Iranian Strikers from P.1

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BRITISHMADE ARTIAL I END CHIEFTAIN TANKS •, IRA! MART MARTIAL LAW British Chieftain tanks are now the main prop of this bloody dictator conceded by government.

But only a few days later the strike resumed, this time on an openly political basis. The workers are demanding an end to martial law and the release of all political prisoners.

Troops have been sent in to work the oil fields, but production has already been reduced to under one-third of normal, before the strike spread to other oil fields and refineries beyond the starting point of Khuzestan province.

Against this background, the mass movement swept forward on Sunday 5 November into a virtual state of insurrection, centred on Tehran.

Burned down

Thousands of youth stormed the centre of the city, attacking and occupying government buildings, and burning down major symbols of imperialist domination of Iran.

Alongside the blazing hotels and banks, the British and US embassies were a major target for the revolutionary violence of the masses.

Although Carter's outpost was heavily defended, troops made no attempt to intervene as the British embassy was set on fire.

The development of the struggles in Iran has made it absolutely clear that the masses have not been engaged in some reactionary 'religious' movement.

The religious leaders within the country became discredited with their 'followers' weeks ago, when they attempted to calm down the earlier violence of the opposition.

• Now only Ayatollah Khomeini retains his prestige, by virtue of the consistently anti-government propaganda he, has broadcast from exile.

A vacuum of leadership emerged which the Islamic leaders hoped to fill.

Their ambitions met very little serious challenge from either the bourgeois opposition or from the Stalinists.

The bourgeois National Front is the remnant of the party of prime minister Mossadegh, whose government was overthrown by the CIA-organised coup which brought the Shah to power in 1953.

END IN IN IRANI Consistently outpaced by the recent struggles, the National Front leadership was denied a platform. for its political positions by the masses as long ago as September.

Far from looking to such opportunists for guidance, workers have instead increasingly taken the organisation of the struggles into their own hands.

The Communist Party of Iran-the Tudeh Party-has not of course been involved in these actions.

'Broad-based'

The main emphasis of the Stalinists has been on the formation of a broadbased' all-class alliance to replace the Shah's dictatorship peacefully with 'democratic' government.

Such a forlorn attempt at counter-revolutionary strategy has directly served the needs of the Stalinist leadership in the neighbouring Soviet Union.

Only last Friday, Pravda came out with an attack on the opponents of the Shah and declared that Khomeini could expect no support from the Soviet Union. AL LAY For the Kremlin (and also Peking) the threat of a revolutionary overthrow of the Shah is a terrifying prospect-one which they are, for their different purposes, as eager to avoid as the US imperialists and the British Labour leaders.

The oppressed masses of Iran have in the last few weeks shown their courage, confidence, growing consciousness of their own needs, and spontaneous rejection of opportunist would-be "leaders"

But this vast, largely spontaneous struggle has not yet built the organisations and leadership which are necessary to avert its defeat in the long run.

Workers have in some cases already occupied factories during their strikes and set up forms of factory committees.

These will need to be linked and extended into Soviets of workers, peasants, students and soldier representatives.

• Workers militia As the state forces continue to gun down unarmed demonstrators and use military force against strikers, one of the foremost tasks of such bodies must be to organise armed workers and peasants' militia, •drawn from the factories and oil installations, from working class communities, from the workers on the land, and from the universities.

Only when the rank and file of the army sees that the working class is seriously organising the struggle for power will the necessary mass desertions and mutinies take place, and create the conditions to topple the hated dictatorship once and for all.

Independent

As the power of the Shah collapses the oppressed classes must substitute their advance their independent UWIL interests.

At the same time as these organs of revolutionary power are being built it is necessary for the mass movement to bring to the forefront basic democratic demands.

The self-appointed "democratic" leaders will, of course, not hesitate to sell out these demands if they see a way to compromise themselves into a share of power.

Constituent assembly The most important of these demands are for free elections on universal suffrage to a constituent assembly, the release of all political prisoners, the ending of martial law and self-determination for the national minorities such as the Kurds-who have already in the demonstrations of the past month shown their strong desire for national rights.

But the basic issue at stake now in Iran is state power.

For that issue to be resolved in the interests of the masses and not of capitalism and its bloody. agents, the building of a revolutionary party is necessary to lead the Iranian masses on the path of permanent revolution.

It is now the pressing duty of the workers' movement throughout the world to give every possible material and political assistance to the Iranian masses in defending the gains they make.

Black supplies

In Britain in particular this means stepping up the campaign to throw out the government leaders who back up the Shah's crumbling authority.

It also means mounting an urgent campaign to black supplies needed by the Shah.

The TGWU and other unions in transport and the docks must organise the identification and blacking of cargoes, especially arms and ammunition cargoes, bound for Iran. We have received news that Marie McMahon, a leading supporter of the Murrays Defence Committee in the Irish Republic has lost her appeal against a conviction in connection with her defence activities while the Murrays were under sentence of death.

She will now have to serve a seven-day sentence received at the time.

Marie has been subjected to endless harassment for her efforts in defence of Noel, Marie and others.

She has only recently been acquitted after an attempt by police to repay her for her defence of prostitutes subjected to police harassment.

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CP leader Berlinguer breaking through and round the bureaucrats' .control of PaE Chinese and Vietnamese troops clashed on the border between the two countries last week, leaving

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IN IRANT' HOTO: Mark Rusher, IFL

Jail for lefence leader

captiveto Moscow policies