In 1933, he became a leader of the IMRO (United)inGreek Macedonia and member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). He was a KKE candidate in the last pre-war Greek legislative elections in 1936. Between 1936 and 1941, he was imprisoned in the Acronauplia prison by political reasons. On 30 June 1941, Tzipas was one of 27 communist prisoners released from the Acronauplia at the request of the Bulgarian embassy in Athens with the intercession of Bulgarian Club in Thessaloniki, which had made representations to the German occupation authorities. Most members of the group belonged to the Slavic Macedonian community of northern Greece, which was regarded as Bulgarian by the Bulgarian authorities.[4] With the permission from the leader of KKE Giannis Ioannides[5] to reconstruct the Greek Communist Party, they all declared Bulgarian ethnicity.[6]
After his release, Tsipas and others set about reorganising the decimated KKE. Along with Andreas Tzimas and Kostas Lazaridis, also released from prison, and Petros Rousos, Pandelis Karankitzis and Chrysa Hatzivasileiou constituted themselves as a new central committee, with Tsipas as secretary, at a meeting in July 1941, subsequently named as the VI Plenum by the KKE. This new central committee succeeded in winning the recognition of the "old central committee" and the "provisional leadership" wings of the party. [citation needed]
At the VII Plenum of the central committee, held the following September, Tsipas was relieved of his post owing to "political unreliability". Tsipas was careless in security terms and abused alcohol. One account claims that after running up a bill in a bar, he sent the barman to the secret meeting place of the politburo, where someone was expected to pay his bill.[1] After the removal from his post, he was isolated, and in January 1942, he sought refuge in Sofia, where he remained for eight months.[10] According to some sources then he was an agent of the Bulgarian secret service.[11][12]
^Άρης Βελουχιώτης: Το χαμένο αρχείο, άγνωστα κείμενα Η στάση της ηγεσίας του ΚΚΕ απέναντι στον Άρη Βελουχιώτη, 1941-1945 Γρηγόρη Φαράκου σελ 137 Tzimas said: Η υπόθεση είχε και την κωμική της πλευρά. Έξω από μένα, Έλληνα 100%, που μπορούσε όμως, εν ανάγκη, να περάσει και για Σλαβομακεδόνας γιατί ήξερα καλά τα Σλαβομακεδόνικα και είχα μεγάλη επαφή και σχέσεις με Σλαβομακεδόνες, βγήκαν και <<Σλαβομακεδόνες>>από τη Μικρά Ασία ...και μάλιστα τέτοιοι, που δε ξέρανε ούτε λέξη σλαβομακεδόνικα
^Γιάννης Ιωαννίδης, Αναμνήσεις. Προβλήματα της πολιτικής του ΚΚΕ στην Εθνική Αντίσταση (1940-45), επιμ. Αλέκου Παπαναγιώτου, σσ. 86, 87, Αθήνα 1979
Matthias Esche, Die Kommunistische Partei Griechenlands 1941-1949, Munich: Oldenbourg, 1982. ISBN3-486-50961-6
Hagen Fleischer, Im Kreuzschatten der Mächte Griechenland 1941-1944 (Okkupation-Resistance-Kollaboration), Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1986, p. 591. ISBN3-8204-8581-3