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The Ba‘ath Parties (also spelled Baath or Ba‘th; Arabic:
اﻟﺒﻌﺚ) comprise political parties
representing the political face of the Ba‘ath movement. The original
Ba‘ath Party functioned as a pan-Arab party with branches in different
Arab countries. In 1966 the Party split into two, one branch based in
The Ba‘ath Party came to power in
The Arabic word Ba‘ath means 'rebirth'. Ba‘athist beliefs
combine Arab Socialism, militarism, nationalism, and Pan-Arabism. The mostly
secular ideology often contrasts with that of other Arab governments in the
The motto of the Party is Wahdah, Hurriyah, Ishtirrakiyah means "Unity, Freedom, Socialism". 'Unity' refers to pan-Arab unity, 'Freedom' emphasizes freedom from Western interests in particular, and 'Socialism' specifically references Arab Socialism.
Origins
Both the Syrian and the Iraqi Ba‘ath parties originated in the Ba‘ath movement, an Arab political movement which started in the early 20th century, founded by Syrian thinkers: most notably Michel Aflaq. Two other major proponents of early Ba‘athist ideology, Zaki al-Arsuzi and Salah al-Din al-Bitar, like Michel Aflaq, had careers as middle-class educators, influenced in their political thought by Western education. Many early Ba‘athists also professed Christianity. The movement also found support among the more republican wing of Iraqi soldiers in the British and later in the Hashemite services.
The Ba‘ath Arab Socialist Party was officially founded at its
first party congress, held in
The early party formed in opposition to both French colonial rule and to the
older generation of Syrian Arab nationalists, and advocated instead Pan-Arab
unity and Arab nationalism. Its constitution blended non-Marxist socialism and
nationalism. The early Syrian Ba‘athists opposed the influence of
The Ba‘ath party from the beginning intended to win power through
peaceful means. The first success came in
The military coup came in 1963, and it brought the Ba‘ath Party to
power in
At this juncture the Syrian Ba‘ath party split into two factions: the
"progressive" faction, led by Nureddin Atassi, which gave priority to
neo-Marxist economic reform, and the so-called nationalist group, led by
General Hafez al-Assad. Assad's following had less interest in socialism,
favoring a militant posture on the Arab union and hostility toward
Today the Ba‘ath Party in
The Syria-based Ba‘ath Party has branches in
Iraqi and Syrian Ba‘athism today differ widely and partially oppose
each other, though they only split a long time after their creation. They share
one common feature in that under Saddam Hussein
In
The Ba‘athists first came to power in the coup of February, 1963, when Abdul Salam Arif became president. Interference from the Syrian Ba‘athists and disputes between the moderates and extremists, culminating in an attempted coup by the latter in November, 1963, served to discredit the extremists. However, the moderates continued to play a major role in the succeeding non-Ba‘athist governments.
In July, 1968, a bloodless coup brought to power the Ba‘athist general
Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr. Wranglings within the party continued, and the government
periodically purged its dissident members. Saddam Hussein eventually succeeded
al-Bakr in 1979 and ruled
The Party cell or circle, composed of three to seven members, constitutes
the basic organisational unit of the Iraqi Ba‘ath Party. Cells functioned
at the neighborhood or village level, where members would meet to discuss and
execute party directives introduced from above. Since individual cells had
little contact with one another, those higher up could vigorously enforce party
loyalties from the top down. As the
A Party division comprised two to seven cells, controlled by a division commander. Such Ba‘athist cells occurred throughout the bureaucracy and the military, where they functioned as the Party's watchdog, an effective form of covert surveillance within a public administration.
A Party section, which comprised two to five divisions, functioned at the level of a large city quarter, a town, or a rural district.
The branch came above the sections; it comprised at least two sections, and operated at the provincial level.
The Party congress, which combined all the branches, elected the regional command as the core of the Party leadership and top decision-making mechanism.
The national command of the Ba‘ath Party ranked over the regional command. It formed the highest policy-making and coordinating council for the Ba‘ath movement throughout the Arab world at large.
In June 2003, the US-led occupying forces in
The Iraq-based Ba‘ath Party had branches in various Arab countries,
such as
The branch amongst the Palestinians bears the name of Jabhat al-Tahrir
al-'Arabiyah (the Arab Liberation Front, or ALF). ALF formed the major
Palestian political faction in
In Bahrain Rasul al-Jaishy leads the pro-Ba‘ath Nationalist Democratic Rally Society (Jami'at al-Tajammu' al-Qawmi al-Dimuqrati).
An Iraq-oriented Ba‘ath Party branch formerly existed in