Liberation Organization of the People of Afghanistan ( fa, سازمان آزادیبخش مردم افغانستان, ''Sazman-e Azadibakhsh-e Mardom-e Afghanistan'', SAMA) was a
Maoist
Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...
insurgent group operating in Afghanistan, and based in
Parwan Province
Parwan (Dari: ), also spelled Parvan, is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. It has a population of about 751,000. The province is multi-ethnic and mostly rural society. The province is divided into ten districts. The town of Imam Abu Hanif ...
. It was the main leftist politico-military organization in Afghanistan that fought in opposition to the
Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA),, renamed the Republic of Afghanistan, in 1987, was the Afghan state during the one-party rule of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) from 1978 to 1992.
The PDPA came to power ...
regime and the
Soviets
Soviet people ( rus, сове́тский наро́д, r=sovyétsky naród), or citizens of the USSR ( rus, гра́ждане СССР, grázhdanye SSSR), was an umbrella demonym for the population of the Soviet Union.
Nationality policy in th ...
. SAMA was led by
Majid Kalakani, who intended to turn SAMA into a Maoist styled
United Front
A united front is an alliance of groups against their common enemies, figuratively evoking unification of previously separate geographic fronts and/or unification of previously separate armies into a front. The name often refers to a political ...
of forces opposed to the Soviet-backed
PDPA.
SAMA was a Marxist–Leninist–Maoist group with links to the
Revolutionary Internationalist Movement
The Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM) was an international communist organization founded in France in March 1984 by 17 various Maoist organisations around the world. It sought to "struggle for the formation of a Communist Internationa ...
["Interview with Afghan revolutionary"](_blank)
''A World to Win'', June 1986, pp. 48-56 although not all of its members were Maoists, it rejected the
Three Worlds Theory
In the field of international relations, the Three Worlds Theory ( zh, s=三个世界的理论, p=Sān gè Shìjiè de Lǐlùn) by Mao Zedong proposed to the visiting Algerian President Houari Boumédiène in February 1974 that the internationa ...
in opposition to
Faiz Ahmad
Faiz Ahmad (1946 – 12 November 1986) ( fa, فیض احمد) was an Afghan revolutionary and the founding leader of the Afghanistan Liberation Organization (ALO), a Marxist–Leninist organization established in Kabul.
Biography
Ahmad was ...
's
ALO. SAMA had its origins in the
Shalleh-ye Javiyd
Shola-e Javid ( prs, شعلهٔ جاوید, lit=Eternal flame) was an anti-revisionist Marxist–Leninist communist party founded around 1964 in the Kingdom of Afghanistan. Its strategy was Maoist and populist, gaining support from university stu ...
Maoist movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
SAMA was known for its spectacular guerrilla attacks. They often recruited armed outlaws and bandits as guerrillas. SAMA guerrillas attacked Soviet convoys, robbed the government of money supplied to it by the Soviets, and carried out assassinations. In one instance SAMA fighters dressed in army uniforms broke into a military base and looted it of its weapons, and even kidnapped a Soviet general.
After Kalakani's death SAMA stagnated and declined, fighting between SAMA and
Hekmatyar
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar ( ps, ګلب الدين حكمتيار; born 1 August 1949) is an Afghan politician, former mujahideen leader and drug trafficker. He is the founder and current leader of the Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin political party, so called ...
's
Party of Islam had driven SAMA out of
Kalakan and Koh Daman by 1983.
[''Military Intervention, Stabilisation and Peace: The Search for Stability'' by Christian Dennys] By 1983 government forces had infiltrated the SAMA organization and attempted to encourage SAMA to join the Government. When this did not occur the government arrested 60 of the organization's leaders. The new SAMA leadership entered into discussions with government and begun to abandon Maoism and its strategy for
New Democracy
New Democracy, or the New Democratic Revolution, is a concept based on Mao Zedong's Bloc of Four Social Classes theory in Chinese Communist Revolution, post-revolutionary China which argued originally that democracy in China would take a path ...
, causing splits and desertions, as well as the emergence of new Maoist groups. By 1989 the organization ceased to exist.
References
Citations
Bibliography
* Ideology Without Leadership: The Rise and Decline of Maoism in Afghanistan by Afghanistan Analysts Network
"Afghanistan Maoists Unite in a Single Party" Shola Jawid (Communist Party of Afghanistan), 1 May 2004
{{Political parties in Afghanistan
Banned communist parties
Communist parties in Afghanistan
Anti-Soviet factions in the Soviet–Afghan War
Rebel groups in Afghanistan
Clandestine groups
Political parties established in 1977
1977 establishments in Afghanistan
Paramilitary organisations based in Afghanistan
Maoist organisations in Afghanistan