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The Free Officers And The Comrades: The Sudanese Communist Party And Nimeiri Face-To-Face, 1969–1971

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Alain Gresh
Alain Gresh
Affiliation:
Paris
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Extract

Africa's largest country, Sudan, is first and foremost part of the Arab world, sensitive to the political tides which sweep the Arab peoples from the Atlantic to the Gulf. Like other members of the Arab League, Sudan was taken by surprise by the defeat of 1967. It was shaken by the tidal wave that later engulfed Libya, Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria; and on 25 May 1969, a military regime took over in Khartoum. Its ideology was Arab nationalism infused with socialism; its social base, the army and the urban classes; and its model, the Nasserist experiment.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , August 1989 , pp. 393 - 409
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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References

NOTES

1 In 1959, the Political Bureau of the Iraqi Communist party also discussed the necessity of seizing power but rejected it. On another case of relations between Communists and nationalists, see my “Communistes et nationalistes au Proche-Orient: le cas palestinien depuis 1948,” in Communisme (Paris, 1984), pp. 56–89.

2 On the religious fraternities, which is an approximate translation of the Arabic term ta'fa, see Fawzi, Didar, Le Soudan. Problémes du passage de la création de l'Etat à la libération de la nation, 2 vols. (Lille, 1981), esp. pp. 287–94, on their role as prenational structures which nevertheless go beyond the tribal framework.Google Scholar

3 Speaker of the Parliament in 1954, he was one of the leaders of the October 1964 movement. He resigned from his position as chief justice in 1967 after the refusal of the National Assembly to accept the readmission of the Communist deputies as decided by the Supreme Court.

4 For these quotations cf. Middle East Record 1969–1970 (Tel Aviv, 1977), pp. 1075–76, cited hereafter as MER.

5 One may consult Warburg, Gabriel, Islam, Nationalism and Communism in a Traditional Society: The Case of Sudan (London, 1978) and Didar Fawzi, op. cit.Google Scholar

6 On the Sudanese labor movement, cf. Fawzi, Saad Eddin, The Labour Movement in the Sudan, 1946–1955 (London, 1957);Google Scholaral-Ghazali, 'Abd al-Mun'im, Shafi' Ahmad al-Sheikh wal-harakat al-naqabiyya wal-wataniyyat al-sudaniyya (Beirut, 1972).Google Scholar

7 The Jazira project was put into effect after the First World War to provide high quality cotton. situated south of Khartoum with an area of 400,000 hectares the Jazira belongs to the state which lets the land to the farmers.

8 Warburg, op. cit., p. 148.

9 The SCP was formed in 1946 on the initiative of the Democratic Movement for National Liberation (DMNL) headed by Henri Curiel. At first its name was Sudanese Movement for National Liberation.

10 Didar Fawzi, op. cit., p. 303.

11 Since 1961, the Communist party has given preference to the “mass political strike” as the central method of struggle against the military dictatorships. This tactic twice succeeded: in October 1964 and in April 1985. Cf. in this connection to two texts of central importance for an understanding of the party strategy, Thawrat sha'b (Khartoum, n.d. [1965?]); Report to the 4th Party Congress in October 1967: al-marxiyya wa-qadayat al-thawrat al-sudaniyya (Khartoum, n.d.).

12 Cf. the series of articles published by the “bourgeois” daily A1-Ayyam (Khartoum, 5, 6, and 8 December 1968). At that time, the party still had a weekly paper but it was not there that Sulayman decided to publish his arguments.

13 In Indonesia in 1965, an attempted coup d'état by the extreme left resulted in the liquidation of the powerful Communist party and the massacre of hundreds of thousands of its members and sympathizers. See also the article by Eric Rouleau: “Le Soudan où les militaires à l'épreuve du socialisme,” La Monde, 4–8 Sept. 1969.

14 Cf. the account in Niblock, Tim, Class and Power in Sudan (London, 1987), p. 240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15 A1-Ghazali, op. cit., p. 92.

16 Cf. Gaddal, Mohammed Saïd, al-Hizb al-shuyu'i al-sudani wa-inqilab 25 mayu (Khartoum, 1986), p. 39.Google Scholar

17 This text is reproduced in al-Razzak, Husayn 'Abd, Haqa'iq al-sidam ma'a al-hizb al-shuyu'i al-sudani (Beirut, 1972).Google Scholar

18 I shall omit from the analysis of the debate between Nimeiri and the communists the question of Southern Sudan. On this matter cf. Warburg, op. cit., pp. 153–60. It should also be noted that the “radical” positions adopted by the SCP on the Palestinian question (refusal of recognizing Israel's right to exist) removed an element of disagreement between nationalists and communists.

19 These arguments and many other elements of the internal debate of the SCP are reproduced in the very partial book of Matar, Fuad, al-Hizb al-shuyu'i al-sudani: naharuhu am intahara? (Beirut, n.d.).Google Scholar

20 Cf. for instance, d'Encausse, Hélène Carrére, La politique soviétique au Moyen-Orient (1955– 1975) (Paris, 1975).Google Scholar

21 Brutens, Karens, in Kommunist, the theoretical organ of the Communist party (CP) of the Soviet Union quoted by Carrère d'Encausse, op. cit., pp. 156–57.Google Scholar

22 Statement made to Al-Anwar, Beirut, 30 December 1970, quoted by MER, p. 1079.

23 On the history of this crisis, see MER, pp. 1089–90.

24 For a detailed report of these discussions see the internal document of the CP about “the work of the Central Committee of the Sudanese CP at its March 1970 meeting,” typescript in Arabic, without place or date.

