The Arab Baath Socialist Party
The Foundation and the Palestinian Disaster
(1947-1949)
On April 4th. 1947, about two hundred young Baathists who were able to do so, came from allover Syria to Damascus together with some students from Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq, for the opening of the 1st. Congress of the Baath Party, in other words, its foundation Congress. The meeting lasted three days, during which reports previously prepared, were discussed, the constitution, the principles and internal organisation were approved. Late
at night on April 6th, Michel Aflaq was unanimously elected Party president.
An executive committee consisting of three members was also elected which, with the president, became the first officially recognized leadership of the Party.
Although no national leadership was elected by the congress, it at least exposed to the members «the capacities and potential latent in the Party .The seeds of a National Leadership of the future had been sown...» The 1st. Congress of the Arab Baath Party was a historic event in member's lives, only the future will show whether it will also be one in the history of contemporary Arab politics». (Al-Baath April 15th. 1947).
The foundation congress charted the main course of Arab revolutionary ideology. It gave it its distinguishing features and separated it from the main trends of current thought -chauvinism, ultra-nationalism, national socialism, liberalism, reformation etc. Nevertheless, the constitution of this first Arab revolutionary movement seriously attempted to emphasize the complementary aspects of Arab revolutionary ideology.
From the organizational point of view, article 1. of the constitution's general principles laid out the structure of the Arab revolutionary movement and considered the Baath Party to be «a party for all Arabs who may establish branches in all the Arab countries. It is not concerned with the politics of any particular country except insofar as it affects the greater Arab interest”.
The political manifesto drew up a list of those powers, which were hostile: to the Arab nation, those, which had usurped part of its territory, pillaged its wealth and supported Zionism. It was from then on that the Party put the United States high on the list because of their meddling in Middle Eastern affairs, their support of British colonialism and their plundering of Arab natural resources. The manifesto called upon the Arab people to join together to fight these enemy countries. It asked Arab governments to review their diplomatic relations and that the Arab League should take urgent steps to unify the armed forces and the representation abroad of Arab countries, and that passport and customs regulations should be abolished between them.
The congress also called for a review of the treaties and concession arrangements with foreign countries and companies and for a reversal of the divisionism policy being followed by the governments of Syria and Lebanon. In its place, it proposed that they should work towards a union, which would strengthen the independence of the two countries and be a step forward towards Arab unity as a whole.
The congress gave its approval of cooperation with progressive Arab parties fighting against colonialism from outside and exploitation inside in order to build a people's Arab national front.
On Monday morning, April 7th. , the Party in its new form, began a fruitful period in its militant life.
During the celebrations marking the evacuation of foreign troops from Syria on April 17th. 1947, the founder, speaking for the Party, repeated: «The evacuation of Syria should not make us forget our duty towards other Arab countries».
The Party continued its struggle with the ruling classes both in Syria and in other countries. On April 23rd., it declared: «Our people are henceforth committed to action on a national scale; let the exploiters and the feudalists tremble».
In a manifesto of the same date, the Party started the battle for the revision of the electoral law to introduce direct suffrage. The movement was so effective that the government was forced to revise the law. Thus the Party won another victory for democracy, having already compelled the government to retreat over its police project. While this was going on, the Party, in May 1947, supported the Lebanese people in their opposition to the rigged elections in the expectation that the same class in Syria would resort to something similar.
On June 2nd. , the president prepared a memorandum requesting, for the third time, that the Party should have permission to carry out its public activities. It emphasized that the country needed a new style of politics. The election campaign took place during June and July and the Party competed in certain electoral districts. The most noteworthy campaigns were those of Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Bitar in Damascus and were proof of the spectacular rallying of the people to the Party. The president was already certain in advance of several thousand votes, but by shameless rigging, the authorities stuffed the ballot boxes to the extent that the total votes exceeded the number of the local population.
During the campaign, Michel ' Aflaq defined the Party's policy on legislative elections. On June l0th. he stated: « While for some people it is an opportunity to make speeches and propaganda, we believe that there are things which are more important and worthwhile than propaganda for parties or individuals. For us, it is an opportunity to give people guidance and to carry on the national struggle".
While the fight for free elections was going on, the Party announced the candidacy of some of its members who intended to stand as independents, declaring, «the people should not be tied to a list". It continued to attack the ruling classes and on June l6th. said, «the sectarianism of the National Party in power is the greatest danger which threatens the country".
On July 1st., the Party published an article in AI-Baath newspaper under the title: «The Arab Baath calls upon the Arab nation to fight against the ruling clique and to overthrow the government and its plots to prevent free elections".
After publication, Salah al-Bitar was arrested and sentenced to six months imprisonment.
