‘A pretty kettle of fish’: United Nations assistance in the mass dismissal of labor in the Iranian oil industry, 1959–1960

ABSTRACT

This article examines the assignment of John Alexander-Sinclair, a British United Nations (UN) development expert, in Iran. In the late 1960s, Alexander-Sinclair was invited to arrange the ‘redeployment’ of 20,000 allegedly redundant oil workers and mediate between the consortium of European and American companies, which was in de facto control of the country’s oil industry, and the state-led National Iranian Oil Company, which was nominally in charge. His UN mission enabled the cooperation between Iranian officials and foreign companies, which eventually led to the severance of workers on a massive scale. Much of the existing scholarly work on the history of international organizations and labor has focused on the role of the former in advocating international norms to improve the lives of workers across the globe. This article, by contrast, examines the use of UN assistance as a means to circumvent workers’ existing protections and benefits. Second, the notion of a ‘rule of experts,’ which suggests that development practitioners gained unprecedented powers after World War II, dominates much of the secondary literature. By showing how the UN representative in Iran appeared as a rather impotent pawn in the politics of local interest groups, the article demonstrates the limits of this argument.

KEYWORDS:

• Iran
• United Nations
• development
• technical assistance
• oil
• redeployment
• resettlement

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. University of Oxford, Bodleian Library, United Nations Career Records Project (hereafter abbreviated UNCRP), MS.Eng.c.4660 (166), Scholtens to Entezam, 27 January 1958.

2. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4662 (75), Alexander-Sinclair to Ghavani, 20 September 1960.

3. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4661 (311), memo by Alexander-Sinclair, 3 June 1960.

4. For a similar case see Kott (2014).

5. For a discussion of the imperial roots of the UN see Mazower (2009).

6. These papers are part of the United Nations Career Records Project of Oxford University’s Bodleian Library.

7. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4660 (166), Scholtens to Entezam, 27 January 1958.

8. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4660 (166), Scholtens to Entezam, 27 January 1958.

9. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4660 (192), Job Description (no date).

10. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4660 (166), Scholtens to Entezam, 27 January 1958.

11. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4660 (166), Scholtens to Entezam, 27 January 1958.

12. Ibid.

13. Estimates in British foreign office papers went as far to suggest that 50% of workers were obsolete; see Jefroudi (2013), p.182.

14. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4660 (178), Notes on a Meeting in NIOC Offices, 20 December 1958.

15. Alexander-Sinclair was born in 1906 to a British Indian Army Officer and ‘a charming though slightly formidable’ Scots-Italian mother. He left a prestigious London school at age 16, to pursue work in the marble quarries of Tuscany, the cattle-herds of South America, and London’s commercial circles. After attending German universities, he entered the British diplomatic service in 1928, and spent the next 10 years in various consular posts in China. During World War II, he was briefly interned by the Japanese, freed in an exchange of officials in 1942, and subsequently posted to the British embassy in Washington. In 1944, he was seconded to the very first UN body, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency and continued to work for UN, as well as other non-governmental relief and refugee agencies since. In 1958, he switched careers again to become a UN Technical Assistance advisor and assist the Thai government in the reduction of opium trade and consumption in the country. Lacking any obvious experience in this field, a stopover en route to South East Asia in Tehran to talk to the UN narcotics expert in Iran seemed advisable. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c4665 (3f), Obituary Draft by Aldington, 30 October 1988; Alexander-Sinclair Obituary, The Times, 4 November 1988.

16. For the Sardinia project see UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4658 & MS.Eng.c.4659.

17. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c4665 (3f), Obituary Draft by Aldington, 30 October 1988; Alexander-Sinclair Obituary, The Times, 4 November 1988.

18. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4660 (188).

19. Ibid.

20. This so-called ‘funds-in-trust’ scheme was a common arrangement for UN development assistance in the 1950s and 1960s; see Bhouraskar (2007, p.108).

21. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4660 (188), Hoyveda to Power, 4 January 1959.

22. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4660 (245), Alexander-Sinclair to Ahmed, 19 April 1959.

23. Ibid.

24. Ibid.

25. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4660 (245), Alexander-Sinclair to Ahmed, 19 April 1959.

26. Ibid.

27. Ibid.

28. Ibid.

29. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4660 (259), Preliminary Report by Alexander-Sinclair, 30 April 1959. Alexander-Sinclair did not, it appears, consult with UN headquarters on substantive matters. Rather, he consulted with locals and reported in February 1960, e.g. of having found ‘a staunch supporter’ in labor attaché Alan Read, from the U.S embassy.

30. For the depoliticization argument of development, see Ferguson (1990).

31. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4662 (189), Official Report by Alexander-Sinclair, November 1969.

32. Ibid.

33. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4662 (243), Confidential Annex to December 1960 Report, by Alexander-Sinclair.

34. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4662 (189), Official Report by Alexander-Sinclair, November 1969.

35. Jafari, ‘Reasons to Revolt,’ 204.

36. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4660 (259), Preliminary Report by Alexander-Sinclair, 30 April 1959.

37. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4662 (189), Official Report by Alexander-Sinclair, November 1969.

38. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4660 (259), Preliminary Report by Alexander-Sinclair, 30 April 1959. As usual, he did not bother to go into any details as to what kind of demands were being advanced.

39. Ibid.

40. Ibid.

41. Ibid.

42. Ibid.

43. On modernization theory, see, e.g. Gilman (2003).

44. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4660 (259), Preliminary Report by Alexander-Sinclair, 30 April 1959. Emphasis in original.

45. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4660 (259), Preliminary Report by Alexander-Sinclair, 30 April 1959.

