Fayez Sayegh- the Party Years (1938-1947)

by Adel Beshara

  The practical motivations that led me to establish the Party were: to end the chaos of existing nationalist beliefs in society and to achieve their unification into a single ideology centered around its entity and interests; to direct it away from sterile illusions and toward practical thinking and work; to train the young generation in particular in the exercise of national rights and the virtues that unify society and elevate its outlooks and systems; and to instill discipline into the rising generation and train them to use their talents for the sake of both advancing their nation and understanding their public responsibilities.

  Question: What are the broad lines of the Party’s platform and principles?

  Answer: The Party’s principles, platform, and Aim, as elucidated by the Leader, are available in print and published forms. Circulated widely ever since the inception of the Party, the principles can be categorized as:

  (a) Outlined in the first article of its constitution, the Party’s principal aim is “the creation of a Syrian Social Nationalist renaissance that will restore to the Syrian nation its vitality and strength, and the organization of a movement that would seek the complete independence of the Syrian nation, the vindication of its sovereignty, secure its interests, raise its standard of living, and aspire to create an Arab front.” This definition clearly states that the Party’s Aim is a comprehensive national one concerned with the nation’s life from all aspects and with securing all its interests. For this reason, the Party is not a mere political party; rather, its ideology and “national” principles deal with all the affairs related to the nation’s existence, from the economic, to the social, cultural, and political. Based on this, we can define the various principles of the Party in detail within the framework of this comprehensive aim.

  (b) The Party’s political objectives are: the restoration of national sovereignty to the Syrian nation in a meaningful and real sense that would guarantee the practical independence of Syria; the recovery of Syrian unity after partition had tampered with it for 25 years; and the integration of Syria closely with the Arab family within the framework of an “Arab Front”. The Party’s plan for an Arab front was practically approved by the Arab leaders who convened in the Alexandria and Cairo conferences and drafted the Alexandria Protocol and the Arab League Charter. In its memorandum to the Alexandria Conference on September 20, 1944, the Party officially defined its objectives concerning the “Arab Front”:

  Developing a program for a system of collective security and joint military defense.

  Unifying external political representation, if possible.

  Formulating joint economic measures and an economic policy developed by a central economic authority that would develop the main plans for production and distribution in the entire Arab world…

  From the social and cultural aspect, the Arab nations that are members of the front would participate in orientation programs, which will be unified in their broad outlines but tinted by distinct local features resulting from the discrepancy in levels.

  Clearly, from this synopsis, the Party’s agenda for Arab cooperation is ambitious. It seeks to enhance Arab ties, overcome narrow-sighted isolationism in the Arab world, and eradicate it from popular life.

  Another delicate issue remains: the current existing entities in the Syrian homeland, especially the Lebanese entity. The Party believes that the main problem it has to address is not the current political situation in Lebanon, but rather the general national social situation imposed by certain factors, which, in turn, imposed this isolationist political entity in Lebanon. The former must be addressed before the latter. We also emphasize that Palestine and Alexandretta are two intrinsic issues that we will not balk at or stop pursuing.

  (c) Social objectives: the Party seeks to create a highly advanced civil system free of social injustice, stratification, and social privileges. It strives for the social unification of the people over and above the prevalent social decay that creates conflicting communities within one society and arouses uncharitable and antagonistic sentiments at the expense of the nationalist spirit. Sectarianism, stratification, tribalism, and regionalism are all declared by the Party to be corrupt manifestations completely at odds with the Party’s basic national belief: “The Syrian nation is one social community”.

  (d) Economic objectives: the Party works to redress the problem of economic production, combat the foreign exploitation of the country’s resources, eliminate social injustice and inequality between the classes by combating feudalism and building a national economic system that would allow the state to take control of economic affairs, and establish a system of economic life on the basis of production. Consequently, the Party would save workers and farmers from injustice, not by helping them to usurp the rights and wealth of the other classes, but rather by raising the standard of economic life and national production and hedging against exploitation in the distribution of the national wealth.

  (e) We should remember the Party’s endeavor to “create a strong army that can have an effective weight in determining the fate of the nation and the homeland”; its work to “prevent clerics from interfering in national politics and judiciary”; or its perseverance to connect the immigrant to the nation and bring him/her back to his homeland.

  Question 3: To what extent has the Party been able to implement these principles?

  Answer: We are weighing a political party, not a government, for its work. The scope of the work of political parties, from a tangible practical perspective, is definitely narrower than the scope of the work of governments. Governments have a grip on the resources of people, hold legislative and executive powers, and control the military forces and financial resources available in the entire state. We should also remember that civil liberties, without which any party cannot fulfill its national duty towards its country, were suppressed and stifled during the era of the mandate. Moreover, the Party does not presently enjoy the freedom it requires to perform its work fully and completely.

