(Your Voice in a World where Zionism, Steel, and Fire have
turned Justice Mute)

Dear Readers of the Free Arab Voice,

After having published the speech of Khaled Bakdash (aka, Ramzi) in the Comintern of 1935 in the last issue of the Free Arab Voice, we are publishing in this issue two additional speeches by Arab delegates in that Congress: 1) the speech by Ridwan al Hilw (aka, Yusuf, or Musa), the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Palestine, and 2) the speech by Qasim Hasan (aka, Nazim), one of the founders of the Iraqi Communist Party, which wasn't at that point accredited by the Comintern.

The speech of Ridwan al Hilw was delivered in Russian, and we are grateful to Muhammad Abu Nasr of the Free Arab Voice for locating and translating it. The other speech by Qasim Hasan was delivered in English, and we are grateful to Muhammad Abu Nasr again for locating and transcribing it.

In the next issue of the Free Arab Voice, we will hopefully be publishing the text of the speech by Yusuf Khattar al Hilw, the Lebanese Communist, who delivered his speech in French. Kevin Walsh translated it into English, and Muhammad Abu Nasr crosschecked it against the Russian text. In the process, several missing lines with political significance (on Zionism) were located. But we will be leaving that to the next issue of the Free Arab Voice. So stay tuned!

To read the speech by Khaled Bakdash, with our introduction on the position of Arab Communist parties on the question of Arab nationalism, please go to:

http://www.freearabvoice.org/reference/Bakdash.htm

Otherwise, please go on below to some useful information on the speeches of the Palestinian and Iraqi delegates by Muhammad Abu Nasr

THE FREE ARAB VOICE

An Introduction to the Speeches of the Palestinian and Iraqi Delegates

by Muhammad Abu Nasr / FAV Co-editor

The last Comintern Congress was held in 1935 and it was the first one with any major Arab participation.

One Lebanese, evidently Fu'ad al-Shimali, did take part in the 6th Congress of the Comintern in 1928 representing the Syrian Communist Party (which included Lebanon). The only thing in the Comintern Archives, pertaining to Syrian participation, however, was a report on the activity of Syrian CP between the 5th and 6th Congresses which was published at the time in a book that compiled similar documents from parties all over the world. Otherwise all that remains is one barely readable (unreadable in places) handwritten letter in French signed "Hussein" (possibly a party pseudonym for al-Shimali) but it seemed to be on peripheral issues related to his own status as a delegate.

The big wave of "Arabization" in the "Arab" CPs took place in the early 1930s, and was forced by Moscow on the minority leaderships of those parties. As a result, the first (and last) Comintern Congress with any real Arab presence was the 7th that took place in the summer of 1935.

The first speech below was delivered by "Comrade Yusuf" to that Seventh Congress of the Comintern. It has been retrieved from the archives of the Comintern and translated from Russian. "Comrade Yusuf" or "Yusuf Ibrahim" was the pseudonym of Ridwan al-Hilw (who sometimes was also called Musa), then General Secretary of the Communist Party of Palestine.

According to his biographical questionnaire in the archives of the Congress, Ridwan al-Hilw was born in 1909, joined the Communist Party in 1927, came from a working class background and worked for 11 years in construction. He indicated that he had been arrested four times. He had an elementary school education. In addition, however, he states that he had studied in the Communist University of the Toilers of the East ("KUTV" is the Russian abbreviation) and he said that he knew the Arabic and Russian languages.

It is noteworthy that when they answered the question, "Nationality?" on that questionnaire, all the Arab delegates responded with "Arab" i.e., none said Syrian, Palestinian, Iraqi, etc. (Of course, the one Armenian from Lebanon answered "Armenian").

The notes at the beginning of this and other speeches, such as -- fond, opis', delo -- are the cataloging designations of these documents within the Soviet archives. Fond 494 included all the materials from the Comintern's 7th Congress, for example. Since these are unpublished, a reference to these materials in an academic publication is expected to contain these references. (plus page number, which here is difficult to reproduce in an on-line format).

The archives contain only a Russian text for this speech of "Yusuf"'s although the minutes indicate its language was "Arabic". It appears that "Yusuf" also signed off on this Russian version because the top of the front page of the speech also has in large, awkward, handwritten Cyrillic letters "Yusef" -- in a handwriting that suggests the writer was unaccustomed to writing in Russian.

Records in the Comintern appear to have been kept in one or more of the following European languages: Russian, German, French, English, and Spanish. Even delegates from Italy had to address the Congress in one of those languages. We know, however, that thanks to his study in the Communist University of the Peoples of the East, Ridwan al-Hilw spoke Russian well. His fellow delegate from Lebanon, Yusuf Khattar al-Hilw, attested to this in his article: "al-Mu'tamar al-Sabi` lil-Umamiyah al-Shuyu`iyah: tajdid wa-taghyir wa-tashih wa-taswib" ["The Seventh Congress of the Communist International: renewal, change, correction, and redirection"] in "al-Nahj", No. 19, 1988, p.223.).

An interesting feature of this speech is that it opens with several paragraphs devoted to criticism of a talk by "Comrade Ferdi". "Comrade Ferdi" apparently was the pseudonym of Sefik Husnu Degmer (b. 1890), a Communist from Turkey. The Comintern archives contain a press photo of "Ferdi" seated on stage with the top Comintern leaders, at least at one point in the proceedings, so he was presumably a person of some importance in the Comintern.

"Ferdi" delivered a long speech in French on 31 July 1935 in which he not only discussed the situation in Turkey but also talked about the situation in the neighboring Arab countries to the south.

