The Showras in the Iranian Revolution

Type:

Book Chapter

Author:

Peyman Jafari

Published:

2020

Although the social reverberations of the Iranian Revolution have led historians to include it among the “great revolutions” of the twentieth century, there is much uncertainty about the scope and nature of post-revolutionary social change. This chapter plumbs the social depth of the Iranian Revolution by assessing its impact on the labour relations in the oil industry, due to the active role of its workers in the revolutionary and post-revolutionary years. As the emergence of showras (factory committees) among oil and other industrial workers was the most significant expression of the changing labour relations, this chapter explores their internal developments and contentious relationship to the state from 1979 to 1989. Using newspapers, official documents, leaflets, and oral history, it argues that by creating democratic workplace procedures and interfering in the management of the oil industry, the showras played a significant role in altering labour relations. However, the changes fell short of introducing workers’ control, and were gradually reversed by the post-revolutionary state as it consolidated its power – an outcome that was caused by both internal and external factors.

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