Iran: Workers Must Make the Revolution Permanent

: enormous encouragement to og against imperialism and its stooge hrough it th world. :

The. Anti-Shah revolution passed through several stages. ‘The initial campus-based demo

. voked, spurred the urban petty- bourgeoisie, the bazaar merchants and the mullahs to mob- _

aborted Khomeini and Bazatgan’ s deal with the Shah’s generals.

WORKERS POWER argued that, whilst it was correct for the working class and revolution--

ary Marxists to. fight alongside the mullah-led forces against the Shah’s army, that Khom- — eini, 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 _

and cannot merely act as a driving force fora bourgeois revolution, and here Trotsky’s _ prognosis, framed as early as 1905, has been confirmed time and time again in the last 75 a years. All the Stalinist/Maoist chopped logic about oe nc

. supporting, its class enemies. No section of the bourgeoisie (‘national”, “p “pat ean or will establish or endure for long a democratic regime of any : er

RAN: WORKERS MUST MAKE THE REVOLUTION PERMANENT

strations led by intellectuals in 1977/78, and the brutal SAVAK/army repression they pro

ilise 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

expectations and illusions (greater national freedom, more land, freedom of organisation, assembly and speech), Khomeini and the clerics would move against these freedoms ee which the masses conquered for themselves, arms in hand. :

panera aa sidsbabatasniele’ cniensatscy, aria atte ltejaniaiadigrs

Events over the last 18 months have amply born out these warnings. Important and heroic ce 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 - -anew “Shah”’ in all but name. The working class will not

r “peoples

mullahs will not. The only “democratic” regime there will be in a

~ Shah’ S nl

Reprinted from WORKERS bower No. 1.

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

ner

The corrupt despot’s regime rests ce

solely on brutal forces of repression, e is armed, and backed to the hilt, _ by those bastions off. “Shuman tights’ _ Jimmy. Carter, James. Callggionn and - David Owen, py ts ‘America is reported. to. be training 100,00 troops for intervention, should their guarantor 0 of-stability in the Gulf

iranian army is stiffened: by many: thousands of American advisers, The

and their officers; show how badly. this, ee ___ stiffening is needed. 5 ce + The deepening revolutionary upt 1 Pe ‘heaval in Iran has passed through seve eral phases. A campaign against repression was launched by. dissident _ -_writers last spring. Meetings attracted ever larger crowds, articulaely of : soidente : “Es

The ‘total cessation of oil ee ce exports froro Iran js undeniable i ___ testimony to the tremendous | be weight Iran’s workers have thrown ‘intothe scales in the struggle against the blodd’soaked Shah. The _ _strikes:by bj ni workers, state

oe ling the functioning of the franian 8 economy.’ Unprecedénted wage — __inereaseshave been won'(25%to —_/ 100%) over the last 3 months which _ | partly recoupthe effectsof _ Inflation but the strikes continue and are now Povertly: political, veentring on ¢alls for democratic __ tights, the kicking out of foreign — exploiters and the overthrow of. ee _the Shah and his machinery of mass murder. a | The Ayatollah Khomeini, a _ figece anticommunist is forced by _ "the obvious centrality of the » working class’s strength to over- | throwing the Shah, to pralse the | strikets ahd call on all oppositionists © : to give them financial and other : "support. — : | The military regime despite unexampled savagery has been - unable to restore order in the - _ Streets or break {he workers.

lose’ control of his own forces. The a

__ sreports ‘of soldiers shooting themselves _

“more radical sections have: as:their

‘ship of this movement fell to ff

strataiof: rane 4

“moran MAEM NIN

tle. shaken.

- petoper 1978

In November of last y year, while the : _ Shah.was in Washington, police fired

on.students at Arya _ The demonstrations gained the support of the urba masses in several cities. - The: le

University. lowed.

Shiite Moslem religious leaders: Th goal the overthrow. of the Shah and

the re-introduction: of the 1906 constitution, That:constitution had certain

liberal eleménts:while its clerical pro- — visions. would hold: serious implications for: the: workers and other Oppressed

The forces mobills 3 demon strations;:strikes etc. have widely differing class interests, The liberal bourgeoisie wants a constitutional monarchy, They want to preserve.

-Jran’s alliance with Imperialism. Many

| . anes tp. the «

Reprinted, from. WORKERS POWER No. 3

: resolve, The court camarilla, the = -_generals-and police chiefs and their _ GIA advisers have. only two choices, _

— ‘socla ‘weight is proving the _) smost: ‘decisive factor

sees

- Iranian.revolution is:the role. Of

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 pellsious oo

- January. 1979

_ More repression taken to genocidal. proportions orconcessions. ==: ‘The latter‘course, to have any

chance of producing a stable — transitional governrnent would “necessitate the’Shah’s flight along _ with the most notorious vowels SAVAK chiefs’ ‘etc, :

The. cruciat question facing the a8

tne. working class, Already its —

Ee trappings of | Pahlavi monarchy, are to be altered. _ASAVAK-military dictatorship

: swathed j in Islamic demagogy would ‘be no step forward for Iran’s

‘oppressed masses. A coalition of

_ imullah nominees and bourgeois _ "politicians swathed in anti-imper- - jalist rhetoric would be, at best,-

a concealed foe of the. working ae

_ glass and democratic rights—one _ __ which the exigencies of the.class

struggle would soon drive sharply

strong, the. __, social weight to tak struggle to overthr

noes

“they see the answer in areturi to a ipatriarehal Islamic utopia, __The. Iranian working class holds the — key. to the only stable alternative to the Shah's regime. Qne that can meet the: che ani of the epprened ies

The repression has hit working class militant hae As a result the Iranian: working cl: ‘ has only the most localised industri _ leadership, Stalinism, in‘its’ Soviet or Maoist forms, can only: be a source confusion and defeat. @' =.

st in no. way. underestimating : the 8 rugele around ‘democratic —_ demands’ only the perspective of _ working class power Gan guide. the Iranian revolutionaries. to the cormect _ : tactics and pieategy 1 in the omnia _ Peed : es

Vane esr NE

: mullah led forces it will be fatal - for it to support a Khomeinistyle

- government. Therefore the

objective strength ofthe working must be transformed inte

__ussing of existing

class in the anti “Shahi movement. : leadership. This requir

: Ittees He effecti

mocrat tic and anti-.. \mperialist strugaies to their fulfilment in an Iranian Socialist revolut-

ton.

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 safe; tothe right. Whilst theproletariat = : _:eanand should fight alongsidethe =

guarded by proletarian bower.

sya :

am Cn ec LS

no interventior *

5 ah oe

“ Reorinted from -woneens Panes No.3 January 1979

"There is no limit to the hardware. | \ Imperialism will p

its bloody puppet state in Iran. __ The stoppage of oil supplies thi batens severe disruption to the

ect niomies of Imperiatism’s most’

. fai hful henchmen—Israel and

So ith Africa—as well astothe — ect nomies of the Imperialist

he rtlands. That is why the Carter admini-

___atr jtion’has committed its security _ apoaratus and its fleet to the

_ mu ssacre. of the Iranian workers, : Bi | peasants. es Not to be outdone the British

La qur Government—on the yery da a Shah's British tanks mangled

thy bodies of Samondtiston 0 on

e to.propup =:

the. streets of Ghazvin and Tehran— “announced its committment to. the butchery in Iran. 100 Shir One Chieftan Tanks, worth over

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 ofarms .

~, to the forces of repression and

murder in Iran then it too will

be complicit in the deaths of : ‘thousands of Irani workers and

Peasants,

ou So INTENT NNN

H Cage. een

ton ‘per mene ge

‘pone ‘trom’ WORKERS POWER No. 3 January 4979

The prolongued revolutionary.

_ sit .ation in Iran holds enormous po tential for destabilising Western

im perialism economically and po itically. Carter and Owen, th ise sérmonisers off ‘human’

op ars of blood to preserve the

__ most savage tyranny on the |

__ pk nef: For this reason the Shah’s

41100 strong army has 1,200 miliat ry and 7,500.civilian-American = visors’. The notorious Savak,

se up in 1957 and reconstructed

af er the 1963 upheavals, has bet-

wien thirty and sixty thousand

m an. It was ‘advised’ at all stages

so rigats and christian values,khow

__ th t thef@ure serious interests at

__sti ke in Iran. Serious enough for

__ th m to stand shoulder to shoul_ de‘ with the Shahas he sheds

_ by the FBI and the CIA who have __

_ SC top agents in Savak. This enormous apparatus of « re jression was built up by the US ar 1 Britain to-serve their eco- » nemic and strategicinterests. 4 n yields massive super-profits. O:.e British businessman is repor-

te | as Saying thathe ‘mdkes40% =

‘mre profit here than in Britain’, A’ the heart of these interests is

‘> poll industry, It supplics 13% a

Rea Rost

: of American and 12% of UK imports. Although. formally . : hatiqnalised, 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.

-Evea more important than the

So oil wealth and investments of Iran __ is its strategic position, Groomed _ by the United States and Britain

to play the fole of policeman of the Gulf aréain the ‘indirect’ or

iS ‘neo-colpnial’ system which re-

placed | the ditect British military

presence after 1968, the Shah’s

forces have seen service against -

the liberation forges in Oman. ae _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

Whitchall: “

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

‘£500 million, will be delivered to” _

-oJran by the spring, Callaghan and | Holy Owen have promised the

a military bonapartist tyranny of

unusual severity. This regime

represented the political expropria-

_ Hon of the bourgeoisie and the, feudal landowning class in the -

- ietion by munitions wo * -tansport workers, by dockers

Ue ae cA campaign ‘of slags “a

he workers and peasants of Iran

nust be built in the British labour

- novement. There is ndtime to _ waitfor. fine speeches and petitions.

ust be taken now to black _

plies to the butetors ight

‘irport workers to stop the flo f arms now. —

In every town labour movement | ‘ommittees of solidarity must be “nilt—committed to action, to” ‘lacking, to demonstrations to : orce the Labour Government to jreak with Imperialism and its ;, ilies in Iran.

soety a cae [esses

_ nebrenta st preserving capitalism.

n the interests of imperialism and ‘Against the working class, The

: $hah’s regime rests upon imperial-

and seform to the peasa’

- he lack of a solid social base for

m externally, and.internally upon . in artificially induced ae in __ the class. strugéle.

‘The Shah has given, ina ieformed way, certain social: contessions to the yarious clagse:

nis a testimony. to

che Shah's regime, It is this social

oe

gasis which real fascism possesses =

n the enraged reactionary petitsoutgeoisie and lumpen prole-s | - jarlat. Both these classes are, sowever, in the forefront of ‘the opposition movement. They

figure amongst those most bitterly o

_2pposed to the present regime.

‘Since the'sixties there has been a _

~~ sonsiderable growth of industry, |.

_aetrochemicals, steel, car, truck _ and bus production and assembly,

. tlectronics and machine tools. As

| result the Iranian industrial : sroletariat has grown in size (2. .

_nillion in 1977).

CONTINUED ON. NEXT PAGE >

: ¢ dictions engendered i in Ira _ of industrialisation. :

ue, the Agrarian Reform the

had imposed after 1962 was.

ae ofa ‘revolution front? above’ of Bonapartist land '‘re-. _ forms which whilst it weakerls the aid downia Class and opens

agriculture to. ‘capitalism, infact” Se swindles the vast majority. of the |

‘ peasantry. leaving them landless

- (50%) or vith tiny plots (30%).

The reform was designed to streng-

then those e peasants who-already owned larid’and implements. and draught animals, ©

:: The net result has been the “creation of two ‘new’ classes in _ the countryside, capitalist landA jy, OnWers and landless labourers, . However the result has not been

48 qupid capitalisation and moder-

- = nisation of agriculture, Land has been abandoued, villages deserted - “and. the result has been rocketing imports of foodstuffs plus a flogd- © ing 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 revenue arms end military spending and‘éorruption: The. failure to develop a skilled igbour. ‘force also places severe limits on. Tran’ Ss _ development,

The crisis of 1977-8: took the form of escalating inflation,. food prices and tents in particular.soar-

_ ing, This affected the whole urban, ee

population

The bazear was; 3, until the 1950s and 60s, the centre of urban eco_ nomic life, Dominated by very.

