"The Left and the Arab Revolutions" "The Left and the Arab Revolutions" Conference Papers Cairo 24 to 25 April 2013 1 "The Left and the Arab Revolutions" Conference Papers Cairo 24 to 25 April 2013 Case Studies Ayman Abdel Muti Egypt Sonia Tamimi Tunisia Salameh Kaileh Syria Bushri Maqtari Yemen Abbas Mirza al-Murshid Bahrain Analytical Chapters Mohamed Agati Egypt Georges Fahmi Egypt Habiba Muhsen Egypt Omar Samir Egypt Arab Forum for Alternatives Publishers: Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Translated by: Ubab Murad Edited by: Ellen Jarrar Registration No: 18618/2012 Publishing and Distribution +2 01222235071 rwafead@gmail. com www. rwafead. com These papers are the product of an internal seminar. They are issued in a non-periodic manner and reflect only the views of their authors and not necessarily the opinion of the Arab Forum for Alternatives (AFA) or any of its partner institutions. 2 "The Left and the Arab Revolutions" the researchers bios Ayman abdel moati: Media Coordinator of the Arab Forum for Alternatives Studies, holds a Bachelor of Media from the University of Cairo. Sonia tamimi: Professor of History, University of Tunis. Salam kila : Leftist writer and thinker, holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Baghdad, a militant in the Palestinian resistance, was put in prison for eight years in Syria, has many books and published studies as well as the articles published in many Arab newspapers and magazines. Boshra elmaktari: Yemeni leftist writer and member of the Central Committee of the Socialist Party,in the Yemeni province of Taiz. Abbas elmorshed: leftist writer and researcher from Bahrain. Mohamed elagati: Executive Director of the Arab Forum for Alternatives studies. He holds a master's degree in political development from the University of Cairo. Researcher specializing in the field of civil society and social movements and reform in the Arab region. In addition to studies and articles published in a number of books , scientific periodicals and newspapers. Habiba mohsen: Researcher, holds a master's degree from the Institute of Political Science, University of Saint Joseph (St. Joseph), Beirut, Lebanon. The thesis title : "Islamic Jihad in Egypt: between belonging to al Qaeda and renounce violence." She holds a BA in Political Science, Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University, the French department. 3 Georges sarwat: Researcher at the arab forum for alternatives Studies. Ph.D. from the Institute of European Studies in Florence, Italy,thesis title: "Islamic institutions and democratization in the Middle East: a comparison between the situation of Egyptian and Turkish case." He holds a master's degree in political science from the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University, the French department. Omar samir: Research Assistant at the arab forum for alternatives Studies. Master's student in Political Science, Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University. He holds a Bachelor of Political Science from the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University in 2010. 4 "The Left and the Arab Revolutions" "The Left and the Arab Revolutions" Conference Papers Cairo 24 to 25 April 2013 5 6 "The Left and the Arab Revolutions" Index INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................... 9 THE EGYPTIAN REVOLUTION AND THE ROLE OF THE LEFT SUCCESS AND FAILURE FACTORS ................................................................................................ 13 THE PREDICAMENTS OF THE TUNISIAN LEFT ................................................. 35 ON THE ROLE OF THE SYRIAN LEFT IN THE SYRIAN REVOLUTION ...................... 53 PROSPECTS FOR THE RENEWAL OF THE LEFT IN YEMEN AND ITS CHALLENGES ... 73 CRISIS OF LEFTIST IDEOLOGY IN THE ARAB SPRING: CASE IN POINT, THE LEFT IN BAHRAIN ................................................................................................ 91 THE LEFT AND THE ARAB SPRING: THE COMPLEXITIES OF ORGANIZATION AND MOVEMENT .......................................................................................... 109 THE POLITICAL PERFORMANCE OF THE LEFT AFTER THE ARAB REVOLUTIONS …121 THE LEFT AND THE PROTEST MOVEMENTS IN THE ARAB REGION .................. 143 7 8 "The Left and the Arab Revolutions" Introduction It seemed that the Arab revolutions came at the backdrop of a somehow clear absence of the Left factions and forces at the level of action as well as at the level of political impact in the Arab street on the different causes and concerns of the citizens. Still, Leftist forces, old as well as other new ones, born from the womb of the conflict in the last years of the new millennium, have tried to play different roles in connecting with the waves of the Arab Spring and trying to reorganize their ranks and their political cards as players who are supposed to be the main ones in the roaring mass movement which is raising slogans calling for political, economic, and social rights that have been stolen from them over the past decades. Thus, conflicts and fragmentation within the Arab Left, in