  Despite these two factors, which impede the Party’s ability to fulfill its principles, the achievements of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party are:

  The Party has practically realized the nation’s sovereignty in its homeland. Despite the mandate and its restrictions, Party members worked for the interest of their nation – and their nation alone – without recognizing the legitimacy of the mandate or its restrictions. They snatched back their right to productive national work from the hands of the foreign authorities.

  The Party has practically realized the nation’s unity in all regions of the country. Party members are scattered throughout the Syrian statelets and regions despite the artificial boundaries that divides the nation. Consequently, the Party has developed into a single national society within the larger national society, which foreign wills had conspired to divide and destroy its political unity.

  The Party has proposed a comprehensive national ideology by which all issues facing the nation can be addressed in a thoughtful and correct manner. With this work, the Party has presented a theoretical intellectual framework for the general management of all national affairs.

  The Party has been a practical school where members have been trained to shoulder responsibilities and exercise discipline in administration and leadership. Such training is of paramount value in a nation that aspires to assume the place it deserves without the help of foreigners, especially since the regimes that reigned in the nation have created a generation oblivious of the meaning of responsibility and untested in the actual exercise of it.

  The Party has also been a school of life that nurtures the virtues of struggle, sacrifice, sincerity, shouldering difficulties, and persistence in its members in pursuing their national mission despite foreign forces being mobilized to impede their progress and struggle.

  The Party has worked to enlighten public opinion and explain to it the reality of the various issues facing the nation. The Party did not let a single major event in the nation’s life pass without explaining its na
ture to the people and outlining the policies required to address it, whether through its periodical announcements or internal missives. For example, the memoranda and statements on the questions of Palestine, Alexandretta, the Alexandria Conference, the Common Interests, the Syrian-French crises, etc.

  The Party has laid the basis for the close relationship that must exist between immigrants and their homeland by establishing branches in all centers of Syrian immigration and dedicating a central office (the Office for Cross-Border Affairs) for immigrants to look after their affairs and link their respective branches with the Party at home.

  The Party has established – through the Dean of Culture and Fine Arts – a nucleus for a high Party council to tend to the affairs of public enlightenment and culture; establish offices, clubs, and night schools; issue cultural bulletins; and sponsor authorship, translation, and publishing. With these efforts, the Party has addressed the disgraceful deficiency in the nation’s cultural life.

  Question 4: What is the Party’s attitude toward the status quo?

  Answer: If by “status quo” is meant the present situation of the nation, then the answers above more than adequately explain the Party’s position. However, if it is in relation to the current “political situation”, then the Party declares that the backbone of the present situation is social nationalist and not political, and that all changes in the political system will remain decidedly truncated and incomplete unless they address, primarily, the general social, economic, and national situation. We need to change the foundations of the governmental process before changing the individuals in charge of the government. The coming and going of individuals on the same principles and from the same political school will not result in any change in the status quo.

  Question 5: What is the Party’s attitude toward the other political parties?

  Answer: Since the Party works for progress and national unity, it endeavors, and it will always endeavor, for greater cooperation between parties and groups (despite the difference in principles and platforms) and for the mobilization of all efforts in the cause of the general interest rather than for the purpose of inter-party quarrels and hostilities. We believe in the principle of the freedom of political parties, no matter how different their platforms are from ours.

  But we also believe that one principal criterion should determine the extent of freedom granted these parties and of our readiness to cooperate with them. This criterion is the degree to which these parties are loyal to the nation’s interests above every other interest and above the partial interests of individuals, religious sects, classes, and parties.

  Some groups unmistakably operate at the behest of foreign policies and for a foreign interest. We believe that these parties are betraying the nation, and therefore, it is an act of betrayal to cooperate with them or to demand their right to freedom.

  The freedom of political parties is provisional. It is contingent on the party’s loyalty to the interest of the nation, regardless of differences in programs and methods. Within the confines of this basic condition, we call for the freedom of parties and for cooperation among them.

  2

  HOW DO NATIONALISTS PERCEIVE SA’ADEH?

  WHAT DOES HE MEAN TO THEM?

  WHAT IS THEIR RELATION TO HIM?

  These three questions sit on the tongue of the cunning, the admirer, the neutral, the member who is at the threshold of Party life, and the member who has scaled to the core of the movement. Today, March 1, on the occasion of his birthday, the eyes of thousands of young people in this nation from north to south and from east to the sea and beyond are fixed on one man: Antun Sa’adeh.

  What is the relationship that connects us to Sa’adeh? What dynamic link exists between him and each of us?

