WHO WE ARE

Iranian People’s Fadaian Organization (Majority)

Iranian People’s Fadaian Organization (Majority), is a socialist political organization defending peace, freedom, democracy, human rights, social justice, and equality. The organization struggles for equal rights for men and women, diversity of lifestyles, democratic distribution of power, wealth, opportunities and information in solidarity with oppressed classes; It emphasizes on providing harmony and balance between freedom, equality, democracy, development and preservation of the environment; It fights to provide living conditions suitable for human dignity for all citizens of Iran and to provide the conditions for a gradual transition from capitalism to democratic socialism; IPFOM fights against class, gender, national-ethnic, racial and religious discrimination.

A look at our history:

The Iranian People’s Fadaian Organization of Iran (Majority) is an organization that has changed and evolved from the People’s Fedayee Guerrilla Organization, which announced its existence in April 1971, two months after the Siahkal event on February 8^th, ۱۹۷۱.

After the coup d’état on August 19^th, ۱۹۵۳ and the fall of the democratically elected national government of Dr. Mossadegh, the policy of repression was implemented by the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s government against the left and democratic forces. The dictatorship continued by targeting the two main political organizations of that time, the Tudeh Party of Iran and the National Front of Iran, which were the main base of the opposition to the royal government.  By severely limiting the scope of action of the members of the National Front of Iran and the Tudeh Party of Iran and killing its members and affiliated forces Pahlavi Regime tried to eliminate the possibility for the organized legal activity of political opponents.

In such a situation, in the early 1960s, a new wave of opposition against the dictatorial government emerged. The center of political activity was moved to intellectual circles.  This tendency surged among intellectuals, especially college and high school students, who were inclined towards the liberating and revolutionary movements of the 1950s and 1960s in various countries, especially in Cuba, Vietnam and Palestine.  This was a spontaneous and extensive movement for non-public and underground political struggles with the goals of independence, democracy, social justice and social progress. The issue of the existing political vacuum became the focus of discussion. Small and sometimes relatively large gatherings and groups were formed. From time to time, connections were established between some of them, and the process of tending to political activity in an armed form and organizing in this direction expanded little by little, and in its continuation, it led to the formation of several large and small guerrilla organizations, the largest and most well-known of which was the Iranian People’s Fedayee Guerrilla Organization.

From the establishment to the revolution of 11 February 1979

The first step in the organization of the Fadaian movement was taken in 1963 by the Jazani-Zarifi group, known as Group One. The formation of the second group, the Ahmadzadeh-Pouyan-Miftahi group in the mid-1960s, was another important step in the armed struggle direction. The common belief in the fight against imperialist domination and internal tyranny, as well as the struggle against the exploitation of workers, laborers and other toilers, and the feeling of closeness and connection with the global struggle against tyranny brought these groups together. In addition, conditions related to exploitation and colonialism in the height of international liberation movements, facilitated emergence of these two Marxist groups. Groups 1 and 2 had independently concluded that the strong influence of the United States and the suppression of democratic opposition in Iran had made peaceful activities impossible, so armed struggle was the only effective way to fight back.

The armed struggle started on February 8^th,۱۹۷۱ with the attack of the first group and with the participation of a member of the second group to the gendarmerie post in Siahkal located in the forests of northern Iran. Although 2 months later, the Iran People’s Fedaii Guerrilla Organization was formed at the middle of April 1971 from the complete merger of the two groups, but the Siahkal uprising was recorded in history as the inauguration of the Fadaian movement. The Fadaian persistently continued the struggle against the royal dictatorship until the victory of the revolution on 11^th of February 1979. Along the way they were subjected to the most severe attacks by the security forces of the Shah, famously known as SAVAK. During this period, 213 Fadaii lost their lives, more than any other opposition organization. On April 18^th, ۱۹۷۵, SAVAK criminally assassinated Bijan Jazni with 6 other founders of the organization and 2 prisoners from the Mujahedin khalgh of Iran Organization(MKO) on the hills of the notorious Evin prison. This took place in the Spring of 1975, eight years after their initial arrest, while in the regime’s custody and without a second trial. However, the heaviest blow to the organization was the death of the legendary commander of the organization Hamid Ashraf and nine other Fadaian leaders and members in a lengthy battle with SAVAK on June 29^th, ۱۹۷۶, in Mehrabad district in Tehran. Despite all these casualties Fadaian managed to maintain their organization and actively participated in the process of the 1979 revolution.

