Iraq's Post-1950 History Revisited: Part 2

(See below for part 1)

Most people in the United States would like to see the nearly 150,000 U.S. troops and 200,000 private contractors who are still occupying Iraqi soil (in support of special U.S. corporate interests) to finally be withdrawn from Iraq by Easter 2009. But the Democratic Obama regime is still not willing to immediately bring U.S. troops and private contractors in Iraq back home. Yet if the Obama Administration officials responsible for authorizing the use of U.S. armed forces in Iraq--like U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton--had known more about Iraq's post-1950 history, perhaps U.S. troops and private contractors would not still be spending another Easter in Iraq in 2009?

In June of 1953 there were still 164 Iraq Communist Party members imprisoned in Baghdad's Central Jail and 123 party members locked up in the Kut Prison. So on June 18, 1953, in the Baghdad Central Jail, the Iraqi communist prisoners staged a protest. In response, the Baghdad Central Jail guards killed 7 and wounded 81 of the protesting prisoners.

A few months later, on September 2, 1953, the Iraqi communist prisoners at Kut Prison also staged a protest. In response, the regime's troops used machine guns against them, killing 8 and wounding 94 of the protesting prisoners.

Following this 1953 intensification of political repression by the regime, the size of the Iraq Communist Party’s membership in early 1954 was only about 1/8 the size of its membership in 1948. But after an April 21, 1954 Military Assistance Understanding agreement between the Republican Eisenhower Administration and the Iraqi monarchical regime was signed on April 21, 1954, elections were held on June 9, 1954 in which the Iraqi communist-backed National Front won 4 of 10 constituencies in Baghdad.

In response, yet another pro-imperialist Iraqi politician, Nuri as-Said, was chosen to head the Iraqi royalist regime's government on August 2, 1954. And on August 3, 1954 the Iraqi parliament that was elected on June 9, 1954 was dissolved.

On April 4, 1955, the UK government then pressured its puppet regime to sign a special agreement with Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and the UK--the Baghdad Pact-- that more formally aligned the undemocratic Iraqi government militarily with the UK and United States governments. An Iraqi poet named Husain ar-Radi (a/k/a Salam ‘Adil) also became the new leader of the Iraq Communist Party in 1955--after he agreed to be the Secretary General of the Iraq Communist Party.

To counter the continued political influence of the Iraq Communist Party in Iraqi society during the 1950s and early 1960s, the U.S. government apparently then began to encourage the growth of an anti-imperialist, pan-Arab nationalist, but anti-communist, Ba'th Party in Iraq during the Cold War Era. As Rashid Khalidi recalled in his book Resurrecting Empire book: "Starting in the late 1950s, this policy ranged from covert sympathy for the Iraqi Ba'th Party to wholehearted backing for dictatorial Ba'thist regimes at various times from the 1960s through 1990." (end of part 2)

Iraq's Post-1950 History Revisited: Part 1

Most people in the United States would like to see the nearly 150,000 U.S. troops and 200,000 private contractors who are still occupying Iraqi soil (in support of special U.S. corporate interests) to finally be withdrawn from Iraq by Easter 2009. But the Democratic Obama regime is still not willing to immediately bring U.S. troops and private contractors in Iraq back home. Yet if the Obama Administration officials responsible for authorizing the use of U.S. armed forces in Iraq--like U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton--had known more about Iraq's post-1950 history, perhaps U.S. troops and private contractors would not still be spending another Easter in Iraq in 2009?

By 1952, only 6,000 people of Jewish religious background still lived in Iraq; and these remaining Iraqis of Jewish background mostly earned their living under the monarchical regime as either merchants or professionals. But left-wing activist-led resistance to the royalist regime in Iraq still continued during the 1950s.

After Iraq Communist Party leader Fahd's execution in 1949, a 22-year-old Iraqi of Kurdish background, Baha u-d-Din-Nuri, became the leader of the Iraq Communist Party in 1950.; and on August 23, 1952, Iraqi workers went on strike in Basra for four days. In addition, Iraqi peasant revolts began in the rest of the country in 1952 and 1953.

In response, the Iraqi monarchical regime’s police then killed three workers in Basra. But in November 1952, anti-regime street demonstrations, similar to the suppressed January 1948 "Wathbah" protests of Iraqi students and workers, again broke out on the streets of Baghdad. Organized by the Iraqi communist-supported Partisans of Peace anti-imperialist group, this Iraqi "Intifada" demanded that civil liberties be guaranteed in Iraq, that a political system of free, direct elections be established and that the regime's treaty with the UK government be abolished. And on November 22, 1952 a mass demonstration in Baghdad demanded: "Anglo-American Imperialists, Leave Our Country!"

