Iran: Workers Must Make the Revolution Permanent (second scan)

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IRAN: WORKERS MUST MAKE THE REVOLUTION PERMANENT

A pamphlet from the WORKERS POWER GROUP PLETE TERT TTT INTRODUCTION

The following articles appeared in the monthly newspaper WORKERS POWER, between October 1978 and June 1980. They represent an analysis of the unfolding Setales revolution based on the Trotskyist understanding of this revolution as one which either the Iranian proletariat makes “permanent”, or it will succumb to a counter - revolution, the end result of which will be a tyranny as bad as the Shah’s.

WORKERS POWER explained from the outset the contradictory nature of the Anti-Shah revolution. It was a genuine anti-imperialist revolt against the US’s prime agent in the Gulf region. His fall transformed this area into what Brezhinski calls “The arc of crisis”. The overthrow of the most heavily armed and effectively policed of semi-colonies gave an

enormous encouragement to struggles against imperialism and its stooges throughout the world.

The Anti-Shah revolution passed through several stages. The initial campus-based demonstrations led by intellectuals in 1977/78, and the brutal SAVAK/army repression they provoked, spurred the urban petty-bourgeoisie, the bazaar merchants and the mullahs to mobilise increasingly massive demonstrations, Yet it was the Iranian working class (especially the Oil Workers) who seized the Pahlavi regime by the throat. It was the guerrilla fighters and left-wing activists (Fedaii, Mujaheddin, Tudeh) who led the mass insurrection that aborted Khomeini and Bazafgan’s deal with the Shah’s generals.

WORKERS POWER argued that, whilst it was correct for the working class and revolutionary Marxists to fight alongside the mullah-led forces against the Shah’s army, that Khomeini, the clerical cast and its political hangers - on did not represent even a democratic leadership for the Iranian people. Whilst the masses had profound if ill-formed democratic expectations and illusions (greater national freedom, more land, freedom of organisation, assembly and speech), Khomeini and the clerics would move against these freedoms which the masses conquered for themselves, arms in hand.

Events over the last 18 months have amply born out these warnings. Important and heroic as the struggles of the Iranian left-wing students have been, the working class remains the only force capable of halting the spiral, through economic chaos and religious barbarism, back to a new military coup - a new “Shah” in all but name. The working class will not and cannot merely act as a driving force for a bourgeois revolution, and here Trotsky’s prognosis, framed as early as 1905, has been confirmed time and time again in the last 75 years. All the Stalinist/Maoist chopped logic about “national-democratic” or “peoples democratic” revolutions cannot but lead to the working class ceding power to, or actually supporting, its class enemies. No section of the bourgeoisie (“‘national’’, “patriotic” etc) can or will establish or endure for long a democratic regime of any sort. Certainly the mullahs will not. The only “democratic” regime there will be in Iran (that is, a regime that will grant the oppressed peoples seif-determination, women their liberation and peasants their land) will be workers democracy : a state based on the workers shoras and an armed workers militia. The working class will of course have to win to its side the great mass of the peasantry - it can only rule in Iran in alliance with the peasants. It must therefore defend and carry out the peasants demands, and the demands of the oppressed nationalities. But the central measures to solve Iran’s crisis are necessarily socialist ones. Nationalisation of ali large scale enterprises, foreign and Iranian; the creation of a plan for the economy; a massive campaign of social construction to absorb Iran’s millions of unemployed, etc.

Trotskyists do not ignore or underestimate the importance of the anti-Imperialist and democratic tasks facing Iran’s masses. They do deny that there is any other road to the fulfilment of these tasks than the class rule (dictatorship) of the proletariat, depending on the support of the peasantry and other oppressed sections. All genuine Trotskyists (and the “Iranian Trotskyists” of the HKE, who disgrace Trotskyism by their Menshevik pro-regime position) must stand for the overthrow by the masses not merely of Bani - Sadr or any professional politician who might replace him, but of Khomeini and Beheshti’s “Islamic Republic”’ itself.

September 1980

PAGE 2

TUTTE

Shah's rule shaken

Reprinted from WORKERS POWER No. 1

The massacre in Teheran on the 8th. of September, which resulted in the death of hundreds of unarmed demonstrators, has given a temporary breathing space to the Shah.

The corrupt. despot’s: regime rests solely on brutal forces of repression.

is armed; and backed ‘to the hilt, by those bastions of: ‘human rights” Jimmy Carter, James' Callaghan and

‘David Owen. :

‘America is'reported to be training

100,00 troops for: intervention, should

their guarantor’ of stability in the Gulf lose’ control of his own forces. The Iranian army is'stiffened by many: thousands of American advisers. The reports of soldiérs shooting themselves and ‘their efficers, show how badly this stiffening’ is tieeded. :

The deepening revolutionary up: heaval in Iran has passed through several phases. A campaign against repression was launched by dissident writers last spring. Meetings‘attracted ever larger crowds, oh meas of

- students.

October 1978

In November of last year, while the Shah was in Washington, police fired on students at Aryamehr University.

The demonstrations that followed gained the support of the urban masses in several cities.. The leader-

ship of this movement fell to the

Shiite Moslem religious leaders. The more radical sections have as their

goal the overthrow of the Shah and the re-introduction of the 1906 constitution: That constitution had certain liberal elements while its cletical provisions would hold serious implications for the workers and other oppressed strata of Iran.

» Fhe forces mobilised in demon- . strations, strikes etc. have widely differing ‘class interests. The liberal bourgeoisie wants a constitutional monarchy. They want to preserve Iran’s alliance with Imperialism. Many of the small traders of the bazaars, the impoverished small landowners and the unemployed, identify theif. ills correctly

‘with the Shah’s regime. But, under

the influence of the religious leaders,

Se hc

lran: workers tip the scales

Reprinted from WORKERS POWER No. 3

The total cessation of oil | exports from tran is undeniable testimony to the tremendous weight Iran's workers have thrown

into the scales in the struggle

against the blood soaked Shah. The strikes by bank workers, state employees, newspaer workers,

car workers, are inexorably strangling the functioning of the Iranian economy. Unpreccdented wage increases have been won (25% to 100%) over the last 3 months which Partly recoup the effects of inflation but the Strikes continue and are now overtly political,

| centring on calls for democratic

tights, the kicking out of foreign exploiters and the overthrow of the Shah and his machinery of mass murder.

The Ayatollah Khomeini, a

¥ce anti-communist is forced by

the obvious centrality of the

working class's strength to overthrowing the Shah, to praise the strikers and call on all oppositionists to give them financial and other support.

~The military regime despite

‘unexampled savagery has been

unable to restore order i in the streets or break the workers |

January 1979

resolve. The court camarilla, the genérals.and police chiefs and their CIA advisers have only two choices, more repression taken to genocidal . proportions or concessions.

The latter course, to have any chance of producing a stable © transitional government would necessitate the Shah’s flight along with the most notorious generals, SAVAK chiefs etc.

The crucial question facing the Iranian revolution is the role of tne working class. Already its

‘social weight is proving the single -most decisive factor. But more than this is needed if more than -the figurehead, the trappings of Pahlavi monarchy, are to-be altered. . A SAVAK-military dictatorship swathed in Islamic demagogy would be no step forward for lran’s oppressed masses. A coalition of ‘mullah nominees and bourgeois politicians swathed in anti-imperialist rhetoric would be, at best, -

a concealed foe of the working class and democratic rights—one which the exigencies of the class struggle: would soon drive sharply to the right. Whilst the. proletariat can and should fight alongside the

‘of the Tranian “ the unemployed and women. Already

they see the answer in a returi to a patriarchal Islamic utopia.

‘The Iranian working class holds the key to ‘the’ only stable alternative to the Shah’s regime. One that can meet the needs of the oppressed nationalities Empire, the rural poor,

major strikes have erupted in the car and textile industries. Over 7 million strong, the Iranian workers have the social weight to take the lead in the struggle to overthrow the monarchy.

The repression of the last 23 years has hit working class militants hard. As a result the Iranian working class has only the most localised industrial leadership. Stalinism, in its Soviet or Maoist forms, can only be a source confusion and defeat,

t in no way underestimating the struggle around ‘democratic demands’ only the perspective of . working class power can guide the Iranian revolutionaries to the correct tactics and strategy in the coming - —

2 bi

mullah led forces it will be fatal

for it to support a Khomeini-style government. Therefore the objective strength ofthe working class in the anti-Shafi movement must be transformed into conscious leadership. This requires the focussing of existing strike committees into effective workers councils. These must be organs not

only of mass strikes against the Shah, or his military successors, but of armed insurrection. They must become organs which can lead the'‘democratic and antiImperialist struggtes to their fulfilment in an Iranian Socialist revolutton.

To achieve this goal means the creation of an Iranian Trotskyist party capable of breaking the workers from the influence of the mullahs, the Tudeh and the Maoist guerilla organisations. The stagist conceptions of the Stalinists yield the leadership of the masses to anti-proletarian ‘progressive forces’. The full democratic demands of the Iranian revolution can only be won under conscious proletarian leadership. They can only be safeguarded by proletarian power. PRLS FA EI TET

its bloody puppet state in Iran. The stoppage of oil supplies

thi eatens severe disruption to the

ec: nomies of Imperialism’s most

. fai hful henchmen—Israel and

So ith Africa—as well as to the ec: nomies of the Imperialist he rtlands. |

That is why the Carter administr \tion has committed its security ap saratus and its fleet to the m: ssacre of the Iranian workers

an | peasants,

Not to be outdone the British

La sour Government—on the very day! mangled

tht Shah’s British tanks th: bodies of demonstrators on

Ht MT

No arms, no interventior

Reprinted from WORKERS POWER No.3 January 1979

" There is no limit to the hardware. | Im perialism will pigvide to prop up

the streets of Ghazvin and Tehran—

" announced its committment to

the butchery in Iran. 100 Shir One Chieftan Tanks, worth over

‘£500 million, will be delivered to

Iran by the spring. Callaghan and Holy Owen have promised the fulfilment of £1 billion worth of — arms orders with no cancellation. British workers cannot remain silent as the Imperialists step up the butchery of the Irani masses. If the British labour movement allows the transportation of arms . to the forces of repression and murder in Iran then it too will be complicit in the deaths of thoysands of Irani workers and

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IRAN: workers must make the revolution ‘permanent’

Rt printed from WORKERS POWER No.3 January 1979

Tk e prolongued revolutionary sit :ation in Iran holds enormous po ‘ential for destabilising Western im »erialism economically and pe itically. Carter and Owen, th ise sérmonisers of ‘human’ rig 1ts and christian values, know th t theféare serious interests at st: ke in Iran. Serious enough for th m to stand shoulder to shoulde ‘ with the Shahas he sheds riy srs of blood to preserve the m: st savage tyranny on the pl nef. For this reason the Shah’s 4, 100 strong army has 1,200 miliat ry and 7,500 civilian American ‘a visors’. The notorious Savak, se up in 1957 and reconstructed af er the 1963 upheavals, has betwen thirty and sixty thousand m an. It was ‘advised’ at all stages by the FBI and the CIA who have 5 top agents in Savak.

This enormous apparatus of tre \ression was built up by the US ar i Britain to serve their econc mic and strategic interests. Ir: n yields massive super-profits. O: .¢ British businessman is reporte | as saying that he ‘makes 40% m 1re profit here than in Britain’. A’ the heart of these interests is th : oi} industry. It supplies 13%

P/GE 4

of American and 12% of UK imports, Although formally . nationalised, the consortium which controls it is 40% British and 40% UK in composition. These are the ‘British and Western

- interests’ that Dr David Owen

talks about defending.

Even more important than the oil wealth and investments of Iran is its strategic position. Groomed by the United States and Britain to play the role of policeman of the Gulf area in the ‘indirect’ or ‘neo-colonial’ system which replaced the direct British military presence after 1968, the Shgh’s forces have seen service against the liberation forees in Oman,

The overthrow of this regime holds incalculable consequences for imperialism—hence the flood of telegrams of support for the Shah from the White House and Whiichall.

Much of the Iranian Left refer to the Shah’s regime as ‘fascist’. This is incorrect. The restoration of the Shallin 1953, by a military coup assisted by the CIA, initiated a military bonapartist tyranny of unusual severity. This regime represented the political expropriation of the bourgeoisie and the feudal landowning class in the

- A campaign of solidarity with he workers and of Iran nust be built in the British labour novement. There is ndtime to

vaitfor fine speeches and petitions. Action must be taken now to black

il arms supplies to the butchers of Iran. This means fighting for ction by munitions workers, by

’ ransport workers, by dockers and

iirport workers to stop the flow of arms now,

In every town labour movement

‘ ommittees of solidarity must be uilt—committed to action, to lacking, to demonstrations to ‘ orce the Labour Government to wreak with Imperialism and its

: __ ilies in Iran.

nterests of preserving capitalism n the interests of imperialism and igainst the working class. The

- 3hah’s regime rests upon imperial-

_ $m externally, and.internally upon

in artificially induced i impasse in che class struggle.

The Shah has given, in a % ieformed way, certain social consessions to the various clagses— and reform to the peasants, ndystrial development to the yourgeoisie. Political rights arid *xpressions were, however, totally ‘orbidden. The massive apparatus

' 9f repression is a testimony to

che lack of a solid social base for she Shah’s regime. It is this social yasis which real fascism possesses n the enraged reactionary petityourgeoisie and lumpen prole-: :ariat. Both these classes are, aowever, in the forefront of the >pposition movement. They figure amongst those most bitterly

_ Ipposed to the present regime. Since the'sixties there has been a

' ;onsiderable growth of industry, :

setrochemicals, steel, car, truck ind bus production and assembly,

- slectronics and machine tools. As

t result the Iranian industrial sroletariat has grown in size (2.5

_nillion in 1977).

