Khomeini's campaign of terror against the left

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demands of the people. according recent murder of £60. few weeks the regime has the 1979 uprising. Onlv in Kurdistan has when the

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THE recent murder of

Moussa Khiabani and other leading Mojahedin members in Teheran, just two days before the anniversary of the uprising that toppled the Shah, is a tragic reminder of the despotic regime which rules Iran today. for the thousands of people who took part in the demonstrations and strikes which finally brought down the government of Premier Bakhtiar on February 11, 1979, the strength, the elation and the hope that they then felt has long since died.

Rising inflation, unemployment at 30% and chronic food shortages are the reality of life in Iran today. In the 16 month old war with Iraq many people have lost both Khomeini family and home and are living in makeshift refugee camps. Food and fuel are rationed to provide for the war effort. Five gallons of petrol can cost up to COST OI

£60.

The government tries to foster and maintain support amongst the urban and rural poor by ensuring efficient distribution of the basic necessities through the local mosques and Islamic committees. At the same time the Islamic Republican Party, now the dominant force in the government, has mounted a systematic campaign to eliminate all opposition. Since summer 1981 some 8,000 people have been executed, among them children and pregnant women. In this purge, the Islamic opposition organisation, the Mojahedin and left wing groups such as Fedayeen Minority, Peykar etc., have suffered tremendous losses. In the past

few weeks the regime has

stepped up their activities to paralyse the opposition groups.

How is it that such a reactionary regime could have survived so far, coming to power as it did on the crest of a mass movement against one despotic and ruthless regime?

Part of the answer must lie in the failure of the left opposition groups to organise and build a base. Even before Khomeini returned from exile to Iran, his future Islamic regime had a base of support built up via the local mosques whose continued functioning under the Shah enabled a level of organisation which was not possible for the left oppos ition groups. They were unable to take the lead in

the 1979 uprising.

After the Shah's downfall

there was, however, a short period when a more democratic atmosphere prevailed. The left failed to understand that prolonging this period was vital for their development and the building of a firm base; that the fight for democratic demands was not a 'bourgeois' diversion away from the real struggle for socialism but a vital and necessary part of that Autonomy Early in 1979 struggles for regional autonomy by the national minorities in Turkomansahra, Khuseztan and Azerbaijan were crushed without heed to the by Thwaites

demands of the people.

Only in Kurdistan

the fighting continued.

The move against the national minorities was followed by moves to rid the country of any vestiges of democracy and return Iran to the dark ages. Factory committees which had sprung up during the antiShah movement were rapidly transformed into Islamic committees; liberal newspapers were closed; the veil became compulsory for women; meetings of left groups were attacked as were people handing ot leaflets and selling political literature.

Instead of interpreting these events as part of a total picture, each attack was seen in isolation and either deplored or ignored Central Motors Council where a sell-out was planned on the wage concessions. This rattled the union leaders so much they moved the meeting from detroit to Chicago.

The UAW members in accordingly. For example, when the newspaper Ayandegan was closed down, some small groups defended press freedom but the rest of the left considered it an unimportant issue.

They thought their task was to defend the toilers not a bourgeois liberal paper.

Similarly.. when compulsory veiling was introduced, and women protested, this was again another bourgeois issue, nothing to do with working class women. The question of the veil and women in general was secondary to the main class struggle.

In November 1980 when the American hostages were seized, the confusion of the left was seen most clearly. The main groups, such as the Fedayeen, embraced the action as genuine anti Imperialism

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