In January of this year, inspired
by the revolution in Tunisia, thousands in Yemen began protesting to
demand the ouster of U.S. client President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
In recent developments, activists
have distributed leaflets calling on people to stop paying
taxes, electricity and other bills to the government in a campaign of
civil disobedience. Strikes in schools and government offices have
begun in Aden, while the electricity supply was hit in cities
including Sana’a, Taiz, Hudaida and Ibb after tribesmen attacked a
main power plant.
The opposition has set a two-week
deadline for the president to step aside, rejecting a Saudi-brokered,
Gulf Co-operation Council-backed initiative to end the country’s
political turmoil. Thousands came to the streets in cities across
Yemen April 16-18 to protest the GCC initiative and demand Saleh’s
immediate departure. (Voice of America, April 18)
At least 116 people have been
killed in the protests, which were attacked by security forces with
live fire and tear gas.
Struggle against the feudal
theocracy
Yemen is a country in the south
of the Arabian peninsula, neighboring Saudi Arabia and Oman. It has a
population of 24 million, of which two-thirds live in the
countryside, where there is little infrastructure. The main capital
is Sana’a, with a population of 2 million.
Yemen, despite its naturally
beautiful and relatively fertile land, is the poorest country in the
Arab world. Unlike Saudi Arabia, Yemen’s oil reserves are limited.
Almost half the population lives below the poverty line. Poverty has
gotten worse with the implementation of the neoliberal economic plan,
particularly over the last decade. Unemployment is at about 30
percent, while the literacy rate is only at 50 percent.
The Zaydi Imamate ruled northern
Yemen in a feudal theocracy from the eighth century until it was
overthrown by the Republican Revolution in 1962. The revolution
ushered in the beginning of capitalist development in the
impoverished and underdeveloped nation. Prior to the 1962 revolution,
there were no paved roads, no Yemeni doctors (and very few foreign
ones) only religious schools, (attended only by one in 20 children)
and no factories in the north. About 80 percent suffered from
trachoma, a bacterial infection of the eye. (Lonely Planet Travel
Survival Kit, Yemen 1996 edition)
In the civil war that ensued
after the overthrow of the Imam, Egypt, backed by the Soviet Union,
assisted the Yemen Arab Republic with troops and supplies. Britain,
Saudi Arabia and Jordan supported Imam Muhammad al-Badr’s royalist
forces. Fighting spread to the south, where the National Liberation
Front, a revolutionary organization, was founded. The NLF’s main
objective was to force the British out of southern Yemen.
Struggle against British
colonialism
On January 19, 1839, the British
East India Company landed Royal Marines at Aden and occupied southern
Yemen. Aden became an important trading hub between colonized India
and the Red Sea. In 1869, after the Suez Canal was opened, Aden
became a coaling station for British ships on their way to and from
India.
For a century, Aden was ruled not
as a direct British colony, but as part of their colonial
administrative apparatus of India. In 1937, the British established
the Colony of Aden as a distinct colony. The discovery of oil in the
1930s could have provided a possibility of development, but being a
colony meant that only the British would get rich from the oil.
In July 1952, there was a rise in
the independence movement in Egypt against the British when the “free
officers” overthrew King Farouk and Gamal Abdel Nasser emerged
as the leader. Egypt’s independence movement and the
nationalization of the Suez Canal had a significant impact on other
countries in the Middle East. Yemen was particularly influenced, and
the struggle to win independence escalated, while the British
resorted to increasingly ruthless repressive measures. In February
1959, the British united the various local rulers under their
colonial rule and formed what was called the Federation of Arab
Emirates of the South.
The 1962 Republican Revolution in
the north had an impact on the colonized Yemenis to the south,
especially considering that one-third of the Adeni population were
migrant workers of north Yemeni origin. In January 1964, the British
moved into the Radfan hills on the border east of Aden to fight
guerrillas. By October, they had largely been suppressed, but that
did not stop the NLF, which now switched to partisan tactics against
the British and their allies. In that year, there were around 280
guerrilla attacks, over 500 in 1965. In 1966, the Front for the
Liberation of Occupied South Yemen, a nationalist organization
supported by Egypt, entered the scene and also started attacking the
British colonizers.