CONTINUED ON. NEXT PAGE

‘Yet despite all this the Iranian “economy found itself in deep ‘Crisis by 1977. Partly this was the - effect of the world capitalist crisis, partly the accululation of contradictions engendered in Iran’s mode of industrialisation.

_ Firstly the Agrarian Reform the Shahi had imposed after 1962 was typical of a ‘revolution from above’—of Bonapartist land reforms which whilst it weakens the old landowning, class and opens agriculture to capitalism, in fact swindles the vast majority of the peasantry. leaving them landless (50%) or with tiny plots (30%). The reform was designed to strengthen those peasants who already owned lard and implements and draught animals.

The net result has been the creation of two ‘new’ classes in the countryside, capitalist land- -onwers and landless labourers. However the result has not been a gapid capitalisation and modernisation of agriculture. Land has been abandoned, villages deserted and the result has been rocketing imports of foodstuffs plus a flooding into the cities of the rural unemployed.

Secondly, there has been a tendency for the effects of the political regime to syphon off an increasing proportion of the oil revenué-arms. and military spending and‘corruption: The failure to develop a skilled Jdbour force also places severe limits on Iran’s development,

The crisis of 1977-8:took the form of escalating inflation, food prices and rents in particular soaring. This affected the whole urban population.

The Bazaar

The bazaar was, until the 1950s and 60s, the centre of urban economic life. Dominated by very wealthy merchants but consisting of its overwhelming bulk of one and a half million shopkeepers, money lenders, traders, craftsmen - and artisans, it ‘had in the past funded trade and been the centre of much production and nearly all exchange.

The foreign banks, the indus-: trial production of consumer goods, the large stores have all undermined ' and threatened the tradiational way. of life and culture of the bazaar’, This traditional culture is deeply Moslem. Its ideologists:and léadets-are the mullahs, its cultural’ and political centre the mosque. Shiia Islam represents a unifying ideolegy, one that in 1963-and 1978 has spearheadéd mass resistance to the Shah’s regime.

Shiia Islam has its origins in resistance to the constituted state authority, fourided as it is on allegience to the deposed and martyred son-in-law of the Prophet, Ali. Its most sacred figure after the prophet is the Iman Hossein murdered by the tryannical Caliph Yazid—an event commorated by the ‘days of mourning’ of early December (Moharram). It also has a pronounced millenarian aspect. Beliévers expect the ‘return’ of the twelfth Imman who will institute a pure Islamic order, Shiia is much less attuned to the state than Sunni Islam— indeed it is headed by a powerful and independent caste of mullahs (180,000 of them) wit. « hierarchy of Ayatollahs the leader of whom Khomeini was elected in 1962,

The reality of the Religious Opposition leaders is at variance with the Carter/Owen picture of. them as reactionary fanatics who want to take Iran back to the seventh century. Khomeini insists that “I have always called strongly for economic and social development in my country” and expouses what he calls ‘the principles of democracy and freedom’. By this he appears to mean a republic based on iiniversal suffrage and with freedom for political parties.

*... the Marxist will be free to exprgss themselves because we are. convinced that Islam contains the answer to the peoples needs. Our faith is capable of standing up against their ideology.” (Le ‘f Monde, Paris, May 6th 1978). Khomeini can sum up his aim thus “As soon as the Shah goes we want the creation of an Islamic republic based on the popular yote.” (Le Monde, November 8th, 1978). It is precisely the ‘Islamic’ nature of this state that holds the greatest dangers.

Shi'ite veto

.Whilst Khomeini tea made it clear that he is not thinking of a regime like Saudi-Arabia or Pakistan he obviously intends to install in a future constitution provisions which give the Shiia heirarchy a veto on legislation similar to that embodied in the 1906 Constitutio. The non-Persian nationalities, the non-Shiia religious minorities and women could expect little that is ‘liberal’ or ‘democratic’ in such a regime.

What Khomeini does loudly and vociferously attack is American Imperialism. He declares his support for the Palestinians. All these factors suggest that a Khomeini influenced regime would be of a populist Islamic aationalist type. To draw paralleis

with Pakistan or Indonesia is a mistake. Both these dictatorships were established in the defeat of a popular upsurge where the working class were unable to seize power.

Islamic ideology is Janus-Faced, It can justify anti-imperialism, resistance to. the foreign powers seeking to exploit or dismember the states of the Middle East. It can also justify black reaction— the suppression of the working class and poor peasantry. The inner connection is that like all religions it defends private property. As long as the possessing classes of the imperialised nation feel the major threat to their property to lie with imperialism then they can play a vigorous role in the struggle against it. Islamic ideology will then have a ‘progressive’ populist colouration and orientation. When: the working class or small peasants become a serious threat not only to imperialism but to the native larger property owners it can become a clozk. for Bonapartist military dictatorship or even fascist reaction (as in Turkey).

Khomeini’s movement can therefore not be defined by

. adding up progressive democratic-

points as agdinst reactionary points. The USFI and the International Spartacist Tendency both use this method but get different answers to the sum. The USFI gets the answer that Khomeini is

a ‘progressive force’, a democrat. The Sparticists find that he is a ‘black reactionayy’. One plays into the hands of the mullahs, the other into the hands of the Carter and .Owen propaganda for the Shah. Neither is of use,to Iranian

revolutionary communists who.

have to win the masses now under religious leadership or influence, to the perspective of proletarian Tevolution.

For those who see all evil as lying in the religious ideology of the opposition the secular ‘Union of National Front Forces’ led by

‘Karim Sanjabi might seem to be «

‘democratic’ force of the sort Marxists could fight alongside of. This party of the large bazaar merchants, some industrialists and the professional middle class cloak itself in the bourgeoisi-nationalist mantle of Mossadeq, the prime minister overthrown by the CIA in 1953. But it is the most compromised and half-hearted force in the opposition, It remains irresolute and torn between Khomeini and the Shah. Its leaders names figure largely on the ‘list of 4 names’ the Shah has been pondering over as candidates to a government of ‘national reconciliation’. Sanjabi is one of the three politicians most frequently clossetted

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

‘ Sali Tite Teligious oppo- . know their measure. The eatetial, of Abadan commented “Sanjabi ind Bazargan at heart want to 1 egotiate with the Shah. These men are bourgeois. We only have n:idence in Khomeini for only he r:ally-wants the Shahito go.” (Le .Vionde, November 6th, 1978) .. The aspirations and mentality of the Ir: nian bourgeoisie is well expressec in the statement of a business nan to the Le Monde correspo ident, “‘But where is the intransigi nce of the Ayotollah Khomeini going to lead? The Shah is on his cnees. The Ayatollah should tske advantage of it to impose on him respect for, and consolid: tion of, the constitution we obtai1ed from Sharif Emani’s governm:nt and which General Azhari’s :abinet is in the process of taking back.” It is obvious that the ‘dem ocratic rights’ these .. xk gentlemen desperately want are the posts of imperial ministers for themsely +s.

“fowe rer as with the religious leaders it is not merely. their class or caste interest or personal inclination wh ch has determined their actions. ’“he mass mobilisations have kep : Sanjabi out of office just as thy have radicalised the mullahs.

. _ If the first}Wave of thé Iranian revolution was spearheaded by the intellects als—writers and students and cent: ed on the universities. If the secor d wave, starting with the demonsti ations and massacre in Qom on. /anuary 9th 1978, marked _ the passa se of the thovement to the phase of ‘religious leadership’, then Oct.»ber and November of 1978 showed the emergence of the Irani: n proletariat, as the key force cap ible of toppling the Shah.

The proletariat

The l anian proletariat has a history ¢f militant trade union and socialist >rganisation. The first unions i: Iran were set up by workers ‘eturning from the Baku oilfields n Russia after the defeat of the 1£05 revolution. The young labour movement participated in the 1907-1909 revolution in Iran. After the war a communist party was form ed and some of the trade unions a:filiated to the Red Inter-

national f Labour Unions in 1921.

‘The Pahlavi dictatorship crushed x all indep :ndent workers organisations in 1928. :

In 19-4 an franian TUC was formed t nder communist influ-nc ence. By 1946 it had a membership of 40,000; Fifty thousand workers elebrated May Day in Teheran n 1946. But the slavishly pro-Sovitt politics of the Communist Party (Tudeh), which had 25,000 nembers, ruined this

PAGE 6

movement. They held back the strike wave while the Soviet © Union was haggling with the British and Americans over the

- Kurdistan and Azerbaijan republics

which had beén set up in the © North. Stalin traded these republics for oil and gas concessions in Iran.

The Tudeh was initially. hostile to Mossadeq (from the right, because his policies threatened to

~ “upset the Soviet-Imperialist status

quo), but it moved to a full popular frontist tailing of his bourgeois nationalism. It missed the . crucial opportunity of mounting resistance to the coup of August 1953 and witnessed the immediate smashing of the trade unions and in 1955 the uncovering of its illegal and military organisations. The Tudeh was almost completely obliterated by Savak.

Only in September of 1978 did a section of the party decide to reconstitute a ‘party of the interior’. According to Le Monde

. (December 6th 1978), “they admit

that the reconstruction of the apparatus and the setting up of a serious organisation will take . several years.” Though this state-

ment speaks volumes for Stalinist . -

bureaucratism and inertia it also bears witness to the decay into

which Tudeh has fallen. An added.

reason for such modest perspectives is that Moscow has by no means given the go-ahead for fullblooded participation in the overthrow of the Shah. Brezhnev’s non-agression pact with the Shah and his imperialist backers cripples the Tudeh as a party of the insurgent proletariat. :

Yet despite the bankruptcy and destruction of the historic

‘ leaders, the Iranian proletariat

has started to play an ever more decisive role. The atrocity of the cinema fire in Abadan revealed the depths of savagery of the Shah’s regime to the oil workers and started their self-organisation.

The strike movement in the oilfields beats all the marks of the spontaneous revolutionising of the workers. On October 23rd the 12,000 workers at the Oil Refinery in Abadan came out on strike for economic demands. These were conceded in 3 days. After the return to work mass meetings ensued, students being present at the discussion of political questions. On the 29th, mass meetings formulated political demands:

“Abolition of Martial law, freeing of political prisoners, the disbandment of SAVAK, the departure of American advisors, ‘a fight against cor-~ ruption, the conviction of all those who have committed crimes against the people.”

The strike has ebbed and flowed

since then with thousands of troops driving workers at gun point into the refineries. Those inside have slowed production to

a snail’s pace. BBC correspondents in late December report the formation of factory or plant com-1" mittees.

In Teheran the bank workers | have not only struck but begun to exercise elements of inspection. _ They have revealed for example a list of 18@ named persons promihent in the regime who had transferred 4.2 billion dollars out of Iran. The newspaper workers have fought bitter battles for the freedom to report the events of the Autumn.

The working class is participating wholeheartedly in the struggle to bring down the Shah. Indeed, it alone has the economic strength and social cohesion to do this. The mass strike wave has put the noose arotnd the Shah’s neck and is tightening it. Strike committees are springing up in the struggle. They must, at the earliest opportunity, be generalised into city-wide workers’ councils. The

~ morale of the army-is‘already

weakened. In Tabriz on 18th December, a unit downed arms and joined demonstrators with their armoured cars, The formation, and arming of workers’ militia as army discipline breaks down is crucial, as is the creation of barrack commitees and soldiers’ councils.

franian. ‘revolutionary communists must develop the strategy and tactics which the working class must employ to. overthrow the Shah and smash the monstrous machinery of repression. This means marching alongside the ‘religious opposition’. Its central and most deeply felt immediate dem: -<: ands, the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty, the smashing of SAVAK, the release of all political prisoners, free elections and freedom of political parties, the nationalisation of British and American monopolies are national-revolutionary — and bourgeois-democratic demands that the proletariat must support. To this extent an anti-

- imperialist united front is poss-

ible. However, the religious leaders are, and will prove themselves to be, uncertain and treacherous allies. Khomeini has declared himself against any co-operation with communists. ‘even toibring down | the Shah.’ His sttemocratic* programme would enshrine a religious obscurantism in a new constitution. Should the working class appear to threaten Iranian, moslem, private property(including the massive riches of the

_ mosques) but prove unable 'to

CONTINUED" M, NEXT. PAGE

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“draw the non-proletarian masses behind it and seize power, then Khomeini or another religious: leader could use the petty-bourgeoisie and lumpenproietariat as fas ‘~t terror squads against the workers. Alternatively the Ulema could sanctify a new military dictatorship. At the moment, however, these masses, with all

. their religious prejudices, have democratic aspirations, that is they believe that democratic rights. will alleviate their social

-needs, If Khomeini reconciled himself to an ‘Islamic’ military dictatorship immediately the Shah fell, he would undoubtedly lose his-mass following rapidly.

_ Its illusions in the anti-imperialist and democratic credentials of Khomeini and the mullahs that revolutionaries must challenge. To do this'means perticipation bY Iranian Trotskyists in the struggles launched by those leaders, under clear, independent slogans with full warnings about the religious leaders. Democratic demands have enormous importance, Correctly and fully posea they can win first the proletariat and then other oppressed strata away from the religious and bourgeois leadership. The working class is, and can.be, the only consistenthy.. democratic force. The demands that they fight for must include, freedom of speech, ass-

- embly and the press, legality for

~ trade unions and political parties and the right to strike. The ‘question of Iran’s national minorities must not be forgotten, the Shah’s empire is a, ‘prisonhouse of nationalities’. Only 50% of Iran’s population speak Farsi (Persian) though another ° two related languages make up another 11%. The rest belong to distinct national ethnic groups,

Azerbaijanis, Kurds, Baluchis and © Arabs. The right to self-determination, up to and including separation, must be defended by the Iranian proletariat. They must support any national uprising of these peoples.

