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Corrective Move

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For other revolutions with a similar name, see Corrective Revolution.
Corrective Move
Part of the Arab Cold War

Chairman and members of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Council after the corrective step on June 26, 1969. From left to right: Abdul Fattah Ismail, Muhammad Saleh Awlaki, Salemin, Ali Antar, Muhammad Ali Haitham
Date22 June 1969
Location
Aden, South Yemen
Result

Coup successful

Belligerents
Left-wing faction of the National Front Right-wing faction of the National Front
Commanders and leaders
Casualties and losses
None

The Corrective Move[1][2] (Arabic: الحركة التصحيحية, romanized: al-ḥaraka at-taṣḥīḥiyya), officially referred to as the Glorious Corrective Move[3][4] or as the Glorious Corrective Revolution,[5] was an internal bloodless coup that happened after the takeover of the ruling National Front (NF) party by the Marxist faction led by Abdel Fattah Ismail and Salim Rubaya Ali on 22 June 1969 that overthrew the then-President of South Yemen, Qahtan al-Shaabi.[2][6] The Marxist takeover later led to the creation of the Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP), and South Yemen's transformation into a Marxist-Leninist state.

Background

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Following South Yemen's independence from the British on 30 November 1967, the National Liberation Front, which got renamed to the National Front,[7] was divided into two factions; The Aden-based ruling right-wing faction advocating for a Capitalist system, and the Hadhramaut-based Socialist left-wing faction who based their opinions on Lenin's State and Revolution.[8][9] On 1 December 1967, the newly established state had announced its first 12-man cabinet, with Qahtan al-Shaabi becoming a compromise for the different sides, taking the post of President, Prime Minister, and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.[9][10][11] On 11 December 1967, Shaabi issued a decree confiscating all lands and all real estate from the sultans and former ministers of the Federation of South Arabia, and the previous laws were repealed. South Yemen was admitted to the Arab League and the United Nations.[12][10] On the other hand, the withdrawal of the British left more than 20,000 Yemenis unemployed, the closure of the Suez Canal deprived the capital city of Aden of 75% of its shipping and trade income. Furthermore, the British failure to fulfill their aid commitments led to the state losing 60% of its revenue.[9] The lack of experience of the new leaders worsened the economic decline and chaos.[10]

Fourth National Congress of the National Front

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On 30 January 1968, Abdullah al-Khamri, a member of the general board of directors of the National Front's newspaper, al-Thawri, published an article questioning the leadership of the National Front, titled "Are the Revolutionaries or the Opportunist in Power?", where he called for incitement against whom he called the "Opportunist." The published article wasn't revised by the other members of the board: Faysal al-Shaabi and Abdul Fattah Ismail, both of whom condemned the article. This incident created a feeling of distrust among members of the NF, leading to internal divisions. The leadership of the NF decided they would discuss those problems within the party's upcoming congress.[13]

The disagreements between the factions were planned to be resolved at the Fourth National Congress of the National Front.[10] The General Committee of the National Front announced a Preparatory Committee headed by Faysal al-Shaabi, Abdul Fattah Ismail, Ali Saleh Abad, and Abdullah al-Khamri, and they were given the task of meeting up and preparing the congress.[13] The committee never met to prepare for the congress, and Ali Nasir described the 6-week preparations for the congress as "chaotic". During the preparation period, Abdul Fattah Ismail announced that he would leave Yemen for Cairo, citing healthcare reasons. Ismail's announcement effectively disbanded the preparatory committee assigned by the General Committee of the National Front.[13] A new de facto committee was set up and headed by Nayef Hawatmeh and prepared the congress without referring to the leadership of the party.[13]

The congress was held 2–8 March 1968 in the city of Zinjibar of the Third Governorate.[8][9] Army members who were not members of the NF attended the congress, despite protests from the left-wing factions.[9] According to Ali Nasir, the congress was held "in a general atmosphere of toxicity."[13] The congress was considered a success for the left-wing factions whose position was based on a previous speech by Abdul Fattah Ismail, saying that South Yemen could either be ruled by the "petty bourgeoisie" or the "revolutionary forces." He argued that "the petty bourgeoisie was unable in this epoch of world history to fight imperialism and to carry through necessary economic and social development against the opposition of imperialism," and listed failures of the petty bourgeoisie such as the revolutions of 1848 and attacked the regiemes of Kwame Nkrumah and Sukarno who were recently overthrown and criticised the governments of Egypt, Algeria, Syria and Iraq, where he claimed that the petty bourgeoisie "had masked its dictatorship as 'socialism'."[9] The left's ideas of transforming the state into a People's Democracy, adopting scientific socialism and Anti-capitalism as the NF's main ideology resonated well for most of the attendees of the congress and won the left-wing the majority of the seats of the leadership of the party.[8][13] After the congress, the leftists were able to pass several other resolutions that obliged the government to use the "experience of world socialist regimes": for example, in addition to what has already been listed, they demanded to purge the army, police and state apparatus, create local People's Councils, "People's Army" and a "People's Militia", carry out agrarian reform and carry out other socialist changes. In exchange, they agreed to a "compromise leadership" of the country under the presidency of al-Shaabi.[10]