In reply, several Arab delegates began their respective speeches with criticisms of Ferdi. Ridwan al-Hilw in this speech calls attention to "mistakes" made by Ferdi in a rather general way. In the second speech below, that of the Iraqi delegate, Qasim Hasan (pseud. "Nazim"), we find an eloquent and specific criticism of several points made by the Turkish Communist delegate.

This exchange is in itself interesting just for being there. Standard historians are unaware of any differences of opinion or any debates at all at this very Stalinist Seventh Comintern Congress, and indeed there was much less free discussion in 1935 than there had been in the early Congresses in Lenin's time. Nevertheless as we see from these speeches, the Arab delegates, at least, kept some sort of debate alive. .

Below the address by Ridwan al-Hilw is the full text of the speech and the declaration by the Iraqi delegate to the Comintern, Qasim Hasan, pseudonym "Nazim", which he delivered on 1 August 1935. Hasan attended the Congress as a non-voting delegate because the Iraqi Communist Party apparently obtained accreditation to the Comintern only at that 7th Congress. Hasan's speech contains a very interesting review of the anti-colonial struggle waged by the Iraqi people between World War I and 1935

One note on the speech by Nazim. This is a transcription of the original English text from the Comintern Archives. It retains, therefore, all the spelling and usage of the original. The word "shaykh", for example is spelled "sheik". In keeping with common English usage of the 1930s and the word "Arabian" is consistently used where modern usage requires "Arab" or "Arabic". (In modern usage, "Arabian" is an adjectival form for "Arabia" and therefore refers strictly to the Arabian Peninsula only; "Arab" refers to Arabic speaking people and their culture, etc., wherever they might be.)

Information from Qasim Hasan's personal questionnaire from the Congress is as follows: He was born in 1910, was of Arab nationality, he listed his class background as "petty-bourgeois, intellectual". He listed his educational level as "incomplete higher education", and said he'd worked for three years as a journalist. At the time of the Congress he had spent four months in prison for political activities in Iraq. As to the languages he spoke, he replied, "Arabic, English, and a little Persian."

Hanna Batatu in his book "The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq" refers several times to the career of Qasim Hasan. A founder of the Iraqi CP, he was a friend and lawschool classmate of Yunus as-Sab`awi. He and Sab`awi worked together with Fu'ad Nassar (later of the Jordanian CP) at smuggling arms into Palestine. (Batatu, p. 457-458). Batatu says (p. 460) that Khalid Bakdash met Hasan at the 7th Comintern Congress and found Hasan to be "too fond of luxury". Zaki Khayri also seems to have developed a negative opinion of Qasim Hasan.

In the Iraqi police files that Batatu used in his research, he found a Communist Party notice from December 1935 saying that Qasim Hasan "was a traitor and a spy" ready to betray revolutionaries to the police. Yet the police files that Batatu used indicate that the police didn't trust Hasan either. It is likely that Hasan fell prey to some sort of internal struggle within the Iraqi CP, possibly sparked by Khalid Bakdash's views, because despite that notice in the police files, Hasan remained a part of the Communist movement through the Rashid 'Ali al-Gilani revolt in 1941, a strange fact if the Iraqi Communist Party really did think he was a traitor and spy.

When the Rashid 'Ali al-Gailani uprising was suppressed, Hasan he traveled to Moscow and stayed in the USSR until 1944 when he returned to Iraq. After 1958 Abd al-Karim Qasim named him ambassador to India and later to Czechoslovakia. By that time, however, he seems to have drifted away from the Communist movement.

But wherever life was to lead Qasim Hasan later on, this document should be read as a reflection of the struggles and thinking of Iraqi Communists in the summer of 1935.

A Political Note on the Speech by Yusuf, the Palestinian Delegate:

Note that Yusuf in his speech below referred to Jewish invaders coming into Palestine as a national minority. In fact, this is contrary even to Lenin who considered Judaism a religion, not a nationality. It is clear that Yusuf considered Jewish immigration into Palestine as part of the effort of British colonialism to fight the Arab liberation movement. Yet, he still harbored illusions of winning over "honest Jewish" invaders of Palestinian land against imperialism. In fact, as decades of later experience showed, by immigrating to Palestine, the invaders had already tied their lot to that of imperialism. Any illusions of winning them over have generally been shattered, but not amongst many "leftists". Yusuf, however, provides below a good look at the struggle within the Communist Party of Palestine to Arabize, albeit according to a definition that leaves room for Jewish invaders to remain part of the party. Unfortunately, when Yusuf called for the representatives of the working class to lead the national liberation movement in Palestine, he did not realize that entailed more than Arabizing the Communist Party. It entailed that these representatives become the most ardent supporters of national rights, which is not served by including Jewish invaders within the ranks of the Communist Party of Palestine

THE FREE ARAB VOICE

The Speech by Ridwan al Hilw (Yusuf),
the Palestinian Delegate

Fond No. 494
Opis' No. 1
Yed. Khranenia (delo) 193
Beginning 31 July 1935
In 125 pages.

Stenogramme with authors' corrections of the 12th session of the VIIth Congress of the Comintern: continuation of the discussion of the report of Pieck "On the activity of the Executive Committee of the Communist International" and of Angaretis "On the activity of the International Control Commission". Original.

-------------------------------------------------------

Palestine Communist Party report in Russian on pages 112-125.

_______________________________________________________

VII Congress of the Comintern
7th day, 12 session (evening)
Yusef, No. 60 (language Arabic)
Palestine. 31 VII 1935

Chairman Henderson: Comrade Yusuf (Palestine) has the floor.