25 Ibid., p. 73.

26 See the internal document entitled “Min al-lajnat al-markaziyya Iil-hizb al-shuyu' al-sudani ila jami' a'd' al-hizb,” typescript, 2 pages, 29 March 1970. Note that the text also calls for arming the people and orders party organizations to collect weapons.

27 Warburg, op. cit., pp. 124–25; Razzak, op. cit., pp. 30–31.

28 Documents of the meeting of cadres of the Sudanese Communist party (SCP) of August 1970 quoted by Matar, op. cit., p. 159.

29 Quoted in MER, p. 1099.

30 However on 4 April, the Central Committee protested to Nimeiri and the Revolutionary Council against the exile of Mahjub; see the letter of the Central Committee dated Saturday 4 April 1970, to the President and members of the Revolutionary Council (typescript in Arabic). See also the appeal of the Central Committee to the Sudanese masses reproduced in Al-Nida' (Beirut), 16 April 1970, which rejects the attacks against Mahjub and regards them as a plot against the entire party.

31 MER, p. 1075.

32 MER, p. 1103.

33 Interview with Al-Nahar (Beirut), 10 June 1970, quoted by MER, p. 1106. See also the letter the Central Committee to the Revolutionary Council dated 18 April 1970, Arabic typescript, 2 pages.

34 Document reproduced by Matar, op. cit.

35 Mahjub alludes here to the ban on the right to strike imposed by Nimeiri.

36 Quoted by Matar, op. cit., pp. 191–96.

37 Published in the left-wing Lebanese weekly Al-Hurriyya, 15 February 1971 and reproduced in the Thèse troisième cycle of Fawaz, M. Ghassan, “Le Soudan, le PCS et le camp socialiste: relations internationales et relations internationalistes,” Université de Paris I.Google Scholar

38 Gaddal, M. S., op. cit., p. 49.Google Scholar

39 Reproduced by Matar, op. cit., pp. 148–62.

40 Ahmad Sulayman was the secretary of the Control Commission. His knowledge of the underground apparatus enabled him, in 1971, to help Nimeiri most efficiently in his attempt at liquidating the CP. He was in 1988 a member of the Political Bureau of the National Islamic Front (Muslim Brothers).

41 On the negative consequences for the CP of the support that it gave to certain government measures in the university see Babiker, Yahia Hussein, The Khartoum University Students Union. Political Role during 1963–1979 (Khartoum. n.d.).Google Scholar

42 This influence went far beyond that of the rightists among the cadres and the base of the CP.

43 The full text is found in Fawzi, op. cit., pp. 188–91.

44 See for instance the text “Call for Party Unity” quoted by Matar, op. cit., pp. 260–65.

45 The defeated opposition refused to take part in the Central Committee meeting of October 1970. It tried, without success, to set up a new party. The repressive measures taken by the authorities led, on the contrary, to the return of some cadres to the ranks of the CP by 1971. See for instance “Tasfiyyat al-inqisam fi mantiqat al-jazira wal-manaqal,” typescript, May 1971,7 pages.

46 Quoted by Fawaz, op. cit., p. 195.

47 The report is dated October 1971 (see Le Monde, 12 February 1972). Note also that Nouvelle Revue Internationale (Prague), which expresses the views of the world communist parties, did not publish any text by a leader of the Sudanese Communist party from 1970 to 1976.

48 Article cited in Le Monde, 5 September 1969.

49 See the statement of the Central Committee of 16 November 1970 in Warburg, op. cit., pp. 183–91.

50 Quoted in MER, p. 1103.

51 On these events see the statement of the Central Committee “Hawla ahdath wa-bayan 12 fibrayir,” mimeographed document, 4 pages, dated 12 February 1971.

52 See the statement of the Central Committee “al-Hizb al-shuyu'i yarfud tariq al-diktaturiyya wa-mu'adat al-sha'b”, typescript, 2 pages, dated 30 May 1970.

53 See 'Abd al-Razzaq, op. cit., p. 45.

54 For a detailed account of the coup d'etat see Rouleau, Eric, “Soudan: la commune avortée,” Le Monde, 20–23 08 1971.Google Scholar

55 See Le Monde, 21 July 1971, and Warburg, op. cit., page 131.

56 See text in 'Abd al-Razzaq, op. cit., pp. 92–96.

57 There is no doubt about the involvement of the Egyptian and Libyan governments in the countercoup–an involvement which is affirmed by Eric Rouleau, op. cit., and Matar, op. cit., pp. 59–65. Opinions differ only as to the scope of the intervention. Nimeiri himself expressed satisfaction at the help given by the United Arab Republic and Libya: see Le Monde, 27 July 1971.

58 Statement of 5 August 1985, reproduced in Gaddal, op. cit., p. 61.

59 Gresh, Alain, “L'expérience soudanaise,” Recherches Internationales, 18 (October-December 1985), pp. 108–19.Google Scholar