[Militant No. 436, 15 December 1978]
Last weekend the whole of Iran was paralysed by massive demonstrations as millions and millions of people took to the streets demanding an end to the Shah’s dictatorship.
On Sunday, a million people flooded the streets of Tehran. Next day, even more came out. The army, incapable of damming the flood, withdrew to the side streets.
„Death to the Shah’“ „Shah, you have killed our people!“ These were the slogans as what were formally major days of religious mourning were trans formed into massive demonstrations of political protest.
Throughout the country, marchers tore down statues and portraits of the Shah and the Empress.
In Isfahan on Monday, five people were shot dead by the army as demonstrators attacked the local headquarters of the Shah’s dreaded secret police, SAVAK.
In Britain, the capitalist press has at last got the message – the overwhelming majority of Iranians want the Shah out! – and have begun to convey the scale of the mass movement and reveal the darkness behind the „Peacock Throne“ they obsequiously praised for so long. Western business interests are terrified that they will lose their stake in Iran. There is over £6.000 million of western investment and banking loans there. British interests have about £10 million invested in Iran. and currently have £750 million of trade in the pipeline.
Strategists
Scandalously, it is pressure from big business that has determined the Labour government’s shameful declarations of support for the Shah’s dictatorship.
But even the serious strategists of big business are rapidly being driven to the conclusion that the Shah’s days are numbered . How could they avoid it. when millions of Iranians have so clearly voted with their feet?
„The scale of the protest,“ comments the ‚Financial Times‚ ( 11 December),“ and it’s unity bringing in all social classes, clearly illustrate the growing dilemma for General Azhari of how to work for a political solution while remaining loyal to the Shah as head of State.
„Many public sector workers remain on strike and little work is being done in the private sector because of the general disruption.“
If the Shah has outlived his usefulness, he will be unceremoniously discarded by the capitalist powers who helped him seize power, supported him with a flow of arms and painted his dictatorship in glowing colours.
Their main concern will be to look for substitutes. whether among the military or the Shah’s middle-class political opponents. through whom they can continue to dominate and exploit the country.
But because the Shah repressed every form of democratic expression, an enormous anger and discontent built up under the surface of his dictatorship.
Now the facade has cracked, it has welled up with uncontrollable force.
In the absence of a lead from elsewhere, the mood is expressed through support of the Shi’ite Moslem religious leaders, who preserved some autonomy under the Shah’s regime.
Ayatollah Khomeini. the exiled leader of the Shi’ite Muslim community, who have repeatedly and unequivocally called for the Shah’s removal, has for the time being become the main focus of opposition.
But when the Shah falls, what then?
Now, the great mass of the population is united against the regime. But to make sure that there is not merely a change at the top, and to ensure that there is fundamental change in the interests of the oppressed and exploited, the present spontaneous revolutionary movement must be given definite socialist aims.
The workers and peasants must be united around a programme capable of achieving a socialist transformation in Iran.
By Lynn Walsh
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