Misplaced Pages

Organization of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editNext edit →Content deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 20:31, 27 January 2019 editHistoryofIran (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers97,692 edits rv, whoa. take your concerns to the talk page, this smells like pov-pushing← Previous edit Revision as of 18:23, 28 January 2019 edit undoPahlevun (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Extended confirmed users33,054 editsm No, it isn't. The American assassinations was done by the MEK as the sources state, and this is a blatant hijack of the sources to write this.Next edit →
Line 6: Line 6:
| caption = Peykar's newspaper header including the slogan "'']''" under the ] | caption = Peykar's newspaper header including the slogan "'']''" under the ]
| split = ] | split = ]
| leader = Alireza Sepasi-Ashtiani<ref>{{cite book|last1=Maziar |first1=Behrooz|year=2000|title=Rebels With A Cause: The Failure of the Left in Iran|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=1860646301|page=72}}</ref> and Hossein Rouhani<ref>{{cite book|last1=Abrahamian|first1=Ervand|date=1999|title=Tortured Confessions: Prisons and Public Recantations in Modern Iran|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=0520922905|page=150}}</ref>
| leader =
Alireza Sepasi-Ashtiani,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Maziar |first1=Behrooz|year=2000|title=Rebels With A Cause: The Failure of the Left in Iran|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=1860646301|page=72}}</ref>
Hossein Rouhani<ref>{{cite book|last1=Abrahamian|first1=Ervand|date=1999|title=Tortured Confessions: Prisons and Public Recantations in Modern Iran|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=0520922905|page=150}}</ref>
<br>
Majid Sharif Vaquefi
<br>
Taghi Sahram
<br>
Baram Aram
<br>
Rahman Vahid Afrakhteh.<ref>{{cite book|authors=Arash Reisinezhad |title=The Shah of Iran, the Iraqi Kurds, and the Lebanese Shia |year=2018|publisher= Palgrave Macmillan|page=8|asin=B07FBB6L8Y}}</ref>
| newspaper = '']'' | newspaper = '']''
| foundation = 1975 | foundation = 1975
Line 28: Line 18:
| country = Iran | country = Iran
}} }}
'''Organization of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class''' ({{lang-fa|سازمان پیکار در راه آزادی طبقه کارگر|Sāzmān-e peykār dar rāh-e āzādī-e ṭabaqa-ye kārgar}}) or simply '''Peykar''' ({{lang-fa|پيکار|lit=battle}}), also called the '''Marxist Mojahedin,''' was a secular splinter group from the ] (PMoI/MEK), the largest of Iran's guerrilla groups. Its members broke away from the MEK to support secular ], rather than the ] modernism of the People's Mujahedin. Originating in 1972 and officially founded in 1975, by the early 1980s Peykar was no longer considered active.<ref>{{cite book|authors=Arash Reisinezhad |title=The Shah of Iran, the Iraqi Kurds, and the Lebanese Shia |year=2018|publisher= Palgrave Macmillan|page=8|asin=B07FBB6L8Y}}</ref> '''Organization of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class''' ({{lang-fa|سازمان پیکار در راه آزادی طبقه کارگر|Sāzmān-e peykār dar rāh-e āzādī-e ṭabaqa-ye kārgar}}) or simply '''Peykar''' ({{lang-fa|پيکار|lit=battle}}), also called the '''Marxist Mojahedin,''' was a secular splinter group from the ] (PMoI), the largest of Iran's guerrilla groups. Its members broke away from the PMoI to support of secular ], rather than the ] modernism of the People's Mujahedin. Founded in 1975, by the early 1980s Peykar was no longer considered active.