_ wealthy merchants but consisting ce

of its overwhelming bulk of one anda half million shopkeepers, _ _ money lenders, traders, craftsmen and artisans; it had in the ‘past _ funded ' trade and. been the centre _ of much production and neatly allexchangey = The foreign baal, the int

ts eiiltural and alia centre the mosque; 'Shiia Islam represents a a unifying | ideology, one that in | 1963 arid 1978 has spearheaded.

‘mags resistance to the Shah’s

et de site'a ‘all this the Iranian

_ he appears to mean a republic = cee

- oN of Ayatollane 8 te Seater of - whom Khomeini was elected in

: Opposition leaders is at variance "them as reactionary fanatics who.

- seventh century. Khomeini insists

: Shiia’ ‘islam has. its oneing in resis. ; tance to, the. egnetituted state saan ity,

1962. The reality of the. Relizions

with the Cartér/Owen picture of. - want to tak. Iv: back to the

that’ “T have always called strongly for: ‘economic and socie| develop-

# ment i in my country” and exposis2s

what‘he calls ‘the principles of deniocracy and fresdoin’, By: tlis ©:

‘based on liniversal suffrege and:

: dangers.

and women could expect dittle t

with freedom for political parties. Ae . the Marxist will be free to.

: express themselves because we are.

convinced that Islam contains the .

answer to the peoples. needs: Our

faith is capable of standiag up against their idcology.”” (Les: Monde, Paris; May 6th 1978): Khomeini can sum up his aim thus:

“As 800n as the Shah goes we want

the. greation 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

Persian. nationalities, — Shiia Teligious minorities

What Khomeini does loudly and vociferously attack is Ameri-

‘can Imperialism: He declares his

support for the Palestinians. All

these:factors suggest that : a

: Khomeini influenced: ‘regime

would be of A ‘populist Islamic

“nationalist. type. To draw parallels

ee

: with Pakistan or " Indonenia i 48 @:mis-

take. Both, these dictatorships.

awere, esteblisned in the defeat of a

popular upsurge where the’ work-.

_. ing.cless were-unable to seize : “power; ey :

eB cloak for cuneate

"Islamic ideology i is Janus-Faced,

it can justify anti-imperialism, ©

resistance to. the foreign powers

seeking. to. paplolt © or EievleM ee Lf

dictatorship ‘or even. fascist ae:

tion (as in Turkey), | : Khor eini’s movement can

therefcre 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 ansver that Khomeini is: -

a ‘progrecsive force’, a democrat,

- ‘The Sparticists find ‘that he is'a-

‘black ‘teactionary’. One plays i into Se hands of the maullahs, ¢

essional riddle class cloak itself in the bourgéoisi-nationalist : mantle of Mossadeq, the prime == gninister oyerthrown by the CIA’

> dv 1953. But it is the most com-

promised and half-hearted forcein

the opposition, It remains irreso-

Jute and torn between Khomeini

and the Shah, Its leaders na 8 figure largely on the ‘list of 8 names’ the Shah has been ponder-

_ ing over as candidates to a govern-

ment of ‘national tTeconciliation’, Sanjabi is one of the ‘three polis ticians most frequently clossetted

CONTINUED ON NEXT PA GE :

> These:-men are bourgeois. We only have con‘ idence in Khomeini for only ..¢-rally-wants the Shahi|to _ go.’ (Le Monde, Noveinber 6th, 2 8)

- The at pirations 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 intransig«ince of the Ayotollah

Khomeini going to lead? The Shah: _dsonhis tnees. The Ayatollah _ should take advantage of it to

impose on him respect for, and =

_ consolid: tion of, the constitution _-we obtai:ed from Sharif Emani’s

governmiint and which General :: - Azhart’s sabinet is in the process - of taking back.” It is obyious that _ the ‘dem dcratic rights’ these ux gentlemen desperately want are __ the posts of imperial ministers ie _ themsely Me.

IBGwe yer. as with the religious .

leaders it is pot merely. their class. _ or cagte interest or personal inclin-_ ation wh ch has determined their

actions. ‘he mass mobilisations have kep: ‘Sanjabi out of office = _just as they have radicalised the : mullahs, ” : ‘If the firsttwWave of the Iranian

revolution was spearheaded by the _intellecti als—writers and students _

_ and centied on the universities. If the secord wave, starting with the demonsti ations and massacre in

— Qom on.lanuary 9th 1978, marked

~ the passa ye of the thovement toe

the phas¢ 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 i anian proletariat hasa history ¢f militant trade union and socialist organisation, The first unions it Iran were set up by.

- workers ‘eturning from the Baku -Olifields n Russia after the defeat of the 1£05 revolution, The young labour movement participated in

the 1907-1909 revolutionin tran.)

After the war a communist party. - was form ed and some of the trade: ‘unions a‘ filiated to the Red Inter-. national of Labour Unions in 1921. The Pahlavi dictatorship crushed z__ all indep.ndent workers: Organisations in 1928. e

In 19:4 an Iranian TUC was

formed tnder communist influenc --ence. By 1946 it had a member-

ship of 430,000, Fifty thousand workers celebrated May. Day in Teheran n 1946, But the slavishly pro-Sovict politics of the Communist Pirty (Tudeh), which. had 25,000 niambers, ruined this ee

PAGE 6

_ Méonists know: their meanire. a _Ayatollal. of Abadan commented |

“Sanjabi ind Bazargan at heart ~

want to 1 egotiate with the Shah.

_ 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 been setup inthe = ©: _ North. Stalin traded these repub:.

lics for oil and gas concessions in

lan,

The Tudeh was initially, hostile to Mossadeq (from the right,

__ because his policies threatened to _" Japset the Soviet-Imperialist status - quo), but it moved toa full _ cee popular frontist tailing of his bour- eae _ geois nationalism. 1t missed the’. =

crucial opportunity of mounting resistance to the coup ot August: 1953 and witnessed the immediate |

smashing of the trade unionsand | in 1955 the uncovering ofits. - illegal and military organisations, _ The Tudeh was almost completely obliterated by Savak,. SE Only inSeptemberof 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 apr = paratys and the setting up of a “setious 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-

Treason for such modest ‘perspec- = tives is that Moscow has by no. __ means given the go-ahead for full-

= blooded participation in the oyer- : . throw of the Shah. Brezhnev's non-agression pact with the Shah ee

and his imperialist backers. cripples

_ the Tudeh as a party of the Ansar: ae gent proletariat, : a

Yet despite the bankruptcy _ eS 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 statted their self-organisation,

The strike movement in the

- oilfields bears all the marks of

the spontaneous revolutionising

of the workers. On October 23rd

the 12, #000 workers at the Oil Refinery i 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, | -

S the departure of American

advisors, a fight against cor-

ruption, the conviction of all _ _ those who have committed _

crimes against the people. ee

Tee strike has ebbed and flowed a

ae Autumn.

Mutinies

most deeply felt immediate dem;

= dynasty, the smashing of | © the release of all polit - ers, free electio nd

: since then with thousands of:

_troops driving workers at gun

_ point into the refineries. Those -

inside have slowed production to

_asnail’s pace. BBC correspondents

in late December report the forma-

tion 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 prominent in the regime who had trans-

billion dollars out of

Iran, The newspaper ' orkers have "fought bitter battles:

dom to report the even of

The working class i is partick

pating wholeheartedly i inthe _ struggle to bring down the Shah. :

Indeed, it alone has the economic.

strength and social cohesion todo —

this. The mass strike wave has put:

the noose arotnd the Shah’s neck and is tightening it, Strike comm-

ittees are springing up in the

_ struggle. They must, at the earliest

opportunity, be generalised into _

-elty-wide workers’ councils. The

morale of the army-is‘already ‘weakened, In Tabriz on 18th Dec-

_ ember, a unit: downed arms and joined demonstrators with their ee ‘armoured cars. The formation, and

_ arming of workers’ militia as army. noe

S discipline breaks down iscrucial, as is the creation of barrack comm- _

iter and soldiers’ councils,

-franian, ‘revolutionary commvunists ‘must develop the strategy and tactic8 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

ands, the overthrow of the Pahlavi

political parties, the nationalisat-

ion of British and American mono-

polies are national-revolutionary :

_and bourgeois-democratic dem-

ands 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 torbring down ,

. the Shah.’ His emocratic' pro-

gramme would enshrine ; arelig- — ious obscurantism in a new con-. stitution, Should the working class : appear to threaten Jranian; oe moslem, private property(includ- _

_ ing the massive riches of the | = - mosques) but prove unable to»

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE S

ENA Seat os aa

‘draw the non-proletarian masses. behind it and seize power, then _ Khomeini or another religious:, leader could use the petty-bourgooisic and jumpenproletariat as __ fas’ *t terror squads against the — iS “10 Wworxers. Alternatively the © : aa anew mil: At the moment, __ however, these mass¢s, 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 loso. his mass following rapidly, | It ds illusions in the anti-imp_ erialist and democratic credent- = jais of Khomeini and the mullahs a that revolutionaries must challenge. To do this means partici-

_ pation by Iranian Trotskyistsin

the struggles launchedby those "leaders, under clear, independent __ slogans with full warnings about __the religious leaders. Demacratic. : ‘demands have enormous importCorrectly ‘and fully posea _ | Win first the proletariat

away from the religiousand

: Boutgeols leadership, The working "class is, and can.be, the only con- © sistentl.democratic force. The -

. | -dnelude, freedom of speech, ass- ] embly ¢ and the press, legality for >. trad€ unions and political part- "jes and’the right to strike. The _ question of-Iran’s national min- - orities must not be forgotten, the Shah's: -empite.is.a, *prisonhouse of nationalities’, Only _ 50% of Iran’s population speak ____ Farsi (Persian) though another | __ two related languages make up _ anothinr 11%; The rest belong to _ distinct national ethnic groups,

nnn

ghts and wrongs - “the Spartacists |

Reprinted: from WORKERS Ae No. 3 January 1979

ae rhe Spartacists cantral slogan: = : “Down with the Shah, Down with _the Mullahs" is in our View seriously mistaken. Firstly the Shah is at the amomant the central agenitof Anglo__ American 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. Jranian, Masset The Spartacists. 8

throw together in a hopeless jumble every aspect of the mass movement

id'then other oppressed strata

- Aacrbaijanis, Kurds, Baluchis and a _ Arabs. The right to self-deter-

© full rigours of Islamic jaw, Women oS

demands that they fight formust

antry. In early. December, the - ly asked a visitor, ‘ But are the Monde 6.12.78) The workers _

old aristocracy, the Imperial fam- '

- Whéther an individual or a coll-

and label it reactionary. For example _

Mey see attacks on the cultur, A

prevails will depend on the tinie scale of the proletarian seizure of power. - : There are‘numerous religious minorities in Iran, Sunni Moslems, —__ Armenians, Jews, Bahais etc, A - Shiite répwhlic would be opp- , Tessive to tnem as weil as to women and the working class, There_ fore, the demand for complete secularisation, the separation of. Mosque and State is vital. The ‘proletariat does not seek to tram- -

: ‘mitiation, up to and including sep- "aration, 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 womer and their eman-

. cipation from the a | restrict_ Jons imposed by religion 1 as the State. The right to own dispose of property, entry to all eS occupations, equal rights in the ~ family, i in sum full legal equality in all spheres. Women have been active participants i in the move mont against the Shah, The telipious leaders have tried to limit _ them to.propagating the idea of _ a full return to the veil and the \

that is with no committee of ulemas to yet 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 revol: utionary pro cess avhich has opened

up in Iran, is not aborted in the

_ form ofan Islamic military Bon- __

_. apartisn., or of an inherently un-

_ stable bourgeois democracy with”

> enormous conesssions to Shi'ite -

' -theocracf. The Iranian revolution, _ if it is to accomplish even its anti: _ imperialist 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 of an armed working class organised L :

-in Soviets, To this task Iranian

_ Fevoluuonaries must devote them. |

selves. British communists must render them every possible ag istance, i.