Likewise Iranian revolutionaries must fight for the full democratic rights of women and their emancipation from the ag¢-old restrictions imposed by religion'as well as the State. The right to own and dispose of property, entry to all © occupations, equal rights in the family, in sum full legal equality in all spheres. Women have been active participants in the move ment against the Shah. The religious leaders have tried to limit them to propagating the idea of a full return to the veil and the 4 full rigours of Islamic law. Women must be won to the side of the - only class capable of gaining not only their equal rights but, via the destructic’ of capitalism, achieving their full social emancipation.

‘A clear majority of Iran’s pop-~ lation is rural, consisting of landless or small-land owning pease... ants. The proletariat must raise the slogan ‘the land to those who till it’, Part of the reason for the stability of the Pahlavi dynasty and for the effectiveness of the army as an instrument of repress-

’ ion, is the quiescence of the peas-

antry. In early December, the Shah is reported to have anxiously asked a visitor, ‘ But are the peasants also against me ?’ (Le Monde 6.12.78) The workers must encourage peasant seizure of large estates belonging to the old aristocracy, the Imperial family, the court clique and the foreign foreign agricultural enterprises, Whéther an individual or a collective form of land-ownership

TUTE E EE LULEECCUCC

Rignts and wrongs

of the Soar

tacists

Reprinted from WORKERS par No.3 January 1979

The Spartacists central stogan “Down with the Shah, Down with the Mullahs” is in our view seriously mistaken. Firstly the Shah is at the moment the central agentof AngloAmerican imperialism. The Mullahs on the other hand are leading mass opposition to the Shah and his foreign advisors. To equate them outrages the anti-imperialist feelings of the Iranian masses. The Spartacists throw together in a hopeless jumble every aspect of the mass movement

and label it reactionary. For example

“they see ettacks on the cultuy ai

gifts <* Western civitication, porn, ographic films, luxury hotels, cocdcola stores merely as signs of obscurantism and backwardness. They present the mass demonstrations as “suicidal advances on the Shah troops” and talk about the “chilling spectacle of protesters clad in ceremonial whrte rabes” being mown down as “equaily grotesque” as the Shah’s claims that few have been killed.

They draw attention to ‘ritual ‘self-flagellation’ on the demonstrations despite the fact that Khomeini has explicitly calied for this practice to

prevails will depend on the time scale of the proletarian seizure of power.

There are numerous religious minorities in Iran, Sunni Moslems, Armenians, Jews, Bahais etc. A Shi'ite republic would be oppressive to tnem as weil as to women and the working class. Therefore, the demand for complete secularisation, the separation of Mosque and State i is vital. The prolétariat does not seek to trample on the religious scruples of any grouping where these affect _

_only believers and do not violate the aemocratic rights of others.

All these democratic demands culminate in the demand for a constituent assembly, elected by + full suffrage and with full powers, that is with no committee of © ulemas to vet its actions, These demands, consistently and vigourously fought for, would enable the vanguard of the proletariat to rally behind it the social forces to ensure that the revolutionary process which has opened up in Iran, is not aborted in the form of an Islamic military Bonapartism, or of an inherently unstable bourgeois democracy with” enormous coneessions to Shi'ite . theocrac}. The Iranian revolution, if it is to accomplish even its antiimperialist and: democratic tasks, must become proletarian. However, the ‘revolution in permanence’ of Marx, Lenin and Trotsky is not an unconscious © or automatic process. It necessitates a bolshevik vanguard party which has won the leadership ot an armed working class organised in Soviets. To this task Iranian revolutionaries must devote themselves. British communists must render them every possible ass-

be abandoned. It is one thing to warn against the anti-working class nature of the Shi‘ite leaders. It is quite another to fall into using the same phrases

as the White House and,

Street aposties of civilisation afi present the religious leaders and

their movement as reactionary

bigots no better, or possible worse than, the Shah (after all the Shah does not want to return to the Sevent century, condemn women to the veil ete}.

CONTINUED ON rexT DART

hata ace Se actstWouid in jalist

* he Sheh in Iran.

‘cmeseeeeuncasse itwogidbeg,s Ad2lchd gectarian position for an trentan Tro party. In the Imperialist heartland \it'defocusses from the ccatral tacks of exposing the alibis cf the Carter's and Owens end mobilising the working class to block arms ard supplies to their direct aaents in Iran. : ' Onthree recent demonstrations in solidarity with the struggle in tran the Spertacists have been excluded from the march by the organisers. At the CARI demonstration of Decemer 17th in London the

” Spartacist contingent was excluded by the CARI organisers with the full complicity of the IMG. Leading IMG members participated in a cordon to separate the Spartacists from the march. That cordon allowed the police to force their way into the demonstration and so harrass the Spartacists until they left the demonstration. This action by the CARI organisers and the IMG must be condemned. We hold no brief for the principle slogans of the Spartacists. But the CARI/IMG action (supported by the SWP) establishes a precedent of allowing the police tointervenein — . fabour movement and solidarity - demonstrations and actions. It means

MITTEE LULL

Key task to breek the Army

Reorinted from WORKERS POWER-Nc 4 February 1979,

Tie continuad-savage repressjun sinca the Shan’s isks tea” written in the biced of hundreds of couregecus lranicns tha truth that the military bonepertist tyranny still eccists, it merely has a new and pathetic “bonanarte’. The Beictisgrecimeibicames < preccriousion tid temporery « impasse between the-patid reactionarics of the ipa mand and tho mess moversént on the streets, the bazaar merchaiits, the students and the striking workers, who have mada Iran

‘ungovernable’. Bakhticr may |

wol! be, as the Americen Magazine —

Newswoesk puts it ‘philosophicaily— a Swadish style Social Democrat’ — but he is tisd, not to a mass reformist workers organization in a stake metropolitan-capitalsm, but to the Iranian High Soramand, in the middle of a revolution. The Paris daiiy ‘Le Monde’ is nearar the mark when it points out thet Bakhtiar is a great admirer of General de Gaulle, and rogerds himself as 4 ‘man of dscizion’. Clearly ha would like to. play the role of a ‘domocratic’ ‘ponnporte.

The-stegans of the demonstrators however co to the heart of the metter ‘Bakhtiar lackey without power’. Bakhtiar is in the last instance a pawn of the generals. Ke issues orders for the soliders to guard Teheran airport and they close it. He issues orders for,‘no shooting’ and 30 are gunned down as the Imperiel: Guard runs amok. The Generals weould.like to smash.the whole opposition, to slaugtar-all its teadars and

They would, in such an emene, no deuht hanoily ocd

' mastets urge caution. They fear that in any attempted solution the military machina might disintegrate. Nevertheless they will.let them off the leash if Bakhtiar fails to blunt the masses’ — offensive. Balchtiar’s role is to pacify the generals en the one hand and come to en understanding with the religious leaders on the other—hence his attempted flight to Paris to talk to Khomeini.

Khomeini, as leacer of the Opposition i is subject to

“qmassive pressure from the varied “forces making up the anti-Shah

_coalition. Over the past month his refuge in Paris has been the scene of many ceputations urging compromise. The National Front

Danus Farouhar to Paris in mid January. At the same time Khomeini received a five man delegation from the Teheran Chamber of Commerce and Industry which complained of the industrial and commercial ruin facing them if the strike fcontinigs |Khomeini never-theless retused all compromise before his return to Teheran, though ther. was vacilletion amongst his advisors over Bakhtiar’s projected visit. Khomeini has throughout the struggle called on the army to desert the regime. Initially he appealed to the generals to ‘rally to the cause

_o& the mation! {Le fends ~ 31.10.76). in the few days since his return, Khomeini has made it clear that he is not committed to breaking up the’ army and the power of the Generals. in fact there are serious cians of an attemntec!

the establishment of bans and proscriptions in the labour movement— a tactic most naturally the property of the Stalinists and labour bureaucrats.

Workers Power-alony with the I-CL and the WSL—declared in advance our opposition to the ban on the Spartacists. We will continue to.do so on all future demonstrations. In any united front slogans may be raised which other sections of the United Front find objectionable or even labour movement must be settied by argument, not by the use of goon squads or the capitalist police.

~~ ‘The mobilisation of all the oppressed classes and strata in Iran, though directed against the Shah and mystified in religious

ideology threat to private property whether sacred or profane. For the masses most immediate vital needs will not be met by a regime however ‘Islamic’, which is based on its ar sre On the other

it is in the direct interest

_ of the masses that the discipline

and cohesion of the army disintegrates completely from the ranks upwards. Not one stone of the fortress of repression must be left standing upon another. But why.

’ ‘has this fortress remained fundam-

entally intact despite all the massacres? The Iranian army is massive— between three and four nundred thousand men. The military command pursues the policy of keeping the army constantly on the move by means of massive helicopter fleets. Soldiers are thus protected from ‘contamination’ by being stationed for long among civilians. In addition Turkish-speaking soldiers from Azerbayan will be used for repression in Teharan—Shirazi - soldiers in Mashad etc. In addition there are eiite sections— and indoctrinated like the 10,000 strong Imperial Guard whose Haridan Brigade was paraded for journalists at the Lairzan Barracks in late January. But-even this - corps is not immune to the effects of what they are doing. In December three enlistec:men burst into the

soldier is paid considerably more than the masses.of urban and

rural ppor, though less than a skilled worker. As far as possible they are isolated from society, ‘serving hundreds.of miles frora * their area of recruitment. They

are themselves riddled with agents and informers of Military Intelligence. The disaffection of the troops used to slaughter demonstrators has reached fever pitch at various points, Units have joined demonstrators or refused to fire but the prevalence of incidents -where soldiers have shot themselves or the events at the Lavizan Barracks outside Teheran in December where ‘officers’ mess and sprayed its inmates with machine gun fire, Andicate the still isolated nature these outbursts. Army morale ‘4s-uncertain but not broken.

The Officer Corps is an elite

civil or religious. The high command

consists of ferocious ioyalists to

the bonapartist regime. Although two of the most blood-thirsty reactionaries General Gholam

Ali Oveissi, ex-administrator of martial law in Teheran and General Khosrodad, chief of the ‘air cavalry’

"fave been removed or posted to

distant garrisons, the outlook of

the High Command is well summed up by a spokesman for the pro-

Shah politicos, “At the moment

the commanders don’t know whether to chop (Khomeini) up for dog meat or to use him for target practice.”

_ (Guardian 22.1,1979). “ Most of the Generals and the

Ufficer Corps know that they have little to expect except popular

_ vengeance once the weapons of

repression slip from their grasp. They have no perspective expect to attempt to drown the movement in séas of blood. The masses of © rank and file soldiers, on the other hand, can be won over; the isolated mutinies reveal this. But to produce a massive breakdown of morale such that the soldiers break ranks and join the masses, pass arms to the workers, peasants, studerits, arrest their officers etc requires decisive organised action on the part of the masses.

There can be no doubt of the heroism and willingness to sacrifice of the masses in the

PORTE T TAU CTU EE UTUUET CTE EEE EEE EEE ee

Beware of the Religious | leaders No-to an Islamic reouolic ©

Reprinted from WORKERS POWER No. 4 February 1979

The Ayatollah Ruaholiah Khomeini has said that he regards the mass demonstrations in December and January as a referendum in his favour and as a mandate to name the members of a provisional council made up of ‘Moslem believers’, a new~

_premier and a provisional government. This would prepare elections, Khomeini, in an interview with a-Beirut newspaper, has indicated that he does not accept the idea of a-one party system (Economist

~ 13.1.1979). Further he proclaims that “an Islamic government is not backward looking. We approve of civilisation but not that which

4 goes against the interests and dignity

of our people.” Does this make

Khomeini a democrat? Far from it.

The Shia hierarchy, of whom he is the spokemsan, have as their

ideal a Moslem theorcracy, Over

_ the last fifty years the Mullahs

have-fost control over education and the law which have been secularised.

_ They have lost the ’waqf’ lands

which financed the mosques, and they have lost all influence over policy—most notably the.power to enforce Islamic precer’s with regard to women and family law. Empty of progressive content as most of the Shah’s ‘reforms’ were, the restoration of the hierarchy’s power in all these areas would clearly be a reactionary act. The complete separation of

: Mosque and State is a measure in

the direct interest of workers, poor peasants, students and intellectuals, women and the national and religious minorities.

At the level of state power Khomeini wants to build in a veto,

streets, The crucial question is leadership, strategic goals ana specific tactics. The bourgeois oppositionists in the National Front. fear the collapse of the Army more than they fear a military dictatorship. The highly socially conservative

goals of the religious opposition

offer little to the sons of peasants and workers in the army. Neither,

« does Khomeini wish to launch an-

insurrection. He hopes that mass demonstrations plus the creation of a shadow provisional government will be enough to win over

a key section of either the high _ command or the Islamic nationalist colonels. Nor is Maoist guerr- _— illaism appropriate to these tasks. Strategically it rejects the goal of proletarian revolution and thus subjects the working classtoan ° alliance with the ‘national bourgeoisie’ and: the ‘progressive alliance’, It elevates guerilla struggle itself to a strategy and thus has not built its base in the factories and workplaces and does not base itself on the self-organisation and selfactivity of the working class. Workers’ councils, a workers’ militia the turning of the general strike into an insurrection, require a party with a completely different perspective.

