[Militant, No 488, 8 February 1980, p 10]
With over 70% of the vote Banisadr has won the Iranian Presidential election. Although using Islamic phrases it was his radical rhetoric which attracted support and enabled him to defeat his more conservative opponents.
Banisadr becomes the President of an Iran still deep in crisis.
Unemployment is over two million, [i.e. 20% of the work force]. At the beginning of the year the Tehran paper ‚Ettalaat‘ reported that production has declined considerably in many industries and, in some cases, has stopped completely. The housing shortage is still severe and prices are continuing to rise.
Alongside the continuing clashes and struggles in the minorities areas, especially among the Kurds and Azerbaijanis there have been movements by workers to secure their demands. A few weeks ago an article in the pro-Khomeini daily ‚Islamic Republic‘ reported on the developments in Saveh, a town near Tehran.
It said industries there have suffered since the February insurrection from strikes go-slows, financial problems, shortages of raw materials and “ interference in management“ by revolutionary councils. The most important problem, it said, is uncertainty which has resulted in the drying up of investment.
A few days before the Presidential election foreign Minister Qotbzadeh complained that „there is a growing trend towards an uncontrolled communist society. Should we continue in this direction … we shall end up with a regime much worse than the former regime. The present trend is not really Islamic. We are moving towards unrestrained communism.“
Qotbzadeh was not talking about any clear, conscious party leading the Iranian masses towards the overthrow of capitalism and the installation of a workers‘ democracy, because there is no such party existing in Iran today. Rather he was referring to the continuing struggles of the working class which are preventing any capitalist stabilisation in Iran and have forced Khomeini in the past year to take far-reaching anti-capitalist measures.
When Khomeini refused to let Massoud Rajavi, the leader of the Islamic Mojaheddin guerrilla group, stand in the election Banisadr became the most radical candidate left standing. Banisadr. a radical nationalist, was well known for his advocacy of widespread nationalisations and won support against Admiral Ahmed Madani, the middle class’s favourite candidate and seen by many as a future Iranian Napoleon, and the other right wing candidates.
Upon being elected Banisadr stated that he would exert his authority saying that Iran cannot have „two governments.“ Yet he will find it difficult to remove the control workers now have in individual factories.
And unless he moves towards federation and the right of self-determination for nationalities in Iran, he will pave the way for increased conflict and possible reaction.
Since the insurrection over 9-11 February last year which finally smashed the Shah’s regime there has been no central power in Iran. In many areas of Iran the national minorities, have seized effective or semi-control of their areas, which Khomeini, through a series of concessions, has been forced to recognise.
Mass Struggles
At the same time the Iranian masses saw the Shah’s exit as the key to opening the door to a new life. Since last February Iran has been gripped by mass struggles which forced Khomeini’s Central Islamic Revolutionary Council to take or sanction many radical measures, like nationalisation of the banks, insurance and much of basic industry.
The occupation of the American Embassy by students has been used by Khomeini to try to divert attention away from Iran’s pressing social problems and defuse opposition to the new constitution. The widespread hatred of what the torturer Shah and his American imperialist backers inflicted upon the Iranian people for decades lay behind the occupation. Yet it has been a tactical mistake, allowing American imperialism to whip up right-wing hysteria and threaten military intervention
The problems facing the Iranian workers are clear. Decisive action will have to be taken if the threat of reaction is to be broken.
Self-determination for the nationalities. who comprise 50% of Iran’s population. That is the way to build a genuine federation and undermine the danger of separation and the break-up of Iran.
SocialistProgramme
A state monopoly of foreign trade, the taking over of foreign and Iranian monopolies so that the economy can be planned for the benefits of workers and peasants. The building of genuine democratic structures for the working people to control society. All these are needed to construct a healthy workers‘ state, which could roll back the threat of imperialist intervention and extend a fraternal help to revolutionary movements in the Middle East and Central Asia.
Obviously the imperialists are not at all happy with the present situation. If imperialism is not able to safeguard capitalism’s continuation in Iran it would aim, as a second best, for an Iran independent of the Russian bureaucracy.
The model would be to encourage a Yugoslav development in Iran, a society where capitalism had been overthrown but led by a bureaucratic caste independent of the Kremlin leadership.
‚The Times‘ editorial on Banisadr’s election summed this up in saying that „for the West, it will be extremely important to show tact … There is little doubt that many of the things Mr Banisadr … might like to do … nationalisation of foreign owned companies … are not to its interest. .. But at the same time he is firmly anti-communist and shows every sign of being fully aware of the threat to Iran from the Soviet Union. The way to respond, therefore, is not by sanctions, but by working to achieve a modus vivendi.“
Deformed Workers State
Of course given the way in which the Iranian revolution has unfolded it is doubtful that a deformed workers‘ state in Iran would dress itself in Marxist phrases, like the regimes in Russia, China, Cuba, etc. … Rather the language of an Iranian bureaucratic elite would be that of Islam, in the same way as the Burmese bureaucracy talks of ‚Burmese Buddhist Socialism.
Already Banisadr has a microfilmed filing system which links all aspects of economic life to the appropriate verses of the Koran, it will be very easy to justify every policy in terms of a Koran quotation!
It is still not certain what direction Iran will take, as there is no conscious leadership for the revolution.
A counter-revolutionary coup attempt led by reactionary pro-capitalist elements like Madani, possibly in collusion with imperialism, to save capitalism cannot be excluded. But given the strength of the masses‘ drive forchange, reflected in this election, it is more possible that capitalism will be overthrown and a planned nationalised economy installed in its place. Already, before Christmas, Banisadr called for a state monopoly of foreign trade.
Such a development would be an enormous step forward for Iran, freeing it from the immediate grip of imperialism. But without the conscious participation and control ofthe working class in the running of all aspects of the economy and society even this step forward will not open the way to a socialist Iran.
Without workers‘ democracy, control of society would be in the hands of the senior clergy and, increasingly, the bureaucratic elite at the top of the economy, state machine and armed forces. Iran would be similar to the other Stalinist, deformed workers‘ states, despite the use of Islamic phrases.
This would pose before the Iranian working class the task of carrying out another revolution, a political revolution against the new bureaucratic elite, before there could be a workers‘ democracy in Iran.
The tremendous development of the Iranian revolution has clearly demonstrated the working masses enormous capacity and willingness to struggle in a movement which has swept all before it. But also it has shown the necessity for every revolutionary movement to possess a clear leadership if the revolution is not to be distorted and deformed.
The Iranian revolution has already achieved much. If there had been in existence a mass workers‘ party, armed with a Marxist programme, then there can be no doubt that already Iran would be a workers‘ democracy and exercising a revolutionary appeal to all around the world. That is one lesson which all socialists must draw from Iran.
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