Socialism declared in the
south
In January 1967, NLF and FLOSY
supporters held mass uprisings in Aden, which continued for over a
month. On June 20, 1967, there was a mutiny first in the army, and
then the police. The British temporarily put down the rebellion, but
started suffering heavy casualties at the hands of the independence
fighters. By the end of November 1967, the British were defeated and
driven from Aden.
At the same time, Egypt had
withdrawn from the struggle in the north; however, a final royalist
assault in the north against Sana’a was defeated by republican
forces. A factor in the end of the civil war in the north in 1970 was
the reaching of accommodations with tribal leaderships in the rural
areas.
In the course of the struggle,
many elements in the liberation movement were radicalized. A Marxist
wing of the NLF gained power in south Yemen in June 1969 and, on Dec.
1, 1970, the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen was declared. The
PDRY established close ties with the Soviet Union, the People’s
Republic of China and Cuba and implemented a number of progressive
reforms.
Thus, all of Yemen became free of
the British colonizers and the theocratic monarchists.
Sharing a past of struggle for
liberation, North and South Yemen remained relatively friendly. In
1972, both states declared their intent to reunify. But the
activities of leftist rebels in the north brought the two Yemens to
the brink of war in the late 1970s. But again, in March 1979, both
heads of state reaffirmed the goal of unity.
In 1980, there was internal
struggle in the People’s Republic in the south, which resulted in
President Abdul Fattah Ismail resigning and going into exile.
Ismail’s successor, President Ali Nasir Muhammad, had a more
moderate approach and was opposed to helping the revolutionary
struggles in North Yemen and in neighboring Oman. In 1986, a violent
struggle began in Aden between the two factions. Fighting lasted for
more than a month and resulted in thousands of casualties, Ismail’s
death and Muhammad’s ouster.
In May 1988, the governments of
North and South Yemen came to an agreement to renew discussions
concerning unification, to demilitarize the border and to remove
restrictions on border passage.
In November 1989, the leaders of
the north and south agreed on a draft unity constitution that had
been drawn up in 1981. The Republic of Yemen was declared on May 22,
1990, and Saleh, already the president of North Yemen, became the
president of the reunited country.
Another civil war broke out in
May 1994, again between the north and the south as the south
attempted to secede due to dissatisfaction with the domination of the
more socially backward, pro-capitalist north. The southern forces
were defeated in 1994, and the unification project continued.
Saleh a U.S. client
Reunification meant that Saleh no
longer had to worry about having to emulate progressive reforms in
the south, which, despite very limited resources, had made gains for
the working class and the poor. Especially following Sept. 11, 2001,
the invasion of Afghanistan and the so-called war on terror, Saleh
moved further to the right. He implemented the IMF-World Bank
privatization program and became a participant in the U.S. “war on
terror.”
Today, Saleh is in his 33rd year
as president, going back to before the reunification. Saleh is such a
dependable U.S. client that, like the client state of Pakistan, he
actually approves of U.S. drone bombings of his country’s
territory. In fact, as Wikileaks documents revealed, Saleh even has
taken responsibility for U.S. killings on Yemeni soil, claiming that
it was his forces that carried out the drone bombings. The United
States has been bombing Yemen since at least 2009. A U.S. airstrike
in December 2009 killed 42 civilians.
However loyal Saleh is now to
U.S. interests, the imperialists have repeatedly expressed their
concerns about the “weak control” that the central government in
Yemen has had over the nation as a whole. The majority of Yemenis
live as farmers in often remote mountainous rural areas. While the
bourgeois revolution in the north definitely brought many positive
changes to the YAR, it also of necessity introduced the
contradictions of capitalist development. At the same time, Saleh’s
central government has relied on traditional tribal leadership in the
rural areas to maintain control by giving money, weapons and
government positions to selected tribal leaders, and pitting one
tribe against another. As evidenced by the current Houthi rebellion,
this strategy is not always effective.
