Hunger strike against Iran-Iraq war

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Faneuil Hall Speak-out:

Ernest Mandel, a prominent Marxist economist and leader of the Fourth International, speaks to a San Francisco audience of over 200 at April 13 Socialist Action forum titled, 'The World Economy After the Stock Market Crash."

Ardalan is a 25-year-old Iranian who has helped organize and participate in a hunger strike against the war between the Iran and Iraq governments. For nine days and nights they have camped out at San Francisco City Hall and denied themselves food to protest the murder of over 4000 men, women, and children in Halabja, a Kurdish city in the Iranian-occupied region of Iraq.

The Iragi military dropped both chemical bombs and massive doses of cyanide gas on Halabja, which instantly snuffed out the lives of Kurdish civilians where they stood.

Newsweek magazine (April 4) printed this report by Theodore Stanger, one of the few reporters allowed in to view the horror:

"At ground zero in this onceteeming market city, death struck in seconds. Bodies of Halabja's Kurdish residents lay scattered in the dirt streets, in back yards, in living rooms. Like the dead of Pompeii, some were frozen in escape attempts, at the wheel of a car, in doorways. One woman was huddled protectively over her baby, also dead. Nearby, a lifeless father vainly shielded his son. A family sheltered in its cellar was killed by the heavier-than-air fumes that seeped down. Everywhere, the stench of rotting corpses was overpowering."

The young Iranians who organized the fast in San Francisco were not only protesting this mass slaughter but also the eight-year war between the countries of Iran and Iraq. They are far away from their families, mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters who are suffering bombing and destruction in their homeland every day.

They organized this fast to TURKEY Urmia Lake Darbandi Khi Baghdad < IRAQ Basra 'KUWAIT Persian Gulf educate the people of the United States on conditions in the Middle East. They also oppose Khomeini, who they say is opposed to ending the war with Iraq.

Their demands are simple. They say: "We seek an immediate ceasing of bombing of civilian targets. We denounce any use of chemical weapons or other bacteriological methods. We denounce pursuance of political IRAN MIES MILES THE WASHHHGTON POST objectives through military Caspian vasions. And we support Sea honorable peace that can accomplished through the gerian Pact of 1975."

Iasked Ardalan how their vigil Tehran* had been received by the people of San Francisco. He said he was very pleased, because most had been sympathetic to their cause and had taken their educational leaflets. Some had even tried to donate money, and one woman had brought them fruit and juice. He felt that one of the reasons for the good response was the changed American attitude toward Palestinians. The fact that millions of Americans have been viewing the terrorist methods of the Zionist government against the Palestinian people on television every day has had the effect of creating more sympathy toward the people of the Middle East.

Of course, another reason is that the Iran/contra exposé revealed the fact that for years all of the imperialist nations, especially the United States, have used all the people of the Middle East as a football to obtain control of the wealth of those countries. inan be AlThe capitalist powers have used the tried-and-true method of divide and conquer to place their puppets in power and to block working-class movements in these countries. They have imposed upon the people of the Middle East the most ruthless governments and have installed the Zionist government in Israel as their own private watchdog.

The U.S. government has now thrown off its mask of "neutrality" in the war between Iran and Iraq. In recent days, over 40 U.S warships have been moved into the Persian Gulf in order to "lay down the law" to the Iranians.

Almost any Iranian naval activity is now subject to U.S. armed intervention.

Ardalan's last words to me were that they would be marching in the demonstration for Peace, Jobs and Justice in San Francisco on April 30. He has every hope of getting the truth to the people of this country.

Just as the vast majority of people in this country oppose intervention in Central America, so will they come to oppose imperialist intervention in the Middle East.

Joseph Ryan Socialist Actiol also met with success. Ralph Schoenman's three-city Midwest tour in early May reached close to 300 college students, many of them Palestinian Arabs.

In San Francisco, on April 13, Ernest Mandel, a leader of the Fourth International, spoke to more than 200 activists at the New College of California. Over $130 worth of literature was sold at the Socialist Action book table.

A week later, Efraín Calvo, a member of the Political Committee of the Revolutionary Workers Party (PRT) of Mexico and a deputy in the Mexican congress, addressed a San Francisco Socialist Action forum on the current situation in Mexico.

And in Boston, a Socialist Action East Coast Educational Conference was held on April 23, attracting Socialist Action members and close sympathizers from Baltimore; New York; Rochester, N.Y.; Bath, Maine; and Boston. Forty-five activists spent a full day assessing the dynamics of the world revolution today. After the enthusiastic conference, several participants expressed interest in joining Socialist Action.

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