On this day in 1953, the U.S. and British governments initiated a coup d’état against the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammad Mosaddegh. Mosaddegh had been preparing to nationalize Iran’s British-owned oil fields.
Mosaddegh had sought to audit the documents of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), later re-named British Petroleum, and to limit the company’s control over Iranian oil reserves. When the AIOC refused to cooperate with the Iranian government, the parliament voted to nationalize Iran’s oil industry and to expel foreign corporate representatives from the country.
In response, the British began a worldwide boycott of Iranian oil to pressure Iran economically and engaged in subterfuge to undermine Mosaddegh’s government.
Judging Mosaddegh to be unreliable and fearing a communist takeover, Winston Churchill and the Eisenhower administration overthrew Iran’s government. The coup action was also supported by the Iranian clergy, who opposed Mosaddegh’s secularism.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) hired mobsters to stage pro-Shah riots and paid people to travel to Tehran and take over the streets of the city. Between 200 and 300 people were killed in the ensuing mayhem.
Mosaddegh was arrested, tried, and convicted of treason by the Shah’s military court. Many of his supporters were imprisoned, several received the death penalty. Mosaddegh himself lived the rest of his life under house arrest, dying in 1967.
After the coup, the Shah ruled as a monarch for the next 26 years until he was overthrown in the Iranian Revolution in 1979.
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The Iranian coup, 1953 libcom
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I’m desperate to be in a position where I can be violent in a revolutionary way. I long to hear the anguished cries of fascists (especially police). If a socialist revolution comes in my life time I would have no qualms about being the guy that puts fascist to the wall but under no circumstances should I be the guy who decides who gets the wall.
The natural instincts to hunt and protect the tribe are strong in some people. These are primal urges that dwell in the deepest recesses of the human brain right beside our desires to have sex and eat and they are nothing to be ashamed of.
Living in a society where people are exploited and justice is so rare leads to a build up of anger and trauma that pre-historically would be resolved with violence. Liberals and fascists have the same traumatic experiences under capitalism as the proletariat do but they have had their urges for violence redirected against their fellow oppressed not the oppressors.
I can totally understand why some people start out as good people fighting for justice and devolve into bloodlust monsters. I think that’s what happened to The Shining Path. They got addicted to the righteous violence high and started scheming about justifications for terrorism to chase the high of the violence without the risk of people fighting back.