to Ayatollah Khomeini's attended by nearly 100,000 people.
demands of the Fedayeen.
KHOMEINI is worried at what lies behind the Fedayeen's protests.
The return to work over the past week nas not oeen a acical the chance to press a series of radical demands — particularly for nationalisation and workers' control.
The soldiers, for their part, have been reluctant to return to barracks. Demands are being raised - initiated by the airforce technicians - for rank and file committees and the election of officers.
The national minorities have begun to raise their demands. The Kurds especially are causing Khomeini serious by demanding determination, with the beginnings of mass support.
The orientation of Fedayeen themselves is quite confused. They have come out in opposition to the Bazargan government: believe that this government can meet the needs of the people'.
"But", they added in one statement, "we will never fight against the followers of Imam Khomeini even if they try to disarm us."
They couple opposition to Bazargan with the demand to nave a place in Khomeini's shadowy Islamic Revolutionary Council'.
But their calls for People's Islamic Councils' to -EUT businesses and ReIC opposition reconstitution of the old officer corps and their calls "People's Army" put them in clear opposition to Khomeini and Bazargan's plan to put the capitalist state back together.
This is why they have become a focus for those who distrust Khomeini.
The Fedayeen do not yet pose a serious threat to Khomeini's now authority. His hold over the masses remains unchallenged.
But given the depth of the mobilisations against the Shah and the uprising from below which brought down Bakhtiar, own the masses have a profound feeling of their own strength.
They are not going to hold self- back their demands and be satisfied their gains. the Two days after the return to work, the Tehran daily Kayhan was already reporting *there were signs workers were not responding effectively to Ayatollah Khomeit's call for an end to their four months of strike.' was bothering them was not the few workers that had failed to report but that *workers are demanding the right to elect their own bosses'.
Thus, in the major oil city of Ahwaz, the returning workers immediately organised a mass meeting and demanded dismissal of the 11 top officials that had run the oil ted. Revolutionary factories, communities, the for DECOCILL that that the the In the other major oil centre at Abadan, workers refused to work until Bazargan their be met factories.
comprising laid off workers participation of Other they say, control is participating'.
and production Bazargan rights for the rehiring of the soviets by saying Tehran, it has been reporte Ayatollah hat the neighbourhood con mittee has taken over the local power plant and several local Workers in the town of Ardo would have sent a letter to the daily paper Kayhan explaining their repression. demands, which include management and control of their started factory and the rehiring of any We wish to be part of the struggle of the Iranian people,' *and demanding our way of In a recent TV broadcast, was reduced appealing to the workers 'to be patient' and attempting unsuc- the cessfully to refute the idea of how this the would mean the election of the strong - clearly, he thought, an absurdity.
Political persuasion is the only tool he can use at present. In the present circumstances, it be unthinkable attempt to use the forces of While the police have now cleaning up and rebuilding their police stations and the army has been called back to barracks, they are in no position to be used.
This is not to say that the army has been destroyed. The hated Imperial Guard and its Immortals brigade may have been disbanded. But other elite units are being maintained -60,000-strong paratroop and green beret regiment and 70,000-strong counterinsurgency gendarmerie.
The more than 250,000 conscript army was simply dispersed to the villages This heralded constituent assemb is being pusaca morc and mon background. "Yes" or referendum tion is: "Do Islamic Republac Monarchy?
But the more Kho resists, the more it will be understood that only the struggle masses can guaranter the convocation of a sovereig assembly.
SABER NICKBIN
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Council'. The Marxist Fedayeen-e-Khalk called a mass protest rally in Tehran University, which was The Islamic guerilla organisation, the Mujahedeen, have now also declared their support for the main