The National Democratic Rally or National Democratic Gathering (, ''at-tajammuʻ al-waţanī ad-dīmūqrāţī'') is a opposition alliance in

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

previously banned under the Ba'athist government, comprising five

political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

of a

secularist Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on naturalistic considerations, uninvolved with religion. It is most commonly thought of as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state and may be broadened ...

, pan-Arabist,

Arab nationalist Arab nationalism () is a political ideology asserting that Arabs constitute a single nation. As a traditional nationalist ideology, it promotes Arab culture and civilization, celebrates Arab history, the Arabic language and Arabic literatur ...

and

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

bent. Hassan Ismail Abdelazim, leader of the

Democratic Arab Socialist Union The Democratic Arab Socialist Union (, ''Al-ittiḥād al-ishtirākī al-'arabī al-dīmūqrāṭī''; French: ''Union arabe socialiste démocratique'') is a Nasserist democratic socialist Syrian political party based in Paris, France. It was ...

, is the official spokesman of the Rally.

Member parties

The founding member parties were:As given in Alan George, ''Syria: Neither Bread nor Freedom'', London, Zed Books, 2003, p. 94 *The

- a splinter of the Arab Socialist Union Party of Syria, formerly the main

Nasserist Nasserism ( ) is an Arab nationalist and Arab socialist political ideology based on the thinking of Gamal Abdel Nasser, one of the two principal leaders of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, and Egypt's second President. Spanning the domestic a ...

party in Syria. *The

Syrian Democratic People's Party The Syrian Democratic People's Party () is a centre-left, democratic opposition party in Syria. It is a member of the Syrian opposition, a member of the National Democratic Rally (Syria), National Democratic Rally, and a participant in the Damasc ...

- Riad al-Turk's group, formerly called the ''Syrian Communist Party - Political Bureau'', and an offshoot of the

Syrian Communist Party The Syrian Communist Party () was a political party in Syria founded in 1944 as a division of the Syrian–Lebanese Communist Party, which later split into the Syrian Communist Party and the Lebanese Communist Party. In 1972, it became a memb ...

. *The Arab Revolutionary Workers Party - a

leftist Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social hierarchies. Left-wing politi ...

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

offshoot of the

Ba'ath Party The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party ( ' ), also known simply as Bath Party (), was a political party founded in Syria by Michel Aflaq, Salah al-Din al-Bitar, and associates of Zaki al-Arsuzi. The party espoused Ba'athism, which is an ideology ...

from the 1960s, which for some time had active branches in

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

and

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

as well. *The

Arab Socialist Movement The Arab Socialist Movement (- ) also known as Arab Socialist Party, was a political party in Syria that has split into several factions since the 1960s which continue to use the same name. History The Arab Socialist Movement traced its roots ...

- an

Arab socialist Arab socialism () is a political ideology based on the combination of pan-Arabism or Arab nationalism and socialism. The term "Arab socialism" was coined by Michel Aflaq, the principal founder of Ba'athism and the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party in ...

group with roots in

Akram al-Hawrani Akram Al-Hourani (, also transcribed El-Hourani, Howrani or Hurani) (November 1911 – 24 February 1996), was a Syrian politician who played a prominent role during the democratic era of Syria in the 1950s, he established and led the Arab Socia ...

's pre-Ba'ath

peasant movement A peasant movement is a social movement involved with the agricultural policy, which claims peasants rights. Peasant movements have a long history that can be traced to the numerous peasant uprisings that occurred in various regions of the wor ...

. *The Democratic Socialist Arab Ba'ath Party - a remnant of

Salah Jadid Salah Jadid (; 1926 – 19 August 1993) was a Syrian military officer and politician who was the leader of the far-left bloc of the Syrian Regional Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, and the ''de facto'' leader of Ba'athist Syria from 1966 until 1970 ...

's left-wing faction of the

, led by his former Foreign Minister Ibrahim Makhous. In 2006, a sixth party joined the coalition: *The Communist Labour Party - the recreation of a hardline communist group repressed in the 1980s, which originally had its roots in 1970s Syrian student radicalism, with pro-

Sandinista The Sandinista National Liberation Front (, FSLN) is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto César Sandino, who led the Nicaraguan resistan ...

, Guevarist and

Maoist Maoism, officially Mao Zedong Thought, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed while trying to realize a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic o ...

tendencies.

History

The National Democratic Rally was formed in January 1980 by the five member parties listed above, and its membership has not changed since. In several cases these parties were originally opposition wings of parties that had joined the governing National Progressive Front, which is a leftist nationalist party coalition established under the leadership of the Syrian Ba'ath Party. A few parties also had sister parties or factions in other

Arab states The Arab world ( '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in ...

, such as Nasserist Egypt or

Ba'athist Iraq Ba'athist Iraq, officially the Iraqi Republic (1968–1992) and later the Republic of Iraq (1992–2003), was the Iraqi state between 1968 and 2003 under the one-party rule of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region, Iraqi regional bra ...

. Its first spokesman was

chairman

Jamal al-Atassi Jamal Al-Atassi (1922−2000) () was a Syrian Arab nationalist, politician and author. He was one of the earliest ideologues of the nascent Syrian Ba'ath Party, which he joined soon after it was founded. He helped to lay out its constitution an ...

. At his death in the year 2000, his role was inherited by his successor at the helm of DASU, Hassan Ismail Abdelazim. The Rally took part in the opposition movement of 1980 - a period of civil protest by leftist, Islamist, liberal and nationalist groups which coincided with an armed uprising by Islamists in the

Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ('' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar, Imam and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings s ...

and more radical factions. This led to severe repression of the Rally by the Syrian government; several of its main leaders were given long prison sentences (e.g. Riad al-Turk, jailed 1980-98). The Rally was later active in the

Damascus Spring The Damascus Spring (, ) was a period of intense political and social debate in Ba'athist Syria which started after the death of President Hafez al-Assad in June 2000 and continued to some degree until autumn 2001, when most of the activities as ...

of 2000, holding seminars and advocating political freedom. However, its member parties are now relatively marginal on the Syrian political scene, even if they remain an important segment of the organized opposition, due to decades of severe repression and denial of freedom to organize. Most leaders and many members are today old men, after joining or founding their respective parties in the early 1960s to late 1970s, and have had relatively poor success in appealing to younger generations of Syrians.

External links

National Democratic Gathering
- website,

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

. ast updated in 2004

References

{{Syrian political parties 1980 establishments in Syria Arab nationalism in Syria Arab socialist political parties Organizations of the Syrian civil war Pan-Arabist political parties Political opposition alliances in the Arab world Political parties established in 1980 Political party alliances in Syria Secularism in Syria Socialist parties in Syria Syrian opposition groups

Member parties

History

See also

External links

References