[The Militant, No 423, 15 September 1978, p. 1 + 16]
As hundreds of thousands of Iranians flock into the streets demanding the overthrow of the Shah, his policy of concession and coercion is failing to stem the biggest wave of opposition to his regime since his dictatorship came to power in 1953.
Martial law has been declared in several of Iran’s industrial cities as mass riots have shaken the Shah’s repressive rule. Although the official death toll is 597, Dr Ali Aini, Prime Minister in 1961, has estimated that government troops have killed 2,000 demonstrators and injured many more.
In Qom and Tabriz huge demonstrations have not only called for the downfall of the Shah but the class system as well. Enormous inequalities in wealth exist in this rich oil state of 35 million. The gap between urban and rural incomes has risen rapidly in recent years.
The Shah has ruled over a social volcano for years, arming himself to the teeth by spending 25% to 30% of the state budget on the armed forces, at a time when abject poverty, illiteracy and disease have prevailed in the countryside. But now that volcano is erupting not even the expensive, sophisticated British tanks and jets can cow the masses who are demanding democratic rights and an end to exploitation.
Above all, the Shah can no longer rely absolutely on the ranks of the army. Recent reports tell of soldiers shooting their officers, or even shooting themselves, rather than obey orders to fire at demonstrators. As always, when the mass of workers and peasants begin to move, cracks open up even in the strongest army.
The press and television has focussed attention on the fanatical opposition of the reactionary Moslem leaders to the Shah’s modernisation programme. The Shi’ite leaders want a return to the Dark Ages. But if they have sparked off the present upheaval. it is not. they who will finish it.
When the Shah wavered between concession and repression, the masses seized the chance to demonstrate their profound discontent with their conditions. It is the workers and peasants, the people who have borne the brunt of the Shah’s industrialisation programme, who will now play the decisive part. In particular, it will be the young workers in Iran’s large-scale, modern factories who will lead the way. For the workers it is vital that immediate demands for democratic rights are linked to a programme of socialist change. Countries like Iran, still weighted down by centuries of backwardness and oppression, will not achieve democratic freedoms while landlordism and capitalism survive, and while the ties with imperialism remain.
* Freedom of speech, press and assembly!
* For the right to join a trade union and to strike!
* Release the thousands of political prisoners and end the torture!
* Freedom for political parties!
* Overthrow the Shah ’s dictatorship – for a Constituent Assembly!
* For a socialist Iran!
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