Wahdat an-Nidal

Last updated April 22, 2019

Wahdat an-Nidal (Arabic : وحدة النضال‎, 'Unity of the Struggle') was a communist group in Iraq, known by the publication it issued under that name in Arabic and Kurdish. The group emerged in September 1944 through the merger of the Ila al-Aman and Shararah factions.^[1]

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In 1945 the Arab section of Wahdat an-Nidal dissolved itself and its members joined the Iraqi Communist Party (the Communist Party had refused to merge with the group, instead demanding that the group dissolve, deposition its literature and printing equipment with the party and its members join the part as individuals). The Kurdish section refused to disband itself, and converted itself into the Shursh group.^[1]

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."

Shursh ('Revolution') was an Iraqi Kurdish communist organization. It emerged in 1945, out of the Kurdish section of the erstwhile Wahdat an-Nidal group. The Kurdish section, continuing as Shursh, had refused to merge into the Iraqi Communist Party.

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References

1 2 Ismael, Tareq Y. The Rise and Fall of the Communist Party of Iraq . Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. p. 30

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[ism-1] 1 2 Ismael, Tareq Y. The Rise and Fall of the Communist Party of Iraq . Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. p. 30