Post

★ ＵＮＩＴＥＤ ＡＲＡＢ ＲＥＰＵＢＬＩＣ ★

"Fear is, I believe, a most effective tool in destroying the soul of an individual - and the soul of a people."
ANWAR EL-SADAT

_________________

_{𝐍𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐑'𝐒 𝐆𝐀𝐌𝐁𝐋𝐄:
𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐎𝐋𝐔𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐘 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐏 𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐃
^{FEB 1970 - UNITED ARAB REPUBLIC}}
_{Despite the many successes of the revolution and the various gains made under President Nasser, there had always been the understanding that the revolution has failed to translate into a truly enshrined institution, most obvious being the lack of a true political vehicle for mass participation or a true mass party. This is reflected by the emergence of three different 'political organizations' across the years, the Liberation Rally which was the first attempt at creating such an organization in 1952, its successor, the National Union in 1956, and finally the Arab Socialist Union in 1962. In each of those cases, the party has failed to truly take root, partially due to just the power vested in Nasser himself. Attempts at reforming the Arab Socialist Union into a more traditional mass party were only partially successful, as factionalism and the outbreak of the Six-Day War grinded the reforms to a halt.}

_{The emergence of Khalid Muhyi al-Din as the head of the Arab Socialist Union restarted this process, and it soon became apparent that a new path was once again necessary. The Arab Socialist Union suffered too many issues and its conflicting paths between being an engine for Nasser's policies and its attempt at being its own political organization had caused it to stagnate and it was agreed upon that it would be better to fully reorganize the party. Thus, the main powers in the ASU went to the drawing board, and announced the February 6th Resolution. .}

_{Building on the March 30th reforms, the February 6th Resolution is fully the brainchild of Khalid Muhyi al-Din. Drawing on his Marxist background, and his various influences, the Feb 6th Resolution aims to re-organize the Arab Socialist Union along Marxian lines, taking greatest inspirations from Third-World experiments such as in Cuba. The first change comes through the creation of a new political party, the National Progressive Party, which is set to consume the infrastructure existing from the ASU without any of the baggage.}

_{The National Progressive Party differs from the ASU in several respects that makes it function more traditionally as a leading political party in the state. It's charter explicitly details its ideology as 'Socialist', and 'Arabist' (unlike the ASU which remained purposefully vague), it operates on the principle of Democratic Centralism, adopting it from the foreign Socialist parties (and even some non-socialist ones such as the Taiwanese Koumintang), which essentially makes all decisions taken by the leadership of the NPP binding after a period of debate and discussion, it creates a new 225-man Central Committee which is to be the main executive organ of the state, which in turn would elect an 8-man Standing Committee which would operation when the Central Committee is not in session. In addition, as one of the first decrees passed by the NPP, factionalism would be banned, thus forcing ideological discipline for Nasser's 'Socialism'. In general, the National Progressive Party is also structured much more like an actual mass party. As part of the reorganization, the National Progressive Party would merge within it the various mass organizations (such as the Socialist Youth Organization) into its own structure, as well as the economic planning committees, thus putting under it most of the state's executive functions such as state planning, youth organizations, the press, and so on.}

_{Furthermore, in order to truly cement it as part of the state, a decree parallel to the February 6th Resolution set that each provincial chapter would now have equal power to the provincial governor, with both in effect having equal power though the National Progressive Party's would in practice force ideological subordination from the governors, thus keeping them in check. The state-controlled Arab Trade Union Federation, the only legal national trade union centre, would be under the subordination of the National Progressive Party.}

_{One notable consequence of the National Progressive Party was the re-emergence of more radical and socialist sectors of the Arab Socialist Union that were hampered by the non-ideological character of the Arab Socialist Union, such as the youth movement led by Mufid Shehab. With the NPP aiming to be an ideologically driven party, and a leading guide of state activities, it required the emergence of a class of political theorists to drive its development, thus these formerly sidelined ideologues became an important function of the newly created party, creating literature and analysis for the Central Committee.}

_{The National Progressive Party would later then hold its first political conference, electing President Nasser as it's Chairman and Khalid Muhyi al-Din as General-Secretary, as well as the 8-man Standing Committee consisting of Gamal Abdel Nasser, Khalid Muhyi al-Din, Anwar Sadat, Hussein el-Shafei, Ali Sabry, Sharawi Gomaa, Sami Sharaf, and the surprising election of Mu'mmar al-Gaddafi. The Standing Committee reflected generally the still large amounts of power held by the Gomaa-Sabry axis, which was the main political power during the Arab Socialist Union, and the general elimination of many of Nasser's previously powerful comrades such as Zakaria Muhyi al-Din who would generally occupy these positions. Elections for the Central Committee itself in the meanwhile would be held later on a pending date.}