Com. Yusuf: Before speaking about the Communist Party of Palestine, I must make a statement in the name of the comrades delegates of the Arab countries: Syria, Palestine, Iraq and Egypt, that we are not in agreement with many of the points made in the speech of comrade Ferdi. In particular and especially with the following two most important points:

1. The basis for categorising colonial and dependent countries, including the Arab countries, into groups must not be the changing forms of imperialist oppression, as is done in comrade Ferdi's analysis, but the level of development of their proletariat, as indicated by comrade Stalin in his historic speech at the University of Toilers of the East in 1925.

2. The one-sided orientation of comrade Ferdi to the effect that Communists, by means of unmasking the national-reformists, can call the masses to struggle against imperialism contradicts the line adopted recently by the Communist Parties of the Arab countries, in favour of broadly taking up the tactics of the united front in the national liberation movement. This one-sidedness to a significant extent, in the previous several years led to sectarianism in the Communist Parties of the Arab countries.

In the speech of comrade Ferdi there are also other mistakes about which the Arab comrades will speak in their addresses on the first or second points on the agenda.

Comrades, as is known, Palestine has for British imperialism great political military-strategic and economic significance. Palestine is needed by British imperialism in order for it to block the routes to the Red Sea, intercept the roads leading to the Arabian Peninsula and chiefly to Mesopotamia, and, finally, for using the advantageous geographic position of Palestine, and particularly the port of Haifa, to constitute an outstanding military base in the Mediterranean Sea, securing for British imperialism control over the Suez Canal. The significance of Palestine for British imperialism has grown after the laying of the Mosul-Haifa oil pipeline. This pipeline permits them to obtain their colonial oil in the shortest possible time. In this way, Palestine has become the most important advance post of British imperialism. The particularity of the political situation in Palestine consists in the fact that English imperialism in the country, besides its colonial apparatus and the social support it receives from the feudal class, chiefly relies on the Zionist bourgeoisie using the Jewish national minority in the interests of its imperialist policy.

The Jewish national minority in Palestine is essentially a colonial and ruling nationality with the support of English imperialism. Since 1921, when Anglo-Zionist finance capital began strengthening its offensive in Palestine, it has been able to send into Palestine 250,000 Jewish immigrants with the aim of establishing for themselves a mass base of struggle against the national liberation struggle of the Arab labourers and in support of their colonial policy. During these years, the Zionists have taken hold of more than 2,000,000 dunums of the most fertile and fecund Arab land. With the help of English bayonets Zionist bands in just the last three years have driven 22,000 Arab fellahs off their land. These fellah masses have lost their native hearths and the land that belonged to them for ages; they have been doomed to bankruptcy and extinction. The economic life of the country has rapidly been taken over by the Zionist colonisers. Zionist capital is increasingly ousting Arab capital, in an unequal competition, and destroying the petty bourgeoisie. Deposits of Zionist money capital in the banks is rapidly increasing with every passing day. Today, according to official accounts of the government, 80% of bank deposits in Palestine are placed there by Zionists. They have taken over 70% of land plots in the central cities, 70% of plantation land in the country, 80% of external trade and a huge proportion of domestic trade, 30% of all arable land, and 80% of all industry of the country. At the same time, the Jewish national minority constitutes only 25% of the population of the whole country. In this way, Zionist capital not only directly oppresses the Arab working masses, but ruthlessly annihilates the petite bourgeoisie and in a huge way pushes out the middle and even the highest strata of the Arab commercial and industrial bourgeoisie.

In the cities a situation has arisen whereby Arab workers are paid 2-3 times less than Jewish workers, while the workday for Arab workers is considerably longer. They work 10-13 hours, while Jewish workers' hours are basically incomparably less. Zionists forcibly expel Arab workers from Jewish enterprises and plantations and replace them with Jewish immigrants. The violence of the Zionists is not limited only to these measures. They resort to the most lowly and base methods of derision of Arab workers. Beatings of Arab workers are constantly taking place; derision of their national feelings is a normal occurrence in the country.

While the majority of the Arab population lacks elementary civil freedoms, especially the worker-peasant masses, who do not have the right to professional organisations, the press, assembly; the Jewish masses, including the workers, enjoy wide privileges, have their professional organisations and press, the right to elections, etc. This circumstance, in addition to the economic factors, also makes for a sharp distinction between the Arab and Jewish masses.

The party of Jewish capital -- the Zionists and Poalei-Zionists -- are a weapon of the colonial policy of imperialism. They realise this policy of theirs by way of deceiving Jewish workers. We would like the proletarians of the entire world to know these facts, in particular honest Jewish workers, so that they can put a stop to the adventurist and criminal policy of the Zionist immigrants in Palestine.

It cannot be said that everything in the Zionist camp is going well. Already there are the symptoms of the growth of dissatisfaction among the Jewish workers connected with the increase of unemployment in their midst. Already today more than 5,000 workers are unemployed. This unemployment happens due to the increased flow of immigration, the limited volume of new construction, and particularly as a result of the growth of the resistance coming from the Arab masses to the seizure of their land and labour by Jews. Undoubtedly English imperialism is already increasing its pressure, exploitation and mockery of the Arab masses in order to push the Jewish workers into the prison of Zionism.

