Breaking the voices of the oil industry workers in the uproar of the National Oil Movement from 1329-1332 (History from below)

In the historiography of oil nationalization, many works have been done to describe the behavior and analyze the thoughts of political elites and statesmen, and hundreds of books and articles have been written about it. The role of the Jebhey-e Meli (National Front) party, the influence of the disobedient clergy, the viewpoints and performance of the parties, especially the Tudeh Party, and the reaction of the court and political elites in favor of the Pahlavi government are all fascinating topics that have been widely studied, but less attention has been paid to the role and image of the oil industry workers throughout this great event. The aim of the author of this article is to shed light on the role of the workers in the implementation of the law on the nationalization of oil and to show how a trade union movement turned into a national and xenophobic movement. To what extent did the demands of oil industry workers coincide with the demands of the proponents of oil nationalization? How influential were oil industry workers in the oil nationalization movement? The author of this article examined the history of oil nationalization from the viewpoint of subordinate people and discussed the protests and demands of workers during the announcement of the oil nationalization law until the dissolution of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. The main research tools were searching archival records, newspapers and oral history interviews. The main finding of this research is that the demands of the oil industry workers did not coincide with the demands of the proponents of oil nationalization at the beginning, but were only union demands and requests for the well-being of the workers and according to the regulations of the International Labor Organization. During the strikes, slogans and demands changed and oil industry workers were able to consistently influence the oil nationalization movement.