[antiwar-van] STATUS Coalition statement on Iran

[Harsha]

NO WAR ON IRAN!

The S.T.A.T.U.S Coalition brings together community-based organizations in
the Vancouver area belonging to movements and struggles of the people of
the Global South (Asia, Africa, Central and South America, Middle East,
the Caribbean region) and the struggles of such migrant communities in
Canada. We strive for a positive vision in all lands in favour of social,
political, and economic justice, genuine democracy, and self-determination
that embraces the full dignity of all human beings.

Today it is our duty to speak out against any potential foreign invasion
of Iran. The justification for such an intervention is given as the threat
of the Iranian nuclear program. These reports recall the "Weapons of Mass
Destruction" hysteria leading up to the invasion of Iraq. Just as in the
case of Iraq, none of the claims made by the U.S. government about Iran
stand up to scrutiny. Iran has submitted to the most intrusive and
humiliating inspections, beyond what is required by the Nuclear Weapons
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). None of the inspections by the
International Atomic Energy Agency have found any evidence that Iran is
developing a nuclear weapons program. In fact, according to the CIA, Iran
is at least 10 years away from developing a nuclear bomb, which itself
falsifies US accusations. Israel is the only nuclear power in the Middle
East and the real nuclear threat to global society is the United States-
the only government that has used nuclear weapons against civilian
populations and has the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction
on the planet.

The history of US involvement in Iran and in other countries such as
Afghanistan, Iraq, Columbia, Panama, Vietnam demonstrates that the United
States has always supported the most dictatorial and repressive forces in
its self-serving covert and overt operations. For over half a century, the
US has intervened and sabotaged all progressive movements within Iran in
the process of securing its own economic and political interests. For
example, Iran suffered greatly when the U.S overthrew the government in
1953 and returned Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (“the Shah”) in what was
considered the CIA's first successful overthrow of a foreign government.
For 25 years the Shah ruled Iran with an iron fist for the benefit of U.S.
oil corporations.

Furthermore, contrary to the argument put forward by the U.S in order to
legitimize its illegal actions, US military action against Iran will not
liberate the Iranian people from the current regime or improve the
situation for human rights. Only an uprising of the Iranian people can
produce genuine democracy within Iran. The recent efforts and protests of
the Vahed Bus Company drivers and workers, which saw over 800 union
activists arrested and/or laid-off, was an inspirational moment for
workers around the world. The Iranian people have a rich and long history
of struggling for democracy and independence since the early 20th century.
These relentless struggles have taken place in the face of British
colonial interests, US imperialism, and oppressive internal regimes. Aside
from all the bloodshed and devastation of an imperialist war, a US
invasion would give the Iranian dictatorship, against which the Iranian
people have struggled for decades, an excuse to repress and imprison
political dissidents in Iran.

The crimes of the current regime in its 27 years of existence include
executions, stonings, flogging, throwing dissidents to jail, torture,
stripping people of their rights, and violence against women. However, the
main reason for the opposition of the governments of the West towards Iran
has never been the atrocities of this regime against the people of Iran;
in fact the US government has actively suppressed leftist forces in Iran.
The alignment of the US with the Iranian clerical regime in order to
combat leftist revolutionary forces was revealed in the Tower Commission,
according to which  "in 1983, the United States helped bring to the
attention of Teheran the threat inherent in the extensive infiltration of
the government by the communist Tudeh Party and Soviet or pro-Soviet
cadres in the country. Using this information, the Khomeini government
took measures, including mass executions, that virtually eliminated the
pro-Soviet infrastructure in Iran." It is also imperative to recall that
in a complicated swap deal in the 1980’s, Israel and other intermediaries
sold US-origin TOW and Hawk missiles to the Iranian regime in return for
cash and for the release of hostages in the Lebanese hostage crisis. The
money was used by the US to finance their covert operations against the
Sandinista government of Nicaragua, until the Iran-Contra affair were
publicly exposed at the end of 1986.

The racism so deeply entrenched against Arabs and those constructed to be
Muslims replicates itself in the West including Canada, where hundreds of
Iranian refugees, readily deemed ‘terrorists’ or ‘fanatics’, are
increasingly facing deportation. Our struggle against deportations of
Iranian refugees continues within the context of a larger movement of
immigrants and refugees throughout Canada, who are standing up to the
exclusionary policies of Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

We call upon all peace-loving people opposing war, militarization and
racism to stand up for the rights of Iranian people in Iran and in Canada.
We demand an end to deportations and detentions of Iranian refugees from
Canada and regularization of status for all Iranian refugees. We also
stand in support of the Iranian people who continue to fight for genuine
democracy and self-determination for all Iranian people.


ABOUT US

Current members of the Coalition are: Association of Chinese Canadians for
Equality and Solidarity Society, Bolivia Solidarity Committee, Canadian
Network for a Democratic Nepal, Consejo Indigena Popular de Oaxaca
-Ricardo Flores Magon- Vancouver, Committee for Solidarity with Colombia,
Iranian Federation of Refugees, Iranian Refugee B.C, La Surda Latin
American Collective, Justicia 4 Migrant Workers B.C, No One is Illegal,
Palestine Arab Women’s Association, Palestine Community Center, Salaam
Vancouver, South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy, Vancouver
Status of Women

What principally binds us together is our shared commitment to
·  Support the struggles for national liberation and self-determination of
the people in the respective lands we come from against colonialism and
imperialism and its local capitalist and feudal allies; and
·  Support our migrant communities here who struggle, particularly in the
post 9/11 climate, against racial profiling and who largely constitute
Canada’s exploitable underclass

In carrying out these activities, we further commit to
·  Extending our full support and solidarity with indigenous peoples here
who are fighting against colonial occupation;
·  Extending our full support and solidarity with the struggles of all
working peoples in Canada including marginalized non-unionized workers and
unemployed, underemployed and poor people; and
·   Rejecting systems of domination including patriarchy, racism, and
homophobia and to stand for equal rights for all people irrespective of
gender identity, race, religious belief, sexual orientation or migrant
status


For more information: email saic at resist.ca or call 604-420-2972