Iranian politics
Jim Lerch wrote, pointing me at some interesting news reports about the development of nuclear energy (and perhaps nuclear weapons) in the Middle East.The most relevant for comparative politics is the analysis by Shora Esmailian (an Iranian journalist and activist living in Sweden) and Andreas Malm (a reporter for the Swedish weekly newspaper Arbetaren), Iran: the hidden power on the Open Democracy web site.
The article should remind us that things are neither so simple nor as stable as images in the media suggest. It should remind students to be wary of single-dimensional or single-causation analysis. It's also a reminder of the interplay between domestic politics and foreign policy.
"The entire history of the Islamic Republic of Iran since its foundation in 1979 has been characterised by the attempt of its rulers to stigmatise dissent and opposition with the taint of treasonable collusion with Iran's external adversaries... Throughout, the most enduring and dangerous of these oppositional forces - albeit very often the most ignored by those outside Iran ostensibly committed to the country's democratic advance - has been the organised working class of Iran...
"The workers of Iran were at the heart of the 1979 revolution. After their general strike was instrumental in bringing down the Shah's regime, jubilant workers seized factories, mines, oil refineries and workplaces in most other sectors of the economy, installing their own direct rule in place of the old management. The shora councils, based on general assemblies of all employees, assumed control over the Iranian economy... The shora movement... was also a major threat to the power of Ayatollah Khomeini and the sort of society he and his fellow Islamists were striving to establish.
"[A]s soon as they felt strong enough, the mullahs in charge of the nascent Islamist state turned against the shora councils... A decisive weapon for the regime in crushing them and regaining control over the economy was the war with Iraq... all internal dissent could instantly be branded as unpatriotic...
"It took a generation for a new labour movement to emerge in Iran...
"The most dramatic battle of this new movement to date was sparked in January 2006, when up to 17,000 bus drivers at the Vahed company in Tehran went on strike...
"Schoolteachers (of whom 80% are women) have also been at the heart of the post-2004 labour protest...
"Iran under Ahmadinejad's presidency has undergone a process of profound militarisation. The pasdaran [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps]... has assumed more and more direct control over both the state and the economy...
"The west's own confrontational policy is a crucial instrument in the Tehran regime's armoury. Only because the mullahs' claims of encirclement and threat can be made to appear plausible is it possible for them to present themselves as the righteous guardians of the nation..."
posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:35 AM
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