The revolution and the early years after

People’s Fedaian played an effective and active role during the Iranian revolution. In this regard, from the beginning of 1978 to the end of the revolution, 12 Fadais were killed, 7 of them on the 10^th and 11^th of February 1979-the final days of the royal regime collapse. During and after the revolution, many people that were against the theocracy supported the Fadaian movement. Following the victory of the revolution, public offices of the People’s Fedaian Guerrilla Organization of Iran were established in most cities of the country. These offices later became the gathering center of leftist youth. It can be said that during the revolution and for a long time after, the organization was the most popular left-wing political movement in Iran and had an impressive popular and massive support, hence in the first election in which it participated, it won support of more than 10% of the country’s voters.

During the organization’s extensive activities in the sphere after the revolution, a great deal of internal discussions among the Fedaian members and supporters took place. Methods of struggle and policies dealing with the government were among the most important issues discussed. A large majority within the Organisation were critical of the viability of the armed struggle. They were leaning towards a policy of peaceful co-operation and critique with the newly established government with masses who instinctively followed the religious leaders.

These disagreements lead to several splits within the Organization and several minority groups departed from the main group. As a result, the name of the organization was changed to “Iranian People’s Fadaian Guerrilla Organization (Majority)”. Finally, on May 1^st, ۱۹۸۱, at the biggest demonstration in its history in front of one hundred thousands of  supporters in the Azadi (Freedom) square in Tehran, the Organization announced that it was no longer a guerrilla movement. Instead, it now was a “political organization of Iranian working class” and the current name of Iranian People’s Fadaian Organization(Majority) or “Sazeman Fadaian Khalq Iran(aksariyat)” was adopted.

With the victory of the revolution and much earlier, we organized tens of thousands of enthusiastic supporters for work to fulfill the commitment to the workers, toilers and freedom seekers. “Kaar”(labor) magazine, the official organ of the organization, started publishing in March 1979 and its circulation quickly reached 100,000 and later up to 300,000 per week. In four years, the number of paid members of the organization increased to 20,000 people. One third of them were women, one fifth were workers and three fifths were students. The average age among the members of the organization was less than 24 years and among the leadership staff was 32 years. The organization had organized more than 50,000 people, counting the side organizations, such as Peeshgam students. Helping the trade unions and mobilizing them around the interests of the working class was one of the prominent actions of the organization’s struggle.

Years of repression

Although it was clear that the ruling fundamentalists could not tolerate the activities of and the existence of our organization. The Fadaian Organization did not put itself in direct conflict with the government; While criticizing the policy of repression and undemocratic actions of the security forces, it supported the policies related to the war with Iraq, anti-American posturing and some aspects of the economic reforms. Nevertheless, the established government’s policy in the first four years after the revolution was to tolerate the organization along with exerting pressure against it. There were always hundreds of Fadai members and activists imprisoned. Even in those years, the death sentence was issued for several leading members of our organization and tens of central cadres have been executed by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Along with the government’s attack on Iran’s Tudeh Party in the winter of 1982, which was carried out with the support and conspiracies of the British government, the persecution of our organization and the pursuit and monitoring of the members of the central committee and its effective cadres became unprecedentedly intense and the space for open and semi-public activities extremely narrowed.  The Islamic Republic launched an attack to arrest the members of the Central Committee in the spring of 1983, but it was unsuccessful. The central cadres of the organization were transferred abroad. The Fadaian organization was agile in adapting to the aggressive conditions of the time and the number of arrests and its vulnerability was greatly reduced. After the plenum of April 1985, a large-scale attack was made on the remaining affiliated units of the organization and a number of members were arrested. A number of those arrested were among the 155 members of the organization who were killed by the death squad while in custody without any legal and due processes in the well-documented widespread massacre of political prisoners in the summer and fall of 1988.

Years of transformations

The bitter consequence of the Iranian revolution and the collapse of the Socialist Block led the organization to review its theoretical, political and organizational foundations. After several plenums of the central committee and meetings of the organization abroad, the first congress of the organization was held from 4 to 14^th of August 1990.

