Vol. 80/No. 11 March 21, 2016
Iran vote shows support for nuke deal, political openings
Both major bourgeois political forces in Iran — those associated with President Hassan Rouhani and his “reformist” allies and those associated with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guards — supported the pact and ensured its terms were swiftly implemented.
Candidates backed by Rouhani won at least 85 seats in the 290-member parliament, including control of all 30 delegates from Tehran.
About half the candidates who registered to run, many backed by Rouhani, were disqualified in pre-election rulings by the government’s Guardian Council, which Khamenei controls. It refused to allow the Kurdish United Front to enter the election as a Kurdish party. Nonetheless, three Kurds from different parts of the country did win legislative seats.
The New York Times reported that as many as 20 women were expected to win parliamentary seats, a record for Iran.
Parliament’s powers, however, are limited, as decision-making on key issues remains in the hands of Khamenei.
The results, coupled with the easing of the economic squeeze caused by the sanctions, opens room for workers to practice politics and advance their interests.
Candidates linked with Rouhani also made some gains in elections held the same day to the 88-member clerical Assembly of Experts, which chooses a new Supreme Leader when the current one dies.
“While the government and its supporters clearly won a sweeping victory in the capital, the picture in the rest of the country is much more diffuse,” reported the Times. Khamenei and the Guards — who control the military and key aspects of production and trade — have no intention of yielding political and economic power. This points to the danger of sharp clashes if they feel threatened.
Washington seeks to build on the nuclear deal to deepen collaboration with Tehran, and with Moscow, to influence politics in the broader area and protect its interests. Rouhani, who held various high-level government responsibilities for more than two decades prior to being elected president in June 2013, is open to advancing collaboration for mutual benefit.
In February 1979, oil, rail and other workers in massive mobilizations led a revolution that toppled U.S.-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his repressive regime. Workers organized factory councils, as did farmers and students. Washington lost a bulwark in defense of its interests in the Middle East.
Counterrevolutionary clerical forces led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini organized goon squads to attack revolutionaries and fighting workers and prevent encroachments on capitalist rule.
In September 1980 Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi army, then backed by Washington, attacked Iran. The war raged for several years and many of the most revolutionary-minded workers died fighting to defend the country. The Islamist counterrevolution consolidated its power, pushing the working class off center stage in politics, but the power of the 1979 revolution prevented it from crushing the working class.
To obfuscate the real situation, both Tehran and Washington always try to erase the distinction between the 1979 revolution and the counterrevolutionary developments that followed.
As the counterrevolution made gains, the Revolutionary Guards built a growing industrial empire that has continued to expand, even in the face of imperialist sanctions. They have wide control over oil, construction, transportation, telecommunications and other industries.
The sanctions had a devastating effect on the lives of working people, including loss of jobs, rising living costs and low wages. Shifts reflected by the elections and lifting of sanctions open the door for an easing of the conditions of life and efforts to make more changes.
In mid-January, 28 workers from Khatton Abad Copper Mines were arrested after participating in a demonstration demanding reinstatement of 170 contract workers who had been promised permanent positions. Protests in Iran and internationally led to the release of 23 of them a month later. The fight continues demanding the other five be released and all charges be dropped.
Haft Tapeh sugar company workers, who founded an independent union in 2008, halted work Jan. 30 to demand payment of back wages. Two weeks later they marched to government offices to press their demands, the United Kingdom Trades Union Congress said.
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