For Workers Revolution in Iran! • Ownwi E a I• On'l 60W to Omeinil
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WfJRNERI IIIIN(JIJIIR' 25¢ No. 221 :~~~ X-523 15 December 1978 For Workers Revolution In Iran! • ownwi e a I• on'l 60W to omeinil DECE M BER U~A million Iranians streamed into the streets of Teheran on December 10 and II in a mammoth displav of opposition to the bloody dictatorship of Renl Shah Pahlavi. Two days earlier thc regime had reluctantly abandoned its attempt to ban all demonstrations in the capital during the Shi'ite Muslim holy month of M uhar ram. Elsewhere in Iran, however, troops clashed with demonstrators, and a number of protesters were killed in Isla\nn. Opposition kaders had turned Mu hdrr~tm and especially the holiday of \shura (the II th) into a test of strength \\'itr: ttll' ,hah -rhc liftln~ (If the O~;:I(i;l~-.:i~\tiC!11 hJIl in l~hC'~'~;,l \\d d. "h:!rr :-;,,'[h:ick to rhe mihtary govern.... l"'.'. i~ :-: (j~\".i~'1n p /:' \/h.~l:. \\ !-:lL h h~t" ~ln:~,l.;.:c~sstul\~, ~\1~_ \L.~rnp .'!na~~,l\C ft.' f11 r fl'lI to ',Hll tilL" dnll- "(',.:, .<.\ " tint ha, f"l)Cked Iran for r~'\.'r~ thl:r!.l :". \ t1c nc\.t fc\\,' \\cck' \ ,,\cll "',_'''.' tiL' Cltd I..\f t!li: sh(-d"l~S 25- \ l';l r rel,l:!1. Setboun/S!Da Muharram is it commemoration of Off your knees, for workers revolution. Anti-shah demonstrators pray during mullah-led demonstration in Teheran. the death of HLhsein (the legitimate successor of Muhammed according to shah. Despite sporadic street demon the Shi'itesl during the 7th century ci\il shah', troops ran to nearly a thousand had abandoned themselves to religious strations, the economically strategic oil \\ars \\hich di\lded Islam into the two hysteria. performing the traditional self by December 4. workers had been forced to end their great camps of Shia and Sunni. The On December X the government gave flagellation. The anti-shah movement is strike. But the military government's linkage of this period of ritual mourning. not some spontaneous outburst which in. The demonstrations had not ceased authority was badly damaged by a which includes acts of self-flagellation. just happens to have religious spokes and the city remained shut down by a renewal of protests sparked by soldiers to the drive against the shah is another men: rather, Khomeini relies on the general strike. Striking bank clerks and intruding into a - religious shrine in indication of the Islamic fundamental government workers had been joined by organizational network provided by the thollsands of preachers subsidi7ed by Mashhad. After pursuing demonstra ism which dominates the current wave the oil workers who thus deprived the tors into the building, the troops opened' ofdemop~tratinnsagaimt the shah. For regime of \itally needed revenue. The le\ ie, on the bazaar's merchants. Khomeini continues to press his call fire, killing and wounding several the past year Muslim preachers (mul shah not only allowed the mass marches persons. Three ayatollahs then issued a lahs) headed by Ayatollah (religiolls to take place but renounced any attempt for the replacement of the Pahlavi monarchy by an "Islamic republic" from call for' a national general strike on chief) Khomeini have constituted the to force the oil strikers back to work. November 26 because, "The holy shrine political leadership of the opposition Karim Sanjabi, leader of the bourgeois exile in France. The bourgeois liberal National Front, the mullahs' junior has been damaged and subjected to movement. liberal National Front. had already been sacrilege and its holy cOUityard made released from jail two days earlier. partner, has reiterated its refusal to join The streets ofTeheran. bedecked with any coalition government with the shah. the scene of shooting" (UPI dispatch, funereal black flags and plunged into The two mass marches provided November 25). As many as a million dramatic evidence of the organizational As a result his abdication is now widely darkness as a result of a power workers' seen as the only alternative to bloody people reportedly turned Qut in strike. witnessed the chilling spectacle of control of the religious hierarchy. On Mashhad to heed the ayatollahs' call. the 10th. contingents reportedly sat chaos. The bourgeois press is filled with protesters clad in ceremonial white speculation about possible "transitional By the end of November it was clear robes and chanting "allah akbar" ("god down, stood up, stopped and started at that the working-class strike wave had the direction of the parade marshals. governments." a regency or rule by a is great") being mowed down by military junta. been only temporarily slowed, not machine guns. Equally grotesque was the Nearly all of the women participants crushed. Strikes by bank and govern