This comprehensive work examines the complex transformation of the Iraqi Communist Party from vanguard actor under Iraq's conservative monarchy to rearguard lackey under US occupation. Born in the interlude between two world wars, the Communist Party of Iraq was fostered by Iraq's embryonic intelligentsia as an approach to national liberation during the period of British domination. Driven underground or into exile by successive waves of Baathist repression beginning in 1963, the party's leadership became progressively dependent on and subservient to the Soviet Union. Dissatisfied with the party's irrelevance to Iraq's sociopolitical dynamics, reform efforts were thwarted by the old-guard leadership, and in the mid-1970s the party fragmented. With the fall of the Hussein regime and the US occupation of Iraq in 2003, the remnants of the party's old guard connected with the US-installed government and became part of the US project in Iraq.
This comprehensive work examines the complex transformation of the Iraqi Communist Party from vanguard actor under Iraq's conservative monarchy to rearguard lackey under US occupation. Born in the interlude between two world wars, the Communist Party of Iraq was fostered by Iraq's embryonic intelligentsia as an approach to national liberation during the period of British domination. Driven underground or into exile by successive waves of Baathist repression beginning in 1963, the party's leadership became progressively dependent on and subservient to the Soviet Union. Dissatisfied with the party's irrelevance to Iraq's sociopolitical dynamics, reform efforts were thwarted by the old-guard leadership, and in the mid-1970s the party fragmented. With the fall of the Hussein regime and the US occupation of Iraq in 2003, the remnants of the party's old guard connected with the US-installed government and became part of the US project in Iraq.
Über den Autor
Tareq Y. Ismael is Professor of Political Science at the University of Calgary, Canada and President of the International Centre for Contemporary Middle East Studies at Eastern Mediterranean University. His most recent works include Middle Cultural Cleansing in Iraq (Pluto, 2009), The Iraqi Predicament (Pluto, 2004) and Iraq (Pluto, 2003).
Zusammenfassung
This is the first comprehensive work to examine the complex transformation of the Iraqi Communist Party. The Communist Party of Iraq was initially fostered by Iraq's embryonic intelligentsia as an approach to national liberation during the period of British domination. By 1963, the conservative Baath party had quashed the Communist Party, killing its members or sending them into exile. Dependent on the Soviet Communist Party, the Iraqi Communist Party floundered until the US government took it under its wing in the 2003 occupation.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
1. The Communist Party of Iraq: origins and foundations; 2. Ascent of the ICP in Iraqi politics; 3. Party rift: the emergence of the central leadership; 4. Alliance with the Ba'th; 5. The rebirth of central leadership in the 1970s; 6. Crisis: disintegration or renewal; 7. Conclusion: the legacy.
