Arab Revolutionary Thought In The Face Of Current Challenges
By Dr Elias Farah
1973
Arab Revolutionary Thought at the
Threshold of a New Stage
With the beginning of the forties, portentous signs of an important phenomenon for the contemporary life of Arabs began to appear. This phenomenon corresponds to a crystallization of Arab revolutionary thought around new revolutionary principles. The Arab revolutionary ideology, represented by the theory of Unity, Freedom and Socialism, emerged as the _expression of a modern and authentic vision, which deals in a new way with the reality of the present Arab situation and the future perspectives of the nation. The ideology asserted itself since the beginning as a step beyond —total and not partial, qualitative and not quantitives dialectical and not formalistic— all the tendencies, currents and theoretical positions that at that time made up the Arab political scene. The current expressed in doctrines and ideologies, like those, which simply consisted of brandishing strategic slogans expressing fundamental principles, were left behind. This can be explained by the fact that all the theories, which preceded the birth of the Arab revolutionary ideology, had failed to identify the primary contradiction in Arab life and social reality. The currents of thought had not succeeded in defining the objectives necessary to pursue during the historical stage in question.
If we go back to the forties in order to re-examine the socio-political theses which then prevailed, which, for the most part, did nothing but repeat and develop what had been proposed by the Arab Rebirth, we can see several currents standing out and evolving in different socio-political frameworks. Most important among these are:
1. The reformist civic-religious current, represented by such forerunners as: the professors Rifat Al-Tahtawi (1801-1873), Jamal Ad-Din Al Afghani (1839-1897), Muhammad ‘Abdo (1849-1905), Muhammad Rashid Ridhâ (1865-1925) and their students. This current attempted to be an overcoming of two other contradictory currents:
a) On the one hand, the religious traditionalist current, whose conception of Islam was a purely formal one. This current had falsified the very essence of the religion; it was patently conservative. Confining thought in the restricting framework of imitation of the past (of the Taqlid), it closed the door of the Ijtihâd* thus opposing any exchange or opening of Muslim societies toward the evolution of modern science and civilization.
b) On the other hand, the rationalist and secular current whose conceptions, having no contact with concrete reality, did not take into account the link between present and past. This current, representing, in a way, an escape toward a future cut off from real historical continuity, expressed reformist tendencies of a utopian character, swallowed up in subjectivity and spontaneity, and lost in progressive dreams.
2. The nationalist religious current whose forerunner is Abdul-Rahmân Al KawâkibI (1849-1903). His essential ideas are expressed in two books entitled Characteristics of Despotism (Tabâi Al Istibdâd) and The Mother City (Um al Qura). Al Kawâkibi considers that the Arab nation is the only one capable of preserving Islam from decadence. He called for the setting up of an Arab Caliphate and wanted the center of the Arab-Muslim Empire to be transferred from Ottoman territory to the Arabian Peninsula. His religious reformist ideas were in agreement with Arab nationalism.
The key idea of this movement of thought is the substantial and organic link between Arabism and Islam.
The Muslim religion, understood as a spiritual and social experience of a revolutionary character, succeed in giving __expression to the Arab nation in the fullness of its soul. On the contrary, Arabism, for Al Kawâkibi, is the best guarantee for the safeguard of Islam in its essence.
3. The current of historicist nationalism, whose themes appear in the writings of the first generation of Arab thinkers of the Rebirth such as the Sheik Nâsif Al-YâzigI (1800-1871), Boutros Al Boustâni (1819-1883) and Georgi ZaYdân (1861-1914). All three tried to revive the Arabs’ energy by reminding them of their past glory and the brilliant civilization. They glorified their dignity and power and proclaimed their pride in belonging to the Arab civilization. Their goal, through all these procedures, was to move their compatriots to become reawakened to the consciousness of their history,
* The Ijtihad is the freedom of interpretation to which all Muslims have a right. The closing of the door of the Ijtihâd i.e., the prohibition of all free thought, was one of the fundamental causes of decadence, the expansion of obscurantism and ignorance. It is the religious reformists cited above who re-opened this door (editor’s note).
4. Socio-progressive thought, which was expressed in the writings of the forerunners of socialism in the Arab homeland, such as Shibli Shoumayel (1850-1917) who, glorifying science and preaching Darwinism, was the author of the first program of the Egyptian Socialist Party, in 1908. Another thinker, Qâsim Amin (1865-1908), former student of Mouhammed ‘Abdoh, belonged to the same school as Shoumayel and defended the freedom of women. In his two books entitled The Liberation of the Woman (Tahrir al-marâ) and The New Woman (al-marâ al-Jadida) he gave remarkable attention to social problems and social progress.
Also belonging to this same school of thought were all the ideas which oriented and guided the peasant uprisings in the homeland, in particular the <<Lebanese Communes>> of 1858-1859, which called for the setting up of a popular republican regime.
5. Regionalist tendencies, which were limited to regional links (regionalist patriotism) or to determined geographical frameworks, such as the Fertile Crescent of “The Nile Valley”. These tendencies also took the form of a nationalist theory in a narrow sense, dividing the Arab nation into several distinct nations such as “the Syrian Nation“. Overstepping the geographic limits of the Arab homeland, the defenders of these “nationalism“, called for a more vast geographical and cultural membership such as the “eastern tendency” or “Middle Eastern*. The idea of an Asiatic continent, of an Asiatic civilization, or of a Mediterranean geo-cultural ensemble dominated their thought.
Also belonging to this multi-formed current of thought were fundamentalists, Pharonic and Phoenician tendencies.
All these tendencies are at the origin of the attitudes of response such as the turn inward and the defense against real or imaginary dangers. All the pretexts of all these theories only serve to conceal the actual thrusts of this negative attitude.
6. The pure nationalist tendency is represented by thinkers such as Naji ‘Azuri author of a book entitled Yaqdhat al-oummiya-l-‘arabiyya (The Awakening of the Arab Nation) which appeared in 1905, and Refiq al-’Adhm, who, in his book entitled Al Jâmi’a-l-islâmiyya Wa ouroubba (The Islamic League and Europe) which appeared in 1907, insists on the fact that national membership is more encompassing than religious membership in a multi-faith society. He affirmed that <<ethnic and patriotic links have primacy over religious links because religious disparities cannot prevent national links from being consolidated, and cannot be opposed to nationalist political ends.
Also belonging to this school of thought was Ali Nasir ad-Din, the founder of <<the Organization for National Action” (‘Ousbat al-’amal-al-qawmi) whose theories appeared in his books The Cause of the Arabs (qadhiyyat al-’Arab), published in 1946. And It is Thus that We were Writing (hakadha kounna naktoub), published in 1952, as well as Constantine Zuraiq, author of The National Consciousness (Alwa’i al-qawmi), and Sati’ al-Husari, author of several works in which he defends the nationalist theory.
Among all these thinkers, one would search in vain for social content. The national cause is in no way linked to social problems.
7. The Anti-national Internal current: This tendency began to make itself known particularly at the beginnings of the Stalinist era. Its representatives stood up against all nationalism, adopted a negative attitude against the idea of Arab unity or any national dimension given to Arab problems. They presented social problems and the class struggle in a theoretical and abstract way, without having concretely analyzed the real immediate data. Taking their inspiration from the traditional schemas of analysis applied in capitalist societies they attempted to impose them in a completely mechanical way, onto the realities of Arab society. Confined in the limits of the Arab region where they lived they passed over their membership in the Arab homeland in order to defend internationalism. Moving along this line they did not take a fundamental contradiction of Arab society into account in their analyses: that of disunion.
If we re-examine the ideological background of all these tendencies, which came before the appearance of the Arab revolutionary ideology, we can then recognize the existence of a conflict, whether declared or implicit, among an ensemble of diverse elements. It is no doubt this conflict, which is at the origin of these currents of thought, and of the forms, which they took when, they appeared on the Arab political scene.
The conflict turned around:
Different cultural schemes,
Opposing social classes,
Exterior forces operating in an effective manner, and having a profound impact on Arab social realities.
The Arab revolutionary ideology, which is summarized in the theory Unity, Freedom and Socialism, appeared as a new, authentic and modern vision, endowed with a new conception of the present realities and of the future of Arabs. Contrary to the fundamentalist, conservative vision, the Arab revolutionary ideology knows how to place stress on the socio-cultural Arab heritage without being confined within the limitations of the past.
Although open to the international revolutionary heritage, it does not lose itself there. It differs in this way from traditional socialist schools. Despite its attachment to a schema of thought capable of recognizing in a profound and exhaustive way the nature of the historical stage through which the Arab nation is now passing, in the framework of present international situations, this new ideology never considered knowledge as an end in itself. To be complete, such a profound and exhaustive analysis of the Arab and international situation must have a third source, in addition to those of the national and international heritage: that of militancy. The defenders of the Arab revolutionary ideology are fully conscious of this necessity and know that the Arab masses place all their hopes in and mobilize all their potentialities for the struggle. For it is only through struggle that they can ensure their survival, assume their destiny and make their cause victorious. Drawing from these three sources, Arab revolutionary ideology was able to forge its unitary theory and its socialist conceptions, taking precedence over the intellectual and political current defended by the regionalists, the pure nationalists, the champions of Islam and of other religions, the regional socialists, the bourgeois reformists, the anti-national socialists, etc. Arab revolutionary thought succeeds in placing itself in the vanguard of all these currents.
During the fifties and sixties, Arab revolutionary thought was able to test, in practice, the ideas it had advocated. In analyzing the experiences of unity, secession, the phenomena of regionalism and bureaucracy, as well as the factors, which caused the many failures of Arab revolutionary action, Arab revolutionary ideology was able to demonstrate its scientific and profound character. But, on the other hand, it was also able to discover that great deficiency, the gap between theory and practice.
The gap between thought and action was still greater than that which separated the popular masses and the Arab regimes. This contradiction necessarily had to assert itself and Arab revolutionary thought was obliged to resolve it in order to remove the Arab struggles from the vicious circle in which they had been confined and in which the very idea of struggle had been imprisoned, endlessly risking its suffocation.
On the occasion of the 26th anniversary of the Arab Bath Socialist Party, the Party that struggles for Unity, Freedom and Socialism (April 7, 1974), the problem brought up earlier was posed in the form of two complementary questions:
1. In the course of the preceding historical stage, what has, been the ideological contribution of the Baath Party, and what are the fundamental characteristics of its revolutionary vision?
2. What are the current ideological challenges and the principal tendencies in the evolution of the revolutionary Arab ideology?
There is no doubt that the answer to these two questions will be one of the fundamental lessons that the Arab Revolution will be able to learn from this anniversary of the founding of this revolutionary movement of great historical significance, and whose inspiration and founder —Professor Michel ‘Aflaq— wanted to endow it with the capacity for untiringly assuming its tasks for centuries.
Arab Revolutionary Thought In The Face Of Current Challenges
The Ideological Contribution of the Baath Party
If we want to study the ideological contribution of the Arab Baath Socialist Party during the quarter-century that has just gone by, we must first remind ourselves of the following truths:
1. First of all, we must insist on the importance given by the Party to ideology and therefore, we must again bear in mind the stage which preceded the birth of the Baath, that which covers the years 1940 to 1947. That stage was essentially one of maturation for the Baath ideology. This party was first created under the form of an idea of struggle’. From its beginnings, it was aware that no profound revolutionary action of any historical dimension was foreseeable without first the formation of a revolutionary and scientific ideology capable of providing an exhaustive analysis of the principal characteristics of the historical stage the nation was crossing. In one of his declarations, the founder of the Baath says:
Thought in itself is already a force of history and an inestimable revolutionary force. The act of placing the Arab cause in the framework of a system of comprehensive thought is the first contribution to the consolidation of the Arab revolutionary movement, in providing it with solid bases.
These remarks by Comrade Aflaq had earlier constituted the axis around which turned the declarations and newspaper articles of the forties and the early fifties. Stressing this fundamental idea, Comrade Aflaq similarly formed a critique of abstract thought, and one of reactionary theories (The Arabs Between their Past and their Future, 1950). He endlessly affirmed, “that a revolutionary movement would not know to control itself, nor would it be able to dominate the circumstances through which it passes unless, at the same time, it is a total ideological movement, i.e., unless it rises to the level of the cause that it wants to defend.
