Despite the ongoing violence aimed at undermining the political process, Iraq’s communists plan full participation in what they see as the first step on the only viable path toward real national liberation and sovereignty – Sunday's elections.

While some observers fear that violence will undermine the legitimacy of the elections, Iraqi Communist Party spokesperson, Salam Ali counters that the majority of Iraqis disapprove of the tactics of the insurgents and favor a peaceful political process to ending the US-led occupation.

On the issue of the violence, Ali states that many insurgents have the 'goal of destabilization' by 'creating a climate of fear and terror.' Ali says these groups want to restore the privileges and powers they enjoyed under the Saddam dictatorship.

'These anti-people groups, mainly members of the former intelligence apparatus in collaboration with extremist fundamentalist elements' disguise their agenda as anti-occupation, Ali argues. They really are interested in restoring dictatorial rule.

'They aim to alienate the people, marginalize them in the ongoing political process, and spread despair and fear among them,' Ali contends.

To accomplish this they have targeted progressive, working class, and other political forces that successfully fought to force the Bush administration to agree to hold elections and press forward into a new phase in the political process of achieving national sovereignty.

Anti-election insurgents recently assassinated respected labor activist Hadi Saleh, a leader in the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions, bringing a universal condemnation from the international labor movement as well as some major peace organizations.

But Ali points out that religious figures have also been targeted. Baqir Al-Hakim, the leader of the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) in August 2003, the leader of the Islamic Daawa Movement, Mr Izz-el-deen Selim in April 2004, and more recently some aids of the Ayatollah al-Sistani (al-Sistani is believed to have been the real target) are among the well-known individuals that have been assassinated.

Terrorist strikes on the railroad lines from al-Nasiriyyah to Basra and numerous mosques, which have killed hundreds of Iraqi civilians, in Baghdad and other cities also have meant to create fear surrounding the election and to provoke ethnic, religious, and political strife among the competing political forces.

The Iraqi Communist Party along with other progressive organizations put together a list of 275 candidates known as 'People’s Unity' to stand for Sunday’s elections. The People’s Unity list is a coalition that includes communists, democrats and independent patriotic and social figures. It includes 91 women candidates and covers all of Iraq’s provinces. According to the People’s Unity platform, 'The candidates represent the full social, ethnic and religious spectrum of Iraqi society.'

Ali points out that the 'ICP’s agenda, calling for eradicating the legacy of both dictatorship and occupation and opening up prospects for a truly sovereign, independent and democratic Iraq is diametrically opposed' to the real goals and objectives of insurgents who are fighting to undermine the elections. The tactic of spreading terror through killing 'holds no prospects whatsoever for liberating Iraq,' Ali adds, 'and present no prospects or real hope for a better future for the people.'

In fact, the violence, insists Ali, 'only serves to perpetuate the occupation, provides a pretext for increased foreign military presence (as recent events have shown), helps to bring further death and devastation, and continues the vicious cycle of violence which clearly serve the schemes of extreme right-wing circles in the US under the cover of ‘war against international terrorism.’'

Ali remarked that 'the forthcoming elections are very important for beginning the next phase in the political process.' According to UN mandate the National Assembly that will be chosen this weekend will draft the country’s new constitution and prepare the groundwork for the general elections next year.

Because the national assembly will represent a broad section of Iraq’s population it will be 'more legitimate,' Ali says, and will have influence and oversight on the current transitional government and representative.

Most importantly, Ali says, the national assembly should not be timid about exercising real power and 'should seize back control over security matters, as well as the economic policy and other sovereign powers, from the occupiers.'

'This will be an important step,' Ali adds, 'forward along the path of regaining national sovereignty and independence.'

Iraq’s Communist Party proposes to be an important part of the process of regaining sovereignty and building a democratic society. 'After decades of repression, fascist terror, wars, sanctions and finally foreign occupation,' Ali concludes, Iraqis are longing for 'freedom and a dignified life.'

The People's unity platform calls for full civil rights, religious freedom, and equality for all members of Iraqi society. It envisions a federal democracy that guarantees the rights of minority nationalities. It calls for an end to the occupation and full national sovereignty and control over state apparatuses and policies.

The platform's main focus, however, is on repairing the economy and recovering from the effects of dictatorship and Bush's war and occuaption. It demands the reduction of unemployment, adequate wages for working people, helping the disabled and pensioners, enforcement of workers' rights, abolition of Iraq's debts incurred by Saddam Hussein, full social security, a free health care system, and reforming the public education system. Additionally, the platform calls for the reconstruction of the public economic sector and development of the private.