However, the army did not agree with this decision, as it was facing a purge. On March 20, 1968, a group of officers, with the consent of the army commander, Colonel Hussein Osman Aschal, arrested the leaders of the left wing of the General Committee, surrounded the presidential residence and demanded that a new government be formed to "liberate the country from the communist threat." But the officers did not have enough supporters, and al-Shaabi himself, for whom everything had started, distanced himself from the rebels, and the rebellion ultimately failed.[10]

Conflict in the National Front

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Eventually, a confrontation developed within the National Front leadership between the left wing, which advocated for "new reforms in the interests of Yemeni workers," and its right wing, which sought to preserve the current state apparatus with its management experience and grant broad powers to al-Shaabi.[10] The right-wing faction and their leader, Qahtan al-Shaabi, disagreed with the major changes that the left-wing faction was planning to perform in the prevailing social and economic structure, and took a conservative stance toward "liberating all Arab lands from colonialism, supporting the resistance of the Palestinian people, and supporting socialist regimes around the world to resist imperialism and colonial forces in the Third World."[14] The leftist faction of the National Front was also promoting the establishment of popular forces and proposals to nationalize lands. They were not preoccupied with the struggle of social classes. Qahtan wanted the continuation of existing institutions and their development.[14][15] The leftist faction "wanted a social and economic transformation that would serve the broad segment of the working people instead of the wealthy minority," as they put it.[16]

Soon al-Shaabi dismissed 150 officers and officials from the army and the state apparatus, and on March 25 published a law on agrarian reform, drawn up on the Egyptian model and limiting the size of landholdings: these actions did not suit either the right or the left. The opposition was already spreading from below: the so-called "Organization of True Partisans" demanded an end to the "riot of the communists", the student newspaper "Al-Unf al-Thawri" demanded that "ashtrays be made from the skulls of the bourgeoisie, and fertilizer from their bones".[10]

Leftist purge

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On 30 March 1968, the right-wing faction, unhappy with the results of the congress, staged a violent leftist purge to stop the implementation of the ideas that were brought up during the congress.[8] It led to their temporary dominance of the party,[6] but ultimately they failed to purge the left. At a rally in Aden on May 1, 1968, the participants were barely kept from clashing. Two days later, left-wing students and soldiers rebelled in Madinat Asha'ab district. The uprising was suppressed, but already on May 14, the left-wing tried to perform a counter-coup, led by Abdel Fattah Ismail and Salim Rubaya Ali:[6] 14 (out of 21) members of the General Committee gathered in Zinjibar and demanded that the president implement all the resolutions of the Fourth Congress. The situation reached a military confrontation, but it eventually failed too:[8] after negotiations with Ali Antar, al-Shaabi again agreed to a compromise - the participants of the uprising not only avoided repression, but also returned to their previous high positions.[10] The leftists and rightists together suppressed the anti-government uprisings and in October 1968 adopted the Program for Completing the Stage of National Democratic Liberation, which showed an even greater deviation to the left.[10]

Coup d'etat

[edit]

The Corrective Move aimed "to restore the revolution to its correct course", which was aligned with socialism through Marxism, and was significantly influenced by the Soviet Union.[6] The balance was upset on June 19, 1969, when the al-Shaabi dismissed Interior Minister Muhammad Ali Haitham, who had joined the left wing. The General Leadership declared this decision unilateral, taken without consultation with the Front leadership.[10]

After much debate, the president announced his resignation, and the General Leadership session immediately accepted it. Al-Shaabi went to the capital's radio station to address the population with his position, but the Front leadership saw this as an attempt to rouse their supporters to rebellion: the radio station was occupied by the military, and agitators arrived at the army and police barracks, who kept the armed forces from speaking out, and al-Shaabi was forced to abandon his intention, and the General Leadership argued for four days without interruption about the future of the country.

On 22 June 1969, it was announced that the President of South Yemen, al-Shaabi, was removed from all his posts. The post of president was abolished for a Presidential Council headed by Salim Rubaya Ali was formed to govern the state, and the post of Secretary General of the National Front passed to Abdel Fattah Ismail. At the end of November 1969, the General Leadership session expelled 20 former right-wing leaders from the organization, including the ousted president.[10] The left wing became in control of the state, launched radical reforms in the country, and the coup was considered a victory for progressive forces.

