EVOLUTION OF ARAB REVOLUTIONARY IDEOLOGY
Elias Farah
Chapter III
Economic, Social and Cultural Trends
Economic Trends
Examination of the international economic situation enables us to define three characteristic trends of the post-world War.
1 - Economic Expansion in Industrialized Countries
The period following the First World War was marked by a general economic crisis. After the Second World War, on the contrary, figures showed a rise in production and large-scale economic expansion in industrialized countries. The countries, which suffered most from the War, were rapidly able to recover their balance and attain an output beyond all expectation. They doubled production, increased national revenue and found themselves in a position to combat unemployment, which had been a permanent problem during the pre-War era.
We need only to compare production figures of 1938 and 1948 to perceive the characteristics of the post-War world. In "Studies in World Economy" published by the United Nations in 1956, the following table was given:
Production 1938 1948
USA and Canada 35 100
Western Europe 107 100
South America 78 100
Asia 104 100
Only six years later, in 1954, these percentages had risen to 117 in the U.S.A. and Canada, 151 in Western Europe, 126 in South America, 125 in Asia and 144 in Africa and the Middle East. This growth indicates the increased economic expansion of the post-War era. The figures, in fact, only concern the expansion of the imperialist countries, which had profited outrageously from the War. Post-War acceleration of scientific and technological progress, stimulated by the War and by competition in all sectors, proved the most important factor in the rapid increase of production. However, only the great Powers were able to make full use of this element and solve their own particular problems at the expense of developing countries.
Unemployment during the pre-War era varied between 20 percent and 30 percent; after the War, this percentage fell to around 1 percent and 5 percent.*4 In highly developed countries, the progress indicated by such figures can be placed to the advantage of capitalist societies on account of the close network, based on exploitation, which governed their relations with each other.
2 - The Trend to “Bureaucratic Aristocracy” Modern Techniques
In a study of post-War civilization, the French sociologist, Jean Fourastie, analyzed the structure of the various economic sectors; he divides them into three categories*5:
a) The first sector, comprising manual workers and those who produce raw materials.
b) The second sector, comprising all industries transforming raw materials into finished products and consumer goods, i.e. manufacturers and workers.
c) The third sector, covering all activities, with the exception of agriculture and industry: it covers scientists, engineers, specialists, research workers, heads of scientific laboratories, etc.
In his book "La Politique de 1'Emploi et de 1'Education," Professor Pierre Jaccard describes post-War economic evolution in relation to these three sectors. In his opinion, the trend of evolution is towards the diminution of manual labour to the advantage of the third sector, i.e. administrative occupations playing an increasingly important role. The author evokes one of the consequences of this trend in the U.S.A. Of the six million unemployed and unable to find work since 1958, none have the qualifications required by economy's general evolution; being unspecialized, they can find no place in the new trend of industry.
Georges Friedmann and Andre' Siegfried both speak of a new era —that of "bureaucracy"— and there are others who consider world economy to be evolving towards "bureaucratic revolution."
Capitalism is doomed to die. It is now technological progress which orientates society in industrialized countries, whether of capitalist or socialist bent, in a single direction —towards a bureaucratic revolution— with power and wealth concentrated in the hands of specialists and those in charge of economics. Statistics given by Bernheim are worthy of our attention, for they confirm this theory. According to him, indications of bureaucratic revolution (that of heads of industry, in other words) are just as evident in the Soviet Union as in the U.S.A. Only 12 percent of Soviet citizens’ share 50 percent of national revenue, while in the U.S.A. 35 percent of national revenue is concentrated in the hands of 10 percent of the population. Bureaucratic evolution automatically reverberates on class-structures, conditions change and reflects in various ideologies and their ability to adapt to the realities of post-War evolution of social life.
3 - The Division of the World into Poor and Rich Countries
The speed of post-War evolution throughout the world has accentuated the difference between underdeveloped and advanced countries. In spite of general economic expansion, we must not lose sight of the imbalance reigning in the world. The rapid and considerable increase in population in under-developed countries necessitates a corresponding increase in production, and as a result, the share of each individual diminishes.
