[20] It suffered heavily under the Ba'ath Party and Saddam Hussein but remained an important element of the Iraqi opposition and was a vocal opponent of the United Nations sanctions imposed on Iraq after the Gulf War of 1991.

[21] The party joined the newly established Sairoun Alliance in the 2018 parliamentary elections, who gained the highest number of votes and a total of 54 seats in the Iraqi parliament.

Membership in this circle included such influential Iraqis as Mustafa Ali, Minister of Justice under Abd al-Karim Qasim, and Mahmoud Ahmad Al-Sayyid, considered Iraq's first novelist.

[22] Al-Rahhal, an accomplished polyglot, was able to translate articles from various European Communist and Marxist newspapers, thus introducing many new ideals into Iraqi intellectual society.

[23] While the paper lacked a definite agenda or program, the majority of the writing was centered on the need to break down the strong influence of tradition in Iraqi society.

Several circles were also growing in Baghdad, led by such notables as Asim Flayyeh, Mahdi Hashim, and Zaki Khairi [ar].

[29] After the coup of 29 October 1936, the Iraqi Communist leaders and organizers who had eluded imprisonment helped to lead the wave of peaceful demonstrations occurring across the country, such as Ghali Zuwayyid in Basra.

[31] Bakr Sidqi, the leader of the coup and now the new power in the government, quickly issued attacks on the party, and was met with labor strikes across the nation.

[35] In 1944 the party launched a clandestine campaign to organize the nation's industrial workers, spearheaded by lower middle class intellectuals.

The party attacked the Iraqi government with criticisms and outright condemnations after the killing of protestors in June and July 1946, and as a result Fahd was arrested and sentenced to death, later reduced to life in prison.

The government initially granted wage increases, but soon dismantled the unions and arrested their leaders, contributing to Al-Wathbah, a period of urban unrest in Baghdad, beginning in January 1948.

The severely weakened organization was carried through the early 50s by growing Kurdish support and for the period 1949-1950 the party was actually led from Kurdistan instead of Baghdad.

Nearly the entirety of the old, largely Baghdadi leadership had been imprisoned, including communist leaders like Krikor Badrossian, and the Kurdish members quickly filled the resulting void.

This period also saw a drastic drop in Jewish membership, undoubtedly connected to Operation Ezra and Nehemiah, the massive exodus of approximately 120,000 Jews from Iraq at this time.

[40] Between 1952 and 1954 a series of uprisings led to the establishment of martial law, the outlawing of all political parties, cultural circles, unions, and independent media, and the arrests of their leaders.

[44][45] Qasim was supported in his investiture as Prime Minister in part by the Communist Party (who he had earlier lifted a ban on), giving several ranks to them and establishing slightly improved relations with the Soviet Union.

The Iraqi Communist Party opposed the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 but decided to work with the new political institutions established after the occupation.

Al-Khateeb, who is a teacher and an anti-poverty and women's rights activist, said upon her victory "the Communist party have a long history of honesty – we were not agents for foreign occupations.

"[50][51] The party was supportive of the 2019-2021 Iraqi protests[52] and boycotted the 2021 Iraqi parliamentary elections, stating: In light of the deepening political and social crisis in the country, with the dominant forces monopolizing political power and imposing their control over the country’s destinies and the direction of social development, the widespread corruption and the lack of prosecution for the most corrupt, the assassinations, kidnappings and intimidation, in addition to the deterioration of the living conditions of the people, especially the working people, due to the increase in poverty and unemployment, and the absence of basic services...

Under these complex conditions, laden with crises and risks, talk of providing an atmosphere conducive to holding free and fair elections has become nothing but an illusion exposed by the tragic daily realities and the bitter suffering of millions.

The motto of the party is "a free homeland and a happy people" (Arabic: وطن حر وشعب سعيد watanun hurrun wa sha'bun sa'id).