Talk:Organization of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class

Rewriting the article

I thoroughly read books by renowned experts on the Iranian left (Ervand Abrahamian, Maziar Behrooz and Peyman Vahabzadeh) and noticed that the current version of the article presents a revisionist account of the history of Peykar and its relation to the MEK that is not supported by reliable academic sources. It is mainly based on the notion that Peykar and the Marxist faction of the MEK are one and the same (while this is NOT TRUE, because Peykar was actually one of the offshoots from the MEK's marxist faction as reflected in this removed sentence). It then concludes that the MEK did not assassinate U.S. citizens back in the 1970s (an account propagated by the MEK today), while this is a widely-known fact. I also find the sources used to back the content very problematic (which I will write about in detail later) and a case of WP:ADVOCACY. Pahlevun (talk) 12:38, 16 May 2022 (UTC)

The book by Lincoln P. Bloomfield Jr.

Back in 2019 there was a consensus that this book does not meet Wikipedia:Reliable sources criteria because independence of the author from the subject is questionable and the book itself is "weird" and "a vanity publication" (please see Talk:Hafte Tir bombing#MEK-sympathetic author in lead for the arguments made). As a result, I will remove it as a source. Pahlevun (talk) 16:31, 16 May 2022 (UTC)

Failed verifications

I checked the sources used to back up exceptional claims that are against what reliable sources maintain, and found five instances of failed verification:

Edit 1: "[In 1971, SAVAK arrested and executed most of members of the MEK, including senior members and co-founders.] This led to Marxist members joining the organization, including Majid Sharif Vaquefi in 1972, and Taqi Sahram in 1973.". The source used to back this claim is Arash Reisinezhad's book (p. 8).

First of all, Arash Reisinezhad is not a subject-matter expert on political history of Iran, he has studied international relations and his field of work is geopolitics, like the book used as a source. More importantly, the book does not say that at all. On page 8, the theoretical framework for analysis of Iran's foreign policy is being discussed, which is completely irrelevant. The only mention of the MEK is on page 24, in which the organization is described as "Islamist-Marxist". There is, also, a footnote on page 337 saying:

In October 1975, the MEK experienced an ideological split between its Marxist and Islamist members. While the remaining primary members of MEK, including Masoud Rajavi, were imprisoned, some of the early members of MEK, like Bahram Aram, Torab Hghshenas, Taghi Sharam, Alireza Sepasi Ashtiani, Rahman (Vahid) Afrakhteh, Foad Rohani, Hasan Aladpoush, and Mahboobeh Mottahedin, formed a new Marxist organization, later known as Organization of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class or simply Peykar. They declared this ideological split in a book entitled Manifesto on Ideological Issues, arguing that “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.” Most of the Iranian clerical revolutionaries, including Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, felt deep sympathy with the Islamist Mojahedin. They were frustrated with this split. This event had a huge ramification on the power struggle and then the bloody Civil War after the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

— Reisinezhad, p. 337

As it is evidently clear, this is an integrity violation because the source cited is not supporting that. Even if it was saying as such, this contradicts with what reliable sources say. In fact, Majid Sharif Vaquefi was not a Marxist and led the opposite Muslim faction. Neither him nor Taqi Sahram did join the MEK in the the 1970s. We known that the MEK Marxists "had been in the ranks of the founding members of the group since 1965" (Vahabzadeh, p. 168) and "were neither raw recruits nor ideological simpletons. On the contrary, they contained many of the surviving intellectuals of the early Mojahedin" (Abrahamian, p. 146). I find this a grave mistake, if it is unintentional (though other similar edits makes me really doubt that).

Edit 2 uses the same source to back the exceptional claim that Peykar is an organization "Originating in 1972 and officially founded in 1975" while Peykar officially declared its existence in December 1978.

The source is also used to back Edit 3 which is also NOT legit because the source does not say so. This also applies to Edit 4, partially backed by the same book by Reisinezhad.

Edit 5 also uses the book The Mystery of Contemporary Iran by Mahnaz Shirali (who is a sociologist and not a subject-matter expert on the Iranian left and in particular the MEK). Moreover the page linked in the URL does not contain anything the U.S. Department of State. This is another failed verification.

