Abstract
This paper studies the impact of “White Revolution” looking from the local level of oil producing South and oil workers. It is argued that the Shah imposed reform package and the “revolutionary” discourse that he made use of did not only have an existence as a blue print provided by elites in power but also in the form(s) of its perception by the local people, in their selective ways of appropriating and experiencing it. This paper will deal with the following questions: How did the uplifting of women’s legal status affect the dynamics of power in the workers’ household? How did the workers experience the activities of the literacy and health corps in their cities? How did profit sharing schemes and the new “revolutionary” discourse affected workers' attitudes and demands and their political culture?
In 1963, an extensive reform project, planning the social and economic transformation of the Iranian society was introduced. This Shah imposed “White Revolution” involved land reform, profit sharing plans for industrial workers, legal reform improving women’s social and political status, and formation of literacy and health corps. Marking an important process of transformation in the Iranian society, in the context of rising oil revenues and increasing political suppression, the “White Revolution” has attained its significant place in the historiography of 20th cc. Iran. Taken as a top-down project, its historical impact has been evaluated with respect to the motivations of its architect(s) and the events following it in the linear historical trajectory that culminates with the Islamic Revolution of 1978-79. The narratives that indicate the weak points of its implementation or the uneven impact of its implementation with regards to the center and the periphery do not diverge from this state centered, top-down historiographical approach in as much as they employ a retrospective approach and focus on the failure or the success of the elites in power.
The State Archives of Iran, UK and USA, and fieldwork will be the sources of this research. In depth interviews with retired oil workers and their family members will be utilized to reconstruct a picture of the “White Revolution” through the lenses of the oil workers of Khuzestan. It is aimed to contribute to the literature challenging the top-down narration of the dynamics of social, political and economic change in Iran and provide input for a counter discourse focusing on the making of this change at the local level.
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