: Must be won to the side of the - _ only class capable of gaining not _ only their equal rights but, via peas the destruction of capitalism, =: Re achieving their full social eman-— ee cipation. JA clear majority of. Iran’ s pop: lation is rural,’consisting of landless or small-land owning pease... ~ ants. The proletariat niust raisethe slogan ‘the land to those who | . tillit’, Part of the reason forthe ‘stability of the Pahlayi dynasty and for the effectiveness of the army as an instrument: of repress- ' ion, is the quiescence of the peas-

Shah is reported to have anxiouspeasants also against me?’ (Le _

must encourage peasant seizure of large estates belonging to the

= ily, the court clique and the foreign _ foreign agricultural enterprises,

ectiye form of landownership

\ gifts ©’ Western civitisation, port, ee graphic films, luxury. hotels, todd. cola stores merely as signs of obsc__ urantism and backwardness. They. present the mass demonsirations as “suicidal advances on tha Shah troops” and talk about the “chilling spact- - _acle of protesters clad in ceremonial _ ‘white robes” being mowa down as “equally grotesque” as the Shah's _ ¢laims that faw have been killed. They draw attantion to ‘ritual. _self-flagellation’ on the demonstrstions ‘despite the fact that Khomeini has —__ _ explicitly called for this practice to

be abandoned. Iti is one thing to warn against the anti-working class nature of - the Shi'ite leaders, tt is quite another to fall into using the same phrases as the White House and,,Do _ Street apostles of civilisation aid ___ 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 etal.

CONTINUED. Ow 1 NerT PAGE

Leaenarrr

vin 1 the Hingoriatst hed rtland —

HS | ite afocusses from the central tasks of exposing the alibis of the Carter's

and Owens ond mobilising the working clacs to block. arms and supplios | to thair direct aaonts in_lran.

On Sivea recent demonstrations _

_ in‘solidarity. with tha struggle in Iran the Spartecists have kaen exel-

= uded from the march by the organ- _

: isors. At the CARI demonstration of December 77ta in London the

> pportanist x contingent: was excluded

__ by the CARI. organisers with the full complicity of the IMG. Leading IMG smembors. participated in a cordon to

separate the Spartacists from the merch. That cordon allowed the police to force thair way into the demonstration and so harrass the Spartac-

ists until they left-the demonstration.

This action by the CARI organis-

“ers and the ING must be condemned. _ We hold no brief for the principle slogans of the Spartacists. But tha —

CARI/IMG action (supported by

‘the SWP) establishes a precedent of

allowing the police to intervena in — labour. mavemant and solidarity -

, Gemonstrations-and actions. It means :

uy JHU USAC

Key £ task to break the 7

The comtinuad envecd repress:

jen since the Shen's flight haa

written'In the blood of hundreds 4

’ of courageous Iranians tia truth —

Afat the militery. bonapartist My

"tyranny stil exists, it marely hos . peed pate ‘bonanarte’. -

Receuh meceg oan ‘

_ impasse sehen bid reactJonarlas of tie & toh smmend and the mass move ron the © _ streets, the bazaar merchants,

_ the students and the striking workers, who haye mace Iran ‘ungovernebla’. Bakhtiar may = : well be, as the American Magazine :

Newsweek puts it cu Open

- a Swedish style Social Democrat’ but he is tied, not to a mass : reformist workers orgenieation — in a stable. metropollten-capitalisrn. but to the lranian High.

Sayan scyonhcy Q eB: waa vealg of a _ revelution. The Payis dzily ‘Le Monde’ is nearer the merk. when

. I points out that Bakhdar is a.

_ great admirer of Ganoral de Gaulle, |

_and regards kimaslf asa ‘manof |

: decision’. Clearly be would like

: ie pley, the role ofe “‘Gamocratic’

“‘Theslogans of tho damonstratays however ga to the heart of the

: _motter Bakhtiar—lackoy without

power’, Bakhtiar is in the last | instence a pawn of the generals. _ He issues orders for the solders to guard Teheran airport and. they close it, He lesues orders, for ‘no shooting’ and 30 are gurined down as the Imparial Guard runs amok, The Generals would like Ane whole opposition, Pall its deadays and ee: They woutd, in sach on et eo aot happily add

" 31,10.76); in the few days

Reprinted from WORKERS POWER -Nc 4 February 1978) ‘the Shah and his uscety American

t mastots urge csution. They fear that in any asiamied solution tho military machina might disintegrate. feverthelass they _ willie thom off the leash if : Bakitier fells to blunt the masses’ offansive. Bakhtiar’s role is to pecify. the genere!s en the ane hand end come to an understanding with the rcligious foadors on the other—honcs his attempted flight to Paris to talk to Khomaini.

Khomeini, 2s leader of the _

: Ppposition | is subject to

assive pressure from the varied Forces making up the anti-Shah _cpalition. Over the past month his refuge in Paris has baen the _ seene of } many deputations urging compromise. The National Front nt Danus Farouhar to Paris in

iid January. At the same time ;

lelegation from the Teheran. i hambear of Commerce and : - Andustry which complained of. the industrial and commercial ruig facing them if the strike eantizeess \Khomeinl never-theless ratused e!l compromice ' before his return to Teheran; _ though the: was vacillation

esti received a five man

' amongst his advisors over

Bakhtiar's projected visit. Khomei- “ni has througnout the struggle “called on the army to desert the “regime. Initizliy ha appealed to the generals to ‘rally to the cause _ofthe nation! (Le fionda: =

since his return, Khomeini has _ made itclear thatheisnotco-— ,- mmitted to breaking-up the’

_ army and the power of the —

Generals. {n fact there are serfous siens of an attemntes |

_ the establishment of bans and pros-

criptions in the labour movement—

- a tactic most naturally the property -of the Stalinists and lapour bureau- . erats. ©

Workers Power--along with the cL

and the WSL—declared in advance our

opposition to the ban on the Spartacists. We will continue to.do so on all future damonstrations. In any united front slogans may be raised — which other sections of the United

_F ront find objectionable or even

reactionary. Differences within the labour movement must be settled by argument, not by the use of goon squads or the capitalist police.

BY

The mobilisation of all the ae classes and strata in tran, though directed against the Shah and mystified in religious ideology presents an enormous threat to private. property whether sacrad or profane. For the masses. most iminodiate vital needs will not be mat by a regime however ‘Islamic’, which is based on its pres vation. On the other hand it is in the direct interest ..

_ of the masses that the discipline:

_ and cohesion of the army disint-

: agrates completely from the rake. : upwards. Not one stone of the fortress of repression must beteft: standing upon another. But why. _ ‘has this fortress Yemained fundam-, entally intact despite all the massacres?

‘The lranian 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 ‘contamin-

ation’ by being stationed for long — among civilians. In addition Turkish-speaking soldiers from

_ Azerbayan will be used for

repression in Teharan—Shirazi |

soldiers in Mashadetc.Inadd-

ition there aro elite sections— highly privileged and indoctrinated like the 10,000 strong _

Imperial Guard whase Haridan:

: Brigade was paraded for journalists at the Lairzan Barracks in late January. But-even this - hardened corps is not immune to. the effects of what they are doing. in December three

_ enlisted:men burst into the

is

__streots, The crucial question fs _ leadership, Strategic goals ana specific tactics. The bourgeois

Shdis:ndsprayedthen | ~ elu or religious, The. ‘high commend : china jun fire. = consists of ferocious loyalists to Iranian my remains the - the bonapartist regime. Although

= a soltd “sccizi base’ of the | -, two af the most bload-thirsty oppositionists in tha National Front, : ") dmperianet Reg ne. its strength ‘reactionaries Genaral Gholam - fear the collapsa of the Army more SS —betwess three indfourhundred ——_—s A‘ Oveissi, ex-adiministretor of __ than they fear a military dictatorship. _ thousand repres nts 3% bf the ane + martial law in Tehcran and Genoral The highly-socially conservative

- Khosrodad, chief of the ‘air, cavalry’ > fave keen removed or posted to distant garrisons, the outlook: of the High Command is we!l summed up by a spokesman for the pro-

__.. goals of the religious opposition __ offer little to the sons of peasants - and workers in the army. Neither, «does IChomeini wish to launch an Insurrection. He hopes that mass . Shah politicos, “At the moment | demonstrations plus the creation "tho commaaders don’t know whether... of a shadow provisional govern- — to chop (Khomeini) up for dog meat “ae. ment will be enough to win over __ or to use him for targat practice.” _ a key secticn of olthor the high _ 7 (Guardian 22.1,1979). _ command or the Islamic national: se Most of the Generals and the - ED ‘ist colonals. Nori is Maoist guerr- “Officer Corps know that they | _ iaism appropriate to these tasks. have littie to expact excopt popular ~: Strategically it rejects the goal of ,_ Vengeance once the weapons of ___. proletarian revolution and thus repression slip from their grasp, ~ subjects the working classto an _ They have no perspoctive expect alliance with the ‘national _ to attempt to drownthe movernent —_ bourgeoisie’ and:the ‘progressive -in seas of blood. The masses of alliance’. It elevates guerilla struggle tank and fite soldiers, on the other Itself to a strategy and thus has not __ hand, can be won over; tha _ ; o built its base in the factories and isolated mutinics reveul this, But _ workplaces and does not base itself to produce a massive breakdown of _ an the seif-orcanisation and selfmorale such that the soldiers sractivity of the working class. break ranks and join tia masses, _ Workers’ councils, a workers’

“employed popul: tion. Tha averesa soldier ts paid coiziderably more _ shan the masses of urian ind tural ppor, though less thane skilled worker. As far as possibla they are isolated from socicty, . ‘serving hundreds of miles from, --¥ cheit area of recruitment. They ‘ave themselves riddled with agants and informers of Nititary. intell- -igence. The disaffection of the ' ¢roops used to: slaugater demonstrators has roactied faver pitch at - various points, Units have joined . damanstretors or refused to fire > -. but the prevalence of incidents _ where soldiers have shot themselves _ :_ or the events at the Lavizan Barracks + outside Teheran in Decembar where | _sthree enlisted men burst into the ; _ sofflcers’ mess and sprayed Its . -lpmates with machine gun fire, Sndicate the still isolated nature «of these outbursts, Army morale

— uncertain but not broken. “pass arms to the workers, poasants, militia the turning of the general oe The Officer Corps is an elite i students, arrest their officars etc strike into an insurrection, require : aifep ‘more divorced from society. _fequives decisive organised ection 1° a party with a oomnlealy aitteront tome military schools take pupils __ on the part of the mazses.' 1, parnpactivg _ a? years of age. There has bean ‘. ‘There can be no doubt of tho aS oe ee _ little contact between the Officer heroism and willingi:ass to :

UE ETE ;

Be es ane’ e Sepention either i

matics of the mares | in the.

gn

Beware of the Religic jous leaders:

lo-to an Islamic t

Reprinted fom WORKERS 5 POWER No.4 February 1979.

_ The Ayatoilah Ruaholtah Khomeini has said that he regards ~ the inass demonstrations in December and January as a

_ referendum in his favour andas - a mandate to name the members of.a provisional council made

- up of ‘Moslem believers’, a new- “ Vtpyemier and a provisional govern-

ment. This government would prepare

ideal a Moslem theorcracy, Over __ the last fifty years the Mullahs : have.lost control over education and -

the law which have been secularisad.

