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Husain Ar-Radi (;1924, Najaf – 24 February 1963, Baghdad), also known as Hashiim, 'Ammar, and Salam Adil (), was an Iraqi communist politician as well as a poet and
painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...
. He was the leader of the
Iraqi Communist Party The Iraqi Communist Party ( ar, الحزب الشيوعي العراقي '; ku, Partiya Komunista Iraqê حزبی شیوعی عێراق) is a communist party and the oldest active party in Iraq. Since its foundation in 1934, it has dominated the ...
from 1955 until his death by execution or under torture after the Baathist coup in 1963.


Early life

Husain al-Radi was born into a Shia
Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
family of sayyids in southern Iraq in 1924. His father was a junior clerk in a flour mill. Al-Radi trained as a teacher at the Elementary Teachers' College in Baghdad, where he first came into contact with the Communist Party in 1943. After graduating, he was appointed to a school in
Diwaniya The dewaniya or diwaniya was the reception area where a Middle Eastern man received his business colleagues and male guests. Today the term refers both to a reception hall and the gathering held in it, and visiting or hosting a dewaniya is an impor ...
but was dismissed in 1946 on account of his political activities. He then moved to Baghdad, where he made a living selling grilled meat on the streets. Muhammad's descendants through Fatimah are known as sharifs, sayeds or sayyids. These are honorific titles in Arabic, sharif meaning 'noble' and sayed or sayyid meaning 'lord' or 'sir'. As Muhammad's only descendants, they are respected by both Sunni and Shi'a, though the Shi'as place much more emphasis and value on their distinction. 56


Party activity, 1949-1955

In January 1949, al-Radi was arrested at a demonstration and imprisoned. On his release in 1951, he was appointed comrade in charge of the southern division of the Iraqi Communist Party, and in 1953 he became a member of the party's Central Committee. In that year, he represented Iraq at the second London Conference of Communist Parties in the Sphere of British Imperialism. That same year, following the arrest of party secretary Baha al-Din Nuri, Abd al-Karim Ahmad al-Daud became party secretary and began to promote a far-left line as well as a considerable level of confrontational activity. Al-Radi opposed this line and in September the party agreed a more moderate policy, but on 16 June 1954 hardliner Hamid Uthman escaped from
Kut Kūt ( ar, ٱلْكُوت, al-Kūt), officially Al-Kut, also spelled Kutulamare or Kut al-Imara, is a city in eastern Iraq, on the left bank of the Tigris River, about south east of Baghdad. the estimated population is about 389,400 people. It ...
jail and succeeded in reimposing the far-left line. He was elected party secretary in place of Al-Daud. Uthman accused al-Radi of rightist deviationism and had him expelled from the Central Committee. The latter then moved to the mid-Euphrates region.


Secretary of the Iraqi Communist Party

Al-Radi was recalled by the Central Committee in June 1955, after it removed Uthman from the secretariat. His more moderate line, focused on an alliance with all potential progressive and national forces, seemed more likely to yield results; in any case, the series of confrontations with the police which Uthman had incited had greatly weakened the organisation and were clearly not sustainable. Al-Radi reorganised the Central Committee, and the following year succeeded in reuniting the party, bringing two dissident groups back into the fold. Al-Radi's moderate approach was similar to that of Khalid Bakdash, secretary of the
Syrian Communist Party The Syrian Communist Party ( ar, الحزب الشيوعي السوري, translit=al-Ḥizb aš-Šuyūʿī as-Sūrī) was a political party in Syria founded in 1924. It became a member of the National Progressive Front in 1972. The party spli ...
and elder statesman of Arab communism. During the period 1955-1959, the Iraqi party was closer to Bakdash than at any other point. Al-Radi himself was not by inclination a theoretician, preferring to concentrate on party organisation and action; until 1961, he would be content to leave ideological questions primarily to
Amir Abdallah Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or ce ...
, who was the party's dominant intellectual figure during this period and rather more cautious than al-Radi in his political approach.


