Speech of Issam Shukri, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Left Worker-communist Party of Iraq – LWPI, on the commemoration of Mansoor Hekmat

Dear Comrades and friends

Good evening

Today we commemorate a great leader and Marxist thinker: Mansoor Hekmat. Today, I will not stress the person despite its importance, but the politician. I would like to emphasize this great leader’s affection and devotion for socialism and the cause of humanity to end its exploitation and achieve equality and freedom for all people.

Mansoor Hekmat was neither a mere revolutionist nor a sole reformist. He was a Marxist. A revolutionary Marxist in the sense that while he cared about the well being of people and worked hard to elevate their living standards, prosperity, and human rights, he never forgot that true emancipation of humanity lies in the ridding of the capitalist system.

He was a Marxist in the sense that he did not, even for one minute, forget or ignore the fact that he was fighting to overthrow capitalism and replace it with a more humane order.

Mansoor Hekmat criticized and ridiculed the theoretical revolutionary tendency that prevailed in the traditional “Marxist” parties in Europe and elsewhere and had fully indulged in the daily struggles for equal rights for women, workers, youth, children, toilers and to enhance the standard of living for millions of people.

His out look to revolution was not that it was a dream or a mathematical equation that needs to be solved in the mind. For him, a socialist revolution was both a practical possibility and a necessity. A possibility we must work to achieve, not only wish for or dream about, a necessity because humanity can not go on humanely without it.

In a seminar delivered back in the early days of his struggle, 1982, Mansoor Hekmat defined the party as an embodiment of the complete independence of the working class both in the sphere of political theory and practice. He also declared that revolutionary Marxism must put the question of founding its party on the top of its agenda. Based on this principle Mansoor Hekmat formed, with his comrades, the Communist Party of Iran CPI.

Mansoor Hekmat later was the founder of the Worker Communist party and its program writer.

Today in Iraq we are at the threshold of forming a worker communist party in the meaning Mansoor Hekmat had pointed out to, 24 years ago. Before us stand hundreds of obstacles. Hard times in deed to build a strong communist movement in a country ravaged by vicious US war machine and Political Islam arsenal of savagery and barbarity.

A few months ago we have convened our 1^st. congress in Iraq. Our congress was held in very difficult conditions. Lack of safety and insecurity come on top, but we were not hindered or deterred.

Our congress was a successful event in which we managed to lay the foundation for a political worker communist party. It was an important event in Iraq because it represented on a large scale the importance of founding a socialist workers political party. We declared our resolute to fight for secularism and civility. We issued resolutions regarding our strategy to oppose the two poles of terrorism and mobilize people around our proposal. We issued resolutions about the referendum in Kurdistan and our relations to the Worker-communist Party of Iran – WPI, and the role of comrade Hamid Takvaee in defending worker communism. We also showed our support to the organization of Women’s Liberation of Iraq, and presented our political analysis to the current situation and our alternative. We tackled issues pertaining to organization and our new party organizational principles and disciplines.

In Iraq, our party has been expanding. We have managed to polarize communist members and cadres despite the harsh conditions. Today we have 4 local organizations inside Iraq; Baghdad, Nasiriyah, Kirkuk, and Sulaimaniyah. We also have cells in Shatra and Simawa in the south of Iraq. These organizations are working to expand the influence of the party and our political propaganda including our newspapers, literature, and announcements.

The vicious war between the two poles of terrorism in Iraq is a very powerful obstacle to the normalization of society and its recovery. The Dark Scenario in Iraq means putting the whole of Iraqi society inside an endless and dangerous tunnel. People do not know when this tragedy and misery ends, when this insecurity and destruction stops. They can not answer vital questions regarding their lives and well being. They do not know if their society is ever going to be a civil one or an Islamic jungle. Dark Scenario in its full-fledged unfold means the total alienation of people’s will to control their destinies.

Our principled stance since 2004 against the right wing trend in worker communist movement was not a coincidence. We consider the attempts of Rebwar Ahmad and his rightist leadership along with their “Hekmatist” allies in the Iranian faction, a continuation of old tactics. This tendency is finishing off an old job; the job that Abdullah Muhtadi and the Kurdish nationalist faction were unable to finish almost 20 years ago, i.e. reconciling with the Kurdish nationalist movement. This unachieved mission was interrupted then by the relentlessness of Mansoor Hekmat toward the nationalist tendency in the communist movement. Today we in the Left Worker-communist Party of Iraq - LWPI, are also making sure that worker communism in Iraq stays away from the influence of nationalism and opportunism embodied today in the rightist tendency organizations of Rebwar Ahmad’s party and their exposed attempts to reconcile and bow to the Kurdish nationalists, this time in power.

It is our duty to rid our movement of this destroying parasite. Mansoor Hekmat fought against it through the trend of Abdullah Muhtadi, and Hamid Takvaee fought it through the rightist splitting faction of Koorish Modarissi. For us, the struggle to save Mansoor Hekmats’ communism is absolutely necessary.  

Comrades and Friends,

The work of Mansoor Hekmat, his ideas, and political thoughts can not die out. They will live on because we will make sure to maintain them. We want to spread these ideas among workers and people and turn those words into a moving force that could change this upside-down and unjust world.

Today there are two parties of organized worker communism in Iraq and Iran. We have many friends and egalitarian people with us. We have shown important influence in the societies we live in. People hold great respect for our movement and look up to us for an answer. Today we must clearly realize our goals and know how to turn our parties into strong and capable forces. We must use this force to affect the situation for our interest. In Iraq we have the task of standing against the Dark Scenario and its forces. We must attempt to stop the terrorists’ war of the US and Political Islam. We must push these reactionary powers backward. We must attack nationalism and tribalism as reactionary and against people’s interests. We must defend secularism and its separation of religion from state. We must fight for women’s rights and the full equality between women and men. We must defend the youth’s freedoms and rights for a healthy, joyful and a happy life. We must defend children and protect their innocence from the abuse and barbarity of religion.  These could very well be the goals and aspirations of millions of people both in the Islam-trodden societies and around the world.

The Third Camp is one example I would like to emphasize today. It is the embodiment of what Mansoor Hekmat wrote in “The World After September 11”. We can make this international campaign a mobilizing force for millions of people in order to bring them to the forefront while pushing the two poles of barbarity and terror back. I take this opportunity to call upon our friends to join the Third Camp.

In Iraq we must build our party. We have to expand it and turn into a viable alternative. We must work to realize the goals and ideals of Mansoor Hekmat.

Mansoor Hekmat was a relentless fighter. That is how I like to remember this great leader. And that is what we should all aspire to be; fighters for socialism.

Socialism is the alternative for humanity.

Long live Mansoor Hekmat

Long Live Worker Communism

Long Live Socialism

Thank you,

Issam Shukri

Secretary of the Central Committee of

the Left Worker-communist Party of Iraq - LWPI

July 7-2006