They have lost the “waqf’ lands _ __ which financed the mosques, and «they have lost all influence over

government policy—most notably

_ the power to enforce Islamic

prece-°s with recard to women and

or the power to nominate candid: _ ates, for the Shia clergy at all

- tevels, In an interviéw 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 pe ve already pronounced their “Will to have an Islamic government.

all But. Ifa referendum is necessary

_ elections, Khomeini, in.an interview with a Beirut newspaper, has indicated civ that he does not accept the idea of ja@one party system (Economist _ -¢: 93,401979), Further he prociaiins : shat “an Islamic government is not backward looking. We approve of

family Jaw. Empty. of progressive as content as most of the Shah's ‘ref-

- orms" were, the restoration of the hierarchy's power in all these : , areas would cleayly be areactionary =~

¥<act, The complete separation of res

‘Mosque and State is a measure in

- on the legal basis for it, we will not refuse this. The Committee would consist of believers, It could include ulemas either

:_ with fall or with observer swptus.

We will propose a candidate for

: the: ‘presidency of the Republic,

eS

civilisation but nat that-which "the direct interest of workers, poor _ ‘He would have to be elected by = goes against the interests and dignity. “+ peasants, students.and Intellectuals, —-' - the people. Once elected we would ‘So4. ofour people.” Does this make women and the national and : support him, The laws of an ais Khomeini a democrat?. Far from it. religious minorities, _ _ Blamie government would. be the

ae The Shia hierarchy, of whom At the level of state power How he ls o spokemsan. Fave as thelr Khomeini wants to bulld in a veto, i _ SONTINUED on NEXT PAGE.

ce FF a : PAGE 9

way to salvation to these people. ff they do not want this they will __

. followers i in Iran.

sc. islam.” Asked what the atinude of such a govern be ta-nion-believers, Khomein replied, “We. would try to show th

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

_inelusion of socialedemocratsin 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-impertalist colouration. The structure of the Mullah-led

opposition Is powerful and danger:

ous. Its main social base, the — bazaar. merchants of Teheran, dispose of an efficient organisation headed by five leaders each of which has a hetwork of sub-leaders. ‘These can mobilise gangs of ‘luti'—

_ unemployed youth, bazaar porters __

and labourers, Each major leader

is reported as being able to mobil-

ize 5,000 “Jut!’ within half an

hour. This ‘Milttia’ can be a

serious threat to the. working class, The religious opposition itself

shouted down with aries af ‘Death i

__ to the Shah! Death to Communisml. ” The task of revolutionaries, of

Trotskyists, { in Iran is to raise the ‘alarm in the working class, difficult - as this task wil be. To warn workermilitants, to win them away from the Ayatollah and the Mullahs - id to resolute opposition to an

t |

is also increasingly well organised, _ Teheran is subdivied into nine ~ districts each headed by a ulema, ling the base organisations by Mullahs. The nine ulemas ily touch with

to form uc Moreover, “ _ ent councils which wil " selves as much with polit with religious, since in Isla are tied up together.” (Nouvel. Observateur 15:21.1.1979). Despite Khomeini’s declared support for the oil strikers and despite the undoubted fact that most iranian workers have massive illusions it the Ayataoliah, the forces che heads—the Bazaar and the Shi‘lte clergy are and can be only temporary”

military alliesofthetranian eS unfenerad by

_ by universal. suffrage, To fight for

this, class organisations of the

working class 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 ced 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 cemetery near Teheran in the middle of a crowd listening attentively to the mullahs.a worker. __ stood up to speak on the problems ~ facing the | proletariat, He was

Coe

Opportunists: and. sectarians on rar

Heprinted lon WORKERS POWER No. 4. “February 1979

“THE INTERNATIONAL MARXIST

The United Secretariat ofthe —

Fourth International (USEC), and their record of opportunism with regard to the Iranian revolution, will prove a fatal guide to its

The position they. have argued ‘is identical to that of the Mensh_eviks in pre-revolutionary Russia - who argued, against Lenin and ithe Bolsheviks, that the workers _

movement should focus on the: struggle for bourgeoisdemocrat-

ic demands aiming later to utilise the freedoms afforded by

bourgeois democracy to build

a workers party in — PAGE Ao.

gee

“the establishment ofa _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 oiland multinational companies,”’ Ali calls for a bourgeois, not

__ a workers republic, All the —

vetos and eed.

proletariat free from. Mullah tutelage must be formed, factor committees, workers councils, trade

unions and the militia necessary to protect these, Above all arevolut- . ionary political party isthe central

need, one which can speathead

these organs of struggle and workers’ democracy::A party pledged to fight for democratic

_ rights: against an Jslamic Republic

and for a Workers and Peasant. Stateintran.

‘are bourgeois- _

_ democratic 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

_ sevolution—“Charles the first too __

was overthrown by a movement which spoke with a religious —

- yolce.”’ The most Socialist Chall- __

enge can muster is a sly wink in

the direction of ‘something more”

than a bourgeois revolution taking

SONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

4 i i - t + A ‘ 4 ‘

Funda changes,” tthe a quirk ofthe | editorial offices of Sosiaiist Challenge? Not at 24. In an bier dew with Iranian Trot ee on : 12th October 1978 we’ the sole statement of sins .° “Iranian revelutionaries Pat al a for the overthrow of thé pale ‘monarchy; tts replacement bya:

<2 sepubliec, end the essabitsiment

of aiconstitvent csserndly frecly ° elected througn universal ae

- In an editorial etatement on Aran’ : (Socialist Chailtense 9:11,1978) ‘which was made aiter the erupt: ion of the mzssive aati-Shah » strixe wave the IMG dropped a fow gentle hints that a baureols revolution: was not all ti that was at

sa HaESes. We pouthy " dip of tie masses developing aS ihelrown. orgayisatio ns-of os power—not sinply to get rid oft theiripresent ruler, but to seize me oun dersny ance eter

, these winsecies mt nly thing we-canpree : clkipedecuiacyisthar: ‘everything is passible’”. ‘Such 3: ‘sclentifio eccutecy’ ects comuch resem to “scientific socials - igm’a2 Gid: Moore’s Almanac - ‘does to: Troy’ 8: Termanent -Reyolution’. . ee ‘The. Jrecien worker took our ‘soientiate’ oa sunprise as to

ok

co neune Sp atest . ‘~ _adency’ 8 position: on Tran is. living proof! that a sectarian resp_—_ onse to opportunism leads to - > errors as bad if not worse than _._|those of the USFI. Starting from

sneed to contradict the SWP(US) and the Iranian Student milieu the

tar eng a fact witnessed by their insulting epithet ‘Mullah

irs’, and the chortles of — delight about Iranians ‘driven to

gy : ae frenzy by our hi

“the Spartacists started on the — slippery slo ape toconfjlete _abstention

against the Shah, worse toan «_ endorsement of a own ruling

; pee oe a result 6 which they characterise the movement

__as one of ‘“‘e1'Jel reaction’. A I

meres Of theke charges amount

om the struggle...

Se Ne cg RW ge INET OTST : :

* 3

force thezrin the cxection of

calling for soviets and: workers ower. but one week later ocietist Chdenge w28 cquivoc:

ating eyein. “While scvicis may be -

. “the nicst fevourcile develop-. ment’ the “vite! part cfour armoury” for ae IMG. remained | - ithe “overchrow of the monarchy, : _ immediaze eizetions, convection pf a Constituent Asser

iets Payoutaule development’.

t the centre-piece of Whe mG] USFI’s agitation is “a numbeno, interrelated democratic slogans centering on the riz i978)

bly. (EC1 eye as ds

hn of of the hisiorial process in

‘the abssnes of which: wevolution- 4 -

aries make. do with bourgesis..:

;democt , Tiisy ore the strategie =

' goal toy ieheavolutioraries gear ef their tacti : Nowhere in the SIMG/USFI's

material do we even find a‘clear’_ | , statement that to be successful in its bourgeois-democr: die and ~~

inp erlaiiat tacks the Iranian: Revolution taust become a _profetariaa sevolatica. All the experience of the nigjor revolut- ” fonary upheavals from the first

eet Id war saderiie’s the fect that.

tb uncritical retailing of the

' chauvinist rubbish which filled

: the American press throughout ithe Autumn. The Mullahs they

claim, wish to restore Iran to the

7th century AD, to the period of “the expansion of Istam by ‘fire and the sword.” They wish to introduce savese Islamic law unighments; stonitig, public

_». hanging and whipping ete. They "wish to enforce the wearing of the

-yeil'and the removal of the rights ‘Bien to women by the Shah. To t they add Khonisini’s

appetite to slauphter the working — ass

militants on the pattern of ‘the Indonesian mullahs in 1965. they cite his ‘hatred-of western

ielvilization’ guoting et afactthat ‘the: ‘Tslar

amic ie eek lic’ will be

aimplyéz ben utal military. dictator. a

shi TeeSpa artachits do not restrict ‘their aon to the mullahs'The

ey ‘gee the masses participating in this,

movement as total dupes, with an? a petitefor genocide t yor have to look at the

guarantee: denioeiaey: the IMG/ USF has sts

Revoluticaarics shoutd i no doubt: ip rodduce propaganda aout them,

4h peeere _

: ee ae peer

8 ll ould ‘only us paones io genoc : jidal i in appetite.” (Workers

these decires.Certainlysome.

__ even here. Shi'ia Islam explicitly

prize for a failed revolution. The outcome isalmostcertainly —__ bloody: yenression end military

: | dictatertiip A ciination like : :

Weimar: Gornany ¢ or Porcugel at ml Ubrecer’ is the mest ‘favourable’ i -alternniive to such rep: pression and,’ withéutanneved and: sitrccessful

proletarian struggle for powers it.

wil prove but a pscyaration for 1G . Watha roy a-tarenice thet ‘at | ‘Yeast’ the Ieosisn revolution will;

of calling for aa armed workers. -nailitia, for (lie prepazation of an insumecticn to smash the Generals control of tha ery, forabsolute | working class in¢ependence from ‘the Mulishs and epposicion to oe | 1

their plans for an islamic Republic. “Trestingto the Constituent’ Assembly to institzGonalise |

. democratic rights they see the key task as ‘Yo take full iantage of

| them in terms of developing so Socialis? press, trade unions and _ prepcriag a powerjul electoml - intervention” ia the manner of = | FOCEPin Peru: (Socislist = —__ Challenge 18;1197S). As the Mensheviks before : them the Socialist Caallenge editors have theit eyes fixed on an : | electoral intervention after tie : suecesstul bourgsois revolution - + ‘notonaprogammé forthe ©

i, doce of ‘the movernént, restore the clerical lands, restore the veil,

iguard 5,1,’79). Khomeini well harbour some or all of .

mullahs undoubtedly do. Reserv, "ations do have to be made however

allows re-interpretation by the

ulemas af the canonical tesehingy

of Islani: ‘Khomeini—althouginhe.

oppose.'the Shah's reformson

mublim divorce in 1967 has. <2.

recently told a visiting dele atlon Le

ofwvomen that he would n

bring back polygamy; ° ‘One |.

wife is énpugh;.he remarked, (Time: 5.2.79). Also among his

i disciples in Paris were a number _

‘of unveiled women, and despite

ithe Tectudesconce of yeil-wearing

CONTINUED ON NEXT Pace

: 2a. acc oF defiance against uc eflah’s Yéegulation outlawing - itis plainly untrue that the movement is explicitly for the return of women to the seclusion of the home and their submission ic barbaric punishments. Such a inavement sould hardly draw into street protests and confrontation with the troops vast numbers of women veiled and unyeiled.

