THE IRANIAN REVOLUTION is in danger. The regime has proved chronically incapable of economy since the overthrow Shah. faced ment, inflation, black market and severe shortages.
Hundreds of thousands of people have emigrated to the cities from the countryside and the war zones.
Republican Party (IRP) regime, faced with economic collapse and political chaos, has reacted with a vicious wave of repression against all its opponents.
Hundreds of people are being executed CYCly day. The so-called guards', the quasi-fascist hezbollahis gangs and the Islamic courts are responsible for an escalating bloodbath fighting to preserve the gains of the revolution.
Crisis deepens Last week the State Prosector annonced new measures under which anyone arrested for 'causing unrest' will be executed the same day, on the evidence of two under twelve will be eligible for execution; and those arrested wounds government forces will inflicted' before death. This repression is particularly aimed at the main force of the armed opposition, the left wing Mujahadin.
Many people who supported the mighty Iranian revolution against the Shah will be appalled by these developments. government of Khomeini has shown that it has no solution to the problems of the masses. As the crisis deepens, the repression gets worse.
How has the Iranian revolution reached this apparent impasse?
Khomeini stabilising the the The masses are ot cards rising unemployLa booming potential.
The Islamic In 'revolutionary ed SUCCI against all those political witnesses; children after fighting 'have further wounds other.
The 'Islamic' More and more people are taking up arms against the Khomeini regime MUSU oruroune ane weesorede mobilisations of the masses seen anywhere in mne world in lne bost-war penoa. racea witn revolutionary activity of army one or tne bigges! equipped since the war - collapsed like a pack Given the extent of the mobilisation, and une onan s allance with Western, American, imperialism the revolution had a tremendous anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist Restabilise In the year following the revolution, the self • activity and self-organisation of the masses increase• oy icars and bounds strikes, demonstrations and the formation of workers committees - shoras tories. But the working class lacked the ability to impose its own rule.
the aftermath of the revolution, Shah's governing apparatus — the army high command, the SAVAK secret police and the state bureaucracy — was crushed. This deprivthe Hust powerful secuulis bourgeoisie (based on big industry and links with the multinationals) of an instrument to restabilise their rule.
But the lack of a powerful labour movement, and the absence of a high level of class consciousness among the Iranian workers acted as an obstacle to the working class achieving independence from 'Islamic' politicians.
The governments which came to office after me r anenceenecnace beu ween the mullahs and other Islamic fundamentalists on the one hand, and sections of small capitalists, merchants ana the bazaar on the Politicians like the first prime Bazargan represented this section of the small capitalists who had fared badly under the Shah. Their project was to reconstruct a capitalism in Iran which would favour their class.
But it nas proved impossible to stabilise capitalism in Iran on such a basis While they Mave attempted to play a Bonapartist role between the major classes, they have had to fight off both the demands of millions, the Cano besT especially There welc in the facthe of the bourgeois and minister in the para-military bazaar.
class to impose its mained implacably massive forces.
ticular its effects Egypt balus cuv Monarchist guerrillas on motor-bikes wait in the wings the working class and the efforts of the 'liberal' bourgeoisie who want to reconstruct capitalism on a pro-imperialist basis.
The decisive power has, however, remained hands of the mullahs because thet possess an apparatus which links together their forces, the mosque and For at least 18 months after the fall of the Shah this alliance was able to keep a decisive base among the working masses.
Despite the failure of the Iranian working ruc machausu e hostile to the regime. The revolution deprived them of their major policeman in the region — the Shah's The Iranian revolution continued to be a grave destabilising factor in the region, in parwere felt in countries where militant Islam threatened tion of the youth.
The the bloc with former they regard as the jects of this bourgeois politician. Khomeini Second, their working masses their social and political needs.
like th workers' youth. In no sense are they the advanced secopposition to the IRP represented by the Mujahadin. There are in: central problems with their strategy.
First they have entered into a governmentai presiacll banl-saul. "legitimate' President o Iran. This has now led to a 'government in ex.
with Bani-Sadr as President. Such a bla avolas une quesuon or lne class macpenache of the workers and ties the resistance to the prostrategy of bombings and military confrontations is one which leaves the spectators, and tais le mobilise them around a programme to mee This failure does a dis-service to the task of preparing to replace the present regime with a government. Moreover it leaves the masses ill-equipped to deal with a right wing o: pro imperialist coup - which could only be Nevertheless whatever our criticism of the Mujahadin we in no way equate their errors with the criminal acts of the IRP regime. In fact the terror tactics of the Mujahadin are precisel! a response to the Khomeini wave of repression The workers of Iran have not been defeatec Their potential power re mains immense. In some areas the old shora: remain intact, even if in the guise of 'Islamic But defence of the revolution cannot be in Consel with detense oi ine working class must prepare the conditions tor removing this regime In our view the best way of preparing fo: this is by creating a broad front committed te mass action in defence of democratic rights against the repression. This is also the best way to prepare to oppose the invitable efforts oi the monarchist forces to play their hand. Unde: these circumstances all the anti-monarchis: forces should unite on similar principles.
But today unless the working class asserts itself against the Islamic repression, it will be incapable of asserting its own class interests.
The struggle for the independence of the working class should proceed through the crea which mobilise the workers, but which break with bourgeois polit:
Eventually this process must be expressed through the creation of a political party to represent the Iranian maste:
the repression continues in 1. socialists in Britain should step up ther actin in defence of the persecuted Iraniar e:: = == Page?