1993 report: Iran seeks more influence in region

Political space opens for workers in Iran

The Militant July 26, 1993

By Greg Rosenberg

Excerpt:

….Rafsanjani's victory indicates that the government will deepen the course it's been on for the past several years of becoming more a part of the world capitalist system, said Shirvani. The bourgeoisie has pretty much consolidated its power over the petty bourgeois currents — the Islamic radicals, as they are sometimes called here.

The drive to integrate Iran more into the world capitalist market has included reductions in subsidies for food and other necessities. and the privatization of many nationalized industries, said Shirvani. In some cases, the state-owned factories and nationalized plants are divided up and the identity of the new owners kept secret, leading to clashes between workers and the bosses.

Inflation is now at 40 percent and unemployment is growing, stated Shirvani. When the subsidy for milk was cut recently, prices increased from 7 cents a bottle to 12 cents. Working people across Iran were outraged. In Tabriz, a boycott was organized and in Isfahan demonstrations occurred. After only a few days, the government dropped the price down to 9 cents a bottle.

"There is also a tug of war over the land question." said Shirvani. During the 1979 revolution, peasants, including some who had recently arrived in the cities, took over plots of land in order to build houses. In recent years, however, landowners have demanded that these working people get off their property. " You don't have ownership," they say. But. said Shirvani, since people feel that the revolution has given them the right to a piece of land to build a house on,

"this is provoking a struggle."

Last year, major riots shook Mashad and several other cities in opposition to the land-owners' demands. Some buildings were burned down, and nine police were reported killed. In the absence of any working-class leadership, almost 24 percent of those voting cast ballots for Ahmad Tavakkoli in the presidential elections. Tavakkoli is a former labor minister who now edits the economic section of Tehran's right-wing daily Resalat. His campaign attacked Rafsanjani's "economic reform " measures.

"Tavakkoli is not a very popular person in Iran " explained Shirvani. "He was the minister of labor who presided over the dissolution of the shoras in the early 1980s." The shoras were the workers and peasants councils that came out o f the 1979 revolution.

Events like these show that disaffection with the regime exists in spite of Rafsanjani's victory in the election.

Many people in Iran are also dissatisfied with the many restrictions imposed on women under Iranian law. At the book fair, said Shirvani. there were continuous announcements reminding women to "observe the Islamic veil." This requires women to be covered from ankle to wrist and to cover their heads with a veil at all times when they are out in public. On June 22, more than 800 women were arrested for violations o f the dress code.

In Iran, unlike in Saudi Arabia, women are allowed to hold all kinds of jobs from taxi driver to technician to head librarian. But two young women cannot go for a walk together to the beach.

The main thing to understand is that it is not a question of whether the veil is good or bad. said Shirvani. "It's about a woman's right to choose whether to wear it or not." Many women in Muslim families would still choose to wear the veil. During the shah's time, under a decree o f "modernizing" Iran, women often had their veils forcibly stripped off in public by the police. After the revolution, the government tried to impose a decree that required women to wear the veil. But under the impact of spontaneous protests, the regime retreated. "The right to choose was only lost when the capitalist rulers in Iran succeeded in pushing workers out of the center stage of politics." said Shirvani. "The fight over women's rights is not only about women, it's about the ability working people to develop a program that defends women's rights, peasants, and oppressed nationalities."

Iran seeks more influence in region

A trip to Baku. Azerbaijan, followed the book fair. "The conditions of the world depression are impacting the central Asian republics," said Shirvani. Both Turkey and Iran are vying for economic and political influence in this region, which is composed of Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan. Kyrgyzstan. Turkmenistan. Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan.Washington hopes that Turkey, which it considers a close ally, will be able to gain the upper hand. The U.S. rulers have grown increasingly hostile to Iran's at tempts to win greater influence through increased trade and economic connections. In fact, the Clinton administration has put new vigor into the campaign to isolate Iran. It is now trying to get the rulers in London. Tokyo. Paris, and Bonn to cut off loans, investments, and arms sales to the Tehran government, and is accusing the Iranian regime of secretly developing or buying nuclear weapons.

"In Baku." Shirvani reported, "Pathfinder representatives were able to find some important documents for the forthcoming book To See the Dawn: Baku. 1920— First Congress of the Peoples o f the East. "These documents had never before been made available.

The Baku Congress, organized by the revolutionary Communist International in 1920, "was the first meeting of the communist movement to include representatives of both the working-class vanguard from the capitalist countries and the oppressed of the East, many of whom lived in precapitalist societies." said Shirvani. "They met on the basis of equality and mapped out a program struggle for the emancipation of all, not just the peoples of the East.

"Russian revolutionary leader V.I. Lenin had argued that the awakening of the peoples of the East meant a giant new ally for the working class in Europe," continued Shirvani. One of the documents from the Baku Congress that was given to Pathfinder during the recent trip is a declaration entitled. "Workers of Armenia have Cemented an Alliance with Toiling Azerbaijan."

These documents, said Shirvani, are especially important today. The governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought a five-year war over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which sits within Azerbaijan's borders but whose population is majority Armenian. In spite of the offensive being carried out by Armenian forces against some Azerbaijani towns, there was no war hysteria in Baku, said Shirvani. But there were also no clear expressions of solidarity with the toilers o f Armenia.

The 1920 statement of the Armenian working people reads as living history. It shows the only way forward — the solidarity of workers and peasants — and it explains how the capitalist rulers will use the conflicts in the region to make further gains at the expense of the toilers.

The warm reception accorded Pathfinder included meetings at the Academy of Sciences. the State Library, and the country's main book distribution agency. Pathfinder representatives were surprised to learn that plans had been made for a two-volume book on the Baku Congress to be published in Azerbaijan. However it was shelved following the disintegration o f the Soviet Union. Those inside Azerbaijan who had been working on this project were amazed to learn of Pathfinder's plans.

"Things are opening up in Iran and throughout the region, both for trade and for political ideas." said Shirvani. This is not exceptional. The openness to communist ideas and the ability to get these ideas around has rapidly spread throughout the world.

One item in the Pathfinder visitors book reads simply. "Compliments! Your stall lives up to its name."

Full:

http://themilitant.com/1993/5726/MIL5726.pdf