Liberation Organization of the People of Afghanistan

Liberation Organization of the People of Afghanistan
Sazman e Azadibakhsh e Mardom e Afghanistan Participant in Soviet war in Afghanistan
Active	1977 - 1989
Ideology	Maoism, National Democratic Revolution, Marxism-Leninism
Leaders	Majid Kalakani
Opponents	Soviet Union Democratic Republic of Afghanistan

Liberation Organization of the People of Afghanistan (Persian: سازمان آزادی‌بخش مردم افغانستان‎‎, Sazman e Azadibakhsh e Mardom e Afghanistan, SAMA) was a Maoist insurgent group operating in Afghanistan. It was the main leftist politico-military organization in Afghanistan that fought in opposition to the DRA regime and the Soviets. SAMA was led by Majid Kalakani, who intended to turn SAMA into a Maoist styled United Front of forces opposed to the Soviet backed PDPA. SAMA was a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist group with links to the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement although not all of its members were Maoists, it rejected the Three Worlds Theory in opposition to Faiz Ahmad's ALO. SAMA had its origins in the Shalleh-ye Javiyd Maoist movement of the 1960s and 1970s, it was a network of Maoist and Left Islamist cells and organizations. SAMA often recruited armed outlaws and bandits as guerrillas. SAMA was known for its spectacular guerrilla attacks. SAMA guerrillas attacked Soviet convoys, rob the government of money supplied to it by the Soviets, carried out assassinations, in one instance SAMA fighters dressed in army uniforms broke into a military base and looted it of its weapons, it even kidnapped a Soviet general.

After Kalakani's death SAMA stagnated and declined, fighting between SAMA and Hekmatyar's Party of Islam had driven SAMA out of the Kuhdaman. 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 organizations leaders. The new SAMA leadership entered into discussions with government and begun to abandon Maoism and its strategy for New Democracy, causing splits and desertions occurred as well as the emergence of new Maoist groups and by 1989 the organist ceased to exist.

References

• 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