Militant: ‚Communist‘ leaders join in support for Shah

[Militant, 8 December 1978, p 11]

The best industrial workers have challenged the heavily armed dictatorship in mass political strikes demanding the release of political prisoners, exiles to be allowed to return and other democratic rights. It is upon their poverty that the tiny ruling class has built personal fortunes in their barbaric society.

Behind the Shah stands one of the world’s most modernly equipped armed forces and the dreaded secret police, SAVAK, at whose hands tens of thousands of the regime’s opponents have suffered unmentionable bestial tortures. It was against the continued rule of this tyrant that two weeks ago half a million marched through the streets of one provincial city.

With so much wealth and privilege threatened by workers‘ revolution it was not surprising that the leader of the world’s biggest capitalist power, President Carter, should provide sympathy and support for the Shah on his recent birthday:

„As I have mentioned before, we have thought about !ran very often in recent months. I know very well that the recent unrest has occupied your majesty’s thoughts a great deal. But at the same time I am well aware that your majesty can be very proud and satisfied with all that you have achieved for the progress of your country during the last 37 years „

It is only to be expected that the super power which waged war against the Vietnamese workers and peasants and which helped the overthrow of democratic rights in Chile th rough a bloody military coup would give moral support to this big-time gangster. But the Iranian masses must have felt a stab in the back when Chairman Hua, „revolutionary“ leader of „communist“ China, followed suit:

„It is a great pleasure for me to express my sincere greetings on the occasion of your majesty’s 59th birthday. I hope that your imperial highness will enjoy good health and that !ran will meet with new successes in the defence of its independence and national sovereignty, and will also reach new heights in progress and development.“

This disgusting crawling at the feet of the butcherous „imperial highness“ was outreached only by the new depths of grovelling before the Iranian Czar by the „Soviet“ Russian leader Brezhnev:

„Your majesty Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, light of the Aryans, King of Kings of Iran: On the occasion of a day of national rejoicing for the Iranian nation – the birthday of your majesty – please accept the sincere greetings of the Executive Committee of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, and my own as well …“

Brezhnev

As the workers and peasants of Iran strive to forge a political leadership in their struggle to overthrow the Shah and the capitalist system he represents, they will not look to the privileged bureaucracies of Moscow and Peking who have long forgotten the elementary principles of workers‘ internationalism in favour of their own narrow nationalist interests.