HG RIM LD PPE RPG tw 2

or the power to nominate candidates, for the Shia clergy at all ‘tevels. in an interview with Le

\ Monde (10.1.1979) he makes this

clear, “We will charge a committee to proceed with consultations to form an Assembly, The people have already pronounced their

’ will'to have an Islamic government.

But if a referendum is necessary on the legal basis for it, we will not refuse this. The Committee would consistof believers. It could include ulemas either with full or with observer stptus, We will propose a candidate for

‘the presidency of the Republic. “He would have to be elected by

the people, Once elected we would support him; The laws of an Islamic government would be the

CONTINUED ON. NEXT. PAGE

PAGE 9°

of Islam.” Asked what the

attitude of such a government would

be to.non-believers, Khomeini replied, “We would try to show the way to salvation to these people. {f they do not want this they will be free in their daily life providing they do not foment plots harmful to the people and the country.” Khomeini‘s closest political ally in secular politics is the politician Mehdi Bazargan head of the Iran Liberation Movement which stands outside the National Front and is opposed to the inclusion of social-democrats in any future government, Bazargan’s party is avowedly Islamic, Thus the goals and political allies of the religious opposition are far from consistent democracy. Indeed an islamic Republic designed according to their wishes would be a plebiscite bonapartism, albeit with a populist and anti-imperialist colouration. The structure of the Mullah-led opposition is powerful and dangerous, Its main social base, the bazaar merchants of Teheran, dispose of an efficient organisation headed by five leaders each of which has a network of sub-leaders. These can mobilise garigs of ‘luti’— unemployed youth, bazaar porters and labourers, Each major leader is reported as being ablé to mobil_ ize 5,000 ‘luti’ within half » hour. This ‘Mil?tia’ can serious threat to the wor vl class. The religious opposition itself

is also increasingly well organised.

_ Teheran is subdivied into nine

districts each headed by a ulema, controlling the base organisations officered by Mullahs, The nine ulemas form a council in daily touch with Khomeini. According to the ulema Moussadeh, the Shi'ite hierarchy aims to form such councils in every town. Moreover, “These will be perman-

_ ent councils which will occup them-

selves as much with political life as with religious, since in Islam the two . are tied up together.” (NouvelObservateur 15:21.1.1979).

Despite Khomeini’s declared support for the oi! strikers and despite the undoubted fact that most Iranian workers have massive illusions in the Ayataollah, the forces he heads—the Bazaar and the Shi'ite clergy are and can be only temporary— military allies of the Iranian working claés in the fight against the Shah and the Generals. The hostility of the religious activists to the class interests of the workers is already manifest in the Mullah provoked attacks on demonstrators who carry red flags and in their strident anti-communism, Le

’ Nouvel Observateur. (No.740)

reports the following, “The /eft milieu is beginning to get alarmed, A few days ago, at the Behechestre Zahra cémetery near Teheran in the middie of a crowd listening attentively to the mullahs a worker stood up to speak on the problems facing the proletariat. He was

Opportunists and sectarians -on Iran

Reprinted from WORKERS POWER No.4 February 1979

shouted down with aries of “Death

to the Shah! Death to Communism!: ”

The task of revolutionaries, of Trotskyists, in lran is to raise the alarm in the working class, difficult - as this task will be. To warn workermilitants, to win them away from the Ayatollah and the Mullahs and to resolute opposition to an obscurantist Islamic ‘Republic’.

The masses, including the workers,

"follow the Mullahs because they

‘have illusions in the democracy and national freedom that they believe this republic could bring and because Khomeini appears to want to smash the Shah’s SAVAK tyranny. The religious

' jeaders and their National Front.

hangers on must be exposed by mobilising workers around real democratic demands centring on the call for a constituent assembly unfettered by _—vetos and elected by universal suffrage. To fight for this, class organisations of the ‘proletariat free from Mullah tutelage must be formed, factor committees, workers councils, trade unions and the militia necessary to protect these. Above all a revolutionary political party is the central need, one which can speathead these organs of struggle and workers’ democracy::A party pledged to fight for democratic rights: against an Islamic Republic and for a Workers and Peasant State in Iran.

-THE INTERNATIONAL MARXIST GROUP

The United Secretariat of the Fourth International (USEC), and their record of opportunism with regard to the Iranian revolution, will prove a fatal guide to its followers in Iran.

The position they have argued ‘is identical to that of the Mensh-

argued,

ithe Bolsheviks, that the workers movement should focus on the struggle for bourgeois democratic demands aiming later to utilise the freedoms afforded by bourgeois democracy to build

a workers party in preparation

PAGE 10

- for the next stage of the historic-

al process—the struggle for socialism.

In September Tariq Ali outlined the ‘key take of the fight to overthrow the Shah as — “the establishment of a

_republic, restoration of trade

unions and political parties, free elections on the basis of universal

adult franchise to elect a

Constituent Assembly in order to draft a constitution, total nationalisation of all the oil and

multinational companies, ”’

Ali calls for a tag not a workers republic. All the

measures cited are bourgeoisdemocratic and the Constituent Assembly is to finalise the bourgeois revolution, to give it constitutional form.

The excuses advanced for the Muslim clergy by Socialist Challenge were introduced with an analogy from a bourgeois revolution— “Charles the first too was overthrown by a movement which spoke with a religious voice.’ The most Socialist Challenge can muster is a sly wink in = direction of —— more”

than a bourgeois revolution taking

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

‘ Lei. a pave the wep jue niore lasting. ia funceniessc! ciai-ges,” | Is this just a quizk of the Ghatenye? Not ens in ot at an interv: iew wita Iranizen Trotsiyisis on 12th Gctobor 1978 we iind as the sole statement cf clus .- “Tranian revolutionaries mist call for the overthrow of tise Faiiavi monarchy; its replacer:ent by a establishment:

--, sepublie, and the

‘Of a consiisuent-ascembly freely ©

throusit waiversal suffrage.” In an editovial statement on Eran’ (Socialist Challenge 9.11.1978) ‘which was made aiter Uie eruption of the massive enti-Shch

agancmmeteuky t waliiveiy 00 8.002 tat woeds of lity of she wcsces

developing theirown organisations of workers

power—not simply to get rid of their present ruler, but to seize aa destiny once aid for

does to Troteky’s ‘Permanent Revolution’.

The Exanizn workers took our ‘scientisis’ ¥ ouch surprise as to

force tham-in the direction of calling for sovicts ard -wozkers power. But oe w2ex later Socialist CheSenze was equivocaiing Pocin. Wile sovicts may be “the most favoural!2 develop ment” the “vital part of son armoury” fur ize TMG remained the “overti:row of tie menarchy, immediate elections, convocation of a Constituent Assembly, freedcab Prdrealizied nerties and gerde uston. {UE 15.11278). * ‘Sostaiian, prolotazian revclut- ‘Jou scviets are for the LMG a jiate ‘favourable development’.

TReveiudonaries shon'd no doubt | {produce propegsida about them.

But the centre-pioce of the IMG/ USFI’s agitation is “a numbdeno; interrelated democratic ee: centering on the Assezably. (SC 14.12. 1978). . What these “Trotacyicts’ fail to understand ijthet covicts sud the protetarion egvoutica are rot gifts of thei: istozical process in

‘the absence ci wiiica revolation- :

as

se teuiukeneioasie

sevolutionaries

, gear be ticir tactics.

Nowhere in the LMG/USFT’s material do we even find a clear

-. statement that to be successful in its bowzgeeis-demecratic and anti-.

in poric‘ist tauks the Lanisn

' Revolution must bacome a

proletarian revolution. ‘Au the experience of the mcjor revolut- ” ionary upheavals from tue first world war wader! 3 the fact that ‘aeinecracy’ is not a consolation .

prize for a failed revolution. The outccme is almost certainly

_bloody repressivn and military

Giciator<ip. A siiuationlike Weimar Germeny or Portugal at

4 Freseat is the mest ‘favourable’

teettiative to such repression and, without arenewed and successful prolsi tarian struggle for power, it will prove but a preparation for it: With a rosy assurance that ‘at - least’ the Iranian revolution will - tee democracy the IMG/

_US#I has staztod to count its

electoral chicken —, they have even botched,

ignoie, or reuce to ca, the tasks of cen g the workers | strike committees into soviets, of calling for an armed workers militia, for the preparation of an insurrection to smash the Generals conwol of the army, for absolute working class inepencence from the Mullaks and op ion to their plans for an

Trusting to the Constituent’ Assombly to iastitutionalise

democratic rights they see the key

task as “to tevxe full advantage of then in terms of developinga : sociali-t press, trade unionsand | preparing a powerful electogal ntion” in the manner of =

. As the Mencheviks before thera the Socialist Challenge edit-

ors have their eyes fixed on an

electoral intervention after the - successful

revolution not ona forthe ~

struggle for workers power.

Tas LNTERNATIONAL SPARTAC IST. TENDENCY

‘Pieetnieniauonal Spartacist - ‘Sendency’s position on Iran is living proof that a sectarian response to opportunism ledds to

~ errors as bad if not worse than

‘those of the USFI. Starting from aneed to coutradict the SWP(US) _ and the Iranian Student milieu the

hg slogans with the Shah! Down with ae Mullahs!” Positively delighted

amet of Iranians—moslem

a fact witnessed by ‘hele errs ‘epithet ‘Muliah ein and the chortles of t about Iranians oe to frenzy by our slogans’ Spartacists started on the

mcgraw sippry dope to confete the aun woce ee :

endorsement of their own ruling

| eMullsh led ist the M saoual as result of which . they characterise the movement as one of ‘clerical reaction’. A number of these charges amount

to uncritical retailing of the chauvinist rubbish which filled , the American press throughout the Autumn. The Mullahs they claim wish to restore Iran to the 7th century AD, to the period of “the expansion of Islam by fire and the sword.” They wish to introduce savage Islamic law ents; stoning, public ging and whipping etc. They

wish to enforce the wearing of the

veil and the removal of the rights given to women by the Shah. To this list they'add Khomeini’s ——< to slauchter the working militants on the pattern of ‘the Indonesian mullabs in 1965. they cite his ‘hatred-of western eivilization’ quoting as a fact that ‘the Islamic Republic’ will be seaaplaen ta elnaey dictator-

Th Spartaciie do not restrict their venom to the m see the masses participating in this

movement as tctal dupes, with an ”

appetit#for genocide “But you have to look at the

aia of the movement, restore

the clerical lands, restore the veil, — ban-everything that sort of represents Western Progress, @xpel the foreign workers. In terms of i oper only Piapersnid

t int genocidal in cppetite.”” (Workers ‘Vanguard 5.1.°79). Khomeini. may welFharbour some or all of | these desires. Certainly some . mullahs undoubtedly do. Reservations do have to be made however even here. Shi’ia Islam explicitly - allows re-interpretation by the ulemas of the canonical teachings of Islarn: Khomeini—although he opposed the Shah’s reforms on mublim divorce in 1967 has tecently told a visiting delegation ofwomen that he ey, ne bring back polygamy; “One wife is enough” he remarked. (Time: 5.2.79). ‘Also among his disciples in Paris were a number ‘of nnveiléd women, and despite ‘the recrudescence of veil-wearing

CONTINUED ON NEXT rAGE

an act of defiance against ial s regulation outlawing

it) it is plainly untrue that the movement is explicitly for the eturn of women to the seclusion of the home and their submission ic barbaric punishments. Such a movement could hardly draw into street protests and confrontation with the troops vast numbers of women veiled and unveiled.

As for the national and religious minorities as: we have warned an Islamic Republic:is likely to prove a severe threat to their rights and liberties but it is wrong to sav the movement at present is consciously aimed at them. Large contingents of jews and Azerbayanis took part in the demonstrations in January and were loudly cheered . by the crowd. Afghan workers . homes have been guarded against pogromists whipped up by Bakhtiar’s campaign against ‘communist cine and the call for foreign workers to get out was raised by Arab speaking workers in the oil fields against the highly paid English and American overseers and ‘experts’. Other charges are similarly gross distortions worthy of the capitalist * yellow press. Khomeini the Spartacists tell us “wishes to restore feudal ,.£0 restore the church to this parasitical caste,” (WV 5.1.79). Khomeini has uttered no statement about undoing the land reform and his peasant supporters would be more than surprised to hear-.it.

Why do the Spartacists have to retail this collection of half-truths and unsubstantiated claims? The answer is simple, they wish to abstain from support from the mass struggle against the Shah. When they say ‘Down with the Shah!’ they in fact include a

proviso—only it it is the workers led by communists who do it. They oppose absolutely any military co-operation with the

‘non-proletarian oppositionists.

This position would mean abstention from the demonstrat- . ions, from the confrontations with the troops (called ‘suicidal’ in WV 15.12.’78). In the event of an uprising and barricade fighting between the army and the people it would again mean abstention. To justify this absurd and reactionary position the Spartacists have gone all the way to whitewashing the Shah himself.

“What we need is a party that can transcend this kind of national chauvinism and counterpose a proletarian class axis to the current instability. In the absence of that one could more easily justify giving support to the Shah, as the Soviet Union clearly is doing, than to these Mulim clerical reactionaries, because if they are able to consolidate power all the evidence is it could only be worse than Indonesia for the working class, for the peasants for the national minorities and the women.”