The insistence on this fundamental necessity did not spring merely from Comrade Aflaq’s awareness of the importance of a revolutionary theory for any action wishing to be revolutionary. It was also the logical consequence of his conception of the national problem, a conception which betokens the great depth of vision in Comrade Aflaq’s understanding of man and civilization and which corresponds to the necessities of the historical stage through which the Arab nation was passing, as well as to those of the contemporary epoch. This conception also springs from a specific attitude that Comrade Aflaq adopted with regard to the present, the past and the future:
‘If we look at the contemporary Arab Rebirth, we can see that the initial phase through which it passed was that of consequences undergone in an emotional and negative way. In fact, all the aspects of the Rebirth at its beginnings are reactions against the earlier states of decadence and immobility. They reproduced, almost to the letter, the very characteristics of the socio-political state against which the advocating of the Rebirth had risen up and which they wanted to destroy. If the first phase of our Rebirth was masked by this negativity, it is scarcely permissible that this situation continues. The psychological and intellectual state, which calls for an authentic movement, can only be a reaction to a conjectural situation in the life of the nation. Colonialism, feudalism and regionalism are negative, but conjectural, phenomena. Must we forget our idea of values, our vision of the future, entirely on the basis of an unhealthy, purely conjuncture state? Must we be satisfied in arousing semi-mechanical reactions in the nation against the social evils, which overwhelm it? Or should we instead be preoccupied with the will of the nation and its aspiration to an authentic life? We must-instead militate for a positive realization: the creation of a re-emerging and developed Arab society, built on the principles and supreme values of justice, equality and freedom.
These words of Comrade Michel Aflaq are excerpts from an article published in 1947, entitled ‘The Arab Baath is a positive Attitude, Permitting It to Clarify the Ideological Role of the Party. He continues in this vein in The Battle of the Unique Destiny (Ma’rakat al-masiral-wâhid, p. 37):
“Those who have shown an interest in the history of the Baath Party, at least from an ideological point of view, can see that since its birth, our movement has shown itself to be profoundly preoccupied with one fundamental objective: to make the Ba’athist movement one that is likely to take a positive step toward finding a political solution responding to the positive necessities of the nation. Our society suffers from unhealthy states. Remedies are proposed, but they remain artificial. A specific ideological procedure asserts itself in order to forge a theory inspired by the living Arab history, which supplants and surpasses the reactionary theories, as well as pseudo-progressivism“.
2. This preoccupation and this insistence on the importance of a thought committed to the defense of the national cause and reinforcing the responsibilities of the struggle for freedom, unity and progress of the Arab nation, and the role accorded to an ideology molded in struggle have, in turn, permitted the discernment of two other fundamental truths:
a) The Arabs will only be able to surmount the difficult phase they are crossing, marked by alienation and intellectual confusion, and free themselves from their emotional reactions, if they confront the causes that concern them with retrospective and profound interior vision and can assimilate the teachings of the struggles and revolutions taking place everywhere in the world, especially those which raise up the peoples of the continents where colonization, under-development, exploitation and injustice have ruled for centuries.
b) This interior vision, capable of assimilating and understanding the specific dialectic of the evolution of the society and the interaction between the contradictions of this society (in the framework of the historical stage humanity is currently crossing) is not possible, and can be neither profound nor exact, if it is not the result of experience and endurance, of struggle simultaneously conducted on the ideological and practical scales. An authentic and clear vision, capable of discerning the truth of the nation at this historical stage, cannot be one emerging from a preconceived, ideological schema, forged outside of the framework of national realities. Neither can it be practical or realistic if it does not assimilate the ideological currents crossing the contemporary world, and if it is not inspired by the international revolutionary heritage. The narrow relationship between theory and practice, between general and specific laws of social evolutions, of which the Arab homeland has been the scene in the course of this stage of national rebirth, was the fundamental criterion and the point of departure for the Ba’athist movement. Consequently, it is logical that principal preoccupation of this movement be the attempt to pick out the fundamental necessities and demands of the struggle conducted by the nation to recover its unity, its freedom, and to put itself back on the road to progress.
3. It is necessary to point that the Ba’athist ideology appeared as the __expression of the necessities of an entire historical stage, while at the same time voicing the ambitions of the Arab nation. The Baath idea takes on an ideological dimension, which goes beyond politics —a national dimension. It oversteps the artificial borders between the diverse Arab states, and finally shatters the framework of present reality in order to clear the path toward future evolution. Scarcely had this new ideology been elaborated —crystallizing itself around the idea of the dialectical unity of the Arab nation’s struggle for its unity, its struggle for freedom, and its struggle for socialism —that it became an ideology which best corresponded to the demands of the current historical stage, constituting a common source from which the diverse forces of the Arab Revolution could draw their principles and theoretical foundations.
It was completely natural that this new ideology enters into conflict with the various political and intellectual currents, which had preceded its birth, such as traditional non-socialist nationalism, reactionary theories, abstract internationalism, regionalist progressivism, etc.
The dialogue which went on between the new ideology —that of unity, freedom and socialism— and the currents of thought which still prevailed, were rather intense and drawn out. The militant thought could not keep itself from showing its disgust for those who were content to turn the overwhelming circumstances through which the Arab nation was passing to their own advantage. The unitary spirit rejected the attitudes of those who accepted disunion, who resigned themselves to the artificial borders between the diverse regions of the homeland, and who even exploited this state of fact. The idea of national liberation disowned those who sought to dissociate the struggle against foreign enemies from that waged against the social ills, which paralyzed the national, will. The truly revolutionary thought was distinguished from that of the pseudo-revolutionaries, who sometimes adopted attitudes that made abstractions of colonialism, or who went so far as to enclose themselves in complacent silence, who adopted attitudes of favor and gave their approval to projects that in no way served the interests of the Arab states and the nation; Finally, in the course of this dialogue, the national thought could not keep itself from expressing its hostility toward the regionalist spirit, who transformed the disunion of the homeland into a durable state of fact, complete with its theoretical justifications and its own political philosophy, whereas, in reality, the principles it advanced only served to clear the way for the realization of projects hostile to Arab unity and to deceive public opinion by hiding from it the essence of the national problem.
Therefore, it was completely natural that this new ideology recommended by the Baath Party be the object of hostility coming from all parts, appearing in various forms and tendencies. It was also natural for the Ba’athist movement, since its creation, to be the victim of widespread defamation campaigns, the goal of which was to put up psychological obstacles between this emerging movement and the great number of intellectuals belonging to the generation, which had grown up at the same time as the Baath. These campaigns aimed at making it impossible for these intellectuals to have any relation whatsoever with the Party, to assimilate its ideas, or even to become acquainted with its theories and principles, if only out of simple curiosity. As a result of these campaigns, the thought of the Baath remained ignored by those who had been led to adopt a hostile attitude in its regard and by those who had been political adversaries of the Ba’athist movement.
4. The thought of the Baath also seemed to carve out a separate path for itself, achieving a split with the current of predominant political ideas, separating itself completely from that current, making any contact or continuous exchange impossible. From this, the Ba’athist movement acquired a theoretical and ideological specificity and an organizational structure established on a national scale. As well as endowing it with a certain spirit of independence, these two characteristics distinguished it in its conception of problems as well as in the way it proposed to solve them. It is for this reason that the Baath seemed to constitute more of a current and totally independent political line than a simple phase of the current of the historical evolution of nationalist ideology in the Arab homeland.
This characteristic recognizes a truly revolutionary attitude, and one, which is particular to the Baath. Professor Michel Aflaq expressed this well in the speech he gave at the moment of the Syrian-Egyptian fusion of 1958, in which he made a brief historical reference to the role played by the Party in national life from the time of its founding up until the proclamation of the United Arab Republic:
The creation of the Baath Party had been a genuine revolution in the history of the Arab nation. It is a revolution in the sense that the Ba’athist movement was not an extension of what had existed beforehand, but rather, it was, in a certain manner, a split, a willful and conscious amputation, as well as an ascension to a level never before reached in the realm of thought, morale or psychology, despite all its weaknesses, shortcomings, and gaps. (On the Way of the Baath, Fi Sabil al-Baath, Seventh edition, p. 275)
But these characteristics were not the only advantages for the Baath. On the contrary, they led the Party to assume the greatest share of the responsibilities and of the sufferings implied in the struggle against the aftereffects of the past, in order to clear the path toward renewal and toward the future. Various sorts of injustices then came down upon it. The perpetrators of these were not only those who disagreed with the Ba’athist idea, but also those who were of its school, and even certain militants of the Party who were not at the level of the tasks demanded of them, who were incapable of remaining faithful to their commitments and finally who, in order to better hide their opportunism, their weakness or their despotism, borrowed ideological weapons. The Ba’athist movement was intractable and unrelenting, both with itself and with others. In this context, it proceeded in the same way used by those who acted according to revolutionary criteria. The Ba’athist had contempt for compromise and knew nothing of complacency and respite. They practiced both critique and self-critique in their most complete forms, rebelling against any attempt at encirclement, revolting against falsification, struggling against oppression, and carving a path for themselves and their sufferings, amid the permanent open war against the Baath —as an idea and as a person— and against the Ba’athist leadership. In addition, the ideology of the Party still suffered from the consequences of the injustice it had undergone. This injustice appeared under various forms and manifestations. It was expressed in the following attitudes:
— The attitude of those who, in regard to the Baath, displayed an overt and emotional hostility, rejecting the experience of the Party with neither reflection nor previous examination.
— The attitude of those who misunderstood, were unaware of, or refused to become acquainted with the Baath.
— The attitude of those who were satisfied with the superficial impressions they had formed on the subject of the Baath, with no rational analysis.
— Finally, the attitude of those who chose to lead their offensive against the Baath, perpetrating attacks against it, which had absolutely no objective justification.
The more these attitudes were removed from all objectivity and were sometimes even deceitful, with contempt for all faithfulness to the truth, the more the Baath, since its creation, affirmed itself as a current of thought which addressed itself above all to a search for the truth. It is the quality, which distinguishes it from all other movements and endows it with its particular characteristics. This same quality, however, loads it with heavy responsibilities and difficult tasks: the arduous struggle against the currents of thought, which presented the Arab, cause in an erroneous, falsified, superficial and fragmented manner. In other words, the Baath Party had to confront the difficulties that emerged from its search for the truth and the bitterness of their struggle, in order to isolate this truth, to defend it, and to watch that it was firmly rooted in reality. Thus, the idea of the Baath, even in the heart of the political movement carrying its name, had taken on the function of a judge and a censor who endlessly watched over, who criticized attitudes, manners of behavior, and forms of activity in order to judge their distance or their nearness to criteria which spring from that very system of thought and also to judge the commitment, on the part of the militants, to always adhere to its criteria.
5. The practical difficulties encountered by the Baath when setting up its structure, those born of its evolution as a political movement and of its relation with other forces, currents and tendencies, were reflected in the very thought of the Party. This thought underwent the negative consequences which had sprung from certain problems, most important among them being, the first stage, that of its relations with the Arab communist parties in the course of the Stalinist era. The relations that the Baath had with President Nasser and the Nasserite current were no less problematic. The Party was then obliged to struggle against the regionalist tendency which stood in its very ranks, as well as against those who attempted to monopolize decision-making powers in its ranks in order to make it the mere shadow of a military and bureaucratic regionalist regime, while the vocation of the Baath is to be an historic, popular and militant movement. Thus, during certain phases, the thought of the Baath was obliged to recant and confine itself within the limits of the political movement to which it had given birth. It suffered the consequences of the crises, which tore the movement apart, whether in the area of external relations with other political forces present on the scene, or in that of internal relations with the elements, and groups that used power as a weapon to sabotage the Party.
