The workers crushed
The Shah left Iran on 16 January 1979. Crowds celebrated on the streets of Tehran. His last prime minister Bakhtiar, appointed only at the end of 1978, lasted less than a month. The sense of liberty, throwing off the shackles of years of repression, was tangible. As one worker at the Caterpillar factory put it: “The greatest grace that the revolution has granted to us is freedom… Nowadays, a man can speak out and protest; he can criticise; he can read books, can breathe…” (Bayat). Khomeini had already appointed the Islamic Revolutionary Council in exile. He returned to Iran on 1 February 1979...