(Workers — 5.1.79) (our emphasis WP

Let us assume that the Spartacists do not wish to become “State Department Socialists’, Then how do they end up with these absurd and shameful positions? Bascially they leave Imperialism out of account. For them a direct military intervention is the sole condition under which the opposition could be given military support. The Shah, installed by a CIA engineered coup and supported by thousands of CIA, and military advisors is an agent of American and British Imperialism.

TEPER PE

Khomeini prepares atiac on Left

Reprinted from WORKERS POWER No.5 March 1979

The insurrection in Teheran was not © blow to the Shah’s generals, islione eight of whom have now paid for their crimes before firing squads.

it was also a serious blow to the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini,to the mullahs and to their bourgeois allies. Khomeini and Bazargan had been involved in intensive negotiations with the generals for a peaceful transfer of power to themselves. Whilst the assault on Doshan Tappeh was going on ,

PAGE 12

mullahs in loudspeaker vans touring the area pleaded with the attackers to go home on the orders of the Shi‘ite leader. They were ignored. The worst fears of both the Ayatollah and his allies have materialised. The army has dis- — and the masses are

“a calls of the Ayatollah for

guns to be handed in to the mosques

mosques have been largely ignored, Workers on strike have

The American ‘advisors’ enjoy extra-ierritonal status in ivan. American capital exploits Iran drawing super profits from its oil, from its industry and from agriculture. Iran is in Lenin’s terms a semi-colony. The masses, despite all their illusions, are struggling against “his lmperialism. If the USFI draw from this the conclusion that working class can simply tail the mullahs. If they refuse to pose the central need for working class independence and leadership then the Spartacists turn this on its head. The mullahs are simply reactionary—identical to reactionary petit bourgeois movements in Imperialist countries like the Poijjadists i in France. Whilst we in no way hide that the positive goals of the mullahs are not and cannot be those of the working class we do argue that Trotskyists must participate in the . actions against the Shah and the Generals. Whilst arguing for proletarian independence in stratezic goals (workers and peasants republic) for consistent democratic demands (including secularisation), for proletarian tactics (mass strike, Workers militia, winning over the rank and file of the army, for the armed insurrection, the workers must be willing to ‘strike together’ with the mullahs, bazaaris, students, peasants etc, ie to form a de facto anti-imperialist military united __ tront. In Trots!cy’s words “We do not solidarize ourselves for a moment with the illusions of the marses; but we must utilise whatev.7.is progressive about these illusions to the utmost, otherwise we cre not revolutionists but contemptible pedants.”’ (Trotsky on Spain)

only returned to work slowly ; and grudgingly and there have been protests from workers’ representatives about the high handed and undemocratic hijacking of the 4 revolution by the mullah-dominated revolutionary committees. Yet, despite the crucial role played by the workers and the armed masses in the overthrow cf the Shah, State power has not passed into their

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

hands but into:those of the shad-_, owy ‘Islamic Revolutionary Committee’ of the Khomeini entourage. Bazargan’s cabinet is a poor second, existing mainly to provide international respectab-- ility. This governmental apparatus is in no sense a gain for the iranian’ masses. Indeed, it is seeking to cheat them of the fruits of their suffering and sacrifice during the last fifteen months.

Stampede

Khomeini, faced with this situation, has a three-pronged strategy. Firstly, to reconstitute the professional army as quickly as possible and to disarm the guerillas. Secondly, to stampede the masses into endorsing the ‘Islamic Republic’ through a ‘referendum’ and to establish a conservative bourgeois regime in office. Thirdly, to isolate, disarm, and then crush the Left forces — the Fedayeen, the Tudeh and the factory and strike committes and to force the workers back under the old conditions. :

. With his first objective, reestablishing the army, he has real problems. Rank and file soldiers and airmen have vetoed the choice of Bazargan and the Rev-

olutionary Council for top comm: —

and positions. Bazargan was forced to withdraw his nominee for Air Force chief. The soldiers of the 16th Armoured Division arrested the Brigadier-General appointed by Khomeini’s Council — he has subsequently been executed. In most barracks continuous soldiers’ meetings are taking place and demands for the removal of a// the generals, and for the soldiers’

right to veto all appointments, have been raised. Bazargan knows that he cannot yet order the troops to disarm, or use them against the left wing guerillas.

He is using a time-worn scheme,

a ‘National Guard’. Constituted 4rom soldiers, mullah-dominated militia-men and guerillas such a force, Bazargan hopes, can perform 2 holding operation until the army is rebuilt. It could play .the same counter-revolutionary. role as the French ‘National Guard’ did in June 1848 when it smashed the Parisian workers, similarly, the Freikorps were used in Germany in 1919. Revolutionaries must counterpose to a Bazargan ~ Khomeini national guard the call for the universal arming of the workers and peasants, the creation. of soldiers’ committees and the election of all officers. Onlya well-armed and disciplined workers’ militia can protect the working class, the national and religious minorities and extend the revolutionary demands of the masses.

Party. °/

With Khomeini’s second task, establishing his conservative clerical-bourgeois republic, time is of the essence. The longer it is delayed the more will his reactionary bourgeois politics be exposed'To reach this ‘stability’

a referendum is to take place

as soon as possible — in a matter of weeks according to the Revolutionary Committee, two months according to Bazargan. The masses would be stampeded into declaring for an Islamic Republic and then a rubber-stamp ‘Constituent Assembly’ would approve an already drafted constitution.

Revolutionaries have the t>sk of winning the working class to block this reactionary design. Such a referendum would be aimed at obstructing any advances that the working class could make in the present situation. To part icipate in it,would, therefore, be to accept the validity of this obstruction.

Already the Tehran press is being subjected to a heavy, “Islamic censorship’. ‘Worse than Bakhtiar’s’ according to journalists. Bazargan fas -adpounced

that he will vigo. rously enforce: ° ©

the ‘illegality’ of the Tudeh Revolutionaries must argue for immediate strike action to

“win an end to all censorship and. -

the legalisation of all workers’ parties and their press. They must argue against a referendum on the Islamic Republic and organise the working class to boycott it. instead they must call’ for the convocation of a Constituent Assembly elected by universal suffrage and with no restrictions on its powers either from the Provisional Government, the mullahs or the army.

‘Khomeini’ third task is to crush those organisations based on and voicing the demands of the working class. He denounces Marxists as traitors to the Islamic revolution and threatens to ‘crush’ them. All that stops him is that the work-

ers and the armed guertillas:are too .

strong and his own muslim forces not yet prepared to turn against

‘the workers.

Khomeini has persuaded the work-

ers to return to the factories, to the

the offices, the oil refineries. But what is taking place there.is a ceaseless round of mass meetings. At them workers are engaged in ne formulation of demands; for nationalization, for the ousting of

‘ “pro-Shah managements, for improved work conditions, hours of work and pay, for the presentat-

ion and extension of all the elements of supervision and control won in the mass strikes..

It is this economic and political awakening of the working class that Khomeini wishes to smother

in Islamic obscurantism. To Jo

this he must root out the workers leaders’ the activists, the strike organisers. Many of these-are Fed- : ayeen or Tudeh sympathisers or

are gravitating towards these part-

Defeat

First he must disarm and defeat them on the streets. Unfortunately despite the heroism of these militants , the grotesquely

istorted ‘Marxism 3:5 .they have imbibed from Stalin’s Russia and Mao’s China will make it much easier for the Ayatollah to do this.

This ‘Marxism’ leads to a view of the revolution as involving rigidly separated stages. The goal . at the moment is the completion of of a national democratic or peoples revolution. To this the working class must restrict itself. Its socialist goals — nationalisation of all industry and banking, a planned economy etc must be postponed indefinitely, subordinated to an alliance with the ‘national bourgeoisie’ or the anti-imperialist

mullahs.

<5" Thi strategic alin’ with shes

proletariats class entémies redu the workers to a critical pressure group. To: cali this dangerous and self defeating rolé the leadership of the working class in the peoples : democratic revolution’ does not alter the reality of the situation one iota. In practice it is seizing a tiger by the tail, twisting it occas - ionally and defending youself” against the incensed beast with appeals for it to recognise your leading role.

Stalinist—Maoist dialectics justify this suicidal course ‘by asserting © that the principle contradiction (Imperialism versus the People) is dominant over the fundamental contradiction (proletariat versus bourgeoisie) at this stage.

This algebra of opportunism has caused disaster after disaster in the past two decades aldné as ‘progressive generals’ and ‘natidrial bourgeois’ suddenly ignored the ‘principle contradiction’ and launched bloody offensives on the workers. If Iran is not to be added to Indonesia and Chile, the Tudeh and Fedayeen militants must be broken from these psiitics of destruction. The Tudeh carry out these policies in the most. servile and grovellingmanner. A Bi spokesman quofed in the Morning» °

‘Star (Feb 24th) “We have shown

our good will to Ayatollah Khom eini by instructing all our members in the factories and the oil industry to return to work”

Their goal for the workers ‘struggle is a government of ‘national independence’ made up of the

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAG’

PAY = 43

Sonal Front bourgeois parties, religious leaders and themselves. They offer to hold back the workers to placate these allies. Allies who moreover up hold the law banning the Tudeh.

The Fedayeen are much more abrasive, calling a large demonstration (15 in Teheran University on February 22ndiin partial. © defiance of Khomeini’s warnings. Their demands include the call to dissolve the army, forming a real ‘peoples army’. They call for “peoples councils’ to run factories, businesses and local affairs. They call for land to the poor peasants and full rights for women and the opressed nationalities.

But in the last analysis they too call for a ‘share’ in the power at the moment exercised by the mullahssand the bazzar bourgeois. The Fedayeen’s ‘militancy’ amounts to a more radical list of °

bourgeois democratic demands plus the hybrid ‘peoples councils’. They add to this a committment to guerilla struggle “‘as a strategy as well as a tactic”. This approach is likely to prove an obstacle to. the formation of democratically contro rolled mass workers militias. Groups founded on this, basis — whether in Portugal (PRP) or in Latin America show an tendency to desert the working class at |key moment.) Either by putchist adventurec.or by volutary dissapp-. earance into the underground when ruling class repression looms. . To stand any chance of influ- - encing militants or sympathisers of the Stalinist organisations Iranian Trotskyists will have to stress a number of key positions. In the face of Khomeini’s offensive these should be - : AN appeal for united front of workers parties centred on

TEE EEE Eee eee

Break with the Mullahs!

Legality for all workers parties, trade unions etc.

An armed workers defence militia. For a sovreign Constituent Assembly. Boycott the Islamic Republic Refer endum

The centralisation of factory and strike committees into city wide workers councils.

These limited demands should be accompanied by calls on the Tudeh and Fedayeen to break with the bourgeoisie and the mullahs and join the struggle for a Workers and Peasants Government. In no case should ‘: rotskyists obscure their strategic goal of working class ~ power based on soviets or their total opposition to the Khomeini - Bazargan government. It is to the task of overthrowing this Government that Trotskyists must win the organised workers, peasants, soldiers and opressed nationalities.

Break with the bourgeoisie!

Reprinted from WORKERS POWER No.6 May 1979

‘The alliance of forces that overthrew the:Shah in Iran is in disarray. Khomeini and the Mu are set on firml establishing a repressive an reactionary rule from the a e Mullah supervised referendum - where the names Of those who ot against an Islamic republi were noted down by the scrutineers - has strengthened his hand. ©

The bourgeoisie are anxious to save and consolidate their property and wealth. Their most able representatives are to be found in ‘the forces of the National Front, in the feeble Premiership of

Arraigned against the Mullahs and the bourgeoisie are those forces who took the overthrow of the Shah as a signal to extend and~ develop their democratic rights, — to organise to improve their living conditions.

The polarisation in Iran’s society grows more acute daily. Ahmad Ali Izadi, Minister of agriculture, has committed his government to taking back land seized by the peasants from the old regime. There are already reports of armed peasants organising to defend their hard fought gains. : 3 PAGE 14

The minority nationalities of Iran have organised to extend their democratic rights. After prolonged fighting with the regime’s troops the Kurds have secured. limited promises of provision for self rule. The Turkoman minority have waged a 2 day armed battle -with Khomeini’s militiamen in Gonbad-e-Kavus.

Despite armed intimidation and harrassment women in Tehran have foiled plans bv Khomeini to immediatedly enforce the wearing of the chador in public offices.

Most vitally however the nast

weeks have seen increased evidence ~

of working class organisation in _ conflict with the regime. 3.5! millions Iranians are jobless at present. Factories deserted by their pro-Shah owners now lie idle. Serious shortages are reported and inflation is running at between 40 and 60%. In the factories workers are extablishing new trade union organisations. There have been major demonstrations of the unemployed -

the Bekaran - in Iran’s cities. The unemployed have occupied the Ministry of Justice vestibule in Tehran. Construction workers _ have demonstrated throughoutfran. The organisation of the unemployed has met with repression by the regime. In Isfahan at least one person was killed when

Khomeini’s ‘revolutionary guards’ fired on a demonstration of the Bakaran. But the demonstrations have also forced certain concessions out of a reluctant regime. Bazargan’s government is now

‘ giving £60 a month loans to those ‘

unemployed that are over 21 - insisting “hat repayments commence 3 months after employment

_is resumed. The new Minister of

Labour - Darioush Farouhar - has already made it clear that he fears a wave of migration into the towns to receive the loans.

With no prospect of solving the mounting problem of the jobless the Iranian bourgeoisie is not prepared to dole out loans indefinitely with no prospect of repayment. Like the French ~ : bourgeoisie in 1848; who.abolish-: ed the National Workshops forced out of them by the French workers. so the Iranian hourgenisie

. are looking fdt the chance to

(renege ‘on this inadequate provision.