addition to the limited impact and political influence, have impacted on the Left and on the way in which it started its second millennium. This has made it appear in a state of confusion. In Tunisia, despite his focus on the Islamists, Ben Ali continued to adopt Bourguiba's repressive policies against the Left, which split into two opposition factions: public (acknowledged by the regime) and secret opposition. The public opposition is mainly composed of three parties: the Democratic Forum for Labour and Liberties (a member of the ruling coalition today), and the Renewal Movement, the heir of the Communist Party, which changed itself into a democratic movement with communist origins, and the secular socialist Progressive Democratic Party. The three parties have faced multiple forms of restrictions on their activities and media institutions, and they were prevented from expanding their popular base and informing the people of their ideas and opinions. This blockade on these parties was eased when the symbols of these parties were able to voice their opinions in Arab as well and foreign media outlets. In Egypt, these organizations and the Left factions, in general, have suffered a very big shock, and some of them have lost their contact with the masses after the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc in the wake of mass movements that liberated the people from years of oppression and tyranny under the rule of Stalinist communist parties. Revolution and socialism have become either a 9 space for questioning and revision or mere slogans based on the same old visions for fear of the abandonment of the revolution project. However, no effort was made to analyze the crisis and the political changes and their causes with the exception of a few who have attempted to understand what has happened and to continue the struggle on the grounds of radical change. In Yemen, all internal factors and their interaction with the Cold War conflicts between the Eastern and Western blocs and the intervention of local and international political forces, which continued to resist the emergence of a Leftist state have gathered and eventually led to the outbreak of the crisis on 13 January, 1986. This was the first blow to the Leftist project in Yemen, especially after the assassination of its best leaders and the emergence of a local political discourse against the Left, creating a societal reaction that contributed to the emergence of extremist religious forces. These events and the subsequent ones were the key factors in the decline in the popular base of the party and for its being blamed for the civil war. The party continued to suffer from the repercussions of this partisan conflict, which had also reached to the party‟s organizational structures and its relations with its popular base. In light of the January events, some party leaders attempted to provide an intellectual review and called for partisan democracy instead of narrow centralism. However, despite these important revisions in the history of the left, the party leadership continued to be unable to absorb the renewal discourse and did not respect the organizational structures of the party. In order to escape its continued internal crisis in the south, the party signed a unity agreement with the north unilaterally without the knowledge of the party's organizational structures. Because the balance of power was in favor of the power in the north, it was able to evade the agreement's terms and the partnership, and it launched its war on the Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP) in the summer of 1994, the second blow to the Left in Yemen. After the 1994 war, the Secretary-General of the Party announced the political disintegration decision with the north and the return to the conditions that prevailed before 1990. This decision led to splits in the leadership of the party and confused its popular base, which was then unable to reach an agreed upon decision with regard to the war which they were part of and regarding the disintegration, especially because 10 "The Left and the Arab Revolutions" this decision was an individual one without consultation with the popular base or the party's regulatory bodies. In Syria, the situation was more complicated. The position of the Leftist parties vis-à-vis the regime was confused. The Left refused to be in the opposition and stressed that it criticizes the regime. However, it continued to be bound by the vision adopted by the two communist parties, and it stressed the "national" stances of Syria and its "hostility to imperialism." However, it increased the level of its criticism to the economic policy and the "economic team," and stressed that this policy will lead to a "disaster" as a result of impoverishment process of this policy. This situation made these parties part of the "structure" and responsible for its policies. Its long participation in power had made it part of the state bureaucracy, although it continued to "softly" reject or criticize certain policies and to demand that the regime (of which it was a part) solve a problem here and there.