==History==
] from the original symbol of the ]]] ] from the original symbol of the ]]]
Mojahedin (ML) was founded in October 1975 when the majority of PMOI leaders who had not been imprisoned voted to accept ] and declare the organization ]. At this time the group continued to call itself People's Mujahedin.<ref name="Abrahamian, Ervand 1999 p.151">Abrahamian, Ervand, ''Tortured Confessions'', University of California Press, (1999), p.151</ref> Their position was laid out in a pamphlet entitled ''Manifesto on Ideological Issues'', where the group's central leadership declared "that after ten years of secret existence, four years of armed struggle, and two years of intense ideological rethinking, they had reached the conclusion that Marxism, not ], was the true revolutionary philosophy."
]


This meant two rival Mujahedins, each with its own publication, its own organization, and its own activities. This continued just before the 1979 ] when the Marxist Mojahedin changed its name to Peykar, on December 7, 1978 (16 Azar, 1357), the full name is: Organization of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class. This name was after the "St. Petersburg League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class", which was a left wing group in St. Petersburg, Russia. It was founded by Lenin in the autumn of 1895.<ref>''Iran Between Two Revolutions'' by Ervand Abrahamian, Princeton University Press, 1982, p.493-4</ref>
==Foundation==
In 1971, ] arrested and executed most of members of the MEK, including senior members and co-founders.<ref name="Ḥaqšenās">{{cite encyclopedia|title =COMMUNISM iii. In Persia after 1953|encyclopedia=]|date=27 October 2011|orig-year=15 December 1992|publisher=Bibliotheca Persica Press|location=New York City|url =http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/communism-iii|volume=VI|last1= Ḥaqšenās|first1=Torāb |editor-last=Yarshater|editor-first=Ehsan|editor-link=Ehsan Yarshater|access-date=12 September 2016|series=Fasc. 1|pages=105–112}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|authors=Alireza Jafarzadeh|title=The Iran Threat: President Ahmadinejad and the Coming Nuclear Crisis |year=2008|publisher= Palgrave Macmillan|page=8|isbn=978-0230601284}}</ref>

This led to Marxist members joining the organization, including Majid Sharif Vaquefi in 1972, and Taghi Sahram in 1973. Other Peykar leaders included Bahram Aram, Torab Hghshenas, Aireza Sepasi Ashtiani, Rahman Vahid Afrakhteh, Foad Rohani, Hasan Alapoush, and Mahboobeh Mottahedin.<ref>{{cite book|authors=Arash Reisinezhad |title=The Shah of Iran, the Iraqi Kurds, and the Lebanese Shia |year=2018|publisher= Palgrave Macmillan|page=8|asin=B07FBB6L8Y}}</ref>

Reforms within the MEK started at this time, with Taghi Shahram, Hossein Rohani, and Torab Haqshenas playing key roles in creating the Marxist-Leninist MEK that would later become Peykar. By 1973, the members of the Marxist-Leninist MEK launched an “internal ideological struggle”. Members that did not convert to Marxism were expelled or reported to SAVAK, and Majid Sharif Vaqefi, the only Muslim left in the Central Committee, was executed.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Vahabzadeh|first1=Peyman|title=Guerrilla Odyssey: Modernization, Secularism, Democracy, and the Fadai Period of National Liberation In Iran, 1971–1979|date=2010|publisher=Syracuse University Press|pages=100, 167–168}}</ref>

Muslim MEK members that did not convert to Marxism were expelled or reported to SAVAK.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Vahabzadeh|first1=Peyman|title=Guerrilla Odyssey: Modernization, Secularism, Democracy, and the Fadai Period of National Liberation In Iran, 1971–1979|date=2010|publisher=Syracuse University Press|pages=167–169}}</ref>
Between 1973 and 1975, the Marxist-Leninist MEK increased their armed operations in Iran. In 1973 they engaged in two street battles with Tehran police. Also in 1973 they bombed ten buildings including Plan Organization, Pan-American Airlines, Shell Oil Company, Hotel International, Radio City Cinema, and an export company owned by a Baha’i businessman.

