THE Shah of Iran has finally left. After a year of mass demonstrations, strikes and clashes with the troops he had no other option. His powerful advisers and allies in the State Department had no choice but reluctantly to authorise his transfer to exile.
The joy in Iran is understandable. The fraternisation between workers and soldiers on the streets of Tehran demonstrates the tensions which existed within the army. There can be little doubt that the masses of Iran have by continued struggle brought down a hated despot.
Ayatollah Khomeini has said that he will fight for elected institutions and a popular government which will demand the Shah's extradition to be tried as a criminal. The current government is not likely to last for too long. Bakhtiar himself has stated that he does not see himself in office beyond the spring.
The tasks now confronting socialists are very clear. Agitation should concentrate on the need for a Constituent Assembly (see page 5), institutionalisation of democratic rights, the total disbandment of SAVAK, and public trials of the torturers and executioners of the Pahlavi dictatorship. The slightest display of sectarianism could be fatal.
Iranian revolutionaries should prepare not just to fight for democratic rights, but to take full advantage of them in terms of developing a socialist press, trade unions, and preparing a powerful electoral intervention. In this regard the experience of Peru and FOCEP is extremely important.
The Shah's fall must be utilised to create a permanent base for proletarian politics in Iran — a base for the socialist revolution.