[The Militant, No 415, 17 July 1978, p. 10-11]
Iran’s repressive dictatorship under the Shah has been rocked during the last six months by the biggest wave of strikes, demonstrations and riots for years.
The apparently solid rule of the world’s richest man, backed up by the most sophisticated weaponry, has been incapable of preventing a huge movement of outright opposition to the regime. Even the most brutal and systematic repression of a military dictatorship cannot outlaw the class struggle.
The year ended with thousands coming out into the streets of Qom in January, only to be met by the barrels of army guns which murderously mowed down 100. Forty days later, the traditional time of mourning, a march in Tabriz was attacked by machine guns and tanks, leaving many dead and 450 arrested – judging by the nightmarish torture chambers in Iran it is hard to say which was the worse fate.
Yet after another forty days the marchers came out in even greater numbers in open defiance of the police. In three days of protests the police attacks and rioting spread like wildfire to 25 other cities and towns throughout the country, leaving an official death toll fifteen times as great.
By May Teheran and six other cities were rife with demonstrations lasting eight days. Significantly, this time workers answered the inevitable bloodshed with a general strike in the capital and in Tabriz
Economy
The speeding economic train based on limitless oil is grinding to a halt. But the new industrial working class has greatly increased its strength and is preparing for the battles ahead.
The economic growth of Iran since the war has been phenomenal. In 1947, Iran had only 175 large enterprises, employing a total of 100,000 workers. By 1972 these figures were 6,000 and 1,800,000!
Between 1972 and 1975 oil revenue jumped up by 7 times from 1.50 dollars a barrel to 10.20. This sudden wealth led to a huge boom and the Gross National Product rose by 34% in 1973-4 and by 42% the following year.
Iran appeared to consolidate a position of economic stability as the oil exports ensured a balance of payments surplus which rose from 500 million dollars in 1972 to 1,600m the following year and 5,250 million dollars by 1974-5.
However. inflation was let rip. The money supply rose by 60% in 1974-5 and another 34% in 1975-6. Petrochemicals greatly expanded and Western firms were attracted by cheap labour, lucrative contracts. and state repression of trade unions. The official figures suggest that the workers benefitted from this boom. Due to the labour shortage and heroic strikes, wages went up.
A national minimum wage was introduced, which rose 36% in 1974-5 and 42% in 1975-6. There was a long running programme of land reform aimed at redistributing the land to the peasants and also a national literacy programme.
But these figures hide the effects of run-away inflation, despite the 1 ½ billion dollars spent in subsidies to hold down prices. Rents in Teheran are as high as in Paris and consume 60-70% of wages. Whilst a car is twice as expensive as in Britain. Wages at the Gazor Timber Co., for working from 5 in the morning to 8 at night, with compulsory overtime, are 79p a day.
Many wages are about £40 a year. The minimum wage is a farce as 73% of workers earn less than it.
Exploitation
There are numerous ‚fines‘ on workers and unemployment is high, especially in Hamadan where half of the active population of 124,000 is unemployed . On top of this, working hours range between 10 and 18 a day .
General living conditions are very bad – Teheran does not even have a sewage system! Children start work officially at 12.
A widespread scandal is the number of 7 year olds working in carpet factories who suffer from tuberculosis and rickets. The working conditions of some women are so destructive to their health that „most of the women of Kashan and Aaran give Caesarian births.“
The ‚land reform ‚ managed to expropriate the land of 1,200,00 peasants and pushed 500,000 off the land completely. The peasant population has fallen drastically as they move to the towns – from 18 million today (just half of the total population of 34 million) it is estimated to fall by 13 million by 1982. The wealthy farmers were the ones to benefit.
The Health and Education Corps were designed to control the peasantry and still 55% of the population is illiterate. As wages in the towns have risen, farmers cannot pay labourers and prices of food have been kept down, so the production of food has failed to keep up with demand.
The boom has benefitted the ruling class alone. The top 10% of the population account for 40% of total spending in a desperate orgy of consumption side by side with horrific poverty and misery for millions.
Peasants‘ wages are 3-6 times lower than city workers‘. Meanwhile the old middle classes of craftsmen have collapsed, unable to compete.
By 1976 the spending spree was over. The balance of payments was transformed into a deficit of 97 million dollars and the 1976 budget was also in deficit.
The boom placed great strains on the economy. There was a shortage of skilled labour, huge wastage and corruption. Oil was in oversupply and Saudi Arabia could hold down the price .
Production, excluding oil, fell in 1972 by 12%. Oil production declined by 6-7 % as pressure fell and wells dried up.
The economic base rests on just 34m people. mostly very poor. thus limiting the market for manufactures. Due to trade barriers there has been little expansion abroad.
There is overcapacity, with one foundry working at only 70% of possible output. Businessmen are pulling out and investment is low. The ‚Financial Times‘ paints a bleak picture of Iran : „Inflation, high housing costs, inadequate power supplies, shortages of construction materials, poor roads, inefficient distribution, the shortage of skilled manpower, and the acceleration of the urban-rural gap.“
The ‚Westernisation‘ that took place freed many women from old Moslem laws and in general undermined the Islamic faith. But it also led to increased discontent amongst Iran’s minorities, which amount to half the total population. The new austerity is doubly dangerous because it is frustrating the new expectations of the working class whose labour has produced Iran’s wealth.
Against this backcloth of economic strain and crisis is the coming revolt of the industrial working class which the ruling class fear so much. Repression is not new to Iran. In 1953 the CIA helped the Shah to take power in return for de-nationalising the oil business.