==Schism==
Mojahedin (Marxist-Leninist) became an official organization on October 1975. At this time the group continued to call itself People's Mujahedin.<ref name="Abrahamian, Ervand 1999 p.151">Abrahamian, Ervand, ''Tortured Confessions'', University of California Press, (1999), p.151</ref> Their position was laid out in a pamphlet entitled ''Manifesto on Ideological Issues'', where the group's central leadership declared "that after ten years of secret existence, four years of armed struggle, and two years of intense ideological rethinking, they had reached the conclusion that Marxism, not ], was the true revolutionary philosophy."

This meant two rival Mujahedins, each with its own publication, its own organization, and its own activities. This continued just before the 1979 ] when the Marxist Mojahedin changed its name to Peykar (Organization of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class) on December 7, 1978. This name later became the "St. Petersburg League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class", which was a left wing group in St. Petersburg, Russia. It was founded by Lenin in the autumn of 1895.<ref>''Iran Between Two Revolutions'' by Ervand Abrahamian, Princeton University Press, 1982, p.493-4</ref>
Mujtabi Taleqani, son of ], was an MEK member who "converted" to Marxism. Mujtabi Taleqani, son of ], was one of the PMOI who "converted" to Marxism.
] was another prominent Peykar member. He ran for ] candidate in Tehran, and caused a major scandal in 1980 by divulging for the first time secret PMoI negotiations with ]. Ruhani also made Peykar "the first left-wing organization to personally criticize Khomeini", when he called Khomeini a "mediaeval obscurantist" and his regime "reactionary" and "fascistic." Later Ruhani was arrested and imprisoned. In May 1982 he appeared on television as one of the first of numerous opponents of the regime to recant their opposition in what is widely thought to have been the work of prison torture. Ruhani denounced his membership in Peykar, praised "the Imam" Khomeini and proclaimed that he felt freer in prison than "in the outside world."<ref>Abrahamian, Ervand, ''Tortured Confessions'', University of California Press, (1999), p.151-2</ref> ] was another prominent Peykar member. He ran for ] candidate in Tehran, and caused a major scandal in 1980 by divulging for the first time secret PMoI negotiations with ]. Ruhani also made Peykar "the first left-wing organization to personally criticize Khomeini", when he called Khomeini a "mediaeval obscurantist" and his regime "reactionary" and "fascistic." Later Ruhani was arrested and imprisoned. In May 1982 he appeared on television as one of the first of numerous opponents of the regime to recant their opposition in what is widely thought to have been the work of prison torture. Ruhani denounced his membership in Peykar, praised "the Imam" Khomeini and proclaimed that he felt freer in prison than "in the outside world."<ref>Abrahamian, Ervand, ''Tortured Confessions'', University of California Press, (1999), p.151-2</ref>


Peykar was operationally active in the early 1980s, mostly conducting small-scale insurgency-style raids in Northern Iran, though the group was also responsible for one hostage situation at the Iranian consulate in Geneva in 1982.<ref></ref> Peykar suffered after the Mujahedin June 1981 uprising, which it did not support but whose members were "arrested and executed en masse" afterwards nonetheless.<ref name="Abrahamian, Ervand 1999 p.151"/> According to MIPT, Peykar "can be considered inactive, as its members are assumed to have been reintegrated into the MeK or other anti-Ayatollah opposition groups in the early to mid-1980s."
==After 1980's==


There are two other small groups as offshoot of the Peykar, which are ''Nabard'' and ''Arman''.{{fact|date=February 2017}}
Peykar was operationally active in the early 1980s, mostly conducting small-scale insurgency-style raids in Northern Iran, though the group was also responsible for one hostage situation at the Iranian consulate in Geneva in 1982.<ref></ref> Peykar suffered after the Mujahedin June 1981 uprising, which it did not support but whose members were "arrested and executed en masse" afterwards nonetheless.<ref name="Abrahamian, Ervand 1999 p.151"/>