As a result of all this policy of British imperialism, and because of the economic crisis, the situation of the Arab working masses is sharply worsening. The number of unemployed Arabs grows with every passing day. The unemployed, who receive no assistance, are reduced to poverty and are doomed to die of hunger. Exhausted under the weight of taxes that are impossible to pay, the lowest prices for agricultural products and, as a result of plunder by the banks and usurers - the agricultural economy is experiencing a steady decline. The Arab fellah cannot by his own intensive labour provide the minimum to sustain the life of his family. I could refer to figures from the commission of John Crosby (one of the agents of English imperialism). Investigating the situation of the agricultural economy of Palestine, he determined the income of a peasant farm with 100 dunums of land to be 51 Palestinian pounds. From this sum, 22 Palestinian pounds must be deducted for production costs. Rent payment accounts for 30% of the cash income. There remains in the hands of the fellah 24 Palestinian pounds, out of which he must pay various amounts for debts to the clergy, etc. Thus, after the deduction of all remaining expenses, the peasant retains a maximum of 16 Palestinian pounds. But Mr. Crosby ascertains that "the average expenditure of a family of a colonist who is self employed consists of 162 Palestinian pounds annually". As you see, the difference between 16 and 162 Palestinian pounds is a little more than 10 times. Indeed, Crosby takes a peasant with 100 dunums of land, but such peasants are few among us: only 20-18%. While the remaining masses of the peasantry have smaller plots, or else they are totally landless. About this category the colonialist agent "forgot" to speak. Yet even from the materials of Mr. Crosby it is not hard to see how the Arab fellah lives. In addition to which it must be noted that Crosby's figures are for 1931, while, as is known, after that year the situation of the Arab fellahs considerably worsened.

The strengthening pressure and the harsh exploitation of the labouring masses of Palestine on the part of imperialism and its Zionist agents can only result in the increasing resistance of the Arab masses. From the very first moment of the colonisation of Palestine, the anti-imperialist movement in the country has grown. As in the years 1920, 1921, 1922, so in the years 1929, 1931, 1933, powerful demonstrations of the Arab masses took place. The anti-imperialist struggle of 1929 stands out for its particular strength, when an uprising of all the people dealt palpable blows to the colonisers. It is true that at the start English imperialism through its agents wanted to give the character of an Arab-Jewish slaughter to this powerful national liberation movement, but this attempt was not crowned with success. The popular uprising of 1929 poured out into a powerful anti-imperialist movement. It was not limited to Palestine but drew the attention also of other Arab countries. Brought from other colonies, large forces of English imperialism ruthlessly punished the revolutionary Arab masses. The terrible reprisals of English imperialism and the Zionist armed units, the treacherous role of the reactionary parts of the national reformists -- if these were able to crush the revolutionary movement in blood, they were not able to strangle it after the uprising of 1929. The appearance of a desire on the part of Arab workers to organise trade unions is particularly noteworthy, and a strike struggle began to grow. Street battles with Zionist bands and the police became frequent occurrences. In the Arab villages, for their part, the unrest does not stop. The refusal to pay taxes, the resistance to the police, the growth of guerrilla units, the demonstration in Nablus in 1931, the unceasing struggle of the peasants for their land against Zionist usurpers (Wadi Hawares, Shatta, Zubaydat, etc.,) as well as the big events of 1933, all clearly testify how great is the effectiveness and the growth of the revolutionary liberation movement of the Arab masses. Especially important significance is attached to the strike of 1935 in Haifa against the enterprises of an oil company. This strike of 650 workers in a year of intense crisis and unemployment continued 16 days and the class battle was concluded with the victory of the workers. Besides economic demands, the workers obtained the recognition of their union from the company. This strike is the more remarkable since it is the first powerful strike of Arab workers, in the history of the Palestine-Arab workers movement and in the history of the CP of Palestine, whose organisation was carried out with the strong reinforcement of the Party and under the hegemony of the Party. Such a success is a sign of the fact that the Party has come out on the path of mass work, thanks to the policy of Arabisation. The strike exerted an immediate influence on other sectors of the Arab workers of Palestine. A strike of 130 workers broke out in the port. A strike of drivers in Haifa, unrest among workers on the railroad and in the municipal sector. These simultaneous strikes inspired tremendous enthusiasm and an impulse to class battle among the Arab workers of Palestine, and aroused the sympathy of broad strata of the urban working masses. A new stage of the revolutionary movement in Palestine can be noted also from the fact that during the period of the last strike in Haifa the movement spread into the neighbouring villages. In Harsile a clash between the peasants and gendarmerie over six straight hours ended with many peasants wounded and one dead. In this way is formed the unity of the worker-peasant movement of Palestine and the possibility of the hegemony of the working class. As regards the urban poverty of craftsmen and the petite bourgeoisie, these strata of the population are not remaining outside the revolutionary movement. All of this shows the inexhaustible field for revolutionary activity of the party of the proletariat that we have in Palestine. And you have the legitimate right to turn to the Communist Party of Palestine with the question, what was it able to do in these conditions in past years? Our Communist Party of Palestine is one of the oldest sections of the Communist International in the Arab world. But it must be recognised that the work of our party until recent years was obviously unsatisfactory.

The influence of our party on the developing mass movement in the country was insignificant. Why? It is because the leadership of the party fundamentally did not understand the national question of Palestine, the national-liberation and agrarian character of the revolutionary movement. It did not believe in the revolutionary potential of the Arab masses, who, according to the instructions of the Comintern, are the basic driving forces in the national-liberation struggle and in the peasant revolution of Palestine. The party was isolated in the narrow circle of Jewish workers, rejecting work among the Arab workers, rejecting the liberation movement of the Arab masses. The party suffered from Jewish nationalism over the course of many years. At the head of the party leadership stood comrades who basically were coming out of Zionist parties, ideologically never having been disarmed and continuing since the day of the foundation of the party until the most recent days, until their removal from party work in Palestine, now openly now in a concealed way fighting against the line of the Comintern and hindering the political and organisational growth of the party, and consequently, hampering the revolutionary-liberation movement of the Arab masses. Such supreme events as the uprising of 1929 were looked upon by the then leadership of the party as a Jewish pogrom and they came out against it.

