Historical Events of the Revolutionary World Movement

Revolution in Iran 1979

«The Iranian Working Class Came Out on the Battlefield, Overthrew the Shah and Shook the Capitalist World» (Enver Hoxha)

Enver Hoxha

On Iran

 
Collection of Excerpts of his book:
"Reflections on the Near and Middle East"
 
 
SUNDAY - JANUARY 14, 1979

GLORY TO THE IRANIAN PEOPLE!

The people of Persia (In 1935 Riza Shah Pahlavi changed the name of Persia to Iran) have ancient progressive traditions, great culture and an extensive idealist philosophy. Writers, poets, philosophers and scientists who have astonished the world have emerged from their ranks. Even today their works carry authority in the great world treasury of culture.
The history of the Persian people and their outstanding representatives is one of the most glorious parts of world history. Many of these great men, philosophers and poets, such as Sa'adi, Ferdousi, Omar Khayyam, etc., etc., were from the common people and their writings had their source in the people, notwithstanding that they were supported by the Shahs of various empires. The tradition of this knowledge, of this science, has been handed down from generation to generation.
In modern times Iran became the prey of imperialism, especially British imperialism, which was the first to discover the oil in that country and secured from the Shahs and princes of Persia great concessions for the «Anglo-Persian Oil Company» almost for nothing. Later, when it realized the enormous extent of this oil wealth, the British Admiralty took control of it, because without it Britain could not have had a fleet which would dominate the seas and could not have developed an advanced industry in its metropolis.
Therefore, the «Anglo-Persian Oil Company » greatly extended the territories in which it exploited oil around Abadan on the Persian Gulf and beyond, covering the country with wells, from which it drew the «black gold», and it built big refineries there. From Abadan the oil was transported by specially built tanker ships to the metropolises and elsewhere, where it was sold for yellow gold. All this served the strategy of imperialism in its aims to dominate the world.
Later everything in regard to the extraction, processing and the transport of oil was perfected in order to ensure the greatest possible profits for the colonizers and increase to the maximum the poverty of the Iranian people.
In Iran the ample crumbs which fell from the great table of the British Empire were shared amongst the various Shahs who gave a little also to other princes in different regions of Persia which had plenty of oil-fields. The representatives of the dynasty of Hajars, and after them the Pahlavis, became the wealthiest families of Persia and, indeed, of the world, because Persia took second place in the world for the extraction of oil.
There, as we know, civil disturbances and conflicts have occurred which have had their source in the resistance of the people both to the Shah and the princesses who led a fabulous life, and to British imperialism, which mercilessly exploited the people who had no food to eat, no shoes on their feet, no shirts to their backs, in the cities, let alone in the villages.
Of these many conflicts let us speak only about that between the «Tudeh» Party, combined with the democratic land-owning bourgeoisie of Mossadeq, on the one hand, and the British Empire, represented by the great British petroleum concession, on the other hand. As a result of this conflict and uprising, Mossadeq seized state power at the beginning of 1951. The government he created nationalized the oil, so that the British Empire and other empires which got oil from Persia were in danger of being left with nothing, because the overwhelming bulk of the oil income would go to the Iranian people, in other words, the situation would change again to the disadvantage of Shah Pahlavi. The victory of the uprising of the forces that Mossadeq represented and the «Tudeh» Party, which had, you might say, communist inspiration, forced the Shah to make a hasty departure by aircraft for Rome. But then the CIA intervened and, in collaboration with the Shah's generals, deceived the scum of Tehran, got it out in the streets allegedly to defend Mossadeq, although in fact it surrounded the palace in which the members of the government were located, arrested them together with Mossadeq, ruthlessly crushed the «Tudeh» Party, executed or imprisoned its members and drowned in blood this democratic uprising of the people. The centre of the revolt, which did not have a great development all over Iran, was Tehran.
Through the intervention of the Americans, of course, the lion's share of the oil was awarded to the United States of America which played the decisive role in suppressing the popular uprising. Of the remainder, a part was left to Britain and a third portion, which was still a huge amount because the oil wealth was so great, was given to the Shah Mohammed Riza Pahlavi.
In this way he became a powerful monarch, a great megalomaniac, an emperor who traced his origin back to the Assyrians of remote antiquity.
Indeed, he celebrated the 2500th anniversary of the founding of the first Persian state in the desert where he erected silk tents and invited heads of governments from all over the world, from Tito to the Chinese, who went and took part in the feast, praising to the skies the fame of the Shah of Iran, that barbarous mediaeval feudal ruler who sucked the blood of the Iranian people who were left to languish in utter poverty and ignorance.