By Pat Turnbull

Yemen has for the past few years been in the news mainly because of the war waged on the country by Saudi Arabia, which has resulted in so many deaths and reduced Yemen to one of the poorest countries in the world. Few people talk about the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen, which existed in South Yemen from 1970 to 1990, and achieved much in that short time.

Helen Nettleship was in the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY) from July 1974 to September 1976.  She says: “Every village had a Nadi, a community centre, where women, including myself, would go every afternoon to learn how to read and write. If you didn’t go, the head of the household would be fined. All schooling and all medical treatment were free and a given right. The last time I went to Yemen was 2005 and 2008. Then you had to pay for school books and all medical treatment. As for women, they all have to be veiled, seen and not heard.”

YEMEN'S HISTORY 

Yemen is situated on the Arabian Sea, at the south-western tip of the Arabian peninsula. North is Saudi Arabia, east is Oman. Across the Red Sea to the west is Eritrea, across the Gulf of Aden to the south are Djibouti and Somalia, with Ethiopia inland from them. 

Yemen was famous in ancient times for the Incense Road, with caravans of dromedaries travelling from the south to the north of Arabia and beyond, carrying incense from Arabia and spices which arrived from India at the harbours in the south. Remains from Yemen’s past include the Marib Dam, built in the first millennium BC, the Taweelah Tanks, huge water reservoirs, and the town of Shibam, which has been in existence for about 1,700 years, and is listed as a World Heritage site for its 500 mud-brick tower blocks.

For the East India Company, Aden, on the southern coast, was a useful stopping off point on the route to India, as it had a natural harbour and ready sources of water. It was captured for the British on 19th January 1839 by Captain Haines, although battles lasted till 1857. From 1869 Aden’s importance greatly increased with the opening of the Suez Canal. In 1904 the British and the Ottomans divided Yemen into what would become the PDRY in the south, and the Yemen Arab Republic (YAR) in the north. Aden became a large fleet and military base, run from India until 1937. The British had no interest in what lay behind Aden, and made agreements with the feudal emirs and sultans ruling these areas so that nothing would interfere with their operations. After the Second World War Aden was the second transhipment port in the world, and after the British abandoned their military base at Suez, it became the headquarters of Middle East Command from 1958, with a garrison of 15,000 troops.

LIBERATION STRUGGLE 

In 1956 huge demonstrations shook Aden. In 1959 the first Movement of Arab Nationalists (MAN) cell was set up there.  Early members included Abdel Fattah Ismail and Ali Nasir Muhammad, who went on to be leaders of the PDRY up to 1986. By 1962 there was a substantial underground structure. The mission: to get rid of the British and gain independence. In 1963 the National Liberation Front (NLF) was set up and October 14^th that year was when the NLF dated the start of its campaign for liberation. The people of the Radfan Mountains, about 100 km north of Aden, started the people’s armed struggle. Britain had built a military airport and stationed a small military unit there, which was overrun by the freedom fighters. The struggle was merciless; the British aircraft bombed villages, and destroyed or poisoned wells. After several months the fighters had to retreat to the mountains, but the signal had been given for all South Yemenis.

Women were involved in the struggle as well as men. Klaus-Dieter Schruhl, a doctor from the German Democratic Republic, spent two years in the PDRY, from 1972 to 1974, and in 1980 published a book about his experiences. He says: “I have seen plenty of women whose age, many births and hard life on the land were plain to see, strolling along the streets of Aden…with Kalashnikovs on their backs alongside their husbands, sons and daughters.”

From August 1964 there was fighting in Aden. The liberation movement virtually eliminated the leadership of Aden Special Branch by assassinating its senior officers. In November 1964 the British government announced that it would evacuate Aden in 1968, keeping its military base and handing over power to the federation of emirs and sultans. However, the revolt escalated and Aden was placed under direct British rule. The NLF held its first National Congress in June 1965 in North Yemen and true to its aim of developing economic and social policies that would win mass support, issued an inspiring national charter, talking of nationalisation of assets, extensive land reform, free education and health, and a new role for women.