The following day, Iraqi communist leaders led more anti-imperialist street protests in Baghdad. Iraq Communist Party leader Baha u-d-Din-Nuri, for example, was on the streets of Baghdad on November 23, 1952, "when at about one o'clock in the afternoon the United States Information Service library was burned" by protesters, according to the 1978 book The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq by Hanna Batatu.

The Iraqi monarchy's police then killed twelve of the protesters. In response, the anti-imperialist Iraqi demonstrators burned down the local police station. The Iraqi Army was then called into Baghdad to suppress the protests, martial law was declared and all dissident Iraqi political leaders were locked up.

Despite the arrest of its leaders on November 23, 1952, Iraqi communist activists were still able to organize another mass protest on November 24, 1952 condemning the "dictatorship". But the regime's Iraqi soldiers, like the Iraqi police on the previous day, also opened fire on the demonstrators--killing 18 protesters and wounding 84 protesters.

Another new wave of political repression then began in Iraq. So by the end of November 1952, 958 Iraqis were now jailed as political prisoners and 2,041 other Iraqis were now temporarily detained. In addition, another two Iraqi political activists were now sentenced to death. Then on April 13, 1953, the regime's police arrested the Iraq Communist Party leader at that time--Baha-u-d-Din-Nuri. (end of part 1)

Iraq's Pre-1950 History Revisited: Conclusion

(See below for parts 1- 9)

Nearly 150,000 U.S. military troops and 200,000 private contractors are still in Iraq trying to exercise a special influence on Iraqi history, by waging an imperialist war on behalf of special U.S. corporate interests. Yet most people in the United States probably didn't learn very much about Iraqi history in their high school social studies courses. But some knowledge of pre-1950 Iraqi history may be of use to U.S. anti-war activists when arguing with U.S. opponents of immediate withdrawal from Iraq and U.S. supporters of the Democratic Obama Regime’s war in Iraq, during the next 16 months.

Despite the political repression and martial law in 1940s Iraq, as late as May 1950 less than 14,000 of Iraq’s 130,000 to 150,000 people of Jewish background had left Iraq to live within the Zionist movement’s undemocratic new state in Palestine. So, to “encourage immigration,” the Israeli government apparently then arranged for anti-Semitic attacks to take place in Baghdad. According to the Palestinian Book Project’s 1977 book, Our Roots Are Still Alive:

“A series of bombings aimed at Jewish stores, synagogues and cafes stampeded a hundred thousand Iraqi Jews in a panicked flight to Israel. Many years later, an Israeli magazine, Ha’olam Hazeh (5/29/66) published the confession of an Israeli agent, Yehuda Tager. Israelis had been responsible for the bombings in Baghdad to `encourage immigration.’”

The “encouraged” legal immigration of Iraqis of Jewish religious background from Iraq to Israel/Palestine began in May 1950; and when it ended in August 1951, the number of Iraqis of Jewish background had decreased by an additional 110,000. As a result, according to the 1978 book The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq by Hanna Batatu, “the Shiite merchants succeeded to first place in the trade of Baghdad after the exodus of the Jews…” At the same time, the U.S. government, after 1950, began to replace the UK government as the major foreign government that undemocratically attempted to exercise a special influence on the internal political affairs of Iraq, in violation of international law and the United Nations Charter.

As this revisiting of Iraq’s pre-1950 history reveals, people in Iraq have been consistently demanding an end to the colonization of their country since the end of World War I. So as the current U.S.-led military occupation of Iraq continues under the Democratic Obama regime, U.S. anti-war activists still have an internationalist obligation to work for an immediate end to the morally bankrupt attempt to re-colonize Iraq in the 21st-century on behalf of U.S. corporate interests.

Iraq's Pre-1950 History Revisited: Part 9

(See below for parts 1- 8)

Nearly 150,000 U.S. military troops and 200,000 private contractors are still in Iraq trying to exercise a special influence on Iraqi history, by waging an imperialist war on behalf of special U.S. corporate interests. Yet most people in the United States probably didn't learn very much about Iraqi history in their high school social studies courses. But some knowledge of pre-1950 Iraqi history may be of use to U.S. anti-war activists when arguing with U.S. opponents of immediate withdrawal from Iraq and U.S. supporters of the Democratic Obama Regime’s war in Iraq, during the next 16 months.

