[Editorial, Militant, No 444, 23 February 1979, p 2]
Marxism explains that state power rests on ‚armed bodies of men‘. The correctness of this is shown by the development of the revolution in Iran.
The remaining thin threads of the Shah’s power in Iran rested on his army commanders and the rest of the officer caste who remained loyal to the absolutist regime. It was on them and his Prime Minister, Bakhtiar, that the Shah rested his hopes of a counterrevolutionary comeback.
In every revolution the generals have muttered in their clubs: „Give me one reliable regiment and we will restore law and order“, meaning the crushing of the workers and peasants so that the capitalists and landlords can again enjoy in tranquility the surplus extracted from the labour of the workers and peasants.
In Iran, however, the soldiers and airmen were affected by the movement of the workers and middle class against the Shah’s regime and Its fig-leaf successor.
The generals had a reliable regiment, purged of dissidents, the Imperial Guard, the Shah’s crack troops. These were used in an attack on the Air Bases, which were threatening to become bastions. of revolution. „Put these down, execute the malcontents, purge the army, and then crack down on the masses with brutal repression,“ the generals calculated.
But as Karl Marx pointed out, the revolution sometimes needs the whip of the counterrevolution. The fighting at the Air Bases provoked an uprising, above all, of the workers.
Their Air Force comrades distributed all the spare weapons and ammunition to the insurgent masses. The attack of the Imperial Guard was beaten back and the regiment ingloriously disintegrated.
The armed workers attacked the barracks. Most of the soldiers, given an alternative to the hated regime, came over to the side of the revolution.
The armed workers attacked the barracks of the troops in Tehran. Most of the soldiers, given an alternative to the bated regime, came over to the side of the revolution. They too are the sons, brothers and relatives of the workers and peasants. After 48 hours fighting, the masses, principally the working class, were completely victorious.
In Tehran alone there are now 70,000 armed workers. They have fraternal relations with the soldiers and airmen who only too willingly hand out revolvers, rifles and machine guns. Even some tanks have been taken over by the masses.
Bakhtiar and many of the generals have been arrested. The wont criminals among them, who beaded the monstrous SAVAK secret police and gave the orders to fire on unarmed demonstrators [killing over the last few months 10,000 to 20,000 people], have been .executed. This was due to the pressure of the masses on the Ayatollah Khomeini, demanding justice for the murders committed by the gangsters in uniform.
But the real power in Iran now rests with the armed workers and the roused rank-and-file soldiers. As yet, they are not fully conscious of this power – though it has put fear and dread Into the hearts of the capitalists, landlords and big merchants.
The Imperialist powers who backed and armed the Shah regard this development of the revolution with dismay and foreboding. For 25 years they backed reaction and military dictatorship in Iran as they did in Vietnam, Pakistan and other colonial countries. Now they have reaped the consequences.
Khomeini faces with misgiving and fear the revolutionary movement which has brought to power his chosen government.
Now with the new development of the revolution they are frenziedly clinging to the Ayatollah Khomeini for fear of worse from the masses. Khomeini has faced with misgiving and fear the revolutionary movement which has brought to power his nominee, Bazargan, and with him the liberal representatives of capitalism like the Foreign Affairs Minister, Sanjabi.
The Ayatollah’s policy as revealed by his writings is thoroughly reactionary. He wants a return to the religious regime of the past when the Muslim religious hierarchy were handmaidens to the State with tremendous power.
He is fully in favour of capitalist property rights, apart from the Utopian objection to usury [interest in capital]. But modem capitalism cannot function without it, so if he retained power and influence the Ayatollah would inevitably be compelled so long as capitalism remains to bow the knee to Iranian and international bankers.
The main preoccupation of Khomeini and the new government is how to break this new-found power of the masses.
This is why the Ayatollah has declared it is a sin to possess arms. The government has demanded the handing back of the arms which have been seized by the masses. This, gives them the real power.
Khomeini is also insistently demanding that the soldiers return to barracks. The worst criminals have been shot as a sacrifice. But Generals who are no different [except they were not so closely identified with the old regime’s worst crimes] are to resume their commands.
Of course this is no accident. Sanjabi, Bazargan and Khomeini all came out in favour of „the army“ and the police [i.e. capitalist control of society through the officer caste] before the revolution had gathered strength. As far as they were concerned, the removal of the Shah and Bakhtiar were all that was required. A few cosmetic gestures: but everything else should remain intact.