The NLF set up Popular Committees, which took over the running of the sultanates when they had been overthrown. In November 1965 six unions in Aden broke away from the reformist trade union congress and declared for the NLF. The NLF penetrated and converted the recently established Federal Armed Forces, Federal Guards and police.  On 20th June 1967 the NLF occupied Crater, the old city of Aden, and defended it for 17 days with the help of the population. British figures show the increasing number of incidents in Aden: 36 in 1964; 286 in 1965; 510 in 1966; and 2,999 in the first ten months of 1967. At the beginning of November 1967, the high command of the South Arabian Federation Army, formed by Britain, officially declared its support for the NLF, and the 20,000 strong army went over to the side of the revolution. On 8th November the NLF stated that it was in full control of the country and two days later it started acting as a provisional government, issuing its Official Gazette to lay down new laws. Finally Britain was forced to announce on 13th November that it would negotiate with the NLF. From 21st to 29th November 1967 talks took place in Geneva, and on 30th November 1967 the last British forces left and the country became the People’s Republic of South Yemen (PRSY).   

The Soviet Union sent a delegation to open diplomatic relations in December 1967. In the summer of 1968 three Soviet warships visited Aden and a military delegation arrived, leading to an agreement that brought deliveries of aircraft and weapons in January 1969. China recognised the PRSY on 31st January 1968, and gave long-term loans for economic development and military equipment.

PROGRESSIVE ACHIEVEMENTS

However, all was not to be plain sailing. As the PDRY government would later say: “Independence brought the class struggle into even greater focus. The NLF was split into a ‘right’ stream satisfied with political independence and not at all inclined to change anything in the country, and a ‘radical left’ that wanted to push ahead with social and economic transformation, serving the broad toiling masses rather than the privileged few.” 1968 saw major battles between these two streams from which the left emerged victorious in a process named the Corrective Move of 22nd June 1969. On 30th November 1970, on the third anniversary of independence, a new constitution was adopted. The PRSY became the PDRY, confirming the long-term commitment to Yemeni unity. It vested all political power in the working people. The Constitution had a key statement: “The National Front Organisation leads, on the basis of scientific socialism, the political activity among the masses and within the mass organisations to develop society…in a manner that achieves national democratic revolution following a non-capitalist approach.”

Islam was recognised as the official religion, and the government was charged with protecting the country’s Islamic heritage. The renamed National Front (NF) leaders were secular, however, and saw religion as a private matter. Government members emphasised the many examples in Islamic texts which backed the government’s policies, referring also to historic writings found in Tashkent and other parts of the Islamic regions of the Soviet Union.

The 1970 constitution guaranteed a broad set of rights to women. They would have equal access to education and employment. The Family Law passed in 1974 gave women new rights over divorce and restricted polygamy. Women were a central part of campaigns in the early 1970s to eradicate illiteracy. The General Union of Yemeni Women gave women an influence on policy.

Full legislative powers were to be vested in the Supreme People’s Council (SPC) which would elect the Presidential Council. The SPC met for the first time in August 1971 to elect Abdel Fattah Ismail as speaker and Ali Nasir Muhammad as prime minister. At its Sixth Congress in March 1975 the NF agreed formally to incorporate the PDU (People’s Democratic Union – Communist Party) and the Ba’athist Popular Vanguard Party, al-Talia, into the NF, and in 1978 this became the Yemeni Socialist Party. Women were represented at all levels in the party organisations.

People’s Courts were set up all over South Yemen, later replaced by a judicial system based on the 1970 constitution and administered by a minister of justice. Mass organisations were set up for workers, peasants, students, women and the professions.

After the Corrective Move the National Front consolidated its control of the armed forces, known as the Popular Defence Forces. The army was equipped with Soviet tanks and artillery; there was a small navy of Soviet supplied ships; and an air force with 111 Soviet combat aircraft. The armed forces demonstrated their effectiveness in two border wars with the YAR in 1972 and 1979. There was also a People’s Militia trained mostly by Cuba but also by China, and Popular Defence Committees modelled on what had been developed in Cuba, plus a 15,000 strong Public Security Force, a kind of police force.

