>In the final analysis, they provide pretexts for prolonging the
>occupation!" Central Committee of the Iraqi Communist Party,
>23-12-2003, "Towards the Broadest Political Alliance to End the
>Occupation and Consolidate the Democratic Process", Iraqi Communist
>Party website [downloaded 13/2/04],
>http://www.iraqcp.org/framse1/0040128icp1.htm
The Iraqi Communist Party has no future -- it not only fails to lead street demonstrations to the occupation:
***** In recent weeks, as Iraqi cities have been swept by public unrest over lack of jobs and services, the Communists have refrained from participating in street rallies, some of which have turned violent. Two weeks ago, in the southern city of Kut, rioters converged on government buildings, throwing grenades and rocks at foreign troops until they were pacified by Islamic clerics with bullhorns. Meanwhile, officials at the local Communist Party office shook their heads in concern and dismay.
"We warned this would happen from the beginning if the Americans did not hand over power quickly," said Ali Ikabi, 50, a university professor who heads the Kut party branch. "The economic situation here is desperate, but this is partly a legacy of dictatorship. We disagree with the demonstrations, but we have told the Americans our views and we are ready to be of service if we can help."
(Pamela Constable, "Iraqi Communists Make a Comeback: Public Wake for Bomb Victim Reflects New Status of Long-Persecuted Party," January 29, 2004, Page A16, <http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A58107-2004Jan28?language=printer>) *****
Lacking in numerical strength, it has ended up becoming the rearguard even on the electoral front within the Iraqi Governing Council:
***** Party chief and council member Hamid Mussa was commenting on a meeting Sunday between the US-appointed interim body and a UN mission tasked to assess the feasibility of early elections demanded by Iraq's top Shiite cleric.
"The majority (in the council) was in favor of being patient, so that elections can be well prepared on the technical, political and security level," Mussa, who belongs himself to the majority Shiite community, told AFP. . . .
Mussa said the Communist party favored delaying the elections. His organisatino has a historical presence in Iraq but suffered severe repression under the 24-year reign of ousted president Saddam Hussein. Its influence on the urban poor is limited compared to that of the Shiite fundamentalist groups.
>The Iraqi masses are capable of, without the "resistance" of these
>reactionary forces, but through a mass struggle organized in
>councils and other mass organizations, and by standing ... side by
>side with the defenders of freedom and civility all over the world
>not only of expelling the US troops out of Iraq, but establishing
>their authority and liberating the society from the vicious circle
>of war between the US and the "resistance" as well." (Khisrow Saya,
>5/1/2004 ,"Occupation" and "Resistance": two poles within the same
>reactionary camp", Worker-Communist Party of Iraq website
>[downloaded 13/2/04], http://www.wpiraq.org/english/)
The Worker-Communist Party of Iraq's position is more promising than the ICP's. A Third-Camper Alan Johnson reports that "as of late June the UUI [Union of the Unemployed in Iraq, led by Worker-Communist cadres] was claiming 15,000 members with centers in Baghdad, Kirkuk, and Nasiriya," but he also acknowledges that it is "impossible to know how accurate these figures are" ("Iraq and the Third Camp," _New Politics_, 9.3 [new series], whole no. 35, Summer 2003, <http://www.wpunj.edu/~newpol/issue35/Johnson35.htm>). Can they survive uphill struggles fought on so many fronts at the same time -- against the coalition army of occupation, Iraqi soldiers and police forces trained by the US military, resistance fighters (domestic and foreign), various political parties' militias ("Several of the biggest political parties in Iraq say they are determined to keep their well-armed militias despite American opposition to the idea," Edward Wong, "Iraqi Parties Refuse to Disband Militias," February 9, 2004, <http://www.iht.com/articles/128716.html>), and religious forces led by clerics? -- Yoshie
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>