Since all of the five edits mentioned above promote a certain line that is not accepted by the mainstream academic view, I consider them instances of WP:SOAPBOX. Citing sources for something that they don't support multiple times would also entail accusations of misconduct. I am pinging User:Stefka Bulgaria, the user who made the edits, to explain this. Pahlevun (talk) 18:13, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

Pahlevun's "Mojahedin offshoots" articles

Why did you create so many new articles about "Mojahedin offshoots"? I have not gone through all of them but some look like duplicates, for example Marxist Mojahedin and Organization of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class? Fad Ariff (talk) 12:13, 21 May 2022 (UTC)

I hope you are not hounding. In case you are just curious to know, there are no duplicates. Peykar is itself an offshoot of the Marxist faction, whose members diverged in their career after the revolution and founded new groups. Pahlevun (talk) 14:38, 21 May 2022 (UTC)

This is a topic I am familiar about and edit here, so I am not hounding you. See for example

“It might be worth noting that Peykar had its origins within the Mojahedin. It once constituted the Marxist wing of the organization. At one point in the mid-1970s it carried out an internal "coup" in an attempt to transform the organization into a Marxist Leninist organization. The coup included execution of an opponent from the Islamic wing. This action ultimately failed, and the Marxist-Mojahedin were expelled, later forming Peykar.”

[1] Where does it say that Peykar and the Marxist wing of the Mojahedin were two different groups? Fad Ariff (talk) 11:56, 23 May 2022 (UTC)

It says: "It once constituted the Marxist wing of the organization" (constitute = be (a part) of a whole). Also, "later forming Peykar" (so they were not the same).

P.S.: Neither Amirahmadi nor Parvin are experts on the subject, having studied regional planning and economics respectively. That's why they wrongly write that "Marxist-Mojahedin were expelled". They were never expelled, they continued to operate under the name of Mojahedin until late 1978. Pahlevun (talk) 16:21, 23 May 2022 (UTC)

Pahlevun, academia seems to disagree with your assessment that the “Marxist Mojahedin” wasn’t the same group that later came to be known as Peykar. for example:

“The Marxist branch was to name itself as the Paykar Group following the Iranian revolution”

Dr. Kaveh Farrokh is an award-winning scholar with expertise in Iranian military history.

“Paykar, the Neo-Marxist splinter group which broke away from the Mojahedin prior to the revolution.”

“James A. Piazza is Liberal Arts Professor of Political Science. His areas of research and teaching specialization include Terrorism, Counterterrorism, Political Violence, Intrastate Conflict, and the Politics of the Middle East and Islamic World.”[2]

"While the remaining primary members of MEK, including Masoud Rajavi, were imprisoned, some of the early members of MEK ... formed a new Marxist organization, later known as Organization of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class or simply Peykar."

Dr. Arash Reisinezhad “is a research fellow at the Middle East Studies Center and an adjunct professor at the School of International and Public Affairs at Florida International University.”[3]

"The Marxist offshoot from the Sazman-i Mojahedin-i Khalq-i Iran. From 1975 to 1979, this organization was known as the Marxist Mojahedin. After the revolution, it adopted the title of Sazman-i Paykar dar Rah-i Azad-i Tabaqeh-i Kargar (The Fighting Organisation of the Road to Liberating the Working Class). It is now known simply as Kaykar (Battle)”

. (I will stop providing author's resumes from here since I don't think it is necessary)

"Converting to Marxism in the mid-1970s, he had led the Mojahedin's Marxist offshoot, which, after the revolution, adopted the name Sazeman-e Paykar dar Rah-e Azadi-ye Tabaqeh-ye Kargar (Combat organization on the road to the emancipation of the working class) - better known as Paykar."

.

"Immediately after the revolution, when the Marxist Mojahedin renamed itself Peykar"

"In 1976, the Mojaedin split into two opposing sections. A group of Mojahedin denounced hte path of armed struggle and the reference to Islam, and split to set up a secular guerilla organisation by the name of Peykar Khalgh. This split served to strenghen the Islamic identity of the original Mojahedin Khalgh Organisation."

"Marxist-Leninist Mujahedin. Soon after the revolution it acquired a new name: Sazman-e Paykar dar Rah-e Azadi-e Tabaqah-e Kargar (The Combat Organisation on the Road to the Liberation of the Working Class), commonly known as Paykar, Combat"

"It might be worth noting that Peykar had its origins within the Mojahedin. It once constituted the Marxist wing of the organization."