6. The thought of the Baath determined the nature and form that the revolutionary movement of the same name had to take. It isolated the necessity of the realization of the following fundamental conditions:
— This revolutionary movement must start from a totally Arab ideology, built on the three fundamental principles
Freedom, socialism, and Arab unity;
— This movement must be armed with ethics inspired by a progressive and liberating vision, adhering again to the eternal values of humanity, i e., a vision in which there is no contradiction between the end and the means;
— This movement must avoid immobility and theoretical formalism, as well as all tendencies toward abstraction:
— This movement must be a microcosm of the future Arab society:
— Militancy must be the rule, which governs the movement in a permanent and stable manner.
The thirty years that have just passed were the stage for a permanent struggle between aspirations and reality.
Arab revolutionary ideology attempted, through this struggle, to prove the depth of the ties between nationalist, socialist and liberating concepts, advanced by the Baath, and the necessities of the revolutionary stage through which the Arab nation was passing. The Baath also revealed the backwardness of present institutions and structures and their inaptitude at rising to the level of the demands of the Ba’athist militant thought. This thought, in the eyes of those who tried to assimilate and undertake a profound analysis of it, appeared as a disconcerting phenomenon. What was affirmed a third of a century ago is, in fact, still valuable and could be said today. Those who believe that the thought of the Baath already belongs to the past can recognize that in reality it continues to be a thought turned toward and adapting to the future. Thus it proves that it still remains poorly known, not having had the attention, which it deserves, and which would be commensurate with its importance. It continues to be a victim of the same serious injustices, which it never ceased to suffer in the past, and which are only one part of the many conspiracies plotted against the party that has known how to clear the way for the contemporary Arab rebirth.
If this introduction has, permitted us to isolate the particularities of the ideological position of the Baath Party, this position characterized by the complete absence of any schema or preconceived intellectual mold, which objectively searches the truth, the truth of the nation, and which knows how to remain faithful to this truth —this attitude engaged in the struggle and adhering to a militant ethic, showing proof of a profound understanding of man and of human civilization— we must at this time identify the dimensions of the new revolutionary vision of the Arab situation contained in the ideology of the Baath. We must define the means required for the realization of the objectives, which this ideology advocates, as well as the strategy, which must be adopted for revolutionary action necessitated by the current historical stage.
A New Revolutionary Vision
1. Because it knew how to give priority to the nationalist fact (on the basis of its essentially human and secular aspects), the Baath conferred a vigor on its own ideology in such a way that the two theories that prevailed before its existence (the anti-nationalist theory of the Left, as well as the anti-nationalist theory of the Right, each with its own negative conception of Arab nationalism) were surpassed.
2. The Baath also insisted on the necessity of safeguarding the unity of the Arab personality and on the preservation of its independence. The putting into question of the present reality implies a revolutionary vision, conscious of the historical continuity particular to the Arabs and of the specificity of their future. The current contradictions could not be appreciated in all their depth unless one understood their roots, and the future could not be in harmony with the national aspirations unless it was placed in the framework of a destiny that scientifically and realistically links all the temporal dimensions of Arab national life determined by the laws of history. These considerations led the Baath to consider. Arab unity and the Palestinian cause as the two principal incentives for its action. Their importance is paramount for the Arab revolution, for the national life and for the future of Arabs in general.
3. The Baath took care to purify the Arab national idea, eliminating all racial conceptions, all chauvinistic, fanatic and retrograde tendencies, and in opposing the non-socialist nationalist theory, this abstract vision, which from the exterior attempted to impose unrelated schemas for the problems of the nation, in particular those schemas inspired by western theories. It is in establishing solid links between nationalism and the necessities of the present historical stage (taking into full account the demands of modern life) that the Baath succeeded in bringing this important theoretical task to its completion. It knew how to furnish an accurate analysis of the multiple aspects of the struggle, as well as of the contradictions in the national Arab life and in the world of that moment in general. It succeeded in asserting a new vision, a different and truly revolutionary vision of Arab nationalism, which went beyond all the bourgeois and petty bourgeois concepts, by considering this aspect as the principal motivation of the struggle in the Arab national life at the historical stage through which it is passing at that moment.
Bourgeois ideology rejects socialism. It is ready for any compromise as far as the liberation of the homeland is concerned. It considers unity to be a simple operation of coordination among the various Arab regions and among the various regional institutions, it corresponds perfectly to the aspirations of its clientele, the bourgeois class, which accepts and relies on the collaboration of classes in order to perpetuate its own political power, to safeguard its own interests and privileges, and to maintain the existing social structures, for the purpose of immortalizing the situation and values of the moment. Doing this, it fights against all the ideas, all the currents and all the forms of activity oriented toward the future, resolved to hasten the evolution and to open the way toward renewal. It also found fault with any form of criticism capable of condemning the economic and moral bases (exploitation and oppression) on which the bourgeois class implants its power. Finally, it orchestrated an enormous propaganda campaign that aimed at undermining all the unitary and socialist revolutionary thought.
The petty bourgeoisie also has an ideology, which reflects both its particular interests and its heterogeneous structures. Its aspirations are double although contradictory. Although appearing to be unitary, its convictions are essentially regionalist. Despite its socialist slogans, it turned out to be hostile to the working class to which it refused to accomplish any effective role. It rejected the idea of submitting its commands to the power of workers and gave no credit whatsoever to the popular masses and to their revolutionary potential, the only one capable of transforming the force of history. Its fundamental attitude was elitist and its spirit was bureaucratic. It only aimed at realizing the interests of its petty-bourgeois leaders and constituted an obstacle to the stirring up of the popular revolutionary potentialities, preventing the working class from participating in an effective and concrete way in political decision-making. This ideology is only verbally socialist. It only struggles for liberation in a formal way. It is actually only a pseudo-unitary ideology.
On the other hand, the revolutionary conception of Arab nationalism allies the unitary spirit to liberation and socialism. It founds its theory on the idea that the national Arab cause is one and indivisible. For it, the struggle for unity, liberation and socialism is one, and the supreme objectives of unity, freedom and socialism are dialectically inseparable. This conception of Arab nationalism takes into account the concrete present realities: under-development, the disunion of the homeland, colonialism, Zionism and class exploitation. It moved from a vision of the whole, which encompassed all the aspects of the problems in question and the concrete givens of the Arab society at that current stage, rising up against under-development in all its forms, against disunion, exploitation and oppression. It shows the causes of these and seeks to transform current social structures by trying to grasp the negative factors, which have caused the Arab nation to lose its authentic identity. It then tries to restore this identity by relying on the concept of unity, on militant action, and on the perspective of an ambitious, historical mission.
This revolutionary theory was developed in a particular and new historical context, which it knows how to evaluate. This context can only be understood by reference to nationalist experiences (and to the nationalist experiences which sprang from them), and which expressed totally different historical realities of the Arab situation. Thus, the nationalist experiences undergone in Europe, particularly in the course of the 18th and 19th centuries and at the beginning of the 20th, are in no way comparable to the Arab nationalist experience.
In a word, this revolutionary conception of Arab nationalism is the ideological _expression of the experience of the Arab nation, which militates for the resolution of the alienating contradictions for the Arab man and for the Arab masses. It is at the same time, a nationalist conception and a class conception, in which the idea of the nation finds itself closely linked to the realities, needs and potential of the revolutionary, proletarian masses directed by the Arab working class.
4. The ideology of the Bath rejects any idea of partial reform. The present contradictions in under-developed societies have risen to such an acute level that reason is no longer able to master them. They are intolerable, from both a logical and an ethical point of view, and any partial reform will remain insignificant since it would have no impact on these contradictions. In fact, the alliance of colonialist, Zionist and reactionaries constitutes a force capable of containing these reforms, capable of orienting them according to its projects and interests. In the face of this reality, the Baath works toward deepening the revolutionary nature of Arab nationalism and the revolutionary character of the struggle of the Arab nation. This struggle must condemn and reject the apparent logic of partial reformism, and superficial solutions, which either ignore objective conditions or else adopt a defeatist attitude with regard to these conditions. Adopting a revolutionary vision is the prerequisite condition for being able to assume what is implied by membership in Arab nationalism.
5. Ba’athist ideology rejects all chauvinist tendencies, which characterize the nationalist experiences undergone in the West by the bourgeoisie. It considers Arab nationalism to be a movement of liberation directed against colonialism as a profoundly human experience which quite naturally rejoins the currents of liberation in revolt against colonialism and the evils which flow from it: fanaticism, tyranny and injustice.
6. Ba’athist ideology considers: “the struggle for the liberation of the nation, the struggle against under-development and the struggle for the resolution of the contradictions which confer an appearance on the Arab nation contrary to its profound essence”, as a struggle moving in the direction of history. As Professor Michel Aflaq has said: “Our epoch is that of the popular masses, that of the masses of Asia and Africa who have endured the most striking human experience, having suffered from servitude and injustice imposed on them from the interior as well as from the exterior“.
7. The Ba’athist revolutionary approach to the contemporary Arab reality proceeds on the one hand from an analysis of the past, from the coming to awareness of the socio-cultural Arab heritage and, on the other hand, from an analysis of the present and of the contradictions which dominate it. Concern for the future prepared by the Arab revolution is also a fundamental priority. Alignment must be taken in complete recognition of the needs of the nation, expressed in complete freedom. In fact, in proportion to the reduction of constraints, we will witness the growth of the nation’s capacities for being in harmony with itself, for remaining faithful to its particular personality, to its unique spirit and, consequently, for preparing its future.
8. According to the revolutionary perspective of Arab nationalism, progressivism signifies a recommencement of the nation in the living and revolutionary sense of the history of this nation. The function of progressivism is to liberate the nation from the constraints and negative consequences of the past which still overwhelm it and which have been accumulated and multiplied in the course of the long period of immobility, which the nation has known. Progressivism is also the act of regaining through the struggle a free and creative spirit permitting the recovery and formation of our new, unique identity. (The Baath’s Struggle, Nidal-l-Baath, Volume II, p. 40) It is in moving from these perspectives that the new revolutionary perspective affirms that the reaction constitutes “a double treason of the nation, an attack on its past and on its future“.
9. This theory of Arab nationalism considers that the revolutions of the past give too great an importance to subjective factors, whereas the contemporary revolutions insist too greatly on objective factors. Revolutionary theory should permit the realization of a balance between these two tendencies and should rely on a dialectical, exhaustive and harmonious conception. The dialectical links should not be considered abstractly, outside of concrete realities which they put into relation and any general and universal law must be capable of being applied to the living and specific situation of the historical stage with which they are concerned. Such is the foundation of the Arab revolutionary theory. Here, also, it is not a question of being content with denouncing external factors responsible for disunion, under-development, exploitation and oppression. Such an attitude could lead us to self-satisfaction, which would bring about a deformed and superficial vision of the national cause. It would also be the mark of our inability for carrying out self-criticism and for assuming our historic responsibilities. It is for this reason that Michel Aflaq declared in 1955, “Arabs should stop looking for pretexts, they should stop shirking their responsibilities by accusing colonialism of being the unique cause of their present situation. They should deeply investigate their problems from the inside, considering themselves, in the first and last instance, as the only ones responsible for their destiny“.
10. This new revolutionary vision stresses “the difference between our conception of nationalism and the traditional conceptions“, (On the Way of the Baath, Fi Sabil-l-Baath), because it “is foreign to fanatical conceptions engendered by colonialism, foreign to tribal professions of faith, who have no other function than to consolidate colonialism on our soil. It is attentive not to fall into the traps of immobility, opposed to any glorification of origins, whether social or racial, and profoundly human. The respect of this conception goes so far as to revere the national and human sentiments of all people“.
11. The Baath also distinguishes itself by the manner in which it approaches the past. In the work cited above, Michel Aflaq writes, “there is, in our national history, an event of extreme importance: the appearance of Islam. This is an event of national, as well as of universal significance, one of the most important experiences of humanity. Islam, at its origin, was a revolutionary movement, an uprising against a certain state of facts, marked by well-determined beliefs, traditions and interests. Any revolutionary situation is one and indivisible. It demands the same psychosocial conditions and, to a large degree the same objective conditions. It is therefore logical that this revolutionary generation, this generation of men who rise up against decadent traditions, be that, which, by its spirit, is closest to Islam; it is the generation most likely to understand it, be enthusiastic about it, and answer its call“.
