Bakr Sidqi
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. The party found supporters on the "Committee for National and Progressive Reform" (which organized popular support in Baghdad) and even secured two supporters in the newly elected parliament. 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. Sidqi responded with further crackdowns, and many of the Communist reformers fled the cause. Despite the assassination of Sidqi in 1937, the damage had been done, leaving the leadership of the party in the hands of Zaki Zkhairi, who sought new support for the party among the lower ranks of the military throughout the late 1930s.