Democratic Palestine : 14 (ص 31)
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- Democratic Palestine : 14 (ص 31)
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do what | wanted. This is almost exactly what happened. It is
true that after graduation in 1951, | went to Jordan and prac-
ticed medicine until 1957. | only did that because it was the
passageway and means to get in touch with the masses. Being
a doctor was a necessary cover, for social and security
reasons, at that time. In 1957, after'the coup against Nabulsi’s
nationalist government in Jordan, | had to go underground.
The question of devoting my life completely to the national
struggle was no longer subject to discussion, neither for me or
for my mother. In this way, | was able to successfully coordi-
nate between my mother’s wishes and the decision | had made
in 1948, to devote my life to national struggle.
The people of Yemen know you as one of the milit-
ants who has stood with the Yemeni revolution
from the beginning. Exactly when did this link
Start?
This relationship started in 1959, when the Arab National
Liberation Movement (ANM) initiated its branch in Yemen. In
the summer of 1959, we received a letter from the leaders of
the ANM branch in Cairo. In this letter they said that they had
several comrades graduating and leaving Cairo that year -
from Libya, Sudan, Bahrain and Yemen. The Cairo branch
requested our advice. What should we say to them since the
movement didn't have branches in these four countries? The
leaders of the ANM felt that this was a rare chance to establish
branches in these countries. Therefore our answer to these
comrades was: Send them to Damascus for a special training
session enabling them to initiate work for the movement in
these countries. | remember that special session very well: the
subjects raised by the ANM leaders and myself. | remember
the warm, comradely atmosphere that prevailed. | also
remember delivering the closing speech, assigning these com-
rades responsibility for establishing branches in these coun-
tries. That was the beginning.
As for the October 14th Revolution, what | remember very
well is that some comrades from the command of the branch in
southern Yemen asserted that conditions were ripe for armed
struggle against British colonialism, especially after the Sep-
tember revolution in northern Yemen (1962). They had thus
formed a political front, called the National Front, and arranged
many things like the platform for the front and the political com-
munications needed in the country as a base to support the
revolution. They wanted the ANM, that was based in Beirut at
the time, to get in touch with Abdel Nasser to obtain support for
the revolution. The ANM arranged the link. Since that time, we
have had a close, warm relationship with the Yemeni revolu-
tion. We have been proud of this relationship, previously in the
ANM, and since in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Pales-
tine.
This relationship is the most precious thing we have had to
Offer to the glorious October 14th Revolution that produced the
first peasants and workers state in the Arab world. This may
sound like any other statement, but to me it has a very deep,
emotional significance: Democratic Yemen is the first Arab
country to reflect the political line of the struggling Arab work-
ers and peasants, that will help the working class to achieve all
of the national goals.
When the great October Revolution was established as
the first peasants and workers state in Russia, its value was not
only for the vanguards, or that it founded a state for workers
and peasants in Russia. Its value was that the working class of
the world now has a base to rely on in its struggle. Now as
Arabs and Palestinians, we rely on the great October Revolu-
tion of the Soviet Union, and on the first workers and peasants
State in the Arab world. My words may sound emotional or like
wishful thinking, but in fact it is more of a symbol: As the
October Revolution in South Yemen rose to fight Great Britain
in order to achieve the people’s aims, in the same way, with
serious, protracted struggle, the Arab national liberation move-
ment and the Arab working class will achieve their goals, rely-
ing on the great October Revolution and on the October 14th
Revolution in the Arab world.
In the light of your close relationship with the
October 14th Revolution, how do you evaluate the
experience of the past years, from the beginning of
your relationship to the birth of the Yemeni Socialist
Party, aS a vanguard experience in the Arab
world?
It is, in fact, a vanguard experience; we all know the situa-
tion of the people of South Yemen before gaining indepen-
dence on November 30, 1967. We all know about the attempts
to limit the victory you accomplished with the departure of the
British forces, to a superficial form of independence leading to
a state with a flag, a national anthem and a seat at the UN, like
the 21 other independent states in the Arab world.
The struggle that went on before independence, between
the National Front and the front of Makawi and Assnaj, was
about the contents of independence: Would the bourgeoisie
reap the benefits and things stop at that point, or would the lib-
eration battle be transformed into a national democratic revolu-
tion? The comrades that led the battle against Makawi and
Assnaj, either instinctively or consciously, had this perception
in mind, and they won. Now we know the meaning of winning
such a battle. Maybe at that time, the masses in Yemen said
that they didn’t want any disturbances or internal fighting,
because the main enemy was Britain and its colonial forces.
That is true, but we realize the difference between a liberation
movement led by the bourgeoisie and its representatives, and
one Jed by the toiling classes and their representatives.
Before independence, you won the first round: the battle
to transform the liberation struggle to a national democratic
revolution. After that, the revolution went through a stage from
1967 to July 1969, with vacillation between transforming to a
real national democratic revolution, or reverting to a revolution
in favor of the bourgeoisie. The event (Corrective Movement)
of 1969 terminated this vacillation. The October 14th Revolu-
tion, which had registered victory over the British and the front
of Assnag, now transformed into a national democratic revolu-
tion.
At this stage, the external enemy, Arab reaction and
imperialism, sensed the danger of this revolution. When the
British forces departed on November 30, 1967, imperialist Bri-
tain and America may have been hoping that after indepen-
dence, there would be a regime that was totally immersed in its
own interests, and that the revolution would stop there, witha
national regime, but no future outlook. Then, after 1969, the
enemy camp felt the danger of the situation, and the revolution
Started facing very serious external attacks which lasted
almost seven years. These attacks aimed to crush the revolu-
tion and its experience. This reminds me of the external attacks
on the great October Revolution, that lasted until 1929. You, in
this country, faced external attacks until the mid-seventies,
aiming to destroy this regime, its crystallizing outlooks and
future development.
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