Certainly forces that surrounded Saddam Hussein opposed an invasion, but Ali does not consider them a democratic movement.
Frankly, I wouldn't consider the CP of Iraq very democratic myself. Or any CP for that matter.
I know that some on the left in the U.S. were deluded into thinking Hussein was some kind of socialist, but that isn't correct. And the characterization of the ICP as a "sect" is simply insulting. I know leftists in the U.S. have had that sort of experience, but don't try distort others' histories through your own lens.
Well, once upon a time the CP's were big deals. But that was in another country and besides, the wench is dead.
I think that indeed it does require further commentary as the attempt to preempt useful commentary isn't instructive (other than as to the motives and views of the person who says, "no further commentary"). The article seems to require an adjustment of the pictures we have constructed in our minds about Iraq.
Oh please. You are not channelling transmissions from another planet. Marxmail gets regular dispatches from Abu Nasr, who is in contact with Iraqis. We also hear from the WCP of Iraq, as well. Julio Huato, who posts here, is from Mexico. That doesn't mean that I have to agree with him. The problem here is political differences, not access to information. The CP's have a sordid past of cozying up opportunistically to figures like Chalabi.
After the Communist Party of Cuba was legalized by Batista in the late 1930s, two party members were invited to join his cabinet. Their statements from that period went overboard in praise of Batista and renounced any revolutionary goals. In the mid-40s, when the CP came to dominate the Cuban trade union movement, it was widely seen as a payoff for years of collaboration with a Batista whose government was becoming more and more repressive.
As you can see, there's a pattern here.
As for the mindless comparison to Chalabi and an apparent (and arrogant?) grasp on Iraqi history and its situation that surpasses that of the Iraqi who was interviewed in the article, I might suggest more work and thought. But I'd probably be wasting *breath*.
Look, comrade, I have given Iraq some thought. My article on the Kurds appears in the Swans special issue. One of these days I may get around to reading Batatu's tome on Iraq, which takes up the question of the CP of Iraq in some detail. But I don't need to read Batatu to understand that sitting on the same governing body as Chalabi is a betrayal to the Iraqi working class, no matter how much Marxish verbiage is deployed on its behalf.
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