  1. Sa’adeh represents a live embodiment of the strengths and values of life that are latent in each of our souls but are ready to burst and take control of our entity. He represents a set of noble virtues, values, characteristics, and strengths that exist inside every person in a default dormant state and are sometimes visible in some people. In Sa’adeh, they have crystallized and coalesced. Thus, although they remain dormant and inherent in each of us, they are conspicuously, clearly, coherently, and supremely visible in Sa’adeh’s character. This is the first manifestation of our relationship to Sa’adeh. In himself, Sa’adeh represents the “actualization” of the values that our souls aspire for and the “incarnation” of the virtues we are able and eager to embody. He is, in his life and existence, a living fulfillment of the wishes and hopes we harbor. He is, in his “reality”, a realization of what we dream to be and aspire to achieve.

  Sa’adeh represents each one of us in his tendencies and potential. Inside each of us, there is a Sa’adeh ready to emerge.

  2. Second, Sa’adeh does not only realize these strengths and values in himself, but he calls us to realize these strengths and values in ourselves. The Nationalist who appreciates Sa’adeh and recognizes his true worth but remains unaffected deep down by Sa’adeh is neither a genuine Nationalist nor a true follower of Sa’adeh. Furthermore, the Nationalist who admires Sa’adeh but is unmotivated to be what Sa’adeh had been is neither a true Nationalist nor a true follower of Sa’adeh.

  Indeed, true genuine realization of these inspiring natural values is but a call to the same values to rise from their slumber, to become dynamic and effective, and to crystallize inside every soul that comes in contact with them or with the dynamic current they have generated. If Sa’adeh had fulfilled these values only within himself without calling on those with whom he came in contact to fulfill them in themselves, he would not have truly fulfilled them in himself. Verily, the embodiment of life is forever a call for life!

  Nevertheless, Sa’adeh could not have called on anyone to strive for such fulfillment if these values were not latent inside him or her. As I said before, the values that Sa’adeh embodies in himself are values that exist in every soul. If they did not exist in our souls, neither Sa’adeh nor anyone else would be able to invoke them in anyone.

  Sa’adeh’s true worth is not in inculcating new values in us. Rather, it is in introducing each of us to his real self, in fuelling inside it a new struggle with its existing state, and then in pushing it to realize its genuine nature and replacing its spurious nature with it.

  Inside each of us exist the seeds of the values that were fulfilled in Sa’adeh. Had this not been the case, we would not have been able to become like Sa’adeh; and we would not have been able to appreciate or respect him. Did he not say, “There lies in us every science, philosophy, and art in the world”? Did he not say that he predicates his trust in the revival of the nation on his trust in the vitality inherent in the sons of the nation? Did he not also say, “There is strength in you which, if activated, would change the face of history”? Did he not presume, in everything he did or said, the existence of the powers and values that represent the national revival in the soul of each soldier of the revival? From where do we derive our slogan of “Freedom, Duty, Discipline, and Strength” except from ourselves? Where can we find it but in ourselves?

  3. The third manifestation of our relationship with Sa’adeh is that Sa’adeh is the source of our trust in the possibility of achieving these values in ourselves. Sa’adeh is a living entity in whom these values have been realized and proof that these values are realizable. An inspired novelist may paint a beautiful portrait that captures all that is in Sa’adeh of life’s elements, and this picture may inspire us to bring out these elements in ourselves. However, it cannot generate in us the confidence that we can ever be like the person in the portrait! Sa’adeh is neither the product of myths nor a portrait created by an artist. He is a human being who lived among us. We observed him in trials and tribulations, which stand as conclusive proof of his true nature. Who would dare to say after today that this sacrifice, this firmness, and this sincerity is beyond human reach now that they are crystallized, before our eyes, in a man of flesh and blood?

 
This is Sa’adeh the man before he became Sa’adeh the Party Leader and a legend shrouded in myths.

  3

  THE PLACE OF THE WORKER IN THE NATIONAL REVIVAL

  Workers, their rights, and their duties are among the fundamental issues in the life of nations, especially in emerging nations that are on the threshold of progress and new advancement. Accordingly, a nation aspiring to a proper life cannot take an oscillating or ambivalent attitude toward this fundamental issue. It cannot take an attitude that is at odds with the principles of truth and justice.

  Before we explain the attitude of the National Movement toward this issue, we need to review some of the existing perspectives on it.

  THE CAPITALIST PERSPECTIVE

  By virtue of its position and interests, the capitalist camp is inclined to take a hostile attitude toward the demands and rights of workers. This perspective is dictated by self-defense and the need to combat labor unions. Any concession the capitalist class makes to the working class is often made in response to the persistent pressure of workers. Therefore, we find that capitalists tend to ignore the pain and poverty of the workers, and the terrible financial, psychological, medical, and cultural conditions in which they languish. The capitalists treat workers with indifference. They do not consider such matters from the standpoint of human rights, justice, or national interests. Rather, they measure all things in terms of their economic interests and labor output.