On the road to Unity (1956-1958)
1956 was a positive year in our nation's contemporary history not only in the anti-imperialist struggle of the nationalization of the Suez Canal and the Anglo-French-Zionist attack on Egypt, but also in the struggle for unity, for which in Syria, the Party played an important part in promoting the union with Egypt.
The Egyptian breaking of the arms embargo by turning to the socialist camp, and its hostile attitude to the Baghdad pact were clear evidence of the liberating and anti-imperialist character of the July revolution.
From that point onwards, the Party's attitude to the revolution continued to improve and consideration was given to the idea of creating an Arab national front to oppose all pacts which were aimed at yoking the region, politically and militarily, to the imperialist sphere of interest.
On April 17th. 1956, the anniversary of the evacuation of Syria, the General Secretary issued a communiqué into which the slogan for union between Egypt and Syria was introduced. He called upon the militants to prepare the people for it and to put pressure on the government and the parliament for its adoption. The Party explained that at this stage, imperialist policy was primarily concerned with isolating Egypt, also the Maghreb from the Mashreq, by providing "Israel" with arms so that it could continue with its aggression against the Arab nation, and in putting up proposals for pseudo-union with the objective of separating the Arabs from Egypt. The main objective of this policy was the protection of the oilfields and their communications, the safeguarding of their markets, and the establishment of strategic bases.
In Syria, the government’s situation was unstable.
The composition of the national Assembly had not changed, and therefore did not reflect the major change in popular opinion towards the Party .The government, of which the Party was not a member, still had the confidence of the Assembly, but no longer that of the population. The majority of parties agreed, for this reason, on the need to set up a coalition government in order that there should be continuity in Syria's policies. The Party declared that the basis for this coalition should be a National Charter, which would satisfy everyone. On March 26th. 1956, it put forward a project for a charter, part of which was a programme for a serious confrontation with imperialism and Zionism as being an important step forward towards the liberation and unity of the Arab countries. One of its most important points was the proclamation of the union of Syria and Egypt as the nucleus of total Arab unity and a realistic move in this direction. In Syrian affairs, the Charter set out a clear defence policy, "which considered the whole population, both men and women, civilians and military, in the front or in the rear, as being in the service of national defence".
As was usual, the traditional parties opposed the project, and in remaining firm, the Party precipitated a cabinet crisis. The government resigned, and Lutfi al-Haffar, the symbol of conventional politics, was asked to form a government. The Party's attitude foiled this
maneuver and the traditionalists were compelled to invite it on its own conditions. In June, it held two key posts in the new cabinet, the Ministries for Foreign and Economic Affairs.
Although some of the traditionalists were opposed to the inclusion in its policy declaration of a clear reference to the Union project, the Party held its ground and refused to bargain. Its viewpoint was finally accepted and the project submitted to the national Assembly, which unanimously approved it on July 6th. The government was thereupon instructed to take the necessary steps for its implementation.
The Party's struggle for union went hand in hand with its efforts to forge an effective solidarity with the Algerian people in their uprising against French colonialism. It nominated May 8th, as Algeria Day, the anniversary of the French 1945 massacres. It organised demonstrations and strikes and demanded that the Arab governments should support the Algerian revolution and boycott France. On June 1st. it strongly attacked the
Syrian government when it discovered that the Ministry of the Economy was exporting cereals to France. This attack, and its repercussions amongst the people, was one of the reasons for the fall of the government, leaving the way clear for a national coalition.
In Jordan, the early part of 1956 saw an increase in the people's resentment against the attitude in favour of the Baghdad pact. As a result, Samir Rifai's government fell and in March, Glubb Pasha was dismissed. The way was clear for the formation of a national coalition government, presided over by Suleiman Nablusi, in which Rimawi who held the Ministry for Foreign Affairs represented the Party.
In Iraq, the Party spent the first half of the year in strengthening its organisation. At the same time, it continued its struggle against the reactionary regime. On February 24th. The anniversary of the signing of the Baghdad pact by Nuri Sa'id, it published tracts and
organised demonstrations of solidarity with the Jordanian people's uprising, and on March 11th. celebrated the dismissal of Glubb Pasha as a step towards complete freedom from British influence. On March 23rd. there was a demonstration of solidarity with the Maghreb, particularly with Algeria, and on May 1st. it pointed out the connection between the exploitation of the working class and colonial exploitation with its subjugation of entire nations. In so doing, it explained the main link between the national struggle and the class struggle in the Arab revolution.