With the help of an ex-candidate member of the Iraq Communist Party’s Central Committee—who turned informer on October 9, 1948—UK imperialism’s puppet Iraqi monarchy’s security services were able to initiate yet another wave of arrests of Iraq Communist Party activists on November 11, 1948. The new wave of arrests set the stage for the final elimination in 1949 of the jailed Iraq Communist Party leader and organizer Fahd from Iraqi political life, along with the elimination of two other imprisoned members of the Iraq Communist Party’s Politburo, Zaki Basim and Muhammad Hussain Ash-Shabibi.

On February 10, 1949, Fahd, Zaki Basim and Muhammad Hussain Ash-Shabibi were now convicted by the UK’s puppet monarchical regime of having “led” the Iraq Communist Party from their prison cells; and the three dissident Iraqi anti-imperialist leftists were given death sentences. The 1978 book The Old Classes and the Revolutionary Movements In Iraq by Hanna Batatu described the final moments of the three executed Iraq Communist Party leaders:

“The sentences were carried out at daybreak on 14 and 15 February [1949]. The three leaders were strung up in different squares of Baghdad city, Ash-Shababi at the gate of al-Mu-adhdham, Basim at the east gate, and Fahd in al-Karich in the open space that is now called the Square of the New Museum. Their bodies were left hanging for several hours so that the common people going to their work would receive the warning…

“Moments before the close of his life, as he was being led up to the gallows, Fahd is said to have exclaimed in a defiant tone: `A people that offers sacrifices will not die!’…” (end of part 9).

Iraq's Pre-1950 History Revisited: Part 8

(See below for parts 1- 7)

Nearly 150,000 U.S. military troops and 200,000 private contractors are still in Iraq trying to exercise a special influence on Iraqi history, by waging an imperialist war on behalf of special U.S. corporate interests. Yet most people in the United States probably didn't learn very much about Iraqi history in their high school social studies courses. But some knowledge of pre-1950 Iraqi history may be of use to U.S. anti-war activists when arguing with U.S. opponents of immediate withdrawal from Iraq and U.S. supporters of the Democratic Obama Regime’s war in Iraq, during the next 16 months.

Following the use of machine guns by Iraqi police to kill or wound between 300 and 400 anti-imperialist Iraqi civilian demonstrators on January 27, 1948, the Iraqi monarchy’s premier, Salih Jabr, fled to England during the night and a new government was formed for the puppet monarchy by Muhammad as-Sadr. During as-Sadr’s term as premier, protests against the Iraqi puppet government continued. Iraqi railway workers, for example, staged strikes on March 18, 1948, on April 14, 1948 and on May 12, 1948. In addition, on April 4, 1948, on April 6, 1948, on May 2, 1948 and on May 8, 1948, Iraqi port workers staged strikes. And from April 23, 1948 to May 15, 1948, Iraqi oil workers also went out on strike.

But following the May 15, 1948 establishment of the undemocratic state of Israel by the Zionist movement, the puppet Iraqi government declared martial law and set up military courts for Iraqi civilian dissidents; while non-communist Iraqi nationalists withdrew their support for the Iraq Communist Party activist-led insurgency in Iraq.

Prior to May 15, 1948, Iraq Communist Party student activists were so popular on campus that they were actually democratically controlling and democratically running some Iraqi colleges. But after the Iraq Communist Party’s leadership—following the example of the Soviet Union’s government—announced on July 6, 1948 that it was backing the UN’s partition of Palestine plan, popular support for Iraq Communist Party activists by the anti-Zionist Arab masses in Iraq decreased. (end of part 8)

Iraq's Pre-1950 History Revisited: Part 7

(See below for parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.)

Nearly 150,000 U.S. military troops and 200,000 private contractors are still in Iraq trying to exercise a special influence on Iraqi history, by waging an imperialist war on behalf of special U.S. corporate interests. Yet most people in the United States probably didn't learn very much about Iraqi history in their high school social studies courses. But some knowledge of pre-1950 Iraqi history may be of use to U.S. anti-war activists when arguing with U.S. opponents of immediate withdrawal from Iraq and U.S. supporters of the Democratic Obama Regime’s war in Iraq, during the next 16 months.

Iraq Communist Party leader Fahd’s life imprisonment sentence in July of 1947 did not stop the anti-imperialist protests in Iraq from continuing. Under the feudal monarchy’s 1930 treaty with the UK government, the British imperialists were allowed to occupy two air bases on Iraqi soil. After the Iraq Communist Party’s newspaper called for the overthrow of the monarchy’s latest regime, the Salih Jabr regime, anti-imperialist Iraqi students demonstrated on January 4, 1948 to demand that no re-negotiated agreement to allow the UK government to retain its bases in Iraq be signed by the Iraqi monarchy’s government. But on January 16, 1948, the terms of the Iraqi puppet government’s new Portsmouth treaty with UK imperialism were announced: the British military was going to still be allowed to occupy two air bases in Iraq and only minor changes in the 1930 treaty were going to be made.

