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Reasons to Revolt: Iranian Oil Workers in the 1970s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2014

Peyman Jafari
Peyman Jafari*
Affiliation:
International Institute of Social History, The Netherlands
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Abstract

Oil workers played a pivotal role during the Iranian Revolution of 1978–1979. Involving tens of thousands of workers, oil strikes paralyzed the state and paved the way for the Shah's downfall. Various accounts of these strikes, however, ignore the subjectivity and agency of the oil workers by focusing exclusively on the role of political agitation. Addressing this deficit, this article explores the oil workers' experiences in and out of the workplace in the 1970s in order to contextualize their participation in the revolution. After analyzing the oil strikes and their goals, the article makes two arguments: First, oil workers were conscious of the considerable power they had to disrupt the economic and political routine of the country. Second, the demands of the oil strikes reflected grievances that, while reflecting sentiments in the wider society, were embedded in their own specific conditions and experiences.

Information

Type
Writing the Social History of Labor in the Iranian Oil Industry
Information
International Labor and Working-Class History , Volume 84: Crumbling Cultures: Deindustrialization, Class, and Memory , Fall 2013 , pp. 195 - 217
Copyright
Copyright © International Labor and Working-Class History, Inc. 2013 

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References

NOTES

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24. The construction of the Isfahan Refinery was completed in 1979.

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38. Audio file 2. Interview by the author, January 25, 2013, Abadan.

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88. Shariati's ideas were inspired by Third Worldism, Marxism, and political Islam.

89. Ashraf, “Kalbodshekafi-ye enqelab.”

90. Perrone, Wright, and Griffin, “Positional Power, Strikes and Wages,” 414.

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