In Lebanon also, the Party organised popular demonstrations, on January 12th. in support of the Jordanian people, and at the beginning of April, with the Algerian people. On May 1st., it called for the unity of the Arab working class and its trade unions.
It was at about this time that the Party message began to spread amongst the Egyptian youth, especially in the Universities of Cairo and Alexandria. Similarly it began to spread also in certain parts of the Gulf, in Bahrain and the eastern side of the Arabian Peninsula.
This extension of the movement was a necessity before the Arab nation's battle started on Egyptian soil for the nationalization of the Canal and the resistance to the tripartite aggression. The close relationship which the Baath had with the Arab peoples had an enormous effect in making Egypt the battlefield of the Arab nation and in planting the feet of the struggle for unity into solid ground.
At the end of June 1956, three weeks before the Canal nationalization, Jamal Abd-an-Nasser was elected President of the Egyptian Republic, and approval was given to the constitution, which stated clearly that Egypt was an indivisible part of the Arab nation. The Party Leadership sent a telegram of congratulation and support for his actions: "Continue with what you have begun, to lead Egypt towards social justice, towards true democracy, towards effective support of the Arab struggle wherever it may be, and towards the implementation of the union between Egypt and Syria".
After the nationalization of the Canal, celebrated by the Baath and the Arab people, the broad outlines of the imperialist plot against Egypt began to become clear.
The British Prime Minister, Eden, convened a conference in London on August 16th. to discuss the nationalization. The Party in Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon made it into a day of support for Egypt. The strikes and demonstrations could have left Eden in no doubt as to the militant solidarity of the Arabs with Egypt.
In a powerful article, the Party founder stated on August 23rd., two months before the aggression took place, that a direct confrontation with imperialism was inevitable; furthermore, that the Arabs should make the necessary preparations by embarking on a revolutionary course which would answer the demands of the people.
Michel Aflaq reiterated that it was possible for the Arabs, if they took as their base the Algerian revolution and recently liberated Egypt, to work out the course of the struggle and to join it in full confidence and assurance.
In September, in Damascus, a large public meeting was held to support the Canal nationalization and to hold this up as an example of Arab unity from the people's point of view. And from the moment that the aggression began, the Baath militants brought out the people in demonstrations of solidarity with Egypt.
In Syria, the militants blew up the pipelines, using the oil weapon for the first time against the enemy. Training camps were opened for volunteers from all the Arab countries, who came especially from Lebanon and Jordan. The government ordered a general mobilization to defend the country, and broke off diplomatic relations with the aggressor countries.
In Baghdad, Nuri Sa 'id's government put on the semblance of participation while scoffing at the Egyptian leaders. The Party and others of the national Front organised violent demonstrations all over the country, on which the authorities fired, causing scores of deaths and hundreds of wounded.
Foreseeing the dangers ahead, the Iraqi Party, after its third regional assembly, called for a renewal, in the 5th issue of its newspaper 'The Socialist' (July/ August 1956) of the National Union Front, a call which it repeated in November. It also opposed the statement by Nuri Sa'id in London on October 14th. in which he called for a final settlement of the Palestine problem by pushing the Israelis to enter into negotiations with the Arabs. On October 28th the Party again called a general strike in solidarity with the Algerian revolution.
In Jordan, the Party's participation in the government was an important factor in maintaining the country's non-alignment with the imperialist camp, and, up to a point, in line with Arab aspirations. The Baathist Minister for Foreign Affairs played an important role at the meeting in Beirut of the kings and presidents, held to decide upon a unified Arab posture vis-a-vis the aggression.
In Lebanon, after President Camille Shimun had clearly shown his complicity with imperialism by his refusal to break off diplomatic relations with France and Great Britain, the Party helped to mobilize the people against the government and demanded its resignation as a protest against Camille Shimun's attitude. It joined in the forming of the national opposition, which, in 1958, rose up against the Shimun regime.