To protest against this Portsmouth Agreement, the Iraqi university students immediately began a 3-day strike on January 16, 1948; and the Iraq Communist Party activists who led the Student Cooperation Committee organized a mass protest march in Baghdad, which included Iraqi workers, on January 20, 1948. In response, the Iraqi puppet government’s police first beat protesters and then shot at the protest march--killing two Iraqi demonstrators and wounding seventeen demonstrators after the Iraqi protesters began to fight back.

The following day, on January 21, 1948, the Iraqi puppet government cancelled its Portsmouth Agreement with the British government. But Iraq Communist Party activists kept the demonstrations going; and enormous crowds were mobilized to pack the streets on January 23, 1948 and during the next few days.

Near the Royal Hospital in Baghdad on January 27, 1948, however, Iraqi police again fired on a crowd of protesters and killed four more anti-imperialist Iraqi demonstrators. The Iraqi monarchy’s police then brought armored cars and machine guns to the scene and, when the protesting crowds began to regroup, the Iraqi police began to fire their machine guns at the unarmed people. According to the 1978 book The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq, “the total figure for dead and injured” on January 27, 1948, “is commonly set at between 300 and 400.” (end of part 7)

Iraq's Pre-1950 History Revisited: Part 6

(See below for parts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.)

Nearly 150,000 U.S. military troops and 200,000 private contractors are still in Iraq trying to exercise a special influence on Iraqi history, by waging an imperialist war on behalf of special U.S. corporate interests. Yet most people in the United States probably didn't learn very much about Iraqi history in their high school social studies courses. But some knowledge of pre-1950 Iraqi history may be of use to U.S. anti-war activists when arguing with U.S. opponents of immediate withdrawal from Iraq and U.S. supporters of the Democratic Obama Regime’s war in Iraq, during the next 16 months.

To again prop up its puppet regime in Iraq by means of another “surge”, the UK imperialist government again sent more British troops into Iraq in August 1946. But the surge of increased UK troops in Iraq in August 1946 provoked more street protests that eventually led to the resignation of the monarchical puppet regime’s premier, Al-Umari, on November 16, 1946.

The puppet royal government’s new premier, Nuri as-Said, then promised free elections for the people of Iraq. But on November 26, 1946 the Iraq Communist Party leader Fahd called for the overthrow of the puppet monarchy’s government and an end, finally, to British imperialist control of Iraq.

On January 18, 1947, however, the Iraqi monarchy’s Nuri as-Said government arrested Iraq Communist Party leader Fahd and another party leader, Zaki Basim, in the house of a Baghdad pharmacist. Fahd and Zaki Basim were then taken to the Iraqi police investigation department in Central Baghdad, flung into latrines and beaten with canes. According to the 1978 book The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq by Hanna Batatu, “the police preferred to cane first and interrogate after.”

When the Iraqi police beatings failed to break the rebel spirit of Fahd and Zaki Basim, they were both transferred to cells in the Abu Ghraib military prison. The cells were “narrow, damp, and without air, and so dark that they soon lost the sense of day and night,” according to The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq. They were allowed to exercise only half an hour each day; and a petition to transfer Fahd and Basim to healthier cells was ignored by the Iraqi puppet monarchy’s regime.

Yet in April 1947, there were still 3,000 to 4,000 members of the repressed Iraq Communist Party in Iraq. Fahd and other imprisoned leaders of the Iraq Communist Party then declared a hunger strike on June 13, 1947. In response, Fahd and some other party leaders were brought to trial before the Iraqi High Criminal Court on the 8th day of their hunger strike and charged with “incitement to armed insurrection” and “propagating communism among members of the Iraqi armed forces.”

On June 23, 1947, Fahd, Zaki Basim and the Iraqi pharmacist at whose home they had been arrested, Ibrahim Naji Shmayyel, were next found “guilty” and were sentenced to death. Thirteen other Iraq Communist Party activists were sentenced to hard labor. The severity of the death sentences for Fahd, Basim and Shmayyel provoked world-wide protest. So in response to this protest, Shmayyel and Basim’s death sentences were reduced on July 13, 1947 to less than 15 years imprisonment; and Fahd’s death sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life. And on August 14, 1947, Fahd and Basim were then transferred to Kut prison in Iraq. (end of part 6)