The leadership extended an appeal to the Arabs calling on them not to take part in the demonstrations and manifestations, because the movement was taking place under the leadership of the national reformists, because the movement was provoked by the English and was a pogrom movement. Or, when the masses came out against Zionist immigration, the party leadership issued leaflets for immigration that saw this Zionist immigration as a factor allegedly strengthening the red danger for English imperialism. The grossly opportunistic Zionist tendency of these mistakes is obvious. And these mistakes were not accidental. In days of revolutionary crisis mistakes of this type drove the revolutionary masses away from the party for many years, inculcated into the masses mistrust of the party, as a Jewish party, at a time when with a correct policy our party would have been able to gain a colossal increase in its influence, riding the wave of the revolutionary situation and with the correct leadership of the masses as comrades Lenin and Stalin have taught us.

The leadership of the party sabotaged with all available means the bringing into life of the Arabisation of the CP of Palestine, taking cover under the slogan "Arabisation plus bolshevisation". Regardless of the resolution of the seventh congress of the Party in 1930, to turn in the direction of Arabisation, the party did not implement the resolution but continued to carry out the former, condemned political and organisational line. Regardless of a certain increase in the percent of Arab comrades in the party, it was not transformed into a mass party of Palestinian workers and did not even strive to win a mass basis among the Palestinian proletariat. Already in 1933, a circular was published in Hebrew in which it was proposed to Jewish comrades to observe caution in the matter of attracting Arab comrades to the party.

However, as a result of the activity of the party it was possible to establish several cadres of Arab comrades, who, in subsequent years would find themselves tempered in the most difficult situations, who could become leaders in the party, the trade unions, and in the national movement. Side by side with the many already noted defects, our party was nevertheless able to achieve certain successes. The party regularly issued its party newspaper, for example, in the Arabic and Hebrew languages, printed and distributed leaflets, and also lead several strikes. After the rout of the opportunists in the leadership of the CP Palestine, that is, with the beginning of 1935, the party was able to attain significantly more successes. Resolutely implementing Arabisation, the party took serious steps in the direction of establishing ties with the broad Arab masses, heading their struggle with imperialism. The party established cells at places of production in basic enterprises, in place of the street cells that had earlier been set up. The party penetrated a number of great trade unions and revived union work among the Arab workers who earlier had been absolutely abandoned.

Only in the course of developing work among the broad masses of the Arab labourers can the Communist Party of Palestine firmly stand on its feet and transform itself into a really mass party of the Palestinian proletariat. And just because our work was insignificant, because it lagged in its tempo, behind the growth of the revolutionary movement in the country, we cannot view our work as satisfactory. Before us, as our chief task, remains the task of Arabisation of the party. What does this mean?

Some think, as in reality the opportunists in Palestine pretend, that Arabisation means forming a Communist party exclusively of Arabs. This is not true. The very nature of our international revolutionary party of the proletariat rejects posing the question in this way. Arabisation presupposes a political and organisational line of the party that would promote its establishing ties with the broad masses, to organise, mobilise them and to win for the proletariat the role of hegemon in the national liberation struggle. This is really what is the basic and main thing in Arabisation. But it is known that in Palestine the basic masses of the labouring people consist of Arabs. Theirs is the decisive importance in the national liberation movement. Attracting to the ranks of the party the leading Arabs - workers and labourers - easily promoting Arab party members to leading party work, we thereby facilitate and accelerate the winning over to our side of the broad masses of the Arab labourers.

In this struggle for the Arab masses the most important point for us is the issue of forming a united front with the national revolutionary and national reformist groups and organisations for struggle against imperialism and Zionism. In the party there is a tendency to scorn relations in general with all national reformist organisations, without investigating just who they are and for what they are fighting. The party strove to form its red trade unions but our comrades would enter reformist trade unions solely in order to destroy them. In relation to the revolutionarily minded intellectuals, until now we have been limited by criticism of their activity and political line. There have even been no attempts to agree with them about any common declarations against British imperialism and its Zionist agents.

Our party must basically reconstruct all its work. We must resolutely implement, not in words but in deeds the Arabisation of the Communist Party of Palestine. We must reconstruct the political and organisational leadership of the party in such a way that it would provide completely for the closest ties with the broad Arab masses, for their mobilisation and organisation for the struggle with English imperialism. Thus the task is not to ignore but to enter the reformist unions, to carry out painstaking, persistent work to win the masses to the side of the party. Our task is not to ignore the national-revolutionary and national-reformist elements but to go to them, to organise with them a united front on the basis of a resolute struggle with English imperialism for the independence of Palestine. We must not only use the national-revolutionary elements, but attract to this struggle all possible forces, capable of fighting with English imperialism.

