Ba'athism

Ba'athism
The flag of the Baath Party, based on theflag of the Arab Revolt
Ideology	Arab nationalism Arab socialism Pan-Arabism Progressivism Republicanism Anti-imperialism Anti-Zionism Secularism Left-wing nationalism Socialism
Political position	Left-wing

Ba'athism,also spelledBaathism,is anArab nationalistideologywhich promotes the creation and development of aunified Arab statethrough the leadership of avanguard partyover asocialist revolutionarygovernment. The ideology is officially based on the theories of theSyrianintellectualsMichel Aflaq(per theIraqi-led Ba'ath Party),Zaki al-Arsuzi(per theSyrian-led Ba'ath Party), andSalah al-Din al-Bitar.Ba'athist leaders of the modern era include the formerpresident of IraqSaddam Hussein,formerpresident of SyriaHafez al-Assad,and his son, the current president of Syria,Bashar al-Assad.

The Ba'athist ideology advocates the "enlightenmentof theArabs"as well as therenaissanceoftheir culture,values and society. It also advocates the creation ofone-party statesand rejectspolitical pluralismin an unspecified length of time—the Ba'ath party theoretically uses an unspecified amount of time to develop an "enlightened" Arabic society. Ba'athism is based on the principles ofsecularism,Arab nationalism,pan-Arabism,andArab socialism.

Ba'athism advocatessocialisteconomic policies such as state ownership of natural resources,protectionism,distribution of lands to peasants, andplanned economies.Although inspired by Western socialist thinkers, early Ba'athist theoreticians rejected theMarxistclass-struggleconcept, arguing that it hampers Arab unity. Ba'athists contend that socialism is the only way to develop modern Arab society and unite it.

The two Ba'athist states which have existed (IraqandSyria) prevented criticism of their ideology throughauthoritarianmeans of governance. Ba'athist Syria has been labelled "neo-Ba'athist"because the form of Ba'athism developed by the leadership of theSyrian Ba'ath partyis quite distinct from the Ba'athism which Aflaq and Bitar wrote about.

History

Zaki Arsuzi,politician who influenced Ba'athist thought and, after theBa'ath Partysplintered, became the chief ideologist of theSyrian-dominated Ba'ath Party

Ba'athism originated in the political thought of Syrian philosophersMichel Aflaq,Salah al-Din al-Bitar,andZaki Arsuzi.They are considered the founders of the ideology, despite forming different organizations. In the 1940s, Bitar and Aflaq co-founded theBa'ath Party,while Arsuzi founded theArab National Partyand later theArab Ba'ath.The closest they ever came to being members of the same organization was in 1939, when, together with Michel Quzman, Shakir al-As and Ilyas Qandalaft, they briefly tried to establish a party.The party likely failed due to personal animosity between Arsuzi and Aflaq.

Arsuzi formed the Arab Ba'ath in 1940 and his views influenced Aflaq, who alongside the more junior Bitar founded theArab Ihya Movementin 1940, later renamed the Arab Ba'ath Movement in 1943.Though Aflaq was influenced by him, Arsuzi initially did not cooperate with Aflaq's movement. Arsuzi suspected that the existence of the Arab Ihya Movement, which occasionally titled itself "Arab Ba'ath" during 1941, was part of an imperialist plot to prevent his influence over the Arabs by creating a movement of the same name.

Arsuzi was an Arab fromAlexandrettawho had been associated withArab nationalistpolitics during theinterwar period.He was inspired by theFrench Revolution,theGermanandItalian unificationmovements, and theJapanese economic "miracle".His views were influenced by a number of prominent European philosophical and political figures, among themGeorg Hegel,Karl Marx,Friedrich NietzscheandOswald Spengler.

Arsuzi left theLeague of Nationalist Action(LNA) in 1939 after its popular leader died and the party fell into disarray, founding the short-lived Arab National Party. It dissolved later that year.On 29 November 1940, Arsuzi founded theArab Ba'ath.A significant conflict and turning point in the development of Ba'athism occurred when Arsuzi's and Aflaq's movements sparred over the1941 Iraqi coup d'etatbyRashid Ali Al-Gaylaniand the subsequentAnglo-Iraqi War.Aflaq's movement supported Gaylani's government and the Iraqi government's war against the British and organized volunteers to go to Iraq and fight for the Iraqi government. However, Arsuzi opposed Gaylani's government, considering the coup to be poorly planned and a failure. Because of this, Arsuzi's party lost members and support that transferred to Aflaq's movement.Arsuzi's direct influence in Arab politics collapsed afterVichy Frenchauthorities expelled him from Syria in 1941.

