How Khomeini defeated the a future revival of the mass movement.
Just as the workers movement
February
1979 in
September to helped to radicalise the mass moveworkers movement ment against the shah, today it can give impetus to the popular discontent with Khomeini. This time, the rise in workers struggles may have to provide the catalyst for the mass movement, and not vice versa, as was the case before.
THE FOLLOWING is the first of three articles on the defeat and beginning recovery of the workers movement in Khomeini's Iran. SABER NIKBEEN
The wave of terror unleashed by the Islamic regime in June and July led rapidly defeat of the revolutionary over by the bourgeois-clerical faction of the post-revolutionary institutions. The main forces of the left, which claimed to defend the working class and enjoyed a considerable base inside it, were not prepared counterrevolutionary onslaught.
The collaborators - led by the pro-Moscow Tudeh Party and their Fedayan fellow travellers (the majority or Ekseriyat, faction) - continued to support the regime of "militant Moslems" , claiming that it was at least "anti-imperialist." They denounced the opposition to the terror as the result of "imperialist plots."
Under the circumstances then prevailing, such an attitude meant active cooperation with the repressive forces of the bourgeois statethe Pasdaran Army, the Islamic anjomans, the baseej corps, the hezbollahi thugs, (1) the Imam's komitens, etc.
The oppositionists - the largest being the Fedayan Minority Faction (the Aghaliyat) and Peykar (a Maoist group) made the fundamental mistake of tail-ending the Mojahedeen Organization. At that time, the Mojahedden were aiming for a rapid take-over of power from above, hoping to win control of the government through the armed actions of their own militia and promised support from a faction of the army and the Shite clergy itself.
The consequences of this are now history. The workers movement underwent a rapid disintegration. The larger left opposition forces went down with the Mojahedeen without having enough time to realise what was happening. The forces of counterrevolution were greatly strengthened Having tested the relationship of
International Viewpoint 25 November 1985 forces, the reactionaries pushed for a final, decisive blow against all the manifestations revolutionary movement. The collaborators themselves now came under the gun because they were no longer salient result of this period was the almost total destruction of all the independent organizations of the potentially independent workers councils (shoras). Arrests en masse and summary executions of thousands of known milideteriorated so rapidly that before the third anniversary of the February 1979 insurrection, none of the major gains of the revolution remained in-
In the face of this defeat, opportunists of all colours - who had in fact underestimated the counterrevolutionary potential of the Islamic bourgeois its petty-bourgeois shock troops and who were responsible for the unpreparedness of the revolutionary movement -claimed that their error was to overestimate the capacities of the Islamic working class.
The events of the last four years have, however, shown that the opportunists were just as mistaken about the working class as they were about the "Islamic" leaders. The working class remains, despite the ever increasing repression, the only major social force of opposition to the counterrevolution.
The workers movement has outlasted the capitalist offensive, gradually reconstructing its defences, and it is even beginning to prepare for a general confrontation. It has already forced the Islamic regime to retreat on some important issues.
The recovery of the workers movement has to be looked at in its various phases, and the changes that have come about have to be understood. This is necessary in order to
The new role of the workers movement has been indicated already in relation to the anti-war movement and the protests of the urban poor. Following the latest waves of workers actions (strikes, go-slows, protests), there has been a definite increase in all other forms of resistance by the oppressed and toiling sections against the reactionary policies of the Khomeini regime.
It should not be forgotten that the rise that led to the Iranian revolution began in fact in the summer of 1976, with a sharp rise in activity amongst the urban poor of major cities, such as Tehran, Esfahan, Tabriz, and Ahwaz. At that time, for example, Tehran had something over half a million unemployed or underemployed poor. Today, this figure has gone well over the 2 million mark, and is still growing Any major victory for the working class could immediately create an explosive social situation.
In such conditions, it is no accident that the regime of the mullahs is staking everything on keeping the repressive forces constantly mobilized and suppressing any movement before it can spread. The terror of the summer of 1981 marked the beginning of this period.
The capitalist offensive was launched after a considerable period of decline in the workers movement caused by the Iran-Iraq war. Under the cover of this war, the Islamic anjomans were successfully utilized by the regime to oppose and disrupt the activities of the independent shoras.
In almost every major factory, there were, before the offensive was launched, powerful pro-regime anjomans, themselves armed and also linked to Pasdaran (2) units outside. • The military drills they conducted (daily in most places) were supposed to be to train volunteers for the front.
