consciously, unstoppably.
Iranian people with open arms.
face trial for his crimes.
conntry to the imperialist system.
Socialist Challenge mass popular insurrection and that the last government of the Shah had been sent hurrying into exile after him was greeted with rapturous applause.
Television brought the streets of Tehran into homes across the globe. By their slogans: 'Death to the Shah! Death to Carter!', the Iranian masses publicly indicted monarchic dictatorship and imperialism alike. By their action, they tossed the one aside and mocked the other's impotence.
For all those struggling against oppression the February revolution showed the power of the masses; bursting the chains which had bound them for 25 years; renouncing the limitations placed on their lives, collectively, For socialists, there could be no other response but one of welcome. All but the most isolated sectarians hailed the courage and determination of the But could the Iranian workers and peasants continue their revolution into a movement that would end imperialist exploitation for ever? One year afterwards they have not yet done so. But is the revolutionary process still going on? Two of our regular contributors on Iran offer different views.
And we highlight the great events of that year.
IN October 1979 President Carter dramatically signalled his continued support for the Shah by allowing him to enter the United States for 'medical treatment'. The reaction in Iran was swift as the US embassy in Tehran was stormed and its staff held hostage for the return of the Shah to Khomeini hoped to use this to divert attention from the failure of his regime to solve any of the pressing problems facing the country. But the mass mobilisations against US imperialism began to pose the question of how the workers themselves could break the chains still binding the 7 February 1980. Page 8 very little struggle. Nor left, explaining to face 'trial'.
the rule the Shah.
consolidate their anti-imperialist struggle, marked was again THE OCCUPATION of the US Embassy in Tehran and the events around it have anti-imperialist can demand for return of the Shah be characterised as anti-imperialist in any meaningtui sense.
Socialist Challenge, like many other journals has been filled why the Iranian masses detest the Shah and why they are mobilising for his return But it has gone unnoticed that this sort of mobilisation is an exception rather than thousands Nicaraguans storming the American Embassy in Managua to demand the return of Somoza, certainly no more a butcher nor less a thief than Is it perhaps that masses in the process of taking their fate into their own hands find more important focuses for mobilisation, and regimes that have progressive social projects (no matter how deficient) do not find it necessary rule through hysterical completely symbolic demands for revenge?
Just prior to the present so-called upsurge of the Iranian situation by increasing ferment: among the Kurds; in the universities where issues of freedom of political debate had been raised; among women, some whom were beginning to organise against the new marriage and divorce laws, which repeal the small gains that had been made under the Shah; among the workers, where there was a modest the most typical that renders this time-honoured appeal even more retrogressive.
of accordingly.
of the discipline into the army.
and incident that unravelling get away •01 follows:
The embassy occupation, far from impelling these struggles forward, acts as a brake on them. It simultaneously diverts attention from the real issues facing Iran and serves as a rallying cry for obscurantist appeals 'national unity', overlaid with the Islamic veneer reactionary Khomeini is now in a position to blame all American sabotage already a huge propaganda campaign lor the restriction of consumption has been launched All dissidents can now be branded as agents of US imperialism and will suffer the wrath of the occasion to implement what he had failed to achieve before: a massive mobilisation of youth into armed militias under the total control of the clergy and their henchmen and a reintroduction To complete the picture, one has only to add the impact that the embassy seizure has had on the American political situation, The longer the the more likely it will Khomeini will succeed effects Vietnamese revolution on the consciousness of the American people, rendering it possible for Washington to direct military interventions against revolutions throughout the world.
The line that has been taken by most of the far left on the current events in Iran flows logically from its analysis of what Khomeini stands for. It. çan be summarised briefly as
Huation of popular of the most oppressed come rapidly to Women, who had played a prominent demonstrations to organise for their own liberation 'Thousands marched OD Women's Day, but rapidly found continuing struggle is one pelling the revolution forward beyond is of the 'Islamie Republic'.
asly in defence of capitalist against a threat to a capitalist state. Kurds are not the only tenacious fighters sional rights. In Azerbaijan tart the constitution was also decisively Lin what amounted to a boycott of the Perhaps over half the population • fighting imperialism and raising their accomplished.
revolution is moving.
The political revolution;
armed forces as destroyed.
Khomeini, insurrection the in the against the Shah, no such army exists. 8 March, of the Shah.
communism Unfortunately, property last year exists.
and classes in cannot be channel acon own national and class demands.
There are no built-in guarantees that these historically progressive tasks will be successfully What has become increasinely clear over the last year is that the national and agrarian demands run up immediately against the state. Assessing the relative strength of the state is the key to understanding which way the February insurfection ushered in a state power was from the hands of the upstart monarch into those of Khomeini - but through the efforts of the insurrectionary masses. In the process, the La main component of state power were radicalised and split, and those most loyal to the old regime were Today the forces of repression available to Bani-Sadr and their bourgeois are a blunt weapon for imposing Islamic law and order on the Iranian people. Rhetoric about the popular army of 20 million' and squads of fanatical Isiamic Guards are not a substitute for a loyal and efficient army. Events Kurdish provinces, in Tabriz and Baluchistan have shown over the last year that The Islamic Republic remains only the shell of a state, camping out in the ruined ministries In recent weeks, Khomeini has redecorated the interior with a president and a constitution, and hung a sign reading nor capitalism but Isiam'. as the bourgeois figures who have been struggling to run a government for the are acutely aware, no The impact of Islam on the struggle of social Iran over ignored, of course. It provided a leadership for the anti-Shah movement, and a and communication through the network of the шоссис. passed. "neither Persian-speaking seen above) after. attacks on Each Madari. IRAN under the Shah was totally dominated by the minority. National rights ruthlessly repressed. But as resistance to the Shah's rule grew, the nationalities — Kurds, Arabs, Turkomens -moved to the forefront of the struggle. And Khomeini has found it impossible to drive them back. The latest upsurge has been that of the Azerbaijanis, who virtually took over the city of Tabriz (including the radlo station, their leader, colours.
needs of capitalism. which the restabilise a attendant needs Socialists overthrowing lines politically armed La party.
iS were Iran.
ships ana a support for all the struggles of Bani-Sadr.
Shariatrevolution is unique, expressing itself through instruments are available. Islam what lends the Iranian situation its particular But religion has not suddenly become a historical force above the laws of class struggle Any serious attempt to meet the demands of the directly into conflict with the Islam is a cover behind bourgeoisie seeks to rebuild and capitalist all the for a relationship maintain that • capitalism can provide no answers in Iran today. But more thar this, we maintain that the possibilities exist fo capitalism and beginning the reconstruction of Iranian society along socialist Only the working masses will provide the driving force behind such a further revolution however. And they will be successfur only it by mass evolutionary workers party, and if they address themselves to the questions of state power.
The task for socialists in Iran is to build such The resolutions put forward by the Islamic Workers Shora indicate that such a task on the agenda today. But it will not be achieved by abstaining from any arena in which the proletariat is struggling, or by seeing in their struggles only some kowtowing to Islam.
For socialists here and in other • imperialist countries, the most important task is to oppose any imperialist threat to the growing struggles in That means unconditional defence of the unfolding Iranian revolution against US warUS blockade, the masses against the capitalist governmeat of Khomeini/ These are the best ways for us to link up with the struggling masses in Iran, and take forward the struggle against imperialism together.