Aflaq's Arab Ba'ath Movement's next major political action was its support ofLebanon's war of independence from France in 1943.Still, the movement did not solidify for years until it held its first party congress in 1947 and formally merged with Arsuzi's Arab Ba'ath Party.Although socialist values existed in the two Ba'ath movements from their inception, they weren't emphasized until the party merged withAkram Al-Hawrani'sArab Socialist Movementin 1953.

Taking advantage of the chaotic years of the 1950s and 1960s, theMilitary Committee of the Syrian Ba'ath party,led by its civilian leadership, launched acoup in 1963that established aone-party statein Syria.In 1966, the military wing of the Syrian Ba'ath initiatedanother coupwhich overthrew the Old Guard led by Aflaq and Bitar, resulting in a schism within theBa'athist movement:oneSyrian-dominatedand oneIraqi-dominated.Scholar Ofra Bengio claims that as a consequence of the split, Arsuzi took Aflaq's place as the official father of Ba'athist thought in the pro-Syrian Ba'ath movement, while in the pro-Iraqi Ba'ath movement Aflaq was still considered thede jurefather of Ba'athist thought.The Iraqi Ba'ath wing granted asylum to Aflaq after seizing power through thecoup of 1968.

TheAl-Assad familyandSaddam Husseinemerged dominant in the Syrian and Iraqi Ba'ath parties, respectively, eventually buildingpersonalist dictatorshipsin the two countries. Hostilities between the two Ba'ath movements lasted until the death ofHafez al-Assadin 2000, after which his successorBashar al-Assadpursued reconciliation with Iraq.

Throughout their reigns, the two Ba'athistautocraciesbuiltpolice statesthat enforcedmass surveillanceand ideological indoctrination and subordinated allstudent organisations,trade unions,and othercivil society institutionsto the party and the state. Both regimes pursuedArabizationof ethnic minorities and legitimized theirauthoritarian ruleby implanting conspiratorialanti-Zionist,anti-Western sentimentsupon the citizens.

In Iraq, Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003 during theUnited States invasion,and theIraqi Ba'ath partywas subsequently banned under the newDe-Ba'athification policy.In Syria, adeadly civil warbegan after Bashar al-Assad's brutal crackdown of the2011 Syrian revolution,which continues to this day.

Definition

Michel Aflaqis today considered the founder of the Ba'athist movement, or at least its most notable contributor.Other notable ideologues includeZaki Arsuzi,who influenced Aflaq, andSalah al-Din al-Bitar,who worked directly with Aflaq. From the founding of theArab Ba'ath Movementuntil the mid-1950s inSyriaand the early 1960s inIraq,the ideology of theBa'ath Partywas largely synonymous with that of Aflaq's. For more than 2 decades, Michel Aflaq's 1940 essay compilation, titled, "Fi Sabil al-Ba’ath"(trans:" The Road to Renaissance ") was the primary ideological book of theBa'ath party.Additionally, Aflaq's views onArab nationalismare considered by some, such as historian Paul Salem of theMiddle East Institute,as romantic and poetic.

Aflaq's ideology was developed in the context ofdecolonisationand other events in theArab worldduring his life. It recast conservative Arab nationalist thought to reflect strong revolutionary and progressive themes. For example, Aflaq insisted on the overthrow of the old ruling classes and supported the creation of asecular societyby separatingIslamfrom the state. Not all these ideas were his, but it was Aflaq who succeeded in turning these beliefs into a transnational movement.

The core basis of Ba'athism isArab socialism,socialismwith Arab characteristics which is separate from the international socialist movement andpan-Arabideology.Ba'athism as developed by Aflaq and Bitar is a uniqueleft-wing,Arab-centric ideology. It claims to represent the "Arab spirit againstmaterialisticcommunism"and" Arab history against deadreaction".It holds ideological similarity and a favourable outlook to theNon-Aligned Movementpolitics of Indian leaderJawaharlal Nehru,Egyptian leaderGamal Abdel Nasser,and Yugoslavian leaderJosip Broz Titoand historically opposed affiliation with either theAmerican-ledWestern Blocor theSoviet-ledEastern Blocduring theCold War.

Concepts

Arab nation

Michel Aflaq,the founder of Ba'athist thought who, after the Ba'ath Party splintered, became the chief ideologist for theIraqi-dominated Ba'ath Party.

Michel Aflaqsupported theArab nationalistSati' al-Husri's view that language was the principal defining and unifying factor of the "Arab nation" because language led to the unity of thought, norms and ideals. History was another unifying feature for them, as it was the "fertile ground in which our consciousness took shape".The centre of Aflaq's Ba'athist thought was the featurebaʽth(literally meaning "renaissance").

This renaissance, according to Aflaq, could only be reached by uniting the Arab nation, and it would transform the Arab world politically, economically, intellectually, and morally. This "future renaissance" would be a "rebirth", while the first Arab renaissance had been the seventh-century emergence ofIslam,according to Aflaq. The new renaissance would bring another Arab message, summed up in the Ba'ath party's slogan, "One Nation, Bearing an Eternal Message".