As for the national and religious ninorities as we have warned an islamic Republic:is likely to prove a severe threat to their rights and _ Jiberties but it is wrong to sav the movement at present is consciously. cimed at them. Large contingents of jews and Azerbayanis took part in the demonstrations in

January ahd were loudly cheered ._

by the crowd. Afghan workers . homes have been guarded against pogromists whipped up by - _ Bakhtiar’s campaign against _ | __ ‘communist immigrants’ and the ___ call for foreign workers to get out | WaSraised by Arab speaking ~—_T workers in the oil fields against the highly paid English and Amer- + dean overseers and ‘experts’, Other charges are similarly gross distortions worthy of the capitalist " yellow press. Khomeini the _ Spartacists tell us “wishes to ___ restore feudal privileges, to restore the church lins to this parasiticalcaste,” (WV 5.1.79). Khomeini | has uttered ho statement about | undoing the land reform and his ___ peasant supporters would be more than surprised to hearit, _

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 factincludea

UUVTTUOUDUNTTT LAL UUUONUUGTULLT OCU UU UA) LC PAUL TUTTLE UAE LLUHODTULITE

Khomeini prepares

Reprinted from WORKERS POWER No.5 March 1979

The insurrection in Teheraniwas not _a blow to the Shah's generals, iajione 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 assauiton | Doshan Tappeh was going on,

PAGE 12 _

_ led by communists who do it. They oppose absolutely any

_ non-proleterian oppositionists.

" abstention fr

- of that one could more easily

_ ists do not wish to become “State

' do they end up with these absurd

’ opposition could be giveh military _ CIA engineered coup and support_ed by thousands of CIA; and

__ of the Shi'ite leader. They were

proviso—only if it is the workers The American ‘advisors’: enjoy extra-territorial status in tran, 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 ali their illusions, are struggling against this Imperialism. If the -USFI draw from this the conclusion that working class can simply the mullahs. If ibey refuse to

military co-operation with the

This position would mean d

it would again mean abstention. To justify this absurd and reactionary position the Spartacists have gone all the way. to white- - washing 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

ary

reactionary petit bo dS _ ments in Imperialist count dike the Poijjadists in Fra

Whilst we in no way hide that _ the positive goals of the mullah: are not and cannot be those of working class we do argue that

justify giving support to the Shah, clas | : Trotskyists must participate in the .

gs the Soviet Union clearly is

doing, than to these Mulim _ actions against the Shah and the clerical reactionaries, because if Generals. Whilst arguing for : they are able to consolidate proletarian independence in

Power. all the evidence is it

could only be worse than Indonesia for the working class, for the peasants for the national minorit- —

strategic goals (workers and peasants republic) for consistent democratic demands (including secularisation), for proletarian

lesandthe women.” tactics (mass strike, workers : _ Workeis Vanguard 5.1.79) (our militia, winning over the rank and _ emphasis WP) file of the atmy, forthe armed _ Let us assume that the Spartac- insurrection, the workers must be

willing to ‘strike together’ with the mullahs, bazaaris, students, . peasants etc, ie to form ade facto: © anti-imperialist military united —__ front. In Trotsky’s words —- é "We do not solidarize ourselves __ fora moment with the illusions of. : the masses: but we must utilise whatever-is progressive about these illusions to the utmost, otherwise - we are not revolutionists but contemptible pedanis, "'

(Trotsky on Spain)

Department Socialists’, Then how.

and shameful positions? Bascially they leave Imperialism out of account. For them a direct military intéryention is the sole condition under Which the .

military advisors is an ageht of —_ American and British Imperialism.

4 i | } i 3

only returned to work slowly = and grudgingly and there have been ; protests from workers’ representatives about the high handed and undemocratic hijacking ofthe =, revolution by the mullah-dominated

mullahs. ispeaker vans touring the area pleaded with the attackers to'ga home on the orders

ignored. The worst fears of both the Ayatollah and his allies have materialised, The army has dis- revolutionary committees. Yet, integrated. and the masses are despite the crucial role played by armed, 8 . the workers and the armed masses __

The calls of the Ayatollah for _ in the overthrow cf the Shah, State. __ guns to be handed in to the mosques. power has not passed into their —

mosques have been largely ig- : : : nored, Workers on strike have CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

— owy ‘Islami

tranian masses. Indeed, it is seek-

in 1919, Revolut

Committee’ of the Khom tourage, Bazargan’s cabin poor second, existing mainly provide international respectability. This governmental apparatus is in no sense a gain for the

ing 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

_ \slamic Republic’ through a

‘yeferendum’ and to establish 4 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.

8 . With his first objective, re- :

establishing the army, he has real problems. Rank and file soldiers

_and airmen have vetoed the.

choice of Bazargan and the Revolutionary Council for top comm: and positions. Bazargan was forced to withdraw his nominee for Air .- Force chief, The soldiers of the 46th Armoured Division arrested the Brigadier-General appointed

_ by Khomeini’s Council — he has

subsequently, been executed, In most barracks continuous soldiers’

mands 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

_ from soldiers, mullah-dominated

militia-men and guerillas such a force, Bazargan hopes, can perform

= holding operation until the army. ©

is rebuilt, It could play the same counter-revolutionary role as the French ’Natlonal Guard’ did in June 1848 when if smashed the Parisian workers, similarly, th Freikorps were used’ in

Khomeini na for the unive of soldiers

d peasants, tI “committees and the. -

kers' militia can protect the working class, the national and relig-

-_jous minorities and extend the _ lutionary. demands ofthe

meetings are taking place andde-

the creation,

election of all officers, Onlya .> . well-armed and disciplined wor:

SUES

public and then a rubber-stamp

of winning the working class to

~ yoicing the demands of the, work

agen em ih nt eR St NTE TET TE ee ae eas Ea A SARE ; 3 SENSE

Shae

With Khomeini’s second task,

establishing his conservative

f the essence. The longer it felayed the more will his react: ary bourgeois politics be ex-

into declaring fo

‘Constituent Assembly’ would: approve an already drafted con stitution, ee :

Revolutionaries have the tesk

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, ee

Already the Tehran press is

“being subjected to a heavy,

‘Wslamic censorship’. ‘Worse than Bakhtiar’s’ according to journalists. Bazargan has announced that he will vigo. rously enforce the ‘illegality’ of the Tudeh .— Party, : a Revolutionaries must argue.

_. for immediate strike action to. “win an‘end to ail censorship and... __ the legalisation of all workers’

parties and their press. They. must argue against a referendum:on

“the Islamic Republic and organise Me

the working. class to boycott it, instead they must call for the convocation of a. Constituent. Assembly elected by universal suffrage and with.no testrictions on its powers either from the Provisional Government, the mullahs or thearmy. ‘Khomeini’ third tnsk is to crush those organisations, based on and

ing class. He denounces Marxists as traitors to the. Islamic, revolu ion and threatens to © hi

easeless round of mass mee t tham 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 presentation and extension of all the ele-

ments 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

rical-bourgeois republic, time

mullahs,

__ leading role.

in Islamic ovscurantism. To do this he must root out the workers

~ Jeaders’. the activists, the strike

organisers, Many of these-are Fed-.- ayeen or Tudeh sympathisers or are gravitating towards these part-

revolution, To this the worki class must'réstrict itselfilts social. ist goals — nationalisation of all industry and banking, a planned economy etc must be postponed indefinitely, subordinated toan alliance with the ‘national bourgeoisie’ or the anti-imperialist

This strategic-alliance w

proletariats classe

_ _, the workers to. critical pressure _ -— group; To: call:this danger6us and _

self-defeating 'role 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 seizinga.

tiger by the tail, twisting it obcas-

ionally and defending youself against the incensed beast with appeals for it to recognise you

Stalinist—Maoist dial

emies reduces

Indonesia and Chile, the Tudeh “and Fedayeen militants must be _ broken from these pstitics of destruction, The Tudeh carry.

out these policies in the most.

servile and grovellinemanner.A spokesman quoted 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 industrytoreturntowork” >

~ Their goal for the workers struggle is a government of ‘nation-

al independence’ made up ofthe CONTINUEO ON NeXT PAG.

PAGE 13

is ion They offer to hold ers to placate these allies. A’ _ who moreover up hold the la banning the Tudeh.

The Fedayeen are much mor _ abrasive, calling a large demonst- - gation (150000) sity on February 22ndiin partial -

defiance of Khomeini’s warnings. __

Their demands include the call

to dissolve the army, forming’ a teal ‘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

in Teheran Univer. Q

ae

- moment. Either by | - yentures. or by volutary dissap _ earance into the underground _ __ when ruling class repression loo

at

‘pourseale democratic demands oe plus the hybrid ‘peoples councils’,

ey add to this a committment guerilla struggle “‘as a strategy ell a ‘hi

"To stand. any. chance of influ-

“encing militants or sympathisers of the Stalinist organisations Iran- _

ian Trotskyists will have to stress _

a number of key positions. Inthe. _ face of Khomeini’s offensive thes: : should be - AN appeal for united front of workers parties centred on __

uum

Break with the Macho

Hoprned 4 from WORKERS POWER No. 6 Moy 1978

‘fhe alliance of forces that overthrew the’ Shah in Iran is _

i in disarray. Khomeini and |

_ the Mullahs:are set on firmly __establishing a repressive and ‘reactionary rule from the mosques. The Mullah super-

vises referendum -'where the _ oe

names of those who voted __ against an Islamic republic were noted down by the .

scrutineers - has strengthened oo

fs hand.

_ The bourgeoisie are anxious to “save and consolidate their proper__ ty and wealth. Their most able representatives are to be found in.

_;the forces of the National Front, in :

“the feeble Premiership of Bazargan,

Arraigned against the Mullahs ae

and the bourgeoisie are those

forces who took the overthrow of _

_the Shah as a signal to extend and” develop their democratic ri to organise toi improve their “ing conditions.

_ The polarisation

government. t es back bed aS seized by the peasants from the - old regime. There are already _teports of armed peasants organ_ ising to fend their hard fouent ie

gains. PAGE 14

weeks have seen increase: of working class organisa

The minority nationalities of Tran have organised to extend.

their democratic rights. After pro- : - longed 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: . ES immediatedly enforce the wear-

‘Ing of the chador in public office: Most vitally. however the + nas

conflict wie ee r

ni isa sve been major demonsions of the unemployed -—

“Ministry of Justice vestibule in. Tehran. Construction workers.

Taye demonstrated throughout: —

Tran.

‘The organisation of the un= :

_ employed has:met with repression __ _. by the regime. In Isfahan at least

_ one person was killed when _ :

__ The centralisation of factory and

ment that TTrotskyists if Organised workers, peasant __ ders and opressed nationalities,

©" giving £60.a month loan unemployed shat ar tha

the Bekaran - in Iran’s cities, The — unemployed have occupied the

___ Fedayeen have been denounced _ _ CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE __

Lewality, for all wor ‘kers parties, trade unions etc. An armed workers defence militia, For a sovreign Constituent Assembly. Boycott the Islamic Ree Refer endum_

trike committees into oly» wide

Khomeint's ‘revolutionary cuatde fired’on a demonstration of the

Bakaran. But the demonstrations have also forced certain conces: jons out of a reluctant regi Bazargan’ s government is n

1848, who.abolish-: | ad the. National Workshops forced ut of them by the French wor-

_ kers. so the Iranian houraenisie.

, are looking : fdt the chance to renege’ ‘on this inadequate _ Provision, :

An the face of this new resis: s oe tance - - expressed well by a wor- = > oker representative who walked out | ofnegotiationsinthe Tehran «tt Ministry of Labour saying, “Only ‘the pictures. on the walls have _ changed. ” Khomeini is moving ee to strengthen his hand. The. ‘Leftist’ ae

= Marxism, ©

a “

-. organised their own demonstration .

as,‘traitors to Islam and the. Reyo- : lution.’” The radicalised Muslim ‘guerillas, the Mojahaddin--Khalq, have been replaced by the ™: Mojahaddin-Englabi-Islami. These new. armed squads, pioneered. by ‘Khomeini’s economic adviser. . : ~ Banisadr, and: more directly GON: trolled 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 ail; Even the!Iranian: Communist Patty (Tudeh) =: previously infatuated with Khomeini - realises it. But the solution they put forwardisa _ dangetous snare for.-theilranian: ” working class. ‘Speaking i in the French CP paper ‘L’Humanite’ “The weneral secretary of Tudeh - : Kianouri - has called for a popu-. lar front of. all those forces:to the left of Khomeini, “4 MOW. it's a question of choosing anew direction, rifts are emer That call, albeit ina different ‘form will be taken up by the.

al Totton Des

of the grip of Khomeini and the .