46. Ibid.

47. Ibid.

48. Ibid.

49. Ibid.

50. Ibid.

51. Ibid.

52. Ibid.

53. Ibid.

54. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4661 (57), letter by Alexander-Sinclair, 18 May 1959.

55. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4661 (26), ‘Redundant Labour in the Oil Industry,’ 18 June 1959. (Scholtens did not elaborate how he thought building housing units would solve the problem of allegedly superfluous workers. According to the memoir of a former NIOC official, Scholtens took great pride in leaving a physical legacy behind – irrespective of its usefulness to workers. Referring to housing units Shell had built under his auspices in Indonesia and the OPCOs’ construction projects in Iran, Scholtens allegedly boasted: ‘I’ve built a part of the world’. See Farmanfarmaian and Farmanfarmaian (1997, p. 318).

56. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4661 (24), Hoveyda to Entezam, 18 June 1959.

57. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4661 (39), ‘Claims of the Operating Companies Concerning the Redundant Workers,’ 18 May 1959.

58. Ibid.

59. Ibid.

60. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4661 (24), Hoveyda to Entezam, 18 June 1959.

61. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4661 (53), Alexander-Sinclair to Sa Pereira, 17 July 1959.

62. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4661 (64), Minutes Meeting 29 August 1959.

63. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4661 (133), Alexander-Sinclair to Bloch, 23 December 1959. The UN headquarters were not particularly helpful. The Social Service Section simply concurred that it was a difficult assignment ‘to persuade labour to leave a good position and accept something possibly less desirable’. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c4661 (209), Branscombe to Alexander-Sinclair, 8 April 1960.

64. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4661 (197), Alexander-Sinclair to Wu, 6 March 1960.

65. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4661 (213), Quarterly Report by Alexander-Sinclair, 15 April 1960.

66. Ibid.

67. Ibid.

68. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4661 (26), ‘Redundant Labour in the Oil Industry,’ 18 June 1959.

69. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4661 (133), Alexander-Sinclair to Bloch, 23 December 1959.

70. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4661 (161), Alexander-Sinclair to Wu, 30 January 1960.

71. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4661 (184), Letter dated February 1960.

72. Ibid.

73. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4662 (243), Confidential Annex to Report by Alexander-Sinclair, December 1960.

74. Ibid.

75. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4661 (155), Record by Alexander-Sinclair, January 1960.

76. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4661 (260), Report to OILRU by Alexander-Sinclair, 11 May 1960.

77. Ibid.

78. Ibid.

79. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4661 (276), ‘Redeployment of Labour – Agricultural Project,’ 16 May 1960.

80. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4661 (260), Report to OILRU by Alexander-Sinclair, 11 May 1960.

81. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4661 (270), NIOC Meeting, 9 May 1960; MS.Eng.c.4661 (292), OILRU Meeting, 26 May 1960.

82. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4661 (293), ‘Drivers for Teheran Bus Company,’ no date.

83. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4661 (184), Letter dated February 1960.

84. Ibid.

85. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4661 (311), memo by Alexander-Sinclair, 3 June 1960.

86. Ibid.

87. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4662 (86), Alexander-Sinclair to Mansour, 26 September 1960.

88. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4661 (351), Alexander-Sinclair to Hoveyda, 29 June 1960.

89. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4662 (113). Alexander-Sinclair to Rouhany, 1 October 1960.

90. Ibid.

91. UNCRP, Ms.Eng.c.4662 (179), Alexander-Sinclair to Wu, 16 November 1960.

92. Ibid.

93. Ibid.

94. Ibid.

95. Ibid.

96. Ibid.

97. Ibid.

98. Ibid.

99. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4661 (273), Meeting at NIOC, 5 April 1960.

100. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4662 (122), OILRU Meeting 12 October 1960; MS.Eng.c.4662 (119), ‘Prayer Meeting’, 5 October 1960.

101. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4662 (189), Official UN Report, November 1960.

102. Ibid.

103. Ibid.

104. The NIOC further objected to the report’s tentative acceptance of the figure of 15,000 ‘surplus workers’. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4662 (255), Alexander-Sinclair to Power, 6 February 1961.

105. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4662 (189), Official UN Report, November 1960.

106. Ibid.

107. Ibid.

108. Ibid. Emphasis in original.

109. Ibid.

110. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4662 (243), Confidential Annex to Report by Alexander-Sinclair, December 1960.

111. Ibid.

112. Thomas Field goes as far to suggest that development theory has a general tendency to justify authoritarianism. See Field, From Development to Dictatorship. In a personal letter to Hoveyda, Alexander-Sinclair argued that young Iranians ‘of Mossadec persuasion’ had to be given a chance to run the country. The UN expert wrote that the he shared Hoveyda’s belief that the Shah wanted to create a true democracy, but thought he could never succeed as long as power remained in the hands of a hundred families, of which Hoveyda’s was one. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4662 (259), Preliminary Report by Alexander-Sinclair, 30 April 1959.

113. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4662 (259), Preliminary Report by Alexander-Sinclair, 30 April 1959.

114. Ibid.

115. Ibid. Emphasis in original.

116. Ibid.

117. Ibid.

118. Ibid.

119. Ibid.

120. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4661 (57), letter by Alexander-Sinclair, 18 May 1959.

121. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4662 (17), Alexander-Sinclair to Wu, 15 July 1960.

122. Ibid.

123. UNCRP, MS.Eng.c.4662 (75), Alexander-Sinclair to Ghavani, 20 September 1960.

Additional information

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Eva-Maria Muschik

Eva-Maria Muschik is a lecturer at the Center for Global History at the Freie Universität Berlin. She is currently completing a book manuscript on how United Nations officials sought to shape the dissolution of European empires through the provision of development assistance.