Donkey economics and islamic martyrdom

international | anti-capitalism | other press Saturday May 31, 2008 22:35 by Yassamine Mather

In the article below Yassamine Mather casts a jaundiced eye on the political economy of the theocracys Iran. Full text of the article at the link.
Before Ruhollah Khomeini came to power, he portrayed himself and the proposed islamic regime as defenders of the poor: “This system of clerical rule is necessary to prevent injustice, corruption, oppression by the powerful over the poor and weak, and deviation from islam and sharia law; and also to destroy anti-islamic influence and conspiracies by non-muslim foreign powers.” Once in power and in a position to deal with Iran’s economy, Khomeini’s infamous response to demands for a better life spoke volumes about his real position: “People did not make revolution for bread. They made revolution for islam ... economy is for the donkeys” .He later expressed impatience with those who complained that the standard of living had dropped after the revolution: “I cannot believe that the purpose of all these sacrifices was to have less expensive food.”

No wonder that, after three decades in power, Iran’s islamic regime rules over a country where Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government admits that 20% of the 70 million population live below the poverty line (the reformist faction claims that the true figure is more than 50%),4 where the official rate of inflation is 24% and where the government is constantly ranked amongst the most corrupt in the world.

The sale of power companies was completed last year and now state-owned copper, steel and aluminium companies are all to be privatised. All airline companies except for the Civil Aviation Organisation, have already been privatised or are in the process of privatisation. The same applies to the Ports and Shipping Organisation. In 2006, the ministry of communications and information technology announced that it is to float the shares of state firms like the Mobile Telecommunications Company on the stock market.

Iran hopes to attract foreign investment in its energy sector by creating a group of nearly 50 formerly state-run firms and listing its shares on four international stock exchanges. Under this privatisation plan, 47 oil and gas companies (including PetroIran and North Drilling Company) worth an estimated $90 billion are to be privatised on the Tehran stock exchange by 2014. The National Petrochemical Company completed the sale of 17 of its companies in 2007.

The main beneficiaries of this relentless privatisation drive are the most parasitic sections of the Iranian economy - shareholders, speculators and individual commanders of the islamic guards and militia. Given the price of housing in and near major cities, a large percentage of the newly privatised factories are sold to property speculators and developers, resulting in factory closure and massive job losses. The data collected from 365 days of workers’ protests last year by Amir Javaheri Langaroudi shows widespread dissatisfaction with the effects of privatisation, which has provoked many workers’ protests, including sit-ins and factory occupations.

Another pillar of the islamic republic’s economic policy, in line with ‘economic adjustment’ policies dictated by the IMF and the World Bank, has been casualisation. Today over 80% of Iran’s workforce is contracted labour, and, although job security remains one of the most important demands of Iranian workers, Ahmadinejad’s government intends to increase casualisation further. The labour ministry promises that by 2010 100% of Iran’s employees will be contract workers.