White Revolution

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The White Revolution (Persian: Enghelab-e-Sephid) was a far-reaching series of reforms launched in 1963 under the pressure of President John F. Kennedy's Administration by the prime minister Dr. Ali Amini and his agriculture minister, the radical reformer, Dr. Hassan Arsanjani. The Kennedy Administration in 1961-63 came to the conclusion that it is important to American strategic and economic interests to have an Iranian government with a broader internal base, greater efficiency and popularity and less corruption than existed in the 1950s. The last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was asked to deal with corruption and inefficiencies. The US officials urged the shah to support Dr. Amini and his reform program. According to Keddie, "The shah was unhappy with American reform pressures, especially as they threatened his one-man rule, but felt he had to make some concessions" ^[1]. The plan started with a land reform which was the brainchild of Dr. Arsanjani. When he became too popular the shah removed him from the office.

In 1962, the shah arrested National Front leaders and simultaneously tried to create a reformist image by adding other reforms to the Arsanjani's land reform. To enhance his own and his regime's popularity he called in early 1963 for a national plebiscite on a combined six-point program. 1. land reform, 2. sale of government-owned factories to finance land reform, 3.a new election law including woman suffrage, 4. the nationalization of forests, 5. a national literacy corps, mainly for rural teaching, and 6. a plan to give workers a share of industrial profits. The vote, which was boycotted by the National Front on the grounds that such programs should be referred to a freely elected parliament, was held in January 1963. Richard Cottam, an Iranian specialist and former state Department official, tried to explain that the election was neither free nor a victory for democracy: "Have we now all become to enamored of economic determinism to expect this one act to produce a happy non-comunist political stability?"^[2]

This was called White Revolution, and later other reforms measures were added. In its final form it consisted of 19 elements that were introduced over a period of 15 years.

1- Land Reforms Program and Abolishing Feudalism: The government bought the land from the feudal land lords at a fair price and sold it to the peasants at 30% below the market value, with the loan being payable over 25 years at very low interest rates. This made it possible for 1.5 million peasant families, who had once been nothing more than slaves, to own the lands that they had been cultivating all their lives. Given that average size of a peasant family was 5, land reforms program brought freedom to 9 million people, or 40% of Iran's population.

2- Nationalization of Forests and Pasturelands: Introduced many measures, not only to protect the national resources and stop the destruction of forests and pasturelands, but also to further develop and cultivate them. More than 9 million tress were planted in 26 regions, creating 70,000 acres of "green belts" around cities and on the borders of the major highways.

3- Privatization of the Government Owned Enterprises, manufacturing plants and factories by selling their shares to the public and the old feudal lords, thus creating a whole new class of factory owners who could now help to industrialize the country.

4- Profit Sharing for industrial workers in private sector enterprises, giving the factory workers and employees 20% share of the net profits of the places where they worked and securing bonuses based on higher productivity or reductions in costs.

5- Extending the Right to Vote to Women, who had no voice and were suppressed by Islamic traditions. This measure was widely criticized by the clergy.

6- Formation of the Literacy Corps, so that those who had a high school diploma and were required to serve their country as soldiers could do so in fighting illiteracy in the villages. At this point in time 2/3 of the population was illiterate.

7- Formation of the Health Corps to extend public health care throughout the villages and rural regions of Iran. In 3 years, almost 4,500 medical groups were trained; nearly 10 million cases were treated by the Corps.

8- Formation of the Reconstruction and Development Corps to teach the villagers the modern methods and techniques of farming and keeping livestock. Agricultural production between 1964 and 1970 increased by 80% in tonnage and 67% in value.

9- Formation of the Houses of Equity where 5 village elders would be elected by the villagers, for a period of 3 years, to act as arbitrators in order to help settle minor offences and disputes. By 1977 there were 10,358 Houses of Equity serving over 10 million people living in over 19,000 villages across the country.

10- Nationalization of all Water Resources, introduction of projects and policies in order to conserve and benefit from Iran's limited water resources. Many dams were constructed and five more were under construction in 1978. It was as a result of these measures that the area of land under irrigation increased from 2 million acres, in 1968, to 5.6 million in 1977.

11- Urban and Rural Modernization and Reconstruction with the help of the Reconstruction and Development Corps. Building of public baths, schools and libraries; installing water pumps and power generators for running water and electricity.

12- Didactic Reforms that improved the quality of education by diversifying the curriculum in order to adapt to the necessities of life in the modern world.

13- Workers' Right to Own Shares in the Industrial Complexes where they worked by turning Industrial units, with 5 years history and over, into public companies, where up to 99% of the shares in the state-owned enterprises and 49% of the shares of the private companies would be offered for sale to the workers of the establishment at first and then to the general public.

14- Price Stabilization and campaign against unreasonable profiteering (1975). Owners of factories and large chain stores were heavily fined, with some being imprisoned and other's licenses being revoked. Sanctions were imposed on multi-national foreign companies and tons of merchandise stored for speculative purposes were confiscated and sold to consumers at fixed prices.

15- Free and Compulsory Education and a daily free meal for all children from kindergarten to eighth grade. In 1978, 25% of Iranians were enrolled in public schools alone. In that same year there were 185,000 students of both sexes studying in Iran's universities. In addition to the above there were over 100,000 students pursuing their studies abroad, of which 50,000 were enrolled in colleges and universities in the United States.

16- Free Food for Needy Mothers and for all newborn babies up to the age of two.

17- Introduction of Social Security and National Insurance for all Iranians. National Insurance system provided for up to 100% of the wages during retirement.

18- Stable and Reasonable Cost of Renting or Buying of Residential Properties (1977). Controls were placed on land prices and various forms of land speculation.

19- Introduction of Measures to Fight against Corruption within the bureaucracy. Imperial Inspection Commission was founded, consisting of representatives from administrative bodies and people of proven integrity.

Despite the many economic reforms, the White Revolution failed to include sufficient measures increasing democratic representation in Iran at the executive branch of government, though other democratic changes were implemented, such as extending suffrage to women. Also, a number of the reforms were botched or fell victim to corruption. An example of this were the land reform programs which did not give most peasants enough land to live on, creating widespread discontent.

The powerful Shi'ite clergy were also angered at the reforms that removed much of their traditional powers in the realms of education and family law, as well as lessening their previously strong influence in the rural areas. Though the White Revolution contributed towards the economic and technological advancement of Iran, the failures of some of the land reform programs and the partial lack of democratic reforms, as well as severe antagonism towards the White Revolution from the clergy and landed elites, would ultimately contribute to the Shah's downfall during the Iranian Revolution in 1979.