HOPI weekend school 14 - 15 June

international | anti-war / imperialism | event notice Monday May 26, 2008 18:18 by pat c

Programme

On Saturday - Sunday, 14-15th June 2008 Hands Off the People of Iran will hold a weekend school, in University of London Union, Malet Street to discuss issues regarding the threat of war, sanctions and various aspects of the opposition to the the rule of the theocracy, inside Iran.

We are currently finalising the agenda, but topics will include:

War, human rights and ‘humanitarian interventions’;
Iran, Israel and the Middle East and the nuclear question
Sanctions and Iran
Can imperialism liberate women in the Middle East?
National and religious minorities
The working class movements and their response to the economic crisis in Iran
The 1979 revolution and its aftermath

Saturday

The session War, human rights and ‘humanitarian interventions’; will have two speakers , Professor Bill Bowering from the School of Law, at Birkbeck College London University and Dr Mike Macnair, lecturer in law at Oxford University.

Christine Cooper is Professor of Accountancy at the University of Strathclyde , she is a Marxist and acts on the editorial board of a number of academic journals , including , Accounting and the Public Interest and Critical Perspectives on Accounting. She is the author of a major article on the administration of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq : US Imperialism in Action: An Audit-Based Appraisal of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. She will be talking about the extent of the current sanctions against Iran and the role of sanctions in imperialist strategy.

The session on women, entitled ' Can imperialism liberate women in the Middle East? ' will be addressed by Dr Nadje Al-Ali, is a lecturer and director of the Gender Studies Centre at SOAS, University of London. She is of Iraqi-German origin and has recently published Iraqi Women: Untold Stories from 1948 to the Present. She is a founding member of Act Together: Women's Action for Iraq. She will be joined by Azar Majedi who is Chairperson of Organization for Women's Liberation – Iran.

Sunday

Professor Moshé Machover (Israeli socialist) will give a talk on Iran, Israel , the Middle East and the nuclear question . Professor Moshé Machover was born in Tel-Aviv, studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and taught there before coming to London University in 1968 where he later bcame became Professor of Philosophy. He has been a lifelong opponent of Zionism and author of many political articles including: The Class Character of Israel, Israelis and Palestinians: Conflict and Resolution, (Israel) Is it Apartheid

The session 'The working class movement in Iran and its response to the economic crisis' will start with an introduction by David Mather who lectures in Sociology at Glasgow Caledonian University. He is the author of many articles on Iran and Afghanistan , including: Making Cars in Iran: Working for Iran Khodro, The Islamic republic and the Iranian left , Invading Afghanistan. He will be looking at the neo liberal economic policies of the Islamic Republic Regime, including privatisation and casualisation and will give examples of workers resistance to these measures.

Given the illusions of many on the International left about the nature of the Islamic regime, the weekend school will have a session on : The 1979 revolution and its aftermath lead by Torab Saleth . Torab Saleth is an Iranian Socialist who was a member of the International Executive Committee of the USFI (United Secretariat of the Fourth International) at the time of the Iranian Revolution and the National Secretary of the Socialist Workers Party of Iran. He was very critical of the USFI's line on Iran and left that organisation in 1984. In exile he was the editor of the journal 'Socialism and Revolution', he is currently on the editorial board of the journal Critique and a prominent member of Workers Left Unity Iran.

For more information and regular updates of the program visit

http://www.hopoi.org

£20 waged; £10 unwaged. If possible, please book your place in advance by paying via Paypal* or by sending cheques/postal orders to Hopi, PO Box 54631, London N16 8YE

* http://www.hopoi.org/signup.html#donations

Click here to download the A4 leaflet:
Front:http://www.hopoi.org/resources/leaflet%20outside.pdf
Back: http://www.hopoi.org/resources/leaflet%20inside.pdf