Resistance in Their Own Words: the Iranian Revolution in Workers’ Slogans and Memories

How did workers construct and follow their own trajectories of resistance during the Iranian revolution? What are the strategies of defiance that they employed? As the Iranian revolution has been extensively studied and the labor strikes’ role largely analysed both from a historical and an economic perspective (Abrahamian 1982; Ashraf-Banuazizi 1985; Bayat 1987, 1994; Behdad-Nomani, 2006; Atabaki-Bini-Ehsani, 2018; Kheirollahi, 2018, among others) this paper focuses on the language of resistance. Building on field research conducted in Iran between December/May 2018 and February/June 2019, and relying on primary sources in Persian, this work tracks back the history of 1978-1979 strikes through workers’ expressions of dissent. Specifically, this paper analyses statements, slogans and memories. It examines the evolution of collective thinking and revolutionary discourse within the factories, that eventually gave impetus to the protests between 1978 and 1979. In fact, since the initial strikes that occurred in the Summer 1978, workers’ slogans transformed both in terms of the spectrum of their demands and their potential for collective thinking. They initially served as a medium to spread economic complaints, housing demands, and class struggle-related requests. Subsequently, and particularly over the months right before February 1979 – the date when protesters marked the success of the revolution and the overthrow of the Shah – rallying-cries became: a) more politically-driven, b) harshly anti-despotic, c) permeated by claims for Iran’s independence, as well as freedom and rights, d) more focused on Khomeini as a leader. Furthermore, two aspects are relevant in the context of this paper: 1) how workers as political agents constructed facts through discourse and spaces; 2) by which means and why the discursive strategies, taking shape in the factories, were also woven to the different imaginaries evoked. Tackling continuities and discontinuities between verbal, relational, as well as historical elements connected to a certain action or a promised move, this paper argues that: 1) workers put in place a performative and conscious political act through slogans and language, as they spread their words of resistance; 2) communication and shared expressions conveying common knowledge and experiences had a pivotal role in the processes of solidarity building.