Iraq: Why the Soviet flags?

[alonso_quijano]

All yesterday morning (like just about everyone), I was flipping from MSNBC to CNN to Fox. The cheering-in-the-streets footage on MSNBC had a strange detail: many of the revelers were wildly waving the old Soviet flag.

This wasn't one or two isolated individuals. In one shot I saw at least a half dozen of the ol' Hammer and Sickles; also, it didn't seem to be just people in one place (though it was hard to tell), but people at several different demonstrations.

• Did anyone else see this?
  
  
• Why the USSR flags?
  
  
• Why did I see these only on MSNBC, not on CNN or (heh heh heh) Fox (ha ha HA)?
  

[MSchreader]

1. Quisling Iraqi Communist Party rally

Yes, they were out partying the night after the capture.

Martin

[IndianaGreen]

6. Quisling to a Trotkyite, perhaps

What did you expect them to do? Not being players in the future government of Iraq. Their decision was controversial even among themselves.

Saddam murdered enough reds without us engaging in our own ideological fraticide.

[MSchreader]

11. "Trotskyite" to a Menshevik, perhaps

What did you expect them to do? Not being players in the future government of Iraq.

They're not going to be players in any government Viceroy Bremer establishes. That they have deluded themselves into thinking they are there for any reason other than to make the Governing Council look "respectable" to millions of Iraqis that once respected the ICP is telling of the state of degeneration in the "official Communist" camp in Iraq.

If they wanted to actually do something that would lead to an independent and democratic Iraq (i.e., not a neocolony of the U.S.), then they should leave the Governing Council and participate in the workers' councils being set up across the country. Already, most cities and larger towns in Iraq have workers' councils being established, including Baghdad, Kirkuk, Tikrit, Basra, Nasiriyah, Mosul, etc.

A very real "dual power" situation has developed in Iraq today. On one side are the occupation forces and their Quislings; on the other side are the workers' councils, the independent trade unions and the revolutionary left. The workers' councils just held their first national conference in Baghdad last week. In many areas, the councils are the only centers of municipal power.

Like the Russian Mensheviks and SRs of 1917, the Iraqi Communist Party cries that their provisional government is the only "legitimate" authority in the country.... But the people of Iraq are deciding otherwise.

Such a move by the ICP would also stop the floodtide of people leaving the Party and joining other anti-occupation political parties of the left, including al-Kader (Iraqi Communist Party-Cadre), "Revolutionary Manifesto", the Communist Workers Party and the Worker-Communist Party.

Their decision was controversial even among themselves.

Yes, I know. That's why the ICP has split into eight different organizations, with four of them joining the anti-occupation resistance and the other two participating in the workers' councils. (The other pro-occupation split is the Communist Party of Kurdistan.)

Saddam murdered enough reds without us engaging in our own ideological fraticide.

By joining the Governing Council, the ICP has already committed ideological suicide. In the process, they have set themselves up for a replay of 1979 -- the difference this time is that, instead of the fascist Ba'ath Party doing the dirty deed, it will be Chalabi's INC and American occupation forces dragging them into the prisons.

Martin

P.S.: I also do not appreciate the "Trotskyite" remark. You know quite well that that term is a slur, and you know the history behind it -- and the violence that often followed in its wake. Disappointment does not even begin to summarize my feelings about that term being used.

[Renew Deal]

2. It's the Iraq Communist Party

They were outlawed by Saddam. I guess they can continue their politicking. They also have a link to FR on their website. The Iraqi Communists and the freepers have a few things in common.

[trotsky]

3. Because

the only celebration footage they have is from the Iraqi COMMUNIST Party.

It's true!

[GainesT1958]

4. Pre-Kuwait Invasion, the Russians were Iraq's best non-Arab friends...

We tend to gloss over that part of their history, especially now. And, of course, we tried to supplant the U.S.S.R. in the Eighties to help Saddam as a counterweight to Iran during their war. But that's why the Iraqi army and air force were equipped with AK-47s, T-72 tanks and MIGs. If Dub fulfilled the Neo-Cons' desire of attacking Iran, we'd find ourselves up against mainly British, French and, yes, our own armaments, including F-15 fighters.

However (and I noticed the same thing yesterday), I can't see why they'd think that Iraq would now be free to become...Communist!?:crazy:

B-)

[HereSince1628]

5. I found the irony very satisfying when I saw it on Faux

The Party of Reagan that won the cold war, etc etc, has liberated the Iraqi communists. Oh how true it is..."the seeds of our sorrows are sown from the harvests of our joys."

[DinahMoeHum]

9. Tee hee. Bush and Co. are the "useful idiots". How rich !!

And you can bet your ass that the Shiites are also chortling behind Paul Bremer's back.

If the Iraqis were to hold elections TOMORROW, the Shiites would win and usher in another Iran. Heck, they could even meld with their bigger neighbor.

:evilgrin:

[RPG-7]

7. I think the only demonstration was at ICP headquarters

I thought it was hillarious watching the cameraman try his hardest to keep the sign in english that said "Iraqi Communist Headquarters" out of their little scene.

ICP are a joke, the guy they have on the "governing council", Salam Ali, was dodging questions on privatizing the Iraqi oil. Quite the "communist" :eyes:

[IndianaGreen]

8. Interview with the Iraqi Communist Party

Interview with the Iraqi Communist Party
Author: John Bachtell, National Board Member
First published 17.07.2003 13:51

Q. The ICP was the first to hit the streets with its newspaper – Tareeq Al-Shaab. This got a lot of attention in the US media. What’s been happening in the first few months with the Party?

A. The ICP has been in total opposition to the Hussein regime since the end of the 70s. And over the 80s we waged a struggle against the regime using multiple forms. We were inside the country and in Iraqi Kurdistan.

We suffered in a very brutal way from the repression. We had many martyrs. There are still many people who disappeared, and we don’t know what happened to them even now. After the regime fell we recovered from the security offices lists of hundreds of communists who were executed. So the party suffered heavily from the repression.

In the 90s the Party reconstituted itself in Iraqi Kurdistan and after the Gulf War in 1991 the Party worked publicly there. We had our own headquarters, publications, several radio stations and a television station. Our newspaper is in Arabic and the Kurdistan CP, which is part of the Iraqi CP, participates in the local government there.

The Party has reorganized. We had a large number of comrades abroad. We were present in practically every European country and everyone was doing an enormous job. We had an underground structure that was working in Baghdad and southern Iraq. So when the regime collapsed, the Party was able to be on the ground very rapidly. Because we are already publishing our paper in Kurdistan, we could rapidly get it to Baghdad. We are now starting radio broadcasts from Baghdad.

http://www.cpusa.org/article/articleview/564/1/41/

[qanda]

10. Here is a picture from a recent demonstration against terrorism in Iraq

I found this link from the FReepers website. They don't even realize that they are supporting communists-- go figure!

On Edit:

The picture is way too large, here's a link to it.

http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/10dec.html

(Click on picture entitled Mohammed)

Healing Iraq Blog:

http://healingiraq.blogspot.com

[RBHam]

13. "Freepers Love Commies!"

We have the proof! Save the threads, re-post them 6 months from now.
Har har har

[NNN0LHI]

12. Look at this US hand picked member of the Iraqi governing council

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3062897.stm

Iraqi Governing Council members

<snip>17. Hamid Majid Mousa, Communist Party (Shia)

Mr Mousa has been the secretary of the Iraqi Communist Party since 1993. An economist by training, he lived for several years in northern Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War.