On May 22, ten supporters of Workers Fund Iran (nine men and one woman) took part in the Hamburg Marathon to raise money for the charity, which supports workers in Iran who are suffering from financial hardship.
The race started at nine am – and while the winner only needed two hours and nine minutes, our runners were slightly slower, finishing after between five hours and five hours 20 minutes. Not a bad result at all! All ten received a medal for participating.
The runners raised the magnificent sum of 745 Euros (653 Pounds) – and there is still time to donate by using Charity Choice’s website:
https://www.charitychoice.co.uk/donation.asp?ref=154051
But it wasn’t all hard work: our comrades had a chance to do some sightseeing, shopping and dining together. On the last evening they organised an informal roundtable discussion to debate issues around the nature of the Persian empire, multi-nationalism in Iran and the right of self-determination, the origins of religion and the impact of Islam on Iranian culture. Underlying all the debates was of course the need to organise and mobilise the working class in Iran.
There are many lessons from the Hamburg marathon that we can take to our next WFI intervention at the Berlin Marathon on September 25 2011.
For more info, go to http://hopoi.org/?p=1640