Between 70-80 people filled the Somers Town Community Centre in Camden for the launch of Hands Off the People of Iran. It was clear from the outset that a number of groups were present and not simply the CPGB as the leadership of the StWC might have some believe.
Overall the discussion was very democratic with numerous points in the afternoon containing debate on not only the wording of the founding statement but the politics which it contained.
Yassamine Mather from Workers Left Unity Iran began the proceedings with an encouragement to discuss social movements in Iran, and most specifically the recent student demonstrations that had been taking place there. It was reported that 4 of Iran's student groups had picked up the slogans of HOPI (from the internet) and began using them at demonstrations in Tehran and elsewhere.
Iranian socialist and member of WLU Iran, Torab Saleh, spoke briefly on those who had been persecuted by the regime and all comrades rose and held a minute's silence for the more than 40,000 people who have been executed, many of them political activists, since 1979.
Mike McNair from the CPGB gave a report on the economic and political situation which spoke to a briefing paper in which he seemed to be arguing that imperialism was not simply an economic imperialism as Marxist such as Ellen Meiksins Wood claims in her excellent book "Empire of Capital" but that imperialist countries "destroyed nations" to maintain economic dominance. This is something I wholly disagreed with, but in the grand scheme of things it was rather a minor theoretical point. It's clear that the crass domination of Empire where countries were taken over in order to ensure capital flow has disappeared and that the situation in Iraq, Iran and the Middle East generally is far more complicated than a simple need for oil.
David Mather then spoke to the second briefing paper which looked specifically at Iranian workers. He noted that political Islam was not a part of the "anti-globalisation movement" nor was the Iranian regime against privatisation but rather had embarked on a project to oppress workers within Iran. He noted the increasing casualisation of Iranian workers as a part of Tehran's privatisation drive.
Mark Fischer from the CPGB spoke next and had a number of interesting things to say. He specifically addressed why solidarity with Iranian workers and support for independent working class politics was incredibly important. He claimed "There must be no subordination of the working class, democratic and secular movement" and that this should be a given on the Left. He spoke of the debate within the StWC and answered the claim that HOPI was a "political rival". He claimed that "In a sense, this is true. HOPI currently presents a political challenge to their rotten method". He further noted that the StWC have "utterly failed" with their practice of just going on march after march.
In a refreshing contrast to the self-congratulatory SWP claims that they themselves got a 1-2 million Britons on the street, Mark pointed out that we need to be realistic about the nature of that mass movement - that it included left, right, centre, religious and so forth but that there was no unity beyond an opposition to invasion. He pointed out that there was no reason that Charles Kennedy should feel welcome in the StWC while Iranian socialists were barred from affiliating and that this represented a move to the right.
Mark summed up by pointing out that we needed "Unity against imperialist war, but unity with principles".
Israeli socialist Moshe Machover spoke next and was a lively participant in the discussion that was to follow. He made a very interesting observation that the recent revelations by the intelligence agency about Iran's nuclear programme could be an indication that an attack was on its way due to the attempt by the CIA and others not wanting to be the fall guys for any invasion of Iran. He spoke against the foolish logic of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" that seems to have been adopted by the StWC and that is was "wrong and simplistic" and that is was a "betrayal of the Iranian people, working class and leftists" to play down the nature of the regime.
He used the example of Iraqis who supported the US war drive using this same logic and became friends of US imperialism and its puppets in Baghdad.
The discussion then began and involved some very informative contributions. Andrew Coates spoke on the StWC in his areas saying that it has "not just drifted to the right, but it has drifted everywhere". He used the example of previously active members dropping out while those defending 9-11 conspiracies and the North Korean regime remained.
I spoke on the importance of highlighting LGBT issues and raised my thoughts on Mike's talk as well as related my experience of working with StW folks at my uni - stating that the onus is on them to exclude HOPI activists as most independents can readily see the logic in opposing the regime and imperialist war.
Other contributions from the floor came from the Workers Communist Party of Iran and the Workers Communist Party of Iraq - both in the form of female comrades from various women's organisations. Charlie Pottins, Tony Greenstein and other activists spoke from the floor in the discussion.
Resolutions and Motions were put forward by Permanent Revolution, Communist Party of Great Britain, Workers Left Unity Iran, Communist Students and the Workers Communist Party of Iran. Lively debates were had on whether or not HOPI should take a definitive line on having a "nuclear free Middle East". This was debated from PR comrades who argued that calling for this may imply that Iran did not have the right to acquire nuclear weapons. Most at the conference opposed this - but to be fair PR was not asking HOPI to take a line, but to simply not include it in their founding statement. Stuart King from PR said this didn't have to be decided but was a "debate to be had amongst socialists".
Another important debate was due to an amendment proposed by the comrades from HOPI North West. They proposed adding the statement "The main enemy is imperialism" followed by "The Iranian regime is not consistently anti-imperialist" (not sure of the exact wording on this one). This was passed in the end but with a pretty close vote. I believe a number of people thought it could've been formulated better and thus abstained.
Stroppy was there and we were a bit dismayed to see the LGBT was nowhere to be found in either the founding statement nor the constitution. Stroppy proposed the amendments to the founding statement and I to the constitution but it was a rather large oversight on the part of comrades who had called the conference to leave such a large issue in relation to Iran entirely out of the founding documents. Hopefully HOPI can be more conscious of this going forward.
In the section on the constitution, I proposed that we should aim to have at least 50% representation by women on the steering committee as a matter of course. Disappointingly this was voted down with the only person besides myself speaking in favour - and noting it was a norm in the labour movement - being Stuart from PR. Stroppy and I both heard a male comrade in the back saying that the labour movement was patriarchal and thus needed this, but the left didn't because it wasn't. We found this rather humorous and frankly far from the truth but I was glad that at least the question of women's representation was discussed for a change. In the end the steering committee was formed of 16 comrades, myself included of which 7 were women - so not bad going. This was due to the impressive fact that most of the prominent female activists from Iran and Iraq are women.
Ben Lewis gave a very good report on the student movement in Iran. Over 700 students participated in very radical protests in Iran last week and there was a photo display of the events. A number have been arrested and HOPI voted to campaign for their immediate release.
Overall I thought it was very successful and it was refreshing to have a real and lively debate on a number of issues. I was disappointed to not see the AWL there. I think their contributions could have been both enlightening and important to HOPI and I would hope that if their absence was intentional that they will reconsider and even affiliate to HOPI as a part of building an anti-war movement that is in solidarity with Iranian activists.
It was a promising development for the far left in Britain and contained a culture of comradely debate and international solidarity that I have felt missing in the past. I encourage anyone who wants to get involved to join us by visiting www.hopoi.org
Update: This was also posted on Shiraz Socialist where a discussion is underway. In addition, there is a report from Stuart King over at Permanent Revolution and a good report from Stroppy over at Stroppyblog.
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