[Marxism] The Iraqi Left and an small factual correction for Jose

[Carlos Petroni <alternative@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I read some of the discussions on the Iraqi Communist Party.  As far as I can 
gather, there are at least 21 left groups and parties in Iraq, most of them 
coming to life after the occupation of Iraq.

Among the left groups in Iraq that I could identify there are at least four 
claiming the name of "Communist": the Workers-Communist Party of Iraq -- linked 
to its counterpart in Iran; the Communist Collectives (more or less an 
independent outfit with some religious overtones), one faction of the ICP which 
split because the official leadership's support for the occupation and the 
Young Communist -- more or less a Trotskyist group of high school and college 
students.

There are also two socialist groupings, four or five revolutionary nationalist 
groups and the recently split of the left of the Baath Party -- very active 
among intellectuals and students.

There is also a Green Party and very leftist secular left organization, very 
active in Basra.   Most of these groups have several things in common: a) they 
share their opposition, with different degrees, to the occupation; b) 
collaborate among them and most of them are part of the new opposition to the 
IGC formed last Saturday in Baghdad in conjunction with moderate Shia and Sunni 
groups (35 parties in all participate of this coalition); c) they all have 
public headquarters that could be visited by foreigners if you happen to be 
visiting, that is and d) None of them recognize the ICP as part of the left.

At least three members of the ICP had been shot lately.  Two of them were 
"Councilors" of at the local level and were accused by the Mahdi Army and the 
"Nationalist Resistance Group" in Fallujah as "collaborators.  I know little 
about the third known case.

The position of the ICP was not only that they participate in the Iraqi 
Governing Council (IGC) and thus are part of the US puppet government, but they 
do so actively and when the recent uprising started in the first week of April, 
they denounce it as "criminals" and "terrorists" and called for smashing the 
revolt.

The ICP are long time associates of the two main Kurdish bourgeois parties and 
they only developed a base in the rest of Iraq after the US invasion.  They do, 
however, work as much as possible among workers and in the slums of Baghdad and 
they have members as far as Basra, were they opened their 25th offices few 
months back.  They keep lots of the "communist jargon" and they do defend 
secularism -- in part, their opposition to the Mahdi Army, al-Sadr and others 
is based on their denunciations of these groupings as "reactionary religious 
fanatics."

Note to Jose:

* The Communist Party of Nicaragua was originally an split of the PSN (the 
official pro-Moscow party).  They were no Maoists.  You're probably confusing 
them with another former Maoist grouping behind a daily newspaper published 
immediately after the triumph of the revolution.  Those former Maoists were 
very active during the civil war as the organizers of the MILPAS (Milicias 
Populares Anti-Somozistas).  They were originally part of the FSLN and broke 
with them in the early 80s to become Maoists.  They broke with Maoism when 
China refused to support the insurrection against Somoza and characterized it 
as a "Moscow's coup."

* The PSN played a role under Somoza similar to that of the Cuban CP under 
Batista.  They were opponents but signed deal after deal with the dictatorship. 
 They did, indeed had some influence in the working class, but they lost it 
even before Somoza was overthrown.  Immediately after the FSLN victory, some of 
their leaders were imprisoned when documentation was found in Somoza's bunkers 
indicating they were informers of the "Seguridad" and received payments from 
the dictatorship.

*  The first organization created by the original leaders that later will form 
the FSLN was called "Juventud Patriotica."  This grouping was formed by mostly 
members and formers members of the PSN under the influence of the Cuban 
Revolution.  Later on they took the name FSLN when they fused with other left 
group of similar origin.


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