Socialist Campaign for Democracy in Iran
The Socialist Campaign for Democracy in Iran is a grassroots initiative established to support the Iranian people’s struggles for democracy and self-determination and support their fight for basic human rights and social justice. This campaign has been inspired by the courageous women-led protests and revolutionary upsurge sparked by the death of Mahsa Jina Amini in the custody of the Islamic Republic’s “Morality Police”. We firmly believe that this unprecedented and historic uprising which took as its central slogan, “Women, Life, Freedom”, presents the single biggest challenge to the authoritarian and regressive theocratic establishment in four decades of its existence. Since its establishment in 1979 the Islamic Republic has sought to repress the Iranian people’s legitimate demands for democratic self-determination and human rights. Women, ethnic and religious minorities, workers, students, intellectuals and dissidents have borne the brunt of the regime’s repression and brutality. In recent years, the ruling theocracy has moved to tighten its authoritarian grip on power and sought to eradicate all voices of opposition. Iranians have refused to acquiesce to this condition imposed by the regime and have instead decided to challenge the very foundations of the ruling theocracy, which has proven itself incapable of reform or responding to the peoples’ most basic needs and demands. We support this struggle for Iran’s political and social transformation from within. The Socialist Campaign for Democracy in Iran is committed to support and demonstrate solidarity with grassroots political and social struggles across contemporary Iran. Our platform encompasses the following commitments and principles:
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Working class people’s right to organise, form trade unions and strike for the purpose of advancing the cause of economic democracy in Iran;
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Freedom of speech, freedom of thought and belief, freedom of association
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Rule of law and judicial independence;
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Opposition to foreign intervention and sanctions which harm ordinary people and the most vulnerable in Iranian society.
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Women’s struggles for liberation and equality, both legal and substantive;
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The freedom of LBGTQ+ people to flourish and have their human, civil, and social rights protected under the law;
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Ethnic minorities right to cultural and political autonomy within the framework of a democratic Iran.
WHO ARE WE?
Democratic socialists who support the struggle for democracy and social justice in Iran.
Mike Phipps
Mike Phipps is a Labour Party activist who for many years edited the Iraq Occupation Focus newsletter. He now co-edits the Labour Hub website. His book Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow: the Labour Party after Jeremy Corbyn is published by OR Books (2022).
Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini
Hosnieh is a consultant anaesthetist at Oxford University Hospitals and Oxford City Council’s first Migrant Champion. She is the co-founder of the Migrant Champions Network hosted by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants.
Hosnieh is the daughter of a political refugee and arrived in the UK from Iran at the age of 13. Hosnieh is a trade unionist, a campaigner and an advocate for the rights of displaced people. Her work focuses on removing practical barriers to accessing public services. Hosnieh is also a passionate advocate for universal healthcare nationally and internationally, having campaigned with US colleagues for Medicare For All.
Mahmood Delkhasteh
Mahmood Delkhasteh completed his PhD in Political Sociology from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2007. He is political activist, writer, specialising in Iranian and Middle Eastern politics, Islam, democracy and human rights. He is also working on a novel, based on his memoir of the revolution, The sparrows of freedom, the untold story of Iranian Revolution.
Aghileh Djafari-Marbini
Aghileh Djafari Marbini is a Labour Party and Iranian political activist. She works for Socialist Health Association and runs a baby bank in Harrow. She has previously worked in the NHS for over a decade.
CONTACT US
Get in touch so we can start working together.