Free Noel and Marie

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One of the hure demonstrations through Tehran in recent weeks Black all arms to the Shah!

The Shah of Iran and his imperialist backers, reeling under the growing insurrection against the tyranny, are attempting to unleash all-out war on the masses.

The decisive change last week which converted a long political crisis into an uprising was the spread of political strikes by the workers, a new series of massive demonstrations and the obvious sympathy for the strikers and demonstrators from many of the soldiers.

Panic reforms such as the release of many political prisoners did not pacify but rather intensified the agitation for the Shah's abdication.

In his broadcast on 6 November the dictator said that he had "heard the revolutionary message of the Iranian people" and promised free elections after a new all-military government (under General Azhari) had "restored order"

This amounts to a last desperate attempt to avert his downfall.

That would imply more than the fall of one king.

Licensed agent

The Shah's tyrannical and reactionary regime has for years been the chief licensed agent of British and American imperialism in that strategically crucial region.

Since 1953 the Shah's military strength has been built up by the imperialists through arms sales, military assistance and the formation of the anti-communist CENTO (Central Treaty Organisation).

It was only when the Shah's army was believed to be strong enough to police the region, especially the oil-rich Gulf States, that the Wilson government staged its partial military withdrawal from east of Suez.

The Shah's tyranny has since then served its imperialist masters faithfully. His army has fought the liberation fighters in the feudal sheikdom of Oman.

Trodden down

And with British, French and American supplied arms it has brutally trodden down the rights of the Iranian workers and peasants.

In this way the Shah defends not only the material interests of imperialism-especially the Iranian oil consortium of major imperialist companies led by BP-but also the political stability of a region where the masses are straining to free themselves from tyranny and imperialist domination.

This is why the bloody regime of the "King of Kings" counts among its strongest supporters imperialist chief Jimmy Carter and his lapdogs such as British Foreign Secretary David Owen.

Callaghan, Owen and Defence Minister Mulley unrepentently admit that they collaborate in the Shah's mass murders in order to protect "Western interests".

Weakest link

But over the last two weeks the one-time strong man ally of world capitalism has become its weakest link.

And this change has been brought about by the leading role in the uprising increasingly assumed by the working class.

This latest wave in the tidal surge against the Shah began on Friday 27 October with huge demonstrations in ten towns across Iran.

In Qom, tens of thousands marched with demands for the overthrow of the regime, and set public buildings and offices blazing.

At the end of the day, eight demonstrators had been killed and some wounded.

Over the next two days further demonstrations marched in 32 towns. By 1 November, 100,000 demonstrators were marching through Tehran in militant protest.

But this pattern of events was crucially transformed from the similar developments of recent months. For the first time, the organised strength of the working class was a central, and in fact determining factor.

Civil servants from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance went on strike on 27 October, raising a series of demands to break Iran's economic dependence on imperialism.

This oroun was onlv a small section of the growing strike movement, which has Spread the strikes Reply to IMG ..

LA L also closed down the state-owned bank Melli, the state airline and the major complex of the National Petrochemical Company, with telecommunications workers the latest to bring their industry to a halt.

But even these major actions have all been dwarfed in importance by the strike of oil workers.

There has been sporadic and localised action in the oil-fields for many months, but this has crystallised into a general strike over the last three weeks.

The first phase of this action ended a fortnight ago, when the workers' wage demands were Continued on page 2

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