MFI Interview Series on the Kurdistan Strike: Hamid Taqvaee, WPI (segments #5-8)

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 last four segments of the interview, which was conducted on Friday May 21, are now posted:

(5/8) Green leadership has talked off and on about a national strike for nearly a year, but has not yet been able to implement one. Why not?

(6/8) Although there is no push for the separation of Kurdistan from the rest of Iran, nevertheless there seems to be an effort by some to frame the Kurdistan strike as a separatist act. Why?

(7/8) It seems that collaboration across various political groups made the success of the strike possible. If so, are there plans for continued cooperation in future activities?

(8/8) Would a coalition between nationalist and ultranationalist parties in Kurdistan and green Islamists or national-Islamist tendencies threaten a possible revolutionary outcome?