The Director of Military Assistance told the US Congress: „The guns they had in their hands, the trucks they rode in, the armoured cars that they drove through the streets, and the radio communications that permitted their control, were all furnished through the military defence assistance programme … had it not been for this programme, a government unfriendly to the US probably would now be in power.“
Army
As well as huge oil concessions. the US also received big military contracts which enabled the Shah to expand his armed forces. The army was expanded from 120,000 men to 190.000 and a navy of 4,000 and an air-force of 8,000 were created. 2,000 Iranian soldiers were trained in the US.
The role of these armed bodies of men, armed to the teeth with the most modern and expensive equipment was obvious. Hubert Humphrey reported an Iranian General as saying: „the army was in good shape, thanks to US aid – it was now capable of coping with the civil population.“
Total military aid, up to 1969, was 938 million dollars.
The Iranian secret police, SAVAK, was formed using some FBI methods. It now has an incredible 65,000 agents!
The Nationalist Party was smashed and the Tudeh (Communist Party), including 600 army officers, was atomised. Iran is now the lynch pin for US and British imperialism in the Middle East and Persian Gulf.
The so-called „White Revolution“ of reforms merely made the rich richer and poor poorer and did little to change Iran into a modern, capitalist, manufacturing industrial country. Torture is widespread and there are 40,000 political prisoners who were tried in military courts without any defence lawyers. There are, on average, two executions a week.
There has been unrest in the prisons, including a 4 week hunger strike. On one occasion 7 families met together to discuss the situation. 12 of their children had been shot by the authorities, 15 members were in prison, and 5 members had disappeared mysteriously‘.
The economic crisis and political repression have led to hundreds of industrial battles. Over the last 6 months most cities have witnessed bloody clashes between demonstrators and the police.
Independent trade unions are not allowed, strikes and demonstrations are illegal. Recent political protests have seen police break up demonstrations, arrest pickets, and kill strikers: So terrified are the ruling class of the workers‘ smouldering anger that army units are present in factories, like the Aryamehr steel mill, employing over 3,000, where there are 500 police agents and an army unit.
There is only one legal political party, the Rastakhiz, whose candidates · are vetted by SAVAK. It is simply a cover for the Shah’s rule by decree.
The multi-millionaire Shah, who has completely ignored the paper constitution and imposes a tight press censorship, is now ending the food subsidies and is bringing in a new labour code with an emphasis on discipline and raising productivity. He also intends to end the bonus system, which will represent a wage cut of 20%.
The industrial working class has lead a courageous struggle against these conditions. In 15 years its numbers have trebled to 2.5m and there are now over 16m people in the towns.
Since 1972 there has been a whole series of strikes. In the Rambler Motor Company workers have struck against the presence of a semi-military unit and for free election of their own representatives.
1973 saw a series of successful strikes for higher wages and 4,000 workers in the Abadan oil refinery struck twice and received a wage rise.
In Teheran, factories, taxi drivers, and the Teheran market have been on strike. In 1971 2,000 workers of a textile factory marched on Teheran to demand a wage rise. The police shot three of them.
The ruthless attitude of the bosses was shown in June 1974 when the Tabriz Transport Factory workers went on strike for higher wages. One of their leaders, Majid Saleh Jahani, a veteran trade unionist, was elected to speak at a strike meeting.
Democratic rights
During the speech he paused to drink a glass of water. Almost immediately he collapsed and was rushed to hospital where he started to vomit blood. He died the next day.
On top of this mounting opposition has exploded this year’s street demonstrations and clashes elevating the opposition to the regime onto a higher level. The Shah is beginning to lose his grip .
The students and middle class are moving into opposition as well. The austerity programme hits them and they are restricted by the lack of democracy and the number of political prisoners.
Significantly, it is even affecting the army. A former Iranian lieutenant stated that ‚These lower-ranking officers and soldiers do not believe in the regime at all.“
General Darakhachani died in prison, accused of spying for the Russians – the second general convicted of spying in 4 months. In January, Ali Naqi Rabbani, a senior Education Minister was similarly accused. Corruption and ‚baksheesh‘ is undermining the regime .
The ruling class is splitting in the face of the growing opposition and the horrific crimes of SAVAK. On an international level. the coup in Afghanistan seriously threatens Iran’s, borders . Her huge military expenditure which increased by 1.5 billion dollars last year is adding new strains to the dwindling Iranian resources.
The role of British and US imperialism has been to prop up this reactionary military-police dictatorship of the richest man in the world. Between January and June 1977, the U K exported £325m in goods to Iran . It is British and American military equipment that is repressing workers in Iran and in the Persian Gulf.
The British labour movement must demand an end to arms supplies to Iran and to SAVAK operations in this country. We must support the tremendous struggles of the workers for the right to form trade unions, the right to strike, for an end to political imprisonment, and for freedom of speech and assembly.
These demands for democratic rights and the workers‘ demands for a living wage tied to the cost of living, land to the peasants, guaranteed prices, minimum standards for working conditions to be enforced by free trade unions, freely available health and education facilities for all, will be taken up by ever and ever wider layers of the population. Around the struggle for these demands the workers will throw up their own organisations upon which the labour movement will be built.
Workers‘ democracy
But Iranian capitalism is incapable of providing these basic democratic rights and social reforms. The struggle against the Shah’s dictatorial regime must be a struggle for the overthrow of capitalism, for the nationalisation of Iran’s tremendous industrial resources under workers‘ control and management. A socialist plan of production could expand Iran’s economy on a permanent, not a fitful, basis – for the benefit of the whole of society.
With an internationalist appeal to the workers and peasants of neighbouring countries a workers democracy in Iran would break the grip of imperialism and blaze the trail for a Socialist Middle East and Asia.
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