In the face of this new resistance - expressed well by a wor- : ker representative who walked out of negotiations in the Tehran Ministry of Labour saying, “Only

‘the pictures on the walls have

changed. ” Khomeini is moving to strengthen his hand. The ‘Leftist* Fedayeen have been denounced

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

as,““traitors to Islam and the Revo- .. lution.”” The radicalised Muslim guerillas, the Mojahaddin-e-Khalq, have been replaced by the Mojahaddin-Englabi-Islami. These new armed squads, pioneered by Khomeini’s economic adviser Banisadr, and more directly controlled by the Mosque, are now firmly established. They will be, used against the workers and __ against those struggling to defend and extend democratic rights.

The divisions opening up are ‘visible to all. Even the Iranian: Communist Party (Tudeh) - previously infatuated with Khomeini - realises it. But the solution they put forward is a dangerous snare for the Iranian: working class. Speaking in the French CP paper ‘L’Humanite’ The: general secretary of Tudeh + Kianouri - has-called for a popu-

slag front of all those forces to the left of Khomeini,

«Now it’s a question of choosing a new direction, rifts are emerging.”

That call, albeit in a different

_form,will be taken up by the

Maoist Fedayeen with their pro-

‘gramme of an alliance of ptogre-

ssive forces against Imperialism and and reaction. The bourgeois of Iran do have.

their own fears of a strengthening ~

of the grip of Khomeini and the Mullalis. There is a very real:danger that the workers’ organisations under the leadership of the :.° Fedayeen and Tudeh will be incorporated by the bourgeoisie ~ into their struggle to strengthen the hand of the Bazargan government against Khomeini

in ‘the battles ahead Iranian Trotskyists will have to © ress a number of key positions. In the face of Khomeini’s offensive and inevitable attacks on workers’ living standards and organisations by the Iranian bourgeoisie these should be : *for the complete independence of the organisations of the working class -| (BREAK WITH THE BOURGEOISit, BREAK WITH THE MULLAHS. *for a UNITED FRONT OF WORKERS’ PARTIES centred

‘gn. : legality for all workers’ ~~”

Executions protect Khomeini's allies

Reprinted from WORKERS POWER No. 7 June 1979

The Iranian bourgeoisie and the Khomeini led Islamic establishment are continuing their offensive

: against the independent organisations of the working class in Iran. They are intensifying their attacks

on the Left and the movements for democratic rights that gathered = considerable strength in the struggle to bring down the Shah. °

Prime-Minister Bazargan, spokesman for tran’s bourgeois has openly blamed Iran’s economic chaos and crisis on “‘excessive’’ pay rises won by workers in the last months of the Shah. He has attacked strikes and called for

r Vigilance against the left declaring Ayatollah Motahari—the assassinated head of Iran’s Secret Council—as a fallen victim of the struggle-against Marxism.

Khomeini and the Islamic leaders also recognise the threat that the tranian working class poses to the creation of an Islamic Republic in the hands of the bourgeoisie and the mosque hierarchy. This was shown clearly by the actions taken by the mosque dominated Komitehs to prevent the independent mobilisations of workers to celebrate May Day.

In Tehran Khomeini’s supporters . organised their own demonstration

in opposition to that called by organisations of the left. In Isfahan, where a student was shot on a demonstration of the unemployed in April, the local Komiteh surrounded the Workers House betore the May Day demonstration was due to leave. The Isfahan Komiteh challenged employed workers with instant dismissa! if they were:to join the planned demonstration.

The mosque hierarchy has. =: moved decisively against the critics of the growing authority of the Islam Komitehs. Khomeini has called on Moslems to fight more fiercely against secular opponents of the new-regime than they did against the.Shah.

In May Islamic:workers ‘on the paper Kayhan‘locked out

_ journalists midly-critical of the

regime: Khomeini backed the : sacking of these journalists, “the press writes in support of traitors and criminals, it is not our press.” The Islamic authorities have closed down the paper Ayandegan and the Islamic militia have seized anti-clerical works from Tehran‘s bookstores. in the western city of

’ Khorramabad bookshops have

been ransacked for left-wing books which were publicly burnt to

parties, | trade unions etc.

An armed workers defence militia,

*For a sovereign Constituent assembly.

Defend the democratic right of women and the national and religious minorities. : ‘Lhe centralisation of factory and strike committees, the organisations of the unemployed into city-wide workers’ councils,

These limited demands should

be accompanied by calls on the Tudeh and Fedayeen to break with the bourgeoisie and the Mullahs and join the struggle for a Workers and Peasants Government. In no case should Trotskyists obscure-their strategic goal of working class power based on soviets or their total oposition to the KhomeiniBazargan zovernment. it 1s to the task of overthrowing tms Government that Trotskyists must win the organised workers, peasants, soldiers and oppressed nationali-

cries of “Islam is victorious, Communism is destroyed.”

The new regime continues to face mounting demands for autonomy from the national minorities of Iran. Kurdish leader Sheikh

. Ezzredin Hosseini has called for

the solidarity of the Arabs, Baluchis and Turks in the battle for

. automony. An unofficial militia

in the Khuzestan Arab region has attacked, and briefly held, the town of Masjedzez Soleiman. While moving to destroy the independent organisations of the workers, and democratic tights for journalists and nationalities, the Islamic: councit has still had to claim to be waging a struggle to destroy the forces of the hated old regime and to: commit the regime to the struggle sae % Imperialism. me 4 The much publicised’ sectet trials and executions, the death penalty pronounced on the Shah and the: planned show trial of 13: ex-deputies, two senators and the head of the Shah‘s National Resurgence Party (Rastakhiz) are a vital part of the tactics of the Khomeini-led Is! sic Council.

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

PAGE 15

i hey serve to satisfy the masses demands for retribution and the dismantling of the old apparatus wl repression. At the same time

_ heir secrecy prevents the masses from openly witnessing the true extent-of corruption and torture and the real record of many of their new masters now parading - their credentials as fighters against the Shah.

With many of the local Komitehs openly using ex-Savak forces for their work, the role of the show trials in deceiving the masses is doubly important.

The tranian bourgeoisie are clearly unhappy aboufi the possible dynamic of the trials and purges. They know too well what would be revealed if the masses were free to unlock the secrets of

the Shah’‘s state apparatus. That

. is why Bazargan, in their name,

has already raised the call for an amnesty. That is why he is clearly intent on limiting the authority of the local Komitehs.

: Similarily Khomeini and his henchmen have found it necessary to put themselves to the fore in organising multi-millioned demonstrations against the US. The indignation of the Iranian masses at US Senatorial denunciations of the trials and executions enabied the ‘leftist’ Fedayeen and the radicalised Moslem Mujaheddin, to organise a 200 600-strong demonstration against US Imperialism. Khomeini supporters were able to ©

' @ganise a larger demonstration

and send crowds against the Fedayeen chanting ‘These are the

Counter Khomeini’s coup

Reprinted from WORKERS POWER No.8 September 1979

KHOMEINI has delivered his long

’ threatened blow against the Left and:democratic forces ih an attempt to decisively halt the radical element of the Iranian revolution. The yearning for democratic rights, for national freedom and the desire of,workers and) peasants to enjoy the fruits of their labour and their country’ s natural wealth was the mainspring of the struggle to overthrow the Ghah.

It how threatens Khomeini’s reactionary utopia of an-!slamic Republic based on the mullah hierjarchy

The nationalities had to be © terrorised into submission and the independant organisations pf the working class had to be crushed. Firstly, the press had to be completely muzzled. Thus Ayandegan, the leading liberal democratic. paper on opposition to the mullahs was closed down on August 7th.

The massive demonstration of -

60 000, called in protest against this, was set upon by organised gangs well supplied with stones. and staves and bicycle chains. The same bands of blackhundreds ransacked the Fedayeen_HQ in’ Tehran and other cities.

Khomeini used the pretext of disorder to declare illegal, suppress the newspapers, and order the arrest of the leaders of the radical liberals of the National Democratic Party, the Fedayeen, the Tudeh and force the.disband-

PAGE 16

ment/disarming of the radical - Islamic Mujatiaddeen.

This coup @etat was the prejude to a fanatical all-out assault on the Kurds. Though they are demandingwnly regional autonomy, their armed militias and organisations are not subject to the central mullah theocracy of

Quom or Bazargan’s feeble ‘Govern-

ment in Tehran.

Khoméint's assumption o1 oupreme Command of the Army symbolises his coup which marks the end of the political ‘dual power’ with the :liberal and democratic forces which the Bazargan Government straddled uneasily.

Executive power now resides firmly with the 20 man revolution-

ary council, consisting of Khomeini _ - and other leading tigures of the

Shia Hierarchy and lay strongmen of the theocratic project, most notably Ibrahim Yazdi (Foreign Minister) and Sadegh Ghotbzadeh. (Head of the media). Ayatollah Sadegh Khalkhali, the bloody Inquisitor Gereral of the (counter) revolutionary tribunals’ black terror. sums up. this leaderships’ | project: “The mullahs staged the revolution and have come to. power, and they will stay in power whether the United States or the Soviet Union likes it or not’.

_ The network of Komitehs plus

\ the heavily armed gangs of ill-dis-

-ciplined by fanatical pasderan —

‘. requited from the massive, illiter-

ate lumpen proletariat of the cities and officered by Moslem _

enemies of Islarn””’... . . “The People’s Fedayeen must be hanged”.

It is vital to understand that a

stable alliance of the bourgeoisie and the Moeque has yet to prevent the mobilisations of the Iranian

masses for the final destruction of

the old regime, for democratic

rights, against unemployment and

for a decisive break with Imperial

Imperialism.

Only the independent organisation of *he working class, prepared'‘to finally break with the bourgeoisie and the Mullahs can prevent the destruction of the

_ workers’ organisations, of the

democratic struggles and of the leaders of the workers and peasants who have taken up those struggles.

students and sons of the clergy — are Khomeini’s chosen instrument

_for crushing the Left,

His by now famous statement ~-

that the mullahs ‘made a mistake” “ and should have “’ set up gallows

in the main squares, cut down all these corrupt people and plotters, declared only one party, that of Allah” is an anachronism with red gard to the period February to

July. He could not have done this given the still fresh democratic aspiration of the masses, the dissolution of the army, the diss-

array of the mullahs’ own followers.

But Khomeini’s statement is the programme for the counter-revole: utionary coup'd’etat. The profound! ecbnomic crisis, the mounting aiscontent provokedamong the

_Masses must be turned against the left, against the minority nationalities, against unveiled (‘westernised’) women and against the liberals.

Hence the Komitehs demogogically claim to speak for the have-nots, the barefoot people — the moustazefin. Their aim is to mobilise mobs of these largely illiterate masses against the privileged, ‘westernised’ intellectuals, journalists, writers and use them to grind the Left to atoms.

They aim to install a powerful bonapartist regime before the rage of the masses turns on them. Having installed their dictatorial

machinery amoungst the Turko-

CONTINUED ON. NEXT PAGE ~

_mans in the North and the Arabs in.the southern oilfields, Kho--: meini has declared a holy war against the Kurds. None of these peoples is fighting: for separation. All claim merely autonomy ie democratic rights within the franian state. But for the mullahs, balancing uneasily atop the masses and unable for much tonger to satify their most elementary needs, all democratic rights must be crushed. °

The Kurds are-the aavonwed and homogeneous of the Iranian oppressed peoples. It will take more than armed gangs of the en-

raged lumpen-proletariat of Tehran and Qom to suppress them. For this task the full apparatus of the Shah's army 1s necéssary. To use this effectively discipline must be restored.

The councils that have sprung up up in the barracks must be crushed. An operative officer corps»and high command is vital to the Iranian ruling class. There has been considerable resistance by troops to being used ‘against the people’ and refusals to go to Kurdistan. U& imperialism must be placated and induced to resume full military and technical co-operation.

The latter is moredhan willing to do this providing the stability of the regime jis assured. State Department spokesman, 1 homas Reston stressed the need for the ‘authority and effectiveness” of the central government and though they would obviously prefer to deal with Bazargan, Carter is neported.to be persuing a cautious policy of “stronger support for © the theologically driven Khomeini regime” (Newsweek)

Khomeini’s Black Hundred. rule can obviously be only a tran: sitional one. But its nestimable use ito behead the popular, democratic and anti-imperialist

content of the iranian mass movement against the Shah. When this process is completed a military dictatorship — undoubtedly with an Islamic colouring will be install-

"ed. The only. foree capable of re-

yersing this btoody process is the tranian proletariat.

Khomeini has not yet dared to openly confront it. The mounting unemployment ( some 35% of the active population according to the US Department of Commerce) and economic chaos has seriously weakened its politicisation. Workers Committees still exist in many of the larger factories but they have been penetrated by Islamic agents and threatened by Khor meini with mass sackings if strikes and distrubances go on.

The tranian Left's position is weakened by its previous compromisé with Khomeini. The Tudeh — the tranian&P — backed the Ayatollah uncritically right up to the closure of their newspaper and offices.

The Fedayeen’s critical support of Khomeini’s anti-imperialist rhetoric despite their courgageous: support of democratic struggles, also leaves the working masses politically disarmed..

Driven underground, deprived of theit press, hunted down by the. ‘revolutionaby guards’ the cadres of the Iranian Left must re-assess their parties and groupings cripplag political weaknesses if they are to survive to take advantage of the inevitable crisis of the theocracy

Firstly they must strike deep roots in the proletariat, the factories and oil fields. They must fight for mass action of the workers including the.general strike and for a workers militia to defend the organisations of the working class against the attacks of the-Komitehs.

