Campaign news

Support the Week of Action (February 13-20) organised by Hands Off the People of Iran!

31st January 2010

We are asking you to give support to a ‘Week of Action’ that our comrades in Hands Off the People of Iran are organising for Saturday, February 13-Saturday, February 20. (See the LRC website for the Hopi on the event - www.l-r-c.org.uk).

This week of solidarity is timed to coincide with the fall of the Shah’s regime in 1979. It will highlight Hopi’s principled message – no to any imperialist attack on Iran; no to the theocracy!

This message could not be more timely. In Iran over the same period, we expect to see millions of people on the streets to express once again their mounting opposition to the deeply split Islamic Republic regime. It is these people - the Iranian masses - that must deal with the Ahmadinejad regime, not Brown or Obama.

The Week of Action will see solidarity meetings, fundraisers, stalls, teach-ins and benefit gigs right across the country and in Ireland. We are hoping to organise a protest outside the BBC World Service to demand that it gives a voice to the thousands of radicalising workers, women and students in struggle. Its coverage so far has had a worrying tendency to present the crisis as simply battle between two ‘big beasts’ of the regime – a ‘liberal’ Mir-Hossein Moussavi and a ‘hardline’ Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Last August, the Labour Representation Committee and Hopi organised a similar solidarity event – a highly successful cricket match and benefit gig that raised over £1,500 for our comrades in Iran. We hope to be able to raise at least as much again – something that should be easily achieved if we put our minds to it and draw in support from as many of our supporting unions, organisations, campaigns and individuals as we can.

The money is absolutely vital to our beleaguered comrades. They organise in the harshest of conditions. Sanctions disrupt their lives, impoverish their families and hamper their ability to organise. Yet, they still they manage to organise.

The bellicose noises coming out of Israeli and the US continue to ratchet up the tension in Iranian society, narrowing the space for the workers’ and progressive movements to organise without being accused of ‘treason’. Yet, still they are brave enough to organise.

Trade union rights are strictly circumscribed and even the basic workers’ rights are viewed with deep suspicion by the brutal theocratic regime. It has a collective memory of the pivotal role of the workers in the 1979 revolution – and an abiding fear that this class could turn society on its head once more if it could again move decisively.

The working people and progressive movements of Iran find the energy and sheer guts to organise. We have to duty to organise alongside them.

We look forward to your support,

John McDonnell MP

For more information, check out the LRC and Hopi websites: www.l-r-c.org.uk and www.hopoi.org