Sheikh the Dictator

Shah The Dictator

March 3, 1975
The New York Times Archives

TEHERAN, Iran, March 2 (AP) — Shah Mohammed Riza Pahlevi decreed Iran a one‐party state today and called on all. Iranians “who believe In the royal regime, the Iranian Constitution and the Iranian revolution” to join the new party.

The Shah also called for 49 per cent of the shares in all privately owned factories to be sold to their workers and for the public to buy the shares if the workers did not.

He announced that 99 per cent of the shares of all Government‐owned factories, with the exception of key industries such as oil, steel mills, copper and transport, are to be sold to their workers and to the public, with 1 per cent of the shares to be held by the Government with full management rights.

The Shah said that to improve living standards a minimum monthly wage of $184 would go into effect throughout Iran.
His actions were announced on nationwide radio and television. The Shah proclaimed Iran’s present two‐party system dissolved and replaced with a oneparty system for “at least the next two years.”

Premier Amir Abbas Hoveida, the announcement added, will lead the new party, which is to be called the National Resurrection party. Mr. Hoveida is now secretary general of the governing Iran Novin party, which was created in 1963.

The Opposition Mardom party faced leadership difficulties last January when its executive body ousted Nasser Ameri as leader. Mr. Ameri died in a car crash a few weeks later.

An unidentified Teheran politician was quoted by the radio as having said that both the Iran Novin and Mardom parties in practice had the same ideologies. The Shah’s decision was designed to unite the people under one leadership, the politician said.

Original article:

https://www.nytimes.com/1975/03/03/archives/shah-decrees-iran-a-oneparty-nation.html