Corrective Move

The Corrective Move (), also referred to as the 22 June Corrective Move or as the Glorious Corrective Move, was an internal bloodless coup that took place on 22 June 1969, which led to the takeover of the ruling National Front (NF) party of South Yemen by the left-wing faction. Led by Abdel Fattah Ismail and Salim Rubaya Ali, they overthrew the then-President of South Yemen and leader of the right-wing faction of the NF, Qahtan al-Shaabi, along with Prime Minister Faysal al-Shaabi and his cabinet.

Social and political reforms followed the leftist takeover; The state was transformed into a Communist state, institutions were nationalized, education was freely available, and a new Family Law was established, guaranteeing equality between men and women.

Background

Following South Yemen's independence from the British on 30 November 1967, the National Liberation Front, which got renamed to the National Front, was divided into two factions; The Aden-based ruling right-wing faction advocating for a Capitalist system, and the Hadhramaut-based Socialist left-wing faction who based their opinions on Lenin's State and Revolution. On 1 December 1967, the newly established state had announced its first 12-man cabinet, with Qahtan al-Shaabi becoming a compromise for the different sides, taking the post of President, Prime Minister, and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. On 11 December 1967, Shaabi issued a decree confiscating all lands and all real estate from the sultans and former ministers of the Federation of South Arabia, and the previous laws were repealed. South Yemen was admitted to the Arab League and the United Nations. On the other hand, the withdrawal of the British left more than 20,000 Yemenis unemployed, the closure of the Suez Canal deprived the capital city of Aden of 75% of its shipping and trade income. Furthermore, the British failure to fulfill their aid commitments led to the state losing 60% of its revenue. The lack of experience of the new leaders worsened the economic decline and chaos.

Fourth National Congress of the National Front

On 30 January 1968, Abdullah al-Khamri, a member of the general board of directors of the National Front's newspaper, ''al-Thawri'', published an article questioning the leadership of the National Front, titled "Are the Revolutionaries or the Opportunist in Power?", where he called for incitement against whom he called the "Opportunist." The published article wasn't revised by the other members of the board: Faysal al-Shaabi and Abdul Fattah Ismail, both of whom condemned the article. This incident created a feeling of distrust among members of the NF, leading to internal divisions. The leadership of the NF decided they would discuss those problems within the party's upcoming congress.

The disagreements between the factions were planned to be resolved at the Fourth National Congress of the National Front. The General Committee of the National Front announced a Preparatory Committee headed by Faysal al-Shaabi, Abdul Fattah Ismail, Ali Saleh Abad, and Abdullah al-Khamri, and they were given the task of meeting up and preparing the congress. The committee never met to prepare for the congress, and Ali Nasir described the 6-week preparations for the congress as "chaotic". During the preparation period, Abdul Fattah Ismail announced that he would leave Yemen for Cairo, citing healthcare reasons. Ismail's announcement effectively disbanded the preparatory committee assigned by the General Committee of the National Front. A new de facto committee was set up and headed by Nayef Hawatmeh and prepared the congress without referring to the leadership of the party.

The congress was held 2–8 March 1968 in the city of Zinjibar of the Third Governorate. Army members who were not members of the NF attended the congress, despite protests from the left-wing factions. According to Ali Nasir, the congress was held "in a general atmosphere of toxicity." The congress was considered a success for the left-wing factions whose position was based on a previous speech by Abdul Fattah Ismail, saying that South Yemen could either be ruled by the "petty bourgeoisie" or the "revolutionary forces." He argued that "the petty bourgeoisie was unable in this epoch of world history to fight imperialism and to carry through necessary economic and social development against the opposition of imperialism." He listed failures of the petty bourgeoisie such as the revolutions of 1848, and attacked the regiemes of Kwame Nkrumah and Sukarno who were recently overthrown and criticized the governments of Egypt, Algeria, Syria and Iraq, where he claimed that the petty bourgeoisie "had masked its dictatorship as 'socialism'."

The left's ideas of transforming the state into a People's Democracy, adopting scientific socialism and Anti-capitalism as the NF's main ideology, the establishment of a 100,000-150,000 personel People's Militia, the restriction of party membership for workers, peasants, soldiers and revolutionary intellectuals, and the transfer of power to the Supreme People's Council resonated well for most of the attendees of the congress. They won the majority of the left-wing seats in the newly elected forty-one-man General Command of the party. After the congress, the leftists were able to pass several other resolutions that obliged the government to use the "experience of world socialist regimes": for example, in addition to what has already been listed, they demanded to purge the army, police and state apparatus, create local People's Councils, "People's Army" and a "People's Militia", carry out agrarian reform and carry out other socialist changes. In exchange, they agreed to a "compromise leadership" of the country under the presidency of al-Shaabi.

