Cat Rylance gave this speech to the 2012 conference of Stop the War Coalition, on behalf of Communist Students

Cat Rylance

There are lots of motions here today on Iran and Syria, but ours is different. It spells out some issues that other motions don’t. Namely: the government of Iran is not our friend and is not the friend of the Iranian people.

That does not mean for one second that we think imperialism has any kind of progressive role to play there or anywhere else. Imperialism is our main enemy, we must campaign tirelessly against any imperialist intervention in Iran and elsewhere. We must fight against the new sanctions and against the already existing sanctions. They are not an alternative to war - they are a form of war.

And, let’s be very clear about this, we must also fight against attempts to buy off the opposition with so-called ‘pro-democracy’ funds. The US, the UK and Israel have no interest whatsoever in establishing real democracy in Iran – or their own countries, for that matter. They are desperately trying to exercise their hegemony over a rapidly changing region and are using every possible method to achieve this.

We are against war on Iran, because it would hit the people below the hardest. We are against sanctions, because they force precisely those people into destitution who are the only ones that can bring about real democracy: those, the workers, the students and women. Those who have come out in their millions onto the streets of Tehran and other cities after the fraudulent 2009 elections. Those who have been fighting against a war on their country and the theocracy. Just like here in Britain and the rest of the world, in Iran there are those above and those below. And those above have been waging a brutal, 30-year-war against those below.

This is why we must not close our eyes to the real repression that is going on in a country like Iran or pretend it does not happen or has nothing to do with us. We should be in active solidarity with those below and support them in any way we can. Because they don’t want war or sanctions either!

Talking about international solidarity does not weaken our movement – it actually makes it stronger. Our enemy’s enemy is not our friend!