NO single political organisation can claim credit for overthrowing the Bakhtiar government.
the several thousand Fedayeen guerillas, alongside une moanencen. a Moslem guerilla organisation, were the main organisers of insurrection.
From his refusal to launch a holy war to his threat to cut off the hands of those who kept their guns, it was clear tal Khomeini was neither control nor in favour of the uprising.
The revolt of technicians at Tadeh DaShan alroase apparently unplanned, them on it was guerillas - underestimated by all outside observers — who led the movement.
Only a few months ago most observers wrote off the guerilla Their orcausauons. of guerilla war had failed utterly with dreadful casualties.
The Fedayeen theorists drew on the writings of Guevara, Debray, Mao and Giap prove the necessity of rural They argued gera are. that the level of organisation was very low and that combination of guerillas" example and regime's TeDreSSIOR would attract support to an embryonic people's army.
But the attempt to build a nucleus among the Iranian peasants, who have no recent HISTOV ot armed resistance. stood even less chance than Che Guevara's ill-fated Bolivian campaign.
The Fedayeen's low profile the was but the in recent months is because of tel concentranon on purely military propaganda — how to mass Tire a rile. how Molotov cocktail. Nevertheless the there has been a large influx of the ment of rural warfare and the military preparation was not wasted when the moment came. The Fedayeen's politics are ambiguous, if only because the organisation comprises number widely factions. Maoism, and strong current anti-Stalinism have all contriDULed their background.
Present reports from Tehran are confused to make a tory, but it would be surprising if the Fedayeen support the government's disarm And it is a matter of life and death for both guerilla organisations to hold onto their own guns.
We will have to wait for the varying Fedayeen's Castroism before trying to predict how of they see the future of the Iranian revolution. The orthopolitical dox Maoist Idea popular and contradicMany Bazargan attempts the mass movement.
Shah armed clock back. the