Through Baghdad's crowded streets and souks last week a strange funeral procession wended its way, picking up bystanders, small boys and stray dogs as an avalanche gathers sticks and stones. At the head of the column, Arab women wailed and rent their garments, their faces plastered with clay in sign of mourning. Behind came the pallbearers, carrying a coffin that contained the body of Kassem Shakhnoub. That morning, at a cement plant where Shakhnoub worked, police had broken up a strike called by the Communist-led union. In the midst of the confusion,...
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