Communist Parties in the Middle East: 100 Years of History One
hundred years since the Russian Revolution, Communist parties have
undergone great changes, in an evolution that has affected the
entire Left and the social movements. Given that the impact of
Communist parties and their evolution in the Middle East is a topic
that has not been widely researched, Communist parties in the
Middle East. 100 years of history aims to cover a century in the
lives of these parties, from the moment the Communist ideology
first reached the region in the early 20th century (brought by
activists from minority groups) and the creation of the first
parties and trades unions after the 1917 revolution, right up to
the upheaval caused by the dissolution of the USSR and, more
recently, the Arab Spring. The book has been designed to offer a
unique, updated and comprehensive study of Communist parties in the
Middle East, based on both a theoretical framework of analysis and
substantial empirical research and archive documentation. Several
issues are examined in this work. When the Russian Revolution took
place, the Middle Eastern region as a whole was under colonial
control. This meant taking decisions related to the relationship
between the class struggle and the national struggle. The
composition of the communist parties in the Middle East is also
analysed as is their role as the vanguard -understood in the broad
sense of the word- in relation to the objectives of liberation,
emancipation, revolution and system change or reform, and their
connection to mass or popular movements. Furthermore, the volume
looks back at the dependency or autonomy of communist parties
during the Cold War and the tensions that this generated in them,
as well as the search for individual constructions of communism
that took into account cultural characteristics and the local
context of the struggle. In this respect, one of the recurring
themes in the work is the relationship between communist activism
and the sectors that mobilized in the name of nationalism or
political Islam. Finally, the chapters trace the history of the
parties, including -for the first time in the literature- the
post-Cold War period and continuing to the current situation, in
which communist parties occupy a residual position in the political
field, sharing space with other small groups from the real Left,
new programmes adapted to neoliberal advancement in the region and
the new mobilizations symbolized by the uprisings of 2010-2011. The
first section of the book presents the evolution of the CPs in
Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Israel, Egypt,
South Yemen, Sudan, Algeria and Morocco. The second section
explores some cross-cutting issues that have affected relations
between the communist parties and other political sectors:
political Islam and the New Left. Through the testimony of some
leading figures, it presents the arguments around the question of
gender in the Arab world and in leftist circles as well as an
example of the evolution of a female leftist activist, some
contradictions and the prominent debates from the most convulsive
years to the present.
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