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Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas

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The Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas (OIPFG; Persian: سازمان چريک‌های فدايی خلق ايران, romanized: Sâzmân-e Čerik-hâye Fadâyi-e Xalğ-e Irân), simply known as Fadaiyan-e-Khalq (Persian: فداییان خلق, romanized: Fadâ'iān-e Xalğ, lit. 'Popular Self-sacrificers')[9] was an underground Marxist–Leninist guerrilla organization in Iran.[1]

Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas
سازمان چريک‌های فدايی خلق ايران
AbbreviationOIPFG[1]
SpokespersonMehdi Fatapour[2]
Secretary of the Central CommitteeFarrokh Negahdar[3]
Foundedlate 1963 initial activity[4]
April 1971 as the unified organization[1]
DissolvedJune 1980[5]
Merger ofJazani-Ẓarifi Group and Aḥmadzāda-Puyān-Meftāḥi Group[1]
Succeeded byOIPF (M)
OIPFG (M)
IPFG
HeadquartersTehran
NewspaperKar[5]
IdeologyCommunism
Marxism–Leninism
Anti-revisionism
Anti-imperialism
Political positionFar-left[6]
Colors  Red
AnthemAftabkaran-e-Jangal (lit. 'Sunplanters of Jungle')[7]
Party flag

LeadersHamid Ashraf  (KIA)
Ashraf Dehghani  (POW)
Dates of operation1971–1976[8]
1977[9]–1980
Group(s)Urban team, rural team[4]
Size3,000 (estimate)[6]
Allies
OpponentsIran Imperial State
 Islamic Republic
Battles and warsSiahkal incident

The OIPFG was one of the most important and influential armed groups during the Iranian Revolution, although this organization failed to achieve its goal and lost many of its members, it had a great impact on some radical Iranian intellectuals of its generation. After its formation, the loyalists were able to carry out several important and noisy operations and assassinations, such as the Siahkal incident, the explosion of electricity pylons, the explosion of some police stations, the assassination of Major General Farsiu, the assassination of Mohammad Sadeq Fateh Yazdi, one of the largest factories in Iran, attacking and robbing government banks, and bombing the offices of American oil companies.[11][12][13][14]

Origin

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The Fedaian began as a radical leftist guerilla group, established in 1971 as the Organization of the Iranian People's Fedai Guerillas.[15] By the 1960s the Shah's ability to repress dissent was decreasing. The establishment of the OIPFG can be contextualized in the growing global unrest towards imperialism and colonial rule.

The regime had used harsh violence to repress opposition in 1963, paving the way for more radical groups to form. The army's growing tendency to gun down protestors forced opposition into guerilla groups.[16] The OIPFG was formed and influenced by three different activist groups. The first was founded by Bijan Jazani, an activist and Marxist intellectual, in 1963. A student of political science, he had been in and out of prisons since the 1950s.[17] The second was an offshoot of the growing student movement in 1967, led by Ahmadzade and A.P. Pouyan.[18] The third group was formed in 1965 in Tabriz by a group of intellectuals. Included in the founders is the poet Ali Reza Nabdel, who would go on to write pamphlets for the organization.[19] All three groups merged in 1971, when both came to the conclusion that armed struggle was the only way to defeat the Shah's regime and American influence.[20]

The groups started to overlap in 1970, with the first armed attack being a robbery of a bank in Tehran in order to bankroll the new organization. By the end of the year, the group was unified and had a three-cell structure. An "urban team," a "publication team," and a "rural team."[21]

Ideology

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Ideologically, the group pursued an anti-imperialist agenda and embraced armed propaganda to justify its revolutionary armed struggle against Iran's monarchy system,[22] and believed in Materialism.[8] They rejected reformism, and were inspired by thoughts of Mao Zedong, Che Guevara, and Régis Debray.[5]

They criticized the National Front and the Liberation Movement as "Petite bourgeoisie paper organizations still preaching the false hope of peaceful change".[4] Fedai Guerrillas initially criticized the Soviet Union and the Tudeh Party as well, however they later abandoned the stance as a result of cooperation with the socialist camp.[5]

Bijan Jazani, known as the "intellectual father" of the organization, contributed to its ideology by writing a series of pamphlets such as "Struggle against the Shah's Dictatorship", "What a Revolutionary Must Know" and "How the Armed Struggle Will Be Transformed into a Mass Struggle?". The pamphlets were followed by Masoud Ahmadzadeh's treatise "Armed Struggle: Both a Strategy and a Tactic" and "The Necessity of Armed Struggle and the Rejection of the Theory of Survival" by Amir Parviz Pouyan.[4]

