MFI Interview Series on Kurdistan Strike: Hamid Takvaee, WPI (segments #1-4)

Mission Free Iran is conducting a series of interviews around the all-Kurdistan general strike that took place on May 13, 2010 in response to the most recent brutal executions on May 9 of five more beloved: Farzad Kamangar, Shirin Alam Hooli, Farhad Vakili, Ali Heidarian, and Mehdi Eslamian. Our purpose in conducting these interviews is to document the Kurdistan strike of May 13 as a historic event – there has not been a general strike of these proportions in the past 30 year history of the Islamic Republic – and to distill the lessons learned.

The first in this series of interviews is Mr. Hamid Taqvaee, the leader of the Worker-communist Party of Iran and a key initial supporter of Komeleh’s call for strike, issued May 10, 2010. We have divided the interview into 8 segments, each addressing a particular question or issue pertinent to the Kurdistan general strike on May 13.

The first four segments of the interview, which was conducted on Friday May 21, are posted here, with the remaining four segments to be posted tomorrow:

(1/8) What are the implications of the new form of protest & new leadership in the struggle against the Islamic regime that were exhibited on May 13 in Kurdistan?

(2/8) Although Kurdistan has its own special history and conditions, what lessons from the May 13 Kurdistan strike can be applied to facilitate an all-Iran general strike?

(3/8) Many demands of the movement in Iran come from the revolutionary left, but in general, people aren’t attaching to left organizations or identifying themselves as being from the revolutionary left. Why is this?

(4/8) Prior to the 1979 revolution, there was considerable government repression, yet people still managed to organize to oppose it. How did they do it then, and how can organizational strategy be improved now?