6 - Sovereignty’s Interlude: Iran’s Oil in 1951–1954

Summary

The tumultuous period of the nationalisation of Iran’s oil industry during the tenure of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq, which began with its approval in 1951 and concluded with the signing of the consortium agreement in 1954, serves as the focus of the present analysis. This brief, full-scale nationalization, lasting only three years, was characterised by significant and decisive changes, including the bloody strike of March 1951 and the coup in August 1953. Following the coup, the nationalisation efforts were effectively terminated, and a year later, a new agreement was signed with a consortium of major oil companies, where the former Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, now renamed British Petroleum, held a 40 per cent stake. The primary focus of this research is the impact of nationalisation on the lives and work of the oil industry’s workers during this period. It questions whether Mosaddeq’s government was able to implement fundamental improvements in the workers’ conditions in such a short timeframe. Additionally, it explores the forms of workers’ support for the nationalisation of the oil industry and investigates why the workers, who had previously engaged radically in the bloody strikes of 1946 and 1951, were absent from the political scene during the 1953 coup.