Why is Phil Twyford publicly endorsing a Marxist group which supports the Iranian dictatorship?

Last night I and a number of NZ Against Hamas members attended what was for me one of the most entertaining events of the last 12 months: a mass protest of a few hundred Kiwi Iranians against a dozen or so elderly communists who turned up to a meeting in Mt Eden War Memorial Hall in Auckland against American and Israeli military strikes on Iran. (That’s not an exaggeration: I only saw about a dozen people turn up, although I suppose more might have sneaked in the back to avoid being booed by the Iranians.)

We live in a crazy world

I’m not sure what was most hilarious: white people in Socialist Aotearoa t-shirts yelling at the Iranians for supporting the strikes, a Kiwi Iranian giving a speech condemning the commies for their “white saviour complex”, Kiwi Iranians shouting “Thank you Bibi, thank you Trump!” in gratitude for the strikes on Iran (a left-leaning Jewish member of NZ Against Hamas who was standing next to me commented with amusement that she thought the Iranians liked Bibi a lot more than she did), Kiwi Iranians shouting “Come out terrorists!” at the end of the event so that they could boo them, or Kiwi Iranians dancing for joy to “Ayatollah is Dead, Khamenei is Dead!” blasting rhythmically from a loudspeaker to music.

There’s stuff that needs reporting on

As much as I enjoyed myself, one of the NZ Against Hamas admin team told me afterwards that he watched the live stream of the event online, and some things were said that need drawing to the attention of the New Zealand public. If we had a competent media I wouldn’t have to write about this here on Kiwiblog, but as usual the only thing the media bothered to report on is that there was a brief physical scuffle between one of the Iranians and one of the commies outside.

The speeches were outrageous

The speakers explicitly said that they want the Islamic Republic to win, that they don’t think it is totalitarian (event organiser Suha Aksoy literally said “Totalitarian regime? I don’t accept that! I don’t accept that!”), and that education for women in Iran is “as good as it gets”. Every time these absurd things were said, a roomful of “peace activists” applauded. Aksoy also criticised people who are on the fence, saying that: “By undermining with this both sides of the fence attitude, very silly attitude in my opinion, if we do that, we are weaking our comrades. Comrades in this anti-imperialist fight. At this point in time we do not have any option but to support Iran… this war must be won by Iran!”

Here’s the footage

NZ Against Hamas uploaded the relevant section of footage to our public Facebook page, view for yourself: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1592232115261293

Communist hypocrisy

I note in passing the sheer hypocrisy of communists criticising the US and Israel for military strikes on Iran to effect regime change, ostensibly in the name of respecting national sovereignty and of opposition to violence, when on the other hand communists seek to overthrow governments everywhere via violent revolution.

Twyford praised the group

But while the unhinged opinions of the local communist cell in its latest anti-war iteration do not come as any particular surprise, what concerns me is that just 10 minutes after Aksoy spoke, Labour Party MP Phil Twyford thanked the group for organising the meeting, and said “I must say, I’ve really enjoyed listening to all the contributors.”

The Labour Party needs to distance itself from fringe politics

I reiterate for emphasis: Phil Twyford said “all” the contributors, which logically includes Aksoy. In my view it is grossly inappropriate for a Labour MP like Phil Twyford to praise this garbage. It is the sort of thing I would expect to hear coming from a Green MP. I am deeply concerned that through people like Phil Twyford these views could enter the mainstream and that is why I am calling it out here and now. The Labour Party should immediately and publicly distance itself from fringe and extremist politics.

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