shah's claim on December 2, thefirstday wore the chador, the head-to-foot black Breakdown of Military Rule ment employees alternate with work cloak/veil prescribed by Islam. On the of protests. that several hours of this In mid-November it seemed for a slowdowns. The battered Iranian econ slaughter had produced only seven following day the marchers. once again omy now suffers from a currency numbering a million or more. were less moment as if the turn to direct rule by deaths. The actual casualties from the the general staff might save the butcher continued on pafie fO demonstrators' suicidal advances on the well drilled. But this was because some tiftlA~4 .',: "'''''''' Teng's China Why a Spartacist Appeals to Revolutionary League Imperialist Constituent Gets Assembly? SWP's Goat Bankers 6: ~- ...._- - Election of Bob Mandel Confirmed ILWU Ranks Stop Bureaucrats' Dirty Tricks OAKLAND, December 7~An attempt memhershi['1 at the follo\\ing local Local 6 leadership has seen its authority to oust Militant Caucus leader Bob meeting. \vith every Local 6 \\ orker at severely eroded since a bitter defeat in Mandel from the General Executiw K:\ C signing a statement opposing the the 1976 contract strike. The failure of Board of Local 6 of the International censure and supporting the militant Local 6 president Keith Eickman to Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's tactics used in the strike. honor all Teamster picket lines during Union (ILWU) collapsed today, under There were thus grounds for concern the recently defeated supermarket the pressure of an aroused union when it was learned that it was the same strike -despite demands from ILWU membership. The official Balloting LeRoy King who now held the keys to members who were honoring the lines Committee completed a hotly contested the ballot box, stored for some days at was an ominous sign to the membership recount and confirmed that Mandel had the union hall. Even Vern Bown~a as the union faces its own contract indeed been re-elected for a third term to well-known supporter of the Maoist struggle. It is widely perceived in the the warehouse local's executive board in Revolutionary Communist Party and a local that the bosses will wage the same an election held November 16. bitter foe of the Militant Caucus~later kind of frontal offensive against ILWU The fact that an honest recount took admitted in his capacity as head of the warehousemen that was mounted place was testimony to the authority Halloting Committee that after the against the Teamsters and that a hard which Mandel and the Militant Caucus original count no real steps were taken fought strike may be required even to have won in the ranks of the union, and to secure the ballots. But in slightly preserve existing union standards. to a show of support that headed off the more than two days the Caucus got Many local leaders have responded to real threat of bureaucratic "dirty tricks" about 150 Local 6 members, including this situation by simply jwnping ship. in the recount process. The background at least 1..\ stewards and three GEB Twelve out of 19 GEB members in the to the disputed recount made it clear members. to sign a petition which read: San Francisco and East Bay division of that a section of the union bureaucracy "Ikcause of the dubious circumstances the warehousemen's section of the union was once again attempting to rid itself of surrounding the Mandel/Dalton re chose not to even run for re-election. count and in order to protect the class-struggle opposition in the union's integrity of the Local 6 election ['1rocess. Also symptomatic of the collapse at the leading body. we call on Sister Dalton to withdra\\ her top was the recent resignation of well According to the account in the latest challcn1!e and on the Secretar\, entrenched business agent Evelyn John "Warehouse Militant" (4 December), lreasu;er and Flection Board to certit\ son, who left the union and went directly the alread\' published totals as final."- puhlished by the Militant Caucus. O\Tr to the companies, taking a manage i\1andel had won the tenth and last spot In an inteniew with I1T, Mandel ment job at a company she previously in the East Bay division of Local6 in the dcscribed the wa\e of suppcirt that bargained with. :\O\ember 16 balloting, with 295 votes, de\eloped: Faced with this shakiness at the top of "\\'e knO\\ that members from more edging out local leadership loyalist their union at a time when hard-fought than ::'0 II.\\T-organiled houses ['1ro battles are on the agenda, the local ranks Louise Dalton by one vote. tested to the union leadership once they WV Photo responded in a generally conservative Mandel told WV that he approached heard ahout the planned recount. I've Bob Mandel fashion in the recent election.