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In Iran & Around the World: Iranians Rising Against Shah

By VVAW

On November 15th, official Washington was rocked by demonstrations in protest of the state visit of the Shah of Iran. The evening news showed the Shah and Jimmy Carter and their wives crying from tear gas the police had used on the demonstrators. The demonstration of 6000, consisting mostly of Iranians and led by the Iranian Students Association (ISA), had routed 1500 pro-Shah demonstrators and the police in order to bring to the nation's attention their demand, "Down With the Facist Shah!" In conjunction with this demonstration at the doors of the White House, massive demonstrations took place in Teheran, Iran, in the face of the Shah's police and laws against demonstrations.

The Shah's visit was the culmination of months of back-room political maneuvering on a national and international level. All this scheming was necessary to reconcile Carter's "human rights" campaign with the Shah's well-deserved image as a dictator. Jimmy Carter had been elected President and retains what popularity he has left by making promises he doesn't keep and by standing for high ideals that are nothing more than a Madison Avenue , public-relations snow job. And one of these high ideals is "human rights" which Carter says he supports for the people of the world.

For Jimmy, standing up for human rights in fine in the case of dissidents in the Soviet Union. He wants little from the Soviet Union and can make them look bad in the eyes of the world--a justified image. But with the Shah and Iran it's a different story. Jimmy and the Shah need each other even though the Shah is notorious for his repression of political freedom for the masses of the Iranian people.

Carter and his kind need the Shah for two reasons. First is oil. The rich in this country do not find it profitable for this country to become self-sufficient in energy production. They expect to be importing 60% of the necessary oil from Iran and the Middle East by the 1980's. So, they need the Shah to help hold down the price of oil on the international market.

The second reason Carter needs the Shah is as a military ally. The U.S. and the Soviet Union are contending for world domination and pushing toward a third World War. Iran is located on the southern flank of the Soviet union and is also an ideal base of operations for control of the Middle East and the Indian Ocean.

The reason that the Shah needs the U.S. is that he needs American arms, advisors (!) and technicians to build a strong military in order to hold down the Iranian people as they rebel against the Shah's repression. The U.S. government's National Security Council estimates that U. S. arms sales to Iran will total $15 billion by 1980 while Carter talks out of the other side of his mouth about the need to reduce arms sales in the interest of world peace. And therein lies Carter's dilemma: human rights vs oil and a military ally. So they called together their little powwow to talk things over and to try to present the Shah as being not so bad as all reports say he is.

Preparations for the Nov. 15th conference had gone on for months trying to show what a kind old soul the Shah is. His wife, Farah Dibah toured the U.S. earlier in the year, receiving humanitarian awards. Ads were placed in newspapers welcoming the Shah--paid for by such outfits as the Atlantic Richfield Oil Co and Chase Manhattan Bank as well as non-existent Iranian organizations created for the purpose. They though it would be nice to have a pro-shah demonstration on November 15th so the Shah tried to buy some demonstrators. SAVAK (the Iranian police organization which is the combination of the FBI, CIA, Gestapo and Mafia thugs), operating freely in the U.S.' paid round-trip plane fare, hotel bills, and spending money from $100-600 for Iranians and Assyrians to come to Washington and demonstrate. They were hoping to get 15-20,000 but fell far short, so they bolstered their demonstration with a contingent of SAVAK agents and 700 Iranian soldiers brought in from Texas where they are being trained by the U.S. Army. When the fighting broke out on the 15th, the paid vacationers split, leaving SAVAK and the Iranian Army to fight the Iranian students. All in all it cost the Shah millions of dollars to try to make this rattler look like a simple garden snake.

The effort to paint a rosy picture of the Shah fell flat on its face, because the Shah does not have popular support among the Iranian people. He is, in fact, a fascist dictator. The CBS Evening News on November 15th showed how public television in Iran would portray the Shah's visit. First there would be a film clip of those cheering the Shah, and then the anti-Shah demonstrators would be shown. The announcer then would say that these are "professional demonstrators" being paid $10 to demonstrate. He would tell the Iranian people that these demonstrators were Palestinians, not Iranians, and that they would go and demonstrate anywhere for anything to get paid.

The repression of the Shah goes way beyond just controlling the communications media. Amnesty International estimates that there are over 100,000 political prisoners in Iran and documents the systematic torture of these prisoners. The strike, main tactic of working people for a better life, is outlawed. Membership in the ISA and other organizations is punishable by a sentence of three to ten years.

Despite its oil riches, life for most Iranians means total poverty and slavish working conditions. For example, the famous Persian rugs are made by females down to the age of five (smaller hands are better for rug making). Because of the working conditions many girls face blindness and tuberculosis when they become adults. For all this, they get 50 to 75 cents a day.

In the face of no-strike laws, over 60,000 workers in Iran have been out on strike in the last two years. Whenever the Shah goes to another country, Iranians and others led by the ISA are opposing him in demonstrations to expose what he stands for. For instance, after the Shah left Carter, he went to France to work out some deals with French leaders. Thousands of Iranians and French supporters demonstrated against him there.

And in Iran itself there were demonstrations. Ever since the CIA inspired and backed coup installed the Shah in power in 1953, political activity has been repressed and has remained at a low level. However, this time, knowing of the demonstrations in the U.S. and in France, students marched in Teheran shouting "Long Live the Student Movement Inside and Outside of Iran!" The police met this demonstration with force and one student was killed. Next 10,000 took to the streets and 47 were murdered. Again the next day 10,000 demonstrated and the police killed another 60. The people did not lie down in response to these murders: the main commercial district was shut down, and workers went out on illegal strikes.

In this country the ISA went out broadly to the American people, handing out over a million leaflets and appearing on radio and TV. Despite harassment from the FBI and local police forces in open collaboration with SAVAK, and despite the real danger of deportation to Iran where torture and possible death awaits, the ISA awakened many Americans to the situation in Iran received support from the American people. While Carter and his kind are out looking for the best deal, the people of Iran--both in Iran and around the world--are fighting for their freedom against the Shah and his backers.