"The Islamic wingo f the Mojahedin refused to give up the name, and eventually the Marxist Mojahedin adopted the name Peykar (Struggle)"

"However, when the imprisoned cadres faithful to the original orientation of the organization were released after the revolution, the Marxist branch dropped the name Mojahedin-Khalq and chose the new name The Fighting Organization on the Road for the Liberation of the Working Class (Peykar dar Rah-e Azadi-e Tabaghey-e Kargar, hereafter Peykar)"

"The Marxist faction staged a coup and purged the non-Marxist elements. In 1978, the Marxist faction renamed itself Peykar and resumed its activities, and the Moslem members recaptured the leadership of the Mojahedin"

"a splinter organization from the People's Mojahedin of Iran (MEK). Peykar was a Marxist-Leninist organisation founded in 1975, and in the post-revolutionary era it moved its activities to Kurdistan"

"This organization split into a Marxist faction and the original Islamic group in 1974. The Marxist group was later renamed Sazman-e Peykar dar Rah-e Azadi Tabagheh Kargar or simply Peykar (The Organization for the Liberation of the Working Class), but the Islamic Mojahedin retained the original name."

"By 1975 the Mojahedin had in turn subdivided, and a breakaway group called the Peykar began to concentrate on the working class struggle"

"sided with the Marxist faction during the schism that produced two groups - one that stayed ture to its original Islamic worldview and the other, the Marxist Mujahedin, which eventually became Paykar"

Fad Ariff (talk) 11:53, 24 May 2022 (UTC)

No. An Iranica entry written by Torab Haghsehnas (a prominent member of the MEK in the wake of establishment, later a senior member of the Marxist faction and one of the leaders of Peykar) perfectly explains the offshoots of the Marxist faction, and even mentions the failed unity conference after the revolution. Abrahamian's Radical Islam: The Iranian Mojahedin (which is by far the best monograph on the MEK written in English) also stresses the distinction between the Marxist faction and Peykar on pages 145 and 146. There are other reliable sources available, which I leave out for this discussion. A glimpse of the sources you have labored to quote shows that some are bad scholarships that include gross mistakes (like wrongly mentioning the schism in 1974 or 1976, while 1975 is right. That's because many of the authors are not experts on the MEK or the Iranian Left), and that you have not been careful enough to not include Amirahmadi's book (which we discussed above) or another one that is actually harming your own argument because it says "[members of the Marxist Mojahedin] formed a new Marxist organization".

Anyway, these sources do not support your claim. Do you claim that Nabard, Arman or Worker's Way did not exist or were not offshoots of the MEK's Marxist faction? Do you claim that Peykar was not a result of merger with some other Maoist groups? There is no evidence of absence because there are multiple sources written by subject-matter experts on the MEK that say otherwise. This is not a matter of academic dispute, it is simply a matter of subject-matter expert vs. non-expert scholar. Pahlevun (talk) 15:47, 24 May 2022 (UTC)

@Pahlevun: About Abrahamian as a source, according to you, we should follow what Abrahamian says and ignore the other 16 sources I provided here. But in the sources I provided Abrahamian in 1999 said

"Immediately after the revolution, when the Marxist Mojahedin renamed itself Peykar"

Also what you say that "A glimpse of the sources you have labored to quote shows that some are bad scholarships that include gross mistakes (like wrongly mentioning the schism in 1974 or 1976, while 1975 is right." In Abramian’s Radical Islam: The Iranian Mojahedin the book explains (p 144-148):

"The conversion was not as sudden and unexpected as it first appeared to the outside world. As early as mid-1974, one of the three branches - led by Taqi Shahram - drafted what later became the core of the Manifesto"

.

"The 1975 conversion of the Mojahedin from Islam to Marxism was not the result of a sudden coup, as some claimed; it was rather the culmination of a slow and painful soul-searching process that lasted more than one year."

So even the main source you are using kind of agrees with the other sources.