Hardly had the Party emerged from its fight for democracy when it once more took up the national Arab cause. In September 1947, a Party council was held, attended by delegates from the branches. The final communiqué stated that a number of questions had been discussed concerning Syrian and national matters, and especially the question of Palestine.
In the light of the deteriorating situation and the resolution on partition, the Party announced, on October 19th. 1947: «The decisive hour has struck; Palestine can only be rescued by steel and guns". It attacked the conduct of the negotiations, considering them to be a trick of the British, the Americans and Zionism: «They want to make the Arabs think that the Palestinian problem is a political one which can be resolved by negotiation and conferences. This, however, is only propaganda designed to influence the American and British people"... it went on: -«Partition will deny the people's great ambition for Arab unity... it will not only strike at the heart of this unity, but will threaten the independence of every Arab country". (Al Baath, 21/12/47).
Having this clear point of view on the connection between Palestine, independence and unity, the Party called for the use of oil as a weapon in the battle: «Oil and the strategic geographical position of the Arab homeland are, together with military strength, sufficient to restore us our rights". (11/10/47). If only the Arabs «had threatened these countries, which only understand the language of self-interest, with the cutting off of oil supplies and gold, plus an economic boycott. ..partition would never have happened". (21/12/47).
At the beginning of 1948, the year of disaster, the Party, «seeing no other way of rescuing Palestine except by war», decided at the meeting in Homs on January 15-16th. to mobilize its members to take part in the war effort within the Arab countries, or in the front line in Palestine. It decided to dispatch a battalion to the front under the command of the executive committee». Having arrived there, the Party gave a warning against the way in which the war was being conducted: «Skirmishes are useless when faced with unforeseen danger),. It called upon all the Arab armies to come to Palestine and liberate it from Zionism (15/2/48).
The reactionary Syrian government took advantage of the Arab nation's concern over the events in Palestine and tried to change the constitution in order to renew the mandate of the President of the Republic. The Baathists, fighting the enemy in the front line, opposed this new attempt to establish a dictatorship, and stressed, «this proposal to change the constitution was a threat to the Republic, its independence and liberty». (8/3/48). This new fight for democracy was a fierce one. The government took arbitrary action against the Party .The newspaper was suspended three times, members of the Party were arrested, and some, workers in particular, were maltreated. A terrorist attack against the Party's office occurred on March 14th. 1948 when a bomb was thrown in while a meeting was taking place. The office was immediately surrounded by the police who arrested about 50 members.
The struggle in Syria did not prevent the others from continuing the armed fight in Palestine, and when the president returned at the end of the war, he published a statement, on September 7th. 1948, showing the connection between the Palestine disaster and the deterioration of the internal situation. This angered the authorities that had him arrested and sent for trial. The court sentenced him to six months imprisonment, reduced to two months «because of Mr. Aflaq's record in the fight against the French during the time of the mandate». This trial and the arguments for the defense are documents of historical importance.
Only a few weeks after the trial, a series of strikes took place throughout Syria in protest against the government's home and foreign policy, the increase in prices, corruption and venality and illegal profit making. The government fired on these demonstrations and
a number of people including Baath militants were killed or wounded. The Party demanded the government's resignation and the trial of its leaders. In fact the government did resign and a cabinet of technocrats was set up. It was quickly attacked by the Party as being "a parody of a solution which still allowed the constitution to be violated and the people to be coerced, intimidated and misled".
The Party continued to attack the reactionary government in Syria and, in addition, withdrew from the Arab nationalist party conference, organized by the Lebanese Nationalist Appeal Party. The reason was the presence of members of the Syrian National Party, at the time in power in Syria. Comrade Michel Aflaq, in justification of this decision, defined his understanding of a nationalist party as follows: «The nationalist parties would be abandoning their responsibility for rescuing the Arab nation from the internal and external dangers which threaten its existence, if they do not decide to break with the social class and its political representatives who are the cause of the ever-growing dangers to which the nation is exposed". (19/1/49). The Party also conducted a campaign to prevent government ratification of the Tapline agreement whereby the oil companies were given permission to usurp the Arab people's rights. It published tracts and organized demonstrations, which led to the arrest of Midhat al- Bitar, the leader of the Damascus branch on March 4th. 1949, and his imprisonment in Ommaya prison. The Party also denounced the iniquitous financial agreement with France and all the activities of Syrian reactionaries. By doing this, it helped to isolate and discredit the government in the eyes of the people, whereas for several years it had been their beacon and symbol of the national independence movement.
This left the field open for the overthrow of the government, which took place on March 30th. 1949, by the army. This was the beginning of an era of military coups d'etat in Syria, which continued during the following years.