In studying the evolution of national revenue in 84 countries, we notice that this is only higher than $750 per annum in 19 countries: Canada and the U.S.A. in North America; New Zealand and Australia in Oceania; 12 Western European countries: Austria, Finland, the Netherlands, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, France, the British Isles, Luxembourg, Sweden and Switzerland; one South American country: Venezuela, and finally the Soviet Union. It is to be noted that no African, Asiatic or Middle-Eastern country has a national revenue exceeding $464 a year. Such figures give an indication of the role to be played by the various systems proposing measures to rectify the present world situation and the limitations imposed on contemporary ideologies by hard facts.*6
Following our analysis of the economic and political trends which characterize the post-War world, we shall now examine social and cultural trends.
Social Trends
Sociologists speak of "demographic explosion" and consider it to be one of the most striking and fundamental characteristics of social life today. The United Nations’ Report on the social situation of the world reveals the following facts*7: Between 1950 and 1960, world population rose from 2,500 million to 3,000 million: thus, in the space of only 10 years, it increased by a figure equal to the entire world population in the middle of the 17th century (500 million inhabitants). Demographic evolution throughout the world continued at the same rate during the 1960s. Despite the fact that War exterminated 41 million victims, (six million in Germany, five million in Poland, 17 million in the U.S.S.R. and 13 million among the Allies*8), statistics revealed in 1950 an increase in the population of Europe. Since 1960, moreover, important population increase has taken place in all parts of the world.
Comparison between world population increase, before and after the War, explains sociologists' definition, demographic "explosion." Between 1930 and 1950, the world increase-rate was between 11 percent and 13 percent. Between 1950 and 1960 it rose to 19 percent. On the other hand, the decrease in the mortality rate - particularly in the case of infant mortality - gave rise to a further increase in population between 1960 and 1970.
Demographic explosion is one of the main factors in the extraordinary increase in school attendance, as illustrated by statistics. Parallel to this explosion, social life in the post-War world has undergone lightning changes with a resultant improvement in the general standard of living, increase in salaries, reduction in working hours, improved standards of hygiene, opportunities for promotion, social security allowances, transformation of the social class structure, the rapid and extraordinary change in communications and international exchange, the impact of public opinion, etc.
These rapid social transformations of the post-War world brought about disrupture of the traditional social framework, and overthrew many classical concepts. The masses began to awaken to their own personality, their role as the motor-force of social life and their capacity to modify worn-out structures. They realized that, without a clearly defined method based on high ideals and precise values and a renewal inspired by scientific, revolutionary analysis, action on their part could never surpass the stage of improvisation and precipitous, automatic counter-reactions.
Cultural Trends
In an article entitled "La Philosophic face a la Pluralite des Cultures," MacCown defines culture in the following terms *9:
"Culture can be seen from two points of view; on the one hand, as a heritage, the fruit of historic evolution, and on the other, as a group of traditions honored by a particular society."
We may say, in the light of this definition, that culture is the meeting-point between a nation's past and present.
During the post-War era, the balance between the three modalities of time: past, present and future, was shattered for many nations. It had for centuries been characterized by a degree of stability and permanence, by slow evolution and constant conditions. In the world today, on the contrary, with its accelerated evolutionary tempo, the sudden changes and unforeseen mutations which are, to the astonishment of all, its hall-mark, the present ceases to be a simple prolongation of the past, as was the case in traditional societies; it becomes, and is, an instantaneous, perpetual state of flux.
The cultural crisis following the Second World War is a result of this. In its temporal dimension, time is submitted to dual pressure from the past and the future. The world is faced with a historic choice (as it was during the Renaissance in Europe, when mighty efforts were made to link Christianity with Classical culture). In the face of scientific progress and the abruptness of political, social and economic events, each country strives to link together the past, the present and the future and discover a formula to safeguard historical continuity and preserve it from erosion and attrition.
In the preamble to the U.N.E.S.C.O. Charter, we read: Wars are the work of Man; in consequence, cultural activities must strive towards the creation of a New Man who will be an artisan of peace and a prototype for the post-World War.
