Iranian blood bath

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from 10 to 5 at West Oxford Binsey Lane, Oxford. Delegates credentials £3, observers £1.50 (unwaged £1) from Marie Campbell, 167 Walton Street, Oxford.

Allen has now been caught with his fingers in the till-having accepted $1,000 kickback for arranging an interview between a Japanese paper and Nancy Reagan.

His case lends the missing element of scandal to the pattern of crisis and confusion that characterises the Reagan administration-and his disgrace and possible removal may lead to an unexpected resolution of the feud between him and Secre tary of State Alexander Haig.

In either case the plight of US imperialism-and the American working class-is not a happy one. The task in this situation is to build a labour party based on the unions to defend the interests of US workers and spearhead the struggle against Reagan and the capitalists of the Democratic Party as well. LAST WEEK the Khomeini regime in Iran announced that there had been a "blood bath" in the Kurdish town of Bokan.. First reports spoke of spoke them a number d them a number o soldiers and pro-government Revolutionary Guards.

Within a few days the number had fallen to seven and the story was that Kurdish nationalist guerrillas the Peshmergas, had fired on innocent people.

The truth appears that about 700 people may have been killed by pro-government forces. It was certainly one of the biggest massacres in Iran since the fall of the Shah.

Bokan, though not one of the biggest towns Kurdestan, was a central base for the different leftist nationalist currents. About a year after the fall of the Shah, a fierce battle was fought there which resulted in the pro-Khomeini Islamic Guards being driven out of the city and to their being replaced by armed Peshmergas belonging to the main nationalist trends.

A joint committee with representatives Kurdish Democratic Party, the far-left Komala, Fedayeen Khala and the supporters of Sheikh Ezzedin Hosseini was set up to run the town.

Prior to this a committee had been set up under the name Association for the Defence of the Toilers, and this organisation took a leading role in setting up a network such councils throughout southern Kurdestan. Peasants and workers organisations in and around the town were also very active and militant.

crushing of this important centre of Kurdish resistance and leftist activity would be a decisive step forward in the attempt by the central government subdue Kurdestan ANDREW HORNUNG Sudan CAUGHT between the anger of the masses and the grasping bands of the imperialist bankers, President Numeiri's regime in Sudan has run into profound crisis.

Finance Minister Suleiman was forced last month to agree to a package that will devalue the Sudanese pound and reise prices of fuel, wheat and sugar. Only on this basis did the IMF agree to loan the bankrupt regime a further £122 In a bid to forestall mass revolt at such policies, Numeiri last week sacked his entire cabinet: but the policies have to be implemented if Sudan is to reschedule its huge foreign debts - exceeding £2.3 billion.