Arab Socialist Union
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Arab Socialist Union (Arabic: الاتّحاد الاشتراكى العربى, al-Ittiḥād al-Ištirākī 'l-ʿArabī; French: L'Union Socialiste Arabe) is one of a number of loosely related political parties based on the principles of Nasserist Arab socialism in a number of countries.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Egypt
The Arab Socialist Union was founded in Egypt in December 1962 by Gamal Abdel Nasser as the country's sole political party. The ASU grew out of his Free Officers Movement. The party's formation was just one part in Nasser's National Charter. The Charter set out an agenda of nationalisation, agrarian reform and constitutional reform, which formed the basis of ASU policy. The programme of nationalisation under Nasser saw seven billion Egyptian pounds of private assets transferred into the public sector. Banks, insurance companies, many large shipping companies, major heavy industries and major basic industries were converted to public control. Land reforms saw the maximum area of private land ownership successively reduced from 200 to 100 feddans. A 90% top rate of income tax was levied on income over ten thousand Egyptian pounds. Boards of directors were required to have a minimum number of workers, and workers and peasants were guaranteed at least half of the seats in the People's Assembly. The Charter also saw a shift in emphasis away from Egyptian nationalism towards Arab unity.[1]
After Nasser's death in 1970, Anwar Sadat quickly moved away from his radical socialist position. The first seat change occurred in 1974, with Sadat's Infitah, or Open Door, economic policy, which allowed the emergence of a modern entrepreneurial and consumerist society. Then, in 1976, the beginning of political pluralism allowed three political platforms — left, centre and right — to form within the Arab Socialist Union. In 1978, the platforms were allowed to become fully independent political parties, and the ASU was disbanded. Many of today's political parties in Egypt have their origin in the breakup of the ASU.
The Arab Socialist Union reflected goals of this stage as the following:
- The state control over the national economy and establishing a public sector to undertake the development process.
- The Arab nationalism.
- The negative solution for classes' struggle.
- Democracy.
- Commitment to religion and freedom of faith and worship.
[edit] ASU Demise
Following the 1967 War and massive demonstrations in February and October 1969, Egypt was in a state of political turmoil, leading to raising calls for granting citizens more democratic rights and demanding self-expression for political affiliations.
Following assuming office in 1970, late president Anwar Sadat adopted the slogans of rule of law and the institutional state. In August 1974, Sadat put forward a working paper to revamp the Arab Socialist Union.
In July 1975, the Arab Socialist Union's general conference adopted a resolution on establishing political forums within the union for expression of opinion in accordance with basic principles of the Egyptian Revolution.
In March 1976, president Sadat issued a decree allowing three forums to represent the right wing (the Liberal Socialist Organization), the center wing (Egypt Arab Socialist Organization) and the left wing (the National Progressive Unionist Organization).
These forums were later transformed into parties, forming today's Egyptian major political parties.
During the first meeting of the People's Assembly on November 22, 1976, president Sadat declared the three political organizations turned into parties. In June 1977, the law of political party was enacted, allowed the existence of several political parties and demonstrated the shift to a multi-party system. However the ratification of this law had not meant cancellation of the Arab Socialist Union, rather it had given the Union more powers to allow party formation.
[edit] Syria
Arab socialism in Syria has its origins in the Arab Socialist Party. This party grew out of Syria's Hizb al-Shabab (Youth Party). In 1950, Akram al-Hawrani took over leadership of the party and changed its name to the Arab Socialist Party. After initial successes, the ASU was banned by Syria's de facto leader, Adib ash-Shishakli, in 1952, being considered by him a too powerful political rival. Akram went into exile in Lebanon, and there agreed on a merger with the Arab Ba'th Party. The new party was the Ba'ath Party.
In 1959, a Ba'th Party conference voted for a merger into the Arab Socialist Union within the United Arab Republic. However, dissent over union grew, and another conference, a year later, revesed the decision. This led to the fragmentation into a Nasserist pan-Arab ASU faction and the more nationalist Ba'th faction.
In 1973, the Syrian branch of the international ASU, broke away to form the Arab Socialist Union (Syria) as part of the National Progressive Front (Al-Jabha al-Wataniyyah at-Taqaddumiyyah), distancing itself from Anwar Sadat's policies in Egypt, on orders of the government of Hafez al-Assad. Today's Syrian ASU, which has little independent existence, is led by Safwan al-Qudsi. In the legislative elections, March 2, 2003, the NPF bloc was awarded 167 out of 250 seats in the parliament (majlis ash-sha'b), and of these seven belonged to the ASU. In the 22 April 2007 People's Council of Syria election the party was awarded 8 out of 250 seats in the parliament.
[edit] Libya
Many aspects of Muammar al-Gaddafi's Libyan revolution were based on that of Gamal Abdel Nasser. Like Nasser, Qaddafi seized power with a Free Officers Movement, which, in 1971 became the Arab Socialist Union. Like its Egyptian counterpart, the Libyan ASU was the sole legal party, and was designed as a vehicle for integrated national expression rather than as a political party. In 1972, Qaddafi pushed hard for the formation of a Federation of Arab Republics, combining Libya with Egypt and Syria under his leadership, but the plan never took off. 1974, saw an attept for union with Tunisia also fail.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Rami Ginat (1997). Egypt's Incomplete Revolution: Lutfi Al-Khuli and Nasser's Socialism in the 1960s. Routledge. ISBN 0714647381.
|
|||||||||||
