Splits Appear

Until the Shah's Imperial Guard moved to crush rebel air force men in Teheran Khomeini had appeared in complete control of the mass movement. The "Immortals" were met by a wall of armed civilians who defeated them in two crucial days of bitter fighting. At the same time leftists including the students, distributed arms to the people who used them to take over the police stations and destroy pro-Shah forces. In this situation Bakhtiar was forced to resign. The first battle had been won.

But Khomeini and Bazargan had opposed the arming of the people and immediately called for them to hand in their arms and for the many rank-and-file army men who had deserted to the side of the people to return to their units. Most have refused this. And despite executions of 8 key pro-Shah generals and 15 other military leaders they are not satisfied that enough has been done to eliminate the remnants of the pro-Shah forces.

It is clear that the mullahs and national bourgeoisie oppose the arming of the people. Although they are nationalists and democrats they still wish to replace the Shah's elite by their own. The Iranian people who have suffered tyranny for so long are determed to keep the intiative in their own hands, but lack a coherent organisation to lead their struggle to gain the leadership of Iran's national democratic revolution.