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Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Revival of Iraqi Communism among Youth alarms Shiite Militias

Weather it is significant that Communist youth are gaining in numbers, I'm reporting it. There is no doubt that Islamic revolutionaries are the dominant anti-imperialist fighters in the Middle east today. For the left it has been a disappointing and depressing two decades into the new 21st Century. But things can change and this may be a sign that things will change. A left presents in Iraq is welcome news. - សតិវ ​អតុ 

- Mustafa Habib

Last week’s kidnapping of seven activists in Baghdad could be another sign of increasing tensions between secular parties in Iraq and the country’s ruling religious groups. Is history repeating?
Last week, an unidentified armed group kidnapped a number of younger civil society activists from their small apartment in the Sadoun area of central Baghdad. After three days it was announced that the young men had been freed, after intervention by Iraq’s Minister of the Interior, Qassim al-Araji.
In announcing the release though, the Ministry made no mention of who might have been responsible for the kidnapping even though many locals blamed members of one or other of the Shiite Muslim militias, who run security in certain parts of the city and who have been controversial in the recent past.
Some of the young activists who were abducted also happened to be members of the Iraqi Communist Party. The Communists have been firm supporters of recent demonstrations in Baghdad during which protestors called for an end to corruption and demanded political reform. The Iraqi Communist party is just one of a number of civil society and political groups uniting to take part in, and organize, the protests.

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