Organization of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class

Not to be confused with League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class.
For the nationalist party of the same name active during the 1940s, see Peykar Party.
Organization of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class
سازمان پیکار در راه آزادی طبقه کارگر
AbbreviationPeykâr
Leader
  • Hossein Rouhani[1]
  • Taghi Sahram
  • Baram Aram
  • Rahman Vahid Afrakhteh[2]
Founded1975
Dissolved1983
Split fromMKO
NewspaperPeykâr
MembershipMaximum 3,000 equipped with light weapons[3]
Ideology
Political positionFar-left
National affiliationSeptuple Coalition

The Organization of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class,[a] or simply Struggle,[b] also known by the earlier name Marxist Mojahedin, was a splinter group from the People's Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK).

Members associated with it declared that they no longer self-identify as Muslims but rather only believe in Marxism–Leninism. They subsequently started an intragroup conflict with other MEK members who refused to join it (on the grounds that they still believed in Islam) and tried to purge the group in to make it purely Marxist. Originating in 1972 and officially founded in 1975, by the early 1980s Peykar was no longer considered active.[5] Peykar was considered "the most extreme" among all Iranian communist groups active at the time.[6] Peykar was subsequently suppressed and through imprisonment and executions, its existence came to an end by the early 1980s.[6]

  1. ^ Abrahamian 1999, p. 150
  2. ^ Reisinezhad 2018, p. 8.
  3. ^ Razoux 2015, Appendix E: Armed Opposition: "PEYKAR (DISSIDENT MARXIST WING OF THE MUJAHIDIN EKHALQ) Leader Hossein Ruhani (arrested 1982). Maximum strength (from 1980 to 1982): 3,000 fighter equipped with light weapon"
  4. ^ Jebnoun, Noureddine; Kia, Mehrdad; Kirk, Mimi, eds. (2013). Modern Middle East Authoritarianism: Roots, Ramifications, and Crisis. Routledge. p. 72. ISBN 978-1-135-00731-7. In 1975, the Mojahedin split into two factions. One faction denounced Islam and declared its loyalty to Marxism-Leninism through a Maoist interpretation. This faction renamed itself Peykar (Struggle) and emerged as one of the most active leftist revolutionary organizations during the 1979 revolution.
  5. ^ Arash Reisinezhad (2018). The Shah of Iran, the Iraqi Kurds, and the Lebanese Shia. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 8. ASIN B07FBB6L8Y.
  6. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Ḥaqšenās was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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