The party must at the same time turn to face the broad masses of fellahs and bedouins. Organising peasant unions, committees of day labourers, standing closer and closer to the needs of the fellahs, bedouins, broadly using every dissatisfaction directed against English imperialism, the Zionists and the feudals, in every way rousing dissatisfaction to show and demonstrate to them that the only way to liberation is the way of revolutionary struggle against English imperialism and its chief support, Zionism, in coming stages transforming the peasant struggle into an anti-feudal one. Stressing that English imperialism is our chief enemy and Zionism its basic support, we must not forget for a minute about the national reformists. The leaders of national reformism in Palestine are the big landowners. They repeatedly betrayed the revolutionary manifestations of the masses. They contributed to the strengthening of imperialism and Zionism in the country. They are somewhat interested in Zionist immigration, selling land at high prices and raising rent payments, using the desperate situation of our peasant masses. The national reformists contribute to the rule of imperialism. They do not want to fight with Zionism, and are not in a position in practice to do so, inasmuch as that struggle will turn into an anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggle. Rather, they strive to switch the class struggle of the Arab labouring masses onto the rails of animosity between nationalities. The influence of national reformism in Palestine is very great and our party in the struggle with national reformism must educate its own cadres and the masses in the spirit of irreconcilability with imperialism and in the spirit of internationalism. We have a great country - the homeland of the world proletariat and oppressed peoples - the USSR. With the example of the victory of the labourers of the Soviet Union, with the example of the heroic struggle of the Chinese soviets we must inspire the masses to resolute struggle with their oppressors.

Our task is to educate the youth in Palestine in a revolutionary spirit, to awaken in them implacable hatred of English imperialism, of Zionism, simultaneously educating them in the spirit of internationalism and love for the USSR.

The Arabisation of the Communist Party of Palestine by no means signifies a relaxation even for a minute of work among the worker and peasant Jews. No. Reconstructing our organisational-political leadership, we must with particular force and energy note that the struggle against Zionism and for winning over the Jewish masses from its influence was and remains one of the chief tasks of our party.

Our party recently came to occupy correct Bolshevik positions. Before it are tasks of gigantic importance. Would it be possible successfully to smash the power of English imperialism and its chief agent - Zionism, while not fighting simultaneously against tendencies within the party that reflect the interests of our enemies? It would not! Thus our tasks are a relentless struggle against the great power Zionist tendency and against local Arab chauvinism. In implacable struggle against these tendencies both in theory and in practice our party will grow stronger and become battle ready.

The Speech by Qasim Hasan (Nazim),
the Iraqi Delegate

Fond No. 494
Opis' No. 1
Yed. Khraneniya (delo) 199
Beginning 1 August 1935
In 183 pages.

Stenogramme with authors' corrections of the 13th session of the VIIth Congress of the Comintern: continuation of the discussion on the report by Pieck "On the Activity of the Executive Committee of the Communist International" and of Angaretis "On the Activity of the International Control Commission." Original.

7th Congress of the CI
8th Day - 13th Session (Morning)
MS. 6 Copies.
1.8.35
Nazim No. 67.
Iraq (English Translation)

[Signature at top of page:] "Nazim"

SPEAKER: NAZIM.

British imperialism has replaced the direct mandate system of governing Iraq by the treaty of 1930, and has thereby organised an "independent" state. Before the ruling class of Iraq received its so-called "independence" and a seat in the League of Nations, it had to agree to all the demands of British imperialism. Thereby the latter not only did not weaken but on the contrary fundamentally strengthened its position of colonial rule in Iraq. This is but natural, inasmuch as Iraq possesses great military and strategic importance in the system of British imperialism, first of all as a fortified outpost of British imperialism against the Near East colonial possessions and as a military base against he USSR. Therefore British imperialism, despite the "treaty" with the ruling classes of Iraq, has retained in its hands all the points of military importance in the country: the railway and airway lines, the maritime bases in the Persian Gulf, the newly built airports, primarily to block the road to India, has built paved highways to the northern border of Iraq and has kept entirely intact its economic and political domination.

By consolidating its military and strategic base in Iraq, British imperialism has in view primarily the creation of a place d'armes for a counter-revolutionary attack on the USSR. With this end in view three great airports were built -- one in Huneidi near Baghdad, one in Shueubie near Basri and one in Sin-Ummu-Duban near Ramadi. To the same end the railroads and highways are being built. Of course, you understand quite well that these measures by British imperialism are directed likewise towards inflicting merciless punishment upon and suppressing the powerful rising national liberation movement in Iraq. The British Intelligence Service has its representatives literally in every corner of the country. One of the usual methods of "work" by these agents of the British Intelligence Service is to cause constant clashes between tribes and among the various religious sects, which in this way aim to achieve a split and thus weaken the national front of struggle against British imperialism.

British imperialism has set up in Iraq a national army which has 17,000 bayonets and now the government has introduced a Bill providing for compulsory mobilisation. The national army is likewise supplied with military aeroplanes. Besides, there are 5,000 members on the police force. On the army alone the government spends about 55% of its entire budget, while for health protection it spends 3% of its budget. And this in a country where the vast majority of the population suffers from tropical and social diseases. If we take into account also the fact that immense sums are being spent on the constantly swelling apparatus of the colonial government, one can imagine what tremendous additional burden is thrust upon the masses of the people. Direct and indirect taxes are growing constantly while the arbitrary actions and the plundering policy of the government carried out by the officials creates an increasingly intolerable situation for the toilers. Despite the fact that the possessing class of town and country enjoys great privileges and is almost exempt from taxes, not to speak of foreign firms which are placed in extremely privileged positions, the government is levying new taxes upon the toilers and is passing legislation which will finally enslave them.

The toilers of Iraq see in their government the machinery of British imperialism which squeezes the last drop out of them and this is called the "government of an independent Arabian country". At the same time all the big officials and cabinet ministers have seized immense stretches of the best lands in Iraq, paying trifling taxes at the same time, or being entirely exempt from taxes. To this must be added that the local feudal lords enjoy almost unlimited sway over the peasants, while the merchants and usurers draw the last farthing from the peasantry without mercy and with great arbitrariness. The prisons of "independent" Iraq are overcrowded with peasants who were unable to pay their taxes or their debts. For this reason the government in its "solicitude" for the toilers has built new capacious prisons in Mossul, Basra and Baghdad. The legislative organs work intensively for the purpose of allowing the landlords and the banks to seize and expropriate the land and the property of the peasantry.

