06.09.2006
Iran's workers need support
Iran's president Ahmadinejad is a defender of neoliberalism, says Yassamine Mather
On September 1, the day before Kofi Anan arrived in Tehran for discussions on Iran's nuclear programme, around a thousand people gathered in Khavaran graveyard to mark the 18th anniversary of the death of thousands of socialist and communist political prisoners who were executed by Iran's islamic regime in September 1988, at the end of the Iran-Iraq war. These families were also commemorating the tens of thousands of Iranian communists killed since political islam took power in 1979. In Khavaran cemetery, encircled by security forces, they showed their defiance by singing the Internationale as a tribute to their loved ones.
The mass killing of leftwing political prisoners was not simply an act of madness by shia clerics, enraged by a humiliating defeat. 1988 marked the beginning of the onslaught of neoliberal capital, albeit with an islamic face. It was the beginning of a new era, where IMF loans dictated levels of privatisation, where mass unemployment, casualisation and the denial of basic workers' rights became the order of the day and the contradictory yet cosy coexistence of global capital and shia islam became a reality. It saw the introduction of devastating neoliberal economic policies that are as valid today as they were during the presidencies of Hashemi Rafsanjani or Mohammad Khatami.
In fact despite his anti-US slogans, the current Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has presided over one of the most pro-capitalist governments Iran has seen since 1988. An anti-Zionist, Israeli-born radical once told me that the Israeli Labour Party could get away with anti-Palestinian policies that no rightwing Likud government would dare propose. The same is true of Iran's 'anti-American' president. The neoliberal policies introduced during his presidency are far more wide-ranging and ruthless than anything Khatami or Rafsanjani could have envisaged.
Since 1988, when Iran accepted IMF loans, every spring the IMF sends a commission to Tehran to verify the country's compliance with global capital's requirements. Every year by mid-summer the Central Bank and the government propose further privatisation in the industrial, banking and service sectors, bringing further misery to tens of thousand of workers, victims of subsequent job losses and casualisation. However, the level and scope of privatisation approved this July is so serious that Iran's supreme leader, ayatollah Khamenei, had to 're-interpret' article 4 of the islamic republic's constitution. The government plans to sell off 80% of its stake in a range of state-run industrial companies in the banking, media, transportation and mineral sectors, reversing one of its own economic 'principles', as declared in the constitution.
In fact those who have any doubt about the economic trajectory of Iran's government only need study its reply to the UN in late August 2006 on the issue of 'nuclear enrichment'. Most of the 100 or so points raised in the document read more like a begging letter, calling for a lifting of US sanctions to allow US multinationals the kind of investment enjoyed by European, Japanese and Chinese companies in Iran. For all its anti-US rhetoric, in this reply the Iranian government went out of its way to explain why the US does not need 'regime change' to secure the interests of capital in Iran.
Of course, the Iranian president has always advertised his devotion to the 'return of Mahdi' - the 12th shia imam who is said to have gone into 'occlusion' in the 9th century, when he was a child. His return will be preceded by war, chaos and bloodshed. Some have argued that the Iranian president's obsession with the 'return' of this imam leads him to embark on destructive policies - whether related to war, social injustice or capitalist barbarism. Others believe that an ideological state whose economic policies are based on the interests of 'bazaar' (market) economics has no reason to oppose the ravages of neoliberal capital.
Whatever the religious or practical explanations of the Iranian government's economic policies, life for the majority of the Iranian people is getting worse day by day, as the islamic regime brings out new legislation to defend the owners of private capital. In August 2006, Ahmadinejad's government unveiled yet another amendment to Iran's draconian labour legislation. According to the new proposals, challenged by workers in strikes and protests throughout the country, the government's 'islamic' legislation legitimates sackings and low pay for hundreds of thousand of contract workers and gives unscrupulous capitalists a free hand to sack permanent workers and replace them with contract worker the same day!
There have already been two major strikes on this issue, as well as dozens of less prominent workers' protests:
l Around 3,000 workers are involved in strikes and protests at the Iran Khodro diesel factory. They were informed that managers have reduced their salaries by between 30,000 and 60,000 tomans a month. According to the ISNA news agency, on the first day of the protests one of the workers tried unsuccessfully to commit suicide by hanging himself. One of the workers told the agency that management are now threatening the workers with dismissal unless they sign written guarantees.
l Workers of the ParRiss factory went on strike on August 19 in protest at conditions imposed by management regarding the renewal of contracts, of which there are three types: one year, three months and one month. The employer's decision regarding the length of each contract depends on the submissiveness of each worker. Those who did not oppose the attack on working conditions will be rewarded accordingly. Workers were told they will only have jobs if they sign an agreement with the employer, guaranteeing that they will never again oppose working conditions, under penalty of a two-million-toman ($2,000) fine. Following an eight-day protest, on August 26 military and security forces equipped with tear gas and batons attacked the protesting workers and their families.
Dr Raeess Dana, economics lecturer at Tehran University, summarises the conditions of the proposed new law in this way: "The draft 'ratification' to the labour legislation contradicts all the claims of the ninth government [of the islamic republic regime - ie, Ahmadinejad and his cabinet] regarding social justice. If this draft is passed, workers' lives will be totally destroyed "¦ Since the ninth government has come to power there is no sign of any attempt at seeking justice for the working class. Rarely in the last 27 years have workers faced such hardship and extortion. Tyrannical market relations and the destructive policies of capitalists have reduced Iranian workers to worthless commodities and today we see that they have no protection. The working class is being destroyed by the pressures and difficulties it faces ... I am saying this so that Mr Ahmadinejad, who always boasts about his humble beginnings, realises how his government and his minister of labour deals with the workers."
As we approach the September 23 anti-war demonstration, it is timely to remind everyone that the islamic regime in power in Iran is part of world capitalism - an enemy of the working class, presiding over a repressive state. It has killed thousands of socialists and communists, imprisoned workers and repressed women, while following the instructions of the IMF and the World Bank. The gap between rich and poor has reached a critical point, the contradiction between the rulers and the people is increasing and militarist Mahdi worshippers in the government are pursuing incredibly dangerous policies.
Of course no-one believes imperialist claims of defending the Iranian people, spreading democracy in the region or supporting Iranian women. Such lies and the attempts to justify US war efforts have only one consequence - strengthening the regime's grip on power inside Iran. Both the neo-conservative rulers of the United States and the religious conservatives in Iran compete in creating a warlike atmosphere where each vies with the other in their resort to racism and nationalism, while pursuing religious wars and using their respective god to fool ordinary people and justify militarism.
However, there is another side to this coin: capital's rationale - the need to control the market and natural resources, as well as the need for political and economic domination, have created the conditions for global conflict and military intervention. For all their services to neoliberal capital, the current rulers of Iran have not managed to convince the Bush administration that they can deliver capitalism's interests better than any other alternative.
It is yet to be seen if the US-UK commitment to regime change in Iran will lead to another bloody war. Several EU states (not to mention anyone with an iota of intelligence) has already told both governments time and time again that the current regime in Iran represents the best hope for the future of capitalism in that country. It is yet to be seen if they heed that advice.
That is why the anti-war movement must join forces with its true allies - the Iranian working class - in a genuine movement against war, neoliberal capital and nuclear proliferation. In such a struggle the capitalist fundamentalists in power in Tehran cannot be considered allies.