jps
06-03-03, 03:49 PM
http://nyc.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=61976&group=webcast
BAGHDAD, Iraq - On the morning of April 10, a day after U.S. tanks stormed the Iraqi capital and looters began to ravage government buildings, a group of young men laid claim to a military housing command in downtown Baghdad.
After ousting the looters, the newcomers unfurled and planted a red flag with a gold hammer and sickle on the building. The banner, unseen in Iraq in many decades, would have gotten them shot only hours earlier by Saddam Hussein's security forces.
"Even during Saddam's most savage repression we had an underground presence in Baghdad and other cities, mobilizing the masses and fighting the dictator," said Shakir al-Dujaily, a member of the Iraqi Communist Party's leadership.
The communists, Iraq's oldest political party, now want to stage a comeback after spending decades in the political wilderness.
They intend to employ their core of committed activists and extensive network of party cells to re-establish influence in their traditional constituencies - politically or economically disadvantaged social groups such as workers, peasants and educated professionals.
And unlike some other emerging parties that have hailed the U.S. role in liberating Iraq, the communists are unabashed in their opposition to foreign occupation, saying the Iraqi people owe nothing to the United States.
"The United States fully supported Saddam during his senseless war against Iran, in which nearly a million lives were lost on both sides," al-Dujaily said in his tiny office on the ground floor of the former army building. "After the invasion of Kuwait, it imposed sanctions that did nothing to harm Saddam but killed half a million Iraqi children."
These folks seem to have the right idea. They've been fighting Saddam from the begining, unlike the US who was allied with him until recently. Unlike Chalabis group, which is an exile organization, the Iraqi communist party continued to exist in Iraq despite the threat of execution. In addition, the communist party is unique in having members from all of Iraqs ethnic groups. Who better to form the new government?
BAGHDAD, Iraq - On the morning of April 10, a day after U.S. tanks stormed the Iraqi capital and looters began to ravage government buildings, a group of young men laid claim to a military housing command in downtown Baghdad.
After ousting the looters, the newcomers unfurled and planted a red flag with a gold hammer and sickle on the building. The banner, unseen in Iraq in many decades, would have gotten them shot only hours earlier by Saddam Hussein's security forces.
"Even during Saddam's most savage repression we had an underground presence in Baghdad and other cities, mobilizing the masses and fighting the dictator," said Shakir al-Dujaily, a member of the Iraqi Communist Party's leadership.
The communists, Iraq's oldest political party, now want to stage a comeback after spending decades in the political wilderness.
They intend to employ their core of committed activists and extensive network of party cells to re-establish influence in their traditional constituencies - politically or economically disadvantaged social groups such as workers, peasants and educated professionals.
And unlike some other emerging parties that have hailed the U.S. role in liberating Iraq, the communists are unabashed in their opposition to foreign occupation, saying the Iraqi people owe nothing to the United States.
"The United States fully supported Saddam during his senseless war against Iran, in which nearly a million lives were lost on both sides," al-Dujaily said in his tiny office on the ground floor of the former army building. "After the invasion of Kuwait, it imposed sanctions that did nothing to harm Saddam but killed half a million Iraqi children."
These folks seem to have the right idea. They've been fighting Saddam from the begining, unlike the US who was allied with him until recently. Unlike Chalabis group, which is an exile organization, the Iraqi communist party continued to exist in Iraq despite the threat of execution. In addition, the communist party is unique in having members from all of Iraqs ethnic groups. Who better to form the new government?