The Iran Party ( fa, حزب ایران, Ḥezb-e Irān) is a socialist and nationalist party in
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, founded in 1941. It is described as the "backbone of the
National Front", the leading umbrella organization of
Iranian nationalists
Iranian may refer to:
* Iran, a sovereign state
* Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran
* Iranian lan ...
established in 1949. The party's total membership has never exceeded the several hundred figure.
History
The Iran Party's core members derived from the Iranian Engineers’ Association ( fa, کانون مهندسین ایران, Kānun-e mohandesin-e Irān).
In the
1944 Iranian legislative election, five of the party's leaders, including Rezazadeh Shafaq,
Ghulam'Ali Farivar, AhdulHamid Zanganeh, Hussein Mu'aven, and
Abdallah Mu'azemi won seats, as well as
Mohammad Mossadegh (who was not a member but the party effectively supported).
From June 1946 to January 1947,
it was allied with the communist
Tudeh Party
The Tudeh Party of Iran ( fa-at, حزب تودۀ ایران, Ḥezb-e Tūde-ye Īrān, lit=Party of the Masses of Iran) is an Iranian communist party. Formed in 1941, with Soleiman Mirza Eskandari as its head, it had considerable influence in i ...
and some other left-wing parties under the name
United Front of Progressive Parties
Coalition Front of Freedom-Seeking Parties or United Front of Progressive Parties ( fa, جبهه مؤتلف احزاب آزادیخواه, Jebha-ye Moʾtalef-e Ahzāb-e Āāzādī-ḵᵛāh) was a political alliance of left-wing parties in Iran ...
. Following the alliance, some members left the party in protest and established the
Iran Unity Party.
The party was part of the short-lived
Coalition government of Ahmad Qavam
Prime Minister Ahmad Qavam formed a short-lived coalition government on 1 August 1946 with his Democrat Party of Iran and the left-wing Tudeh Party and Iran Party. He offered three portfolios (Health, culture, and trade and industry) to the communi ...
in 1946.
In January 1947, the party expressed support for the
Eisenhower Doctrine
The Eisenhower Doctrine was a policy enunciated by Dwight D. Eisenhower on January 5, 1957, within a "Special Message to the Congress on the Situation in the Middle East". Under the Eisenhower Doctrine, a Middle Eastern country could request Ame ...
in a statement.
The party helped Mossadegh establish the
National Front,
nationalize the oil industry and rise to power. Some members held office during
Mosaddegh government.
It was suppressed following the
British–American backed coup d'état in 1953
and was outlawed in 1957, on the grounds that it had an alliance with the
Tudeh Party of Iran
The Tudeh Party of Iran ( fa-at, حزب تودۀ ایران, Ḥezb-e Tūde-ye Īrān, lit=Party of the Masses of Iran) is an Iranian communist party. Formed in 1941, with Soleiman Mirza Eskandari as its head, it had considerable influence in i ...
ten years earlier. It was revived in 1960 and actively contributed to the
National Front (II), which was disintegrated in 1963 and forced to survive secretly. Iran Party held a congress in 1964.
Not much is known about the activities of the party between 1964 and the mid-1970s except of some irregular meetings and exchanging views.
In 1977, alongside
League of Socialists and
Nation Party it revived the
National Front (IV) and demanded
Ruhollah Khomeini's return to Iran
Ruhollah Khomeini’s return to Iran on 1 February 1979, after 14 years in exile, was an important event in the Iranian Revolution. It led to the collapse of the provisional government of Shapour Bakhtiar and the final overthrow of the Shah of ...
.
In early 1979, then secretary-general of the party,
Shapour Bakhtiar was appointed as the last Prime Minister by the Shah and included two Iran Party members in his cabinet.
The party however denounced his acceptance of the post, expelled him and called him a "traitor". The party did not play an important role in Iranian political arena after 1979 and was soon declared banned.
Secretary-generals
Ideology
Founded by mostly of European-educated technocrats, it advocated "a diluted form of
French socialism
The Left in France (french: gauche française) was represented at the beginning of the 20th century by two main political parties, namely the Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party and the French Section of the Workers' International ...
"
(i.e. it "modeled itself on" the moderate
Socialist Party
Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...
of France) and promoted
social democracy
Social democracy is a Political philosophy, political, Social philosophy, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocati ...
and
liberal nationalism
Civic nationalism, also known as liberal nationalism, is a form of nationalism identified by political philosophers who believe in an inclusive form of nationalism that adheres to traditional liberal values of freedom, tolerance, equality, in ...
. The socialist tent of the party was more akin to that of the
Fabian Society
The Fabian Society is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow. The Fa ...
than to the
scientific socialism
Scientific socialism is a term coined in 1840 by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in his book ''What is Property?'' to mean a society ruled by a scientific government, i.e., one whose sovereignty rests upon reason, rather than sheer will: Thus, in a given ...
of
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
. Its focus on
liberal socialism
Liberal socialism is a political philosophy that incorporates liberal principles to socialism. This synthesis sees liberalism as the political theory that takes the inner freedom of the human spirit as a given and adopts liberty as the goal, ...
and
democratic socialism
Democratic socialism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self- ...
principles, made it quite different from pure left-wing parties and it did not show much involvement in
labour rights
Labor rights or workers' rights are both legal rights and human rights relating to labor relations between workers and employers. These rights are codified in national and international labor and employment law. In general, these rights influe ...
discussions.
The party is secular
and believes
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
is "sacred a religion to mix with the bread-and-butter issues of daily politics."
See also
;Splinter groups
*
Movement of God-Worshipping Socialists (1943)
*
Iran Unity Party (1946)
*
Party of the Iranian People
Party of the Iranian People or Iran's People's Party ( fa, حزب مردم ایران ''hezb-e mardom-e Irân'') was an Iranian political organization within the National Front and 'National Resistance Movement'. The party was based on a similar ...
(1949)
References
{{Authority control
1941 establishments in Iran
Banned political parties in Iran
Democratic socialist parties in Asia
Iranian nationalism
Left-wing nationalist parties
Liberal parties in Iran
Liberal socialism
National Front (Iran) affiliated parties
Nationalist parties in Iran
Political parties established in 1941
Political parties in Pahlavi Iran (1941–1979)
Secularism in Iran
Social democratic parties in Asia
Socialist parties in Iran