The Iraqi Left Ahead of the 2025 Elections: Between Unity and Renewal

In the context of the transformations taking place within the Iraqi and international left, it is essential to combine traditional forms of leftist struggle with new arenas in the digital space and within official institutions. Political participation in all its forms is one of the essential tools of struggle. The struggle is not limited to the streets, factories, farms, offices, or theoretical critique; rather, it is necessary to engage in all fields, including work within state institutions, parliaments, and local councils, as they are important arenas through which the leftist voice — and the voice of the manual and intellectual workers — can reach the public and broaden its social influence.
We are well aware that Iraq’s electoral laws are still incomplete and in need of radical reforms, and that the political environment is filled with structural problems, political money, sectarian and nationalist influence, and the power of militias. However, Iraq remains, despite all this, a country of the Middle East that cannot be compared with stable and advanced democracies. Nevertheless, any limited space of freedom or opportunity for participation must be utilized by leftist and progressive forces to build their presence, influence political and legislative decision-making, and expand the scope of their struggle through the tools of the state itself. Participation in elections is not submission to reality, but rather an attempt to change it from within, and it is one of the multiple arenas of struggle in which political, organizational, social, media, and digital work must be integrated.

The Referendum, Collective Reason, and Majority Opinion in Leftist Organizations
The Iraqi Communist Party made its decision to participate in the elections through an internal referendum in which comrades from within the party took part. It is a decision that reflects the will of the party majority and represents a collective internal democratic practice worthy of appreciation. Adopting the mechanism of referendums within the party on decisive and important issues constitutes a progressive step toward establishing the principle of collective decision-making and expanding members’ participation in shaping the political and organizational stance. This should become a permanent rule across all leftist organizations, not a temporary exception.
It is necessary for the referendum mechanism to become an institutionalized and permanent practice within leftist organizations, developing both technically and organizationally to benefit from the potential of digitization and modern technology in ensuring transparency, faster communication, and wider participation that includes members, cadres, supporters, and even friendly voices from outside the organization as consultative opinions. The use of digitization must also include developing digital platforms for dialogue and open discussion on topics proposed before any referendum or decision, thus enabling broader participation and deeper interaction between different organizational and intellectual levels. The contemporary left cannot remain captive to closed organizational structures or old bureaucratic frameworks; it must innovate new tools for democratic dialogue and interaction that allow for diversity of opinions and open, transparent debate.
Developing internal referendum mechanisms is a practical expression of respect for collective opinion and recognition of the role of the organizational base — not only the leadership — in shaping decisions. It also forms the foundation of a modern leftist democratic culture that links organizational participation with political citizenship, transforming the party from a centralized decision-making apparatus into a living intellectual and social movement that interacts with its environment and expresses it sincerely. At the same time, this provides society with a positive democratic image of how the left makes its crucial decisions and confirms that the left does not present democracy as a slogan only but practices it in its internal daily life.
Since the Iraqi Communist Party is the largest and most organized leftist party, it can be said that this collective decision through referendum largely reflects the position of the Iraqi left majority. Therefore, I see it necessary to support this stance, despite all legitimate reservations about the electoral process itself or differences in some political details with the Iraqi and Kurdistan Communist Parties, which is natural. Under Iraq’s complex conditions, it is normal to have different leftist interpretations, and it is necessary to maintain open, comradely dialogue about them in a civilized and responsible democratic spirit that strengthens diversity rather than division and fragmentation.

A Development in the Positions of Other Leftist Forces
The new and important stance taken by the comrades in the Worker-Communist Party of Iraq and the Worker-Communist Party of Kurdistan — declaring their conviction of the necessity of participating in the elections — represents a qualitative and positive development in the path of the Iraqi leftist movement. This shift reflects a realistic and advanced awareness of the need to diversify the methods of struggle and not to limit them to boycott or protest positions alone, but rather to open up to all possible arenas to influence public consciousness and political power relations. It also demonstrates a high level of flexibility in dealing with political and social developments and benefiting from previous experiences in light of the new reality, in a way that serves the overall leftist movement and the issues of manual and intellectual workers in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.
In previous phases, the stance of the two parties on boycotting elections was based on a precise analysis of the conditions of occupation, foreign intervention, corruption, tyranny, and the flaws in the electoral process. But today, their position is moving toward greater political realism and stronger confidence in the left’s ability to act and exert direct influence. This change is no less important than participation itself, as it reflects a readiness for intellectual and practical review and renewal in light of experience and reality. Although legal reasons prevented the two parties from actual participation in these elections, their declaration of a supportive position toward participation and their involvement in the media campaign of the elections is a responsible step that expresses advanced political awareness and a concern not to leave the parliamentary and local political arena empty for religious, nationalist, and reactionary forces.