Aflaq thought that the Arab nation could only reach this renaissance through a revolutionary process towards the goals of "unity, liberty, and socialism".In Aflaq's view, a nation could only "progress" or "decline",and Arab states of his time were consistently declining because of their "illnesses" — "feudalism,sectarianism,regionalism,intellectualreactionism".These problems, Aflaq believed, could only be resolved through a revolutionary process, and a revolution could only succeed if the revolutionaries were pure and devoted nearly religiously to the task. Aflaq supported theLeninistview of the need for avanguard partyfollowing a successful revolution, which was not an "inevitable outcome".In Ba'athist ideology, the vanguard was the Ba'ath party.

Aflaq believed that the youth were the key for a successful revolution. The youth were open to change and enlightenment because they still had not been indoctrinated with other views. According to Aflaq, a major problem was the disillusionment of the Arab youth. Disillusionment led toindividualismand individualism was not a healthy sign in anunderdeveloped country,in contrast todeveloped countries,where it was seen as a healthy sign.

The party's main task before the revolution was to spread enlightened ideas to the people and to challenge reactionary and conservative elements in society. According to Aflaq, a Ba'ath party would ensure a policy of proselytization to keep the uneducated masses out of the party until the party leadership was imbued with the thoughts of enlightenment. However, the party was also a political organisation, and, as Aflaq notes, politics was "a means [... and] is the most serious of matters at this present stage".Ba'athism was similar to Leninist thought in that a vanguard party would rule for an unspecified length to construct a "new society".

Aflaq supported the idea of a committed activist revolutionary party based on the Leninist model,which in practice was based ondemocratic centralism.The revolutionary party would seize political power and from there on transform society for the greater good. While the revolutionary party was numerically a minority, it was an all-powerful institution which had the right to initiate a policy, even if the majority of the population were against it. As with the Leninist model, the Ba'ath party would dictate what was right and what was wrong, since the general population were still influenced by the old value and moral system.

Reactionary classes

According to Aflaq, theArab Revolt(1916–1918) against theOttoman Empirefailed to unify theArab worldbecause it was led by areactionaryclass. He believed the ruling class, who supported the monarchy as the leaders of the Arab Revolt did, were synonymous with a reactionary class. In Ba'athist ideology, the ruling class is replaced by a revolutionary progressive class. Aflaq was bitterly opposed to any kind of monarchy and described the Arab Revolt as "the illusions of kings and feudal lords who understood unity as the gathering of backwardness to backwardness, exploitation to exploitation and numbers to numbers like sheep".

According to Aflaq, it was the reactionary class's view of Arab unity which had left the Arab Revolt "struggling for unity without blood and nerve".He saw theGerman unificationas proof of this, putting him at odds with some Arab nationalists who wereGermanophiles.In Aflaq's view,Bismarck's unification of Germany established the most repressive nation the world had ever seen, a development which could largely be blamed on the existing monarchy and the reactionary class. To copy the German example, he thought, would be disastrous and would lead to the enslavement of the Arab people.

The only way to combat the reactionary classes lay in "progressive" revolution, Aflaq claimed, central to which is the struggle for unity. This struggle could not be separated from the social revolution, for to separate these two would be to weaken the movement. The reactionary classes, who are content with thestatus quo,would oppose the "progressive" revolution. Even if the revolution succeeded in one "region" (country), that region would be unable to develop because of the resource constraints, small populations and anti-revolution forces held by other Arab leaders. For a revolution to succeed, the Arab world would have to evolve into an "organic whole" (literally become one). In short, Aflaq though that Arab unity would be both the cause of the progressive revolution and its effect.

A major obstacle to the success of the revolution in Aflaq's mind was theArab League.He believed that the Arab League strengthened both regional interests and the reactionary classes, thus weakening the chance of establishing an Arab nation. Because the majority of Arab states were under the rule of the reactionary classes, Aflaq revised his ideology to meet reality. Instead of creating an Arab nation through an Arab-wide progressive revolution, the main task would be of progressive revolutionaries spreading the revolution from one Arab country to the next. Once successfully transformed, the created progressive revolutionary countries would then one by one unite until the Arab world had evolved into a single Arab nation. The revolution would not succeed if the progressive revolutionary governments did not contribute to spreading the revolution.

Liberty

Liberty is not a luxury in the life of the nation but its basis and its essence and its meaning.

— Aflaq in a speech dated to 1959

Fundamentally, Aflaq had anauthoritarianperspective onliberty.In contrast to theliberal democraticconcept of liberty, in Aflaq's vision, liberty would be ensured by a Ba'ath party which was not elected by the populace because the party had the common good at heart. Historian Paul Salem considered the weakness of such a system "quite obvious".

Aflaq saw liberty as one of the defining features of Ba'athism. Articulation of thoughts and the interaction between individuals were a way of building a new society. According to Aflaq, it was liberty which created new values and thoughts.Aflaq believed that living underimperialism,colonialism,or a religious or non-enlightened dictatorship weakened liberty as ideas came from above, not from below through human interaction. One of the Ba'ath party's main priorities, according to Aflaq, was to disseminate new ideas and thoughts and to give individuals the liberty they needed to pursue ideas. To do this, the party would interpose itself between the Arab people and both their foreign imperialist oppressors and those forms of tyranny that arise within Arab society.

While the notion of liberty was an important ideal to Aflaq, he favored the Leninist model of a continuous revolutionary struggle and he did not develop concepts for a society in which liberty was protected by a set of institutions and rules. His vision of aone-party stateruled by the Ba'ath party, which disseminated information to the public, was in many ways contrary to his view on individual interactions. The Ba'ath party through its preeminence would establish "liberty". According to Aflaq, liberty could not just come from nowhere as it needed an enlightened progressive group to create a truly free society.

Socialism

Main article:Arab socialism

We did not adopt socialism out of books, abstractions, humanism, or pity, but rather out of need... for the Arab working class is the mover of history in this period.

— Aflaq's view on the necessity of socialism

Socialismis an important pillar of the Ba'athist programme. Although influenced by Western socialists andMarxistparties, the Ba'ath party founders constructed a socialist vision which they believed to be more adaptable toArab historicalcontext. Articles 26–37 of the 1947Ba'ath PartyCharter outlines the key principles of Ba'athist socialism.Some of them are:

"

• Article 26: The Arab Ba'ath Party is socialist, believing that the economic wealth of the homeland belongs to thenation.
• Article 27: The present distribution of wealth in the Arab homeland is unjust. It will therefore be reviewed and distributed among the citizens in a just manner...
• Article 29: Public utility institutions, major natural resources, the principalmeans of productionand transport are the property of the nation and will be administered by the state directly. Companies and foreign concessions will be abolished.
• Article 30: Agricultural property will be fixed in proportion to the owner's ability to exploit it fully without exploiting the effort of others, under the supervision of the state and in accordance with its general economic programme.
• Article 31: Small industrial property will be fixed proportionately to the economic standards enjoyed by other citizens in the state.
• Article 32: Workers will participate in the management of the factory and will be granted, in addition to their wages which will be fixed by the state, a share of the profits of the factory in a proportion to be fixed by the state...
• Article 35:Usurybetween citizens will be forbidden and asingle government bankwill be founded which will issue the currency..
• Article 36: The state will directly supervise internal and foreign trade in order to abolish exploitation between consumer and producer, and in order to protect trade and national production from foreign competition. "
  — Constitution of Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party (1947),

Michel Aflaq was a deep admirer ofMarxisttenets, and he considered the Marxist concept of the importance of material economic conditions in life to be one of modern humanity's greatest discoveries.However, he disagreed with the Marxist view thatdialectical materialismwas the only truth, as Aflaq believed that Marxism had forgotten human spirituality. While believing that the concept would work for small and weak societies, he thought that the concept of dialectical materialism as the only truth in Arab development was wrong.

For a people as spiritual as the Arabs, theworking classwas just a group, albeit the most important group, in a much larger movement to free the Arab nation. UnlikeKarl Marx,Aflaq was uncertain what place the working class had in history. In contrast to Marx, Aflaq also believed innationalismand believed that in the Arab world, all classes, not just the working class, were working againstcapitalist domination of the foreign powers.What was a struggle between various classes in the West was in the Arab world a fight for political and economic independence.

For Aflaq, socialism was a necessary means to accomplish the goal of initiating an Arabic "renaissance"period, in other words, a period of modernisation. While unity brought the Arab world together and liberty provided the Arab people with freedom, socialism was the cornerstone which made unity and liberty possible as no socialism meant no revolution. In Aflaq's view, aconstitutional democratic systemwould not succeed in a country such asSyriathat was dominated by a "pseudo-feudalist" economic system in which the repression of the peasant nullified the people's political liberty. Liberty meant little to nothing to the general poverty-stricken populace of Syria, and Aflaq saw socialism as the solution to their plight.

According to Aflaq, the ultimate goal of socialism was not to answer the question of how muchstate controlwas necessary or economic equality, but instead socialism was "a means to satisfy the animal needs of man so he can be free to pursue his duties as a human being". In other words, socialism was a system which freed the population from enslavement and created independent individuals. However, economic equality was a major tenet in Ba'athist ideology, as the elimination of inequality would "eliminate all privilege, exploitation, and domination by one group over another". In short, if liberty was to succeed, the Arab people needed socialism.

Aflaq labeled this form of socialismArab socialismto signify that it existed in harmony with and was in some ways subordinate toArab nationalism.According to Aflaq, who was aChristian,theteaching and reforms of Muhammadhad given socialism an authentic Arab expression. Socialism was viewed by Aflaq as justice, and the reforms of Muhammad were both just and wise. According to Aflaq, modern Ba'athists would initiate another way of just and radical forms just as Muhammad had done in the seventh century.

Role of Islam

Europe is as fearful of Islam today as she has been in the past. She now knows that the strength of Islam (which in the past expressed that of the Arabs) has been reborn and has appeared in a new form: Arab nationalism.

— From one of Aflaq's works dating back to 1943 about Islam's character

Though a Christian, Aflaq viewed the creation of Islam as proof of "Arab genius" and a testament of Arab culture, values, and thought.According to Aflaq, the essence of Islam was its revolutionary qualities.Aflaq called on all Arabs, both Muslims and non-Muslims alike, to admire the role Islam had played in creating an Arab character, but his view on Islam was purely spiritual and Aflaq emphasized that it "should not be imposed" on state and society. Time and again, Aflaq emphasized that the Ba'ath party was againstatheism,but also againstfundamentalism,as the fundamentalists represented a "shallow, false faith".

According to Ba'athist ideology, all religions were equal. Despite his anti-atheist stance, Aflaq was a strong supporter ofseculargovernment and stated a Ba'athist state would replace religion with a state "based on a foundation, Arab nationalism, and a moral; freedom".During theShiariots against the Iraqi Ba'ath government in the late-1970s,Aflaq warnedSaddam Husseinof making any concessions to the rioters, exclaiming that the Ba'ath Party "is with [religious] faith, but is not a religious party, nor should it be one".During his vice presidency, at the time of the Shia riots, Saddam discussed the need to convince large segments of the population to convert to theparty line's stance on religion.

When Aflaq died in 1989, an official announcement by theIraqi Regional Commandstated that Aflaq had converted to Islam before his death, but an unnamed Western diplomat in Iraq told William Harristhat Aflaq's family was not aware that he had undergone any religious conversion.Prior to, during, and after theGulf Warof 1990–91, the government became progressively more Islamic, and by the beginning of the 1990s, Saddam proclaimed the Ba'ath party to be the party "of Arabism and Islam".

Neo-Ba'athism

See also:Ba'ath Party (Syrian-dominated faction)

"Much likeVaclav Havel's description inThe Power of the Powerlessof life under atotalitarian regimewhich 'demands conformity, uniformity and discipline'...Syrian regimenarrated a reality all of its own – far removed from reality itself – derived from its ownideology,creating 'a world of appearances' that perpetuated its power and dominance over its people. Constructing a reality that was 'permeated with hypocrisy and lies' where... 'the repression of culture is called its development'... its people were forced to ‘live within a lie’... It was not important whether or not a person truly believed these lies; ultimately, it was whether they acted asthoughthey did. "

—Tamara Al-Om, British-Syrian political scientist

Israelihistorian Avraham Ben-Tzur labeled theBa'ath Partywhich took power in the1963 Syrian coup d'étatas the "Neo-Ba'ath", claiming they had gone beyond theirpan-Arabideological basis by stressing the preeminence of the military apparatus.This ideological transformation was continued after the1966 Syrian coup d'état,led by radical leftist officers includingSalah JadidandHafez al-Assad,which moved the party further into amilitarist"neo-Ba'ath" organization that became independent of theNational Commandof theunified Ba'ath party.Following its violent seizure of power, which resulted in the deaths of approximately 400 people,the neo-Ba'athistmilitary committeepurged the classical Ba'athist leaders of the old guard, includingMichel AflaqandSalah al-Din Bitar.The coup led a permanent schism between the Syrian andIraqi regional branchesof the Ba'ath Party, and many Syrian Ba'athist leaders defected to Iraq.

In the original Ba'ath ideology, pan-Arabism was the means to reach the end of both economic and social transformation. As an early party document states, "[s]ocialismis the true goal of Arab unity... Arab unity is the obligatory basis for constructing a socialist society ".With the rise of the Syrian neo-Ba'athists, however, this focus shifted. As American scholar John F. Devlin writes, the "Ba'ath Party, which started with unity as its overwhelming top priority, which was prepared to work within a variety of Middle Eastern political systems, which wanted social justice in society, had pretty much disappeared by the early 1960s. In its place rose Ba'ath organisations which focused primarily on their own region, which advocated, and created where possible,authoritarian centralisedgovernments, which rested heavily on military power and which were very close to other socialist movements and were less distinctively Ba'athist ".

Syrian neo-Ba'athist leaderSalah Jadid(right) alongsideMichel Aflaq(centre), 1963

Munif al-Razzaz,the former Secretary General of the National Command of the unitary Ba'ath Party, agreed with the distinction of "neo-Ba'ath", writing that from 1961 onwards there existed two Ba'ath parties: "the military Ba'ath Party and the Ba'ath Party, and real power lay with the former".According to Razzaz, the military Ba'ath (as paraphrased by Martin Seymour) "was and remains Ba'athist only in name; that it was and remains little more than a military clique with civilian hangers-on; and that from the initial founding of the Military Committee by disgruntled Syrian officers exiled inCairoin 1959, the chain of events and the total corruption of Ba'athism proceeded with intolerable logic ".Salah al-Din al-Bitar,a member of the Ba'ath old guard, agreed, stating that the1966 Syrian coup d'état"marked the end of Ba'athist politics in Syria". Ba'ath party founderMichel Aflaqshared the sentiment by stating, "I no longer recognise my party!"

The coup left Salah Jadid in power, and under him, the Syrian government abandoned the traditional goal of pan-Arab unity and replaced it with a radical form of Western socialism. Thefar-leftshift was reflected strongly in the ideological propaganda of the new government, marked by widespread usage of terminology such as "class struggle"and"people's war"(itself aMaoistterm, as theSix-Day Warwas proclaimed as a "people's war" against Israel).TheSyrian Communist Partyplayed an important role in Jadid's government, with somecommunistsholding ministerial posts,and Jadid established "fairly close relations" with theCommunist Party of the Soviet Union.The government supported a more radical economic program including state ownership over industry andforeign trade,while at the same time trying to restructure agrarian relations and production.

During Jadid's rule, neo-Ba'athist ideologues openly denounced religion as a source of what they considered the "backwardness" of the Arabs.The Jadid regime wasanti-religiousand imposed severe restrictions on religious freedom, banning religious preaching and persecuting the clergy.Neo-Ba'athists viewed the religious clerics asclass enemiesto be liquidated by the Ba'athist state.The party disseminated the doctrine of the "Arab SocialistNew Man",which conceptualised the" new Arab man "as an atheist who campaigned forsocialist revolutionand rejectedreligion,feudalism,imperialism,capitalism,and every value of the old social order.

In 1968, Al-Bitar left the Ba'ath movement, claiming that "these parties had ceased to be what they set up to be, retaining only their names and acting as the organs of power and the instruments of regional anddictatorialgovernments ".Contrary to expectations, Aflaq remained with the Ba'ath movement and became the ideologue of the Iraqi-dominated Ba'ath movement. His ideological views remained more or less the same, but in Iraq he was sidelined politically.In post-1966 Syria, the real centre of power had been vested in the neo-Ba'athist military committee. A tense power rivalry existed between Salah Jadid and Hafez al-Assad, with the former as the leader of civilian Ba'athists while the latter increased his control of the military-wing of the party and various army units.The rivalry culminated in the bloodless 1970Corrective Revolution,a military coup that placed Assad in power.

Assadism

Ba'athist leaderHafez al-Assadalongside his brotherRifaat al-Assadat a military ceremony inDamascus,1984

Assadism (Assadiyah) is a neo-Ba'athist ideology based on the policies of Hafez al-Assad after his seizure of power in the 1970 coup, described in official Ba'athist history as theCorrective Movement.It enshrines theAssad family's leadership role in Syrian politics and constructed the Assad regime in a highlypersonalistfashion, creating a government based upon and revolving around its leader. Under this socio-political system, the Ba'ath party portrays the wisdom of Assad as "beyond the comprehension of the average citizen".Through this apparatus, also known as the "Ba'atho-Assadist system",the Ba'ath party instrumentalizes its control over Syria's political, social, economic, cultural, educational and religious spheres to enforce its neo-Ba'athist ideology in the wider society and preserve the Assad family's grip on power. The goal of General Assad was to consolidate thesocialist statewith the Ba'ath party as its vanguard by establishing a "coup-proof" system that eliminated factional rivalries. As soon as he seized power, the armed forces,secret police,security forces, and bureaucracy were purged, subjugating them to party command by installing Ba'athist elites loyal to Assad.

The neo-Ba'athist, Assadist system has controlled Syrian politics since the 1970 coup. It is largely built uponnepotismand ethnic favoritism. For example, Hafez al-Assad began the ethnoreligiousAlawitizationof the party and the military, and he also built a government based on loyalty to the leader's family.Jamal al-Atassi,co-founder ofZaki al-Arsuzi's earlyArab Ba'ath Partyand later Syrian dissident, stated that "Assadism is a falsenationalism.It's the domination of a minority, and I'm not talking just of the Alawites, who control the society's nervous system. I include also the army and themukhabarat.[...] And despite itssocialistslogans, the state is run by a class who has made a fortune without contributing—anouvellebourgeoisieparasitaire".Assadism is less an ideology than acult of personality,but it is the closest thing the Syrian government has to an all-encompassing belief system, since both Ba'athist and Arab nationalist beliefs of old have been watered down to not hurt the government'spopulistcredentials.State propaganda characterises Assadism as a neo-Ba'athist current that evolved Ba'athist ideology with the needs of the modern era.

Iraqi Ba'athism

See also:Ba'ath Party (Iraqi-dominated faction)

Saddamism

Saddam Hussein(right) talking withMichel Aflaq(left) in 1988.

Main article:Saddamism

Saddamismis a political ideology based on the politics related to and pursued bySaddam Hussein.It has also been referred to by Iraqi politicians as Saddamist Ba'athism (Al-Baʽthiya Al-Saddamiyya).It is officially described as a distinct variation of Ba'athism.It espousesIraqi nationalismand anIraq-centredArab worldthat calls upon Arab countries to adopt Saddamist Iraqi political discourse and to reject "theNasseritediscourse "that it claims collapsed after 1967.It ismilitaristand views political disputes and conflicts in a military manner as "battles" requiring "fighting", "mobilization", "battlefields", "bastions", and "trenches".Saddamism was officially supported by Saddam's government and promoted by the Iraqi daily newspaperBabilowned by Saddam's sonUday Hussein.

Saddam and his ideologists sought to fuse apseudo-historicalconnection between ancientBabylonianandAssyriancivilization in Iraq withArab nationalismby claiming that the ancient Babylonians and Assyrians were the ancestors of theArabs.Thus, Saddam and his supporters claimed that there is no conflict betweenMesopotamianheritage and Arab nationalism.

"Saddamism... is a phenomenon rooted in violence, in the manipulation of the tools and means of violence to achieve expressly political ends. Saddamism is not plain thuggery, as many people wrongly think; this is noPapa DocorIdi Aminon the rampage. Saddamism is too political for that. "—Kanan Makiya

(from left to right:Taha Yasin Ramadan,Shibli al-Aysami,Saddam Hussein,Izzat at-Duri). Iraqi and Syrian Ba'athist leaders (of thepro-Iraqi Ba'ath Party) during the funeral ofMichel Aflaqin 1989.

Saddam's government was critical ofMarxismand opposed the orthodox Marxist concepts ofclass conflict,dictatorship of the proletariat,andstate atheism,as well as opposingMarxism–Leninism's claim that non-Marxist–Leninist parties are inherentlybourgeoisin nature. Rather, the party claimed that it was a popular revolutionary movement, so the people rejectedpetit bourgeoispolitics.Saddam claimed that the Arab nation did not have the class structure which existed in other nations and that class divisions were more along national lines between Arabs and non-Arabs rather than within the Arab community.However, he spoke fondly ofVladimir Leninand commended Lenin for giving Russian socialism a uniquely Russian specificity that Marx alone was incapable of doing. He also expressed admiration for other communist leaders such asFidel Castro,Hồ Chí Minh,andJosip Broz Titodue to their spirit of asserting national independence rather than their communism.

Controversy

"The Ba’athist triumph giftedSyriaandIraqdecades of tyranny, termed ‘security and stability’ (al-amn wa al-istiqrar). Both countries endured clan-based autocracies wielding ideological absolutism, malignancy of a different order from the standard republican and monarchical authoritarianism of the late twentieth-centuryArab world.Strongmen swiftly emerged in the Ba’athist milieu to establish family firms... Subordination of the party, however, went together with rigorous deployment of the party apparatus and ideology to regiment society. "— Prof. William Harris,University of Otago

Allegations of fascism

Cyprian Blamires, a historian offascism,claims that "Ba'athism may have been aMiddle Easternvariant of fascism, even though Aflaq and other Ba'athist leaders criticized particular fascist ideas and practices ".According to him, the Ba'ath movement shared several characteristics with theEuropean fascistmovements, such as "the attempt to synthesize radical, illiberalnationalismand non-Marxistsocialism,a romantic, mythopoetic, and elitist 'revolutionary' vision, the desire to create a 'new man' and restore past greatness, a centralisedauthoritarian partydivided into 'right-wing' and 'left-wing' factions and so forth; several close associates later admitted that Aflaq had been directly inspired by certain fascist andNazitheorists ".Others have argued against Aflaq's fascist credentials, based on the fact that he was an active member of theSyrian–Lebanese Communist Party,he participated in the activities of theFrench Communist Partyduring his stay in France,and that he was influenced by some of the ideas ofKarl Marx.

