To express their differences with other parties and in order to dominate their party environment, the IRP leaders took it on themselves to provide their fellow party members and the masses with a set of ideological guidelines. They placed a high value on ideology education as the most effective method of maintaining party loyalty among all members.
Hojatoleslam Rafsanjani, Ayatollah Behesti and Hojatoleslam Khamenei started presenting lectures for the members of the IRP Central Council and in some cases for a larger audience. For those who did not have the chance of attending these classes, the party thought of a substitute. The proceedings of the ideology classes were published in the Islamic Republic newspaper, the organ of the party. Later, the IRP clerics collected the outline of their lectures in a single book called
Mavaze’e ma [our stances or our positions]. Rafsanjani specifically gives a big portion of his
memoirs to the proceedings of the lectures he provided for the IRP Central Council. These lectures were convened in his office as well as party headquarters, sometimes even in his office in the Majles.
In an environment where most political groups were claiming ultimate revolutionary credentials, it was vital for the IRP to show to the public that they alone were the possessors and the holders of the true revolutionary legitimacy. In order to achieve this goal they had to mark their ideological territory and make known their ideological differences with the other parties in a noticeable way. The IRP wanted to show a clear-cut disparity with all the other political organisations. If they were to rule without the others, the public opinion in general and their targeted social base in particular had to know what made the party so outstanding and what did they have in their ideological baggage, that wasn’t already provided by the opposition such as the MKO, secular nationalists, Marxists, and the non-Khomeinist Islamists such as the People’s Islamic Republic Party (PIRP).
8.3.1. Mavaze Ma [Our Positions]
Our Positions, or Mavaze ma, was an important account of IRP’s position in the beginning of the revolution. This 86-page booklet gives details of the party’s beliefs, principles and aims and objectives in the matters of governance. The book is divided into eight321 topic areas which explains IRP’s position.
1. Worldview and ideology
2. Understanding of the Iranian social structure 3. Position on the cultural revolution
4. Administrative and educational policies 5. Ideal judiciary system
6. Views on policing and defence 7. Economic policy
8. Foreign policy
All the mentioned positions in this manifesto booklet have a striking resemblance with the Iranian constitution. This should not surprise us given that the majority of the constitutional assembly members were from IRP. In addition IRP controlled CIR, the legislative body with vast authority that pre-existed the constitutional assembly that arranged the draft constitution. In other words
Mavaze ma was IRP’s version of the aims and objectives of the Islamic republic’s constitution.
Hashemi Rafsanjani explains the process through which the IRP clerics have worked together to produce Mavaze ma.
One of the valuable outcomes of the ideology classes in the party was the Mavaze hezb [party stances] booklet. The Mavaze was produced by five of us, Ayatollah Beheshti, Ayatollah Khamenei, Ayatollah Mousavi Ardabili, Dr. Bahonar and me. Our work method involved that each of us specify a section of the Islamic and ideological studies for his research, and then we bring the assignments to our official meeting. In that meeting each of us presented the findings of his research so if there was any inadequacy in the work, it would be resolved. At the end we have approved the final draft and passed it to the respective section of the party to be put in use as an educational reference. 322
In the book Mavaze ma they put emphasise on the role of clergy in the society.
The clergy were at the forefront of all the liberation movements that took place in our country during the last hundred years and were an effective part of the leadership, however in the period of
321 Mavaze ma, Tehran, The Islamic Republic Party Publications, 1979. 322 Hashemi Rafsanjani, Enghelab va piroozi, p. 286.
our people’s recent revolution that started in 1962 and concluded in victory in 1979, the leadership was defiantly in the hand of a grand marja’ and a maestro and a great tutor and a distinguished cleric who was Imam Khomeini. Many other clerics were assisting him in this grave duty and the heroic people have trusted them with this role and with a great selflessness [the heroic people] have succeeded in their movement.323
To increase their social base the IRP leaders had no choice but to take on a position that incorporated the socialist ideals into the Islamic ones. The difficulty was how to do this without falling into what the IRP leaders considered the category of Elteghati (ideologically not pure). In addition they did not want to put the interests of Bazaaris of Motalefeh at risk.
The IRP manifesto declared as its aims and objectives, the eradication of poverty in terms of providing the essential provisions, housing, health service and education for everyone.324 About a quarter of the eighty-six pages in the book Mavaze ma is allocated to the economic policies and guidelines. In short IRP’s economic policies were in support of a state-controlled economy. The manifesto, in what looks like a duplicate from the article 44 of the Islamic Republic’s constitution, leaves little scope for the private section.
The Islamic Republic must decisively reject the precedence of capital over social relations; moreover it must eliminate the entire socioeconomic basis that allows the capitalists to exploit workers. Recognizing the ownership of wealth and profit, within certain limits, should never result in accepting the supremacy of the capital and the capitalist over social relations, for this represents the ominous Western system from which we are distant and of which we are disgusted.325
Ayatollah Beheshti was able to select the fitting ideology and subsequently appeal to the social base he desired, enabling IRP to dominate the environment and enhance its collective incentive capital. The IRP ideology that was coming with Khomeini’s blessings enabled IRP to increase its power in a relation of favourable exchange with their social base; IRP gave collective and selective incentives in return for participation, however, IRPs leader (Ayatollah Behesti) who was himself under the influence of a charismatic leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, knew well that he and his party would lose a lot if they did not have Khomeini’s blessings.
In the preparations for entering the Constitutional Assembly election, Khomeini asked IRP to merge the Motalefeh party into itself. This was an illogical decision that was not going well with the party’s chosen ideology and hunting ground and would interrupt the party’s institutionalisation in the coming years. However what was most essential for Khomeini was the survival of the
323
Mavaze ma, p. 34.
324 Mavaze ma, p. 64. 325 Mavaze ma, pp. 72-73.
Islamic Nezam [regime or system] and not the survival of a political party. At that critical juncture in the Iranian post-revolution history he felt that a Grand Coalition between the Khomeinists was necessary for the survival and consolidation of his regime; what would be the consequences of such a merger for IRP was secondary for him.
Despite what seemed like a non-negotiable position over the legitimacy of the state’s absolute control over the economy, the IRP leaders did not want to alienate the Bazaar especially when they have merged with the Motalefeh. They did not want to limit the Bazaar that had controlled the retailer business in Iran for many centuries. But for sectors such as oil, foreign commerce and heavy industry they adopted a statist policy and have championed a policy of grand nationalisation. It could be suggested that the conservative IRP clerics, in addition to the Motalefeh elites who joined the party by Khomeini’s orders, preferred a model that was authoritarian and rentier in nature with room for semi-autonomous crony Bazaaris. However, the party could not hold its consensus for a long time over the role of state in the economy after the catastrophic death of both Beheshti and, shortly after, Bahonar. In addition the eradication of the secular and religious opposition (the external enemy that was making the party members put their differences aside) meant that party elites could now turn against each other. Those IRP members who were gathered around Mir-Hossein Mousavi started to show claws at the more conservative elements gathered around Khamenei and Rafsanjani.