A free homeland and a happy people

Last updated March 05, 2019

A free homeland and a happy people (Arabic : وطن حر وشعب سعيد‎watanun hurrun wa sha'bun sa'id) is an Arabic communist slogan. It was the slogan of the Syrian-Lebanese Communist Party, first adopted at the first conference of the Political Committee of the party (which also put Khalid Bakdash at the helm of the party).^[1]^[2] The slogan was adopted by the Iraqi Communist Party at its clandestine first national conference held in March 1944.^[3]^[4]

Khalid Bakdash was the leader of the Syrian Communist Party (SCP) from 1936 until his death. In 1954 Bakdash became the first member of a communist party to be elected to an Arab parliament. He has since been called the "dean of Arab communism."

The Iraqi Communist Party is a communist party and the oldest active party in Iraq. Since its foundation in 1934, it has dominated the left in Iraqi politics. It played a prominent role in shaping the political history of Iraq between its foundation and the 1970s. The Party was involved in many of the most important national uprisings and demonstrations of the 1940s and 1950s. It suffered heavily under the Ba'ath Party and Saddam Hussein but remained an important element of the Iraqi opposition and was a vocal opponent of the United Nations sanctions imposed on Iraq after the Gulf War of 1991. It opposed the United States invasion of Iraq in 2003 but since then has participated in the new political institutions. It received little support in the Iraqi general elections of 2005. The party reportedly gained some seats in each province in which the 2013 Iraqi governorate elections were held. The party joined the newly established Sairoun Alliance in the 2018 parliamentary elections, who gained the highest number of votes and a total of 54 seats in the Iraqi parliament. A communist woman representing the alliance, Suhad al-Khateeb, was also elected in the elections to represent the city of Najaf, deemed to be one of the holiest religious and conservative cities in Iraq. Al-Khateeb, who is a teacher and an anti-poverty and women's rights activist, said upon her victory "the Communist party have a long history of honesty – we were not agents for foreign occupations. We want social justice, citizenship, and are against sectarianism, and this is also what Iraqis want."

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References

↑ Artin Madeian; Jūrj Ḥāwī (1986). حياة على المتراس: ذكريات ومشاهدات. دار الفارابي،.
↑ Johan Franzén (2011). Red Star Over Iraq: Iraqi Communism Before Saddam. Hurst Publishers. p. 41. ISBN 978-1-84904-101-0.
↑ Tareq Y. Ismael (2008). The Rise and Fall of the Communist Party of Iraq. Cambridge University Press. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-521-87394-9.
↑ Elizabeth F. Thompson (15 April 2013). Justice Interrupted. Harvard University Press. p. 189. ISBN 978-0-674-07609-9.

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[MadeianḤāwī1986-1] Artin Madeian; Jūrj Ḥāwī (1986). حياة على المتراس: ذكريات ومشاهدات. دار الفارابي،.

[Franzén2011-2] Johan Franzén (2011). Red Star Over Iraq: Iraqi Communism Before Saddam. Hurst Publishers. p. 41. ISBN 978-1-84904-101-0.

[Ismael2008-3] Tareq Y. Ismael (2008). The Rise and Fall of the Communist Party of Iraq. Cambridge University Press. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-521-87394-9.

[Thompson2013-4] Elizabeth F. Thompson (15 April 2013). Justice Interrupted. Harvard University Press. p. 189. ISBN 978-0-674-07609-9.