A history of witch-hunts

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Political .pp.6-7 Fighting •pp.4-5 Leyland • p.11 Eritrea (part 3) . p.3 Deserting soldiers carried shoulder high in Tehran Tł hand them back to the arsenals they came from.

But it clear that Khomeini's "Islamic Republic" is to be a nationalistic capitalist regime in which the repressive apparatus will be preserved as far as possible and rebuilt, and which as such is incapable of fulfilling the objective needs of the Iranian masses.

Disarm

In its moves to disarm, demobilise, and renew the exploitation of the workers of Iran, Khomeini's regime will however receive the full support of the Stalinists of the Tudeh (Communist) Party.

They have declared Khomeini's movement to be "wholly progressive" , and will clearly attempt to persuade the striking oil workers, whom they claim to lead, to follow any call by Bazargan for a return to work.

Yet it is precisely at this point-where the machinery of the capitalist state is at its weakest, and the mass movement at its strongest-that a bold call for a programme of independent proletarian policies is essential.

The ad-hoc armed militias must be organised into formal bodies on the basis of workplaces and working class districts-and take over the task of policing the cities.

Disband army

On this basis the militias must demand the complete disbanding of the standing army and the police force.

And from these militias for the NUPE claim No moves left-Bakhtiar from the factories, the oilfields and from every working class body delegates must be elected to workers' councils or soviets in each area, which must organise the occupation of major capitalist holdings and banks as part of the fight to force their nationalisation without compensation under workers' management.

The demands of the poor peasantry for land reform; of Iranian women for equal rights; of the oppressed minority nationalities for their right to determine their own future; of the working class for a programme of public works to end unemployment and for wages protected against inflation must all be taken up through such bodies, as part of the fight for a workers and peasants government.

the right of free speech and assembly, free trade unions and the election of a democratic constituent assembly.

Each of these demands will show the conflict of interest between the workers and peasants of Iran and their pro-capitalist Islamic "leaders".

As such each of them must sharply pose the urgent necessity for the construction of a revolutionary party in Iran as the only means whereby the revolutionary gains of. February 1979 can be taken forward and consolidated in the overthrow of Iranian capitalism and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

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Free speech There must be a fight for