So the majority of academia supports that the "Marxist Mojahedin" did not have its own name in mid 1970s (it was just a group that broke away from the Muslim Mojahedin), and that afterwards the group became "Peykar". It’s the same group going through a transition, and not two different groups as you are portraying by using a cherrypicked line. Fad Ariff (talk) 11:57, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

You are putting your words in the mouth of "the majority of academia" and acting like the more, the merrier. Anything written by a non-expert that contradicts with what an expert says, should be taken with a grain of salt. Don't avoid answering my direct and simple question. I am asking again:

Do you claim that Nabard, Arman or Worker's Way did not exist or were not offshoots of the MEK's Marxist faction? Do you claim that Peykar was not a result of merger with some other Maoist groups?

Abrahamian is pretty straightforward in stating that Peykar and the Marxist faction were not the same, so give up your literal interpretation. And for your information, the Marxist faction continued to claim the name of Mojahedin until December 1978. So it did not "broke away from the Muslim Mojahedin". Pahlevun (talk) 13:35, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

PS: Quote from Abrahamian that you try to ignore:

The other was the Marxist Mojahedin which initially took the full name of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran; then in 1978 assumed the label Bakhsh-e Marksisti-Leninisti-ye Sazeman-e Mojahedin-e Khalq-e Iran (The Marxist-Leninist Branch of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran); and finally during the revolution merged with some Maoist groups to form the Sazeman-e Paykar dar Rah-e Azadi-ye Tabaqeh-ye Kargar (The Combat Organization on the Road for the Emancipation of the Working Class). This became known as the Paykar Organization. Another group of former mojaheds who had converted to Marxism while in prison but were less favourable to Maoism and had never contested the Mojahedin title, on their release from gaol during the revolution formed the Sazeman-e Kargaran-e Enqelabi-ye Iran (The Organization of Revolutionary Workers of Iran). They later became better known as Rah-e Kargar (Workers’ Road), which was the title of their newspaper.

Pahlevun (talk) 13:39, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

Pahlevun, about your point that Abrahamian is the expert authority in this subject, I provided sources by him, and also saw that you deleted sources by him from the article that contradict your preferred narrative. About your point with "Nabard, Arman or Worker's Way", I have not looked at those articles yet. I only looked at this one, and for now it seems that you have removed reliable sources that contradict your preferred narrative, and cherrypicked some lines from a few sources to put in Wikivoice something that is contrary to the majority of academia. Since you have still not substantively addressed all the academic sources I gave here then I will add them to the article. Fad Ariff (talk) 11:56, 26 May 2022 (UTC)

Extended content
References

Pahlevun's changes to this article

@Pahlevun: you removed many reliable sources from this article. Why? I list them here below with numbers and content they were used for so you are able to acknowledge each edit. Thank you

1) "File:Taghi Shahram.gif|thumb|Taghi Shahram, one of the senior members behind adoption of Marxism"[4]

2) "Hossein Rouhani, Taghi Sahram, Baram Aram, Rahman Vahid Afrakhteh" from infobox [5]

3) "membership = Maximum 3,000 equipped with light weapons" [6]

Quote from the source "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 weapons"

4) Also the source ""[7]

Quote from the source "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) Also the source ""[8]

Quote from the source "Immediately after the revolution, when the Marxist Mojahedin renamed itself Peykar"

6) Also the source ""[9]

Quote from the source "Paykar organization” (Marxist Mujahedin)"(page 558)

7) "Hossein Rouhani 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."" [10]

Quote from the source: "After the split, Ruhani served as the Marxist Mojahedin's chief representative in Europe and the Arab world. ... Immediately after the revolution, when the Marxist Mojahedin renamed itself Peykar, he ran as its Majles candidate in Tehran. ... He also caused a major scandal in 1980 by divulging for the first time the secret Mojahedin negotiations with Khomeini." Fad Ariff (talk) 11:53, 26 May 2022 (UTC)

It seems that you have not read the previous threads in this talkpage. I have thoroughly explained. Pahlevun (talk) 12:38, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

Merger proposal

There seems to be an interest in merging material from Marxist Mojahedin. I have no particular interest in the issue, but those that do seem intent on ignoring the proper procedures, and raise it at AfD without acting on it. See that link for the rationale of the effective proposer. Kevin McE (talk) 16:23, 22 June 2022 (UTC)

• Oppose. Marxist Mojahedin and Peykar (subject of this article) are not the same organization. Both articles meet Wikipedia:Notability criteria and merit having a separate article. Pahlevun (talk) 12:10, 23 June 2022 (UTC)