The British had only developed Aden as a service centre for the military base, so many were unemployed when the base was dissolved in 1967. The British offered huge sums to try to keep the base, but the Yemenis turned them down and despite promises the British paid very little other compensation.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 

The new republic had to tackle the economic situation. It nationalised 36 foreign owned banks and insurance companies, and created five national companies dealing with internal trade, external trade, shipping, petroleum and the docks, and a National Bank. In 1972 privately owned buildings owned by absentee landlords were taken into state hands without compensation. Prices of basic foodstuffs were subsidised through state control of internal trade, and a Price Stabilisation Fund, set up in 1974, fixed the prices of wheat, flour, rice, sugar, milk powder, ghee, cooking oil, and later tea. The oil refinery whose construction had been started by the British in 1952 was nationalised in May 1977.

On 25th March 1968 the first law on agrarian reform was passed. All land owned by the sultans, their followers and larger landowners was confiscated and redistributed, with limits on how much land, irrigated and unirrigated, could be owned by a person or a family. Cooperatives were set up, some later becoming collective farms. Around half of the country’s cultivated area was allocated to 26,000 people. Water, so vital in this hot, arid country, was nationalised and the government took control over the drilling of wells. Cotton was exported and was a major source of foreign exchange. By 1977 agriculture was providing 7% of GDP (gross domestic product), although even with the development of government-supported irrigation methods to raise yields, only 2% of the PDRY was cultivable.

Fishing was the country’s major resource. The industry employed 13,000 people working for a few boat owners. Moves to organise cooperatives were effective. A Public Corporation for Fish Wealth and a national fleet were set up. The Soviet Union helped with loans to modernise the fleet and build a fish cannery. By 1977 fishing was providing 10% of GDP.

On a medical visit to a fishing village, the doctor and writer, Klaus-Dieter Schruhl heard how things had changed. There were now 340 members of the collective, organised in groups per boat. The groups delivered the fish to the collective and were paid at fixed prices. The fish was transported to Aden, and the returns were distributed according to the catch, leaving a portion for social and educational purposes and for widows of fishermen. The women who worked in the collective got the same wage as the men.

Dr Schruhl wanted to know what it was like before. An old man, better dressed than the others and wearing gold rings, spoke up. “I used to be lord of this village. All the boats belonged to me, I hired them out to the fishermen with nets and other equipment. I had a truck which took the fish to Aden and brought back petroleum and other articles to the village. Of course I sold all the goods, for example salt for salting the fish, in my shop. The fishermen had to give up part of their catch direct to me. The fish which they kept, I sold in a kind of auction. There were no fixed prices.”  In 1970 all the boats but two, which his sons now used, were taken from him. He became a member of the newly formed collective. Formerly he didn’t have to work. This small capitalist gave part of his considerable income to the Sheikh of the region. How did he acquire his former possessions? A family member who worked abroad gave him money and he bought himself some boats and especially the truck. As richest man in the village he formerly had four wives. Now he could only afford two.

An essential element in economic development was the Ministry of Planning. In an interim first plan from 1971-72 to 1973-74, 38% of spending was devoted to agriculture, 17% to industry, and 10% to health, education and other social needs. A second, five-year, plan covering 1974-78 moved towards more capital-intensive projects, developing agricultural and industrial production and improving government services. Grants and loans from the Soviet Union, the World Bank and Kuwait were the main sources of external assistance.

A study by the World Bank indicated that investment was 31% of GDP in 1977, compared with 2% in 1970, and there had been an annual growth of 7% in real terms between 1973 and 1977. The PDRY’s social development was commended, with adequate food supplies and the rapid expansion of health and education services to all parts of the country. Around 49% of the PDRY’s economy was in the public sector by 1980, representing 16% of agriculture, 72% of fisheries, 73% of industry and 30% of trade.

