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| Black Friday 1978, the day that Iranian Marxists tried to stage a revolution and got their asses handed to them by the Shah |
| 2025-09-10 |
| [LeftVoice] On September 8, 1978, a day that came to be known as "Black Friday," the Shah of Iran unleashed a massacre against demonstrators demanding the fall of the regime. In many ways, the events of that day were considered to be the trigger for the revolution that dethroned the Shah. That revolution, initially led by students, workers, and peasants, some of which were able to organize democratic bodies of self-organization called shoras, rattled other regimes across the Middle East, dramatically changing the geopolitical and social situation of the region. Before the revolution, the Shah had imposed a regime of police control like never seen before. All of the money coming in from oil exports went directly toward enriching the army and the intelligence services. This strengthening of the repressive apparatus was strongly questioned by the intelligentsia, artists, and students who claimed Iran’s cultural identity. They repudiated the repressive methods of the world’s most savage intelligence police, the U.S.-backed and trained SAVAK, against the regime’s opposition which included many leftists. On September 8, 1978 thousands flocked to Jaleh Square in Tehran. Soon after, the police opened fire on the peaceful demonstration. On that day, according to the chronicles, between 900 and 3,000 demonstrators were gunned down, going down in history as Black Friday. That massacre broke any possibility of dialogue, and a general strike was immediately launched among the main sectors of the industrial working class in response. Above all, oil workers in Tehran and the petrochemical complex of Bandar Shapur initiated the strikes and inspired workers in Isfahan, Shiraz, Tabriz and Abadan to join them. These strikes quickly spread to state factories, transport sectors, and also telecommunications. In a few days oil production fell by 30%, having an impact on the world market. The demands for wages and for improvements in living conditions quickly took on a political character, with demands for the fall of the Shah. During those months the shoras sprang up. These bodies were a form of self-organization similar to the Russian soviets, and were a space where leftist parties and activists (weakened by years of SAVAK persecution and exile) were able to exert some influence. These sites make for amazing entertainment when you watch them cry about losing over and over and over again. The revolution did end up succeeding, but not in the way they intended. |
| Posted by:Elmomoter Mussolini9149 |