Reforms

[edit]

Government reforms

[edit]
Meeting of the newly formed Muhammad Ali Haitham government after the success of the coup in December 1969

South Yemen remained a Marxist-Leninist republic until unification in 1990. The NF continuously ruled the PDRY, and in 1978 it became the Yemeni Socialist Party. Pursuing socialist policies, the ruling party transformed South Yemen into a welfare state with good education, women's rights and low corruption.[17][18][19][20][21][22][23] The new government actively worked to eliminate the "parasitic and bourgeois" classes of society, such as sheikhs, sultans, etc.[6] In 1986, the country faced another party split and a bloody coup attempt.[24][25]

Agrarian reforms

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On November 27, 1969, the government nationalized the country's main economic sectors. According to the decree that nationalized them, all foreign monopolies in the commercial, financial, and banking sectors of the local economy were abolished and transferred to the state sector.[6]

Salemin, Abdul Fattah Ismail and Ali Nasir Muhammad during the peasant revolt they organized, 1970

The Marxist government soon organized several peasant uprisings in the country. This was done to prepare the necessary ground for the implementation of socialist reforms in agriculture. The first of these took place on 3 October 1970 in the southern regions and was followed by similar uprisings in other parts of the country.[6] Later, the government issued the "Decree on Agrarian Reform". This Decree greatly increased the importance of the public cooperative sector, for example, by creating several state farms and agricultural cooperatives. In July 1971, the government organized the first "Poor Peasants' Congress," which adopted a number of resolutions and recommendations, all of which were aimed at "solving the agricultural issue in the interests of farmers and poor peasants through peasant uprisings and the march towards the establishment and formation of public cooperatives".[6] Five years later, the government organized a "Constituent Congress," which in turn created the Union of Democratic Yemeni Peasants. All these measures gave a noticeable boost to agriculture: according to official data, the growth of the agricultural sector was 70 percent. The First Five-Year Plan made significant progress in modernizing agriculture. The production of eggs, chicken, dairy products, vegetables and fruits has increased significantly.[6]

Health care reforms

[edit]
Yemeni nurse

The new government emphasized the importance of adopting policies aimed at modernizing health care and providing it to all its citizens. For example, in the reports to the so-called "Unification Congress", the need was noted for such things as: training and development of medical personnel, the establishment of several medical institutes, as well as the opening of hospitals and other medical centers in all governorates of South Yemen.[6]

Electrification

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Since Britain did not attempt to electrify anything outside Aden, after their (and their specialists) flight in 1967, the whole country was in complete darkness (except for Aden itself). As a result, the Socialist authorities created the so-called "Public Corporation for Electric Power" (abbreviated PCEP).[6] The main goals of the PCEP in the early stages were to restart the power plants, connect them to the general electricity grid, and establish a center to train Yemeni personnel to work with electricity. Soon, the government and the PCEP launched three and five-year plans aimed at increasing electricity production to meet the needs of the South Yemenis.[6]

Social reforms

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Yemeni girls in school

Despite the conservative environment and resistance, women became legally equal to men, polygamy, child marriage and arranged marriage were all banned by law and equal rights in divorce were sanctioned; all supported and protected by the state-affiliated General Union of Yemeni Women.[26] The Republic also secularised education and sharia law was replaced by a state legal code.[27] Slavery in Yemen, which had been abolished in North Yemen by the 1962 revolution, was now abolished also in South Yemen.[28]

