Iraqi Communist Party - 1950-1958

1950-1958

After the devastations of the late 40s, the composition of the party went through some serious changes. The severely weakened organization was carried through the early 50s by growing Kurdish support and for the period 1949-1950 the party was actually led from Kurdistan instead of Baghdad. Nearly the entirety of the old, largely Baghdadi leadership had been imprisoned, creating a void the Kurdish members quickly filled. This period also saw a drastic drop in Jewish membership, undoubtedly connected to the massive exodus of approximately 120,000 Jews from Iraq at this time. Between 1952 and 1954 a series of uprisings led to the establishment of martial law, the outlawing of all political parties, cultural circles, unions, and independent media, and the arrests of their leaders. This policy was instituted during one of Nuri as-Said’s many periods of control over the government. The ICP, which had always been an illegal organization, adopted a new national charter in 1953 which differed from the 1944 charter in that it accepted possible secession of the Kurdish people. At this time, according to one source, the party numbered about 500. Riots over prison conditions broke out in June and September 1953, first in Baghdad and then in Kut, resulting in the deaths of many Communist political prisoners at the hands of the police. This caused a national outcry and won many sympathizers to the side of the Communist cause. At the second party Congress in 1956, the party officially adopted a pan-Arabist stance. This was inspired not only by the arms agreement between Egypt and the USSR in July 1955, but also by Egypt's nationalization of the Suez Canal the following year, resulting in an Anglo-French-Israeli attack on Egypt. This pro-Nasserist stance would eventually become a point of conflict after the 1958 revolution. In 1958, the party supported the revolution and the new government of Abd al-Karim Qasim, who relied to a considerable degree on its support.