INTERVIEW WITH TUDEH LEADERS

lranian people's struggle

°

N interview with Dr. Radman-

esh, Ehasam Tabari, Mahmud Boghrati, Ahmed Ghassemi, and Dr. Forutan, leaders of the Tudeh party, the party of the Iranian workers.

RS situation in Iran is danger- ous. Both American and Brit- ish imperialists endeavor to extend their grip on our country.

Our struggle for national in- dependence is part of the same struggle of the British people against the financiers of the City of London and of Wall Street.

Our party sincerely desires friendship between the Iranian and British peoples.

The most dangerous enemy of

the Iranian people within Iran~

is the group of feudal magnates round the Shah and thoSe who have commercial connections with the big foreign monopolies.

All the hopes of the Anglo- Iranian Oil Company to get back its oil properties rest on these most corrupt people, who form the court of the Shah and have their connections with ‘high-rank- ing army officers.

The Americans, too, have many friends in these quarters, and the Shah’s friends have long been preparing a sell-out of their country. .

These big landowners, court officials, army generals and mer- chants are the most reactionary section of the Iranian ruling class. .

The present government of Dr. Mossadegh and his National Front, does not belong to these groups, which are in many ways opposed to it.

Dr. Mossadegh’s government, however, is not grounded in the Tranian people, but represents another section of the Iranian ruling class.

His government is composed of and supported by the small Iran- ian industrialists who are strug- gling to free themselves from the grips and restrictions of the big foreign monopolies, and al- so by a section of the landown- ers. :

They do not oppose all foreign imperialism. In fact they are willing to allow the Americans more possibilities of political and economic penetration into Iran.

For them the enemy is British imperialism and the Anglo-Iran- ian Oil Company. They seek to limit the struggle of the Iranian people for independence exclus-

intrigue and.

for independence outlined

ively to the struggle against the British imperialists.

While many groups and par- ties are organized into the Na- tional Front organization of Dr. Mossadegh, in fact, these groups and. parties are chiefly small. They have few members, little organization.

Recently, some divisions have appeared among them, especially the division between Dr. Mos- sadegh and Sayyed Kashani.

But they profit especially from

the enthusiasm of the Iranian ~-

people for the struggle against imperialism. They try especially to draw the shopkeepers, peas- ants and artisans, who are so numerous in Iran, behind the slogans of the National Front. e -

The National Front, while con- ducting a limited struggle against British imperialism, in fact) helps the penetration of American in- fluence into Iran.

And it is hostile to the real national. movement which is un- der the leadership of the Tudeh! party.

The Tudeh party has been il- legal since 1949. The Central Council of Trade Unions has ak so been suppressed.

To belong to the Tudeh or to a trade union is officially a crime in Iran.

Every organization defending the rights of the Iranian people suffers persecution in some form or another.

Government - supported hooli- gans have twice plundered the Peace club in Teheran, belonging to the Iranian Peace movement.

In Tabriz, supporters of the peace movement were sentenced to ten years imprisonment.

But despite all persecution, the Tudeh party is still alive and still a force in Iranian politics. As crisis follows crisis, more and more the Iranian people are looking to Tudeh to lead them out of their present distress.

Tran is a country of great natural riches but pressing pov- erty for the ordinary peasant, worker and small man.

Because of American and Brit- ish pressure the majority of the budget is spent on the army and the police. As a result, social,

- cultural and health services are ~ pitifully inadequate. .

Because of their abject pover- ty they are forced to abandon their villages and flock to the towns for work. As unemploy- ment in the towns is widespread

British scientists discuss plan of action for peace

pines 200 leading British sci- entists met in London recent- ly to map out a plan of future

action for their one-year-old Sci-

ence for Peace Organisation.

They heard Dr. R. L. M. Synge,

FRS, Nobel prizewinner for chemistry in 1952,.say that there isa magnificent basis for develop- ing science “once a government could show that it has some faith in the future.” Delivering the’ opening ad- dress on “The Scientist’s Respons- ibilities,’” Dr. Synge told the con- ference that the main applica- tion of pure science during the past 50 years had been for the “technology of war.”

“The most important activity for us here and now is to work to put a stop to existing wars and prevent future wars by agree- ment between the nations. That is why I support the work of the ‘

British Peace Committee,’ he added.

Dr. A. H. Gordon, secretary of the organisation, suggested «a series of exhibitions for the pub- lic showing the constructive uses of science as a possible way of enlisting support.

One resolution deplored “the pressure on men and women who have recently graduated from

‘university to undertake research

at military research establish- ments or within the universities under schemes financed by such establishments.” It was carried unanimously.

Dr. E. H. S. Burhop, an Atis tralian and former atom sci- entist, moved a resolution which called for a new approach by the government to the USS. USSR to secure agreement on in- ternational control of atomic energy.

‘and so on.

and —

and growing, the peasants starve in the streets.