Such an analysis of the past implies a revolutionary conception of religion in general. According to the Ba’athist criteria, “there can be no religion alongside corruption, iniquity and exploitation; a true religion is always on the side of the victims of injustice and those who revolt against corruption“.
12. According to the Baath, the Arab revolutionary theory “necessitates a global vision and analysis of the national and international situations. It implies a high degree of struggle and revolutionary spirit that rejects half-solutions, and partial sacrifices and that knows nothing of lassitude. It is on the basis of these criteria that one can also determine the degree of affinity with the Arab nation, this nation which is, as Michel Aflaq has said, “in the process of realization, in the smallest portion of the homeland where a struggle is going on and especially, of course, when this struggle is confronting death at every moment“. In addition, these criteria enable one to recognize the real men in the heart of Arab society. Michel Aflaq continues in this same work, saying, ‘The man who confronts death is a real man, since at the very moment when he is struggling against destiny he can discover the absurdity of all the causes of the constraints imprisoning him —fanaticism in all its forms, and privileges— since death shows all that is artificial...” The author concludes by affirming that the armed struggle is the genuine sign of the vitality of the Arab nation: Our nation is found wherever its sons carry arms”. This affirmation dating from 1959, explains the nature of certain methods of action employed in the name of the revolution and of militantcy, far from corresponding to the actual content of the Ba’athist ideology.
13. The new Arab revolutionary theory springs from a dialectical conception of the relationships among the national struggle for unity, social struggles and the class struggle, The connections among these forms of struggles are crucial to the present historical stage and the working class is the social group that incarnates these dialectical connections. If there is a class which more than any other is ready to liberate itself from the control of particular interests and privileges, as well as from the mental legacy of disunion, a class capable of concretizing the unity of the Arab cause in theory and in the struggle, this can only be the class of Arab workers, in particular, and all the proletarian Arab masses, in general, since these popular masses are daily confronted with this striking reality: their enemies are, at the same time, those of the entire Arab nation”. (op. cit. p. 314)
Thus, the links between the national combat and social struggles constitute one of the foundations of this new revolutionary theory: “In the struggle that we are conducting for the indivisible Arab national cause, we do not dissociate socio-economic questions from national ones, since this cause cannot be victorious unless we safeguard its unity“. (op. cit., p. 314)
These links between national problems and problems of class can only be concretely established by the struggle and in its context, since the problem, as our author affirms, “is not at all an easy one we must develop and nurture the tension between the opposing forces, and take care that the national idea is not lost in confusing itself with the interests of the criminal classes, when these exploiters of privilege adopt a nationalist phraseology in order to better conceal their lies and intentions“. (op. cit. p. 322)
Therefore, these relationships between problems of class are elucidated thanks to this ideological perspective according to which the national problem constitutes an indivisible whole. The class struggle is only one aspect of the problem, which itself is wider and deeper. “This is the problem posed by a divided homeland, of which certain regions are still under colonial domination. Disunion is the greatest obstacle to the rebirth of this homeland. The problem is also one posed by a homeland, under-developed in all ways: intellectual, economic, etc. In this homeland, all must be reconstructed“. (Op. cit. p. 322) This form of analysis proceeds from a holistic vision of the ‘problems particular to the third world in its entirety, this geographical entity, where not only social classes, but also entire nations are oppressed, as Michel Aflaq explains in The Battle of the Unique Destiny (Ma’rakat al-masir al Wahid, p 50).
14. This new revolutionary theory also defined the rules for militant action and determined the criteria for judging its orientation. It took pains to place stress on the unity among revolutionary theory, strategy and tactics, as well as the unity between ideology and organization, or between the objectives and their mode of application in the course of each stage in question: ‘What we want for our nation in the decades to come should appear and take form from this moment on in militant action. If, from the beginning, the militants do not grasp those values that lead to radical change, it seems completely improbable to us that they would be able to achieve it once they had taken power. Power and authority, instead of raising souls to the level of these values tend to corrupt and weaken them’. (Op. cit. p.65)
The new revolutionary theory also defined the frame. Work of the struggle, its criteria and the levels on which it should unfold. According to this theory: “The Arabs are crossing a historical stage where right and freedom follow them like an inevitable destiny. This stage of the struggle is an experience of a new kind. It is not only a way of putting our capabilities for liberating ourselves from the colonialist yoke to the test, but also a way of testing our ability for further questioning our present situation, as well as our ethical and intellectual criteria. Our essential preoccupation is for victory in the battle against colonialism, without in the course of this task having to renounce any of our national or human aspirations and without altering or degrading our souls or spirits. In addition, it is thanks to an unswerving loyalty to our aspirations and to the will of preserving our uniqueness that this battle will owe its victory“. (Battle of the Unique Destiny, p. 90)
15. This new theory has conceived a new approach to the notion of time by drawing its sources from the concept of the revolution itself. In fact, the revolution is a determining process, which tolerates no artifice, mystification or superficiality. Like life itself, it has natural laws and to be deceitful with time is to be deceitful with life. The consequences of such an attitude can only be harmful. For the Arabs, then, it was essential in this new revolutionary perspective that they “should arrive at a serious and ardent life.” If the Arabs had to choose between realizing their objectives with the shortest possible delay “by counting on forces other than their own, and between continuing the revolution, a revolution oriented toward the future and drawing its inspiration from their social realities, their needs and the idea they have of man and of life (even if the realization of their objectives is then delayed for several years or more“, they should make their choice according to the conceptions of the Baath: “Choose the longest path in order to be able to preserve certain fundamental values in the process“. (Op. cit. p. 22. 129)
16. The theory of the Baath is defined “as a positive theory that always finishes by isolating positive truths“. (On the Way of the Bath, p. 214) The Bath idea of nationalism goes according to a number of these truths: “The positive idea of nationalism that we have developed is the following: we consider that nationalism is the degree of maturity attained by human societies when over the centuries the individuals composing these societies evolved in interaction with their particular natural and historical conditions. Centuries of interaction have woven common spiritual links among these individuals; the most important and profound of these is the cultural link“. (The Battle of the Unique Destiny, p. 145).
17. This new revolutionary theory has succeeded in proving the necessity for a new revolutionary movement, situated at a different level than that of earlier movements, since it expresses the needs of the nation by proposing radical solutions to its problems. This movement rests on an authentic theory drawn from the very sources of the nation and benefiting from extensive experience. The Party was born of the need, felt by the nation, for dealing with problems of the Arab homeland in a total and radical way, also springing from the recognition of a fundamental principle according to which this homeland constitutes an indivisible whole and the people who dwell in it constitute a nation. (The Battle of the Unique Destiny, p. 139).
18. This revolutionary theory is also defined in these terms: In the course of recent years, the Arab nation has clearly made progress on the way toward revolution and rebirth. The essential reason for this progress has been the elaboration of a new conception of national Arab action. This conception is not yet precise enough and organizes to the point of being presented as a well-established theory. Nevertheless, we can give a rough view of its contents on the basis of two key ideas: the fact, on the one hand, of reliance only on the people, the popular masses being the only effective revolutionary force; and on the other hand, the fact of considering the Arab nation as an indivisible whole. (Op. cit. p. 185) Thanks to these principles, Arab nationalism has become synonymous with revolt against under-development, disunion and social injustice, synonymous with the struggle for unification, liberation, and modernization of the Arab homeland and a necessary condition for the introduction of democratic and humanist values into national life.
Ideological challenges today And Evolutionary Trends
In his writings published after the June defeat, the founder of the Baath Party, M. Aflaq, stated:
“The latest historical phase can almost be equated with a new revolution, a re-founding of the Party. A total and profound remodeling of its concepts, its ideology, its struggle and the prospects of its struggle has been completed. It is up to the Party’s militants, as well as all the other Arab militants, to find a new mode of action that is genuinely different from that of the past. Its grasp of reality must be stronger, its aims more ambitious; it must be able to take full advantage of the potential, the capacities and the latent potential of our nation which, for the last two decades, have only partly been tapped.” (Point of Departure, Noqtat-Al-bidâya, Second Edition, p. 119).
The Arab revolutionary movement must today be capable of facing two types of ideological challenge:
1. Subjective, internal challenges: they have been evoked in the numerous self-criticisms that have marked the progression of revolutionary ideology. Thanks to these self-criticisms, the weaknesses and deficiencies as well as the various aspects of under-development within the movement have been pinpointed.
2. Objective, external challenges: these are comprised of the present situation of the Arab struggle and its capacity to assume and go beyond the disaster the nation was subjected to on June 5, 1967. Given this state of affairs, it is necessary to understand the demands of the Arab revolutionary struggle from both the ideological and the practical point of view.
Let us now examine in more detail these two types of challenge.
1. Subjective, internal challenges
As we mentioned, there was a growing number of attempts to criticize ideological tenets. This healthy process, which characterizes the contemporary Arab revolution, allowed for a clearer definition of the errors and insufficiencies in various aspects of Arab ideology.
As early as 1950, Michel Aflaq wrote in an article entitled “The Global Ideological Movement” (in On the Baath Path, Seventh Edition, p. 34): “The Arab renaissance movement cannot do without a general philosophy of life, for it is a national liberation movement, a progressive movement, and therefore a movement marked by the profoundness of its views and its system of human values. It must necessarily be endowed with an ethical system and a general philosophical theory on man and the world“.
Ten years later, in 1960, the author presented in “The Historical Perspectives of the Baath Movement“, a retrospective analysis of the previous phase with its gains and insufficiencies: It remains for us to say that the Party’s efforts are still unsatisfactory as concerns methodical socialist investigations. In effect, the Party has not succeeded in elaborating a precise and detailed theory. In the years following its founding, the Party was content to affirm the principle of independence and the specific nature of the Arab road to socialism. But we should have gone beyond this elementary stage so that our ideology could evolve; by learning from other countries’ experiences, we should have broadened and enriched our ideology. This is one of the essential tasks facing the Ba’athist militants in the immediate future. (On the Baath Path, Seventh Edition, p. 54). In 1969, after the June defeat, comrade ‘Aflaq tried to define the fundamental causes behind the June defeat —the ills, the weak points and insufficiencies of that period: “What prevented the Arab revolution from coming to full flower, from attaining its goals in a wholly satisfactory manner, is that its conception of the people and the role of the proletariat, and particularly of the working class, is incorrect. That is the cause of our ills. Curing these ills will constitute a new point of departure, which will give fresh impetus to the revolutionary task of rejuvenation on the scale of the entire Arab homeland“. (Point of Departure, Second Edition, p. 125).
In 1970, the Secretary General of the Party gave the following résumé of his views on the Bath Party’s accomplishments during the thirty years of its existence:
Thirty years after the founding of our Party, I can say that it is the only movement in the Arab homeland to have succeeded in envisioning the future in a clear way. It is also the only movement to have succeeded in creating the basis for a militant Arab action of historical dimensions that is capable of resisting and persisting in the pursuit of all the aims of a contemporary Arab revolution. Nevertheless, to preserve the Party and to ensure that it reaches its goals —which are those of the entire Arab nation— it must remain faithful unto itself, forever in close touch with its ideological wellsprings and its original determination. Let it put itself into question; let it from time to time make a tour or inspection to measure the distance that may have grown up between itself and its own principles and determination. If necessary, it can then regain control. (Point of Departure, Second Edition, p. 157)
But if one wants to make Arab revolutionary ideology evolve so that its impact on the course of the Revolution will be even greater, then one must add to this first process a second, which is designed to grasp the nature of objective, external challenges. What exactly are these challenges?
2. Objective, external challenges
The challenge that Arab revolutionary thought must face before any other is that provided by the imperialist-Zionist forces. Endowed with the most up-to-date technology and a tremendous potential, these forces are fighting the Arab cause with formidable efficiency and according to well thought-out plans. Their aim is to deaden the vitality of the Arab revolution, wherever it shows itself, and to spread despair and a defeatist attitude or, in other words, to create a climate favorable to its own ends.
