Iran Arrests
Socialist Press1980 1980-11-12Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 2 →
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The increasing crisis of political authority in Iran despite the war with Iraq was shown by the arrest on 7 November of former foreign minister Sadeq Gotbzadeh for criticising the state broadcasting service.
Gotbzadeh remains a close confidant of the Ayatollah Khomeini, so that his early release can be expected.
Less hope can be entertained for Mohamed Reza Saadati, a leader of the left wing Mujaheddin movement, who is currently held at the Evin Prison where he was formerly held by SAVAK.
He is accused of being "a Soviet agent" because he interviewed Vladimir Finiskov, a member of the Soviet embassy staff, after the February 1979 Revolution about the activities of the CIA in Iran.
Saadati, who has been held in solitary confinement for some time, had his contact with Finiskov arranged through Yassir Arafat of the PLO.
He has been defended by President Bani-Sadi and also by the late Ayatollah Taleghani, who commended him for his efforts during 1979 to pre-empt a possible Royalist coup.
Even support of this kind by no means guarantees Saadati from execution. powers with the South African Yet he himself is constantly engaged in secret negotiations and deals beyond the eyes and control of SWAPO militants.
As the struggle inside Namibia continues to sharpen, SWAPO leaders will step up their desperate attempts to assert political control over the forward movement of the working class.
At the same time, they will be forced into greater reliance on secret diplomacy in their manoeuvres with imperialism.
The growing militancy and combativity of workers, militants and guerrilla fighters must be armed with a programme of struggle and an independent leadership that shows a real way forward in the interests of the oppressed masses.
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Seven Irish republican prisoners at the notorious Long Kesh concentration camp in Belfast are now in their third week on hunger strike. 1980 "We, the undersigned Republican PoWs presently incarcerated in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh firmly declare that from today October 27 1980, we shall embark upon a hunger strike in demand that we not only be recognised and treated as political prisoners, but as human beings.
Our grave decision to hunger-strike is entirely our own, and owes influence only to the perpetuation of four long years of British institutionalised torture and unprecedented barbarity here within H-Block • and