Socialist Labor Party of Iran
| Socialist Labor Party of Iran | |
| حزب کارگران سوسیالیست ایران | |
| founding | February 27, 1979 |
| ideology | communism |
| Political position | Trotskyism |
| website | www.hks-iran.com/hks/index.html |
The Socialist Workers Party of Iran ( Persian حزب کارگران سوسیالیست ایران Hesb Kargaran Socialist - HKS, SAI for short) was a Trotskyist party that operatedunder this name in Iran after the 1979 revolution .
prehistory
In January 1979 two Trotskyist groups united to form the SAI. On the one hand there was a group from Europe and on the other hand a group called Satar from the USA . The members of the European group were Iranian students who lived in England , France and some other European countries. They were influenced and politicized by the Cuban Revolution , the Vietnam War and the radical youth and student movement. They were in CISNO , the Confederation of Iranian students in Europe, active against the Shah's regime . In contrast to the prevailing currents of Stalinism , Maoism and Khrushchevism in those years , they were influenced by Trotskyism. They saw their theoretical roots in the first four congresses of the Communist International , the position of Leon Trotsky and the Left Opposition of the KPD (Bolshevik-Leninists) (1929–1933) and Trotsky's transition program for the theory of permanent revolution . These should serve as the basis for building a revolutionary proletarian party in Iran. The group saw itself as internationalist and joined the United Secretariat of the Fourth International . All Iranian members were organized in the respective sections where they lived. Between 1974 and 1981 the group published the theory journal Kand-o Kav (Analysis) in London and Tehran .
In the same years as the group was formed in Europe, another group of Iranian students in the US, influenced by the American SWP ( Socialist Workers Party ), which at the time was the official US section of the United Secretariat, has developed Trotskyism. These people founded an association in the USA called SATAR and organized around a magazine called Payam Danech Joo (student band ). Shortly before the Iranian revolution, both groups relocated their activities to Iran. With their unification congress in Tehran they announced the founding of the SAI and then published the magazine Karegar (Workers).
After the 1979 revolution
The party activities focused on the defense of the democratic rights of women, homosexuals, the labor and unemployment movements and the defense of national minorities, especially the Arab minority in Khuzestan in southern Iran. The latter activity in particular received massive attention from the public in this region - much to the annoyance of the mullahs now ruling in Tehran as well as the Islamic liberals . The party activists in Khuzestan, especially in Ahvaz , suffered constant attacks from Hezbollah and Basidi militias. Eventually, the mullah regime arrested 15 SAI activists in Ahvaz and sentenced them to death. Due to a mass campaign initiated by the SAI and due to international pressure, the regime in Tehran was forced to release the 15 prisoners. In other cities, too, the sellers of Karegar magazine suffered from attacks by the Islamist militias.
Under the everyday repression against the members of the party, an opportunistic tendency grew stronger and preferred to collaborate with the Khomeini regime. This right line was represented by the SATAR group. After six months of fighting, SATAR split off from the SAI and after a few months founded a new party called the Revolutionary Workers' Party . Even before that, this group stopped the joint newspaper Karegar , and after a few months the chief editor obtained official permission from the Islamic regime to re-publish the newspaper with their approval, and so the newspaper was now in its second period the service of the Islamic counter-revolution. After a few years of collaboration with the Islamic regime, the Labor Revolutionary Party finally disbanded .
cleavage
Tendenz took the name SAI for himself and under very difficult conditions in the underground tackled the publication of four newspapers: the first was called Chebayat Khard (What to do?), The second Kargar (worker), the third Kargar Socialist (worker socialist ) and the fourth Nazam Kargar (Workers' Order ). In addition, a publishing house called Entecharat Talliye ( Vorhut Verlag) was founded to publish translations of Marxist literature and research.
Between 1982 and 1984 the SAI cooperated with the Revolutionary Socialist Tendency (RST) within the Iranian guerrilla movement organization of the Fedayeen (People's Fedayin minority). After a phase of illegal work and numerous actions by the RST, the Islamic regime succeeded in exterminating this tendency and the SAI through bloody repression. The few survivors rallied in France, England and Germany between 1984 and 1991 and published the magazine Sozialism va Englab (Socialism and Revolution).
literature
- Annemarie Stein (ed.): Iran: new dictatorship or spring d. Freedom?. JRV Verlag, 1979, ISBN 3-88305-008-3 , p. 238.