The second challenge is presented by the present political situation of the various Arab regimes, as well as by the forms of militant action, be they those of patriotic forces, progressive groups, those working for national liberation, the revolutionary forces in their entirety or the Palestinian Resistance movement. These regimes and militant forces are at present in a precarious situation created by the various weaknesses, deviations or ills that have nagged them. The essential points are as follows:
a) The imperialist-Zionist alliance has succeeded, in the name of common interests, in winning over to its cause a certain number of Arab regimes. Because of this, gigantic riches are now in the hands of reactionary regimes and are at the disposal of the nation’s enemies. Moreover, the maneuvering and plotting of the reactionary forces —a direct consequence of regimes that are imperialist satellites— has created a cancer that is spreading through the body of the Arab nation.
b) Certain non-reactionary regimes put small confidence in their people and, as a result, are weakened and hesitant and lack confidence. The imperialist-Zionist alliance takes advantage of the situation and maintains a permanent state of fear by playing up the difference between the forces it can command and the forces with which these regimes can oppose it. It raises all kinds of obstacles to stop these regimes from uniting, from drawing closer to one another, from quitting their isolation to overcome regional differences.
c) The damage done by disunity constantly hinders relations among the progressive, patriotic forces, the various sectors of the Arab Revolution and the Palestinian Revolutionary movement. Though all are conscious of the mistakes made during the period preceding the June defeat and although they all have given directives to undertake common action and to form a common front, they have succeeded only partially in creating genuine patriotic fronts on either a regional or national scale. And yet the strategic demands of the Arab revolution require that just such a front be established.
d) Today’s militant suffers from a split personality, a kind of psychological atomization. This is unquestionably a syndrome of the malady now crippling Arab militancy; it is nothing other than the continuing gap between theory and practice, between ambitions and desires on the one hand and aptness and capabilities on the other. The causes are diverse: some stem from the class origin of the leaders of the revolutionary movement; others are of a socio-cultural nature and arise from the general state of underdevelopment in our countries. There is also an external, coercive cause: the Arab nation is confronted with modern enemy forces that are determined to defend their interests and whose fierce ambition is diametrically opposed to the conditions necessary to bring about an Arab renaissance and to the vital needs of this nation, which must unite, liberate itself and institute socialism.
It is evident that the Arab Revolution is now going through a crucial phase in its evolution; it is at an historic crossroads. If there exists an effective answer to all the present ideological challenges, if there is a way to make the positive elements in our nation operative at this crucial stage, then it can only come from a return to the original sources of Arab Revolutionary ideology, along the lines defined by the founder of the Party:
“Militant struggle is the only way to make ideology evolve. It is through this struggle that we can acquire a profound and authentic revolutionary vision. At the present stage, the revolutionary struggle can only be led by revolutionary forces, for they are capable of being the junction-point between ideology and the people it addresses itself to: the armed proletarian masses“.
The militant experience of the Arab Baath Socialist Party
If we attempt to describe and evaluate those militant experiences that have most strongly marked the Arab liberation movement, it is because we hope to learn something from them and, as a natural consequence, forge means to pursue our struggle. As we try to situate the Baath experiences in their historical context and to ascribe to the Party its correct place in the stage the Arab nation is presently going through, we must always have uppermost in our minds a basic truth: the Arab political parties all share certain common traits. All through the last fifty years, the various parties have led an introverted existence, shut up in their own universe and refusing to recognize the others. Each boasted that its views were the most synthetic; each threw the responsibility for mistakes on the others’ shoulders; and all obstinately and categorically refused any self-criticism whatsoever. The various sectors of the Arab revolutionary movement thus lived quite apart one from the other; they mutually ignored one another and entered into prejudicial competition. This state of affairs continued until the June defeat. All the militant forces in the Arab homeland then found themselves in an anguished self-confrontation, for they were faced with the responsibility for their own future and that of the nation and were forced to question the very reasons for their existence.
Our Party, the PRAS, was one of those militant forces that participated in the elaboration of the next stage, with all its mistakes and successes. As always, this party attempted to draw the lesson from the preceding stage: the affirmation of the national progressive ideology in the ‘40s; the lesson of the 1950’s, when the struggles of the rising popular movement culminated in the Syrian-Egyptian fusion of 1958; that of the victory of the Algerian revolution in the early ‘60s; the lesson to be drawn from the secession of the Syrian province which brought about the dismembering of the United Arab Republic and which was accompanied by a sharp rise in the number of plots against the Arab revolutionary movement and by the atomization of combative forces; then, the beginning of a period of intestine struggle within the revolutionary movements and conflicts that set one movement against another, up to the national catastrophe in 1967. During this stage, our Party was one of the militant elements in the movement; it helped, along with others, to push the struggle forward, but it was also responsible for a certain number of mistakes. The events that occurred during the preceding stage (especially from 1948 onwards) and which ended in the defeat of June 1967 constitute one of the tragic phases of this period of conception and birth in which the Arab Revolution still finds itself ever since it began the struggle against itself and the outer world a half century ago. The failure to meet the challenge thrown out by the imperialists, Zionists and reactionaries turned the June defeat into the point of departure for a complete reappraisal —ineluctable, radical and global. This general questioning is necessary to begin a new stage in the struggle, which will be different in quality from the preceding stages.
For the Baath Party, the June defeat constitutes a veritable turning point: it marks the separation of two stages, the first characterized by the birth of the Arab revolutionary ideology, and the second, that is now beginning, which must forge a tool adequate for this ideology. This stage will be one of a more mature strategy, which will allow us to avoid setbacks and to mobilize all the revolutionary forces in the homeland so as to meet the imperialist, Zionist and reactionary challenge.
By making this distinction, the Baath could determine the degree of revolutionary militancy required by the new stage as compared with the previous stage, in which militancy proved inadequate to accomplish the assigned tasks and even played a part in the preparation of the defeat.
The Baath also realized that June 5 opened the way for an attack on all political structures, institutions and systems so as to uncover and denounce all the remaining sequels of the previous stage. The greater part of the ideas, systems of organization and methods of action proved to be out-of-date: the nation at large had passed judgment on them, and their decision was final. As the new stage began, the positive elements in the various systems were put to the test: it was then that representatives were judged capable or not of evolving and of rising to the occasion.
During the new stage, the Baath claimed to have put a stop to certain forms of revolutionary action characterized by a tendency towards regionalism, bureaucracy and an elitist mentality. These forms of action, by distorting political organizations and the trade unions, hampered popular action. In the end, they showed themselves to be a kind of conspiracy against democracy and Arab unity.
The June defeat also put an end to a certain type of attitude current in the Arab political parties that consisted in introversion, a negative approach to problems and immobility. The parties and militants were stuck in a rut, yet full of their own importance. They behaved emotionally and reacted before thinking things out. When they undertook action, they were like a pilot flying by the seat of his pants: there was no attempt at objective analysis or planning. Their main function, in fact, was limited to sowing discord within the ranks of the Arab revolutionary forces. They let contradictions of secondary importance obscure their vision to such a point that they were blinded to the main conflict, which opposes them all to the external enemy.
This was the gist of the Baath Party’s position during its IX National Congress held eight months after the June defeat; the Party presented a severe arid far- reaching criticism, something unheard of before the June 5, 1967 defeat. This allowed the party to clearly define the conditions necessary for a re-birth of the Arab revolutionary movement and to elaborate a common strategy for action within fronts as well as for an armed popular struggle throughout the entire Arab homeland.
In the light of these analyses (begun in 1967 and developed in the report of the X National Congress in 1970), the Baath tried to draw the main lessons, as they were revealed by the June events, of a third-century of struggle. A sense of responsibility must be put ahead of all else. Sincerity —with oneself and with the people— and truth must come first, for that is the only way to halt the process of degeneration that is undermining the life of the political parties and the revolution, and which played so crucial a role in preparing for the national catastrophe of June.
In a speech, which he gave a few days after the defeat in June 1967, the founder of the Baath Party, comrade Aflaq states?
"If we have come to the decision to begin the struggle again on new revolutionary bases which will not let past errors take hold, then we must study and analyze those errors and bad habits that occurred repeatedly over the last decade or two. As they grew larger and multiplied, they took their toll of the living forces within the Arab struggle, corrosively attacking it from within, while everyone stood by unconcernedly or without even being aware of what was happening. The people must know the truth, for logically they are the only hope and the only way to correct the errors of the past and to prepare a new revolutionary impetus, no longer prone to error." (Point of Departure, First Edition, p. 43)
Having thus defined the demands of the new stage, our party felt that it "cannot continue to play an historic role after the setbacks and the catastrophe that shook the Arab nation until it reaffirms its raison d’être as an historic movement working for long-term goals; until its militants make its cause, as well as the Arab cause, a question of life or death; until they accept death because it guarantees the renaissance of the Party and its effectiveness as a historical force within the contemporary Arab revolution." (Op. cit., First Edition, p. 48)
But what is the historic role the Baath must play? What is the raison d’être of the party? How can one sum up its militant experience? Lastly, what is the significance of this experience at this stage in the life of the nation, after all the ideological and practical struggles it lived through, and what results can it claim?
Before answering these questions, certain points must be cleared up. False information has circulated about the Baath Party, which has distorted its image since its founding over thirty years ago. From the point of view of ideology and organization, our Party has always been in the avant-garde; at times it played a decisive and effective part in the preparation of the most important events in contemporary Arab history; its name is already associated with several regional and national accomplishments of the first order. Nonetheless several factors contributed to deforming its image, primarily because attention was focused exclusively on the crises that shook the party and on the mistakes and weaknesses it was sometimes prone to. In this way, one could call attention to the fact that the Baath was not able to elaborate a plan for the stage that followed the Syrian secession from the U.A.R. (such a plan would have proved that the Baath had a clear and practical grasp of the situation); that it took power prematurely; the fact that it did not give Egypt the rightful place such a large country should have within the Arab homeland; that it maintained tense relations with the Arab communist parties and other national forces for quite some time; the fact that it did not put into practice its otherwise correct conception of the Palestinian problem, and so forth.
But these mistakes hardly weigh in the balance when compared with the plans directed against the Arab Revolution, which were extremely prejudicial to the Baath movement. These plans were a dominant element in the development of conspiracies against the party; they aimed to split the movement and to raise psychological obstacles between its ideology and as many Arab intellectuals as possible. The latter no longer had the desire to find out for themselves what the party was trying to do, and could therefore not form an objective opinion.
And that is how a large number of Arab citizens know of the Baath only through distorted rumors. It even happened that others undertook actions in the name of the Baath, even though they were diametrically opposed to the spirit-of the party. Its enemies built the party’s reputation, and that is all people remembered.
Given, moreover, that the Baath was undoubtedly the party that paid the least attention to its own publicity, its enemies had an easy time making it known. This is how the most striking and positive aspects of the party’s activities remained unknown, and even fiercely combated. The party’s ideology, its remarkable organization on the national level, its militancy, its active stands, its struggle against its own weaknesses, its fight against dictatorship, falsification and usurpation of power, its ever-present concern with affirming its special truth —all these remained unknown and misunderstood for a long time. All these efforts were not taken into consideration and did not receive the attention they deserved. The Baath thus remained a prisoner of a negative image that others had forged and which did not correspond to its true nature. Its adversaries and enemies transformed their original hatred into a reason for ruining its reputation.
One of the positive results of the June catastrophe is that the defeat created a climate more propitious to an objective analysis of past and present event. The defeat also made us aware of a basic fact that had escaped our notice all through the previous stage: all the militant forces in the Arab homeland share the same destiny and the same enemy; all the elements that go to make up the Arab revolutionary movement, be they positive or negative, are answerable de facto and de jute to the movement as a whole. One of the basic requirements of the stage that began after the defeat was the need to adopt broader views, to have a complete grasp of the realities behind the Arab struggle and to exert common efforts so as to raise the level of our fight to that of the challenge the Arab nation faces. Lastly, dedication to truth constitutes our main concern, for it is the indispensable condition for the evolution we desire. — On the level of the Arab homeland in general, and in Iraq in particular, the Baath always acts with the aim of truth in mind; the party is clearly aware of it. In the light of this conviction, it has established its relations since June 5, 1967, with the other political forces and has shown a strong sense of responsibility vis-à-vis the other fighting forces in the Arab homeland. Convinced that it has a great mission to accomplish and aware of its responsibilities, the party is in the process of re-examining its militant experiences over the last thirty years, while resolutely turning to the future. The party is less interested in underscoring the positive aspects of its past militant experience than in seeking out those elements that can help to prepare the future of the Arab revolution, to lead it away from the former path, marked by setbacks and defeats, and to put it firmly on a path where progress can be made, a successful path where superficiality will be banished.
