AN AUGURY OF REVOLUTION: THE IRANIAN STUDENT ...

on six issues. Land reform was one of the most far-reaching and controversial points according
to Iranian students. 134 In addition, women received the right to vote, Iranian forests were
nationalized, and a literacy corps to educate the rural population was created. Two of the points
focused on Iranian factories. Government-owned factories were to be sold to finance the land
reform, and workers were promised a share of industrial profits. Land reform and women’s
suffrage resulted in the alienation of wealthy landowners and the clergy. Urbanization increased
throughout the 1960s and 1970s; the unsuccessful land reform forced many peasants to the cities
which had more opportunities for industrial work after the sale of government-owned factories.
Other points of reform were subsequently added, and while industrialization occurred, there was
little actual political liberalization. 135
The extent to which the reform initiatives were influenced by the United States was well
known amongst circles of Iranian students. President Kennedy, along with national security
advisor and prominent economist Walt Whitman Rostow, played a major role in influencing the
shah’s reforms. Iranian student Payman Piedar later referred to the White Revolution as the
“Kennedy-Rostow Pact.” 136
The reforms, along with the brutal repression of political opposition
led to an escalation in student protests throughout 1963. Referring to the White Revolution, the
ISAUS said that it “was as much a ‘cure’ for the ills of the economy, as two asprins [sic] would
be to a patient suffering from terminal cancer.” 137 In the long run, the White Revolution was one
of the primary factors in fomenting revolutionary sentiment. The shah ultimately fell victim to
an uprising of the new urban class that was led by Muslim leaders. Iran was a rather unique
situation in which religion played a major role in an urban setting. This is partly due to the
134 CISNU, Iranian Peoples’ Movement, 1953-1973, Iran Report, no. 2, June 1974, 15-6.
135 Bill, The Eagle and the Lion, 131-53; Keddie, Modern Iran, 145; Pollack, The Persian Puzzle, 82-6.
136 “Interview with Payman Piedar,” The Northeastern Anarchist, (#10, Spring/Summer 2005),
http://www.nefac.net/node/1731 (accessed on 1 August 2008).
137 CISNU, Iranian Peoples’ Movement, 1953-1973, Iran Report, no. 2, June 1974, 12.
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