But the masses see things differently. The armed workers do not wish to surrender their weapons, and at this stage can only be compelled to do so by force. They have fought barehanded and with only sticks before. Their rifles are a firm comfort and an obstacle to reaction.
The SAVAK Secret Police have disappeared. Who is to force their disarming? Mass demonstrations of thousands of soldiers have taken place demanding the removal of the generals, refusing to return to barracks, and demanding a new „revolutionary army“.
As a gesture to the masses, the government has „dissolved“ the already disintegrated ‚Imperial Guard‘ but there is no word about the Shah’s generals put in ‚command‘ of the troops. The government is biding Its time, hoping that the revolutionary mood of the masses will ebb as they return to work after months of general strike.
Here is a classical revolutionary situation as explained by Lenin. The real power is possessed by the armed workers and soldiers. There are committees of workers in the oilfields, factories and even the banks and offices.
A Marxist party in Iran now would suggest the open setting up – they may even exist now in secret – of delegated and elected soldiers committees. These would be linked up throughout the country with a central committee in Teheran.
Even now the workers are distrustful of the liberal government and have not complete faith in Khomeini either.
Yet instead of putting forward Lenin’s policy in a similar situation in Russia – power to the committees and no trust in the government, with the expropriation of the banks, big business, the big merchants and landlords – the so-called Iranian Communist Party, the Tudeh, puts forward a policy of support for the government and the Ayatollah.
The British and other Communist Parties enthusiastically support this disastrous policy, the policy of Menshevism in the Russian Revolution. This new government is a Kerensky government in religious garb. It is suspended in mid-air. For the moment it has no armed forces on which it can rely except the volunteer guerrilla Muslims. They would not, as yet, be prepared for a clash with the armed workers and rank-and-file soldiers.
The government exists in a vacuum. There is no organised alternative in sight. But the imperialists are worried that the government will not be able to maintain control. They see that there will be new outbreaks, strikes and demonstrations when the masses see that the government will make no fundamental changes in the economic system and thus to their lives.
The government, after some hesitation, have announced the ‚radical‘ gesture of expropriating all the property of the Shah and his family.
That is an extensive part of land and Industry in Iran, But appetite comes with eating. Most of the property in Iran is owned by 22 families, all cronies of the Shah. They gained this wealth by plunder, swindling and the favour of the Shah. The demand should be put for the expropriation of these 22 families.
The revolution in Iran in many respects is in advance of the revolution at its peak in Portugal. But the programme of the government is a purely capitalist one.
Sanjabi has declared for a „democracy with an Islamic identity. The economy will be mixed and both private investment and enterprise preserved.“ This is capitalism without the Shah.
For the moment, open reaction is weak. But unless the workers consolidate their power, it will inevitably develop. There is no room for a „liberal“ capitalism in Iran. Inflation and the sickness of capitalism internationally means that the speculators will have a bonanza in Iran.
Ifthere were a Marxist tendency in the tradition of Lenin and Trotsky, it would grow rapidly in the new workers‘ organisations, trade unions, committees, etc., which are springing up in Iran.
If the movement does not end in a victory for the socialist revolution there will be a dreadful reaction. The capitalists, landlords, the officer caste, and the imperialists are burning with a suppressed desire for revenge on the revolutionary masses.
The Shah gave the admonition to a secret meeting with his generals: „You must kill two million“ to pacify the insurgent masses and restore control.
The Shah’s regime is in the dustbin of history. But capitalists and landlords, as in Hitler’s Germany and Franco’s Spain, would be prepared for even more savage measures to safe guard the rule of capital.
In one day of revolution, however, the masses learn more than in a year or a decade of ’normal‘ capitalist rule. The masses are continually discussing and thinking about events, as workers do in strikes, but with even greater tension and movement.
The submission and acceptance of capitalist slavery is ended. The masses are thinking, discussing and trying to find an alternative course.
This is the essence of socialist revolution. The submission and acceptance of capitalist slavery is ended. The masses are thinking, discussing and trying to find an alternative course.
Ifthey throw up a Marxist leadership, the socialist revolution will be victorious in Iran. The masses, armed with perspectives and clear goals, and mobilised for action, especially where they are armed as in Iran, are invincible.
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