References

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  1. ^ a b Halliday, Fred (April 1985). Aspects of South Yemen's foreign policy, 1967–1982 (Thesis).
  2. ^ a b Burrowes, R.D. (2010). Historical Dictionary of Yemen. Scarecrow Press. p. 390. ISBN 9780810855281. Retrieved 2015-08-13.
  3. ^ Brehony, N. (2013). Yemen Divided: The Story of a Failed State in South Arabia. I. B. Tauris. p. 45. ISBN 9781780764917. Retrieved 2015-08-13.
  4. ^ Müller, Miriam M. (2015), "Phase II: The Phase of Establishment and Expansion 1969 to 1978 Incorporating Marxism-Leninism into a Tribal Society", A Spectre is Haunting Arabia, How the Germans Brought Their Communism to Yemen, transcript Verlag, pp. 265–296, ISBN 978-3-8376-3225-5, retrieved 2024-12-31
  5. ^ Burrowes, Robert D. (2010). Historical dictionary of Yemen. Historical dictionaries of Asia, Oceania, and the Middle East (2nd ed.). Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-5528-1.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Mehra, R. N. (1978). "Democratic Yemen (South Yemen) Under Marxist Rule (1968–1978)-a Case Study". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 39: 895–901. ISSN 2249-1937. JSTOR 44139436.
  7. ^ Stookey, Robert W. (1982). South Yemen: A Marxist Republic in Arabia (PDF). Westview Press. pp. 61–67. ISBN 978-0-7099-2356-5.
  8. ^ a b c d e الوثيقة النقدية التحليلة لتجربة الثورة في اليمن الديمقراطي [The Critical Analysis of the Revolutionary Experience in Democratic Yemen] (in Arabic). Aden: Dar al-Hamdani. 1987. pp. 11–15.
  9. ^ a b c d e f Halliday, Fred (2013-10-04). Arabia Without Sultans. Saqi. pp. 232–239. ISBN 978-0-86356-714-8.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Герасимов О.Г. — М.: Наука, 1979. — 226 с. — 1900 экз. Йеменская революция 1962-1975 гг. Проблемы и суждения [The Yemeni Revolution 1962-1975. Problems and judgments.] (in Russian).{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  11. ^ Бараночников А. // Ежегодник Большой советской энциклопедии. — М.: Государственное научное издательство «Советская энциклопедия», 1968. — С. 329-330. Народная Республика Южного Йемена.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. ^ Фатис В. Народная Республика Южного Йемена // Ежегодник Большой советской энциклопедии. — М.: Государственное научное издательство «Советская энциклопедия», 1970. — С. 319-320. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ a b c d e f Muhammad, Ali Nasir (2020). ذاكرة وطن: جمهورية اليمن الديمقراطية الشعبيية [Memory of the Nation - People's Democratic Republic of Yemen] (PDF) (in Arabic) (1st ed.). Baghdad: al-Mada.
  14. ^ a b Halliday, Fred (2002-04-04). Revolution and Foreign Policy: The Case of South Yemen, 1967–1987. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-89164-6.
  15. ^ Dijk, Ruud van, ed. (2008). Encyclopedia of the Cold War. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-97515-5. OCLC 173480626.
  16. ^ Brehony, Noel (2013). Yemen divided: the story of a failed state in South Arabia. London New York: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-78076-491-7.
  17. ^ Lackner, Helen (4 July 2017). "The People's Democratic Republic of Yemen: Unique Socialist Experiment in the Arab World at a Time of World Revolutionary Fervour". Interventions. 19 (5): 677–691. doi:10.1080/1369801X.2017.1336465. S2CID 159661566. Archived from the original on 3 October 2022. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
  18. ^ Lackner, Helen (8 April 2022). "Yemen's Socialist Experiment Was a Political Landmark for the Arab World". Jacobin. Archived from the original on 3 October 2022. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
  19. ^ Lackner, Helen (2017-07-04). "The People's Democratic Republic of Yemen: Unique Socialist Experiment in The Arab World at a Time of World Revolutionary Fervour". Interventions. 19 (5): 689. doi:10.1080/1369801X.2017.1336465. ISSN 1369-801X. S2CID 159661566. Archived from the original on 7 November 2023. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  20. ^ "منبر عدن في ذكرى محو الأمية – أحمد ناصر حميدان". المهرية نت. Retrieved 2024-09-16.
  21. ^ Times, Marvine Howe; Special to The New York (26 May 1979). "Marxist Regime in South Yemen Showing Improvement in Quality of Life in Villages (Published 1979)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 25 April 2021. Retrieved 17 December 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  22. ^ "Women's rights in Yemen". Offiziere.ch. 4 July 2017. Archived from the original on 22 April 2021. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  23. ^ "How Yemen's Dream of Unity Turned Sour". jacobinmag.com. Archived from the original on 28 April 2021. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  24. ^ Headsman (2018-12-29). "1987: Five in South Yemen for the Events of '86 | Executed Today". Retrieved 2025-03-06.
  25. ^ Burrowes, Robert D. (1989). "Oil Strike and Leadership Struggle in South Yemen: 1986 and Beyond". Middle East Journal. 43 (3): 437–454. ISSN 0026-3141.
  26. ^ Lackner, Helen (1985). PDR Yemen: outpost of socialist development in Arabia. London: Ithaca Pr. ISBN 978-0-86372-032-1.
  27. ^ Cigar, Norman (1990). "Islam and the State in South Yemen: The Uneasy Coexistence". Middle Eastern Studies. 26 (2): 185–203. ISSN 0026-3206.
  28. ^ Miers, Suzanne (2003). Slavery in the twentieth century: the evolution of a global problem. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press. ISBN 978-0-7591-0339-9.
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