The Baath Party was born of a simple and sincere idea, without artifice or sophistication; its philosophy can be summed up in the following words: “the Arab nation’s confidence in itself.” Starting with this idea, which presupposes, among other things, that the present Arab problem is nothing other than a subjective problem, but whose roots run deep since basic contradictions have made the nation lose all control over itself, a whole new revolutionary vision developed. The party, always careful to have theory and practice move along together, brought forward the idea of Arab unity and elaborated a scientific and revolutionary doctrine adapted to the objective conditions for unity, and this after a very long period of struggle.
If one were to define the Baath Party in a few words, one could say that it is the party of Arab unity. If one were to sum up in the most succinct manner the party’s militant experiences, one could say it has developed an organization on a national scale and that it has fought for unity. Having discovered the importance of nationalism in the contemporary Arab struggle, having become aware of the ties between a national struggle and the class struggle, having correctly evaluated the role of the working class in the Arab revolution, having placed the Palestinian problem at the heart of the Arab cause, having established the link between the struggle for liberation with that of unity and the class struggle, the party came forward with a new revolutionary theory. This theory shed light on the historic laws that govern the present stage and the laws dealing with the dialectic ties between unity, liberty and socialism.
This theory was not developed from abstract studies with no other purpose than to be written down; this was not an academic treatise; it was the _expression of struggles and suffering, a genuine revolutionary option. It is the quintessence of experience; the result of simple, deep and practical stands that emanated from a high sense of responsibility and concern with the future of the Arab nation. This sense of responsibility implies a militant attitude, a high level of awareness and the acceptance of sacrifice. The ethics of combat have always been a component part of the new revolutionary theory, which makes no distinction between the ends and the means, which tolerates no hiatus between theory and practice.
It is for these reasons that the generation that grew up with the birth of Ba’athist thought can be considered a component part of that ideology, and that combat has always been considered the touchstone of that ideology, the criteria with which one seeks truth. The Ba’athist ideology did not aim to discover abstract principles because the Baath never was a philosophical school. It represents the truth of the nation and corresponds to the historic period the nation is passing through. It aims, as well, to detect the alienating factors in contemporary Arab life.
In this way, the ideological discoveries of the Baath were at the same time practical, militant discoveries, for they constituted a guide for new action. The methods and instruments used by the Party were always of the same nature as its ideology, for they, too, are revolutionary and unitary. That is why the Baath insisted on keeping the principles of popular struggle and its national organization.
The Baath’s authentic approach to the realities of Arab national life does not content itself with appearances, which are merely reflections of the inner contradictions of that life. It is not content with reacting against these negative aspects, for it can see beyond the present context. In the name of authenticity, the Baath refused to build its vision of the future on the basis of the present context with its syndromes of disunity, colonialism, underdevelopment and exploitation. It tried, on the contrary, to find in the present stage the dynamic factors for combat, lending more weight to the deep-seated will of the nation than to the skin-deep reactions it sometimes has when faced with overwhelming adversity. That is why there is an undeniable socio-cultural scope to the Baath vision, which places the nation in its true time continuum. In this vision, the Arab cause is set in the broader context of the international revolutionary struggle, and particularly in the underdeveloped, colonized, exploited and unjustly treated continents. These continents, where entire peoples are oppressed and injustice is the order of the day, and where the patriotic fight for liberation and national unity go hand-in-hand with the class struggle, are inevitably being led to question and reappraise all aspects of their life. This is the necessary prelude to their renaissance.
One can therefore state that “the birth of the Baath constitutes a genuine revolution in the history of the Arab nation, first in the sense that it is not the extension of other, preceding movements; it constitutes, in fact, a sharp break from the past, a kind of conscious and voluntary surgery; it also corresponds to a lifting-up process to reach a high ideological, ethical and spiritual level, despite the weaknesses and inadequacies it has known.” (M. Aflaq, On the Path of the Bath, Sixth Edition, p. 275)
This new revolutionary theory, which gave rise to the Ba’athist movement, was developed within the framework of a national organization that encompassed all the territories of the Arab homeland. It is the guiding light behind the Ba’athist movement and its militant action. Constant criticism (which may sometimes seem violent) is directed against certain attitudes that do not correspond to its criteria and ambitions. Attention is paid only to those accomplishments that express its essence and which it has contributed to, such as: Syrian-Egyptian unity in 1958, the overthrow of the regime responsible for the Syrian secession, land reform in Syria and Iraq, the solution to the Kurd problem, the nationalization of oil in Iraq and the establishment of a progressive front. Cohesion and entente with the various branches of the Palestinian Revolution, participation in armed combat, and so forth. These diverse actions are not judged according to superficial, relative criteria for, in fact, the proponents of the new revolutionary theory consider them as only minor accomplishments on the long and difficult road that lies ahead. Self-criticism, moreover, is just as severe as criticism for the proponents of this theory, for they consider their past efforts, inconsequential and demand from their militants’ vigilance and an unfailing capacity for renewal and evolution. “Always beware of static views that cannot pierce the secret of life and capture its essence... Every political movement runs the risk of losing its spontaneity, its freedom and authenticity. Beware of directives that are slowly changed into hollow traditions and incur the danger of falling into verbiage. The party must not be transformed into a kind of public monument, its ideas buried beneath the foundations. This is the worst thing that can happen to a movement that wants to be creative and innovative, (In the Path of the Bath, p. 44)
The founder of the Baath Party has never stopped repeating these words, ever since the party was founded and even when it became in time an active and determining force in the evolution of more than one Arab country. This concern with renewal and evolution has remained a constant in the thinking of the Ba’athist movement, even though the conditions under which the struggle was led were for the most part hardly propitious for a clear view of the situation. It was often difficult to get perspective on the artificial crises that regularly arose, sparked off by factors of decadence and degradation in Arab national life, and which were bolstered by the machinations of the enemies of the Revolution.
Although the growth and evolution of the Party were not uniformly even —periods of power alternated with periods of weakness; there were successes and setbacks, crises and plots to be warded off— the balance sheet of the struggle is positive. <<From the beginning, our struggle was not exempt from weaknesses nor from lacuna; our march did not always move forward uniformly“, comrade Aflaq stated, and continued: “No historical movements is perfect at birth. The important thing is to pass global judgment on our movement: did it succeed in meeting the demands of an historic stage; was it deeply aware of what it should do, and did it do so? That is what counts. We must ask ourselves whether we succeeded in filling the vacuum of a given historical phase and whether, despite our mistakes and lacuna, our creativity was sufficient to build something positive. Does the appearance of this movement mark the beginning of a ‘historical story’? If we can answer all these questions in the affirmative, then it can be said that our movement is truly historical.” (In the Path of the Bath, p. 275)
Strengthened by these certitudes, the Baath was able to supply an answer, by way of M. Aflaq, to the question put in the aftermath of the June defeat by the Lebanese review “As-Sayyid” (The Fisherman): “Has defeat struck the death-knoll of the political parties“? “The Arab People“, M. Aflaq wrote, “have been given another chance to undertake a revolutionary struggle that rests upon an ideology. Today, the Arab nation has an historic opportunity, similar to the one given a quarter of a century ago when our movement was founded, to begin building anew on solid, healthy ground... Grave events have taken place and profound mutations have come about. No doubt we are in store for unpleasant surprises and revolutions, but our movement remains invulnerable; it will be able to resist decrepitude and the weight of passing years. It will continue to play a role, alongside movements that will not have disappeared and others to be born, because it has a fundamental quality —sincerity— that has never been lacking in our party... The Baath, moreover, is a party entrusted with a humane mission, and can a humane mission ever be ended? Have the goals the Baath established for itself been met? The first stage in the life of our party, which has lasted now for a quarter of a century, can have only one meaning, and the sole lesson one can draw is that the Arab nation is ready to accomplish its historic tasks“. (Point of Departure, pp. 45-46)
If nations, social classes and historical movements can be entrusted with missions, then that chosen by the Baath is the realization of Arab unity. And if there is something that distinguishes the Ba’athist ideology and action from that of others, then it is its unitary theory and its unitary organization and methods. The efforts the Baath expended to achieve unity were crowned with success with the first unitary experiment ever attempted in the contemporary history of the Arabs: the United Arab Republic in 1958. The fight for unity constitutes the primary justification for the Party’s existence.
One could not hope for more favorable circumstances than the ones the nation now finds itself in; they are circumstances arising from a fateful battle imposed upon the nation by those who want to keep it disunited, underdeveloped, exploited and enslaved... Nothing could be more favorable than the present circumstances to strengthen the concept of unity proned by the Baath and the fight it leads to defend this concept, and to correctly define the aims of the Arab Revolution, given the context it finds itself in.
Our party has always relied on a global vision of the contemporary Arab experience. This multi-dimensional vision has allowed the party to develop a new concept of unity, that is fundamentally different from those traditional bourgeois or petit-bourgeois theories that linked the idea of unity with the interests of the classes in power rather than with the interest of the proletariat. Thanks to the Baath, the dichotomy between a patriotic struggle and the fight for unity has been done away with. Our party realized that, without unity, the colonialist and Zionists would continue to mock our destiny by denaturing our evolution and by perverting our fight for liberation and socialism. Our party also realized that the watchword of unity has for too long remained misunderstood or unknown because it was exploited by those very people who were the least loyal to unity... Indeed, certain unitary projects were sometimes nothing other than a cover-up for colonialist designs. The feudal powers and the bourgeoisie monopolized the concept of unity, not to fulfill it, but to deflect in a hypocritical if not Machiavellian way the social demands of the people and to combat the social revolution. (In the Path of the Baath, p. 196)
As early as 1946, before its official founding, the Baath stated: “Arab nationalists know that socialism is the surest way to bring about the flowering of national sentiment and a national renaissance, for he knows at the present stage, the Arab struggle can be led only by all the Arabs together... Arab nationalists are the true socialists... The fight that the young generation has taken up against the class that is using the national cause to its own ends —and it is a bankrupt class that is distorting the nature of the struggle— is also a fight to instate socialism. The class of exploiters and profiteers will not relinquish their privileges when, in the name of progress and nationalism, they will be asked to do so. A fight is therefore unavoidable, as is political solidarity“. (op. cit., p. 395)
By 1950 the idea of organic links between unity and socialism and between the national cause and the proletariat became more precise, in harmony with the new concepts developed by the Baath. In The Path of the Baath (p. 312), Aflaq wrote:
“The popular classes represent the entire nation because they constitute the overwhelming majority of the population and the truly productive element in society. Setting socialism is the prerequisite for the survival and development of our nation“.
Although the Baath gives great importance to the close relationship between unity, liberty and socialism —this relationship is an underpinning of its ideology— it nonetheless puts unity in a central position. The preeminence of unity comes across very clearly in its unitary and dialectic theory, which can be summed up as follows:
1. Arab unity, wrote Aflaq (in The Path of the framework the entire Arab world, taken as an economic Baath, p. 220), consists in promoting an ideology and a struggle that oppose disunity, with all that is implicit in that word —mental habits, privileges, and socio-political situations within every region of the Arab homeland. Unity is a fundamental concept, a living idea that must evolve according to a solidly established theory. It must be achieved through organized combat in pre-determined stages; it is a day-to-day struggle based on defined principles. Unity is a fight against disunity and the various factors that tend to perpetuate it. Unity begins with an essential observation: “the Arab nation is one and indivisible“; the problems of each Arab region can then be tackled with this in mind.
Unity does not consist in reassembling scattered parts; it is practically the creation of a nation that will resolve its contradictions. The fight for unity will eradicate the effects of underdevelopment, impotence and deviationism that now poisons what would otherwise be a healthy Arab existence. It creates clear-cut revolutionary situations, where no ambiguities cloud the struggle to restore the nation’s true identity.
