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Michel Aflak |
The Revolutionary Organization
And the Second condition is practical and related to the organization of the
movement. As it is based on a comprehensive Arab ideology, its organization
should also be on all-encompassing Arab scale. And as it is founded on a vital
and realistic ideology related to fundamental questions, organization must in
turn depend on the classes, which represent these fundamental questions in order
to secure success. As the ideology of the Arab Baath stands on three pillars
liberty, socialism and Arab Unity, organization must depend on the new
generation which represents consciousness, moral strength will and faith, and on
the majority of the Arabs who have a vital interest in the radical change. The
organization should also be on a comprehensive and indivisible Arab scale so
that it will not face inner strife, which negates one part in affirming the
other.
(The Comprehensive ideology, 1 - 1950)
The drive of a certain idea and a certain orientation grows strong in proportion
to the distance, not to nearness. When you were far from the idea of the party
and its orientation, you hungered and thirsted for this idea, you sought to
penetrate it and incorporate it in your personalities and actions. Is there any
need to corroborate this by citing certain historical events and personalities?
Who does not remember Umar Ibn Al-Khattab? He was the greatest opponent of the
call of Islam, but when his heart was open to it, he became its greatest support
and pillar, as if his previous hostility was nothing but a negative picture of
his profound readiness to embrace it. But it was genuine readiness, impervious
to shallowness and falsehood. He did not want, therefore, to accept it without
scrutiny, suspicion and alertness. It was as if his opposition was a test of
that call, nay, a test of himself. Was he worthy of it? Was his soul big enough
for that call, its profundity and gravity? He was testing himself... When the
test was accomplished, he came glad to embrace it and was distinguished in it.
(I swear to the Baath, 6 – 1950)
This means first that this base does not criticize for the sake of diversion or
for revenge, but it criticizes through a genuine concern for the party. Behind
its criticism there is action, work and sacrifices. It has, therefore, a full
right to question and know whether its efforts and sacrifices are taking the
course, which will achieve the objectives of such sacrifices, or whether
sacrifices have been made in vain, for personal, unsound and anti-national ends.
It means, secondly, that objection and criticism, when they are the outcome of
practice, will be serious and right. He who practices political activities will
know by experience and suffering what he is required to do in this case. When he
objects he does not do so as a matter of theorizing but because he realizes that
there is some error being made?
(The duty of members. The gravity of Party
responsibility, 6 April 1955)
The healthy state of affairs is when the words of the base are equal to its acts
and its rights equal to its responsibilities so that it does not demand more
than it renders in service and action. It does not object and protest except in
proportion to its daily support and action and performance.
When the member puts his interest in the party, the small work entrusted to him
[for execution] will no longer be small but something throbbing with life and
which summarizes the mission of the party.
Our view of a free organization does not contradict partial execution and the
development of specialized capabilities. Specialization is in execution, while
in the mind and the soul there is no specialization or division. The soul must
be the mirror of the oneness of personality and the oneness of the cause of the
party.
(The duty of leaderships - How we understand
organization, 6 June, 1955)
The doctrine of the party is not merely to uphold the dogma and denounce any
distortion and deviation that it may undergo, but also, and especially, to
perform all the tasks and duties, which the doctrine requires so that it may be
directed towards realization, the doctrine is the idea of its realization. The
doctrine is thinking and execution at the same time. The doctrinaire member is
not only one who knows the doctrine but also one who knows it and applies it,
and he applies because he knows it, for doctrinal knowledge contains within
itself the principle of realization. The doctrinaire is one who is committed to
realizing what he believes.
(The defense of the doctrine cannot be but an attack, 5
June, 1955)
Organization in essence is spirit, love and respect for human dignity. A
mechanical organization is disrespect for man, because it treats the members as
no more than numbers, while men are not numbers. Men are different from each
other, for each man has something in him which makes him ready to serve his
cause and idea in a special way that is not possible for any other. The
organizer should treat the members of his division by name and with full regard
to their personality. I cannot understand how an organizer can enter and look at
the entire division as if it was a mysterious body, that performs his task
automatically. The division is a metaphorical body. To facilitate work we have
divided the party into divisions, but in fact we cannot regard numbers fifty,
thirty and ten as one and the same thing.
(The duty of leaderships - How we understand
organization, 6 - June, 1955)
The idea of organization in our patty is connected with the philosophy of the
patty itself and it is very hard to separate the idea of organization from the
fundamental idea of liberty. We always pursue, urge and, bring to attention the
idea that organization in our party should reach the highest degree of order and
precision, but we do not mean at all by this that we want to make a machine out
of the patty and small parts of this machine out of its members. The member is
not a part of the party. This is a wrong conception. The member is the party in
miniature. The patty organizations are not the party. The division is not a
part, but it is the party in miniature. Therefore the organizers and leaders in
the party are not parts which when added together form a complete whole. No,
each one of them is a complete person, but they assume parts of the task.
(The duty of leaderships - How we understand
organization, 6 June, 1955)
Value does not lie in rank as far as the task is concerned. The highest the
middle or the lowest rank, are not of value by itself. The value lies in
performing the task in the best way possible, in being deeply absorbed in it
when performing it, in being faithful to it and in giving it its full due of
effort and careful attention.
