HANDS OFF THE PEOPLE OF IRAN - UK

Message of Solidarity

Hands Off the People of Iran sends greetings to your demonstration. We hope that this gathering will help advance the cause of Iranian women against both imperialism and religious fundamentalism.

Despite unprecedented advances in science, technology and our ability to rationally understand the material world, our globe is still convulsed by wars and destructive conflicts. Viewed superficially, this appears to be an anomaly: capitalist science advances our material mastery of the world, yet, at the same time, capitalism as a social system continually plunges humanity into seemingly irrational wars, with all the destruction of life, social dislocation and obliteration of accumulated wealth that these entail. In some cases , these thoroughly modern conflicts are justified on the basis of the revival of medieval religious divisions. And even more surprisingly, these obscurantist arguments still have the potency to mobilised millions.

HOPI believes that war is endemic to contemporary capitalism precisely because as a social system, its true exploitative nature is obscured through reified and alienated social relations. Thus these 21st century wars utilise all manner of religious and ideological irrationalities to justify themselves.

In the USA, the world’s hegemonic capitalist state and important sections of the ruling class use Christian fundamentalism to sanctify its imperialist warmongering. In Israel, Zionism has become an official state ideology that harnesses Jewish religious fanaticism to excuse occupation, oppression and assassination of political opponents. In the UK, we see an increase in either islamophobia or an unconditional support for all reactionary Islamic sentiments in the name of respect for diversity and respect for Muslims and a political establishment that is increasingly saturated in religion and determined to extend its remit further and further into British society itself.

In the Middle East, the absence of viable radical, secular forces ranged in opposition to the neo-colonial war drive of imperialism created a political vacuum filled today by reactionary ideologies, primarily, of course, political Islam.

Of course, both in the advanced capitalist countries and in the Middle East, women remain the principle victims of this reactionary revival of religious fundamentalism. In the US and Europe, the Christian right deploys religious dogma to oppose abortion and a woman’s basic right to control her own body. 

In Islamic countries, especially where political Islam holds state power, as in Iran’s Islamic Republic, Islam is the justification for considering women as second class citizens, sexual apartheid, death by stoning, imposing veil, lashing, honour killings and a lot of other anti-women laws. The same horrific picture presents itself in Iraq, where the US/UK occupation has attempted to use sectarian religious divisions to bolster its rule and in the process actually strengthen the strangle-hold of political Islam over this fractured country.

The grim reality of today’s Iraq underlines the basic truth that the root causes of the emergence of political Islam in our time are imperialism and the programmatic failure of the secular left.

Yet over the last 29 years, Iranian women have shown through their daily struggles with political Islam that it is possible to fight this backward ideology and to win many important victories. Inspired by such struggles inside Iran, HOPI ‘s main slogans - ‘No to imperialist war, No to theocracy’ - reflect this .

We send our very best wishes for the success of your conference and pledge solidarity with all those fighting for a democratic, secular and socialist Middle East where women will take their rightful place in society: as the equal partners of their male comrades and brothers in the struggle.

HOPI Steering Committee

March 2008