The failure of the Franco- British attack on Egypt tolled the knell of old-style imperialism. From then on the new leader was America in the place of England and France. The Party, (in AI-Baath, March 1957) revealed the broad outline of American imperialism's new plan, part of which had been exposed by President Eisenhower in his address to Congress at the beginning of 1957. He defined his principles, known as the Eisenhower Doctrine, for "exploiting the breach in the Middle East". The Party said that the plan envisaged the destruction of the Arab nationalist movement, which was developing into a historically powerful force. This would be achieved by dividing the people's struggle in the Maghreb from that in the Mashreq by overthrowing and dispersing freedom movements, by setting up American bases, and, for good measure, by stirring up fears of communism. These imperialist projects became realities by their making the Saudi regime their headquarters, by the way in which they won over Lebanon to the Eisenhower project, by the stirring up of dissension among the allied movements in Jordan and by encouraging the conspiracy against Syria.
The Party's forecasts proved to be accurate. After a short time, in the spring of 1957, king Hussein of Jordan turned against the national movements, dismissed the cabinet, purged the army of patriotic elements and started a big campaign of arrests and prosecutions against the national movements and against the Party in first place.
In Lebanon, Shimun tried to attack the national movement and extend the State of Emergency, imposed on the pretext of the aggression against Egypt, in order to restrict the activities of the national militants. He falsified the legislative elections to keep the opposition out of parliament. He repressed the people's angry demonstrations, which the Party had played an important part in organizing in Beirut and other towns. It was in the same year, in October 1957, that the Party published its underground newspaper, The New Arab, and noticeably widened its popular base.
America succeeded in leading king Saud into the fold, after which some minor disputes within the Hashimite family caused him to go along with the current of liberation and to get involved with charters and declarations as Egypt and Syria had done.
In Syria, plots and attempts to stir up internal trouble followed one after the other and the economic blockade increased. But the nationalist freedom movement led by the Baath Party, dealt with them firmly. It was determined to carry on the struggle against imperialism, for union with Egypt and alliances with socialist countries. Imperialism then encouraged the Turkish government, which was in its pay, to mass troops on the Syrian frontier in preparation for a major attack. The Party and nationalist movements set about creating a people's defence force capable of resisting an attack, and speeded up the measures for union with Egypt.
Between July 9th. and 12th. 1957, the Party held a regional congress to go into organizational problems in the light of its previous experience. Regional Leadership of nine members was elected with Dr. Midhat al-Bitar as Syrian Regional Secretary. The Party now had a powerful influence with the population, and this became evident during the partial elections, which took place that year to replace those members who had been sentenced for their participation in the imperialist plot against the country .The Party won two seats, one in Damascus and one in Jabal Al-Arab, bringing the total to eighteen.
In Iraq, the Party continued the struggle against the most shamelessly reactionary of all Arab governments and the one most involved in imperialism's plans. It also continued the people's struggle, which had started after the tripartite attack on Egypt. When the authorities re-opened the faculties and schools at the end of January 1957 on the assumption that calm had returned to Iraq, student demonstrations, joined by wide sections of the population, began, using the slogan: "No peace or stability for Sa'id's government, nor for the hateful Baghdad pact while free men remain in prison". The Commemoration of the forty victims during the demonstrations at Najaf was yet another occasion for a new fight with the men in power. There were several clashes at Mosul, Hilla and elsewhere. Hundreds of students in Baghdad were arrested and the prisons and camps were filled with the free men of Iraq, (Al-Ishtiraki No.8, February 1957).
The Party mobilized the Iraqi people on a wide scale against the Eisenhower Doctrine and demanded a clear definition of the responsibilities of the High Committee of the National Union Front, which had been formed as an opposition alliance. Apart from the Baath, it consisted of the Independence Party (Istiqlal), the National Party, the Democratic Party, and the Communist Party. When Nuri Sa'id's government fell in August 1957, the Party resolutely opposed the Ayyubi government, which only lasted four months and was succeeded on December 22nd, by that of Abd-al- Wahhab who only confirmed the Party's view of the pro-imperialist policy.
In Iraq the Party was effective in galvanizing the people to join the struggle. It proved this capability at a time when the Communist Party was torn by internal strife. The fourth regional assembly was held at that time, November 1957, and devoted a large proportion of its discussions to the condition of the National Union Front and the role of the Party within it.
On the national scene, the Party had been expanding in Egypt. Its General Secretary Michel Aflaq spent long periods there with young people, with intellectuals and with militants. It was his opportunity to explain and disseminate the Party's thinking in this large Arab country.