HAE eee

No tailing either mullah

Reprinted from WORKERS POWER No. 11 December 1979

Jimmy Carter’s Christmas present to the Iranian people is a fleet of nineteen warships, including two aircraft carriers. The American and British press have been full of helpfull suggestions as to what could be done with them — bomb the oilfields, bomb the ‘holy city’ of Qom, seize, the Tumbs Islands as ‘host- , ete. Miss Lillian, the born -again . Christians mother, has said to wild applause that if she had a millian

dollars she would hire a hit man to murder Khomeini. Whilst a direct punitive strike is unlikely unfess the hostages are put on trial; the imperialists are busy confiscating Iranian assets held in American banks at home and abroad and

mobilising an economic blockade. - that will squeeze the life out of “i, the already staggering Iranian!

economy.

There is no boubt that should the anti-US ferment threaten the

Secondly they must break the political umbillical cord with Khomeini. Their strategic goal must be the armed overthrow of the mullah dictatorship and the installation of a workers government based on workers councils and a workers militia. They must defend the Kurds and pledge to convene a revolutionary constituent assembly which would, onee elected by universal suffrage and the the secret ballot, meet the democratic demands of the nationalities, the peasantry, womenj etc.

Difficult and dangerous as this task is, it will be aided by the economic impasse of the Qom Theocracy, the rebellious state of the army, the nationalities resistance and the restiveness of the Bazzaar big bourgeoisie tined up behind Ayatollah Taleghani.

If Khomeini is to placate his beurgeois backers, effect a limited deal with the White House/Pentagon and the deeply resentful Irariian officer caste;he will bein- | creasingly forced to drop his mask of father to the moustazefin (the disinherited). -

When the ‘loans’ to the unemployed have to stop, when the

workers committees come under attack, a mighty wave of disillusionment will sweep tran. For this to find effective leadership an organisation of Iranian revolutionaries will have had to be built even under the terror of the coming months. If it is the “isolated cries” of “Down with Khomeini” eeported by Le Monde in the demonstrations of early August, can become a mighty roar — one that can sweep away the Imam and his committees as it swept awgy the Shah and his American advisors.

vital Gulf oilfields, the US Government will send in troops to seize them.

In tran, Khomeini‘s regime is in deep crisis. The new constitution that gives dictatorial powers to the Ir-an has met fierce resistance in Kurdistan, in Tabriz, capital of

. Azerbayan, and in Baluchistan.

The opposition to Khomeini comes

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

PAGE 17

* eter

.o.a varying sources Fhe Aystor: /

_ jah Shariatmadarl — @ political con-

ional monarchy with the Shiite _ hierarchy distanced to some extent from the regime, has become

the palavese: res ohaeed: pratt selves behind Khomeini’s ‘antiimperialist’ stance, the Tudeh uncritically, the Fedayeen with’ con- . siderable reservations. Even the = {Iranian section ofthe Usec) as issued a statement which ac-

a as good coin the anti-imperiatist struggle being waged by the government.

Whilst it is the clear duty of

‘onary coniumurists

cLAVULLERRLLIRDE

intra

Turkomans, Azerbayanis, Baluchis Khomeini or Shariatmadari will

id anti-imperialist progremme.

_ There must be no class trites-in the

The plebsien followers of Sker-

iatmadari are motivated by ademo- -

, cratism that must be saved from becoming the servant of the conservative iranian bourgeoisie. The

eT en

anti-imperialist aspirations of Khoniéini’s folloviiiig must be di-:. verted frm powering the machin--

ery of a vicious theocratic dictator-- ea

ship. Both lead to chaos and de-- feat for the Iranian masses and\ ‘the eventual-return of direct Ameriean hegemony...

~*US fiindset4ran. Break the Economic and Military Blockade. *Down vith Khomeinis dictatership — fuil democratic rights for all the peoples of iran. *Power itola workers and peasants

iment based on the armed shoras’ (councils) to expropriate

Khomeébnit § dictatorship rocked by anti-imperialist storm

‘Reprinted { from V WORKERS ;uwet -No. 11

_#s the cnnrvorsary of the: outtiteSShah endl cracked his aferoeches, tha. mulleh-dent

December 1979

mopinsauuns soeked dictatorship — Clericalist regime faces its

most profourd erisis yet. Khomeini’s project of an Islamic Republic, despita his overwhelming personal influence is still far frontany pai of stability.. Iran faces economic collapse,

t Thaproblem

sation of Gis U B eintesey andi the hosting of Fifty: Nantiihe with Netibchersene acting ds a reltying ndint bokind (thongsint, is atready-ellowing the forces opposed

gaa ere Sarmebies fos cn fret San nine eae

liberal end working class press, the

arr2st-of stores of leftwing | militants end the banning and harrasment of their meetings and Comonstrations culminated in the proc!amation of a-holy war. (jihad) on the Kurdish people.

KRanicini, api -himself comiaiender i tier the army,-:,

seit squads of revolutionary == | islemic guards.(pesdars) to subject | the region to avicious dictatorship. \ Ayatolleh igersceprats ‘the Imam’s

iene & were forced to with-

* @raw from the cities including the ‘capital’ Mahabade@ut they easily — regrouped, gairiing massive support

frorv‘the population including she peasantry, who clearly saw *the pasdars and the pro-Khomeihi ‘SaLSaResasetLet te asa ares

Pace saas? Rise

“fend owners, feudalists and semi-

pandit elements who exploited and battened on the meagre tesources theland yielded them. On the 12th October the police chief in Mahabad was shot. On 16th the prime Minister’s special envoy was kidnapped. By October 21st the péshmerga were reported as controlling Mahabad once again.

The result of the expulsion of the pasdars, the surrounding of a number of towns and garrisons and the rupture of government ‘communication lines, was that the inflexible and infallible Imam changed his mind. The ‘worst of the sons of Satan’ suddenly became legitimate negotiators on behalf

‘of the Kurdish people. Khomeini _

end of October the minister oi the Interior announced the end of hostilities and the suspension of | — operations. The. orp od over, for the time maa = Swe hen ee

also.saw the eruption

Wir or pte tngretinrsine ;

parts of (. au. in Teheskn iteett two farge demonstrations of the unem-

‘ ployed took place in successive

weeks and spread to other Cities. Revolutionary guards had to fire into the air to disperse them.

in the Caspian Sea ports of

rs burned the police headquarters after pasdars had shot at crowds of fishermen protesting * at a government monopoly of

fishing rights. Khomeini was forced _

to rescind the government ruling.

In Tabriz, capital of Azerbefigen.| open conflicts erupted between ‘y the populace and the revolutionary guards. The Imam’‘s personal envoy, Ayatollah Quzi Tabatabai, sent to investigate the nefarious doings of the revolutionary committee and

Sitery oot" sasuaantn ra arate bitterly as like Savaki.” (He was shot Ieeving the mosque in Tabriz ) (Le Monde 3.11.1979).

in Teheran leftist demonstrations began to be held'again at the University. On 29th October

_ CONTINUED ON NEXT 'PAGE _

wn

‘Bander and Euzeli, in mid October, .

26, GOO students demonstrated demanding the authorisation of in educational institutiong and the reinstatement of all those purged from July to

September. Tudeh (the lranian -. have held rallies of up to 40,000.

. ven more ominous for the ‘Agatollahs the peasantry, hitherto rélatively quiescent since the - seizure of Pahlavi lands.in February and: March, have begun to organise peasant committees in southern Kurdistan and in Azerbayan.

The-burgeoning social and political conflict resulted in a major political crisis among the leading of the Islamic Revolut In mid-October Khomeini’s son, Ahmed, exclaimed _ that “The tmam'is totally alone today . . just as he was in Qom in — 1963. The Imara sees that he is surrounded by enzmies, coming from e!l tendencies, parties and ‘types’

Khomeini, as the lynchpin of the conflicting fections end cliques within | clergy and their profess?anal pol was obviously feeling the strain of the tug of : war between them.

The first victim of the faction

bi»: was the largely nrg ng off Bazargan Government. On November 4th the ‘Mostem Students Faithful to the tmam Knomeini’, occupied the United States Embassy and took 63 hostages. On the 6th the Bazargan Government resigned and.Khomeini handed power - directly to the Revolutionary elt: The “stodents’ were and

are in fact, a tightly organised grouping led by Asghar MoussariKhoeni, holding. the rank of -hojatoliesiam the first step on the ladder:to becoming an Ayatollah. Khoeni, closély allied to the powerful general secretary of the Revolutionary Council Ayatollah

—Fiisllmam ii the he Revolution ary Council have been forced to make a’series of concessions'to the Masses whose. confidence, expect- ‘ations and demands have béen en- ‘couraged by the huge cusitisations ‘and the mullahs’ dernagogy. The unemployed have continued their demonstrations. The oil workers have formed a nationatunion and gorend islamic officiats and management t ta

‘ina clothing factory; the workers’ committee has won a reduction in hours (half-day working) with no | logs of pay. Peasant committees _.

| continue to be formed. The dem: ands and expectations even of the peasants who have gained land con- |

_ tinue to grow in scope and con- - fidence. The Times (1.12.79) reports a village headman as saying, ‘We want industrial agriculture. -

We want a doctor in the Views: We

ddeen e Khslqdthe Islamic querillas of a leftist orientation) the ._. Fedayeen e Khalq and the HKS (Iranian Socialist Workers Party) have resurned publication. The state newspapers like Ettela‘athave carried reports of protests against repression. On November 17th. Khomeini acknowledged on , television that the Kurdish péople had been wronged and that negotiations with their leaders were pro-

— —. : their slogans end programme. =

does this amount to ? Firstly,. . ‘ vigorous anti-Imparialist, antiAmerican rhetoric, centring on

the return of the Shah. Much as this butcher deserves his fate, totally justified as this demand is, — asia political demand it is merely symbolic,a pulling of the American vulture’s tail feathers.

It is a diversion from the real fight against imperialism, away from the chronic problems that face the peasants, workers and the oppressed nationalities of iran.

Using the grief and rage felt by millions of frantans who lost their children, relatives, friends and comrades in the Anti-Shah struggle, the mullahs hope to divert, the ¢ masses from the agents of oppress: . ion and exploitation who constitute the franian government and ruling classes. Sayed Hussein, Khomeini’s grandson, explained

stilt riven with rivairies and con-

: tradictions: Abothassan Bani Saetn who initially held’ both the tor. eign Affairs and: Economic Ministries, advocates a policy of economic nationelism. This involves repudiation of foreign debts, attempts to break free of the dollar as the means of payment fof Iran’s ~

oil and red of ol! _to-.raise- au. Y¢ an _ Sadt-was hardly discovered. bv'‘the |

" ‘Western media.as the new strong man’ before he lost decisively on the Revolutionary Council over his diplomatic concessions on the question of the hostages. He felt obliged to resign the Foreign Ministry to his long-time rival

Sadegh Ghotbzadah.

, Pa’ eeukChwent ore pleiae.

van ep ted — ‘Le . He noted the fragmentation of the

Monde’. This paper summed up lranian state; ‘the muttipliciyat

his-position thus, ‘The blows of ‘the pebemeatermns Ap

together all the internal tensions c@ntrol even a single avenue of the

which were undermining the Islamic _@apital’ Moreover, ‘the absence of

Repubtic, rez whole pop- @ strong central government, the

ulation in all its commenent arts. . ion of anarchy will net end

tmam’s banner. Tie occupetion of if the Imam Khomeini Himself, One

the embasry wrstho most popular can't governm a country by

event which tas occurres since the means of permanent popular spon-

overthrow of the monarchy.’ taneity.’ setestiaanie: 7.11.79) Khomeini himself has added to ‘

his support for the hostage taking : Re

certain of the Islamic radicals’ de- ;

mands. He charged the incoming Sweep

aireieepspn thseinl ce Of course Ayatoltah Behesh-.

tasks, to purge the administration, to assure the welfare of the mustaziffin (the disinherited — tran’s 5million unemployed, the poor, the peasants etc. }) and to proceed to, ‘a new and profound agrarian reform.’

aziffin of the Teheran slums have, likewise, been raised. Journalists of the ‘Herald Tribune’ (30.12.79) report the outspoken comment, ‘They (the Is!amic Council) had better look after us better or we will make a second revolution t’ Even with regard to democratic rights ceetain. concessions have been made. Papers banned in August have been legalised. The _ Organs of the Tudeh, the Mujaha-

ti and the fsiamic“‘radicals”

don’t intend to do that. They hope that the Imams’ prestige, antiimperialist demagogy having

them to carry the profoundly democratic constitution, on December 2nd, will enable them Islamic Republican Party to sweep the board in the elections to the parliament, and win the Pres-- - idency. The constitution-itself .

a violent affront to all demo- « cratic rights. Th Sa “in.the notorious section

_ Fives drafted’ by Ayatollah Seneshti himself, the religious guardian (Fahgibpcen dismiss

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

ced President, appoint .cets of the judiciary, the

rmy and the revolutionary

uerd, and the members of © -onstitution Protection Goun-

“! {a.minority of whom can veto ‘Ny' Taw proposed by Parliament). hus not only will Khomeini’s versonal dictatorship be assured »ut it will be handed down to a uccessor in the Shiite hierarchy.

