Ittihad ash-Sha'ab

Ittihad ash-Sha'ab (Arabic: اتحاد الشعب, 'Unity of the People') was a daily newspaper published from Baghdad, Iraq. It was the main organ of the Iraqi Communist Party.[1] Abd al-Qadir Isma'il al-Bustani was the editor-in-chief of the paper[1] which had a circulation of 15,000 copies.[2]

After the minor splinter group of Daud as-Sayegh had been accorded the legal recognition of the name 'Iraqi Communist Party' in early 1960, the mainstream (and un-recognized) Iraqi Communist Party became informally known as the 'Ittihad ash-Sha'ab Party'.[1] On 15 February 1960, the party sought legal recognition under the Associations Law under the name 'People's Unity Party' (i.e. Ittihad ash-Sha'ab Party), but this application was rejected by the Ministry of Interior.[1]

During 1960, Ittihad ash-Sha'ab and other publications of the mainstream Communist Party were targeted by the Abd al-Karim Qasim government. In March 1960 Brigadier Sayyid Hamid Sayyid Hussein issued an order prohibiting the circulation of Ittihad ash-Sha'ab in seven districts of southern Iraq.[1] From June 1960, distribution of Ittihad ash-Sha'ab was restricted in half of Iraq (including major cities) through security restrictions and harassment by police forces.[3] On 30 September 1960 the newspaper was closed down for a period of ten months. Next month it was banned by the government.[2] Abd al-Qadir Isma'il al-Bustani was sentenced to three months imprisonment (Qasim did, however, order his release the day after the sentence had been issued). Abd al-Jabbar Wahbi, another member of the Ittihad ash-Sha'ab editorial board, was placed under house arrest in Ramadi.[1][3]

References
  1. Middle East Record 1960. London: published for the Israel Oriental Society, the Reuven Shiloah Research Center. pp. xxvi, 230,239,240,243
  2. Manfred Halpern (2015). "The Middle East and North Africa". In Cyril E. Black; Thomas P. Thornton (eds.). Communism and Revolution: The Strategic Uses of Political Violence. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 306. ISBN 9781400874729.
  3. Ismael, Tareq Y. (2008). The Rise and Fall of the Communist Party of Iraq. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 100
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