May Day in Baghdad May 2, 2010
Posted by Garibaldy in Communism, Iraq, Uncategorized.trackback
I put up the full text of the Iraqi Communist Party’s May Day message over at Garibaldy Blog, which was published in advance. Yesterday, the Iraqi CP held a May Day march and rally in Baghdad.
The Iraqi CP leader said: “Workers will remain a guiding beacon, for all the people, leading the way forward for social progress, democracy and socialism.” He also paid tribute to the sacrifices of Iraqi workers; fearless of prisons, repression and expulsion from work, in the struggle to achieve freedom, independence and a prosperous life for the Iraqi people.
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
Has anyone ever written much on the revival – or re-emergence – of Iraqi communism post-2003? It would be most interesting to find out more. I suspect that the rise of Islamism in many places in the twentieth century – official and otherwise – has much to do with anti-communism, and with the aim of crushing some very successful communist or socialist parties. Not anti-Americanism (or anti-westernism/capitalism)at all, in other words.
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Peter,
I’m haven’t read anything on it myself, though I did find this via amazon. Judging by the description of the Iraqi CP as a lackey under US occupation, it doesn’t seem like the most friendly book towards the Iraqi CP.
http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521873949
The international department of the Iraqi CP sends stuff out fairly regularly.
As for Islamism and anti-communism, I would think there is a lot of truth in what you say. On the one hand, we need only look at the Americans facilitating the rise of Islamism to see it; on the other, the fate of communists at the hands of Islamists where they have taken power. There are some interesting discussions to be had with the Tudeh Party of Iran about this sort of thing. There’s also a fairly widespread belief among communists that the emergence of Hamas was deliberately facilitated too.
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Very interesting. May Day pictures from Kiev (with text in Russian) can be seen at http://www.kpu.net.ua/prazdnovanie-pervomaja-v-ukraine-fotoreportazh/
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I think there are other reasons for the rise of Islamism. In the middle east I would say it was the widespread failiure (both militarily and economically) of the existing secular regimes – I’m thinking here particularly of Egypt. These secular regimes were often nominally socialist I suppose.
The only big link between islamism being an anti-(“godless”) communism was around Afghanistan.
The Iraqi Communist Party was of course brutally suppressed by the Ba’ath party, although it is worth pointing out that the Communists had prior form in purging Ba’athists under a previous military dictatorship. In any case, the Ba’ath would have considered themselves socialists. They had some broadly socialist policies (I think), and were a client state of the Soviet Union. They certainly werent Islamist.
Depending on who you talk to, either the KGB or the CIA assisted the Ba’ath with intelligence in purging the Communists.
The Lebanese Communist Party made a name for themselves fighting against the Israeli occupation, and despite some initial problems with Hezbollah, later grew very close to the organisation. I think they are still around but cant remember their share of the vote. They probably shared the same fate as the WP in a sectarian society.
Re: Hamas, there is evidence, now disputed by both parties, that the organisation was encouraged by the Israelis as they thought it would be easier to co-opt than the avowedly nationalist and secular PLO. I wouldnt have thought the Israelis would have been that concerned with Communists though (insofar as they could be separated from other Palestinian partisan groups).
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I just wrote a reasonably long post which seems to have disappeared.
Basically I said the rise of Islamism was generally to do with the failiure of existing secular regimes (in the middle east at least). I can only really think of the US supporting Islamism as it related to the Afghanistai jihad.
A lot of the targets of Islamism were nominally socialist regimes – such as the Ba’ath parties in Iraq and Syria.
Also, the Iraqi Ba’ath, a client state of the USSR (to a greater or lesser extent) brutally suppressed the Communists. Part of the reason for this (apart from the general murderous and totalitarian nature of Saddam) was the Communist parties involvement in purges of Ba’athists under a previous regime.
The Lebanese Communist Party did fight against Israeli Occupation fairly successfully, but I’m not sure whats happened to them. I remember they initially had some “problems” with Hezbollah but later grew relatively close.
Hamas was encouraged by Israel early in its development, but that was to act as a bulwark against existing Palestinian nationalist groups, rather than communists per se (although some communists would have been members of the afore-mentioned nationalist groups).
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