Communist Party of Kurdistan - Iraq
by Subhi Ahmadi

Victories are associated with cooperation

First I would like to express the warm greetings of the
leadership of the Communist Party of Kurdistan-Iraq,
together with our wishes for the success of this meeting.
We address warm comradely greetings to the comrades in the
Communist Party of Greece who have given us an opportunity
to participate in this important meeting, and for their
initiatives more generally.
Dear comrades, alliances are regarded as being necessary to
the peoples' struggles because they help to consolidate the
revolutionary links between the popular masses and to
achieve the goals agreed upon at various phases of the
class and national struggle.
And notwithstanding the particularities of each people and
each party, there is a direct relationship between the
national and internationalist alliances based on common
interests, common goals and common responsibilities to the
benefit of the international community.
Communist and workers' parties have enormous experience of
alliances, on both a national and international level. For
this reason, the forces of reaction are trying to limit the
role of communists and to exclude them from these
alliances.
The imperialist forces in particular dispute the patriotism
of the communists and of the left forces more generally,
who promote the slogan of internationalist solidarity and
the common struggle of the peoples that humanity is facing
today.
The imperialist forces are lying when they speak of
conflicts between national and international goals. Comrade
Fahd, founder of the Communist Party of Iraq, rebutted
these lies by saying that when he became a communist he
felt a greater love for his country. This is a slogan which
is being repeated today, not only by communists but also by
many bourgeois parties.
The Communist Party of Iraq continues to work and we, as
the Communist Party of Kurdistan, a section of the
Communist Party of Iraq, also keep working to rally
together the working class forces.
From the time our party was established up to the present,
we have held high the banner "Strong party, strong
movement". It was a great burden carried by our party but
we achieved it with success, increasing and extending our
influence.
The militant experiences of the Iraqi people, with its many
ethnic groups, have proved that the victories of our people
have always been associated directly with the coordination,
cooperation and alliances between the various political
forces in Iraq. While, on the contrary, every time our
people suffered defeat, it was directly related to the
complete absence of alliances, communication and
cooperation between the progressive forces. There are many
examples.
For example, the instance of the National Unity Front which
came into being in 1957 and gave rise to the revolution of
1958. Also there is the experience of the Kurdish Front,
which was created in 1988 by the Kurdish parties and which
led the struggle of the masses in the Kurdish regions of
Iraq and the uprising of 1991, in which it managed to
prevail in most regions, to ensure the victory of the
people. Alliances must be built on firm foundations.
In these alliances, of course, both internal and external
factors play a role. On the basis of the decisions of our
Party's 2nd Congress on the current phase of our struggle,
which we regard as a period of national liberation
struggle, for deliverance from the dictatorship and the
establishment of a federated political and social state, we
are working to create a broad front to achieve this goal.
Our party, within the context of the Kurdish Front, has
always worked by participating in the parliamentary
elections and also participated in the government in the
Kurdish regions created in 1992, which government we
consider to be a front that unites all Kurdish forces
fighting for a democratic government within the framework
of a democratic federated Iraq.
We believe that bringing peace and democracy to the Kurdish
region of Iraq is the militant duty of all progressive and
communist forces, rather than continuing the intra-Kurdish
quarrels and killings, in the knowledge that no party and
no political force, under the present regime, and in the
complex state of Kurdistan after the recent developments,
can achieve this goal alone.
For this reason, our party has devoted all its strength to
rallying together all forces struggling for peace and
democracy and to resolve the present crisis. Our party has
taken part in many activities to consolidate solidarity and
cooperation between the forces that are ideologically
related and have similar programmes on different issues and
among various segments of our people.
Our party cooperates with parties with which it may have
political and ideological differences, but despite
disagreements on certain issues, such as our differences
with the Islamic movements, we work together to achieve
specific political goals, using the criterion of the degree
to which they adopt the national cause of the Kurdish
people and the democratic issue and pluralism, as a
practical political expression.
On the other hand, we are also fighting alongside our
friends, the Communist Party of Iraq and with the Iraqi
opposition to overthrow the regime in Baghdad and to
establish a pluralistic democratic system. And we call for
the immediate implementation of Resolution 668, which calls
upon the government, the regime of Iraq to stop oppressing
the people and to hold free elections under the supervision
of the United Nations.
Regarding the Left in Kurdistan, the Kurdish Left,
unfortunately it has not agreed so far on a common left
programme, but our Party's Second Congress presented
specific proposals, with a minimum programme, to achieve
these aims.
And finally, dear comrades, the present international
conjuncture obliges us to look for new forms of cooperation
and alliances between communist and left parties, to combat
the savage capitalist attack.
This meeting, and all the previous ones here, constitute
significant steps toward the achievement of this goal. Once
more we would like to express our thanks to the Communist
Party of Greece.