Pass this resolution in your organisation!

Oppose the crimes of the theocracy! Oppose the threats and sanctions of the imperialists!

Download a PDF of this motion here.

THIS BRANCH/REGION/NATIONAL ORGANISATION NOTES:

– The recent flurry of executions in Iran of activists from oppressed national minorities;

– The continued imprisonment – and in some cases, torture – of hundreds of political opponents, including leading workers’ movement activists;

– The ominous parallels between this period of retreat by the Iranian regime (over nuclear negotiations) and that in 1987 (the end of the Iran-Iraq war);

– That the end of the 1987 conflict sparked a murderous cull by the regime of thousands of left activists incarcerated in the regime’s jails as the theocracy sought to reinforce control domestically after setbacks on the international front;

– The silence of western governments and ‘human rights’ NGOs over these outrages in 1987 and today.

WE FURTHER NOTE THAT:

– US secretary of state John Kerry has promised that “95%” of sanctions on Iran will remain in place, despite recent progress in negotiations;

– Sanctions are a form of war, a siege on a society;

– It has been the working people of Iran that have borne the brunt of sanctions and that sections of the ruling elite in the regime have actually used to economic and social dislocation to enrich themselves further;

– Sanctions therefore serve the strategic aim of US-imperialism in the region of the installation of pro-western governments via ‘regime change from above’, not democratic upsurge from below.

WE THEREFORE RESOLVE:

– To demand the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners in Iran;

– To continue to support campaigns both against imperialist sanctions and intervention against Iran, and in support of the workers and oppressed of that country and their struggles against the ‘Islamic republic’ regime.

– Support, where possible with material aid, the struggle to form genuine workers’ organisations in Iran, independent of the religious state and its security forces;

– To make a donation to Workers Fund Iran (www.workersfund.org), a charity that directly aids the working people of Iran but refuses to take funds from any governmental bodies or western NGOs;

– To invite a speaker from the anti-war campaign Hands Off the People of Iran (www.hopoi.org) to one of our meetings in the near future.