It became obvious, after the explosion of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima in August 1945 that another war would bring about the end of the world. Advances in the field of bombs and rockets, gave rise to the reflection that men must either learn to co-exist or they would have to die together. Peace is no longer the expression of the balance of power: it has become a necessity, particularly for under-developed nations who are exposed in their struggle against imperialism, to the most lethal and destructive weapons.
Bourgeois culture of the past, the fruit of history's evolution, was a manifestation of the colonial spirit and national fanaticism. Shut away in isolation, it confined itself to living in the past and to its own self-satisfaction. It accepted the idea that war was inherent in human nature. The last war, however, modified this adage, by the new situations it produced. Peace is now seen as an indispensable principle for any culture. This is the fundamental distinction between revolutionary culture, aspiring to the creation of a just and peaceful world, and colonialist culture, which sought only to justify the contradictions existing in the world, and resigned itself to their existence, without a struggle.
Cultures are no longer closed systems. Interpretation and mutual contact between cultures has become a daily commonplace, and the spirit of nationalism, once narrow, rigid and circumscribed, has become humanitarian.
Another trend became evident after the Second World War. The aristocratic concept of culture, prevalent before the War, no longer responded to the needs of post-War mass civilization. Its objective was no longer the formation of an elite; it was no longer an abstract theory, turned in on itself and unrelated to society’s requirements. Social and scientific aspects of culture today govern its orientations. Science, knowledge and culture no longer exist outside a politico-social framework, and knowledge for its own sake and for the satisfaction of idle curiosity is now possible for only a few isolated individuals, ever decreasing in number. Cultural trends now hinge on links between society and the individual, concepts and reality, between inherited values and new evolutions, between the national and the international order of things. Culture has become an integral part of socialist revolution and revolutionary experiments in the Third World. Thus, our century is revealed as a revolt against all that is rigid and stereotyped, against any form of absolute restriction or of tribal attitude. Life is now synonymous with flux, with perpetual change and modification, with all the elasticity, diversity and width of horizon that this comports and goes far beyond the simple framework in which doctrinal tendencies were enclosed.
In the face of such political, economic, social and cultural trends, all doctrines are destined to go through deep crises. They will be obliged in the first place to resolve the problems of the 19th century, the sequels of which, on account of social stagnation, continued into the 20th century and even up to the eve of War. These doctrines are, paradoxically, based on rapid, unforeseen changes in society which followed on the Second World War, and which, while giving an appearance of being scientific and realistic, in fact give proof of an incomplete vision of social life.
The post-War world is then one of flux, of perpetual evolution. The masses of the Third World are following the movement of history with its specific structure. Doctrines are obliged to adapt to a new state of things and review their theoretical principles from time to time. The 20th Congress of the Soviet Union Communist Party, and its resultant changes, the testimony of Togliatti, the leader of the Italian Communist Party, modifications in imperialist policy and the position of the Catholic Church since Pope John XXIII are all symptomatic of the adaptation of Communism, Capitalism and the Church to a changing world.
The Birth of Arab Revolutionary Ideology
In the general historic context of the trends described above, the revolutionary concept of Arabism came into being. Its crystallization was the result of a group of factors which forged of it a new driving-force for combat.
These factors can be resumed as follows:
1. Currents of thought today, which are, as we have seen, as much the reflection of a new world as they are the fruit of the awakening of the world to contemporary thought.
2. The awakening to crises in contemporary ideologies through internal criteria, founded on the reality of Arab experiences; in other words, a vision inspired by crises affecting movements and trends which are themselves the product of ideologies on an Arab scale.
3. The establishment of a living bond between the Nation's historic past, present problems and future perspectives, i.e. the global apprehension of the dialectical evolution of the Arab reality, perceived in time and in its own territorial boundaries.
4. The feeling of historic responsibility in the face of the real crises shaking the Arab political world and its combat movements.
These factors enabled the newly-formed Arab revolutionary ideology, at the very moment of its constitution, to give birth to an Arab revolutionary movement, and contributed to the creation of a strong bond between theory and practice. They endowed Arab thought with a far-seeing, realistic scientific approach and gave it its revolutionary character. They raised it to the level of authentic ideologies, capable of responding decisively to historical necessity.
