Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas explained

Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas
Native Name:سازمان چريک‌های فدايی خلق ايران
Native Name Lang:fa
Colorcode:
  1. C00101
Abbreviation:OIPFG
Leader1 Name:Farrokh Negahdar[1]
Leader1 Title:Secretary of the Central Committee
Spokesperson:Mehdi Fatapour[2]
Founded:late 1963
April 1971
Dissolved:June 1980
Merger:Jazani-Ẓarifi Group and Aḥmadzāda-Puyān-Meftāḥi Group
Successor:OIPF (M)
OIPFG (M)
IPFG
Headquarters:Tehran
Newspaper:Kar
Ideology:Communism
Marxism–Leninism
Anti-revisionism
Anti-imperialism
Position:Far-left
Colors: Red
Flag:
State:Iran
Anthem:Aftabkaran-e-Jangal
War:Black September, Iranian Revolution, Iran hostage crisis, Consolidation of the Iranian Revolution
Active:1971–1976
1977–1980
Clans:Urban team, rural team[3]
Size:3,000 (estimate)[4]
Allies:
Opponents: Imperial State
Battles:Siahkal incident

The Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas (OIPFG; Persian: سازمان چريک‌های فدايی خلق ايران|Sâzmân-e Čerik-hâye Fadâyi-e Xalğ-e Irân), simply known as Fadaiyan-e-Khalq (Persian: فداییان خلق|Fadâ'iān-e Xalğ|lit=Popular Self-sacrificers)[5] was an underground Marxist–Leninist guerrilla organization in Iran.[6]

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.[7] [8] [9] [10]

Origin

The Fedaian began as a radical leftist guerilla group, established in 1971 as the Organization of the Iranian People's Fedai Guerillas.[11] 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.[12] 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.[13] The second was an offshoot of the growing student movement in 1967, led by Ahmadzade and A.P. Pouyan.[14] 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. [15] 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.[16]

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."[17]

Ideology

Ideologically, the group pursued an anti-imperialist agenda and embraced armed propaganda to justify its revolutionary armed struggle against Iran's monarchy system,[18] and believed in Materialism.[19] They rejected reformism, and were inspired by thoughts of Mao Zedong, Che Guevara, and Régis Debray.[20]

They criticized the National Front and the Liberation Movement as "Petite bourgeoisie paper organizations still preaching the false hope of peaceful change".[3] 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.[20]

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.[3]

Electoral history

YearElectionSeats won
1979Constitutional Assembly
1980Parliament

Leadership

The group was governed by collective leadership. Before the Iranian Revolution, its six-members leadership did not use the term 'central committee'.[21]

+ Leadership (Until 1979)NameAlias
1Ahmad Gholamian-LangerudiHadi
2Qorbanali RahimpurMajid
3Qasem Siyadati
4Farrokh Negahdar
5Reza Ghebra'iMansour
6
+ Executive Committee (1979–1980)Name
1Farrokh Negahdar
2Mostafa Madani
3Kazem Mobini
+ Central Committee (1979–1980)NameAlias
1Ahmad Gholamian-LangerudiHadi
2Qorbanali RahimpurMajid
3Mehdi Fattapur
4Farrokh Negahdar
5Reza Ghebra'iMansour
6Mostafa Madani
7Kazem Mobini
8Asghar SoltanabadiKiumars
9Ali Tavasoli
10Haydar
11Akbar

See also

Notes and References

  1. Iranian Left in Political Dilemma. Pakistan Institute of International Affairs. Pakistan Horizon. 3. 39. 1986. 39–51. Muhammad Kamal. 41393782. Karachi.
  2. Book: Vahabzadeh. Peyman. Guerrilla Odyssey: Modernization, Secularism, Democracy, and the Fadai Period of National Liberation In Iran, 1971–1979. 2010. Syracuse University Press. 67. 978-0-8156-5147-5.
  3. Book: Abrahamian, Ervand. 1982. Iran Between Two Revolutions. 0-691-10134-5. Princeton University Press. 483–9. registration.
  4. Book: Donald Newton Wilber. Iran, Past and Present: From Monarchy to Islamic Republic. Princeton University Press. 344. 2014. 978-1-4008-5747-0.
  5. Book: Hiro, Dilip. 2013. Fedai Khalq. A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Middle East. 978-1-62371-033-0. Interlink Publishing. 483–9.
  6. Encyclopedia: FADĀʾIĀN-E ḴALQ. Encyclopædia Iranica. 28 March 2016. 7 December 2015. Bibliotheca Persica Press. Vahabzadeh. Peyman. Yarshater. Ehsan. Ehsan Yarshater. 1 August 2016.
  7. Book: مازیار بهروز، شورشیان آرمانخواه، ترجمه مهدی پرتوی، انتشارات ققنوس، صفحه ۱۲۱–۱۲۲.
  8. Book: چریک‌ها وارداتی نبودند، مازیار بهروز، مهرنامه، شماره ۴۱، اردیبهشت ۹۴، صفحه ۱۸۷–۱۸۶.
  9. Web site: 2023-02-16. Tohid Niknami (+98) 9125061396. en. www.niknami.ir. چریک‌های فدایی رها از اکثریت و اقلیت!-مؤسسه مطالعات و پژوهش‌های سیاسی. psri.ir.
  10. Web site: 2021-11-15. 2011-02-04. fa. سیاهکل: "شکستی که حماسه شد". BBC News فارسی.
  11. Web site: UNHCR Web Archive . 2024-02-28 . webarchive.archive.unhcr.org.
  12. Web site: Ufheil-Somers . Amanda . 1980-03-10 . The Guerrilla Movement in Iran, 1963-1977 . 2024-02-28 . MERIP . en-US.
  13. Web site: Ufheil-Somers . Amanda . 1980-03-10 . The Guerrilla Movement in Iran, 1963-1977 . 2024-02-28 . MERIP . en-US.
  14. Web site: UNHCR Web Archive . 2024-02-28 . webarchive.archive.unhcr.org.
  15. Web site: Ufheil-Somers . Amanda . 1980-03-10 . The Guerrilla Movement in Iran, 1963-1977 . 2024-02-28 . MERIP . en-US.
  16. Web site: UNHCR Web Archive . 2024-02-28 . webarchive.archive.unhcr.org.
  17. Web site: Ufheil-Somers . Amanda . 1980-03-10 . The Guerrilla Movement in Iran, 1963-1977 . 2024-02-28 . MERIP . en-US.
  18. Book: Vahabzadeh. Peyman. Guerrilla Odyssey: Modernization, Secularism, Democracy, and the Fadai Period of National Liberation In Iran, 1971–1979. 2010. Syracuse University Press. 100.
  19. Book: Mahmood T. Davari. The Political Thought of Ayatollah Murtaza Mutahhari: An Iranian Theoretician of the Islamic State. 2004. Routledge. 978-1-134-29488-6. 61.
  20. Encyclopedia: COMMUNISM iii. In Persia after 1953. Encyclopædia Iranica. 27 October 2011. 15 December 1992. Bibliotheca Persica Press. New York City. VI. Ḥaqšenās. Torāb . Yarshater. Ehsan. Ehsan Yarshater. 12 September 2016. Fasc. 1. 105–112.
  21. Book: Maziar. Behrooz. 2000. Rebels with a Cause: The Failure of the Left in Iran. I.B.Tauris. 1-86064-630-1. 209.