Most of the peasants in Iraq have been deprived of their land and in part also of their implements of production and therefore they are like slaves at the mercy of the landlords, sheiks and usurers. The Iraq peasants with their whole families and cattle, should he have such, are housed in earthen huts or at best in wooden shacks. The sufferings of the peasantry are increased by the tropical and social diseases which prevail among the vast majority, especially in the South where 90% of the peasant population have no medical aid while being afflicted with syphilis, malaria, trachoma; they live in abject poverty and squalor, work day and night, at that the whole family works, especially the women who do the heaviest work. Hence, the great mortality among the peasant women. The Iraq peasants with all their intense labour have an annual income of about 1 - 1½ (3 mostly [i.e., "at most" ed.]) Iraqi pounds. Each of these peasants must pay 40% of the harvest to his feudal lord or sheik, and in addition 40% in taxes so that he is left 20% with which to feed his family. Besides the peasant, his family and children must also pay the inherited debts. The life of the Fellah masses in "independent" Iraq is very cheap. It is cheaper than the life of a sick dog of a British official for which special hospitals are prepared in Baghdad at the expense of the Ministry of Public Health of Iraq.

The working class of Iraq is in the same difficult situation as the peasantry. Their wages, their living standards are constantly on the downgrade and therefore the young worker who is cruelly exploited ages rapidly and dies an early death. There is no law in the country to cure even in the slightest degree the unlimited arbitrary conduct and cruel exploitation of the bourgeoisie and capitalists. In Iraq there is no labour protection: a worker may be thrown upon the street at any time if his boss so desires, in which event his whole family is doomed to perish. There is no limit to the working time. The average working day lasts from 12 to 16 hours, and in most of the workshops, workers get no free day even on religious holidays. The law prohibits labour organisations of every description as well as meetings of workers.

There are 5700 workers employed by the Iraq railways. In some of the industries and ports about 9,000 workers are employed while a great many workers are engaged in the building industry. Others find employment in small shops packing dates, in dry-goods stores, small factories, in irrigation, agriculture, tobacco growing, cotton plantations and textile mills.

All these groups of unorganised Iraq workers are extremely poor and subject to all kinds of feudal taxes, are in bondage to the shop owners for the debts they owe them as well as to the house owners and employers. They have no civil rights, not even simple human rights. In Iraq there are about 15,000 chauffeurs and repair garage workers. These workers are likewise badly exploited and lead a miserable life because of the persecutions of the police who constantly fine them and impose all kinds of taxes upon them. In 1934 the chauffeurs of Baghdad declared a strike and forced the government to make concessions despite the repression and police persecution. In this strike the Communists took an active organisational part. It is to be regretted that the experience of the strike movement was not properly utilised and consolidated because of the weakness and even utter lack of a trade union movement in Iraq.

Despite the furious terror and police provocation, during the last few years, there has been a development and rise in the revolutionary national liberation movement. As early as 1920 the broad masses of the people of Iraq under the direct influence of the great October Socialist revolution and in reply to the attack of British imperialism rose in a heroic insurrection. This insurrection was stamped out in blood. During the entire succeeding period there was no let-up in the armed peasant uprisings and the national liberation movement of the Kurdish people. Especially is it necessary to note the heroic struggle of the whole Iraq people against British imperialism and the central government which found expression in the uprisings in Souk al Shuyok, Rometha and Suleiman in 1925, 1927, 1931 and 1933. The uprisings in Barzan, 1932, and in Soukal Shayook, 1929, bore an anti-imperialist, anti-government and partly anti-feudal character. In the cities there was no end to the disturbances in which the working class took the most active part, sometimes forming independent demonstrations and strikes. In 1931 there occurred the strike of the railroad workers, in 1933 there was a general strike of chauffeurs, while in 1932 the mass movement grew into a general strike of the urban petty bourgeoisie during which for 17 days stores and workshops were closed, and for 3 months the Belgian electric company was boycotted, in which campaign the Communists took an active part. Despite the furious terror and police provocations of the British imperialists jointly with the Iraq feudal lords, the last few years have witnessed a development and upsurge of the revolutionary national liberation movement.

Now I want to dwell somewhat on the last mighty anti-imperialist and anti-government uprising in the South of Iraq in the province of Muntafique and Divanie. This uprising of 1935 has lasted six months, continues to this day and passed through three periods of development. In substance it consists of three independent and consecutive uprisings. In the first period the uprising took place in the regions around Nejef and Kerbela and Hindya under the slogans of a religious and civil democracy. It transpired under the leadership of tribal sheiks, whose aim it was to utilise the discontent of the masses of the people in their own reactionary interests. However, even this uprising had as its base an anti-imperialist and anti-government character and contained within itself the seeds of an agrarian anti-feudal struggle, as a result of which the sheiks were compelled to advance a number of peasant, democratic demands. The imperialists conducted provocative work among the tribes and in the press and strove to attribute to this movement the character of tribal and religious discord. This uprising was suppressed almost without bloodshed, as a result of the sheiks' going over quite openly to the side of the government and accepting posts which the government offered them in the form of concessions.

Our party took an active part in this uprising, and carried on propaganda in town and country, distributing leaflets in the name of the United Anti-Imperialist Committee, popularising the agrarian and labour demands as well as the demands of the broad masses of urban petty bourgeoisie. The Communist Party succeeded in distributing these leaflets upon eight occasions. (While all prisoners have been set free thanks to the amnesty which was proclaimed at that period), the Communists who fell into the hands of the police at the time of the uprising remain in prison to this day.

