President Carter sent U.S. commandos into Iran with total disregard for the lives of the hostages or the rights of the Iranian people. This adventure cost the lives of eight Americans and could have led to disaster—to a broader military conflict. Consistent with its pattern of lies and secrecy, his administration was saying the day before the raid that not even a tentative decision had been made to use military action. Carter now admits that preparations for the “rescue mission” began in November 1979.
Washington’s decision to undertake the gamble of using U.S. forces was made in the context of its politically weak position in relation to the Iranian revolution.
When massive mobilizations drove the shah from his throne in early 1979, U.S. imperialism lost one of its most loyal allies in that part of the world.
Iran is no longer a gigantic profit bonanza for U.S. corporations, especially the oil monopolies.
It is no longer a policeman for Washington throughout the Persian Gulf, or a close ally of Zionist Israel against the Arab peoples.
And SAVAK, the hated instrument of repression, whose secret police and torturers were trained by the CIA, has been dismantled.
Since the overthrow of the shah, there has been a deepening social revolution in Iran, and workers, peasants, and oppressed nationalities have begun to make major gains,
From the very beginning of this revolution, the Carter administration has tried to reverse it. It has been probing for a way to find a governmental solution that can halt the revolutionary dynamic and stabilize the situation on a basis favorable to imperialism.
In order to counter the anti-imperialist struggle of the Iranian people and the widespread sentiment of Americans against another Vietnam-type war, Washington has waged a racist campaign against the “Muslim fanatics.” The shah, on the other hand, has been portrayed as a progressive modernizer.
Then, last November Carter invited the shah to the United States in spite of a warning from U.S. officials that hatred of the despot was so strong that this could provoke an embassy occupation.
Since then, Carter’s moves have not 536 been calculated to release the hostages or negotiate a just settlement. He has tried to whip up anti-Iranian hysteria in the U.S. by harassing and deporting Iranians.
He has refused to negotiate with Iranian officials. He broke diplomatic relations and threw the Iranian Embassy staff out of-the U.S. on short notice.
He has tightened an economic blockade on Iran and intensified pressure on Washington’s imperialist allies to go along with economic sanctions.
A series of military threats, including keeping a twenty-seven-ship armada stationed in the Arabian sea has kept tensions high.
On April 17 he banned travel from the United States to Iran and is trying to curtail U.S. news coverage from there.
But all of these measures have not achieved what Carter had hoped. The American people have not snapped to attention behind the administration. After their initial shock and anger when the embassy was occupied, they have been learning more about the crimes of the shah, Washington’s reactionary role in Iran, and Carter’s two-faced approach to the American people.
Adding to Washington’s problems, it has secured little support from its imperialist allies in Western Europe and Japan for tougher sanctions against Iran, much less military action.
And U.S. actions against Iran have deepened, not lessened the anti-imperialist sentiments of millions of oppressed throughout the Middle East, raising the spectre of major outbreaks in other countries in the region.
Each new attack by Washington has served to strengthen the anti-imperialist feelings of the Iranian masses and has been countered by massive mobilizations of workers, peasants, and other oppressed layers against imperialism. When news of Washington’s abortive military raid circulated throughout Iran spontaneous victory rallies were held celebrating this most recent setback for imperialism. But the raid was also a very tangible warning that the U.S. will try to use military means against the Iranian revolution. It clearly underlines the importance of the demand of the masses for the general arming of the workers and peasants. It further reinforced support in Iran for the demand that the shah be returned to stand trial for his crimes.
At the moment when massive anti-imperialist mobilizations are taking place, however, the Iranian bourgeois government still refuses to recognize the national rights of the Kurdish people. It continues to wage savage military attacks against them, killing hundreds. The Khomeini regime warns other oppressed nationalities that they will get the same treatment if they struggle for their rights. President Bani-Sadr has ordered the Kurdish population to be disarmed. This is in spite of the fact that the Kurdish leaders hailed the occupation of the U.S. Embassy and Kurds are participating in the anti-imperialist mobilizations. But the Kurds do not feel that fighting imperialism means that they have to subordinate or abandon their just struggle for their rights. The government’s policy can only be an obstacle to a united mass mobilization against imperialism.
On another front the government’s order for all political organizations to leave the university campuses had the effect of weakening militant anti-imperialist forces and encouraged right-wing organizations to launch physical attacks on several radical organizations, including the Mujahedeen and the Fedayeen.
The Fourth International reiterates its support for the right of the Kurdish people and other oppressed nationalities to selfdetermination and the defense of full democratic rights for workers, peasants, and students.
The failure of its “rescue mission” has weakened U.S. imperialism further in its goal to reverse the Iranian revolution. This setback makes it more difficult to win support for its objectives from the American people or its imperialist allies. But, it has far from given up on this goal. It is continuing to probe for opportunities to deal the revolution blows.
The Fourth International reaffirms its solidarity with the struggle of the Iranian people to be totally free from the yoke of imperialism. We condemn all measures taken by imperialism against the Iranian revolution.
Return the murderer shah to be tried for his crimes!
No economic sanctions! Give back the wealth stolen from the toiling masses of Iran!
Hands off Iran! Withdraw the imperialist fleets from the Arabian Sea!