After the end of the congress, the Qahtan-led right-wing faction issued an official statement where they attacked the "infantile leftism" of the opposing faction, and singled out what they called the "number one error": "the belief in conflict between classes and in imposing a dictatorship of one class rather than working for harmony between them," which explained the Nasserists' central theses that the defining characteristic of Arab Socialism is the disbelief in class conflict. They also attacked the left's criticism of the "brother Arab countries" and reprimanded them as alien to the "South Yemeni reality."

Conflict in the National Front

The Fourth Congress was a victory for the left. The congress defined the NL as "a revolutionary organization which represents the interests of the workers, peasants, soldiers, and revolutionary intellectuals and adopts scientific socialism as its method of analysis and practice," and party membership was restricted to the aforementioned groups. Following the end of the congress, the party began the immediate creation of popular councils, agrarian reform, nationalized foreign capital, a purge of the army and its administration, and a programme of mass education. Consequently, the army did not agree with the outcomes of the congress, as it was facing a purge. During the congress, leading army officials had been carrying out propaganda campaigns within the army where they denounced "communist influence," and following the end of the congress, they decided to stage a coup. The army decided to take action when NF cadres in Aden held a meeting in support of the outcomes of the Fourth Congress on 19 March 1968, and on March 20, 1968, a group of officers, with the leadership of the army commander, Colonel Hussein Osman Aschal, arrested eight leaders of the left wing General Command, surrounded the presidential residence, and demanded that a new government be formed to "liberate the country from the communist threat." But the officers did not have enough supporters, and al-Shaabi himself, for whom everything had started, distanced himself from the rebels as a series of demonstrations broke out in Aden, Ja'ar, Yafa, and Hadhramaut against the rebels, and the rebellion ultimately failed.

Eventually, a confrontation developed within the National Front leadership between the left wing, which advocated for "new reforms in the interests of Yemeni workers," and the right wing, which aimed to preserve the existing state apparatus and its management experience while granting broad powers to al-Shaabi. The right-wing faction, led by Qahtan al-Shaabi, opposed the significant changes proposed by the left wing regarding the current social and economic structure. They maintained a conservative stance on issues such as "liberating all Arab lands from colonialism, supporting the resistance of the Palestinian people, and backing socialist regimes worldwide in their resistance to imperialism and colonial forces in the Third World." The leftist faction "wanted a social and economic transformation that would serve the broad segment of the working people instead of the wealthy minority," as they put it. The leftist faction of the National Front promoted the establishment of popular forces and proposed land nationalization. They were focused on serving the interests of the working class rather than the wealthy minority. Qahtan believed in the continuation and development of existing institutions.

Qahtan ordered the release of the cadres imprisoned by the army as a support gesture towards the imprisoned left leaders and called the army's move "sincere, but in error." Soon, al-Shaabi dismissed 150 officers and officials from the army and the state apparatus. To further establish his radical image, he published a hurriedly prepared land reform act on March 25, modeled after the Egyptian system, which confiscated lands and distributed them to National Front supporters. The opposition was already spreading from below: the " Organization of True Partisans" demanded an end to the "riot of the communists." The student newspaper " Al-Unf al-Thawri" advocated for extreme measures, suggesting that "ashtrays be made from the skulls of the bourgeoisie, and fertilizer from their bones." Nevertheless, the army had dealt a severe blow to the left and was now removed from leading positions both in the party and in the government. The Fourth Congress's decisions became ineffective. There were further arrests, leading many cadres to flee from Aden to the hinterlands and North Yemen.

Purges and counter-purges

On 30 March 1968, the right-wing faction, unhappy with the results of the congress, staged a violent leftist purge to stop the implementation of the ideas that were brought up during the congress. It led to their temporary dominance of the party, but ultimately they failed to purge the left. At a rally in Aden on May 1, 1968, the participants were barely kept from clashing. Two days later, left-wing students and soldiers rebelled in Madinat Asha'ab district. The uprising was suppressed, but already on May 14, the left-wing tried to perform a counter-coup, led by Abdel Fattah Ismail and Salim Rubaya Ali: 14 (out of 21) members of the General Committee gathered in Zinjibar and demanded that the president implement all the resolutions of the Fourth Congress. The situation reached a military confrontation, but it eventually failed too: after negotiations with Ali Antar, al-Shaabi again agreed to a compromise - the participants of the uprising not only avoided repression, but also returned to their previous high positions. The leftists and rightists together suppressed the anti-government uprisings and in October 1968 adopted the Program for Completing the Stage of National Democratic Liberation, which showed an even greater deviation to the left.

