ABSTRACT
The Iraqi Communist Party (ICP) played a significant political role in the 1940s and 1950s, especially following the revolution that overthrew the country’s monarchy in 1958. The party took its followers to the streets and joined in the popular demonstrations in support of the new government, and urged its members to join the newly created Association of People’s Reform. The establishment of a strong ICP under Fahad coincided with a brief period of political liberalization during and immediately after World War II. The ICP has tried to re–establish itself on the Iraqi political scene and has taken part in elections. The ICP spent the 1980s and 1990s in ‘internal exile’ in Iraqi Kurdistan, gradually being overshadowed by the Kurdish nationalist movement. The spread of Communist thought in Iraq is a process largely veiled in mystery. Dissemination of ideas is a fluctuating and incremental process, one not always caught by the annals of history.
