Workers World, Vol. 13, No. 6
New York, March 7 – Sam Marcy, Chairman of Workers World Party, addressed the conference on political repression in Iran here today, delivering a scathing attack on the U.S. government’s backing of the fascist Shah.
“I would like to congratulate the Iranian students in the United States and all over the world, on behalf of my organizations,” Marcy began, “for putting up a heroic struggle against the fascist dictatorship of the Shah and in particular against the monstrous imperialist government of the U.S.”
Recalling the infamous history of the U.S. government and oil monopolies in Iran, Chairman Marcy pointed out how in 1951, when the masses began to demonstrate in the streets against the reactionary regime, the capitalist press here called it mob rule. “Why did they slander the people so?” Marcy asked. “Because all of a sudden there was a leader in Iran who began to challenge the oil monopolies of Britain and the United States, who began to challenger their right to exploit and rob the people. His name was Mossadegh and the people in the streets were supporting him.”
Marcy continued, “And what did Mossadegh do that so outraged London in particular and Washington, which was working behind the scenes? He said that the oil companies operating in Iran are really the property of the Iranian people and could be nationalized by the government. All he wanted to do was to exercise the sovereign right to run the industry of Iran. But the imperialists challenged this basic right and began to carry out a campaign of sabotage to break the economy. When Mossadegh asked the British to close their embassy in Iran, they arrogantly refused to leave and said they would appeal the expulsion to the United Nations!”
All this time, Marcy explained, the U.S. was maneuvering to create a coup d’etat to smash the popular government that threatened their oil interests. Under cover of the dispute between Britain and Mossadegh, “the U.S. decided to send in a neutral observer. This ‘neutral man’ turned out to be Averell Harriman, the international oil broker from Brown Brothers Harriman, the man who has negotiated with the Russians for 20 years and knows all the tricks of the trade of the U.S. CIA operations.”
Harriman did his job well. A mass uprising in Iran unfortunately fell short of winning its goals. Its defeat was used by the CIA to engineer the coup of August 19, 1953. Mossadegh’s government was destroyed and the Shah put in power.
Marcy ended his speech with a pledge of solidarity with the Iranian people. “To the Iranian students who are putting up a heroic struggle outside of Iran and to all the political prisoners inside Iran, to the workers and peasants who are gradually rising up in rebellion, we say: Long live the liberation struggle of the Iranian people and down with U.S. imperialism!”
Last updated: 11 May 2026