: Pann a ere Tude : p of th ie in

Maoist Fedayeen with their pro- "gramme of an alliance -of progre-

ssive forces against Imperialism and and reaction, The bourgeois of iran do have, their own fears:of:a strengthening ~ te

i ‘the york isa very. real dan-

corporkted by the. bo Beoisie into their struggle to. gthen the hand of the Bazargan gove: ment against Khomeini.

“in the battles ahead Iranian Trotskyists will have to stress a number of key positions, In the face of Khomeini’s. offensive and _ inevitable attacks or: workers’ living standards and organisations Ee by. the Iranian bourgeoisie thbse::

“should bet: -*for the complete independence -of the organisations of the waorking class - |

BREAK WITH THE. 2 * BOURGE OISIE, , BREAK WITH : THE MULLABS.

*for a UNITED FRONT OF WORKERS’ PARTIES centred

“on + legality. for all workers’

VADEUUUTIQQVQRDUCLUZUQODSGUU/Q00D0 0000700 UNUEURDLLUUUTDOUDAGLLUU AARDU UHAUERTLHAT

Reprinted fon WORKERS POWER No.7 June 1979

ahe Iranian bourgeoisie and the. - Khomeini led Islamic establishment _ are continuing their. offensive * against the independent organisations of the working class in tran. | - They are intensifying their attacks |

"on the Left and the movements.

for democratic rights that ote -considerable strength in. ‘the ” Ae struggle to bring down the Shah. : Primé-Minister Bazargan, ©

spokesman for Iran's bourgeois has openly blamed Iran’ 5. economic ee chaos and‘crisls on: “excessive pay rises won by workers inthe’ last months’ of the Shah. He has. attacked strikes and called for

, vigitancé’against the left declaring Ayatollah Motahiari—the désassinated head of tran's Secret Councit—asa fallen victim of the struggle against Bae

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

In Tehran Khomeini’s spnarets

panna

". oritles of the growing authority

in opposition to that called by

__ organisations of the left, In Isfahan,” as - “yo where. a student was shot ona :

demonstration of the unemployed ©

in April; the local Komiteh) surrounded the Workers House = betore tne May Day demonstration : was due to leave, The Isfahan. Komiteh challenged employed’ .

--. workers with instant dismissal it

they were to join the planned _ demonstration,

The mosque hierarchy. has. moved decisively against the.

the Islam Komitehs. Khomei called on Moslems:to fiercely against ean ppon

peper Kayhen locked out journalists midly critical. of the

- regime. Khomeini backed the

sacking of these. journalists, “ahe' 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, Jn the western city of

- Khorramabad bookshops have

been ransacked for léft-wing books which were publicly, burnt 1 0 hy

task of overthrowing THs G

- ties,

parties, { trade unions etc.

An armed workers defence militia

*Fora sovetign Constituent assembly.

“Defend the democratic right ‘of

women and the national and

teligious minorities.

"The 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 FE dayeen to: pee

¥: .. oposition to: the Khomeil ‘Bazargan yovernment, t

ment that Trotskyists must win the organised workers, peasants, - soidiets and oppressed nationali-

| Executions protect Khomeini’s alies

MEE, +

cries of “Islam is victorious,

“Communism is destroyed.” —

‘The new tegime continues to face mounting « demands tor Bute:

Ezzredin Hosseini has: the colidarity of. the J

on: democratic rights or jaurnalists. and nationalities, the islamic councit has still had to claim to be waging a struggle to.

a destroy the forces © of the hated

old regime and to commit the regime to the struggle against Imperialism.

The:much publicised secret trials and executions, the death penalty. pronounced. an the Shah and the planned show trial, of 13 ex-deputies, two. senators and the head of the Shah‘s National Re- «1; surgence Party (Rastakhiz) are a. vital part ofthe tactics-of the:

: Khomeinl led ble Setonnell

ah CONTINUED: on WEX: r PAGE

ees Ke

“PAGE 1. : 3

They. serve t0 fo mtiety the masses _ deniands for retribution and the dismantling of the old apparatus - _gl tepression. At the same time

|, their secrecy prevents the masses.

froin openly witnessing the true _axtent-of corruption and torture and the real record of many of ineir new. masters now. parading

their credentials as fighters against oe

the Shah.

With many. of the local Komi-

tehs openly using ex-Savak forces _ for their work, the role of the

_{8-doubly important. .

The tranian bourgeoisie are clearly unhappy aboul the. poss: tole dynamic of the trials and

the Shah's state apparatus. That

_ organising multi-millioned dem "© strations against the US. The Indi - nation of the Iranian masses at

snow trials in deceiving the Mantes oe :

|) meini supporterswere ableto = purges. They. know too well whet oe

would be revealed Ifthe masses >. ahd send crowds against. the Fed-

enemies sof Islariv” The

People’s Fedayeen. must be hanged’’..: iS ‘tis vital to understand that a

stable alliance of the bourgeoisie and the Moaque has yet to prevent

- the mobilisations of the franian”

masses for the final destruction of

he o old fegime, f for democratic —

is why Bazargan, in:their name, as already ralsed the call for an aT

Senatorial denunciations of the trials and executions enabled the Neftist’ Fedayeen and the radicalised Mostem Mujaheddin, to organise a 200 GG0-strong demonstratjon against US Imperialism. Kho-

leaders of the lel and - whoa have taken up those struggle

@yganise a larger demonstration ~

were free to unlock the secrets of ayeen chanting “These are the -

HNN

pew,

as ment/disarming oftheradical-- Islamic Mujadiladdeen, This coup Wetat was the pre- : jude to a fanatical all-out assault on the Kurds. Though they are. demandingunly. regional autonomy, their armed militiasand organisations are’not subject to the central mullah theocracy. of © Quam ‘or Bazergan’ 5 feeble ‘Govern: ae ment in Tehran. . : ae Khoméint’ s assumption or cup: ay reme Command of the Army sym- > bolises his coup which marks the | . end of the political ‘dual power’ with the :liberal and democratic forces which the Bazargan Govern-. ment straddled uneasily. 28 Executive power now resides = : firmly with the 20 man tevalution-::: ary council, consisting of Khomet and other leading tiqures of the Shia Hierarchy and lay strongmeé: t,

iCHOMEIN hes delivered his !bng "threatened blow against the Left | and-democratic forces in an at-. tempt to decisively. halt the | SS radical element of the Iranian revolution..The yearning for democratic rights, for national freedom : and the desire ofworkers and” peasants to enjoy the fruits of: _ their labour and their country’ S. natural wealth was the. manepring of the struggle to overthrow the | It how threatens Khomeini’s : reactionary utopigof an: lgamic : Republic based on the. mullah hierey arehy The nationalities had to be” terrorised into submission and the ' independant organisations of the working class had to be crushed. - Firstly, the press had to be completely. muzzled. Thus Ayandegan, ee ‘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 ran sacked the Fedayeen HQ i Tehran and other cities.

terror sums up. this: leaderships’ ; project: “The miuliahs 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 i}t-dis-: ciplined by fanatical pasderan — reauited from the massive, illiterate Jumpen proletariat of the — cities and officered by Moslem

Khomeini used the pretext of ' disorder to dectare illegal, sup-:.’ press the newspapers, and order the arrest of the leaders of the radical liberals of the National _ Democratic Party, the Fedayeen, the T udeh and force the —

| PAGE 16.

| Counter Khomenis coup .

printed from WORKERS POWER No.8 September 1979 8

_ given the still-fresh. democratit aspiration of the mass

_. Journalists, writers and. use them :

ful bonapartist. regime before the : - :

CONTINUED ON. NEXT PAGE —

students and sons of the cletgy - = are Khomeini’s chosen instrument 8 i

aS a crushing the Left, -

His by now'famous statement that the mullahs ‘made

e a mistake’ and should havd “ set up gallows in the main squares, cutdown all |” these corrupt people and plotters, declared only ane party,thatof Allah" is an anachronism with red : gard to. the period February : to

July, He could not have done

: 3 ‘

solution of nu m

onal ad (‘westernised’ women and against the liberals, Hence the Komitehs demo-

-_gogically claim to speak for the.

have-nots, the barefoot, peopile—. WV the moustazefin. Their aim is to os mobilise. mobs of these largely | ib literate masses against the privileg-

ed, ‘westernised’ intellectuals, ao

to grind:the Left to atoms. . They, aim to: install a power-.,.

tage of;the masses turns on them. | Having installed their dictatorial _ machinery amongst the Turko-

_mans a he ‘North aod the Arabs.

in-the southern oilfields, Khor:

meint hi lared a holy war

against the peoples’ is fighting for separation, |

All claim merely autonomy ie

democratic tights within the lran- a

_ ian state. But for the mullahs, : ly

_ ‘The Kurds are the « bestarmed, and homogeneous of the Iranian — oppressed peoples. itwilltake more than ‘armed gangs of the en-

raged. lumpen-proletariat of Teh: _ ranand Gom'to suppressthem, i vee the full apparatus ot :

. : be restored. The councils that have sprung up __up in the barracks must be crushed.

__An operative officer corpsvand

high command is vital to the tran- — jan ruling class. There has been considerable resistance by troops to being used ‘against the people’ and refdsals to go to ‘Kurdistan. _ USImperialism must be placated and induced to resume full milit _ ery and technical co-operation.

The latter is moredthan willing — todo this providing the stability _ of the regime js assured. State Department spokesman, Thomas _

Reston stressed the need for the

_ 4authority and effectiveness’ of — the central government and thouph they would obviously prefer to

deal with Bezargan, Garter i iste

ee ported.to be persuing a cautious

__ policy of “stronger support for — - the theologically. driven Koametnl regime” (Newsweek) - Khomeini's Black Hundred. rule can obviously be only a tran: _sitional one, But its:nestimable _

use ‘Geto behead the popular,

Gemmocratie me eetineeie ee

urds. None of there

effectively discipline must

content of the Iranian’ mass move

"ment againet the Shah. When: this”

process is completed a military .

_ dictatorship — undoubtedly with | an Islamic colouring will be Real as

__ed. The onlyforee capable of re-_

yersing this bloody process is the. . Iranian projetariat.

Khomeini has not yet dared to

openly confront it. The mount-

ing unemployment. ( some Sb% of the active population according to _ __ the US Department of Commerce) _and economic chaos has seriously _

weakened its politicisation. Work: ers 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 iranian Left's position is weakened by its previous com: -

promise with Khomeini. The

- ‘Tedeh — the \ranian@P backed E =

the Avatollah uncritically right uo. to the closure of their newspaper

and offices.

_ The Fedayeen’s critical Support of Khomeini’s anti-imperialist

- orhetoric despite their courgageous: _ support of democratic struggles,

also teaves the working masses _ politically disarmed... Driven underground, deprived -

_ of their press; hunted down by the __

‘revolutionaby guards’, the cadres

_ of the tranian Left must re-assess

their parties and groupings cripp: - lig political weaknesses if they

are to survive to take advantage : of the inevitable crisis ofthe thea

cracy. Firstly they. must strike. deep

roots in the proletariat, the fact- : ories and oll 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:Komi

tehs.

