The Arab Socialist Union of Libya (ASU) was a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

from 1971 to 1977 led by

Muammar Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by ''The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...

. Gaddafi served as chairman of the party. Many aspects of Muammar Gaddafi's Libyan

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

revolution were based on that of Egyptian President

Gamal Abdel Nasser Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein, . (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian politician who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and introduced far-re ...

. Like Nasser, Gaddafi seized power with a Free Officers Movement, which in 1971 became the Arab Socialist Union of Libya. Like its Egyptian counterpart, the Libyan ASU was the sole legal party and was designed as a vehicle for integrated national expression rather than as a political party. Bashir Hawady was the general secretary of the party. In May 1972, the Libyan ASU and the Egyptian ASU agreed to merge their two parties into a single body.
The Middle East: Abstracts and index
', Vol. 23, Part 2. Library Information and Research Service., 1999. p. 248

References

1971 establishments in Libya 1977 disestablishments in Libya Arab nationalism in Libya Arab Socialist Union Defunct political parties in Libya History of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi Nasserist political parties Pan-Arabist political parties Parties of one-party systems Political parties disestablished in 1977 Political parties established in 1971 Socialist parties in Libya {{Libya-party-stub