1. "Anjoman" means "society." The anjomans were built by Islamic fundamenta. lists to replace the shoras, "mobilization." councils. "Baseej" means It was used for corps of volunteers organized by the regime. "Hezbollah" means the "party of God, " it was used by rightists who attacked demonstrations considered to be organized by un-Godly parties. -IV
2. "Pasdar" means "guard." The pasdars were the militias organized by the clergy. The Persian plural is "pasdaran. -V.
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In the Parchin factory (part of the arms industry) on June 22, 57 workers arrested, and the independent was replaced by a reactionary one appointed from above.
the General in Tehran, on June 29, all the leading were arrested. On July 5, pasdars were at the factory gate with a list of names provided by the anjohundred workers were another hundred a week later.
In the Benz-e-Khavar auto factory, of June 28, pasdars raided the homes of the leaders of the shora and arrested three of them. whipped in front of the workforce. He was later executed. The anjoman also gave the names of 54 militants to the management. All of the named
Iranian army troops march past the presidential review stand - June 1984 (DR) In fact, they were designed to create an atmosphere of fear and apprehension inside the factories. suceeded in most places in forcing through a drastic cut in wages (by either simply not allowing creases and letting monetary inflation do the job, or by imposing direct cuts in incomes) and longer hours, except in the most powerful sectors of the working class. The forty hour week gave way to 44 and then to the week. Furthermore, to help the war efforts of the regime, productivity deals were imposed in many however, sufficient to prompt capital investments and a return capitalists who had fled the revolution. The summer 1981 offensive was designed to remedy this failing.
The fact that this onslaught was indeed a capitalist offensive is clearly indicated by its immediate aims of the workers' workplace, workers were arrested en masse extensive lay-offs were carried out.
At every factory gate, guards of the Islamic anjomans and/or pasdars would do body searches to of any kind of literature not approved prohibited. In factories, political could be punished with expulsions.
tactic more or less universally used by the anjomans in the first days of the terror was to create some disthe factory against well-known militant leaders, then bring in the pasdars to arrest 24
"responsible" for the conflict and "restore order."
In addition, the anjomans would quences. The management would then lay these workers off or even hand them over to the pasdars. In most places, the lists published by anjomans were actually invitations to repressive forees to arrest the
A few examples will illustrate what took place after June 21, 1981:
In the railways in Tehran, a leaflet signed by the "Hezbollahi Revenge was distributed naming active leaders, including all of the militant members of the workplace shora, threatening them with execution if they did not resign from their jobs. By the end of the week, they were all either arrested one was later executed) or were foreed to go hiding. The day after the explosion in the Islamic Republican another fifty weeks later, about 1,500 temporary (contract) workers the choice of signing a new or getting the sack. agreement put before them included a clause giving the management the right to terminate the contract whenever it wished to. There were, course, protests, but under the circumstances, they got nowhere. (3)
In the industrial city of near Ghazvin, on the night of June 21 (the day when the armed thugs of hezbollah machine gunned a demonstration of over 300,000 persons in Tehran), pasdars raided the homes arrested over 200 persons (of whom 17 were executed). In the days that occupied by the repressive forces.
workers were either arrested or sacked. In this way, the independent anjoman was destroyed.
In the Iran Yasa tire factory, June 28, all members of the shora were taken to the Labour Ministry and forced to resign without being allowed to explain their reasons. Obviously, they were threatened with imprisonment or militant mood of the workers in this factory, however, kept the from resorting to violence immediately. The repression there began later, in the autumn of 1981, with a total ban on the shora. which had been involved in a labour dispute for almost a month, the situation was "normalized" by the arrest of all the militant members of shora on July Baseeji were brought in to keep an eye on every attacks on the working class were raised to a special intensity whenever any member of the regime
The day after the explosion in the for example, in Tehran alone a convoy of forty buses went to the gates of most of the factories on the TehranKaraj Road arresting militant workers fingered by the anjomans. Many of those arrested at that time have yet to be released. A lot of them were executed. Those who were eventually released lost their jobs.
In the Iran National factory over 700 workers (out of a workforce of 8,000) were layed off. Some of them were allowed back after passing an "ideological test" administed by the
All the incidents cited in this article reports that have appeared in the journals of other left groups. In all cases, a compariInternational Viewpoint 25 November 1985
The powerful oil workers had kept their shora. A section of them in the Shiraz refinery had been involved in a dispute with the Oil Ministry that started long before the wave of terror. They had planned the eleventh meeting of the National Shora to deal with this dispute and to organize solidarity actions with the Shiraz workers.