Reprinted’ fon. WORKERS POWER No. 11 December 1979

_ Jimmy, Carter’ 's Christmas present to the tranian peopie is a fleet of nineteen warships, including two aircraft carriers. The American and British press have beon full of helpsfull suggestions as to what could be done with them — bomb the oil-

fields, bdmb the ‘holy city’ of dom,

: seize, hed Tumbs stands as ‘host: ages, 6' SS Mls ‘Liltien, the born -ogain -

. Christians mother, has said to wild co

wagered that if she had a. millien

ie

: ‘the anti-US ferment threaten the | oe

- dollars she would hire a hit | man fo

- murder Khomeini. Whilst a direct _

punitive strike is unlikely untess

the hostages are put on trial, the _(mperialists ara busy confiscating _ Aranian assets held in American |

banks at home and abroad and —

_ mobilising an economic blockade - |

that will squeeze the life out of the already staggering, Iranian

. economy,

There is no boubt that should :

‘Theocracy, the rebellious sta _ance-and the restiveness. of the

behind Ayatollah Taleghani.

oe employed have ta stop, w

: Shah and hy his 8 Amerieer! acyl

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 Kurdsand piedgeto —

- convene. a revolutionary constitu:

ent assembly which would; onee elected by universal suffeage and the _

the secret ballot, meet the democratic demands of the nationalit-

the army, the nationalities resistBazzaar big bourgeoisie lined up | _1f Khomeint is to placate his

- peurgeals backers, effect a limited

deal with the White House/Pentagon and the deeply resentful Iran ian officer caste, he will be in-

© creasingly forced to drop his mask __ __. of father to the moustazefin (the _ disinherited).

When the “loans to theunwhenthe

workers committees come under attack, a mighty wave of disillus- ~ _jonment will sweep tran, For this to find effective leadership an

organisation of franian revolution- _ ___arleé will have had to be built even under the terrer of the coming — _ months, if It Is,the “isolated cries”

of “Down with Khomeini” egported by Le Monde in thedemon- “strations of early. August, can be-

come a mighty roar — one that “a .

sweep away the Imam and his committees as it swept awgy the

BE

vital Gulf oiffields, the US Government will send in troops to seize

. them,

In Iran, Khomeini‘s regime isin

_ deep crisis. The new constitution

__ that gives dictatorial powers to the __lkvan has met fierce resistance in

_ Kurdistan, in Tabriz, capital of |

_ Azerbayan, and in Baluchistan.

The opponition ¢ to Khomeini comes

“conriueD on NEXT PAGE

PAGE 47

: lotr 2h erietmadanl

_ antiinperieliot uspleations of : Khontiini's followiig ‘must be di

3 * Lyng cour

: ional monarchy ene the Shiite

ery of a vicious theocratic dictator: | . Nae arehy. aeons pee. exqin

ship: Both lead to chaos andde- ~ | ' feat for the Iranian masses and| the eventual-return of direct Amer

omeilenperlaietp are? ranima. es 4 © Therd ynust be no clics thas f Fe iene section. ‘oftho Used) | Rame of cpurtous ‘onthira) ayia list" = _Pacistucd astatementwhichac =>. stance. a Sg ree%s as-gand: coin the ant-inper- a Pree til) pisdeien fcllowers cf Shar- pee B lst at scale being wosed n ‘the eae _datrmadari 2 ra motivated, by ademo:-

: _oraticcn that must bo saved from becoming the servant of the conyvative lranion Denmeoleo: The

the Interior announced the end

mig icalist regima ohn its. oe I : ost profeur sis yet. Khomeini's Projectofon islamic = eeamancare na ie s dexpita hs ovorwhelming poreonal influence is still. was : ae n) Ot stability. tran: faces economic stlavise, ae hope pel hey noe terisl a

og ean > E oy and the penne ne ettem, coting dsarailying —

ef ashpallowi ing the forces. oer fice for the first thn

aye? took place i _ weeks end cpread to oth

Bandit aenant who ioloted a d. on battened on the meagre tesources _ a: or the land ‘yielded them. On the 12th:

pre oo of a na war (jthad) nee ceo me Se Kurdish Peratt ~ prime Minister's special ind th Serine | ruling. . ee Niet ie Bele kidnapped. By O a n Tabriz, capital of Azer! nue ds f revolution shy a : ' péshmerga w open conflicts erupted betwee:

_ the populace and the revolutionary: guards. The tmam’s personel snvoy, =: Ayatollah Quzi Tebatebal, sent to

L AL tarfide gua rds (pasdars) to sublect { the eee aviou ator

pyaxailah

ywnsendgerrisons _invostigate the nefarious doings of tha rupture of government =the revolutionary committee and communication (ines,wasthatthe si the pasderds, criticsea them _ Inflexible'andinfallibte!mam bitterly as “conciecting thomnag ete for __ chenged his mind. The ‘worst of _ iho Gaveki.’ (Hawes shot Waving mi fromm the ‘cities Inshiding the _ the gong of Satan’ suddenly beceme ‘tho mosque in Tabriz ) (Le Monde : | Ssombal’ Mahebode@ut they easily _ legitimate negotiatorsonbehalf = 3.44, 979), regroueed, gaining massive support "of the Kurd hn pacple. Khomeini ‘In Teheran ieftist demonstrations. a se population including = =—s—_yy pram ives thdrawal __egantobeholdasainatthe = = Ls eS who clearlysaw _ University. On 2ath October

conriNvED ON NEXTIPAGE

‘end ot Getabec tt the Munister ui Go _

4 4 sid svacants demonstrated i 3h: auoretone

jeaineree of ail those purged from July to | Sener Tudeh (the. lraniat SoeP) and-the Fedayeen _ have held rallies of up t Even miore: ominous for the “agatollahs the peasantry, hitherto _yélatively quiescent since theseizure of Pahlavi lands.in February _and:March, have begun to organtse peasant committees in southi rn - : Kurdistan and In Azerbayan. -‘The-burgeohing social and : political conflict reeulted in a major political crisis among the: leading cadres of the islamic =~ Revolution. Inmid-Octobor — Khomeini’s son, Ahmed, exclaimed | that “Te Imam ‘is totally ziona — today . . just ashe wes in Qom in | 183. The imam: secs ‘that he is” surrounded by encmias, coming from ell fondeancies, Partiss and: . “types’ ‘Ihomelni, as the lynehpin of “the conflicting factions end _ eliquas within the,cleray. end their profeseznal politiclans was obviously feeling the strainofthetugof “war botwesnthom Me _ The first victim of the faction 25 the largely | pensioned

‘Gov November 4th the Moslem Stud: _ __ents Falthfulito thetmem Khomeini’, occupied the United States Embassy _ and took 63 hostages, On the Sth the Bazargan:Government resigned _and, Khomeini handed power | directly to the Revolutionary ~ Counsth The-sttdents’ were ea are in féct, atightly organised “grouping led by Asghar Moussari-. _ Bhoeni, holdingthe rank of __ _-hojatollestam the first step. on te

“Khoeni, closely allied to the Revalatl tionary Count of the.

inds: have a teeh en-. ahee ceeitinations ae : jie demegogy. The i “unemployer eve continued their demonsteations. The oll workers. have ported a Nationabunion. on toed’ offict

_ | ands and.expectations even of the ae _ peasants who have gained land con: ~ ' tinua to grow in scope and con: - Lo | fidence, The Times (1.12.79) reports a-village headman as saying,

SRE

: _ refarm.’ —

“corns of tha T

ina clothing. Vaciary, tie workers’ committee has won a reduction i in. urs (half-day working) with’no ~ | logs of pay. Peasant committees . -gontinue to be formed. The deme”

” We want industrial agriculture. >

_ We wants doctor in the villege. Wa

went health i insurance and “a ‘seal these7radicals aes begorrto a their slogans and programme. What

does this amount to ? Firstly. . - -

vigorous anti-tmparialist, ant: — Aniericen rhetoric, centring en

_ the return.of the Shch. Much as : 4

this-butcher deserves his fete, : totally justificd as this dernend. is, asia political demand It Ismerely © symbolic,a pulling of the Arnerloan vulture’s tall feathers, tis ‘a diversion from the peal = - fight against Imperiiiism, away.

- from the chronic problems that

face the peasants, workers end the

oppressed nationalities of iran. ‘Using the grief and rage felt by

millions of lrenfans who lost their”

children, relatives, Trlends and

comrades tn the Anti-Sheh struggle,

- the muliahs hope to divert,the

‘masses from the egents of oppress:

jomand exploitation who. constittite the Iranian government and ruling clasees. Sayed Husseln, —__ Khomeini’s grandson, explained & this role in cn interview with ‘Le ‘Monde’. This peper summed up

“hisposition thus, ‘The blows of

American Ienperiatts om have pulled

_ togdthor af! the Intornel tensions

_ which ware unteraln tng the Islamic = Reputitic, tee. aglaton k Ya aa ie

sore O0. whelo. por.

eee 48 ae

vent oa a oe onus since the

: nen: roy of Che monsrany.”

Shomeini himself has edded to

his suport for the hestage taking

_ cartaln of the Islamic radicals’ demends, {9 charged the incoming Government with three priority tasks, to purce the administration; to essure the welfcre of the must: -aziffin (the disinherited — fran's

» Smillion unemployed, the poor,’ = the: peasants etc. ) and to procead:

to; ‘a nev) and prefeurd eyrerian

Hewsipectaticnsot the must if Fine “the: Teneran:stums have,

‘likewise, b Bon raised: Journalists

of the ‘Herald Tribune’ (30.12.79) report the outsroken comment,

TE ney (the Inlemic Council) had

"better loo cfter us hetter-or ive veill make a-eccond revolution €'

Even with regard to democratic ,

rights cectain concassions have

‘been mata. Papers bannsd in

August have b> lleed. The ae Mulehe-

‘ _ against repression. On: November

gressing' gene a

: cours ti and the fstamio-“radicals”’

eratic rights.

ARSON. gmap nccmeem perme: car atte i permmeyes Soca _— , ae

ddesn e Khaiqxthe islamic quer.

(Has of a leftist orientation) the tan

Fedayeen e Khalg and the HKS. (Iranian Socialist Workers Party) - have ‘resummed. publication, The | _state newspapers like Ettela’ athe have carried reports of protests),

17th. Khomeini acknowledged on, television that the Kurdish people hed been wronged and that negot-: lations with. Hele leaders were. pro-

fi ‘omic: patiorallith. This involves repudiation of foreign dabts, att. -

_ empts to break free of the dollar as. the means of Calan fof lran’s~

: discover "Western anedia‘as the ‘new. ‘man’ before he lost decisively on” the Revolutionary. Council over his diplomatic concessions:on the _ -quastion of the hostages. He felt’ obliged to resign:the Foreign Mine: i istry to his:long-tima rival

Sacegh Ghotbzedeh. © af Bani Sedr roceghises tne SS :

_ ous.game-the: grouping aroun =

feshti anch hoenl are playing. - noted. the: freumentatian of the :

n't governm a country. by neane of permanent popular’ tensity, [a Mende, 7.11.79

Ayatollah Behesh-- -

don't Intend to do that. They hopd : that the Imams’ prestige, anti. . impetialist demagogy having’t Iped them to carry the profoundly Sndemocratic constitution, on December 2nd, will enable thein {slamic Republican Party to sweep the board in the elections to the parliament, and win the Pres-- __Idency. Tha constitution-itself is a violent affront to-all demo:

nthe noterious section eidratted by Ayatollal

five (Beneshtl hims2lf, the religious _

wordion anelhsendinmies

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

PAGE 19.

_\NsTaw proposed by parliament).