2. A "unitary spirit", according to revolutionary concepts, differs in quality and quantity from the "spirit of disunity". Once unity has been achieved, the nation’s potential will not be the sum of the various regions’ potentialities in a state of disunion. The whole will be different: the freedom, which each separate Arab region aspires to, does not correspond to that which the Arab nation needs. Nor does it correspond to the freedom it is capable of attaining once it is capable of examining its own destiny and that of humanity as well. The same holds true for socialism: if it is confined within the borders of each separate Arab region, its loses scope and, impaired, can only take timid, partial measures, whereas it could grow to its full dimensions were its unit and as a popular fighting unit.
3. Arab unity is part of a whole, which is the Arab cause. The unitary revolution cannot be led independently nor separately from the Arab struggle as a whole, for it is a struggle against hostile foreign, forces, most notably imperialism and Zionism, and all those forms of corruption rampant in the nation. The unitary revolution is therefore bound up with the struggle for national liberation and a socialist revolution. It is therefore illogical and impossible to concentrate exclusively on unity. Such an attitude would divide, and consequently distort, the Arab cause; it would impair revolutionary content and would no longer have an impact on the people- The Arab cause must be indivisible.
Despite the dialectic ties between unity, liberty and socialism, the first objective —unity- is the most revolutionary because it is the most dangerous fight facing the Arab people. It demands personal effort, sacrifices, suffering, and a broad vision. According to the intrinsic logic of revolutionary theory, the desire for unity can only be so strong as the degree of commitment to Revolution of individuals, groups and the entire nation. And nothing can have so revolutionary an impact as unity, be it the ant colonialist fight, no matter how important or how violent, social conflict, class struggle or the fight for socialism, even though it overthrows privileges and traditions. Unity is the most important prerequisite for the profound transformation prone by the Baath.
4. Revolutionary theory rejects the political calculation whereby unity is like arithmetic —just add up the various Arab regions— or like some kind of mechanical construction that can be built only under certain circumstances and only when the right moment comes along. Genuine unity is a much more serious undertaking than political unity, which succeeds only in “unifying disunity” and adding up one state of underdevelopment with another.
Genuine unity resides in the struggle to ensure ideological unity, common objectives and ambitions shared by all the sons of the nation; a quick calculation is not satisfactory for, in our opinion, there is no question of uniting disparate elements, but healthy ones. The aim is not for the Arab nation to react hastily faced with internal divisions. And it is more than likely that circumstances are not at all favorable for such a superficial political unification.
Revolutionary theory also rejects those traditional, outdated views that consider unity as a return, pure and simple, to a “natural” state; that is to say, the state the nation was in before being parceled out. Unity, as we conceive and desire it, cannot be a return to the past. Unity is a revolutionary product of this century, and it is inconceivable to take it out of its historical context. It is a radically new step, supported by an equally new experience.
We also disqualify petit-bourgeois theory on unity, based as it is on regionalist and bureaucratic tendencies. Unity is conceived of as a mere extension of one region’s powers over all the others; the proletarian masses are pushed into a bureaucratic framework, and the working class is given no role to play. Petit-bourgeois authorities do nothing but dream of unitary protocols, imposed from above, whose aim is to protect the regimes in power.
In February 1956, the founder of the Baath addressed the Cultural Club of Beirut in the following terms:
“No force other than the Arab people is capable of achieving Arab unity. No governments, no foreign states, no politicians or intellectuals are capable of bringing such a task to completion. Only the people, the masses of the Arab people, can reach this primary objective” (The Battle for Unique Destiny, p. 62)
In Casablanca, he made the following statement along the same lines:
“If we have come to the decision to begin the struggle again on new revolutionary bases which will not let past errors take hold, then we must study and analyze those errors and bad habits that occurred repeatedly over the last decade or two. As they grew larger and multiplied, they took their toll of the living forces within the Arab struggle, corrosively attacking it from within, while everyone stood by unconcernedly or without even being aware of what was happening. The people must know the truth, for logically they are the only hope and the only way to correct the errors of the past and to prepare a new revolutionary impetus, no longer prone to error.” (Point of Departure, First Edition, p. 43)
In 1969, at Baghdad, he declared:
“Arab unity can be achieved only by the proletariat and will become concrete only if the overwhelming majority of the people take up arms to defend it. Unity will be genuine only if it is a war of liberation, that is, if we unite to free our occupied territories. The colonialist and Zionist power will not tolerate for one moment the fact that we are united. The road to genuine unity runs through Palestine.” (Point of Departure, p. 135)
The revolutionary theorists of Arab unity are fully conscious of the nation’s identity, consider unity as the basic principle and guideline for the contemporary Arab struggle and realize that the proletarian masses are the basic component in the fight for unity. They are also aware of the fact that a revolutionary organism capable of helping the people reach their goals must rely on a unified ideology and a nationwide organization built upon genuinely revolutionary structures. The national struggle must, in the last analysis, be strengthened by a national strategy that expresses the unitary ideology it is designed to achieve.
Today, these ideas have spread to all the sectors of the Arab Revolution, and all are agreed that there are cogent reasons for an Arab national action. This was not the case thirty years ago: no one recognized that these concepts are both basic and well founded. At the time, the Baath Party was the only one to have adopted them; they were applied to daily action, and were considered as the moving force for militancy among the people.
What most perfectly characterizes Ba’athist militancy since the early’ forties is its continued and determined struggle for Arab unity and for a united fighting front.
This tendency could be observed as early as 1941, when the Bath organized a solidarity campaign to support and participate in the revolution of Rashid ‘Aly al-KaylânI in Iraq. In 1943, the Party launched a vast campaign to denounce the attack on Lebanese sovereignty. In 1945, it mobilized the masses against the American decision to allow American Jews to immigrate to Palestine. In 1946, it organized a solidarity campaign in favour of Egypt that was then deep in the fight for independence and the evacuation of British occupying forces. In the same years, it protested the signing of the Anglo-Jordanian treaty, denounced the crimes of French colonialism in the Maghreb, and launched an appeal to the Arab people to take up the fight in Palestine. In 1947, it gave special attention to the Palestinian cause and called for armed combat, linking this directive to the principles of popular struggle and the Arab Revolution. In 1948, it took part in the war in Palestine and denounced the maneuvers and false situations created by the Arab governments of the period. In 1950 it showed a genuinely unitary attitude towards the problem of the Syro-Iraqi federation. In 1951, it proned an original conception of neutralism that was more progressive than that held before: it was then that it warned the Arab League not to consider joining the Western bloc under the pretext of neutralism which, in fact, was nothing but a trap. It gave its support to the Moroccan national movement against colonialism. It ceaselessly called for the unification of Arab struggles and particularly appealed to the Arab socialist parties to unite their efforts and to draft a charter for common national action against colonialist and Zionist schemes. Lending support to the Egyptian people in its fight against British colonialism, it denounced the policy of colonial pacts that sought to splinter the militant forces and isolate Egypt in its tough and bloody battle. In 1954, the Baath aided the Algerian Revolution. In 1956, it issued the directive for unity between Syria and Egypt and took the leadership at the head of the fighting popular masses to attain this objective.
Throughout the preparatory stage for unity in 1958 —a stage that was marked on the one hand by the tripartite attack on Egypt and, on the other hand, by the provocations of the Turkish armies massed on Syria’s frontiers— the Baath took action on both the practical and the theoretical plane, attempting to express yet more clearly its theory of unity, the form it should take and the conditions for its defense and preservation. This preoccupation was so overriding that most of the articles by M. Aflaq presented in The Battle for a Unique Destiny are devoted to this problem. In the wave of popular struggles, the clarification of the concept of unity and unitary theory made militants wary of the errors and deviations that could undermine the fight for unity. In April 1956, the founder of the Bath wrote:
“That we are now trying to establish between Egypt and Syria unity of a federation is not terribly important; what we do set great store by is that the unity or federation be established on solid foundations and that it embark on a healthy path. This will allow it to deepen its roots and to progress towards plenitudes that can only come about once complete Arab unity has been achieved. Unity is taking its first steps and it may yet stumble, for there are numerous and difficult obstacles in its path. It is logical that the colonial powers and Israel continue to join forces to halt our march at every step; and, on the internal scene, the feudal and reactionary forces also contribute, perhaps substantially, to raising obstacles. The new danger threatening unity comes from those falsifiers who have infiltrated our ranks to pervert them. The only way to counterattack is to take unity out of its tight-laced official framework and hand it over to the popular masses. If they succeed in apprehending the real nature of the anti-unitary interests, intentions and tendencies, and if public opinion is mobilized and succeeds in organizing itself to turn vision into reality, then one will be able to say that an efficacious, positive force has come into being that is capable of confronting both internal and external conspiracies”. (The Battle for a Unique Destiny, pp. 67-69)
In 1957, the Baath proposed the formation of a national council that would at once guarantee the accomplishments of the preceding stages and be empowered to organize the struggle and improve its methods. Because of its ((national” dimensions, it would also be the organ capable of countering the attacks of the reaction, whose plotting affects the nation as a whole.
Between 1956 and 1958, over fifty articles were written. Now published in three volumes —The Battle for A Unique Destiny (35 articles); In the Path of the Baath (14 articles); and The Baath Struggle (Nidal-al Baath, Tome Ill)— these articles were designed to establish criteria and principles for the future revolutionary unitary policy.
The Baath’s activities among the people and the Syrian parliament as well as the unitary climate it slowly succeeded in creating throughout the nation, and its numerous stands and struggles met with its first great success in the combat for unity with the Syrian-Egyptian fusion in 1958. All agree that the Baath Party was instrumental in creating it, even though the Party did not get the chance to complete the building of unity. This fusion answered a profound need of the popular masses and was greeted with great enthusiasm, for it restored the nation’s confidence in itself and in its future. It was an historic event of tremendous importance. Unfortunately nothing had been provided to protect it from the inevitable dangers that lay in waiting nor from the mistakes it was bound to make. When the Baath threw itself into this experience, it was fortified by its national revolutionary ideology, which was capable of examining all the aspects of the Arab revolutionary movement, but its means were not sufficient to handle all the problems that subsequently arose. Its means were, in fact, meager: though the Baath was organized in Syria, it was not so in Egypt, for the leaders of the Egyptian Revolution did not consider it as a valid interlocutor. The Party was content to put itself at the complete disposal of the union on an unconditional basis, even going so far as to dissolve its own organization within the U.A.R. This situation gave rise to zealous and sometimes uncontrolled attitudes on the part of militants. This had unforeseen consequences and the Baath lost control over events; it was thus incapable of reacting to events that were a far cry from its own concepts. The Egyptian leaders who had adhered to the project for fusion had at their disposal any number of means and tremendous potential, but their ideas on unity, forged from their own experience, were far from what they should have been: they completely overlooked the importance of organised popular action and the role the Baath should have played. All the Arab militants considered unity as a true revolution, resolutely turned towards the future; it was the prerequisite for a total Arab revolution and general militancy, a real chance to hasten the process of evolution. But unity secreted forces that its leaders did not know how to combat despite their past experience as militants; traditional modes of militant action were outstripped. On the official level, the incapacity to understand the deep motivations of Arab militant action, and a lack of conscientiousness allied most certainly with class affiliations —all this helped create a knot of contradictions between unity as an ideal and the unitary state as a reality, between action on the official level and popular action. What was more serious was that the forces that had given impetus to unity were not in the command posts; these posts were filled, in fact, by persons secretly introduced by the reactionaries to execute the imperialist-Zionist plan to destroy unity.
Throughout this period, the Bath felt it was its duty to warn all against the possible dangers, judging their gravity according to criteria established during the phase preceding the founding of the U.A.R. Its concern was to preserve unity at all costs and to let no one benefit from the mistakes made, even if they were serious. But as the party had accepted to dissolve, it was in no position to play a role with the necessary mastery, and it was helpless when it came to saving the U.A.R.
At that time, more precisely in 1960, the Baath declared:
“Even if mistakes are made, unity is more important than anything else, because it is capable of correcting mistakes. Unity needs men who believe in it, who are inspired by correct principles and who are willing to work for it. It needs men who can convince the greatest number of people, who can broaden the struggle, who can combat the mentality that feeds on disunity and can oust those interests that disunity satisfies. In short, it needs a generation of men capable of building unity into something solid, that will not run the risk of collapsing.”