The next phase of the uprising flared up in Divania a few weeks after the first period came to a close. It launched anti-imperialist and anti-government slogans and attracted middle and petty strata of sheiks. Even this uprising was declared beyond the law. The sheiks of the neighbouring regions, frightened by the growth of this movement, hastened to capitulate to the government; the latter sent into the region of the uprising its river flotilla, artillery and aviation and with their help succeeded in wiping out almost every village in the region. Thousands of imprisoned peasants have been courtmartialled on the spot, and, as was the case in Rumeina and Divania, Nasrie, hanged on the spot.

During the third period the uprising embraced the region of Souk al Shuyok and bore a definitely mature character of peasant class struggle. The peasants of this region came out in dependently with slogans of removing British troops from the soil of Iraq, destroying aerodromes, for a democratic national government, for a reduction of taxes, for a division of state lands among the peasants, for wiping out of debts, etc.

In other words, they accepted all the basic demands which we put forth in our leaflets. The insurgents succeeded in ousting all sheiks from the regions; they broke prisons and made short shrift of the police. As a measure of self-defence they opened the sluices and released the water, thereby stopping the river transport; they captured 18 machine guns, 600 rifles and one cannon. A section of the national army, which was sent as a punitive expedition against the insurgents went over to their side. The insurgents went into battle with Communist leaflets in their hands and when captured and brought before the court martial showed the judges our handbills and said: "Everything is written here". The government and the imperialists brought all kinds of arms which they had at their disposal into the region of the uprising, but even that measure helped them only to localise the uprising and keep it from spreading to the remaining regions.

This uprising, as a mass peasant movement, is of enormous significance for all countries of the Near East and in particular for the development of the national liberation and agrarian movement in Iraq. It laid bare the vast social upheavals which took place in the ranks of the peasantry of Iraq and that revolutionary might which it represents. This uprising was also a serious gap for our Communist Party, revealing at the same time the vast possibilities which we have for Communist work among the Iraq masses. In the course of this short period our Party increased tenfold, not counting the considerable numbers of sympathisers who rally around the Party. The sympathies of the toiling masses of Iraq are on the side of this uprising, which, while inflicting a slap to the puppet Iraq government, at the same time shook the ground under the feet of British imperialism in that country. Considerable masses of toilers in all Arabian countries are still following the national reformists; still we succeeded in this uprising in exposing the role of the national reformist government and their policy of blocs with the imperialists.

In spite of the mistake which we committed and which consisted particularly in our weak work of attracting workers of Iraq to join the uprising in such a very short time of the age of our Party, still we can state, even on the basis of an incomplete study of the experience of the battles in Iraq, that we achieved unquestionable successes. We want to utilise this occasion in order to say to the toilers of all Arabian countries that they can gain true independence only through decisive struggle and through the organising of the broadest national masses for armed fight against imperialism and its agency. Only this armed battle can bring the masses to a struggle for a workers' and peasants' government and for their power in the form of Soviets, as against the puppet national reformist government which helps the imperialists in realising their colonial policy.

[signed] Nazim

[handwritten note in English on the bottom of the page:]

note - answer to Comrade Ferdi's speech (about Iraq) should be added, after decision - it contains 1½ pages.

-- Nazim

7th Congress of the CI.
8th Day.
13th Session (Morning).
EK/10 copies.
1.8.35.
Nazam (Iraq)
[handwritten note on one copy:] Original language Arabian.
(English translation).

Declaration.

SPEAKER: NAZAM.

I am compelled to make a declaration before the Congress in order to refute the incorrect facts with regard to Iraq, which Comrade Ferdi, as delegate to the Congress, reported apparently in his own name.

1. It was alleged that the masses of the people in Iraq under the cloak of the national government, do not directly feel the oppression of British imperialism. This is incorrect. Iraq is a colony of British imperialism and the masses of the people feel the direct power of British arms. A regime of occupation prevails in the country in the true sense of the word. Before Iraq was accepted in the League of Nations, British imperialism thoroughly consolidated its colonial positions in the country, and in the first place its military positions, which are directed against the masses of the people and against the U.S.S.R. This is what must be understood. The oppression of British imperialism is giving rise to a powerful anti-imperialist movement. Terror reigns in the country.

2. It was alleged that there is no clearly defined national-liberation movement in Iraq. It is not true. Our people know the glorious anti-imperialist revolution of 1920, when the peasants fought under the slogan "Out with the British from the country, to the last soldiers!" That revolution was suppressed in a sea of blood of the toiling people and in direct battles with the British troops. The British were compelled to resort to maneuvers and to proclaim Feisal King of Iraq. The latter is relying on the feudal class of the country and upon the compradores. For 15 years peasant insurrections all over the country against British imperialism and its puppet -- the central government -- do not cease to take place, although they were suppressed exclusively with British bombs and tanks to the treachery of the feudals. The most recent uprising in 1935 is already nearing its sixth month. The peasants advanced all the slogans of the Communist Party of Iraq. The uprising is of a real anti-imperialist and anti-feudal character. In the course of this uprising our Young Communist Party, in spite of its shortcomings, passed a real test of which I had the honour to report to the Congress. It is not without reason that the Ministry of Iraq has earmarked ₤40,000 sterling as a special budget appropriation to combat the Communist movement in the country. These facts ought to be known. A powerful national liberation movement exists in Iraq, and the Communist Party of Iraq will be able to fulfill its duty as organiser of this movement and, under the leadership of the Comintern and the hegemony of the working class, will lead the movement to its victorious conclusion.