LAUSR

This essay examines the twenty-three years’ existence of the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen in the context of the regional and world Left revolutionary and anticolonial movements of the second half of the twentieth century. The essay first examines the divisions of the liberation movement between followers of Nasserism and those who were influenced by the left wing of the Movement of Arab Nationalists. The 1967 Arab defeat by Israel and the National Liberation Front’s occupation of Aden shortly thereafter were important in finalizing the NLF’s victory over its Nasserist rival. The essay then addresses the internal causes of the series of factional struggles which tore apart the movement (and later its successor, the Yemeni Socialist Party) throughout the PDRY’s existence and assesses the extent to which ideological differences in the world socialist movement influenced these internecine confrontations. The regime’s steadfast solidarity with world revolutionary movements took place at the expense of improved relations with its neighbours, who opposed socialism in any form. Despite its poverty, the regime implemented remarkable social and economic policies which gave its population a welfare state beyond its means; the essay assesses the extent to which this emerged from autochthonous analysis or from external influences from the socialist world or elsewhere. Finally, it hints at some of the reasons why today’s southern separatist movement looks back on this period as a model despite not subscribing to socialism. Throughout, the analysis relates developments and events in the PDRY with relevant events and organizations elsewhere in the Arab world and beyond.