This congress was focused on reviewing the past performance of the organization and it’s leadership, re-examining the programmatic identity, orientation, and political positions. Meanwhile Congress aimed at expanding internal democracy and changing the organizational structure in order to provide the effective and maximum potentials for involvement of the members in organizational and political decisions making. The Congress elected a 10-member Central Council, of which only 4 were former members of the Central Committee and decided that a second Congress would be held a year later.

The main issues raised in the first congress of the organization have been followed up in all 18 subsequent congresses that have been held regularly and with a maximum interval of 2 years to achieve the desired result. The focus on expanding intra-organizational democracy and to provide the maximum possibility for the effective involvement of members in organizational and political decisions making continued until their adoption in the statutes approved by the 12th Congress in May 2011. The new leadership structure of the organization in the statute is such that the central council has its own independent board of directors. The Central Council also elects a political and executive board for political positions and administration of the organization while the Central Council is not in session between the two congresses. The re-examination of the programmatic identity and orientation also continued until it led to the adoption of a program in the 13th Congress in April 2013. In this program, in the first part under the title “Vision, Basic Values and the Organization’s View”, it is stated that the organization “struggles to prepare the conditions for a gradual transition from capitalism to democratic socialism” and is “against the ideological state”.

Convergences

Pursuant to the forced exile abroad, after re-orienting itself, the organization set foot on the path of dialogues, cooperations and alliances with the political parties and organizations in the opposition to the Islamic Republic of Iran. One of the most effective works in this direction was the very influential participation of the organization in the process of forming the Alliance of Republicans of Iran in January of 2004. A few years later, the organization focused on the rapprochement and convergence of left political forces. On November 5, 2012, the Fadaian Organization and 2 other groups published the “call for participation in the formation of the large left association”, several individual activists from the left also joined in. Unfortunately, 3 years later, the other organizations stopped this process and did not accept the organization’s proposal for “cooperation in the direction of unity”.

The 15th Congress, feeling responsible for some of the forces that wanted to merge with the organization, approved the “establishment of a joint political organization with a party theme” with the right to simultaneously be a joint member of the Fadaian Organization and the new party. Parties to the negotiation accepted the approval of the Congress, the founding process began, the Left Party of Iran was formed. Unfortunately, the left party canceled the right of simultaneous membership for its members before holding its third congress.

Resurgence of the organization’s activism

The Iranian People’s Fadaian Organization (Majority) in its 18th and 19th congresses, approved the complete resurgence of the organization’s activism which were limited in the preparation of the process for founding of the Left party. Since then, our organization has rebuilt its independent infrastructure.  The Kar magazine has been active in the communication cyberspace since March 2023 in its new system at the address www.kar-online.com. Other platforms of the organization are also published daily on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Telegram and other social networks.

In the service of the people and the country!

In order to realize the interests of workers and toilers!

Following is an excerpt of the Resolution of the 19th Congress of Iranian People’s Fadaian Organization (Majority)

Iranian People’s Fadaian Organization (Majority) is a people’s organization, patriotic and a believer in democratic socialism. Organization fights for the ideals of independence, freedom, social justice and to secure the interests of the people and the country(national interests). Adhering to its adopted program, the organization struggles for the realization of a non-religious (secular) civilian republic committed to the principles of human rights and democratic values based on the free will and votes of the people of our country, and is firmly against unelected, religious, hereditary and ideological state. The organization’s political strategy to achieve this goal is a continuous struggle to transform the political structure by relying on peaceful activism and on emerging movements in the country aligned with civil society pressure. One of the pillars of the organization’s policy is opposition to the structural religious authority, and struggle to ensure the conditions for free elections by changes in the country’s electoral system including elimination of the discretionary supervision.

The organization adheres to the realization of social harmony and people’s well-being; It strives to eliminate all social discriminations, with regards to class, political, gender, social, economic, religious and national-ethnic attributes; Organization fights with a firm determination to ensure the rights and interests of workers, farmers, toilers and other deprived sections and groups of the society.

In its political struggle and in opposition to the Islamic Republic, the organization relies only on people of Iran, confronting any interference of foreign forces in Iran’s political affairs. Organization resolutely rejects any help from foreign governments and does not participate in coalitions and alternatives made and paid for by foreign influence. We believe that any dialogue and collaboration with international institutions and representatives of governments, parties and foreign forces shall be open and transparent.