Between the mass movement and d Iran has proved no exception. w the monarchy was sparked off nior airforce technicians. On this homotar who took part in the ist paper The Militant, and a 's who are not satisfied that the rned from Tehran, adds some of buildings linked to SAVAK.
The joke now popular in Iran is that Tehran always needed an underground SISTENTH we would go on hunger strikes. The word would be spread through leaflets and everyone would refuse to eat.' The generals tried to hide these strikes from the public. Sometimes they scheduled the workday meals so there could be no strike. They and the population as a whole would : deathly afraid other soldiers -be inspired further by the homofars protests.
As the marches against the Shah grew to millions last autumn, the homotars felt that they too must publicly show their opposition to the Shah. So they began OrLaRISC demonstrations against the monarchy:
*Homofars held marches off the base all over the country. We condemned the Shah - and later supported Ayatollah Khomeini. Then everybody got know were on people.' These marches had to be built in an underground fashion on the bases. The homofars also needed support from the civilian population:
'A leaflet would appear on the base giving the time and place of the march.
The homofars would gather in uniform at one spot and civilian backers would meet at another. Then we would join forces for the demonstration.' The pressure of civilians protected many of the airforce personnel from THIs was the first insurrection in which television played a major part. As we have reported in past weeks, it was used to direct the masses from one part of the city to another.
Realising the potency of the medium, the new government immediately tried CETSOE provoked a massive outery, including from journalists.
The following day there complete relaxation of censorship, with ara-based committee. media workers, now in control of the network.
For example, the demands of the homofars were read out on the air and gramme on the Palestinian struggle.
victimisation. Nevertheless, some of ine nomorars osetnerves.
*Military intelligence caught some people giving out leaflets. Others who had marched were identified by the generals. There were arrests.
before the Shah was forced to leave the country, he had 157 homofars executed Tehran's amsaicien Another 40 were shot later.' The Jamshidieh massacre was only reported in the bourgeois press after the their OWE and that the the side of the shootings had ever taken place.
1,000 airforce Khomeini to appointed prime demonstration as a group:
mailis (parliament building).
our house, again, and went home.
WATCH OUT contingent names. So after the march, VY 215 guard.' Including BuTe next day, atmosphere on extremely tense. promilitary brass the armed forces even greater confidence.
Doshan Tappeh trainees, called watching Shortly Tween Airbase. they were not there.
A spontaneous Young soldiers taking in the sweet smell of the insurrection Shah was gone. Bakhtiar denied the The event that led up to the battle of Doshan Tappeh was the 8 February demonstration of more than a million in Tehran. A uniformed contingent of and other military personnel joined the march, called by support newly minister, Mehdi Bazargan. The homofars went to the *In the morning we put our uniforms in paper bags and went down to the the majlis was a house near Khomeini's headquarters. There we changed into unitorms and went out on the march. Afterwards, we returned to the changed into civilian clothes We knew that there must be agents in our midst, who would try to disrup report Khomeini supporters provided us with a defence 9 February, the the alroases WaS The homofars' started demonstration was intolerable to the - it threatened to crack wide open. The airforce personnel, however, had been inspired by the march to speak out with On the evening of 9 February at the airbase, homofar homarjoos were televised account of Khomeini's victorious arrival in Iran south homotars themselves do not live on the base, so pro-Khomeini demonstration broke out in the TV room. Members of the elite Imperial Guards, who had been policing the airbases for several weeks, rushed into the room. They clubbed the homarjoos with rifle butts and shot several. When didn't work they drove a tank right through the door.
The homarjoos moved outside. They began demonstrating, shouting: 'Down the Bakhtiar government guards go home!. They also yelled 'Allah-ho-Akbar' 'God is great' -the signal for help.
People began gathering at the gates of the base, especially the relatives of the homarjoos. As the crowd grew outside, the Imperial Guard commanders decided to withdraw their forces from the base for the night.
Early next morning the homofars reported for work:
'We had heard about what happened the night before. When we arrived a the gates there were still thousands of people outside. They gave us food.
