Summer Offensive
Howzat!
Solidarity cricket is good in several ways, writes Howard Roake
I want to use this week’s column as a plug for an excellent initiative that is indirectly connected to the Summer Offensive.
On Saturday August 1, Hands Off the People of Iran will be playing a fund-raising cricket match against the Labour Representation Committee. The team captains, John McDonnell MP (LRC) and Attila the Stockbroker (Hopi), will be tossing a coin at 12 noon, but entertainment is due to start at 11am. In the evening, there will be a fundraising gig in Dalston, London, with several excellent musicians - amongst them Attila, Bubblegum Screw and Hiroshamour.
The aim is to raise £1,000 for Workers Fund Iran, a charity that supports Iranian workers in struggle. Such funds are absolutely central to our comrades in Iran who are organising in the most difficult of situations.
Especially now that the current Iranian regime is wobbling because of mass pressure from below and is rent with splits and divisions above, our brothers and sisters have tremendous tasks on their hands. They are struggling both against the theocracy (and any illusions that Mir-Hossein Moussavi is an alternative) and against imperialist intervention in Iran - be it through direct Israeli strikes or further sanctions.
The latter point is especially important. A tough new round of sanctions, as demanded by Barack Obama and the EU, is highly unlikely to topple the regime. In fact, new sanctions are much more likely to stabilise the situation and rally the people behind president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Moreover, it is the workers, students and women - those who have taken to the streets of Tehran and elsewhere in protest at the fixed elections - who suffer the most from the sanctions that are already in place.
And for many people in Iran, Moussavi has already proved himself to be not an alternative, but very much part of the old regime. While struggling within the ‘green wave’, our comrades also have the important task of reminding the people of Iran of the crimes that have been committed against thousands of communists and socialists when Moussavi was prime minister of Iran in the early 1980s.
Then there is the economic crisis in Iran, which has dramatically worsened as a result of the word recession. Many Iranians have not been paid for many months.
Clearly, it is crucial that our solidarity does not just consist in writing a few sympathetic articles. Real internationalism means concrete, hands-on support. The alternative in Iran is not the theocrat Moussavi, but the working class.
Hopi activists are in daily contact with communists and socialists in Iran and some of their reports and video clips can be found on Hopi’s blog: hopinewsfromiran.wordpress.com.
Will you help out on August 1? Can you:
- donate a salad, cake or any other food or drink?
- donate anything for our raffle? We are looking for paintings, books, decent quality bottles of booze, etc.
- make a financial contribution to Hopi if you cannot attend?
Contact Ben (07792 282830 or bennolewis@googlemail.com). Details of the match and how to donate to Hopi are available at www.hopoi.org and on page 3 of this paper. Of course, the CPGB has been central to the work of Hopi - financially as well as organisationally. A good fundraising event like August 1 will ease the financial burden on our own organisation, and it that sense can be viewed as an important part of this year’s Summer Offensive.
Talking of which, the SO is going quite well. In the last seven days, we have received a very healthy £1,753, which brings our running total to £11,882.50. Special thanks this week go to DI and MF, who have raised £500 by painting a large room in the house of AG - thanks to him too for not paying professional painters (let’s hope he won’t regret it).
Unfortunately, there have been no online donations this week - despite the fact that we had 10,645 visitors. Don’t let us down, comrades. Help us to reach the £25,000 we need to keep the organisation going!
Click here to download a standing order form - regular income is particular
important in order to plan ahead. Even £5/month can help!
Send cheques, payable to Weekly Worker, BCM Box 928, London
WC1N 3XX
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