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MUNIST:

“United front needed for full liberation

On January 13, amidst the
‘rapidly-developing events in Iran,
the Tudeh Party’s (Iran’s Com-
munist Party) Central Committee
issued a declaration outlining its
proposals in the liberation strug-
gle underway. Below are the main
points it contained:

ere ie

By forming a United Front for
the national liberation of Iran, by
intensifying the national libera-
tion movement and the all-round
preparation of the armed struggle
we will repel the assaults of im-
perialism as well as of the anti-
national and anti-democratic re-
gime...

This heroic and historic strug-
gle not only threatens the rotten
imperial regime of Iran but also
one of the most important ter-
ritories of imperialist robbery and
aggression in the world. The
bloodthirsty imperialists under
the leadership of aggressive and
thievish U.S. imperialism deprive
our country yearly of national

wealth amounting to dozens of .

billions of dollar and have trans-
formed our country into one of
their largest aggressive military
bases against the peace-loving
peoples of the region ...

The Shah’s regime and im-
perialism have imposed upon the
peoples of our homeland a bloody
civil war. Therefore it is the task

- of all patriots to repel the attacks

of the enemy on this battlefield,
too, with the same immovable
will as always by an all-round
preparation of the armed struggle
and by its coordination with all
other forms of the political strug-

e and to prepare themselves for
re decisive offensive.

e Tudeh-Party is of the opin-
jon that the development of the
situation in our country has
reached a stage at present due to
which, considering the armed and
criminal assault of the Shah’s re-

‘me and of imperialism against
the people, the preparation of the
armed struggle of the people will
be the most important and most
urgent task of all forces combat-
ing the regime and imperialism.
Therefore, fully aware of our his-

- “toric responsibility at the present

moment we declare:
- 4) The CC of the Tudeh-Party

- of Iran appeals to all leaders of the

national liberation movement of
Iran, especially to His Holiness
the Great Ayatollah Khomeini,
His Holiness the Ayatollah
Taleghani, Dr. Karim Sandjabi

and the other leaders of the
fighting religious and political
movements of Iran, who exper-
ienced personally the crimes of
the regime, to use their total
force, their whole influence and

their entire prestige for the
establishment of a united front for
the national liberation of Iran, a
front which will unite all honest
national forces of the homeland in
their struggle against the regime
and imperialism. This front will
aim at taking over the leading role
in the struggle of the whole people
against the Shah and against im-
perialism and at organizing, be-
sides the application of all normal
methods of the political struggle,
to prepare and lead the armed
struggle of the people against the
armed forces of the Shah’s re-
gime.

2) The Tudeh Party appeals to
all fighters of the people, to all
political organizations and groups
of Iran, besides the endeavours to
establish the mentioned front, to
make all efforts that the cells and
sections of this front be formed
among the people, in every fac-
tory, at every university, at any
school, in any enterprise and in
the countryside as well and in the
residential areas of the towns with
the participation ofall fighters. By
all ways and means one must st-
rive for their extension and con-
solidation. In fulfilling this task
the heaviest burden will be put on
the shoulders of the heroic and
glorious working class of Iran.
They have given the hated de-
spotism and imperialism very ef-
fective blows by their excellent
struggle during the last years and
especially during the last months,

The Tudeh Party is firmly con-
vinced that the working class of
Iran will master its histori-
revolutionary mission at this
stage of the struggle, too, at the
very front of the working people
and all patriots. Any cell and any
section has to use all forces to
extend the normal political cam-
paigns — manifestations, strikes
etc., — and at the same time to
prepare for the armed resistance
and armed offensive in con-
frontation with the obscure forces
of the murderous regime of the
Shah and imperialism.

3) The CC of the Tudeh Party
of Iran appeal to all patriotic of-
ficers, non-commissioned officers
and soldiers, to transform their
struggle against the Shah’s re-
gime, which in form of desertion
only has a passive character, into
a positive and active struggle in
order to paralyze the military ap-
paratus of the regime and to estab-
lish a front of resistance and of
assault within the army.

Patriotic officers, non-
commissioned officers and sol-
diers! It is your task to participate
courageously and unselfishly like
your revolutionary fathers,

mothers, brothers and sisters in
this historic struggle bravely and
consequently. It is your task to

form secret cells and sections of ©

the united front for the national
liberation of Iran in every bar-
rack, in every military formation,
to join the cells and sections of the
people’s front and to help them in
forming armed units, in the field
of military training and in procur-
ing weapons and ammunition. It
is your task to paralyze with all
means from inside the military
organization of the people’s
enemies and to put the barracks of
the regime under the- control of
the people.
Patriotic fighters!

