50-60 people mou ted a lively and noisy protest on the morning What political choices were presented to the Iranian people in the recent Presidential election? PATRICK SCOTT reports This election saw the outsider Mahmoud Ahmadinejad elected with 62% of the vote in the second round.
The main issue of divide over the past decade has been between the "Conservatives' and the 'Reformists'.
This means between those who wish to maintain the present relationship in Iran between mosque and state where the clerics have a veto over the electoral and legislative process (the power to vet electoral candidates and veto laws considered 'unislamic") and those who want to reduce clerical power - though not abolish it as some clerics are Reformists.
Each of the seven original Presidential candidates could be defined by the extent to which he is either a Conservative or Reformist.
Outgoing President Mohammad Khatami was unambiguously a Reformist and was elected in 1997 and Ahmadinejad the question of clerical dominance. Iran has become an increasingly industrial society and has a developed capitalist albeit dependent one.
Accordingly the Iranian working class suffers the same problems as the working class in most other dependent capitalist economies, mass poverty, chronic under and unemployment especially amongst youth, state repression of any form of trade union or independent working class political activity etc.
Furthermore there is the endemic corruption of the political elite in Iran.
With none of the seven Presidential candidates having an over-all majority, ing class electoral support as a candidate seemingly untainted by corruption.
The missing factor in all this is the political voice of the working class. Neither Rafsanjani, Ahmadinejad or any of the other seven presidential candidates are worthy of any form of support, electoral or otherwise from socialists.
There are no genuine working class organisations in Iran. Any form of independent trade union activity is effectively illegal and since 1979 thousands of left and working class activists have been murdered or imprisoned by the Islamic regime.
Legislation has provided for the creation of Islamic Labour Councils, which exist in most workplaces, there is also Workers House, which is a slale supported body -though it is not accepted as a bona fide trade union by the International Labour Organisation.
Even so strikes and other forms of industrial action take place on a fairly sporadic basis throughout the country. In May for example workers employed by the Tehran Bus Company held a meeting to set up their own union that would be independent of the both the company's Islamic Labour Council and Workers House.
This meeting though was attacked by supporters of the latter formations resulting in the hospitalisation of some