But the established union moved slowly away from its militant organs, and the bureaucratic administration even became their most formidable enemy: the fall of the United Arab Republic became inevitable. Without doubt the Baath played a great role in staving off secession and continuing the struggle. But it was not an easy task because the secession furnished the enemies of unity with an ideal opportunity to spew out their hatred. With vengeance in mind, they ganged up against any organization or any idea related to unity and tried to destroy the positive gains the Arab masses had tirelessly struggled for throughout the ‘Fifties. The Baath, for its part, was shaken by internal crises stemming from the contradictory reactions of its members during the period of secession. In The Battle for A Unique Destiny, M. ‘Aflaq attempts to define what the phase following secession meant:
“Secession poses a thorny problem, because the situation it creates arises from a failure, the failure of the unitary experiment. Contrary to what one might think, this is not a mere return to the state of disunity, which has its own justifications, its own laws and its own bases. Colonialism and the reaction —the forces that promote the spirit of secession— are combining their energies not to combat some future prospect of Arab unity but to track down any trace of unitary ideas or forces and to crush them underfoot, wherever they be. Secession rents unity asunder; disunity has become an incontrovertible fact. This coalition is trying to turn the failure of the unitary experiment into a weapon powerful enough to sap the very foundations of unity: their so-called proof is that the state of disunity is a natural state and that the existence of “independent” Arab entities corresponds to the definitive, eternal state of the homeland.
To this day the consequences of secession can be felt: not the least of them are the June defeat and the internal failures the unitary forces suffered. The plotters have succeeded in rendering null and void any form of reaction against secession and have reduced to silence those very persons who were the most affected by the fall of the U.A.R. Having adapted their tactics to the new situation, they succeeded in winning over those who were racked by feelings of failure and who were prey to emotional reactions.
The Arab Baath Socialist Party, the party of unity, was gravely affected by the secession and the ensuing backlash. It was the victim of numerous attempts to splinter it, of all sorts of conspiracies and pressures to liquidate it once and for all. It is surely no mere coincidence that the June catastrophe occurred when an impressive number of its militants were either in prison or in exile.
The attempt to falsify unitary revolutionary ideology was certainly the most pernicious form of attack, as it was directed against the very movement that best represented that ideology. A power that falsely claimed the name of the Baath set about distorting and silencing the party organisation and ensnaring the revolutionary ardor of its militants. Corruption was widespread —there were promises of jobs and money— sincere revolutionaries were put under pressure, excluded from the party and replaced by hostile men who wanted to get ahead at any price. The last stroke came when these men presented themselves as the true advocates of the party and there were no real militants left.
In the history of the Baath, the fight against this fraud is marked with violence and bitterness. Their conscience torn, the leaders could not decide what attitude to take: should they be sincere and take the case to the people, telling them about the crises the party was going through and the risks of deviation that could deflect the party from a correct revolutionary line? These dangers arose because the Baath had prematurely come to power and because certain elements were reacting in a disquieting manner against the unitary experience. Meanwhile, the colonial powers and the reaction were constantly weaving conspiracies, and there was no end to defamatory anti-Ba’athist campaigns. Under such a virulent onslaught, the primary demands of sincerity and honesty with oneself and the people was forgotten. That explains why the party hid several problems that were creating internal upheaval for fear of giving grist to the enemies’ mill, for they would have not hesitated to use this sincerity as an additional arm to destroy it. The gravest plot the colonialists and enemies of the Arab nation can boast of is precisely this attempt to lay a trap for the Revolution from within, by corrupting its organs, the political parties and the trade unions and by suborning the role of the popular masses and strangling democratic liberties. For sheer scope, these undertakings remain unequalled, even in the aftermath of the secession or the June defeat.
But from this negative experience, the Baath Party was able to draw some basic lessons. After pitiless self-criticism, it subordinated itself to the patriotic, national and progressive forces and launched a directive for common action within fronts established on a regional or national level. It set about creating a new climate favorable to revolutionary action; radically different from the degraded state the unitary forces had fallen into between the secession and the June defeat. It tried to give the unitary struggle solid and ambitious content and to rid it of the pitfalls of improvisation and confusion. It attempted to deliver militants from the hands of those who were using the unitary struggle for their own advantage and to give it back to the militant popular masses. Once this was accomplished, the struggle for unity was once again endowed with a revolutionary, universal character, and proletarian revolutionaries could once again support it.
The final reports of party congresses as well as the writings of its founder, published after the June defeat, insist on certain facts and principles that express the revolutionary theory of Arab unity and that constitute the guidelines for Ba’athist action. They are as follow:
1. The objective conditions of the present phase make unity necessary; there is consequently no place for regionalism. There must be support from the popular masses, and all autocratic, dictatorial or bureaucratic tendencies must be rejected. The situation demands that the principal contradiction —that which opposes us to the foreign enemy— come ahead of all internal contradictions. It confirms the existence of bonds that link national action to a social revolution; it is dangerous to lend more importance to one than the other.
2. The revolutionary theory of Arab unity is the only ideological attitude that can absorb the consequences of defeat. It alone can free us from the direct pressures of regional situations and help us comprehend the cause as a whole. Revolutionary theory also takes into account the fact that regionalism tends to perpetuate the consequences of defeat and prohibits any chance to establish a new balance.
The popular masses are the true source of unity and alone can guarantee its integrity; they are the highest authority to which one should submit any question concerning politics, militancy, armed combat legality, and the forms the struggle should take. The party imperatively insists on returning to the people because it is conscious of the incompetence and lacuna existing in the Arab regimes and in the revolutionary movements, as well as the distance that separates the leaders from their militants and the militants from the popular masses. The revolutionary movement must be considered as being the property of the masses: in this way, they will participate in the internal evolution of the movement and will take over the leadership, finally playing the role they deserve.
From this confidence in the people and a hatred of any form of tutelage over them is born a genuine unitary spirit. It denotes a profound faith in democracy and a sill to create a climate favorable to its exercise.
A unitary spirit also implies that the Palestinian cause be given a central position and serve as criterion for unitary orientation. The roads to liberation and unity are inseparable; the true road to unity runs through Palestine and the struggle there.
3. At the present stage, a unitary spirit must be the fruit of a global view that can explain how to break the fetters of separatism and that takes into account Arab potential, the means at the Arabs’ disposal. Lastly, it must consider the Arabs as an indivisible whole and find the way to mobilize their energy so that they will engage upon the revolution.
4. It is disunity that has caused the greatest harm to the Arab Nation. It has prevented the nation from being able to match forces with the foreign enemy, and this despite the fact that revolutions have taken place over the last twenty-five years and that a number of progressive regimes have been established in Arab countries.
An immense distance separates us from the enemy, given its degree of development. Time will not work in our favor unless we can leave regionalism, with its logic and methods of action, behind. We will not catch up unless we abandon traditional modes of militancy for armed combat. It is through armed combat that we will be able to meet all the challenges that come our way.
5. As Aflaq pointed out in Point of Departure (p. 119), the new phase is in a way a re-birth of the party, because it has completely overhauled its precepts, its ideology, its struggle and the prospects for the struggle. The duty of Ba’athist militants —and of all Arab militants— is to forge new, more radical and ambitious formulas and to tap all the potentialities, capabilities and latent power within our Nation. The new step we are about to take must be exemplary; it must surpass the previous twenty years in excellence.
This brief account of the Baath Party’s history shows that it is the party of unity; its ambition has always been to accomplish its historic mission as the party of the Arab Revolution and to reach the objectives of the Arab nation: unity, liberty and socialism.
Although, as the founder of the Baath asserts, the previous stage did not bring about the Arab Revolution because the people were not led into armed combat, which would have been the culminating point, the stage we are now embarked on is that of re-birth. Strengthened by its ambitions, its militant experiences and the lesson drawn from the past, the Baath is now launching into battle. It hopes to bring about the true Arab Revolution of militant Arab unity by relying on principles that will promote unification of the revolutionary Arab forces and set them on the way to liberation. Although the Baath saw very early the true dimensions of the Palestinian cause as its place within the Arab Revolution and although it proved from the very beginning armed combat to free Palestine, its fight for the cause can only be measured by the means at its disposal. Today the party believes that the only way to mobilize the potential of the Arab nation, to arm the people and advance the struggle for liberation is to establish common fronts on regional and national levels.
The prospects afforded by the Arab Revolution go beyond the limits of the nation, for our cause is humane and just and our struggle —against colonialism, Zionism, and the reaction— is also a struggle against underdevelopment and exploitation. The international dimensions of the Arab Revolution ally our struggle with that of the peoples of the Third World and the friendly socialist countries. A common fight against a common enemy tie us to all these peoples and countries. If, in our fight for liberation, unity and socialism, we succeed in allying ourselves with the international revolutionary forces, the Arab struggle will take on its true dimensions and will profit from the revolutionary capacities of the nation and from those of militants the world over who express their sympathy, their solidarity and their support for our cause.
It is with this in mind that the PBAS works for the future, a future built by the people to establish unity, liberty and socialism.
The XXVIth anniversary of the
Arab Baath Socialist Party
Today, on the 7th April 1973, militants of the ABSP are celebrating the XXVIth anniversary of their Party, the party of Arab socialist revolution. Arab patriots and democrats, and all those who place their faith in a united, socialist Arab homeland, are celebrating this anniversary with us.
Doctor Elias Farah, a member of the National Direction of the ABSP has agreed to reply to questions asked him by the magazine <Wa’i al ‘Ummah (“Workers’ Awakening“) on this historic date.
First Question
The ABSP, while extolling the realization of unity, freedom and socialism as a solution to the political and socio-economic problems facing the Arab Nation, is based on cultural ideas which are contemporaneous and, at the same time, tightly bound to the Nation’s past, from its inception until the present day. Admitting this fact, can you define the historical bases of the links established by the Baath between its avowed mission and the Nation’s past? In what respect does its revolutionary vision contribute to the enrichment of Arab ideology in general and consolidate the national and historic bases of the various sectors of the Arab liberation movement?
Reply
Unity, freedom and socialism do not constitute in the eyes of the Baath simple solutions to political and socio-economic problems in the Arab homeland. They are the indispensable conditions of its resurgence; the survival of the Nation, the affirmation of its identity, the integrity of its territories, the regained control of its sources of wealth, can only come into being through these ideas. Ability to renew ideology, constancy in the struggle to defeat alienating and degrading factors, which annihilate the creative revolutionary potential of the masses and contribute to the loss of individual human dignity, equally depend on these ideas.
The watchwords unity, freedom and socialism, resume the necessities of the present stage in history, both subjectively and objectively. They are, at one and the same time, the aims and the means to achieve these ends. In reality, as long as disunion lasts, as long as propaganda aiming at the atomization of our strength is spread, as long as the war, declared and secretly waged, annihilating all the elements capable of unifying hearts, powers, regions, regimes and the Arab armed forces, is continued, it is impossible to speak of unity, of freedom and of socialism, without extolling radical revolution of a profound nature. Zionist occupation of our lands goes on: Imperialists and Zionists are inventing new expansionist conspiracies, allying together to ensure the control of our resources and to repress all revolutionary hotbeds within our homeland. In these conditions, the only language we can use is that of revolution. Combat alone is capable of expressing the identity of the Nation, its will to live and to progress.
When the Baath calls for unity, freedom and socialism, it is expressing a dialectical and revolutionary doctrine, making for a scientific approach to Arab realities and the stage in history through which the Nation is passing at present.
In the light of the evolution of the contemporary international scene, it is inevitable that such a theory should assume historic ties linking it to the past, the present and the future of the Nation. In this context, the governing laws peculiar to the evolution of contemporary Arab society are revealed, and this revelation helps us to become aware of more general laws determining the evolution of all human communities and to acquire a clear vision of their mechanisms and their potential growth.
We shall now try to evoke the thought-processes out of which the theory of unity, freedom and socialism evolved.
1. Past Exp