Organization of Iranian People's Fedaian (Majority)
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The Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas (Persian: سازمان چريکهای فدايي خلق ايران) emerged as radical Marxist-Leninist movement in Iran in 1971, formed to overthrow the Pahlavi regime. The group fought against the governments of Mohammad Reza Shah and after the 1979 revolution, the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The organization was the product of the merger of two smaller groups of revolutionaries, the Jazani-Zarifi group and the Ahmadzadeh-Puyan-Meftahi group. The Jazani-Zarifi group's members were former members of the youth organization of the Tudeh Party while the second groups memebrs were mostly followers of the National Front and its affiliated organizations. Shortly after that Jazani group started guerrilla warfare in the Gilan forests. After the subsequent arrest and murder of the guerilla team, the two groups officially united and the Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas came to existence.
OIPFG would pass through various periods of internal divisions. In 1979 Ashraf Dehghani left OIPFG, accusing it of deviating from the line of guerrilla warfare, and formed a parallel Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas. In the same year former OIPFG cadres formed the Organization of Revolutionary Workers of Iran.
In 1980, OIPFG was divided into OIPFG (Majority) and Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas (Minority). OIPFG (Minority), which broke away from the main organization, was pursuing a more radical line. On May Day 1981 thousands of OIPFG (Majority) supporters gathered in Teheran. At its May Day rally, the organization announced that the group would cease to conduct guerilla warfare and was renamed Organization of Iranian People's Fedaian (Majority) (in Farsi: (سازمان فداییان خلق ایران (اکثریت)). [1]
During the early 1980s OIPF(M) conducted semi-open political activities. Its publication Kar had a circulation of over 100 000. The group supported some positions of the new government, such as its anti-imperialist rhetoric and war effort against Iraq. However, many OIPF(M) cadres remained in Iranian jails.
In 1983 OIPF(M) was purged by the Islamic government. Thousands of cadres were jailed, many were executed without trials.
During 1988-1990 OIPF(M) passed through a period of intraception and critical review of previous positions.