(The duty of leaderships - How we understand
organisation, 6 June, 1955)
Work in the lower ranks is nearer to life for it is always work with the members
as free individuals. The way is more open, then, for educating such members as
free individuals. The road is more open for educating such members in the use of
freedom for the growth of their talents, capabilities and virtues, for nothing
can equal direct contact. This is the worthy and creative work. It is a direct
influence of one freedom on similar freedoms, of one wills on similar will, one
soul on other souls.
(The duty of leaderships - How we understand
organization, 6 June, 1955)
If organization in the Nazi way has hurt the Germans, it will hurt the Arabs
many times more. The German nation was advanced, had passed through a high stage
of civilization. Its history was in the ascendancy. It had its share of freedom
and that freedom gave rise to culture and thought then came a time in which that
nation was stricken by defeat in war. The defeat had its impact on the German
spirit. Despair seeped through and gave a feeling that it might be better to
restrict freedom for a temporary period so that the Germans could resolve their
affairs and realize a national objective.
This was the justification for that kind of organization. But the advanced, free
people, rich in culture and thoughts could not be transformed overnight into a
machine even when it was described as a machine, for its entire structure was
founded on liberty. That kind of organization had injured them and involved them
in many dangers and ordeals. But we must remember the difference between the
case of the Arabs and that of the German nation. The case of the Arabs is that
we have ceased for centuries to be in touch with civilization. We have forgotten
liberty for hundreds of years. We have lost the urge for creativeness and the
requisites of the independence of the personality which knows how to act We are,
therefore, in need of that which will release in us these potentialities which
have been buried and stifled. We are in need of the formation of the free,
responsible, independent, self-conscious Arab individual. We need the creation
of the Arab man, for the humane view in our milieu has been almost non-existent.
For this reason I have said that the idea of the organization should not be
different from the philosophy of the party itself.
(The duty of leaderships - How we understand
organization, 6 June, 1955)
The great destiny, brethren, is formed out of simple and small acts, out of our
daily conduct. The great destiny of the individual and the nation does not
descent all of a sudden from heaven. It is the outcome of daily small acts,
which accumulate, ferment and reach their conclusion. Then destiny rises up.
(The great destiny and the daily act, 6 December 1956)
The organization of genuine change, which we need but which has not yet reached
the necessary level, requires that the members of party devote all their time to
the task of the party and make of the party of radical change work the sole
occupation of their lives. They live by it and get their subsistence from it. In
it they put all their potentialities, capabilities, talents, hopes and
ambitions. Only through this can such individual have a deep nationalist
militant experience as a result of long practice and daily confrontation with
problems, and as a result of making mistakes and rectifying them through
experience, practice, supervision, daily and direct contact with the life of the
people, acquainting himself with their problems and touch with the life of the
party as well experiencing all its problems and affairs. This leads to acquiring
a new experience every day and every year. On this basis the party will be
enabled to create individuals, who are few at the beginning but who grow into
hundreds and thousands. Every one of them, through this experience, practice and
faith solidified by continuous struggle, will have the efficiency and expertise
of a thousand. He will be able to create life and motion in another thousand. He
will be a source of illumination, guidance and strength for the totality of the
people. The educated youths who have become conscious that their historic place
is within this movement of change and have advanced toward it and marched in its
frontlines should complete this consciousness by struggling, radial changing,
organized and popular action. They should not stop at the first stage of this
consciousness but ascend to a higher stage, so that they learn how to make their
participation the best and most satisfactory and allow it to bring forth the
best and most profound fruits of the life of the nation at this stage.
(The relation of organization to radical change action,
1 July 1957)
Organization is fundamental and vital and accompanies the radical change action,
nay; it is of the nature of that action and derives its strength from its idea
of radical change.
(The relation of organization to radical change action,
1 July, 1957)
We do not think of organization per se, that is we do not see it as isolated
from the idea with which it is connected and from which its rules and limits are
inspired. The removal of organization from the idea makes its value purely
technical. It could then be used for good and evil at the same time.
(The relation of organization to radical change action.
1 July, 1957)
The army is a popular army. In it there are militants attached to the cause of
the masses. They are the party members in the army. They are similar to their
comrades in the party whether they are workers, peasants or Intellectuals. They
have the right to live the life of the party to the full. The military, like
other comrades, have the right to participate within their organization in
directing the party and making its policy and programs. They have the full
right, as others, to criticism and self-criticism. What we want to say about the
function of the army is that the military should not be involved in the tasks of
leadership of the party or the government.
(A speech to the branches - The Syrian region, 3
January 18, 1966)
I would like to mention, with regard to the women comrades and the obstacles and
difficulties they encounter which are natural in our societies, that the great
national events and the national battles shorten time. They condense decades in
a few days. Before them such obstacles melt and vanish. Souls and wills are
liberated when they discover their national tasks and when they perform such
tasks and duties. A good deal of the equality to which the Arab woman aspires
will be realized in the atmosphere of battles and national events of destiny,
especially as our destiny will increase in all dimensions with time.
(The universality of the Baath idea is a national need
of life, 7 June 21, 1974)