==Assassination of Americans==

In May 11, 1976, the Washington Post reported that in January of that year, “nine terrorists convicted of murdering the three American colonels… were executed. The leader of the group, Vahid Afrakhteh stated that he personally killed col. ] in Tehran in 1973 and led the cell that gunned down Col. Paul Shafer and Lt. Col. Jack Turner.” (p.A9) In November 16, 1976, a UPI story reported that the Tehran police had killed Bahram Aram, the person responsible for the killings of three Americans working for Rockwell International.<ref>{{cite book|title=Mujahedin-E Khalq (MEK) Shackled by a Twisted History|author= Lincoln P. Bloomfield Jr. |year=2013|publisher=University of Baltimore College of Public Affairs|isbn=978-0615783840|pages=17 |quote=}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|authors=Arash Reisinezhad |title=The Shah of Iran, the Iraqi Kurds, and the Lebanese Shia |year=2018|publisher= Palgrave Macmillan|page=8|asin=B07FBB6L8Y}}</ref>

In 2005, the Department of State attributed the assassinations of Americans in Iran to Peykar. The Country Reports issued on April 2006 stated that "A Marxist element of the MEK murdered several of the Shah´s US security advisers prior to the Islamic Revolution". <ref>{{cite book|title=Mujahedin-E Khalq (MEK) Shackled by a Twisted History|author= Lincoln P. Bloomfield Jr. |year=2013|publisher=University of Baltimore College of Public Affairs|isbn=978-0615783840|pages=19 |quote=}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|authors=Mahnaz Shirali |title=The Mystery of Contemporary Iran |year=2014|publisher= Transaction Publishers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ypcuDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT222&lpg=PT222&dq=mojahedin+marxist+lenin ist+american&source=bl&ots=L6XDCBjHEt&sig=f&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjQnMOynqLeAhWMKcAKHcMgBuw4ChDoATAAegQICRAB#v=onepage&q=mojahedin%20marxist%20leninist%20american&f=false|asin=B01K0V7SOY}}</ref>


==See also== ==See also==
Line 70: Line 42:
==External links== ==External links==
* *
* *
{{Iran defunct parties}} {{Iran defunct parties}}
] ]
] ]
]
]
] ]
] ]
] ]
] ]
] ]
] ]
] ]
] ]
] ]
] ]
] ]
]
] ]
] ]
]
]
]

Revision as of 18:23, 28 January 2019

For the nationalist party of the same name active during the 1940s, see Battle Party. Political party in Iran
Organization of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class
Peykar's newspaper header including the slogan "Workers of the world, unite!" under the red star
LeaderAlireza Sepasi-Ashtiani and Hossein Rouhani
Founded1975
Dissolved1983
Merger ofSome small Maoist groups and Marxist Mujahedin
Split fromPeople's Mujahedin of Iran
Merged intoCommunist Party of Iran
NewspaperPeykar
Membership (1980–1982)Maximum 3,000 equipped with light weapons
IdeologyMarxism–Leninism
Trotskyism
Maoism
Political positionFar-left

Organization of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class (Template:Lang-fa) or simply Peykar (Template:Lang-fa), also called the Marxist Mojahedin, was a secular splinter group from the People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMoI), the largest of Iran's guerrilla groups. Its members broke away from the PMoI to support of secular Marxism Leninism, rather than the Leftist Islamist modernism of the People's Mujahedin. Founded in 1975, by the early 1980s Peykar was no longer considered active.

History

Marxist Mojahedin emblem eliminated the Quranic verse and olive branch from the original symbol of the People's Mujahedin of Iran

Mojahedin (ML) was founded in October 1975 when the majority of PMOI leaders who had not been imprisoned voted to accept Marxism and declare the organization Marxist-Leninist. At this time the group continued to call itself People's Mujahedin. Their position was laid out in a pamphlet entitled Manifesto on Ideological Issues, where the group's central leadership declared "that after ten years of secret existence, four years of armed struggle, and two years of intense ideological rethinking, they had reached the conclusion that Marxism, not Islam, was the true revolutionary philosophy."

