GITI

 

GITI, a leftist daily paper published from 2 Tir 1322 Š./24 June 1943 to 26 Day 1322 Š./6 December 1943 by Ḵalil Enqelāb Āḏar as the official organ of the Workers union (Etteḥādiya-ye kārgarān). Its masthead read: “The Union of Persian workers is neither attracted nor affiliated to any political parties.” The Union was headed by Yusof Efteḵāri, an old member of the Persian Communist party (see communism i), who had been trained at the Comintern Communist University for the Toilers of the East and apparently had Trotskyist tendencies (Eskandari, pp. 307-10, 401-2; Kiānuri, pp. 82-85, 89-90; Ḵāmaʾi, I, pp. 185-86); he was jailed after the oil-workers’ strike in May 1929 and was released in September 1941. Ḵalil Enqelāb Āḏar was a member of the Group of Fifty-three arrested in 1936 and tried in 1938 for communistic activities. He later joined the Tuda party after breaking with Efteḵāri (Āvānesiān, p. 130), and in 1326 Š./1947 published the newspaper Dādgostari.

Giti was an ideological newspaper, printing political news and articles, as well as revolutionary poetry with social and revolutionary themes. It opposed both the ruling class and the Tuda party, which caused some Tuda party circles to accuse Ḵalil Enqelāb of being a government agent and Giti of being subsidized by the British. They also accused the Union of having as its principal goal struggling against the Tuda party and generating anti-Soviet provocations (Āvānesiān, p. 130). Giti was suspended on several occasions, once for insulting the monarchy (Salāmi and Rustāʾi, pp. 37, 38, 42). It suspended publication after Ḵalil Enqelāb broke with the Union.

The format was initially four, and later two, six-column pages, measuring 36 x 50 cm. It carried illustrations and a few advertisements. The annual subscription rate was 400 rials; single issues cost 1.5 rials. Numbers 1-80 are accessible at the Central Library of Tehran University.

 

Bibliography:

Ardašir Āvānesiān, Ḵāṭerāt az ḥezb-e Tuda, ed. Bābak Amirḵosrowi, Cologne, 1990.

Cosroe Chaqueri, ed., The Condition of the Working Class in Iran, 4 vols., Florence and Tehran, 1978-92, I, pp. 214-18, 237; II, pp. 3-14.

Yusof Efteḵāri, Ḵāṭerāt-e dawrān-e separi šoda, ed. Kāva Bayāt and Majid Tafreši, Tehran, 1370 Š./1991, pp. 81, 160-61, 198-99, 203.

Laurence Paul Elwell-Sutton, “The Iranian Press,” Iran 6, no., 344.

Iraj Eskandari, Ḵāṭerāt-e siāsi, ed. ʿAli Dehbāši, Tehran, 1368 Š./1989.

Anwar Ḵāmaʾi, Ḵāṭerāt-e Doktor Anwar Ḵāmaʾi, 3 vols., Tehran 1362-63 Š./1983-84.

Nur-al-Din Kiānuri, Ḵāṭerāt-e Nur-al-Din Kiānuri, Tehran, 1372 Š./1993.

Majid Tafreši and Maḥmud-Ṭāher Aḥmadi, eds., Gozārešhā-ye maḥramāna-ye šahrbāni, Tehran, 1371 Š./1992, p. 505.

Wāli-Morād Ṣādeqi-nasab, Fehrest-e ruz-nāmahā-ye fārsi(1320-1332 Š.), Tehran, 1360 Š./1981, p. 182.

Ḡolām-Reżā Salāmi and Moḥsen Rustāʾi, eds., Asnād-e maṭbuʿāt-e Irān I, Tehran, 1374 Š./1995, p. 44.

(Nassereddin Parvin)

Originally Published: December 15, 2001

Last Updated: February 9, 2012

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