The origins of Arab revolutionary ideology are not to be found in abstract research of in pure theoretical analysis. Neither is it the fruit of bureaucratic activity. It took form as a result of profound reflection on the crisis through which the Arab Revolution is passing at this particular moment of history. It goes hand in hand with a desire for deep, radical change of universal importance and of a civilizing nature. Its essence finds expression in the theory of Unity, Freedom and Socialism. Professor Michel Aflaq emphasized the importance of this awakening to the particular context of history which gave birth to the contemporary Arab Revolution*10. It, in fact, saved Arab revolutionary thought from depersonalization, a potential crisis factor from confusion and from an incomplete view of Arab reality. It spared the Nation unnecessary experiments, endeavors, and errors. In 1950, Michel Aflaq, in an article entitled, "The Global Intellectual Movement” stated:
“I believe that our movement has helped us to understand the most crucial problem of Arab life; it can be condensed in the three objectives: Arab Unity, Freedom, and Socialism."
The birth of Arab ideology is the fruit of intellectual gestation and militant activity; its crystallization was favored by the four factors listed below:
1. The national heritage and the historic value of the Arab Nation's militant experience, particularly that of Islam, which concretized in the Arab past, both the deepest spiritual experience and the most radical intellectual, social and political revolution.
2. Contemporary revolutions, which were set in motion by religious reform, and culminated in the Socialist Revolution of 1917. They helped to situate the problem of the oppressed masses and that of divided, persecuted nations and peoples.
3. The new world, born of two great Wars, together with the consequences of a multitude of transformations, touching on every aspect of life, and their relationship to the crucial problems of the future of the human race and to the destiny of the Arab Nation.
4. The contemporary militant experience of the Arab Nation, which is none other than the embodiment of a national awakening, achieved at the expense of struggle against Ottoman domination and Western colonialism.
This militant experience was only able to take place because the Arab Nation had rediscovered its vocation and its 'raison d'etre', and had come to grips with its own condition, its state of fragmentation, its under-development, its submission to foreign domination, the envy it aroused, the oppression and exploitation of which it is a victim.
The dialectical link between concepts of nationalism, freedom and socialism within the framework of the present Arab experience, is of cardinal importance for this ideology, and a group of principles have been developed out of it. They can be resumed as follows:
1. The stage of history through which the Arab Nation is now passing is of a profoundly revolutionary and total nature.
2. In any proletarian under-developed, divided nation, under colonialist domination, revolution can only be of nationalist, socialist and liberating character.
3. The objectives of the particular phase in history can be resumed as unity, freedom and socialism.
4. Arab revolutionary strategy is the indication of the resurgence of the Arab Nation; its target is the realization of unity, democracy and socialism at the heart of Arab society.
5. Class-struggle, the fight for national freedom and anti-imperialist combat throughout the world faultlessly blend together from a dialectical point of view.
6. Popular struggle and armed combat are the methods which correspond to the spirit of Arab revolution and guarantee the realization of its objectives.
7. Fidelity to the moral values of contest and to the higher humanitarian standards required by action of historic impact, is an integral part of revolutionary Arab thought and takes its place at the heart of the movement it has forged.
Evolution in concepts of unity, democracy and socialism, throughout the various stages of Arab revolutionary ideology's growth, enables us to define the bonds which link these principles. According to Professor Michel Aflaq, they are “the answer to a Nation's self-questioning when it seeks a clear stand, in accordance with its principles, and endorses the responsibility of its chosen mission.”*11
Notes
4. Studies in World Economy published by the United Nations
5. The French Encyclopedia. Vol. 20.
6. The above figures correspond to the years 1957-1959. Cf. the author's thesis: The trend in Educational Reform after the Second World War. Geneva 1964, p. 137.
7. Cf. United Nation's Report: The Social Situation of the World, 1963, p. 3.
8. Ci. Chronological Table of International Relations, Paris 1957 p. 165
9. Cf. The Originality of Cultures, Paris U.N.E.S.C.O. 1953, p.11
10. Michel 'Aflaq: Following the Baath. 2nd Ed; p. 289.
11. Michel 'Aflaq: The Historic Role of the Baath Movement 19W. p. 310
The Revolutionary Arab Ideology