Struggle brings dramatic
changes in consciousness
The March 23 New York Times
reported on tribal participation in the protests in Sana’a. The
majority of protesters camping out in the city are rural
tribespeople. “He gives money to the sheik who rules the people,
but it’s not for the people,” said Majid Mohagary, a man in
tattered clothes, a member of Saleh’s own tribe, Sinhan.
According to the Times, Mohagary
broke with his sheik over the sheik’s continued support of Saleh.
“This is what surprised us all,” said Mohamed Qadhi, also of the
Sinhan tribe and a member of Parliament who resigned from Saleh’s
party to oppose the violence against protesters. “Usually the
tribesmen are following their sheiks, and that’s what the president
believed would happen. But what’s happening now is that most of the
people have their own opinion.”
This independence of
rank-and-file qabili (tribemen) is a new development that is fed by
the widening gap between rich tribal leaders with multiple homes and
SUVs and the profound poverty of the rural masses.
In 2010, the U.S. government gave
$155 million in military aid to Saleh’s regime, fighting against
two separate rebel movements, the Houthi in the north and a
secessionist movement in the south.
The Houthis are members of the
Zaydi branch of Shi’ite Islam. The majority of the population in
the north identify with Zaydism, which is only found in Yemen.
The Yemeni government accuses the
Houthi rebels of wishing to bring back theocratic rule; the Houthi
leaders claim they oppose the corruption of the central government
and only seek more autonomy for their region.
In the south, the Peaceful
Southern Mobilization Movement has been leading demonstrations
against the central government and calling for southern secession
from the north since 2007, raising the flag of the PDRY. More
recently, Aden has been a site of giant protests against Saleh, held
in coordination with protests in Sana’a, Taiz, Ibb and other cities.
People want Saleh out!
In view of their rich history of
progressive and anti-colonial struggle, it is not surprising that the
Yemeni people are unwilling to put up with Saleh, a corrupt
collaborator with imperialism. After a major demonstration of tens of
thousands took place in Sana’a on Jan. 27, Saleh conceded that he
would neither run for re-election in 2013 nor pass power to his son.
But this was not enough.
In a protest on Feb. 18, tens of
thousands of Yemenis demonstrated in the cities of Sana’a, Taiz and
Aden, demanding the resignation of Saleh. By the end of February, the
turnout to protests had grown to hundreds of thousands.
On March 18, protesters in Sana’a
were fired upon from overlooking rooftops. At least 45 people were
killed and hundreds more were injured. Since the beginning of the
uprising, hundreds of high-ranking officials have resigned. Maj.
Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, along with 18 other officers, defected in
March. In fact, Gen. al-Ahmar has deployed his forces to the front of
the presidential palace to protect demonstrators against Saleh’s
forces.
On March 23, parliament enacted a
30-day emergency law that suspended the constitution, allowed media
censorship, banned street protests and gave security forces
far-reaching powers to arrest and detain suspects.
On April 15, the nation was again
rocked by massive demonstration after Friday prayers. At a
pro-government rally, Saleh attempted an appeal to the most socially
conservative elements in Yemeni society, condemning the “mixing”
of men and women in the protests. Women protesters responded fiercely
to this attack on their honor and reiterated their commitment to the
struggle to oust Saleh. The outcry forced Saleh to issue a public
apology to the women protesters. (Yemen Post, April 18)
The heroic struggle of Yemen’s
masses to end the rule of U.S. client Saleh is a hopeful sign of
another positive change in the region, following Tunisia and Egypt.
The situation is fraught with the danger of increased U.S.
intervention in Yemen, or a proxy intervention perhaps carried out by
client state Saudi Arabia. All progressives and revolutionaries
should support the right of the Yemeni people to self-determination.