___ pital of Azerdayan, where the

acted President, appoint Le siaets of the judiciary, the ray and the revolutionary uard, and the members of , Zonstitution Protection Gounil (a minority of whom can veto

os

"Aus not only. will Khomeini’s yorsonal dictatorship be assured sut it will be handed down toa - uccessor in the Shiite hierarchy. Opposition to the constitution

"yes increased substantially the

ofees prepared to Chomeini. In Kurd

sott Was almost total with few.

salling booths being open. In the i =

furkoman and Baluchi regions =| =) pla sand.a black reactionary one

he turnou was low, th Tabriz, — |

duslim Peoples Party limked to_

he seniar Ayatollah Kazem Shanitmadan, condemned the conaitution as “usheringinadic atorship as bad as the Shah's’®

i demonstration of 30,000. wotesied the ballot and called for

i boycott. The Mujaheddin and the edayoen organisations Issued a

iimilar call.

_ The advocatés of 2Petamic onapartism, based on mosqueJominated plebiscites and dema-

__ yogic “anti-imperialism”, what-

iver their short-term successas, ire caught on ihe horns of a

see Sat EE EMES SS

at

_er to the Iranian revolution. In

act the Ynajor social forces in ran have still as yet failed to orge saciety and politics in _ heir own 1 image. Such a situaton poses ever more acutely the

weed fora revolutionary work-

£8 party 10 lead. the voter,

sani Sadr, despite ‘his mass!

ral victory has failed to block the. dericals in the Islamic Republican . ‘atty—who, a8 a result of the second ound of elections to the parliament with attendant ballot-rigsing and ‘oetcion) have at least 130 out of

he 170 seals. The *Bani-Sadrists’

iave only 41, “= Admiral Madani,

S PAGE : 20°

_ dilemma, tran faces an economic - crisis of catastrophic proportions, - An economic blockade by US

rlalism will aggravate this to degree. The aspitorking ‘class, the

the check ee over b _ Revolutlonary Council, _

The Shia hierarchy and the — mullah caste cannot establish a — stable or homogenous block.A theocracy imthe last quarter of the twentieth century is a uto-

at that. One option is a dere course, This was voiced most clearly by -

Khomeini’s grandson Sayed Hossein,

Referring to the anti-imperiatist “turn he said: “It allows.us to __ open a way to a strategic aliianee between the Iclamic movement, - the lay organisations and tha Left 2s well as a tactical filiense with the Soviet dias," : (Le Monde 30.11 7B). : The influential Aeolian Mon-

‘ tazeri - the head of the so-called _ Libyan faction advocates an orlentation to the ‘radical’ Arabs. states. The Tudeh party, shame-

NAHM

fuilal S new offensive

| eel fom WORKERS POWER Now 16

June 1990.

“the ‘butcher of Khuzestan refusing — to take up a premiership which he

claimed was “shrouded in ambiguit-

jose in thelr toeing the hom: eini line could act asa ‘gobetween’ should Iran need covert Soviet assistance faced with an. “American blockade or punitive S _ military action. a Whichever faction within: and outside the Revolutionary Coun- _ - : i wins out, temporarily, before

people, to the c ations of the na women, the students and tellectuats, to the desperate n for land and agricultural machinery that the peasants express, But none of these goais can be _ met without the central leading __role of the working class, organ: ised in workers countilsand led by @ party that can make

_ lran’s “second. revolution” a protetarlan « one.

“Gee Bae Boe RE

Sigked EE hy +

been unavie to recon ti t

jes”, Bani Sadr hes to wait the furth. —=— Tees

er 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. ‘lhe working | class playea the decisive role with

flow, paralyzed the administra machine and immo

udehy precipHiated: the armed ineurrection that the n mpariof the Shah’s y and led to-iite 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 disiddge.

Both the Uberal and conservative ss clerical wings of the bourgeoisie have —

béen unable to establish a firm grip on politica power. Th2 National Front of yt and Ferouhar has

- Workers have i in some sectors form _ed the concession of the 40 hour

Ali Akbar Moinfatfand Bani Sadr to break the Shoras (workers councils) in the oit fields and elsewhere

~ have failed miserably. In the country- _

side the seizure of lands belonging

__to The court circie, the large pro-Shah - iuiog and the agribusinesses has partly: alleviated rural distress—a | process aided by food price rises on

the internal market due to the interrandoameat of price controls, :

week and attempts by the oi) falnister ae

_uption of food imports and the ab-

ae

ie pares one Behesae he

- Neither haverthey been able to

32

‘nas sucled the: roaring ‘inflation rate, ‘inicreaséd the misery of the urban poor but temporarily raised the inc- _ ome 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 ‘Decause they fave been forced to share political _ “power with the petit bourgeois bloc _ s arning tat Hy. Khomeini and. the oS

Po. The ahs: ‘are. armed witha ee ‘ary utopian ideolagy. based on Shiite 1 Islam-and a demagogy

aimed at the small bazaaris, merchants __ artisans and the massive sub-prolet fees

ariat the moustazzifin, They have _ been able to dominate the masses _ and block bourgeois normalisation .

and economic séconstruction and a _ prevent the proletariat and the pop-.

ular democratic forces (thenational- __

Aties in particular) fom seizing power :

_ and expropfilating the bourgeoisie. But even thoimmenseljrinfluential «Imam and the sinister Ayatollah: :

_ertise. ana pace how of the Bourgeoisie pacaupe they

ns amic economy’. Ma asthese leh

wy the clergy, based on traditional rural society and smali merchants. _ — Such a society is an Aenea in - the last auagter of the fwontieth century. 3 :

‘a.

decisively. crush the left or the nat-

_: _ fonalties, This hasnot been for lack

of trying, In July and August of 79 _

_ they attempted to crush the Feday-

een and the. Mujahideen groups, ban- .

ming their papers and meetings and ot

the pasdaran (revolutionary - guards) and the lumpen gangs (the _ hezbollahis) loase.to murder and intimidate them. Thi

_emental 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

_ eft turn’ to anti imperialist rhetor-

ic and the re-legalisation ‘of the left

‘Boups and papers. © | This disttray was evidenced in

massive ebstentions in the réferend-

um on the constitution and in the

- collapse of the Islamic Republican

__ -Party’s candidacy for the President,

_ Yet the mullahs 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 __

cite the left from the universities,

Oe sadieels launched anoffensiveto | indeed confusing when “the main

n 20th end 21st April Islamic

‘reform’ the universities, Perhaps

some of the so called Islamic student _

‘groups were sincere in believing that. the campus could be put fat the service of the people’. Their utopian.

pee ideology can,how- —s g

ovate ne nonnore ea a ateligng

would like to — . te a society, dominated. ee :

| Joveof G6

offensive was __ checked and driven back by the el-

“horse for the reactionary antkdemoc ae

atic, nti communist moves of Knomeink ahd Behéshti, On the pretext | that ‘marxist’ students had prevent- - ed the right wing cleric Rafsanjani speaking on the Teheran campus : Khomelr denounced the universities _

as ‘colonized and westernised from the pees and useless’, a8, “nests

of the lef Sues, ‘Were rinally fore:

ed to withdraw when ‘Bani Sadr

ordered‘the pas en to intervene to.

‘restore order’; Khomeini’s ‘Islathic-

: isation’ means, ie destruction of the universities as well as the crushing of the left{grouns rights to hold

-Meotings Ang fonduct mopaeande. a

- ‘simultanectsly a murderous ott _ onsive agains the

purged of-all the anti-regime - ‘elemerits’ thundered Khomeini. This ‘| time it meant mass slaugher directed j against the unarmed civilian popul ee “ation, In the third week of May, »

_ dead, Indiscriminate strafing by

: helicopter ‘punships and phantom ©

© jetsstrikes turned Saqqgez, a city of: S 40,000 ‘people into a ghost town as:

| _ the population fled to the mountains, _ . Le-Monde (16th May) reports the + appeal of a Kurdis fighter ina

+ hospital in-Boukan, suffering from’ ” hortible na cape burns, “For the, ‘because you are a for” eign jourgalist you must tell the whole _ world what you. have seen and what — “we are sufferihg--How can Khomeini,

- that'fascist that darés to speak about

' God, letjsuch things as these be done. __

The truth must be known.in: AD and outsidé: Iran—everywhere! The May. Day demonstrations laf

: the left were brutally harassed by. the ibezbollabis using knives and throw: See

_ Sng stones. What can turn the tide against this brutal offensive? Only te ar ee of the von class—their winning sway: from the - nlcainoriaiis effects of the mullahs. __ Here the tole of a Trotskyist’ Tey : olutionary party would be crucial. The semi-cueverist, semi Stalinist

" polities of the Fedayeen—despite the -_ marvellous heroism of their fighters— _

| ds of no use. Whilst the-Fedayeen

___ have protested against the antidem- _ ocratic 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 ¢ onthe bourgeoisie and Pani Sadr,

- passing over Khomenni’s role in ailenre ! ce. This is to disarm the. ‘working <2

_ Glass against its real enemies, Anth

_ imperialist rhetoric is cheap and

enemy isathome”, _ However the so-called ‘[lamic

. ee of the HKE: ( Tranings Rey ry VWokkors Party), spon- ,__ S$ Socialist Workers Sa opted : a position far fo

_i “the campuses should be closed

. Trotskyists - is ‘a terrible confessio : of bankruptcy. Turning apeaus Fedayeen, who defended thé

__ Intercontinental Press May 3 th) ©

Kurdistan must ‘pe ‘conven ‘and

_fighting around Sananday left 1, 500

'_Kurds,and 500 government trocps . ounts, the BKE YS. Ber is nose

_ Trotskyist party in Iran must

een unions free of the mos

_ tomising - = Down with the res

— donary Council! |. Dissolve the fokeParli

__ of officers, For united front of - workers to emae:

CONTINUED on NEXT PAGE

the right ot the Pedaveen, ‘The: fail ose to raise the slighiesc cruicisn: GEG _-meini. This rank opportunism has _ borne bitter fruit in the recent stra : gales around the universities, show- __ ing that the HKE cannot even def: and Seno rights, Supporting

thet Slamic Student Gtganisationn

criminal muddleheaded project that

down and the students sent out to 4 work on revolutionary projects’, ~~

_ the HKE ‘Played into the hands of

“the reactionaries. Too late they ple ae € a that t The action (the hezbollent attacks - i ak

on the co’ Universities, they are. scree (hy

thus: ue ae an pees out 8 that by oppos e 180s occupa- -_ | tions, the leaderships of the Tudeh __ ao ‘Party, Fedayeen andMujahedeon

not. onlk“show ankruptcy” butalso preyed into the hands “of the 500: ee poe and Mer

_ continues: cae

calating anti-cominu > or witch-hunt agains een or Fedayeen in I Ve ca Ot the contrary we are faced witha

_ deepening of the revalationry Bie

" cess’. The HKE. end its SwP (Us “between revolution, and counterrevolution. Yell that tothe Kurds, tellsthat to the familiesc-d friends

aS of the 27 killed, tell thattothe 170

énts expelled from a teacher ping college in Avak for being | ut The ‘Islamic cultural rev- 8

"Fhe measuring rod fora gen

advocacy. and defence of class independence f: of Islamic eps j

The mullais must be ie and eg _ driven out of the workers’ ranks, | _ On democratic demands, real Toxt-?: | skyists must be clear and uncomp-— |

- public! Dowa with the ree te | roles of the Veleyate-Faquih (Religious Guardian of te State) anitithe

Presidency! Down with the Revolut- ee

_ ted by corruption,.coerci ee _ot tigring, Dissolvs the pasdaran and an the workers. ¥orsoldierscounils in cviry unit, and for the election _

ae hezb oliah _ black hundreds!

a __ PAGE: 21

_ solidate their bu tary. and bour ipport, ora General or A miral, probably i in Islamic guise, will organise a military sigh : orkers coup that fe Imam ‘or his successor : Rede meee caer Seteeaintaticy : SE UE ¢ is running out'on — women and ea end fo) fs in na peasants on ee : =

the Isamic Tribunals en T : th ie be aoc alternatives - full.

elected by. universal, equal and sec: ret suffrage, Only the workers, peasants and soldiers councils could co yoke, guard and supervise ti :

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