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Please email us messages of solidarity to the conference if you cannot be there.
Hands Off the People of Iran campaign speaks for the
entirety of the antiwar campaign around the globe, standing firmly against
US-led warmongering in violation of all international laws and acceptable norms
of behaviour. No one more than the people of Iran are aware of the abuse
of power by the degenerate theocracy that rules over their destiny, and no one
other than they is chiefly and solely responsible to alter their condition and
continue their historic struggles for democracy and social justice. The
Iranian working class, heroic women activists, enduring student organizations,
professional guilds, and various political formations are the sole agents of
their own history and their epic struggles to sustain their pride of place and
dignity of communal well-being.
As painfully evident in the cases of Afghanistan and Iraq,
the US-led invasion of Iran cannot bring about anything but heaping more misery
upon folly and further delay and exacerbate the desperate conditions under
which Iranians are fighting against domestic tyranny and globalised imperialism
alike.
In solidarity,
To the Hopi conference attendees: I extend my greetings
from across the Atlantic to all those in attendance. This conference is
not only important to those opposing imperial war threats against Iran, but is essential
to the movement pursuing a democratic and just government for all
Iranians. May your work bear substantial fruit.
I wish you a successful conference. In 1953, I was not yet 20, when we are out in streets of Calcutta , shouting 'Hands off Iran'. So long as the Imperial powers need oil they will continue to make troubles in that part of the world. I regret that we in the left are so much involved in faction feuds that we fail to fight against the common enemy. In Iran in 1953 the left could have united with liberals and the nationalists to defeat the Imperialists and later the anti -Imperialist movement went in the hands of the religious right. We should look at our own position and struggle for liberation and peace. For without peace there is no of liberation, equally there no liberation without peace. We need both and stop terrorism, including state terrorism and that of the religious right. The Republican Communist Network (Scotland) sends solidarity greetings to Hands Off the People of Iran conference. We recognise the importance of uniting the 2 key demands of HOPI:
Together, these demands lay the basis of genuine and principled internationalism, combining anti-imperialism with international working class solidarity. In contrast, there are some in the anti-war movement who believe in a one dimensional ‘internationalism’ where the enemy of US or British imperialism is automatically given unconditional support, no matter what their political record and their reactionary nature. Furthermore, in contrast to the party-front organisations which characterise so much of the Left, we look forward to a campaign set up on sound democratic principles. We wish the conference every success and apologise for not being able to attend, but look forward to receiving a report. Following our success in getting the Scottish Socialist Party to support HOPI at its recent conference, we in the RCN are committed to continuing to promote HOPI and to encourage SSP members to become more active in the campaign. No to imperialist war! Republican Communist Network (Scotland) To our Friends at Hands off People of Iran (HOPI) We believe that the Bush administration and its allies in the US and Europe are considering regime change from above. At the same time, the Islamic regime in power in Iran has used the pretext of foreign interventions to increase repression and deploy its security apparatus against its political opponents, among them, workers, women and students movements. In our view, all progressive activists inside and outside of Iran should oppose any sanctions, or any outside actions and interventions; militarily or politically; because they are inhumane and would, adversely affect struggles of the Iranian emancipatory movement against the present rulers in Iran. The main victims of any action, be it sanctions or war, will be the ordinary people in Iran, who en mass, are opposed to the current regime and many of whom have been involved in social and political struggles against it. We also believe that the solidarity of the anti war movement should also be in support of the daily struggles of Iranian women and workers, in particular for the right to live freely and survive respectively. We, strongly support the national self-determination rights of the Iranian people and their struggles against the corporate driven imperialist aggressions, as well as the reactionary/theocratic Islamic Regime in Iran. We support you in your undertaking in building a genuine solidarity campaign with the Iranian people against the US Imperialists and the current reactionary regime of Iran. In Solidarity Please email us messages of solidarity to the conference if you cannot be there. |
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As US-run studies have shown, US-Iran conflicts could be
mitigated, probably ended, if the US and Iran were functioning democratic
societies, in which popular opinion played a significant role in policy.
