The Arab left … milestones in tumultuous history



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Lor Gerges’s book “The Arab Left: Dates and Legacy: From the 1950s to the 1970s” (University Press of Edinburgh 2020) contains fourteen documented articles on milestones in the history of the Arab left. We have seen the main ideas of the book presented, and often in the words of the writers, waiting for stakeholders to discuss it, whether they want to, agree or not.

Laure Gerges, a Danish-Egyptian historian specializing in Arab cultural, political and social history, wrote “An Introduction to the Arab Left from the 1950s to the 1970s: Transnational Groups and Changing Legacies”, where she discussed, among many things, defining the left and propose it by portraying it as a set of meanings and values.
Urit Bashkin wrote the first chapter (the unforgettable radical words for “union” in Hebrew novels, especially for the Anti-Zionist League in Iraq, which played a pivotal role in developing a radical Arab-Jewish identity and adhering to leftist tendencies and Communists even after Communist Jews left their homeland.

Hana Morgenchtern, translator and professor at the University of Cambridge, discussed in the second semester (Beating hearts: Arab Marxism, anti-colonialism and etiquette of coexistence in Palestine / Israel – 1944-1960) the meeting of Arab and Jewish Marxists [؟] From different origins and under the auspices of the Communist Party in the enemy entity and the establishment of its “new” cultural and political magazine, the ways in which they used the magazine and the strategy of the popular communist organization, such as clubs and intellectual festivals, are discussed. , to plant the seeds of the formation of a movement that opposes the Zionist ideology.
The French researcher Matthieu Rey, specialized in contemporary Middle Eastern history at the Institute for Research and Study of the Arab and Islamic Worlds and the National Institute for Scientific Research, dedicated his chapter “Free elections against authoritarian practices: what the Baathists “to define the basic values ​​shared by the Baathist founders, and how they influenced their political practices and turned their club into a political party that defends liberal ideas. The constitution, free elections, and the parliamentary system are basic tools needed to implement your program and then gradually adopt new positions, accept military action, and ultimately support Nasserist ideas.
Saun Hegbel, Professor of Cosmological Studies at the Danish University of Riskeld, discussed in Chapter Four (How to deal with the split: Khaled Bakdash and the split of the Arab Communists) the available literature on the leader of the Syrian-Lebanese Communist Party for a long time. time and is an embodiment of the way the Soviet international communist movement dominated Arab communism, This led to the uncritical acceptance of the canons of Soviet Marxism and the concomitant failure to formulate independent social analyzes of the special conditions of Arab societies . The chapter also focuses on the deep disagreements surrounding the deadly decision of the Syrian Lebanese Communist Party and the Arab Communist Parties to support the 1947 Partition Plan of Palestine despite pre-partition resistance led by Faraj Allah Al-Helou. .
Daniela Melfa analyzes in Chapter Five (National International: Commitment of the Communist Party of Tunisia with the emancipation of the people) the main characteristics of the party’s commitment to the external front, especially in the sphere of the “three continents”. In Chapter VI (International nationalism: The Algerian industry at the International Youth Festival, 1947-62), Yacoub Kreiss analyzes the participation of Algerian delegations in international youth festivals and its use in festivals to promote the cause of the national self-determination.
The American researcher and graduate of the American University of Beirut, Nate George and professor at the “Center for Palestinian Studies at Columbia University” recovers in chapter eight (The traveling theorist: Al Mahdi Ben Baraka and Morocco of anti-colonial nationalism at three continents) the main contribution of the deceased Moroccan revolutionary in the construction of the alliance of the three continents and the framework of action in him and the development of his thought through many different circumstances.
Italian researcher Gennaro Gervasio wrote Chapter Eight (Marxism or Left Nationalism? The New Left in Egypt in the 1970s) with the aim of shedding light on the theory and political application of the Egyptian radical left in the early 1970s. 1970, focusing on the experience of the “extreme left” embodied by the Egyptian Communist Workers’ Party.
The Palestinian fighter in the leadership of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Maha Nassar reviews in Chapter 9 (Zionists, Anti-Zionists and Revolutionaries: Palestinian Calendars of the Israeli Left, 1967-73) the ways in which Palestinian patriots circulated those leftist speeches throughout the Arab world through careful reading of the Research Center publications. Affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Study of Hussein Marwa and Mahdi, an agent of Arab-Islamic philosophy

The editor of this group, Laure Gerges, continues in the tenth chapter (Get off the horse to collect some roses: a strict investigation on the experiences of the new Lebanese left, 1968-1973) “Working committees” and “The combat investigation “established by the Organization for Communist Action in Lebanon and Waddah Sharara’s role in that. .
Chapter 11 (Che Guevara Middle East: Memory of the revolutionary struggle of Khaled Ahmed Zaki in the marshes of southern Iraq) by the German researcher Philip Finkler, which deals with the case of that Iraqi revolutionary who went to study in London and got in touch with radical left groups active there in the 1960s and joined the distinguished circle of English philosophers. Bertrand Russell, his return to Iraq and the attempt to wage a revolutionary war in the southern marshes, and his martyrdom there at the hands of Iraqi forces.
Chapter 12 (Crisis and criticism: the change in the radical Arab tradition between the 1960s and the 1980s) was written by Canadian researcher Jens Henson, in which he reviews two moments of crisis and criticism in the Arab intellectual history of the 20th century: a public debate between leftists and Arab nationalists in Cairo in 1961 and the rise of a study of Marxists Arabs Hussein Marwa and Mahdi, the deluded factor in Arab-Islamic philosophy.
The final chapter (The Consequences of Hussein Marwa: The Assassination of an Intellectual, 1987) written by the Lebanese researcher Samer Franjieh, in which he offers a review of the past from a “tyrannical” and “sectarian” present, where the fighting circle on the left in the 1960s and 1970s appears as an anomaly in the history of Levante.
A closing speech “The Arab Left: From the Thundering Ocean to the Revolutionary Gulf”, written by Palestinian Abdul Razzaq Al-Tikriti, professor at the American University of Houston, in which he reviewed, among other things, the roles of some Arab leftists and national and national movements, saying: “At this historic juncture, stories are being won. The old struggle is more important than the” acquisition of antiquities “and the urgent need to restore” from the thundering ocean to the rogue gulf. ”

Arab lefts, stories and legacies from 1950 to 1970. Edinburgh University Press (2020) LAURE GUIRGUIS

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