Opposition to the constitution .a5 increased substantially the orces prepared to challenge Chomeini. In Kurdistan the boy- -ott was. almost-total-withfew solling beethsbeing open. In the | ‘urkoman and Baluchi regions i he turnout was low. In Tabriz, ' capital of Azerbayan, where the Juslim Peoples Party limked to. ‘he seniar Ayatollah Kazem Shanstmadan, condemned the contitution as “ushering in a dic atorship as’bad as the Shah’s”’ | demonstration of 30,000 »rotested the ballot and called for ) boycott. The Mujaheddin and the -edayeen organisations issued a ‘imilar call,

The advocates of aniWstamic sonapartism, based on mosqueiominated plebiscites and demajogic “anti-imperialism”, whatwer their short-term successes, ire caught on the horns of a

dilemma. Iran faces an economic’ crisis of catastrophic proportions. An economic blockade by US imperialism will aggravate this to an unbearable degree. The aspirations of the working class, the “disinherited” urban subproletariat, the peasants and the na nationalities as well as the students (‘islamic’ or otherwise)

will clash ever more sharply with. the chaos presided over by the Revolutionary Council.

The Shia hierarchy and the mullah caste cannot establish a stable or homogenous block.A theocracy irrthe last quarter of : the twentieth century is a utopia - and a black reactionary one at that. harots

One option is a ‘left’ course. This was voiced most clearly by Khomeini’s grandson Sayed Hossein. Referring to the enti-imperialist “turn” he said: “It allows us to open a way to a strategic alliance between the Islamic movement, the lay organisations and the Left as well as a tactical alliance with the Soviet blac.” _

(Le Monde 30.11.79). : The influential Ayatollah Mon-

‘ tazeri - the head of the so-called

Libyan faction advocates an orientation to the ‘radical’ Arab:~ states. The Tudeh party, shame-_

MMM

Mullah’s new offensive

leorinted from WORKERS POWER No. 15

Thes attacks on tise :fand the Kurds in Iran still

lo not denote a finished tharac-

er to the Iranian revolution. In act the major social forces in ran have still as yet failed to orge society and politics in heir own 1. image. Such a situaton poses | “ever more acutely the ,eed for a revolutionary workrs party -to lead pe workers, Pr sarap minority nationdities: intelligentsia out f the bi trap. into which he Khomena 7 regime is drage- rt ng the coms

tate are dep . President sani Sadr, despite his massive elect-

wal victory has failed to block the. lericals in the Islamic Republican .

’arty—who, ‘as 4 result of the second

ound of elections to the parliament with attendant ballot-rigging and :oercion) have at least 130 out of he 170 seals. wh

iave only 41: Admiral Madani,

2AGE 20

Jiine 1980

‘the butcher of Knuzestan refusing to take up a premiership which he claimed was “shrouded in ambiguities’, Bani Sadr has to wait the further moves of Khomeini and Beheshti.

The reasons for the curious relationship of forces since the overthrow of the Shah lies in the manner of that very overthrow. ‘Ihe working class playea the decisive rote with a general strike which shut off the oil flow, paralyzed the administrative machine and immobilised transport and communications. The left Islamic and quasi marxist guerilla organisations, and to some extent the members of the Tutlehy precipitated and led the armed insurrection that cracked the mo: ‘of the Shah’s army and led to arming of the masses. But the leadership of the movement remained in the hands of the mullahs around Khomeini—a leadership that neither the bourgeoisie nor the proletariat has since been able to dislodge.

Both the liberal and conservative clerical wings of the bourgeoisie have béen unable to establish a firm grip’ on politicaf power. The National Front of Sayjabi and Ferouhar has

less in their toeing the Khomeini line could act as‘a ‘gobetween’ should Iran need covert Soviet assistance faced with an American blockade or punitive military action.

Whichever faction within: and

outside the Revolutionary Coun-

cil wins out, temporarily, before being ousted in its turn, the working class and oppressed masses have nothing whatsoever to gain from them or their fake ‘anti-imperialism’. The-working ciass above all must be won to an independent class programme and party which certainly must relate to the deep anti-imperialist aspirations of the whole tranian peonle, to the democratic aspirations of the nationalities, women women, the students and intellectuats, to the desperate need for land and agricultural machinery that the peasants express. But none of these goals can be met without the central leading role of the working class, organised in workers councils and

led by a party that can make Iran’s “second revolution” a proletarian one.

ae rn

been unable to reconstitute the state machine, restore labour discipline and control over the economy and re-establish stable ties with the Imperialist powers. The army remains disorganised and ‘demoralised’. The officer corps has been partially purged (30% of its numbers removed), Unemployment stands at nearly 30% of the active wage earning population. Industrial production is running at only 30% of capacity. Oil output is only one third that of the Shah’s period.

Workers have in some sectors fora, ed the concession of the 40 hour week anc attempts by the oil minister Ali Akber Moinfe#jand Bani Sadr to break the Shoras (workers councils) in the oil fields and elsewhere ~ have failed miserably. In the countryside the seizure of lands belonging _ to rne court circie, the large pro-Shah —

‘landlords and the agribusinesses has partly alleviated rural distress—a process aided by food price rises on the internal market due to the interruption of food imports and the abandonment of price controls. This

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

nas tueled the roariug inflation fete,

increased the misery of the urban -

poor but temporarily raised the income of the peasantry. :

The bourgeoisie and the big bazaar merchants looked first to Bazargan - and then to Bani Sadr to provide.

: ‘strong government’. They have both failed. Why? Basically because they have been forced to share political power with the petit bourgeois bloc. _ d~ming*e4 by Khomeini and the Co. The mullahs are armed with a reactionary utopian ideology based

.-on Shiite Islam and a demagogy aimed at the small bazaaris, merchants artisans and the massive sub-prolet-. ariat the moustazzifin. They have been able to.dominate the masses and block bourgeois normalisation _ and economic reconstruction and prevent the proletariat and the popular democratic forces (the-national-

ities in particular) from seizing power

and exproptiating the bourgeoisie.

But even the-immenselfvinfluential

‘Imam and the sinister Ayatollah _ Sayyed Mohammed Beheshti have? ertise ana poutical how of the bourgeoisie because they cannot create ate ‘Islamic economy . Much a@s-these leaders would like to create a society, dominated politically by the clergy, based on traditional rural society and small merchants. Such a society is an impossibility in the last quarter of the twentieth century.

: ee

Neither havethey been able to decisively crush the lett or the nationafzties. This has:not been for lack

of trying. In July and August of ’79 they attempted to crush the Fedayeen and the Mujahideen groups, ban-

ning their papers and mee*ings and turning the pasdaran (revolutionary guards) and the lumpen gangs (the

hezbollahis) loose to murder and intimidate them. This offensive was checked and driven back by the elemental resistance of those it was aimed at. The Kurdish peshmerga routed the army and pasdars. The revolts in the Caspian ports, in Tabriz and the mass demonstrations in

Teheran opened up rifts among the

Ayatollahs and forced. a demagogic

‘left turn’ to anti imperialist rhetor-

: ic and the re-legalisation of the left

groups and papers. :

This distjray was evidenced in massive.abstentions in the referendum on the constitution and in the collapse of the Islemic Republican Party’s candidacy for the President. Yet the mullehs have been able to return to the offensive, By late April they felt confident enough to launch a massive attack on the Kurds and to drive the left from the universities.

, On 20th and 21st April Islamic radicals launched an offensive to ‘reform’ the universities. Perhaps some of the so called Islamic student groups were sincere in believing that the campus could be put ‘at the service of the people’. Their utopian populist-Islamic ideology can, however. be mommore than a stalking

“bese for the

reactionary antidemocyatic, anti communist moves of Knomeini and Beheshti. On the pretext

that ‘matxist’ students had prevented the right wing cleric Rafsanjani Papas on the Teheran campus _ Khomeini denounced the universities

as ‘colonized and westernised from

outs After two aays,or If — spread to other cities and w h

left 27. dgad end hundreds wounded the F "Oh, the most miransigenty - of the leff groups, were uinally forced to withdraty: when Bani Sadr ordered the pascacen to intervene to ‘restore order’, Khomeini’s ‘Islatnicisation’ means the destruction of the universities as well as the crushing of the left, groups rights to hold meetings and conduct propaganda.

ss)

Beware a murderous otf-

ensive against’ the Kurds was iaunched. ‘Kurdistan must be comvcu and purged of all the anti-regime =

‘elements’ thundered Khomeini. This time it meant mtass slaugher directed against the unarmed civilian population, In the third week of May, ° fighting around Sananday left 1,500 Kurds and 500 government troops dead, Indiscriminate strafing by helicopter gunships and phantom jetsstrikes turned Saqqez, a city of, 40,000 people into a ghost town as the population fled to the mountains. Le Monde (16th May) reports the =~ appeal of.a Kurdisi: fighter in a hospital in Boukan, suffering from » hortible napalm burns, “For the love of God, because you are a foreign journalist you must tell the whole world what you have seen and what we are suffering—How. can Khomeini, that fascist that dares to speak about

" : God, let such things as these be done.

Thé truth must be known in and outside Iran—everywhere!

The May Day demonstrations of - | the left were brutally harassed by the _ bezbollahis using knives and throw-

ing stones. Yhat can turn the tide against this brutal.offensive? Only the mobilisation of the working class—their winning away from the mesmerising effects of the mullahs. . Here the rote of a Trotskyist revolutionary party would be crucial. The semi-guevarist, semi Stalinist politics of the Fedayeen—despite the marvellous heroism of their fighters— is of no use. Whilst the Fedayeen have protested egainst the anti democratic attacks of the clericals, whilst they have stood arms in-hand in the front ranks of those defending the Kurds, whilst they have defended the universities against the ‘Islamic’ thugs they concentrate their political

‘fire on the bourgeoisie and Bani Sadr, _

passing over Khomenni’s role in silen<e ce. This is to disarm the working <2 class against its recl enemies. Anti_imperialist rhetoric is cheap and indeed confusing when “the main enemy is at home”’. : However the so-called ‘Islamic Trotskyists” of the HKE (Iraniem ‘Revolutionary Wothkers Patty), spon- ; sored by the US Socisliet Workers Party, have adopted.a position far to

“the ISOs wanted”:

the right of the Fedayeen. They fail to raise the Sugiztes: ciliuieish of Kuo meini. This rank opportunism has borne bitter fruit in the recent strt?. ggles around the universities, showing that the HKE cannot even defe end democratic rights. Supporting the Islamic Student Orgamsation>

criminal muddleheaded project that © : *the campuses should be closed © .

down and the students sent out to | work on revolutionary projects , the HKE played into the hands of

the reactionaries. Too late they plea-

€ d that “This action (the hezboll-

ahi and governntent attacks - WP) |.

which was egainst freegom and agai was not what

to hell is paved with good intentions. > Sutethat follows - from so-called Trotskyists - is a terrible confession

2 of bankruptcy. Turning on the cour

ageous Fedayeen, who defended the Universities, they are reported (by Intercontinental Press May 5th) thus: “The ae ae Baga vorck that by oppo e 180s occupa- - pes oe sare dos of the Tudeh Party, Fedayeen and Mujahedeen_ .

not onliy‘showed their bankruptcy” _

but also proyed into the hands “of the 5C0 noe or and their undergemnd hit squads”. ” ~ The wretched ‘Intercontinerital’ continues: “Contrary to press acc ounts, the HKE says, there is no es calating anti-cominunist cam or witch-hunt against the Mi af : een or Fedayeen in iran today .On the contrary we are faced with “a deepening of the revolutionary process”. The HKE and its SWP (US) mentors cannot tell the difference between revolution and counterrevolution. Yell that to the Kurds, telisthat to the farnilies eu friends of.the 27 killed, tell that to the 17 stfitiants expelled from a teacher fig college in Avak for being ‘Matxists’. The ‘Islamic cultural rev- . ohition’ is the real tottlef reaction.

#83)

The measuring rod for a genuine Trotskyist party in Iran must be its advocacy and defence of working class independence from all brands of Islamic obscurantism. Its key task is the strugsle for a militantly secular revolutionary workers party, for soviets, factory committe’s aig trade unions free of the mosque. The mullahs must be discredited antl driven out of the workers’ ranks, _ On democratic demands, real Teat-2 skyists must be clear and uncompromising - Down with the reactionary peranhernalia of the Islamic Republic! Down with the bonapartist roles of the Velayat-e-Faquih (Religious Guardian of the State) endithe Presidency! Down with the Revolutionary Council!

Dissolve the fake-Parliament, elected by corruption, ¢oercion and ballot riggins. Dissolv: the pasdaran and arm the workers. #or soldiers councils in every unit, and for the election of officers, For a united front of. workers to smash the hezbollahi black huntreds!*

CGNTINUED Of NEXT PAGE

_ PAGE 21

2 powkyigis|must fight tor the “richt of all tne nationalities to seit- - - dttermination, which is meaningless © unless it includes the right to separa- ‘ion. Focussing all these democratic derrands - including equal rights for - women and an end to censorship and ‘he Islamic Tribunals - is the demand for a sovereign Constituent Assembly, clected by universal, equal and sec-. ret suffrage. Only the workers, peasants and soldiers councils could convoke, guard end supervise such elec- “ions. :

PAGE 22 P

A Trotskvist party must set as its goal the defeat of ciericai reaction, as well as of the Iranian bourgeoisie and its Imperialist backers. No such defeat can be decisive until full pow er rests in the hands of the workers and peasants Shoras.

The alternative, as recent rumours of a military coup in Teheran indicate, is eventually the triumph - of black reaction in one form or another. Either the black hundreds of . the right wing of the.Islamic Repub-

' ‘lican Party. will smaSirthe left and W TUUYY PRERREELERe EPORTCE

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