EDUCATION AND HEALTH 

Education was a big priority for the PDRY. The newly liberated country inherited fewer than 400 primary schools of all types, 61 intermediary schools, 19 secondary and technical schools, three teacher training colleges and no universities. The 1970 constitution guaranteed education for all, and was followed by a 1972 law. By 1977 there were nearly 1,000 primary schools, 326 intermediary schools and 23 secondary schools, and there were 260,000 pupils in the system, compared with 63,000 at independence. Aden University was set up in 1975. There was a campaign in the early 1970s to eradicate illiteracy. Boys and girls were taught together.

The constitution guaranteed free medical care for all but in 1970 there were only 71 doctors in the country. Visiting a doctor before independence used to cost almost a third of the monthly income of many families. People would go to healers, who were of varying levels of honesty and skill. On 15^th July 1972 the health service was nationalised. Diagnosis and treatment were free everywhere, and prescriptions cost only a nominal amount. By 1977 there were 222 doctors, of whom 125 were Yemenis, with the new medical school at Aden University producing graduates. In the 1970s the number of hospital beds doubled, and health units, health centres and hospitals were set up throughout the country.

INTERNATIONAL POLICIES 

As well as having friendly relations with the socialist world, the PDRY joined the Arab League and became active in Arab politics soon after independence. Kuwait quickly recognised the PDRY and supported it economically. The PDRY welcomed the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and spoke out against Iraq in its war with Iran in the 1980s. During the Ramadan (Yom Kippur) war of 1973, the PDRY helped Egypt block the Bab al-Mandab, the strait between Yemen and Africa, but, like most of the Arab world, it cut links to Egypt after President Sadat’s visit to Israel in 1977. From 1973 the PDRY recognised the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation) which opened an office shortly afterwards. When the PLO armed forces were expelled from Lebanon in 1982, the PDRY provided a camp for some of these forces near Aden. The PDRY was also active in the Non-Aligned Movement.

The PDRY had external enemies throughout its existence, including its mighty neighbour, Saudi Arabia, which did not recognise the PRSY/PDRY, provided the many Yemeni exiles in Saudi Arabia with arms, bases, training and logistical support, and helped set up Radio Free South Yemen. The leaders of the PDRY aspired to Yemeni unity with the Yemen Arab Republic (YAR) in North Yemen. However, the YAR was run as a personal fiefdom by President Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose long period of rule was to last till 2012. Islamist forces also penetrated the YAR and became a thorn in the side of the PDRY. Unity when it came in 1990 was similar to the case of Germany. The PDRY was taken over by the reactionary YAR. Dissatisfaction with the outcome for the south led to the rebirth of the movement for South Yemeni independence and the outbreak of war in 1994.

END OF THE PDRY

Differences of view of what route the PDRY should take, as well as personal ambition, sadly played themselves out in several violent incidents during the years of the Republic’s existence. The most serious of these was in 1986 when Ali Nasir Muhammad instigated an attempted coup, starting with the assassination of several members of the political committee, gunned down at the start of a meeting. One of the dead was Abdel Fattah Ismail, the most consistent Marxist in the PDRY leadership. He had been chiefly responsible for the creation of a leading Marxist-Leninist party, insisted on the principle of collective leadership, and encouraged the development of relations with the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. Ali Nasir Muhammad, on the other hand, had increasingly tried to concentrate power in his own hands, operated networks of personal patronage, wanted a greater role for the private sector and private investment, and favoured relations with rich Arab countries and the west.

The end of the Soviet Union marked the end too of the PDRY, still a beacon and inspiration to those who want government in the interests of the people.

References:

Sabah heisst Morgenroete: als Arzt in der VDR Jemen (Sabah means Dawn: as a doctor in the PDR Yemen, by Klaus-Dieter Schruhl, publisher VEB F.A. Brockhaus Verlag, Leipzig, 1980.

Yemen Divided, by Noel Brehony, publisher I.B. Tauris, 2011, 2013.

 

Aden. Photo by Brian Harrington Spier

Yemeni fishing village. Photo by Gerry &Bommi