, then by introductions from each of the panel, which was chaired by Yvonne Ridley, a most vulgar apologist for both the Iranian state and the Taliban. Speaking were Chris Rae, who is vice-chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and a member of the Labour Party; Paul Ingram, former executive director of the British American Security Information Council; Chris Rundle, former British diplomat; and Abbas Edalat, a founder of Casmii.

Edalat believes that people are too easily confused, so the anti-war movement should keep quiet about the atrocities of the Iranian regime. Before the cameras started rolling we were treated to lectures on the legal right of Iran to acquire nuclear power and a very pro-regime history lesson on the Iranian revolution, which curiously missed out the mass slaughter of revolutionaries, trade unionists, students and democrats.

Hopi comrades suspected we could be in for a rough time and we were right. After the first question from the floor, which centred on Iran’s right to have nuclear power, I was called up next. I asked the panel whether they thought Iran is anti-imperialist despite its support for the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and its neoliberal economic policy. I also asked the panel to join me in calling for the immediate release of Mansoor Osanloo and his comrades and all students still in prison.

As I finished, the room erupted with shouts and cheers - the WCPI-H had brought about 35 comrades to the meeting. Leaflets were thrown into the air and banners unfolded, as staff and some pro-regime members of the audience began attacking the WCPI-H comrades. There were scuffles in the aisles and all around us. It was a good 20 minutes before everyone sat back down and filming resumed. The question was never answered.

The WCPI-H had people all over the room and the next contribution came from one of their members. The comrade said that she was strongly against war and against the regime getting nuclear weapons. She warned that a regime which had killed an entire generation would use these weapons against its own people. After shouts and further pushing Edalat responded that any such crimes are “dwarfed by the violations of human rights by the USA and Israel”. That is true enough, but what Edalat and so many of the anti-war left in Britain forget is that it is our duty as internationalists to support workers’, women’s, LGBT, students’ and all progressive struggles against repressive regimes, at the same time as opposing imperialism.

The next contribution from the floor came from Saeed Arman of the WCPI-H, who asked why the panel were supporting the “fascist regime of Iran who kill the Iranian people” and also questioned why this meeting was being held in the University of Manchester, when 81 Iranian students are still rotting and being tortured in prison, with many of them now resorting to hunger strike. Again university security was called in to bring order, as comrade Arman held up pictures of some of the Iranian students now in prison. This was another question never answered.

Ex-diplomat Rundle claimed that Iran is “the most democratic country in the Middle East”. Now, I am not one to be too sceptical, but a country that imprisons, tortures and executes those who oppose the regime or love someone of the same sex might reasonably have its democratic credentials called into question. Edalat stated that we should not see the Iranian regime as “black or white” - there are, after all, shades of grey. There are no shades of grey when it comes to trade unionism, socialism, women’s and LGBT liberation. There exists a clear side which communists and all anti-imperialists must take - and that is with the oppressed, dispossessed and impoverished.

Later on Edalat declared: “Anyone who is Iranian and patriotic should stand against an attack on Iran” - to which comrade Arman replied: “and the fascist regime!” This was a signal for further eruptions, with WCPI-H comrades unfolding banners and security again intervening. It was at this point that Vicky Thompson of the Hopi steering committee was attacked and it was only when security got involved that her assailant stopped trying to take her leaflets. The arguments and pushing carried on into the lobby and out into the driveway until the police arrived.