HOPI AGM report December 2008

Report of Hands Off the People of Iran AGM

On Saturday December 13th, Hopi’s Annual General Meeting was attended by around fifty comrades, making it a little smaller than last year (quite possibly the result of either the dying down of controversy in the year since Hopi’s expulsion from Stop the War, or the worst weather ever witnessed in London) but nevertheless it was a vibrant day of discussion, with many comrades contributing to the debate.

I chaired the first half of the day, hopefully not too badly. Mark Fischer (Chair of Hopi steering committee) opened the day with a concise account of Hopi’s activity over the last year. The AGM then moved on to a section of debate around the political situation, war and imperialism. The next speaker scheduled, Torab Saleth from Workers Left Unity Iran, arrived late. While waiting for him to arrive, Yassamine Mather, Hopi's secretary, gave a brief account of the current situation in Iran- of a population ravaged by sanctions, poverty and inflation, before Torab arrived, drenched by the rain and out of breath. He spoke for about half an hour, talking at length about the way many of the groups offering solidarity with Iranian workers do not offer genuine solidarity: how solidarity must be combined with anti imperialism.

This served as the introduction to the first motion of the day, submitted and supported by the majority of Hopi's steering committee. It talked about the continuing threat of war with Iran, the importance of fighting against sanctions and the necessity of seeking re-affiliation to Stop the War. It, alongside all of the day's motions, can be seen here. An amendment to motion 1, submitted by Permanent Revolution, argued that the immediate threat of war had been lessened by US intelligence reports stating that Iran is not close to the development of nuclear weapons, the election of Obama to the Presidency and the deteriorating military situation in Afghanistan. In light of this, Permanent Revolution argued, campaigning against sanctions and for solidarity with progressive movements in Iran, should become a more important part of Hopi’s work. This amendment fell with only six votes in favour. The original motion passed with four abstentions.

The second motion of the morning, submitted by Mike Martin from Sheffield, talked about the dissipation of the British anti war movement, and argued that Hopi should take on ‘political responsibility’ for building it. Comrades arguing against the motion, felt that Hopi should not be billing itself as an alternative to Stop the War, however bankrupt the leadership of this organisation might be. Motion 2 fell with only one vote in favour.

After a delicious lunch raising money for the charity Workers Fund Iran, Student for Freedom and Equality, Behrouz Karimizadeh (released in April from an Iranian prison) spoke about the history of the Iranian students’ movement and the current repression faced by students in Iran. He then answered questions from the floor on the relationship between Iranian students and workers (a close one, Behrouz answered) amongst other things. Slides commemorating student and worker demonstrations were shown on a screen. In the following section, on Trade Unions, Dave Vincent from the PCS spoke about the arguments anti war activists should be taking to trade unionists. A related motion, submitted by Manchester Hopi and moved by Chris Strafford (CPGB), passed unanimously; the motion called for Hopi to involve itself, wherever possible, in solidarity campaigns with Iranian workers- but to ensure that this is done on the basis of our own principled politics.

The next section, on Sanctions, saw the launch of Hopi’s “Smash the Sanctions” campaign. The campaign was originally idea, and supported thoroughly by Manchester branch, although I never got to move Motion 4, written by myself and calling for such a campaign. Instead, John McDonnell had that honour. PR’s Stuart King then spoke, further emphasising the task of Hopi in the present period. Although several comrades spoke from the floor about the difficulties of persuading sections of the anti war movement of the necessity of opposing the sanctions on Iran, Motion 4 passed unanimously. I feel this represents a good step forward for Hopi, since the subject of sanctions on Iran is being largely ignored by other sections of the anti war movement, including Stop the War.

Next came Motion 5, moved my myself and signed by eleven individual members of Hopi. The aim of Motion 5 was to bridge the gap between the steering committee and the Hopi membership, by making it easier for members and supporters to attend steering meetings. The most controversial parts of the motion called for meetings of the committee to be advertised a month in advance, giving Hopi members who wish to attend time to make the necessary travel and childcare arrangements (I admit this is flawed- obviously emergency meetings, perhaps arising from a sudden event such as an attack on Iran, cannot be advertised so far in advance) and for two meetings a year to be held outside of London. The latter point was opposed by a number of Comrades intent upon arguing that London is the centre of the political world! Despite this, the motion passed by a large margin. A similar motion, submitted by my comrade Stuart King and contradicting Motion 5 in several places, was subsequently withdrawn.

This was followed by the election of the new steering committee: Yassamine Mather (CPGB), Mark Fischer (CPGB), Stuart King (PR), MarshaJane Thompson (LRC), Torab Saleth (Workers Left Unity), Jim Jepps (Green Party), Ben Lewis (CS and CPGB), Israeli socialist Moshe Machover, David Broder (The Commune), Tina Becker (CPGB), Charlie Pottins (Jewish Socialists Group) and myself (PR). With the financial report unavailable, this was the last event of the very busy day. Anne McShane from Hopi Ireland did an excellent job chairing the second half of it and directing Comrades towards the post-AGM drinks and nibbles (sadly missed by myself and other comrades who had to dash off to Manchester).

All in all, Hopi’s second conference was a successful one; I hope it marks the start of an equally successful year!

Sun 14, December 2008 @ 21:05