We went and wreckage the guards had left. We went to the hospitals and saw all the heads they had busted open. We were furious 'So we refused to work and insteac demonstrating in the yard Alter a while tew officers non-commissioned officers joined us.
'It was then that the Imperial Guard attacked the base.
"Tanks poured towards both the north and south gates of the base.
*At the north gate they were stopped The civilians outside blocked them and the guards at the gate shot at them.
*But the Imperial Guard got in by the gate They gunning indiscriminately.
"Homofars rushed to the armoury to get guns. A captain was there and he tried to keep them out. He was shot.
ourselves and we gave guns to the civilians outside.
*At this point, everyone on the base realised that the Imperial Guard was going to that Low-ranking officers and even the Green Berets (an elite unit) joined the repelling Women and children living on the base went after the tanks, setting one on fire.
'Between those of us inside the base and civilians shooting from rooftops outside, we drove the Imperial Guards off the base. We kept further away, block by block. At every corner, as they retreated, we built a new barricade.
Once the base homofars elected new officers. The top officers had disappeared during the battle - except for General Rabil, the national commander of the air force. Rabii was there observing the killing of his soldiers from a helicopter.
But it was the Imperial Guards who took the worst losses the 63 killed in the fighting the The insurrection Doshan Tappeh. Homofars took over a police station to get more arms for the people. They joined in the around the city, although not in an and organised way.
It was the collapse of the army in the face of the insurrection that sealed the people's victory. An equally important THIS may revolution to exploit the opportunities of the mass media but the old ways were machine- still decisive.
Communication between different parts of the city was carried out by chanting slogans. religious idiom, religious meanings "God is Great' meant 'Help!' chants.
spotted city. They chanting.
through. mistaken their struggle.
Bazargan the Mehdioun, massacre everyone inside.
attack embassy pushing them building was secured the everything from to the redaveen. the whole time, distinguish sentiments.
- more than half spread the airbases. battles books we like.
parties and to vote the first to get married. universities, ABOLICE These were in a but had far from for example, the first place!' It is difficult to convey the impact of the mass character of the insurrection In the area where I was, the roofs were packed with local inhabitants, who were constantly relaying messages by In another neighbourhood, residents attempts move troop: towards sishan, the main industria set off a warning by Since the slogans moved faster than the troops, people along the way were able to block roads and blow up bridges, stopping the soldiers getting factor was the unprecedented solidarity or une civian populanon with the homofars when the fighting began.
Some press reports have given the impression that the main forces fighting on the side of the airforce personnel were the two guerilla groups - the Islamic Mujahedeen and the Marxist-oriented Fedayeen.
These guerillas were active participants but they were not decisive. As the interviewed put 'Everyone in Tehran was a Mujahedeen during the insurrection.
Since the overthrow of the monarchy the airforce personnel have continued When Prime Minister appointed General Mehdioun as the new airtorce commande protests broke out on airbases across Mehdioun, who served under the Shah for 40 years, is regarded as a traitor to the revolution. Bazargan was finally forced to appoint a different commander to the post.
demonstrations against airforce personnel raised the demand that they be allowed to elect THE world press reported Khomeini's decision to hand the former Israeli over the Palestine Liberation Organisation. What they did not mention, however, is that this gesture was purely symbolic.
I was among the few journalists to be shown round the embassy [because I was known to be 'anti-Carter']. The was utterly unusable. The masses had vented their anger at Israeli support for the Shah by smashing papers, which •Wert shredded, through to the toilet bowls.
Everyone, though, from Khomeini is very careful to anti-Zionism from any expression of racialist anti-Jewish their own officers. Other democratic demands are also coming to the fore on The homofar explained: We deserve the same rights as any other citizen in Iran. That means the right to speak and write what we please, to read whatever *We ought to be able to join political 'Under the present laws established by the Shah, homofars need permission We can't attend the although officers can.
These laws should be abolished.
bars us trom talking to foreigners. The idea is that we would give away military secrets.
This is really ridiculous. What secrets could a homofar reveal to the CIA? The CIA set up the Iranian armed forces in Socialist Challenge 1 March 1979 page 9