Coup d'etat

The Corrective Move aimed "to restore the revolution to its correct course", which was aligned with socialism through Marxism, and was significantly influenced by the Soviet Union. The balance was upset on June 19, 1969, when the al-Shaabi dismissed Interior Minister Muhammad Ali Haitham, who had joined the left wing. The General Leadership declared this decision unilateral, taken without consultation with the Front leadership.

After much debate, the president announced his resignation, and the General Leadership session immediately accepted it. Al-Shaabi went to the capital's radio station to address the population with his position, but the Front leadership saw this as an attempt to rouse their supporters to rebellion: the radio station was occupied by the military, and agitators arrived at the army and police barracks, who kept the armed forces from speaking out, and al-Shaabi was forced to abandon his intention, and the General Leadership argued for four days without interruption about the future of the country.

On 22 June 1969, it was announced that the President of South Yemen, al-Shaabi, was removed from all his posts. The post of president was abolished for a Presidential Council headed by Salim Rubaya Ali was formed to govern the state, and the post of Secretary General of the National Front passed to Abdel Fattah Ismail. At the end of November 1969, the General Leadership session expelled 20 former right-wing leaders from the organization, including the ousted president. The left wing became in control of the state, launched radical reforms in the country, and the coup was considered a victory for progressive forces.

Reforms

Government reforms

South Yemen remained a Marxist-Leninist republic until unification in 1990. The NF continuously ruled the PDRY, and in 1978 it became the Yemeni Socialist Party. Pursuing socialist policies, the ruling party transformed South Yemen into a welfare state with good education, women's rights and low corruption. The new government actively worked to eliminate the "parasitic and bourgeois" classes of society, such as sheikhs, sultans, etc. In 1986, the country faced another party split and a bloody coup attempt.

Agrarian reforms

On November 27, 1969, the government nationalized the country's main economic sectors. According to the decree that nationalized them, all foreign monopolies in the commercial, financial, and banking sectors of the local economy were abolished and transferred to the state sector.

The Marxist government soon organized several peasant uprisings in the country. This was done to prepare the necessary ground for the implementation of socialist reforms in agriculture. The first of these took place on 3 October 1970 in the southern regions and was followed by similar uprisings in other parts of the country. Later, the government issued the " Decree on Agrarian Reform". This Decree greatly increased the importance of the public cooperative sector, for example, by creating several state farms and agricultural cooperatives. In July 1971, the government organized the first " Poor Peasants' Congress," which adopted a number of resolutions and recommendations, all of which were aimed at "solving the agricultural issue in the interests of farmers and poor peasants through peasant uprisings and the march towards the establishment and formation of public cooperatives". Five years later, the government organized a "Constituent Congress," which in turn created the Union of Democratic Yemeni Peasants. All these measures gave a noticeable boost to agriculture: according to official data, the growth of the agricultural sector was 70 percent. The First Five-Year Plan made significant progress in modernizing agriculture. The production of eggs, chicken, dairy products, vegetables and fruits has increased significantly.

Health care reforms

The new government emphasized the importance of adopting policies aimed at modernizing health care and providing it to all its citizens. For example, in the reports to the so-called "Unification Congress", the need was noted for such things as: training and development of medical personnel, the establishment of several medical institutes, as well as the opening of hospitals and other medical centers in all governorates of South Yemen.

Electrification

Since Britain did not attempt to electrify anything outside Aden, after their (and their specialists) flight in 1967, the whole country was in complete darkness (except for Aden itself). As a result, the Socialist authorities created the so-called " Public Corporation for Electric Power" (abbreviated PCEP). The main goals of the PCEP in the early stages were to restart the power plants, connect them to the general electricity grid, and establish a center to train Yemeni personnel to work with electricity. Soon, the government and the PCEP launched three and five-year plans aimed at increasing electricity production to meet the needs of the South Yemenis.

Social reforms

Despite the conservative environment and resistance, women became legally equal to men, polygamy, child marriage and arranged marriage were all banned by law and equal rights in divorce were sanctioned; all supported and protected by the state-affiliated General Union of Yemeni Women. The Republic also secularised education and sharia law was replaced by a state legal code. Slavery in Yemen, which had been abolished in North Yemen by the 1962 revolution, was now abolished also in South Yemen.

See also

*June 13 Corrective Movement
*Revolutionary Corrective Initiative

Notes

References

{{PDRY topics

South Yemen
Communist revolutions
1969 in Yemen
1960s coups d'état and coup attempts
Political history of Yemen
June 1969 in Asia
Communism in Yemen
Reform in Yemen