This meant two rival Mujahedins, each with its own publication, its own organization, and its own activities. This continued just before the 1979 Iranian Revolution when the Marxist Mojahedin changed its name to Peykar, on December 7, 1978 (16 Azar, 1357), the full name is: Organization of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class. This name was after the "St. Petersburg League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class", which was a left wing group in St. Petersburg, Russia. It was founded by Lenin in the autumn of 1895.

Mujtabi Taleqani, son of Ayatollah Taleqani, was one of the PMOI who "converted" to Marxism. Hossein Ruhani was another prominent Peykar member. He ran for Majles candidate in Tehran, and caused a major scandal in 1980 by divulging for the first time secret PMoI negotiations with Ayatollah Khomeini. Ruhani also made Peykar "the first left-wing organization to personally criticize Khomeini", when he called Khomeini a "mediaeval obscurantist" and his regime "reactionary" and "fascistic." Later Ruhani was arrested and imprisoned. In May 1982 he appeared on television as one of the first of numerous opponents of the regime to recant their opposition in what is widely thought to have been the work of prison torture. Ruhani denounced his membership in Peykar, praised "the Imam" Khomeini and proclaimed that he felt freer in prison than "in the outside world."

Peykar was operationally active in the early 1980s, mostly conducting small-scale insurgency-style raids in Northern Iran, though the group was also responsible for one hostage situation at the Iranian consulate in Geneva in 1982. Peykar suffered after the Mujahedin June 1981 uprising, which it did not support but whose members were "arrested and executed en masse" afterwards nonetheless. According to MIPT, Peykar "can be considered inactive, as its members are assumed to have been reintegrated into the MeK or other anti-Ayatollah opposition groups in the early to mid-1980s."

There are two other small groups as offshoot of the Peykar, which are Nabard and Arman.

See also

References

  1. Maziar, Behrooz (2000). Rebels With A Cause: The Failure of the Left in Iran. I.B.Tauris. p. 72. ISBN 1860646301.
  2. Abrahamian, Ervand (1999). Tortured Confessions: Prisons and Public Recantations in Modern Iran. University of California Press. p. 150. ISBN 0520922905.
  3. Mirsepassi, Ali (2004), The Tragedy of the Iranian Left, RoutledgeCurzon, Table 10.2 Characteristics of principal secular left-wing organizations, 1979–83
  4. Vahabzadeh, Peyman (2010). Guerrilla Odyssey: Modernization, Secularism, Democracy, and the Fadai Period of National Liberation In Iran, 1971-1979. Syracuse University Press. p. 173–174.
  5. ^ Ḥaqšenās, Torāb (October 27, 2011) . "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 September 12, 2016.
  6. Razoux, Pierre (2015). The Iran-Iraq War. Hrvard University Press. Appendix E: Armed Opposition. ISBN 9780674915718.
  7. Sepehr Zabir (2011). Iran Since the Revolution (RLE Iran A). Routledge. p. 140. ISBN 978-0-415-61069-8.
  8. Jebnoun, Noureddine; Kia, Mehrdad; Kirk, Mimi, eds. (2013). Modern Middle East Authoritarianism: Roots, Ramifications, and Crisis. Routledge. p. 72. ISBN 9781135007317.
  9. ^ Abrahamian, Ervand, Tortured Confessions, University of California Press, (1999), p.151
  10. Iran Between Two Revolutions by Ervand Abrahamian, Princeton University Press, 1982, p.493-4
  11. Abrahamian, Ervand, Tortured Confessions, University of California Press, (1999), p.151-2
  12. MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base. Peykar

External links

Historical political organizations in Iran
Politics of Iran
Qajar monarchy
Pahlavi monarchy
Islamic Republic
Active parties
Categories: