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ple of the Yemen.
When the revolution began there were only 127 miles of paved roads in South Yemen, all but 14 in Aden. Even now the per capita income in South Yemen is little over £350 a year. Life expectancy averages around 46 years and even today in spite of the herculean efforts to abolish illiteracy more than 60 per cent of the population is still illiterate.
Another of the problems of the South Yemen revolution is that it is surrounded by semi-feudal states such as Saudi Arabia, Oman and the Gulf states. Previously it occupied an important strategic position when half of the oil of the non-Stalinist world flowed from the Gulf every day. In 1975, 17½ million barrels of oil, or 41 per cent of the oil of the non-Stalinist world, came through the Straits of Hormuz. Now it is only 15 per cent, or 6½ million barrels of oil every day. Nonetheless it is still a very important strategic area because 56 per cent of the world's oil reserves still remain in the region of the Gulf.
However even on the meagre economic basis of South Yemen, with hardly any industry at all, nevertheless big progress has been made on the basis of the elimination of landlordism and of capitalism. For example, half the food that is needed in South Yemen is now grown in the area in spite of the fact that a great part of South Yemen is desert. The difference that a revolution makes in an area such as this, is shown by the fact that in Djibouti, which has a population of 360,000, 80 per cent are unemployed, whereas in South Yemen unemployment has been completely eliminated
Classical Stalinist purge
So how did it happen that a civil war should take place between two factions of the Yemeni Socialist Party, which is the name of the organisation of the Stalinist Communist Party in Yemen? The facts were that President Ali Nasser Mohammed, tried to eliminate members of the opposing faction at a specially convened meeting of the eleven-man politbureau on 13 January this year. A detachment of guards opened fire killing Ali Ahmed Nasser Antar, Vice-President and an open opponent of President Nasser Mohammed, Mr Salih Muslih Fassim, Defence Minister, and Mr Ali Shaiyia Hadi, Head of the Control Commission. Other opponents of the President were rounded-up and some were murdered. President Nasser Mohammed prepared for the purge of his opponents by issuing leaflets in advance of the politbureau meeting, claiming success in defeating an alleged attempted coup! But, on 15 and 16 January the middle ranks of the troops swung
PAQ
IRAN
JORD.
Cairo
Straits of
EGYPT
Riyadh
SUDAN
Mecca
OMAN SAUDI ARABIA
NORTH! SOUTH
Sana! /EMEN VEMEN
Taer
ETHIOPIA
over to the opposition thus sealing the fate of Nasser Mohammed. And on 25 January a new government led by Mr Haider Abubaker Al-Attas was formed.
The ruling elite in South Yemen imitates China, Russia, Cuba and the other deformed workers' states in carving out privileges for themselves. Fred Halliday who has written a book on the collapse of the Sultans in South Yemen, noted some changes during a visit in 1979. He reported that "top party officials in Aden have received increased material privileges in the form of access to restricted consumer goods shops, and the army has become much more prominent in Yemini life. President Nasser Mohammed, before his overthrow, was Head of State, Secretary General of the ruling Yemeni Socialist Party, and Chairman of the Presidium of the SPC, the Supreme People's Council.
On the road of capitalism there is no way out. Society in the Yemen, as in most of the colonial world at the present time, was at an impasse. Consequently, in a caricatured form, the process was that of the permanent revolution explained by Trotsky and supported by Lenin. The Yemen jumped from tribalism to "socialism', established a so-called "Socialist Party" with a one-party totalitarian state. How then did the conflict break out? Like the process in Afghanistan, tribal and other cliques were jostling for control within the framework of the only legal party, the Socialist Party. In addition there were differences over policy. Ali Nasser Mohammed, the former President, tried to compromise with the reactionary state of North Yemen and the feudal capitalist states of the Gulf and Saudi Arabia. This was done with the full support of the Stalinists in Moscow.
The Stalinist regime in the Soviet
16
Union is trying to arrive at some sort of uneasy compromise with American imperialism and does not want any movement of the masses in the Middle East which could cause friction and complications with the US. Therefore they are opposed to the development of revolution in North Yemen, in Oman, in Saudi Arabia and in the other countries of the Middle East. Like all the other revolutions in colonial countries, the revolution in South Yemen took place in spite of and not because of the existence of Communist Parties and the Soviet bureaucracy.
So there was a struggle inside the Yemeni Socialist Party with one faction opposed to the attempts on the part of Ali Nassar Mohammed to come to an agreement with North Yemen and the other reactionary states of the region and to cease to support the revolutionary movement in these countries.
'Fraternal' clashes
Nasser Mohammed therefore tried the classical methods of Stalinism in launching a purge on Stalinist lines. No trial but executions, in reality murders of the top leadership of the Political Bureau. It was his failure to succeed completely with only a partial elimination of his rivals which led to the outbreak of civil war. Thus in Stalinist regimes a "fraternal discussion" is carried on with heavy machine-guns, tanks, rifles, armoured personnel carriers, 130 metres artillery, cannon, gunboats and planes! The deformed workers' states proceed on bonapartist lines rather than on the lines of workers' democracy. Like the bloody battles between Russia and China, like the bloody conflicts between China and Vietnam, Vietnam and Cambodia, they show the national and bureaucratic limitations of the
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Stalinist regimes.
All these "socialist" countries are
dominated by a bureaucratic elite.
They are progressive in so far as
capitalism and the feudal remnants of
landlordism have been abolished but
there is no real control by the workers
and peasants. Only this control could
guarantee the beginning of a transition
in the direction of socialism.
Bureaucratic rule results in distor-
tion, corruption and abuse of power
The classical example was the bloody
and infamous terror of Joseph Stalin
in Russia. Without the check of
workers' democracy, control by the
workers and peasants and now, in an
area like South Yemen, of the
tribesmen, the bureaucratic elite takes
action against any threat to its hold
by bloody purges. Thus Stalin long
before conducted the extermination of
the leaders of the revolution, of the
Bolshevik party and of hundreds of
thousands of workers who led the
Bolshevik revolution, along with the
massacre of the majority of the officer cadres of the Russian army. This
prepared the way for the victories of
Hitler in the first stages of the war of
Nazi imperialism against Russia.
Now in South Yemen there is a new government of Mr Haider Abubaker Al-Attas with Salem Baleh as Secretary of the Socialist Party of Yemen. They are the new strongmen who are giving lip-service to collective leadership, but inevitably the new regime will also result in the domination of one new 'leader' . That is the method of proletarian bonapartism, the concentration of power in the hands of a single individual.
There has been an enormous mumbling and embarrassment at the events in Yemen, on the part of the British Communist Party and of the hardliners around the Morning Star. On 27 January the Morning Star contained an article saying that a meeting of the Yemeni Socialist Party Central Committee, following the appointment of the new government of Haider Abubaker Al-Attas had "declared 'the commitment of the Yemen Socialist Party to the ideas of scientific socialism (!?) and the principles of proletarian internationalism' and it further called upon the people to rally around ! the party in defence of the country's national independence and sovereignty!"
The British Stalinists in common with their mentors abroad, because Moscow in the beginning was backing Nasser Mohammed, initially succeeded in backing the wrong horse. However very quickly they changed over to support the winning side. But not a word of explanation of how it happened, how it could happen under "scientific socialism", , has been given.
The Morning Star goes on: "The
Yemeni party's central committee accused Ali Nasser Mohammed of 'masterminding a criminal bloody plot to physically liquidate the party's collective leadership and establish a terrorist dictatorial regime'."
Wringing its hands in anguish at this 'disagreement' between 'comrades', the Star reproduced the comments of Pravda of 24 January:
"These events cannot but cause deep regret, especially considering that they are taking place in a friendly country with the Yemeni Socialist Party at the head". Noting democratic Yemen's "considerable socio-economic successes, the Soviet CP daily attributes the present problems to 'the traditional existence of many socialist structures and the tribal disunity of society inherited from past epochs! They were the result also of subversive action of foreign reactionary, imperialist forces. "" Although how these had their effect on the regime in Aden is not explained.
Two
bureaucratic
factions
As a commentary on the events the
Morning Star 24 January, reviewed an
article by Nasser Mohammed written
well before the civil war in the October
1985 edition of World Marxist Review:
'In a detailed and frank article,
published in World Marxist Review- Problems of Peace and Socialism, the
President spoke of 'armchair administration' and attempts 'to belittle the role of the leadership of the party!
"Writing as general secretary of the central committee of the Yemen Socialist Party and chairman of the presidium of the Supreme People's Council, the President pointed to clear conflicts in the run-up to the party's congress, which was being planned for the near future."
The Morning Star continues 'in the conflict... there has been confusion over the cause. Speculation has ranged from personal rivalries, to tribalism, centralism versus local autonomy, disputes over the relations between the party and state, as well as over relastates. Democratic Yemen's em
bassy in London... said.. 'the causes go back to the heritage of social backwardness, adding the situation
"President Ali Nasser Mohammed's (the overthrown President-EG) article does confirm that in his view severe political differences were being debated in the country following the plenary meeting of the party's CC... Arguing that the status of the Yemen Socialist Party differs from any ruling bourgeois party the President said: "Together with state authority it represents not a privileged minority
17
but all the working people!''
This argument has been crushingly
refuted by events. Workers'
democracy contains the normal checks
and balances whereby decisions will be
taken on the basis of a majority
through democratic discussion
through the organisation of the revolu-
tionary party itself. This was the case
in Russia before the degeneration of
the revolution. However, having seiz•
ed power, Stalin declared as early as
1927 that: "these cadres
bureaucrats-EG) can be eliminated on-
ly by civil war... , a statement he
then went on to verify by waging a
one-sided civil war against
Bolshevism. Now two bureaucratic
factions in South Yemen have tried to
crush each other. Certainly elements
of the past, personal enmities, tribal
groupings, do loom large in the con-
flict. But the model for both factions
is the totalitarian regimes in Eastern
Burope and China, a one-party state
with no real democracy. Backwardness
of course made the development of in-
dustry and of the economy very dif-
ficult in South Yemen. In the Soviet
Union the isolation of the genuine democratic socialists, of Marxism, arose from the isolation and backwardness of Russia with the failure of the revolution in other countries. That is why the Marxists, the real Bolsheviks who reflected the needs and the interests of the working class and the peasants and of world socialism, were defeated in the struggle in the Soviet Union.
Now in South Yemen it is a strug. gle between two bureaucratic cliques. In a poor country like South Yemen with a small population it is clear that they could not stand on their own without the support of the other deformed workers' states. In the economy and in cultural life backward elements still loom large. Low standards of living, cultural backwardness and actual illiteracy, all these have undoubtedly had an effect. But they are not the explanation of why the civil war took place in South Yemen.
The Morning Star continues in this long article: "But although the building of the state apparatus had been completed during the past few years 'there were weaknesses and negative aspects'. He (the former President, Nasser Mohammed, now overthrown-EG) went on to talk of 'inflation of personnel lie bureaucracy-EG),
inadequate knowledge of the scientific principles of leadership, miscalculations in the placing of cadres, bureaucratic propensties in the actions of some executives and a low level of executive discipline.'
As Lenin would have observed. *ta: a high-flying Stalinist formula to c01=his own "bureaucratic propers:"
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MIR Summer 1986: Colonial Revolution ' "solving" problems by machinegunning opposition members of the political bureau!
"Some executives, he said, were promoted 'not on the basis of objective criteria but on family-tribal, parochial and other considerations'. These practices, he added, represented 'a burp of outworn social relations"". In reality it nepotism of Stalinist regimes in all the deformed workers' states which has reached scandalous levels in the Soviet Union, China and the other bonapartist workers' states. In South Yemen Nasser Mohammed objected to other leaders behaving in this fashion while no doubt doing the same thing as far as his own tribe was concerned! "In some cases party organisations acted instead of the state apparatus. Attempts were also made 'to use administrative measures in order to belittle the role of leadership by the party. Instead of harmony and efficiency conflicts, lack of coordination.'"
Moscow's role.
These conflicts were settled by machine-guns precipitated by the writer of this article in World Marxist Review! No doubt had he been replaced the same process would have taken place for him and his clique of supporters in the Yemeni Socialist Party "The President also claimed that many of the Yemen Socialist Party members were 'still susceptible to influence of non-proletarian, often precapitalist ideas and notions'. In that context he made the point that the party's membership 'has grown visibly' in the past five years to some 30,000. But... in the state sector 'the most advanced and organised contingent of the proletariat-factory workersremains numerically small' He also argued that there was a danger of a breakdown between democracy and centralism-'not two different concepts but two sides of one and the same principle! He went on to warn that disregard of either is 'fraught with serious consequences. A formal interpretation of party organisational ideological looseness, negligence and a weakening of the party's militancy. On the other hand, excessive centralisation kills initiative, and gives party work the features of administration and turns party organisation into a purely executive authority.' Phenomena of this kind, says the President, 'formalism and armchair administration were to be observed in some Yemeni Socialist Party organisa- ..Despite a new social consciousness taking shape tronary customs and values still retain social-economic backwardness inherited from the epoch of colonial slavery, 'he argued". The Morning Star then goes on to say: 'The tragic events of the past two that the divisions behind some of these arguments have developed into deep and bitter chasms. (!) But to what extent the article reflects the reasons behind the conflict will only be known if and when Abdul Fattah Ismail (who was murdered in the first days of the struggle by the overthrown president!-EG) makes his position clear.
The mumbling and stammering of the Morning Star hardliners, taking their cue from Moscow who originally backed the wrong horse and then switched back to the people who were victorious, shows how far they are from a Marxist analysis of events. It echoes the old days of Stalin when the Moscow bureaucracy said 'turn' and they turned 180 degrees. This was because of the slavish dependence of the Communist Parties of the world on The Morning Star goes on to say "the conflict will delight only the imperialist camp".
: No explanation is given of how it could happen in a socalled democratic state moving in the direction of socialism. However the Observer 19 January had the comment: "The Soviet Union is pursuing a policy of conciliation in the Arab world. It has encouraged South Yemen to improve relations with all neighbours and to ditch its image of a dangerous exporter of revolution." Aden and South Yemen are important to the Soviet Union as a port and because of their strategic situation. The Soviet Union has largely replaced colonial Britain, with the difference that it is a voluntary arrangement between the South Yemeni and the Soviet bureaucracy. Nevertheless South Yemen is still completely dependent on the Soviet Union. This did not enable the Soviet Union to prevent civil war. bureaucracy was backing President Nasser Mohammed, who in reality was carrying out the policy of agreements with the other states in full collusion with Moscow.
The peculiar relationship between the super powers is such that while the USA is an exporter of counterrevolution, revolutions, even in a caricatured form, are carried out without the support of Moscow. The Kremlin then is compelled to accept the fait accompli as it did in the case of Cuba, China and Vietnam. Im perialism is well aware of this but at a time when relations with Moscow are estranged it conducts demagogic attacks that Moscow is trying to export revolution. In reality the bureaucracy wants to arrive at a compromise with and therefore has no "export revolution". But whatever the policy of the Moscow bureaucracy and of the Stalinist parties in the colonial countries they will not be able to prevent the enormous storms and stresses of revolution which opens up at the present time on In Asia, Africa and in Latin America the coming decade will be a decade of revolution. In some cases where revolutionary Marxism has not got a basis it is possiblę that new deformed workers' states could be set up on the Ethiopia, Syria, Burma, China and Vietnam. Such regimes would relatively progressive in the sense that they were developing the productive forces at a far faster pace than would be possible under capitalism. In fact under capitalism now the productive forces in the under-developed world tend to stagnate or even go backward. No stability in Middle The "new" government in South Yemen will in reality be compelled to pursue the same policy as the old government. It is possible that the of the tendency who were assassinated by Nasser Mohammed wanted to extend the revolution to Oman, above all to North Yemen and even to Saudi Arabia. But now with the virtual destruction of Aden, following the street to street even window to window fighting, with according to the Morning Star itself, dollars now needed in Aden for the purpose of reconstruction, it will be completely dependent on Moscow and therefore the foreign policy of the new government will be exactly the policy of the old. They will be compelled to try and conciliate North Yemen, Oman and Saudi Arabia. However this will only mean an uneasy "peace" between these countries.
The inevitable development of the revolution in the on the Arabian Peninsula will mean that all attempts of this sort will be in vain. As with Asia, Africa and Latin America, the Middle East also will be an area of enormous colonial revolution. Despite the civil war and its destruction the South Yemen revolution will still be a beacon to the peoples of the Arabian Peninsula and even to the Middle East as well. The elimination of landlordism, of capitalism and of the power of the sultans and chiefs, will be an example which will have echoes throughout Arabia policy of the South Yemen government might be.
As a result the new rulers of South
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