The National Democratic Rally or National Democratic Gathering ( ar, التجمع الوطني الديمقراطي, ''at-tajammuʻ al-waţanī ad-dīmūqrāţī'') is a banned

opposition Opposition may refer to: Arts and media * ''Opposition'' (Altars EP), 2011 EP by Christian metalcore band Altars * The Opposition (band), a London post-punk band * ''The Opposition with Jordan Klepper'', a late-night television series on Comed ...

alliance in

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, comprising five

political parties 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 ideological or pol ...

of a

secularist Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on secular, naturalistic considerations. Secularism is most commonly defined as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state, and may be broadened to a sim ...

pan-Arabist Pan-Arabism ( ar, الوحدة العربية or ) is an ideology that espouses the unification of the countries of North Africa and Western Asia from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea, which is referred to as the Arab world. It is closely c ...

Arab nationalist Arab nationalism ( ar, القومية العربية, al-Qawmīya al-ʿArabīya) is a nationalist ideology that asserts the Arabs are a nation and promotes the unity of Arab people, celebrating the glories of Arab civilization, the language an ...

and

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 ...

bent. Hassan Ismail Abdelazim, leader of the

Democratic Arab Socialist Union The Democratic Arab Socialist Union ( ar, الاتحاد الاشتراكي العربي الديمقراطي, ''Al-ittiḥād al-ishtirākī al-'arabī al-dīmūqrāṭī''; French: ''Union arabe socialiste démocratique'') is a Nasserist democ ...

, is the official spokesman of the Rally.

Member parties

The founding member parties were:As given in Alan George, ''Syria: Neither Bread nor Freedom'', London, Zed Books, 2003, p. 94 *The

- a splinter of the Arab Socialist Union Party of Syria, formerly the main

Nasserist Nasserism ( ) is an Arab nationalist and Arab socialist political ideology based on the thinking of Gamal Abdel Nasser, one of the two principal leaders of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, and Egypt's second President. Spanning the domestic a ...

party in Syria. *The Syrian Democratic People's Party - Riad al-Turk's group, formerly called the ''Syrian Communist Party - Political Bureau'', and an offshoot of the Syrian Communist Party. *The Arab Revolutionary Workers Party - a

leftist Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

offshoot of the

Ba'ath Party The Arab Socialist Baʿath Party ( ar, حزب البعث العربي الاشتراكي ' ) was a political party founded in Syria by Mishel ʿAflaq, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Bītār, and associates of Zaki al-ʾArsūzī. The party espoused B ...

from the 1960s, which for some time had active branches in

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

and

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

as well. *The Arab Socialist Movement - an

Arab socialist Arab socialism ( ar, الإشتِراكيّة العربية, Al-Ishtirākīya Al-‘Arabīya) is a political ideology based on the combination of pan-Arabism and socialism. Arab socialism is distinct from the much broader tradition of socialis ...

group with roots in Akram al-Hawrani's pre-Ba'ath

peasant movement A peasant movement is a social movement involved with the agricultural policy, which claims peasants rights. Peasant movements have a long history that can be traced to the numerous peasant uprisings that occurred in various regions of the world ...

. *The

Democratic Socialist Arab Ba'ath Party The Arab Democratic Socialist Ba'ath Party ( ar, حزب البعث الديمقراطي العربي الاشتراكي ''Ḥizb al-Ba‘th al-Dīmuqrāṭī al-‘Arabī al-Ishtirākī''; French: ''Parti Baath arabe socialiste démocratique'') ...

- a remnant of

Salah Jadid Salah Jadid (1926 – 19 August 1993, ar, صلاح جديد, Ṣalāḥ Jadīd) was a Syrian general, a leader of the left-wing of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party in Syria, and the country's ''de facto'' leader from 1966 until 1970, when h ...

's left-wing faction of the

, led by his former Foreign Minister

Ibrahim Makhous Ibrahim Makhūs or Ibrahim Makhous or Brahim Makhous and ar , إبراهيم ماخوس (1925-2013) was a Syrian Syrian Baathist politician who sat on the Regional Command from 1966 to 1970. He served as foreign minister during Salah Jadid's ru ...

. In 2006, a sixth party joined the coalition: *The Communist Labour Party - the recreation of a hardline communist group repressed in the 1980s, which originally had its roots in 1970s Syrian student radicalism, with pro-

Sandinista The Sandinista National Liberation Front ( es, Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) is a Socialism, socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after ...

Guevarist Guevarism is a theory of communist revolution and a military strategy of guerrilla warfare associated with Marxist–Leninist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, a leading figure of the Cuban Revolution who believed in the idea of Marxism–Len ...

and

Maoist Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...

tendencies.

History

The National Democratic Rally was formed in January 1980 by the five member parties listed above, and its membership has not changed since. In several cases these parties were originally opposition wings of parties that had joined the governing National Progressive Front, which is a leftist nationalist party coalition established under the leadership of the Syrian Ba'ath Party. A few parties also had sister parties or factions in other

Arab states The Arab world ( ar, اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western As ...

, such as Nasserist Egypt or

Ba'athist Iraq Ba'athist Iraq, formally the Iraqi Republic until 6 January 1992 and the Republic of Iraq thereafter, covers the History of Iraq, national history of Iraq between 1968 and 2003 under the rule of the Ba'ath Party (Iraqi-dominated faction), Arab S ...

. Its first spokesman was

chairman

Jamal al-Atassi Jamal Al-Atassi (1922−2000) ( ar, جمال الأتاسي) was a Syrian Arab nationalist, politician and author. He was one of the earliest ideologues of the nascent Syrian Ba'ath Party, which he joined soon after it was founded. He helped to ...

. At his death in the year 2000, his role was inherited by his successor at the helm of DASU, Hassan Ismail Abdelazim. The Rally took part in the opposition movement of 1980 - a period of civil protest by leftist, Islamist,

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

and nationalist groups which coincided with an armed uprising by Islamists in the

Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ( ar, جماعة الإخوان المسلمين'' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan ...

and more radical factions. This led to severe repression of the Rally by the Syrian government; several of its main leaders were given long prison sentences (e.g. Riad al-Turk, jailed 1980-98). The Rally was later active in the

Damascus Spring The Damascus Spring ( ar, ربيع دمشق, ) was a period of intense political and social debate in Syria which started after the death of President Hafiz al-Asad in June 2000 and continued to some degree until autumn 2001, when most of the act ...

of 2000, holding seminars and advocating political freedom. However, its member parties are now relatively marginal on the Syrian political scene, even if they remain an important segment of the organized opposition, due to decades of severe repression and denial of freedom to organize. Most leaders and many members are today old men, after joining or founding their respective parties in the early 1960s to late 1970s, and have had relatively poor success in appealing to younger generations of Syrians.

External links

National Democratic Gathering
- website,

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

/ French. ast updated in 2004

References

{{Syrian political parties 1980 establishments in Syria Arab nationalism in Syria Arab socialist political parties Organizations of the Syrian civil war Pan-Arabist political parties Political opposition organizations Political parties established in 1980 Political party alliances in Syria Secularism in Syria Socialist parties in Syria Syrian opposition

Member parties

History

See also

External links

References