MANSOOR HEKMAT, LEADER OF THE ICWP, DIED OF CANCER
LONDON 5 Jul. (IPS) Mr. Mansoor Hekmat, the 51 years-old founder and leader of the Iranian Communist-Workers Party (ICWP) died Thursday of cancer, the Party and his wife, Mrs. Azar Majedi announced.
A radical Marxist staunchly opposed to "classic" communism, or Marxism-Leninism symbolised by the defunct Soviet Union, Mr. Hekmat, born Zhoobin Razani started his political activities very early, under the former Monarchist regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, by creating the "Union of Communism Combatants" with fellow friends, aiming at "reviving true Marxism and denouncing the populism that was in vogue mostly in emerging third world nations", in the words of Mrs. Majedi, herself also a political activist and member of the Party’s political bureau.
He was one of the first and very few Iranian leftists who entered in opposition against the Islamic Republic and continued his struggle from the parts of the Iranian Kurdistan under the control of Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (DPIK) at the height of the mass execution of political prisoners ordered by Grand Ayatollah Roohollah Khomeini.
It was here when he founded the Iranian Communist Party following a split with the UCC that had gone close to Iranian Toodeh (Communist) Party and joined the Komola, a small but radical Kurdish-based Marxist organisation.
The Iran Communist-Workers Party was born after a new split, this time with Komola and the ICP.
Mr. Razani, alias Mansoor Hekmat, left Iran for Sweden after forces of the Islamic Republic took full control of Iranian Kurdistan, forcing all parties and organisations, which were fighting the new regime to flee to the Iraqi side of Kurdistan.
"All his life and works were dedicated to the establishment of a secular, democratic system where all men and women are equal and free", Mrs. Majedi said of her husband, author of several books and hundreds of articles on Marxism. ENDS HEKMAT DIED 5702