Iran: Smash The Sanctions!

international | anti-war / imperialism | other press Thursday February 19, 2009 22:03 by pat c - Hands Off the People of Iran

No War! No Sanctions!

Hands Off the People of Iran have prepared a briefing paper on Imperialist sanctions imposed on Iran. The full text is at the link at the end of this article.

You can download this paper as a leaflet in RTF format http://www.hopoi.org/resources/Sanctions%20Briefing%20p...r.rtf
and PDF format http://www.hopoi.org/resources/Sanctions%20Briefing%20p...r.pdf

1. It is wrong to mechanically counterpose sanctions to military action. In themselves sanctions are a form of ‘soft war’ and often pave the way the way for armed aggression of some sort. Since the Middle Ages, the tactic of laying siege to a town or village has played a crucial role in military campaigns. It imposes hunger, demoralisation and desperation onto the ‘besieged community’ and in this way softens up the regime either for external military attack or overthrow from within.

2. Thus, is it ominous that the severity and the extent of sanctions against Iran have dramatically increased over the last 12 months. The fact that a new raft are now being promised by the US president elect, including against the import of refined fuel, is deeply worrying. This specific threat is particularly disastrous for masses of Iranian people given the country’s inability to produced refined oil. (See points 12 & 13 below).

8. Hopi sees the working people of Iran as the force for progressive social change. Thus we want this class to be organised, strong and able to challenge the theocracy for power. Sanctions – like an imperialist military strike – are a disaster for the cause of democracy and progressive social change in Iran. This is why Hopi encourages direct international working class solidarity with the aim of building the fighting capacity of the movement in Iran. This stands in stark contrast to the funds set up by the US administration to support those Iranian NGOs who follow US policy in the region (including regime change from above) and the neo-liberal economic agenda that has already proved such a disaster for the Iranian masses.