Attila the Stockbroker Bats for Workers Fund Iran

international | worker & community struggles and protests | press release Monday July 27, 2009 17:50 by pat c

On Saturday August 1, Hands Off the People of Iran will be playing a fundraising 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 11 am, and the first ball will be bowled at noon. Even the weather should not be able to get in our way, as we will have numerous gazebos with a fully-stocked bar and food.

You dont have to be in London to support this event. Go to http://www.hopoi.org/index.html and click on the paypal donate button.

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: http://hopinewsfromiran.wordpress.com.

We hope you can participate in some of these activities, if you can't then why not send a contribution to HOPI?

You dont have to be in London to support this event. Go to http://www.hopoi.org/index.html and click on the paypal donate button.

Or send a cheque to:

Workers Fund Iran for Workers Fund
Hopi, PO Box 54631, London N16 8YE

Contact Ben (07792 282830 or bennolewis@googlemail.com) or Rory (07790007273).

Details of the match and how to donate to Hopi are available at http://www.hopoi.org