Picture: Iranian May Day demonstration in 2007.

May Day Greetings from Hands Off the People of Iran (this message has been sent in Farsi to a range of organisations in Iran)

To our brothers and sisters in Iran,

We in Hands Off The People of Iran (HOPI) wish to send our May Day greetings of solidarity to you. As American imperialism ratchets up the war pressure and the propaganda drive to justify its rotten plans for the Middle East, we in HOPI will continue to expose their lies and blood-stained hypocrisy. Imperialism has no progressive role to play at all – it brings death, destruction and chaos, not democracy and freedom. With sanctions already strangling the Iranian people whilst the ruling Mullahs preside over ever greater wealth, we call for their immediate end. They are not an alternative to war but a form of war.

Given the extremely difficult situation you face in fighting both against the threat of imperialist war and the theocratic regime that so brutally oppresses dissent and opposition, we are extremely inspired by your brave struggles. Despite the threats, intimidation and arrests that you are subjected to, workers’ occupations and strikes continue with remarkable militancy, students are still vociferous on campuses and the women’s movement refuses to be silenced.

It is you – our comrades in struggle – who we look to support and express our solidarity with – not the rotten regime, which via its anti-western rhetoric is trying to pose as an anti-imperialist force when it is happy to seek oil deals with Zionists and uncritically bow to the demands of the International Monetary Fund.

It is to you we look in the fight against war and poverty and in the struggle for a socialist world that no longer knows the meaning of poverty and war. Unlike some in the anti-war movement who deny the existence of your struggles against imperialism and theocracy, we will continue to make sure your voices are heard in our struggle against war – a struggle that is either internationalist or nothing.

– Long live May Day! Long live the struggle for socialism!
– No to imperialist bullying, wars, occupations and sanctions!
– Imperialist Troops out of the Gulf now!
– Yes to the Iranian secular opposition!
– Hands Off the People Of Iran!

Yours in solidarity,

Hands Off The People Of Iran
(www.hopoi.org)

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And don’t forget, if you are in the West Yorkshire area, HOPI has a launch meeting in Leeds at 6.30pm today at Kadas Cafe, 5 Crown Street (near the Corn Exchange). Full details here.