AN AUGURY OF REVOLUTION: THE IRANIAN STUDENT ...

Soviet-style communism. The ISAUS stated that the “struggles of the peoples of Vietnam,
Laos, Combodia [sic], Palestine, Dhofar, Mozambique, Guinnea-Bissau, as well as many other
peoples of the Third World… did not leave the Iranian people’s movement uneffected [sic].” 277
This set of beliefs became known as “Third Worldism.” 278
The struggles of the Third World provided anti-regime Iranians with “a fresh source of
energy” in their battle against the shah. 279 The emerging wars of liberation and Chinese and
Cuban versions of Marxism became very influential in student movements throughout the world.
Revolutionary wars were taking place in Algeria, Vietnam, and the Congo, and had already taken
place in Cuba and China. Many were influenced by the Cuban Revolution, and Che Guevara’s
Guerilla Warfare was published in Iranian student publications. 280 By the early 1960s the Sino-
Soviet split had emerged, and Maoism became a powerful influence among both Iranian leftists
and nationalists. As a result, the Iranian student movement began to be split internally between
hard-liners and soft-liners. 281 In the process, loyalties to the independent-minded National Front
and Soviet-directed Tudeh Party waned as new philosophies emerged. The ideologies of Iranian
students were also highly affected by the shah’s foreign policy. Any influence that the Tudeh
Party still had in the Iranian student movement diminished as a result of the shah’s
277 CISNU, Iranian Peoples’ Movement, 1953-1973, Iran Report, no. 2, June 1974, 16-17.
278 For a discussion of Third Worldism refer to Robert Malley, The Call from Algeria: Third Worldism, Revolution,
and the Turn to Islam (University of California Press, 1996). Malley analyzes the connection between politics,
economics, and ideology in Algeria to understand the rise and fall of Third Worldism from the mid-1950s through
the mid-1980s. For a critique of Third Worldism see Pascal Bruckner, The Tears of the White Man: Compassion as
Contempt, trans. William R. Beer (New York: The Free Press, 1986). Bruckner argues that Third Worldists
believed that the countries of the Third World are victims of the West. However, Bruckner’s thesis is that is the
Third Worldists who exploit the nations of the developing world because they use the suffering of others to benefit
their own ideological agendas. He is especially critical of Westerners who adopted Third Worldist ideologies.
279 CISNU, Iranian Peoples’ Movement, 1953-1973, Iran Report, no. 2, June 1974, 17.
280 Matin-asgari, Iranian Student Opposition to the Shah, 73, 78-82.
281 American Embassy in Caracas to Department of State, “Communist Split Mirrored in Extremist Student Politics,
9 November 1966, General Records of the Department of State, Central Foreign Policy Files, 1964-66, Box 1831,
Folder POL 13-2 Students and Youthgroups (1/1/65), RG 59, NA.
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