Iraqi Communist Party الحزب الشيوعي العراقي | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | Raid Fahmi |
| Founded | 31 March 1934 |
| Part of a series on |
| Communist parties |
|---|
The Iraqi Communist Party (ICP) is a communist party in Iraq. In the early 1960s, it was one of the largest non-ruling communist parties in the world.[1]
History
The ICP supported Qasim's 1958 revolution against the monarchy. All political parties in Iraq adopted the ICP's social program. The party had 25,000 cadres and a million members of its mass organizations. In 1959, First Secretary Husain ar-Radi argued for a proletarian revolution but was outvoted in the Politburo. The ICP defended Qasim's nationalist government against a Ba'athist coup attempt in October 1959.
After Saddam Hussein came to power in 1958 and made an alliance with the Soviet Union, the party split. The pro-Soviet faction of the ICP supported Saddam, but the anti-Baath Central Leadership led by Aziz al-Hajj did not and was attacked by the Ba'athist militia. In 1978, Saddam arrested the pro-Ba'ath faction of the party. The party's remaining cadre fled to the Kurdish regions.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Vijay Prashad (2008). The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World: 'Bali' (pp. 158–160). [PDF] The New Press. ISBN 9781595583420 [LG]