The Condition of The Working Class In Iran

PREFACE

That Iran has yet to know democracy needs hardly any mention; that she has suffered the most destructive blows at the hands of the ferocious dictatorship1 of the Pahlavis ever since the coup d'état of 1921 is also too well-known; that the opposition in Iran has fought this regime with its meagre means so as to bring about changes is public knowledge as well. What has, however, remained obscure is the conditions of the working masses in that country. No doubt the Left is to be blamed for that! For even at the time when it Was at the apex of its "gauchisme" — to the point of complete paralysis, — it was not as concerned with the fate of the working class as it should have been. The "gauchisme" was disruptive, not constructive ; it was blind refusal of the historical possibility to do what it had claimed. It was not at the service of the working masses; it only paid them lip-service.

As a result, no effort was ever made to know the historical conditions of the genesis and development of this class. Nor was its real struggle even studied, appraised, or used as a lesson.

Today, not knowing what Yesterday was, followed the events blind foldedly into Tomorrow, and after... This is unfortunately still the case. There exists no history of the working people in Iran, in Persian or any of the foreign languages widely known in that country; in Russian, yes, with all the concerous deformations of stalinist historiography.
This publication, as modest as it is, is only an effort to put together what lay idle in archives; it does not pretend to give a view of the ensemble. It should be regarded as a step in the direction of further impartial studies. Needless to say, no one document can be taken to contain "the truth", rather the whole should lead us on to the path of approaching a general understanding of the conditions the working people of Iran lived in. The slanted opinions therein, no doubt, cannot be ours; the reprinting of the labour legislation should, in no way, imply our approval thereof; nor their veritable application in that land, where even individual partners of the medieval tyranny, despite the heavy burden of the crimes committed which they carry, are not spared.

It goes without saying that this volume, despite, its size and in spite of the rich information it contains, cannot throw light on the present conditions of working masses in Iran. Our aim has been to arouse the interest of those concerned with the labour movement around the world and to share with them this historical knowledge. As for the present, we hope to provide them— soon— with another volume. As it is, the working masses of Iran are deprived of their most elementary democratic rights; our hope is that those who can help will not refrain from doing so.

Cosroe Chaquèri
Sept. 1978

1) Except for the short period of Dr. Mossadiq's government between May 1951 and August 1953.