This meeting fell on June 23-24, that is, just a few days after the terror began. Delegates were reluctant to call for an all-out strike. They limited themselves to a resolution calling for some mild solidarity measures.
Five days later at the Tehran refinery, as soon as workers got out of the buses, they were confronted by a joint force of anjoman guards and pasdars. Many were beaten up on the spot, and many more were arrested,
In the Pars Elektrik factory, the organized a demanding the sacking of 15 workers. The management, of course, immediately acceded to this demand. When workers protested on the following day, a further 150 were sacked. By the end of July the number of those arrested and laid off had reached 300. On August 25, six leaders were
To put down any possible protests, pasdars occupied the facory.
It was by means of such vicious that the workers' was eventually broken. Gradually, all over the country, all the remaining shoras were crushed. Once that was accomplished, new offensives No "pagan" ideas allowed
The workers' share of the annual profits (set at 20% under the shah) was already cancelled in 1980. This aroused many protests, which had the regime to retreat. The authorities had promised that for the coming year, a new plan would be introduced. After the workers' resiswas crushed, in August, the "new" plan was made public. It had nothing to do with profit sharing,
"Taghooti, that is, a "pagan" idea.
workers were promised a one percent increase wages for every one percent increase in output, calculated on the basis of a "standard level" fixed by the Ministry of Labour. Those workers in factories producing below 65% of this level would receive nothing, and those in factories producing between 65% and 100% of the nor only 0.2% for every one percent increase in output. Under the circumstances, the authorities could expect
International Viewpoint 25 November 1985
An Iranian soldier assists his companion at the Iran-Iraq front (DR) that there would be no serious
On August 30, the new minister
Gharazi, who was considered a "maktabi" (literally, a scholastic, that is, an Islamic fundamentalist, a closings were to be ended. (Since the corresponds in Islamic countries to the Western Saturday.)
A 44-hour week was to be applied throughout the oil in changing the mind of the minister. All those workers who defied the new hours and stayed away on Thursdays were immediately sacked.
In Tehran, Esfahan, and Shiraz, many oil workers were arrested. To further weaken the oil workers, many South Korean and Pakistani skilled workers and technicians were brought in to replace discontented workers.
In most factories, a discipline" was imposed, laying down a whole list of offenses for which a worker could be sacked. Among them
"any form of insult against the Islamic Republic" and "all kinds of disturbing the minds of the workers as regards the (From the code of discipline of the group of factories belonging National Shoe Co.) number of strikes in this period (we know of 14). Most of them, however, were bloodily suppressed, sometimes after an initial retreat by the authorifactory (with a mostly female workforce of over
1,200), there was on September 15 in protest against arbitrary sackings of women workers the maktabi manager accused of not respecting Islamic hejab (that is, the obligation of women to cover their distinctively female features, which when interpreted strictly can mean shrouding themselves completely in a sort of black tent).
At first, the management did not make any moves. But by the end of the week, one of the women workers had been executed and 58 arrested. In early October, the management sacked workers in the consumer cooperative. At the end of October, the management announced plans for increasing increases (to aid the "war effort"*).
The workers responded with a goslow. Two workers were arrested On November 3, the workers went on strike. The next day, six more workers were sacked. The struggle then ended in a defeat.
National, a strike began on December 4. The workers were against the proposals to cancel their right to buy a car every years at the factory price. Islamic anjoman warned against any "Monafaghin" conspiracy. (This term means literally hypocrite" generally applied by fundamentalists to left and liberal Moslems.)
The Minister of Labour and a group came to the factory the workers to end the strike. The workers gave notice that if by December 13, a new proposal was not made. They would resume industrial action. minister, Tavakoli, appeared on natiodenouncing the workers as "profiteers" and "responsible for the black market." The strength of the pasdar units inside the factory was tripled. On December 13, arrests began. Almost jobs. The repressive opened fire on the workers, wounding many and killing at least one.
The only successful strike in this entire period took place in the Skuip factory on August 25. It was a protest against a management that was blatantly cheating the workers in its calculations of their over-time pay.
In this period, the regime of the mullahs was preparing the ground for its plan to normalize the economy and to bring back the capitalists. This was to be capped by new labour laws, around which a fight had been going since the February 1979
"Clergy serves Mammon, badly," in "International Viewpoint, 85, October 28, 1985.