The Qasim regime

This divergence of approach between al-Radi and Abdallah first became a serious issue in the aftermath of the 1958 coup that brought Abd al-Karim Qasim to power. The two men agreed on the party's position of support for the new government, which they considered potentially progressive and representative of the progressive national bourgeois elements in Iraqi society. However, Qasim's harsh reaction to the party's demand for a share in government in May 1959 brought about disagreement between them, with Abdallah favouring compromise and al-Radi pushing for a more radical approach. The party suffered something of a crisis in the summer of 1959, with a minor crackdown by Qasim coinciding with the disturbances of July 1959 in
Kirkuk Kirkuk ( ar, كركوك, ku, کەرکووک, translit=Kerkûk, , tr, Kerkük) is a city in Iraq, serving as the capital of the Kirkuk Governorate, located north of Baghdad. The city is home to a diverse population of Turkmens, Arabs, Kurds, ...
, for which the Communists were widely blamed. A party plenum resulted in a victory for the right wing: it approved a highly self-critical report, published in the party newspaper ''
Ittihad ash-Sha'ab ''Ittihad ash-Sha'ab'' ( ar, اتحاد الشعب, 'Unity of the People') was a daily newspaper published from Baghdad, Iraq. It was the main organ of the Iraqi Communist Party.Middle East Record 1960'. London: published for the Israel Oriental ...
''. Al-Radi remained the nominal party leader, but his position as secretary was changed to that of first secretary, with three assistant secretaries appointed who were all close to Abdallah. In the spring of 1960 the party came under renewed attack from Qasim, with ''Ittihad ash-Sha'ab'' banned first intermittently and finally completely. Communist supporters were removed from positions of influence in the government, party-backed organisations which provided a crucial element in its abilities to mobilize the masses were suppressed to a greater or lesser degree and thousands of Communist workers dismissed from their jobs. In November 1961 al-Radi struck back against his opponents in the party, and took full control. The "rightist" line was denounced, Abdallah left for Eastern Europe, and the three assistant secretaries were removed from the Central Committee. However, with the party increasingly weak, al-Radi himself saw no alternative to a continued policy of critical support for Qasim, despite a renewed wave of repression in May 1962 following Communist-led demonstrations against the Kurdish war. In late 1962, the Kurdish Democratic Party suggested that the Communists collaborate with them in a coup attempt, but the latter rejected the idea. In January 1963, they warned Qasim that plans were afoot for a nationalist coup. The Baathist coup of 8 February 1963 came as no surprise to the Communists, but they were unable to mobilize their supporters in the armed forces to oppose it effectively. Al-Radi reacted immediately by drawing up an appeal for mass resistance to the coup, and Communist supporters defended poorer districts of Baghdad against the new government until 10 February, suffering heavy losses.


Capture and death

The new regime was quick to act against the Communists, capturing many of them and killing hundreds either in the fighting or in its jails and torture chambers. Al-Radi was captured on 20 February, and executed by hanging soon afterwards, of which the Government officially announced. There is an opinion that he died under torture four days after his arrest without divulging any information.


Personal life

In 1953, Al-Radi married Thamina Naji Yousseff, a communist and feminist activist, and had three children with her: Iman Husain Ahmed Al-musawi, Shatha Husain Ahmed Al-Musawi and Ali Husain Ahmed Al-Moussaoui.


See also

* Iraqi art * Islamic art * List of Iraqi artists


Sources

* ''The Old Social Classes and New Revolutionary Movements of Iraq'', Hanna Batatu, London, al-Saqi Books, 2000. {{DEFAULTSORT:Radi, Husain 1924 births 1963 deaths 20th-century poets 20th-century Iraqi painters 20th-century executions by Iraq Executed Iraqi people Hashemite people Iraqi activists 20th-century Iraqi poets Iraqi communists Iraqi Communist Party politicians People executed by Iraq by hanging People from Najaf 20th-century Iraqi people Executed communists