By very large majorities, the people of both countries agree that Iran has a
right to nuclear power but not nuclear energy; that
I am sorry I am unable to attend today's important
conference because I am speaking at an LRC meeting in Liverpool today. I wish
to send a message of support and solidarity to today's HOPI conference. This
conference comes at a time when the Bush regime is clearly calculating whether
in its final months in office it is capable of getting away with the launching
a physical attack on Iran. The same processes are being followed as in the
preparatory period in the run up to the invasion of Iraq. The same propaganda
tools are being deployed and the same attempts to draw others into an
aggressive military coalition. It is critical therefore that we stand forward
and together in opposing any attack on the people of Iran. HOPI is playing an
important role in mobilising this resistance to war against Iran and therefore
has my support. I wish you a successful conference. Solidarity,
Best wishes for a successful conference. I welcome the
campaigning activity of Hands of the People of Iran (HOPI). I strongly oppose
any western military action against Iran which would inevitably kill
innocent civilians. 
My friends: You are part of the "blessed
unrest", the assemblage of small organisations who make up what is
becoming a tsunami of action and changing the conscience of the world. 'The
blessed unrest': a surge of hope and energy and political responsibility. All
of us who work like this are grateful for each other ... so I am thanking you
for your dedication. You are launching a vital cause onto the sea of
I have never understood how people who consider themselves
socialist, communist, anarchist or whatever can have any truck with religion -
especially religious fundamentalism. Bigotry is wrong wherever it comes from
and whatever the skin colour of those spouting it! Furthermore, I entirely
reject the crapheaded philosophy of 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' - if
the enemy of my enemy denies women basic rights, brutalises gays and locks
up/imprisons/tortures/kills radical leftists (including, I fear, two people I
knew personally many years ago) the enemy of my enemy is most definitely my
enemy as well, and I don't care how much it hates George Bush! Simple as that.
Such alliances vary from the very dodgy to the downright offensive. The BNP
opposes US foreign policy too......
It's vital for the anti-war movement is organised and ready to fight a campaign to defend the people of Iran. The increasing belligerence
from neo-con politicians should alarm those of us who are aware of the
potential disastrous consequences of an attack on Iran. I send
solidarity to the conference from Plaid Cymru and I look forward to
working with HOPI in the future.
I will be in Accra, but please pass on my greeting to all who support a
secular, free and democratic Iran where human rights will be respected and
one of the world's greatest cultures be able again to flourish.
We must never forget that it was the collective silence from
voices of dissent that enabled George W. Bush to illegally invade Iraq. It is
not only our responsibility, but our duty as "global patriots" to
never again remain silent.
I would like to add my voice to this extraordinary gathering
of antiwar activists in London expressing our outrage against the possibility
of yet another war initiated by the predatory imperialism that has already
caused the death of millions of innocent people and the creation of even more
millions of refugees in Afghanistan and Iraq, effectively wiping out the moral
and material infrastructures of two nation-states.
I support the people of Iran and all others in region in
their struggle for freedom from repressive homeland rule and most important the
kind of imperial interference my country specializes in. With 14 months left in
the Bush admin they've got plenty of time left to vaporize Iran and end the
republic if that's their plan. I fear both but rate war with Iran 50 - 50 and a
greater chance for something ugly here after another phony terror attack.
At the same time, I have no doubt Iraqis and Afghans will one day defeat us in
the two wars my country has already lost but won't admit it publicly. Attacking
Iran will just make a hopeless situation cataclysmic by inflaming the entire
Muslim world against us if it already isn't.
The looming US-Israel assault on Iran stands to be the greatest calamity
since the Second World War, and reveals the modern militarized state at its
most deranged. Every day, then, we need the sanity and courage of groups
like the "Hands Off the People of Iran" campaign. The hopes of all humanity
are with you.
It is critical that a U.S. attack on Iran be prevented.
People must mobilize and make their voices loud and clear that such an act of
aggression is unacceptable.
I send my support to the Hopi conference and regret that I am unable to attend. I appreciate and support Hopi's recognition that there is an urgent
need to establish a principled solidarity campaign with the people of Iran. No to a war on Iran!
Greetings to the December 8th Hands Off the People of Iran
Conference.
The people of Iran have several enemies at home and abroad, but they can
defeat all of them. The government of Iran is loathed at home and around the
world for its oppression of women, gays, followers of the Bahai faith,
hashish-smokers, leftists and other secularists, and Kurds and other
nationalities seeking independence
from the regime.