According toSami al-Jundi,one of the co-founders of theArab Ba'ath Partyestablished byZaki Arsuzi,the party's emblem was the tiger because it would "excite the imagination of the youth, in the tradition of Nazism and Fascism, but taking into consideration the fact that the Arab is in his nature distant frompagansymbols [like theswastika] ".Arsuzi's Ba'ath Party believed in the virtues of "one leader" and Arsuzi himself personally believed in theracial superiorityof theArabs.The party's members read Nazi literature, such asThe Foundations of the Nineteenth Century;they were one of the first groups to plan the translation ofMein KampfintoArabic;and they also actively searched for a copy ofThe Myth of the Twentieth Century—according to Moshe Ma'oz, the only copy of it was inDamascusand it was owned by Aflaq.Arsuzi did not support theAxis powersand refusedItaly's advances for party-to-party relations,but he was also influenced by the racial theories ofracialistphilosopherHouston Stewart Chamberlain.Arsuzi claimed that historically,IslamandMuhammadhad reinforced the nobility and purity of the Arabs, which had both degenerated because Islam had been adopted by other peoples.He was associated with theLeague of Nationalist Action,a political party which existed in Syria from 1932 to 1939 and was strongly influenced by fascism and Nazism, as evidenced by its paramilitary "Ironshirts".

According to a British journalist who interviewedBarzan Ibrahim Tikriti,the head of the Iraqi intelligence services, Saddam Hussein drew inspiration on how to rule Iraq fromJoseph StalinandAdolf Hitler,and he had once asked Barzan to procure copies of their works, not forracistorantisemiticpurposes, but "as an example of the successful organisation of an entire society by the state for the achievement of national goals".JournalistJonathan Tepermaninterviewed Syrian presidentBashar al-Assadin 2015 and described him to be as delusional as "Hitler in his bunker when the Russians were an hour outsideBerlin"for advocating unrealistic objectives and being remorseless about his crimes, despite losing most of his Syrian territories.

Simon Wiesenthal Centerreported thatNazi war-criminalAlois Brunner,the right-hand man ofAdolf Eichmanand a key participant in theFinal Solution,had died in Syria in 2010 under the asylum of Bashar al-Assad. Under the alias "Dr. Georg Fischer", Brunner assisted Syrian rulers Bashar al-Assad and his fatherHafezfor over 30 years, serving as an instructor ontorture techniques,combating internal dissent, and purgingSyria's Jewish community.While theAssad regimeregularly reject accusations of sheltering Brunner to this day, it had long denied permission to probe his whereabouts.

Bashar al-Assad's Ba'athist regime received support from Westernneo-Naziandfar-rightextremists, who became aware of him during theEuropean refugee crisisthat was mostly brought on by theSyrian Civil War.Assad's bombings of Syrian cities were praised in the far-right'sIslamophobicpropaganda, which portrayed Muslims as a civilizational enemy to the West.Several Western far-right groups also view Bashar al-Assad as an authoritarian,anti-semiticbulwark againstglobalismandZionism.Several pro-Assadist slogans were chanted in theneo-NaziUnite the Right rallyheld inCharlottesvillein 2017.Neo-nazi militants from the GreekStrasseristgroup Black Lily joined the Syrian civil war to fight alongside theSyrian Arab Army.

Allegations of racism

The Ba'ath regimes have been accused of promoting an aggressive Arabultranationalism.

TheNational Vanguard Party,which has ties to theIraqi Ba'ath party,was accused of being racist by theMauritaniangovernment and certain political groups.

TheIraqi Regional Branchcould either approve or disapprove of marriages between party members, and in a party document, party branches were ordered "to thoroughly check the Arabic origin of not only the prospective wife but also her family, and no approval should be given to members who plan to marry [someone] of non-Arab origin".During thewar with Iran,the party began to confront members who were of non-Arab, especially Iranian origin. One memo which was directly sent from the party Secretariat to Saddam read, "the party suffers from the existence of members who are not originally Arabs as this might constitute a danger to the party in the future".The Secretariat recommended that people who were of Iranian origin not be allowed to become party members. In his reply to the document, Saddam wrote, "1) [I] Agree with the opinion of the Party Secretariat; 2) To be discussed in the [Regional] Command meeting".All of those who were denied membership, and all of those whose memberships were revoked, were loyal Ba'athists. For instance, one Ba'athist of Iranian origin whose membership was revoked had been a member of the party since 1958, had also participated in theRamadan Revolution,and had even been imprisoned by the authorities in the aftermath of theNovember 1963 Iraqi coup d'étatbecause he supported the Ba'athist cause. Later, the authorities began to specifically look for people of Iraqi origin, and any contact which they had with Iran and/or Iranians functioned as a good enough reason to deny them party membership.

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External links

• The Constitution of the Arab Socialist Baath Party