Iraqs Communists Given New Life by Protests

Details: Published on Wednesday, 11 December 2019 23:28; Written by editor

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(((( T h e B u l l e t ))))~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 1953 ... December 12, 2019
__________________________________________________

Iraq’s Communists Given New Life by Protests

Alex MacDonald

Compared to the ostentatiously huge buildings afforded to some of the parties in Baghdad, the headquarters of the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP) are relatively humble. The building comprises a shop, offices and a small function room decorated with modernist art and depictions of communist martyrs, including former executed leader Yusuf Salman Yusuf.

Iraq’s oldest continuously existing political party is no longer the mighty force it was in the mid-20th century when it was arguably the largest mass membership party in the country -- and the largest communist party in the Middle East. But with the nation gripped in the kind of social upheaval that cries out for Marxist analysis, the party is in its element.

So far, the ICP is the only party to have fully withdrawn from the Iraqi parliament in response to the government’s fierce crackdown on protests which began last month, which has so far seen at least 355 people killed and tens of thousands injured. Mass public anger has largely... been focused on the country’s political parties, accused of cronyism, corruption and connections to violent armed groups.

According to Raid Fahmi, the ICP’s general secretary, the party is the only one which is not treated with total scorn by the protesters.

"Different communists are there as individuals, they are among different groups," he explained, speaking to Middle East Eye. "We respect the general rules of the protest movement -- but they know who the communists are, present within them, and they accept the communists. Other parties are not accepted."