Reaching Parliament Is Important — But What Matters Most Is How We Struggle There
Reaching parliament for leftist forces is an important and necessary step, but it is not an end in itself. A parliamentary or political position derives its value not from numbers but from how it is used as a tool of struggle in the service of manual and intellectual workers, women, youth, and all marginalized groups. Participation in parliament must be used to transform it into a platform for presenting leftist and progressive ideas and alternatives, expressing the interests of the exploited classes, exposing the contradictions of the capitalist system, and revealing the policies of the nationalist and religious parties that rule in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Region.
Parliamentary participation thus becomes one of the important arenas of struggle that must be entered and utilized. The goal is not limited to reaching parliament but to how we work from within it — how we turn it into a space for confrontation and accountability, and how leftist representatives become the voice of manual and intellectual workers and of civil and emancipatory ideas. The presence of leftist representatives in parliament must mean the constant defense of the social, economic, and political rights of the masses and the presentation of legislative proposals that institutionalize social justice, a minimum standard of living, full equality for women, and guarantees for public, union, and political freedoms.
In any country in the Middle East, parliament cannot, under the prevailing class structure, be by itself a tool for radical change, but it can serve as a temporary and effective means to expose the mechanisms of power and corruption and to speak directly to the masses from within the institutions of the state. The stronger the left’s presence in parliament, the more it can expand the scope of political, social, economic, and media struggle and turn parliament into an open field of confrontation with bourgeois, sectarian, and nationalist forces — preparing the ground for a higher level of awareness and struggle toward building genuinely popular institutions that are more democratic and representative, in line with the balance of class forces and the degree of democratic and institutional development.

A Unified List for All of Iraq’s Left: A Legitimate Future Aspiration
This convergence in positions among Iraq’s leftist forces — even if partial — represents an encouraging indicator of the possibility of unifying vision, discourse, and practice in the future. What unites these forces is greater than what divides them, as all stem from a shared concern: building a democratic, civil state with a socialist horizon now, ending the dominance of sectarian politics and quota systems, and achieving social justice and equality, even if they differ in the methods and timing for achieving that.
If all leftist Iraqi and Kurdistan parties could participate in one electoral list covering the whole of Iraq — bringing together all leftist and progressive forces from Baghdad to Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, and Basra — it would be a historic step toward uniting the left into a broad, multi-platform coalition, affirming its presence as a unified popular force. A joint leftist list does not mean dissolving organizational or intellectual differences, but rather embodies the principle of collective work around many shared points and expresses a new political awareness that understands that the left’s major battles can only be won through unity, coordination, and continuous joint work among the various leftist, progressive, and labor forces.
Diversity of opinion within the leftist front does not weaken it but strengthens it, as long as all are united by the common goal of defending the interests of manual and intellectual workers and the principles of equality and human freedom. The unity of the Iraqi and Kurdistan left, in all its factions, within a common political framework would send a strong message to society that the left is capable of overcoming fragmentation, offering a genuine progressive alternative to the sectarian–nationalist–neoliberal system, and uniting intellectual, union, political, economic, and social struggle within a single emancipatory and progressive project.

Supporting and Voting for the Iraqi and Kurdistan Communist Parties
Understanding the left in its essence must be as a broad, mass-based social movement with multiple platforms that transcends narrow organizational and partisan frameworks. From this perspective comes the necessity of supporting and voting for the Iraqi Communist Party and the Kurdistan Communist Party in the upcoming elections. This does not mean overlooking criticism or eliminating differences, nor full agreement with both parties’ policies, but rather standing with the only available leftist and progressive electoral lists — those ideologically and politically closest to the various factions of the left in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.
From this standpoint, and with full appreciation for the long struggle and valuable positions of the Iraqi and Kurdistan Communist Parties, the Worker-Communist Parties of Iraq and Kurdistan, the Communist Alternative Organization, the Left Communist Party, and all other leftist parties and organizations — despite intellectual and political differences among them — I find it appropriate that everyone who cares about strengthening the role of the left in parliament, local councils, and the broader institutions of the state should support and vote for the candidates of the Iraqi and Kurdistan Communist Parties in these elections, as a realistic and progressive position that can serve the process of building a united, active, and more influential left in Iraq’s political life.
I look forward to this position becoming a serious and practical starting point to strengthen dialogue, coordination, and joint work among the factions of the Iraqi left — as an initial step toward unifying energies and building a broad, multi-platform leftist organization or alliance that brings together all Iraqi leftist directions and organizations, and unites their intellectual and activist capacities in confronting corruption, authoritarianism, and reaction.
The presence of the left today, in all its factions and organizations, is an urgent necessity in the face of the dark dominance of religious and right-wing nationalist forces that have dragged Iraqi society backward, spreading poverty, reaction, corruption, and tyranny, and deepening sectarian, ethnic, class, and gender divisions. The absence or fragmentation of the left means leaving the arena to those forces that have entrenched the decay of state and society. The left, with all its intellectual and organizational diversity, is the real hope for rebuilding Iraq on the foundations of social justice, equality, and a democratic state with a socialist horizon.

Note: The next parliamentary elections in Iraq are scheduled for November 11, 2025.

Source:
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-iraqi-left-ahead-of-the-2025-elections-between-unity-and-renewal/

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