Just as the heroic fighters in
Teheran, Isfahan, Mashdad,
Tabriz and many other towns
have understood and practised it
on their own initiative it is the
first, most urgent and most impor-
tant task of the forces combating

the regime and imperialism to an- |

nihilate the criminal organizations
of Savak, the guards of murderers
‘of the police and the punishment
units of the rural police. With
the annihilation of the organiza-
tions of the political terror and
Oppression, above all with the an-

nihilation of Savak, the nightmare’

of fear will be taken from the
country. The victory in this field
will make the political reconnais-
sance work among the simple and
not yet conscious members of the
army and the encouragement of
the hesitating officers, non-
commissioned officers and sol-
diers, to follow the people, much
easier.

The Tudeh Party appeals to all leaders of the national liberation

movement...

for the establishment of a united front which will unite all

honest forces in their struggle. The Tudeh Party is firmly convinced that
the working class of Iran will master its historical revolutionary mission
at the very front of the working people and all patriots. This is the most
urgent task of all fighters of the national liberation movement...

lranian oil workers’ strike
broke back of Shah’s tyranny

_The following is a portion of a

feature article in The U.S. Daily”

World by Tom Foley which out-
lines the key role played by the
strike of Iran’s oil workers during
the dramatic events which re-
sulted in the toppling of the Shah.

* * *

It was not the gigantic de-.

monstrations. of millions that
brought the Shah down, although
they battered like a river in flood
against the structure of his rule.
What broke the foundations of the
Shah’s tyranny was the strike by ,
Iran’s 67,000 oil workers. The
Shah was dependent for 85% of
his money on oil

The first strike began in Oc-
‘tober, after 10 months of mass
demonstrations had failed to top-
ple the Shah. It almost ended his
rule right then.

Alarmed, the Shah installed a
military government and ordered
it to drive the oil workers back to
work at gunpoint. It did. But then
there was a slowdown. And
finally, at the beginning of De-
cember, another strike — this
time a political one aimed straight
at the Shah. Oil production fell to

‘nothing. The Shah lost billions,

the Iranian currency was wreck-
ed, and the huge, clanking jugger-
naut of Shah rule ground to a halt
without oil.

Power of Workers
It was one of the clearest and
most important demonstrations in

The women of Iran are playing a prominent role throughout the bitter recent years of the power of or-
struggle to topple the Shah and his hand-picked successor. Women ganized industrial workers. It
have marched in huge numbers at every stage of the struggle.

made many people nervous for

precisely that reason. To reassure
these people, Time magazine re-
ported in its Jan. 22 issue that the
rumors circulating in Tehran, that
Iran’s Communists had taken
over the oilfields, were untrue:
Time said there were probably
less than 5,000 Tudeh (‘‘Mass-
es’’) Party members among the
Iranian oil workers. Did this calm
Time’s alarmed readers?

I think not, because the historic
centre of strength of the Tudeh
(outlawed since 1949) had been
among Iran’s oil workers, and
these nervous people who read
Time had been assured by the

Shah and the CIA (who put him’

back in power in 1953) that the
Tudeh had been utterly wiped out
and was non-existent in Iran.
Oil was struck by the British
imperialists in Iran (then called
Persia) in 1908. It was run as a
totally British operation, by the
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company —
owrted by the British government
— until.1951, when the late Pre-
mier Mohammed Mosaddeq
nationalized Iranian oil, with the
support of practically all Iranians.
There followed a bitter political
and: economic struggle between
the Iranians and U.S.-British im-
perialism, which ended when the

CIA overthrew Mosaddeq by a_

coup in August 1953, and reinstal-
led the Shah on his throne. The
Shah always knew who put him
there, and it was not the Iranian
people.
CIA Coup and U.S. Oil

For whom did the CIA place

the Shah in power? An answer

begins to emerge if we study who
derived the most benefit from this

CIA coup: the big U.S. oil
monopoly corporations. U.S.,
not British.

Mossaddeq’s oil nationaliza-
tion was never revoked — could
not have been, even by the CIA,
the Shah and the oil corporations,
without ‘provoking a mass upris-
ing in Iran. What was done to get
around that fact was this: On Oc-
tober 29, 1954, an agreement was
signed by the Shah and the big
monopoly oil corporations. Oil
sales and distribution within Iran
would remain a monopoly of the
state-owned National Iranian Oil
Company (NIOC); oil explora-
tion, production, refining and all
oil sales abroad were to be hand-
led by an international oil
monopoly corporation cartel, po-
litely referred to as ‘‘the Consor-
tium.”’

The Consortium is made up of
British Petroleum, 40%; Shell,
14%, Gulf, California Standard,
Exxon, Mobil and Texaco 7%
each; U.S. independents 5% to-
tal, and Compagnie Francaise des
Petroles, 6%. The 1954 Consor-
tium agreement, which was
celebrated by hanging 21 oil
workers’ leaders, thus broke the
former British monopoly of Ira-
nian oil and gave the U.S. oil
monopolies a 40% cut. The
British could do little to protest
this U.S. muscling in, the Iranians
nothing. But the Consortium
agreement is completely illegal in
the eyes of all Iranian patriots.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 23, 1979—Page 9