Iraqi Communist Party - The 1930s

The 1930s

In 1929, a sharp decline in international commodity prices caused a more than 40 percent drop in the value of Iraqi exports. This led to a national economic depression and massive wage reductions for many of Iraq’s workers. It was at this time that Communist circles began growing among young men in Basra (led by Ghali Zuwayyid) and Nasiriyyah (led by Yusuf Salman Yusuf, "Comrade Fahd"). Several circles were also growing in Baghdad, led by such notables as Asim Flayyeh, Mahdi Hashim, and Zaki Khairi. These young men had first met during the student demonstrations of 1927 and 1928. These groups were brought together through the boycott of the British-owned Baghdad Electric Light Company, lasting from December 5, 1933 until January 2, 1934. Finally, on March 8, 1935, Jamiyyat Dudd Al-Istimar (“The Association Against Imperialism”) was founded. Three days later a manifesto was issued, calling for the unification of all workers and peasants and demanding cancellation of debts, redistribution of lands, and extensions of worker’s rights, including an eight-hour day. The organization, with its founders acting as regional leaders, set about publishing Iraq’s first underground paper, Kifah Al-Shab (“The Struggle of the People”), and began attacking prime minister Yasin al-Hashimi, resulting in swift police crackdown and the arrests of almost all of the major leaders. By December 1935, the paper ceased to exist, having reached a circulation of about 500.

After the coup of October 29, 1936, the Iraqi Communist leaders and organizers who had eluded imprisonment helped to lead the wave of peaceful demonstrations occurring across the country, such as Ghali Zuwayyid in Basra. The party found supporters on the “Committee for National and Progressive Reform” (which organized popular support in Baghdad) and even secured two supporters in the newly elected parliament. Bakr Sidqi, the leader of the coup and now the new power in the government, quickly issued attacks on the party, and was met with labor strikes across the nation. Sidqi responded with further crackdowns, and many of the Communist reformers fled the cause. Despite the assassination of Sidqi in 1937, the damage had been done, leaving the leadership of the party in the hands of Zaki Zkhairi, who sought new support for the party among the lower ranks of the military throughout the late 1930s.