Vol. 81/No. 24      June 19, 2017

 

Iran vote: Working people seek political space, economic relief

 
Despite predictions that the May 19 presidential election in Iran would be close, incumbent Hassan Rouhani won by a wide margin, along with candidates associated with him on the ballot. High turnout meant voting had to be extended three times, lasting until midnight.

Rouhani presented himself as a reformer dedicated to more social freedom and a staunch defender of the deal he negotiated and Tehran signed with Washington. That agreement lifted some of the sanctions against Iran that have bled the country’s capitalist economy, hitting working people the hardest.

Rouhani defeated his main opponent, Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi, the candidate backed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. Rouhani took 57 percent of the vote to Raisi’s 38 percent.

Candidates on the Rouhani-backed list won power in city council elections in most major cities reporting results May 21. Some 127,600 municipal council seats were up for election across the country. His slate swept all 21 council seats in Tehran, where conservatives have held power for the last 14 years and won decisive majorities in the country’s six largest cities.

Both candidates support the nuclear deal with Washington that lifted some of the sanctions in exchange for a slowdown in the development of Tehran’s nuclear program. Rouhani pledged he would end all of the remaining sanctions and ensure there was no return to the double-digit inflation experienced under the pre-deal full sanction regime imposed by Washington and the EU.

Raisi has been touted as a successor to Khamenei. Decision-making on many key political and economic issues remains in the hands of the supreme leader. The Guardian Council, which Khamenei controls, determines who can run for office.

Raisi and Rouhani are from different wings of Iran’s cleric-dominated bourgeois regime. These forces led a counterrevolution in the 1980s, following the mass revolutionary upsurge that toppled Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi, the Washington-backed dictator, in 1979. They sought to turn back the struggles of working people and their allies and prevent any encroachment on capitalist rule. To obscure the conflicting class interests involved, both Tehran and Washington present the counterrevolution as in continuity with the 1979 uprising.

Devastating conditions for workers

The impact of the world capitalist crisis — on top of decades of sanctions imposed by Washington and its allies — have had a devastating impact on working people. Easing this economic squeeze opens room for workers to practice politics and advance their interests.

Raisi charged Rouhani was responsible for failing to improve living standards after the easing of sanctions. Inflation has dropped from 40 percent to under 10 percent, but working and living conditions remain difficult for workers across the country. Unemployment remains officially at 12.7 percent, but the Ministry of Labor counts everyone who works one hour a week as employed. Youth unemployment stands at almost 30 percent.

Rouhani visited the Zemestanyurt mine, near the city of Azadshahr, on May 7, after at least 42 miners were killed in a gas explosion. Miners pounded on his car in protest at unsafe working conditions. In February residents in oil-rich Ahvaz protested in the streets after days of electricity blackouts. Skirmishes like these reflect the fact that the counterrevolution of the 1980s did not crush the working class.

During the campaign Raisi proposed tripling the roughly $14 monthly cash subsidies millions receive that cut the cost of basic necessities. Last year parliament was forced to suspend plans to cut 24 million people off the subsidy.

Clash over Kurdish language rights

During one of three live TV debates featuring all six approved candidates, Rouhani and Raisi clashed over language rights for Kurds, an oppressed nationality. Denied a homeland by the imperialist victors of World War I, 30 million Kurds are spread across Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. As the imperialist order begins to unravel across the Middle East, they have made advances in their struggle for national rights, especially in Syria and Iraq.

Leaders of some Kurdish exile groups called for a boycott of the elections. But over half of Kurds voted, a majority for Rouhani.

After his first election in 2013, Rouhani’s government began to implement constitutional provisions for the teaching of the Kurdish language. Raisi denounced Rouhani for claiming credit for rights guaranteed by the constitution. Raisi campaigned hard in Kurdish areas, seeking to use high unemployment in the region to call for Rouhani’s defeat.

As unresolved conflicts across the Mideast continue to unwind, the Iranian ruling class has carved out an arc of influence among Shiite political forces from the Pakistan border through Iraq and Syria to Lebanon, something that Washington is keen to contain. How to maintain Tehran’s growing influence while at the same time pressing Washington to end all sanctions was a political football during the campaign.

President Donald Trump is seeking to strictly enforce Washington’s nuclear deal with Tehran, claiming Iranian authorities have not lived “up to the spirit” of the agreement, though he has given no indication he intends to end it. Washington has also imposed some new sanctions May 17, targeting individuals the White House says are connected to Iran’s ballistic missile program. Meanwhile, Boeing and other U.S. companies have struck deals with Tehran.

As the election results rolled in, Trump was meeting with leaders of Saudi Arabia and other Sunni monarchies in Riyadh. “All nations of conscience must work together to isolate Iran,” he told them.

Catharina Tirsén contributed to this article.  
 
 
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