In the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, an active political movement
emerged on the streets of Iran's largest cities. Poor people began to
construct their own communities on unused urban lands, creating an
infrastructure----roads, electricity, running water, garbage collection,
and shelters----all their own. As the Iranian government attempted to
evict these illegal settlers, they resisted----fiercely and ultimately
successfully. This is the story of their economic and political
strategies.
