Marx Memorial Library Discussion Forums
Left Governments and Social Transformations
Demand for Democracy in Tehran in 1979
The overthrow of the British puppet monarchy in Iraq in 1958
Iran and Iraq Mohammad Omidvar, member Politbureau, Tudeh Party of Iran Salam Ali, International Secretary Communist Party of Iraq This is the third in the series of Discussion Forums which examine the lessons to be drawn from social transformations over the past century in which socialists and the Left played a central role. The first examined the lessons to be drawn from the Popular Unity government in Chile and the second the more recent experiences of the Left and Popular Front governments in West Bengal and Cyprus. This third discussion forum looks at two countries in the Middle East, Iran and Iraq, both previously under British imperial control, both experiencing periods of mass popular mobilisation and rapid political change in which the Left played a critical role. Both have also seen these popular movements being subverted by reactionary populist forces – either religious or nationalist. The speakers, authorities on their respective countries, will lead discussions on the lessons to be drawn. The three concluding forums, in February 2019, will consider the record of the 1974-1979 Labour governments in Britain elected on a programme promising an ‘irreversible shift of wealth and power in favour of working people’.
7 p.m. THURSDAY, 6 DECEMBER Register at door, 37a Clerkenwell Green, EC1R 0DU