A worker gets on an average 30 rials (less than one dollar) a

day. The handicraftsmen and small shopkeepers and traders — the

majority of the town population

—are facing bankruptcy as im-

Eager reader

A. L. THOMPSON, Shirley, B.C.: Enclosed is my donation to a fighting paper. I enjoy read- ing the PT immensely. I look forward to your weekly paper with great longing and I take pride in reading it from front to back. Keep up the good work. I would certainly hate to see our: labor paper go on the rocks and I’m sure a great many other readers feel as I do. I’m sorry I can’t do more to help you in this great press building cam- paign. Keep up this great strug- gle to win the peace over the warmongers to the south.

1 raf foe Here's an idea

JAY ESS, Vancouver, B.C.: As a regular reader of the PT { think your paper is tops, but you don’t seem to be getting anywhere. Your grand altruistic efforts are wasted. Do many readers far removed from the skidroad know there’s such a paper?

By all means keep up the tried and true methods of mass propa- ganda and agitation. Engage in elections, work in trade unions But I believe that other methods will alsa have to be tried which are, let us say, less sectarian.

There must be dozens of ways that are different that trained men could think up. I myself, untrained but observant, would like to offer a proposal for what it is worth. |

Have you people ever given a thought to the old way of using

- throw-aways, but brought up to-

date? A leaflet half the size of an ordinary leaflet. with the same thing printed on both sides to catch the eye; featuring a car- toon or a slogan of a few words. Such throw-aways should be is- sued regularly, week after week, year in and year out. Distribute in the main shopping districts. Furthermore, why not, once a month, issue a supplement to the Pacific Tribune consisting of one page, ‘size of PT, with short articles of about a dozen lines each, made up of articles culled

Maohaieked. Riza Pahlevi, Shah of ahi opens the Iranian parliament at Teheran.

goods.

ports from the U.S. more and more flood the market.

What few industries Iran ‘1as are also feeling the heavy com- petition of imported foreign Many of them have crashed or are near to bank- ruptcy.

from the paper over a Sail period, taken from all depart- ments — national and interna; tional news, local items, sports,

editorials, etc. Use the supple- ment to-advertise the PT.

I am sure that if you should appeal to your readers to come up with proposals of new ways of putting over our ideas to the thousands who don’t as yet know you, it should bring results.

DuBois on Truman

UPCOAST READER, Campbell River, B.C.: Some of your read- ers who rarely see the National Guardian may enjoy these com-

ments of W. E, B. DuBois on the retirement from the White House —

of Harry S. Truman:

“The president whose exit we celebrate is a perplexing human being. He had no broad educa- tional background. He had an inferiority complex natural after succeeding Roosevelt, which was followed by an inflated overesti- mate of himself, his powers and his place in history. He imag- ines himself as stepping down from a most successful adminis- tration; in fact, He was emphatic- ally repudiated by the largest poll in American history, having ruined Stevenson’s chances by imposing his own policy on him.

“Truman’s contradictions in character have frightened the nation. He blends homely like- ableness with human insensibil-

‘ity and stubbornness which has

no regard for the truth. When he saw himself defeated in 1948, he deliberately lied to liberals

‘and Negroes with no intention

of even trying to fulfil promises

-he knew his own party would re-

pudiate. He was quite prepared

- to assent to whatever course they

took. He ‘defends voice with low invective, stands by his friends no matter whether they are honest men or thieves; mind is made up he fights Mc- Carran and McCarthy. : eet | down in his hard-bit

Margaret’s

Premier Mossadegh of Iran meets with a grouP of religious leaders in his home.

as one of the greatest killers

-when his flippant threat to

‘Boys in Washington furnish @

Pro-Rec blackout

_ thoughtful

and -

‘which said repairs and mainte” but once his stubborn

4 PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MARCH 27, 1953 — _ page

Political and social liberties are precarious, severely limite and are continually under attack:

Yet the national moveme® has not been crushed. It is growing and will win independ ence for the Iranian people from the imperialists, both British a”! American.

soul, he ranks with Adolf Hitler — :

our day. Without expressing @ 4 word of public regret he kille 150,000 Japanese men, womel and children and was surprise

it again sent a shudder aroun the world. He forced the natio? into the Korean war and trié to scare it into universal milit- 4 ary service. His last word to the nation is a threat of universé doom such as no other sa! ruler ever uttered. : “Truman’s truculence, his loud clothes and terrible shirts. bad enough; his distortion of ™S tory and ignorance of literature are even worse. Read his last grotesque story of our relations with the Soviet Union. :

“These can be nothing les than deliberate misstatements 2 | Truman’s. part. He proposes make the nation believe what. stubbornly wants to believe. and his whole administration 9 propaganda, which his Brigh

command. He, his cabinet, his

generals, his ambassadors sum mon their ghost-writers as they do their cooks. They distort the Truth and the Right so co” pletely, that the nation last No vember said in vast despait’ ‘Anything but Truman — eve Eisenhower.’ ”

READER, Squamish, | Bicae notice in Bert Whyte’s colum? how Tille Rolston acted in ae school budget towards Pro-Re¢ i but maybe he didn’t think 2004 giving the lady credit for he provision for ° safety in other matters - the blackout curtains. ; f

(The Squamish Advance a March 5 carried an article hea ed “School Board Improvement>

ance costs include purcbas¢ ; blackout curtains for ache ae Squamish, Britannia and

pnts d