Electoral history

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Year Election Seats won
1979 Constitutional Assembly
0 / 73 (0%)
1980 Parliament
0 / 290 (0%)

Leadership

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The group was governed by collective leadership. Before the Iranian Revolution, its six-members leadership did not use the term 'central committee'.[23]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d Vahabzadeh, Peyman (28 March 2016) [7 December 2015]. "FADĀʾIĀN-E ḴALQ". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica. Bibliotheca Persica Press. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  2. ^ Vahabzadeh, Peyman (2010). Guerrilla Odyssey: Modernization, Secularism, Democracy, and the Fadai Period of National Liberation In Iran, 1971–1979. Syracuse University Press. p. 67. ISBN 978-0-8156-5147-5.
  3. ^ Muhammad Kamal (1986). "Iranian Left in Political Dilemma". Pakistan Horizon. 39 (3). Karachi: Pakistan Institute of International Affairs: 39–51. JSTOR 41393782.
  4. ^ a b c d Abrahamian, Ervand (1982). Iran Between Two Revolutions. Princeton University Press. pp. 483–9. ISBN 0-691-10134-5.
  5. ^ a b c d Ḥaqšenās, Torāb (27 October 2011) [15 December 1992]. "COMMUNISM iii. In Persia after 1953". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica. Fasc. 1. Vol. VI. New York City: Bibliotheca Persica Press. pp. 105–112. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
  6. ^ a b Donald Newton Wilber (2014). Iran, Past and Present: From Monarchy to Islamic Republic. Princeton University Press. p. 344. ISBN 978-1-4008-5747-0.
  7. ^ Annabelle Sreberny; Massoumeh Torfeh (2013), Cultural Revolution in Iran: Contemporary Popular Culture in the Islamic Republic, I.B. Tauris, p. 156, ISBN 978-1-78076-089-6
  8. ^ a b Mahmood T. Davari (2004). The Political Thought of Ayatollah Murtaza Mutahhari: An Iranian Theoretician of the Islamic State. Routledge. p. 61. ISBN 978-1-134-29488-6.
  9. ^ a b Hiro, Dilip (2013). "Fedai Khalq". A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Middle East. Interlink Publishing. pp. 483–9. ISBN 978-1-62371-033-0.
  10. ^ a b c Arie Perliger; William L. Eubank (2006), "Terrorism in Iran and Afghanistan: The Seeds of the Global Jihad", Middle Eastern Terrorism, Infobase Publishing, pp. 41–42, ISBN 978-1-4381-0719-6
  11. ^ مازیار بهروز، شورشیان آرمانخواه، ترجمه مهدی پرتوی، انتشارات ققنوس، صفحه ۱۲۱–۱۲۲.
  12. ^ چریک‌ها وارداتی نبودند، مازیار بهروز، مهرنامه، شماره ۴۱، اردیبهشت ۹۴، صفحه ۱۸۷–۱۸۶.
  13. ^ www.niknami.ir, Tohid Niknami (+98) 9125061396. "چریک‌های فدایی رها از اکثریت و اقلیت!-مؤسسه مطالعات و پژوهش‌های سیاسی". psri.ir. Retrieved 16 February 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  14. ^ "سیاهکل: "شکستی که حماسه شد"". BBC News فارسی (in Persian). 4 February 2011. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
  15. ^ "UNHCR Web Archive". webarchive.archive.unhcr.org. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  16. ^ Ufheil-Somers, Amanda (10 March 1980). "The Guerrilla Movement in Iran, 1963-1977". MERIP. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  17. ^ Ufheil-Somers, Amanda (10 March 1980). "The Guerrilla Movement in Iran, 1963-1977". MERIP. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  18. ^ "UNHCR Web Archive". webarchive.archive.unhcr.org. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  19. ^ Ufheil-Somers, Amanda (10 March 1980). "The Guerrilla Movement in Iran, 1963-1977". MERIP. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  20. ^ "UNHCR Web Archive". webarchive.archive.unhcr.org. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  21. ^ Ufheil-Somers, Amanda (10 March 1980). "The Guerrilla Movement in Iran, 1963-1977". MERIP. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  22. ^ Vahabzadeh, Peyman (2010). Guerrilla Odyssey: Modernization, Secularism, Democracy, and the Fadai Period of National Liberation In Iran, 1971–1979. Syracuse University Press. p. 100.
  23. ^ a b c d Maziar, Behrooz (2000). Rebels with a Cause: The Failure of the Left in Iran. I.B.Tauris. p. 209. ISBN 1-86064-630-1.
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