Corrective Move

For other revolutions with a similar name, see Corrective Revolution.

Corrective Move
Part of the Arab Cold War

Chairman and members of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Council after the corrective step on 26 June 1969. From left to right: Abdul Fattah Ismail, Muhammad Saleh al-Aulaqi, Salim Rubaya Ali (Salemin), Ali Antar, Muhammad Ali Haitham
Date22 June 1969
Location
Aden, South Yemen
Result

Left-wing victory

Factions
Left-wing faction of the National Front Right-wing faction of the National Front
Commanders and leaders
Casualties and losses
None

The Corrective Move[a][note 1] was an internal bloodless coup that took place on 22 June 1969, resulting in the takeover of the ruling National Front (NF) party of South Yemen by its left-wing faction.

Led by Abdul Fattah Ismail and Salim Rubaya Ali, the move overthrew the then-president of South Yemen and leader of the right-wing faction of the NF, Qahtan al-Shaabi, along with prime minister Faysal al-Shaabi and his cabinet.[5][7]

Social and political reforms followed the leftist takeover; the state was transformed into a Communist state, institutions were nationalized, schools and universities were built, education was freely available for everyone, and a new Family Law was established, guaranteeing equality between men and women.

Background

Further information: Aden Emergency

Following South Yemen's independence from the British after 128 years of colonial rule,[7] on 30 November 1967, the National Liberation Front, which subsequently became known as the National Front,[8] split into two factions: the Aden-based ruling right-wing faction advocating for a capitalist system, and the Hadhramaut-based socialist left-wing faction whose ideology was based on Vladimir Lenin's The State and Revolution.[9][10] On 1 December 1967, the newly established state announced its first 12-man cabinet, with Qahtan al-Shaabi as a compromise candidate for the different factions,[11] taking the post of president, prime minister, and supreme commander of the Armed Forces.[10][12] On 11 December 1967, the sultans, traditional elites, and individuals linked to British rule were stripped of their positions and had their property seized.[13] South Yemen was admitted to the Arab League and the United Nations.[14][15][16]

Economically, the withdrawal of the British left more than 20,000 Yemenis unemployed, and the closure of the Suez Canal deprived the capital city of Aden of 75% of its shipping and trade income. The income per capita was £40. Furthermore, the British failure to fulfill their aid commitments led to the state losing 60 percent of its revenue.[17] The lack of experience of the new leaders worsened the economic decline and chaos.[18] In addition to all that, neighboring states such as Saudi Arabia and Oman, along with the right-wing republican regime in the Yemen Arab Republic and the ousted nationalist groups like the FLOSY and the South Arabian League, aimed to crush the newly established state.[19][12]

Fourth National Congress of the National Front

On 30 January 1968, Abdullah al-Khamri, a member of the general board of directors of the National Front's newspaper, al-Thawri, published an article questioning the leadership of the National Front, titled "Are the Revolutionaries or the Opportunists in Power?", where he questioned the leadership of the National Front ("Opportunists") and called for incitement against them. The published article had not been reviewed by the other members of the board, Faysal al-Shaabi and Abdul Fattah Ismail, both of whom condemned it. This incident created a feeling of distrust among members of the NF, leading to internal divisions. The leadership of the NF decided they would discuss those problems within the party's upcoming congress.[20]

The disagreements between the factions were planned to be resolved at the Fourth National Congress of the National Front.[18] The General Committee of the National Front announced a Preparatory Committee headed by Faysal al-Shaabi, Abdul Fattah Ismail, Ali Saleh Abad, and Abdullah al-Khamri, and they were given the task of meeting up and preparing the congress.[20] The committee never met to prepare for the congress, and Ali Nasir described the six-week preparations for the congress as "chaotic". During the preparation period, Abdul Fattah Ismail announced that he would leave Yemen for Cairo, citing healthcare reasons. Ismail's announcement effectively disbanded the preparatory committee assigned by the General Committee of the National Front.[20] A new de facto committee was formed and chaired by Nayef Hawatmeh and prepared the congress, without referring to the leadership of the party.[20]

The congress was held from 2 to 8 March 1968, in the city of Zinjibar of the Third Governorate.[9][10] Soldiers from the Armed Forces, who were not members of the NF, attended the congress, despite protests from the left-wing factions.[10] According to Ali Nasir, the congress was held "in a general atmosphere of toxicity."[20] The congress was considered a success for the left-wing factions whose position was based on a previous speech by Abdul Fattah Ismail. In it, he stated that South Yemen could either be ruled by the "petty bourgeoisie" or the "revolutionary forces." He argued that "the petty bourgeoisie was unable in this epoch of world history to fight imperialism and to carry through necessary economic and social development against the opposition of imperialism." He listed failures of the petty bourgeoisie, such as the revolutions of 1848, and attacked the recently overthrown regimes of Kwame Nkrumah and Sukarno. He also criticized the governments of Egypt, Algeria, Syria and Iraq, where he claimed that the petty bourgeoisie "had masked its dictatorship as 'socialism'."[10]

The left's ideas of transforming the state into a People's Democracy, adopting scientific socialism and anti-capitalism as the NF's main ideology, the establishment of a 100,000 to 150,000 personnel People's Militia, the restriction of party membership for workers, peasants, soldiers and revolutionary intellectuals, and the transfer of power to the Supreme People's Council resonated well for most of the attendees of the congress. They won the majority of seats for the left-wing in the newly elected 41-member General Command of the party.[9][20][10] After the congress, the leftists were able to pass several other resolutions that obliged the government to adopt practices from world socialist regimes: for example, in addition to what has already been listed, they demanded to purge the army, police and state apparatus, create local People's Councils, "People's Army" and a "People's Militia", carry out agrarian reform and other socialist changes. In exchange, they agreed to a "compromise leadership" for the country under al-Shaabi's presidency.[11]

After the end of the congress, the Qahtan-led right-wing faction issued an official statement in which they attacked the "infantile leftism" of the opposing faction, and singled out what they called the "number one error": "the belief in conflict between classes and in imposing a dictatorship of one class rather than working for harmony between them," which explained the Nasserists' central theses that the defining characteristic of Arab Socialism is the disbelief in class conflict. They also attacked the left's criticism of the "brother Arab countries" and reprimanded these ideas as alien to the "South Yemeni reality."[10]

Conflict in the National Front

The Fourth Congress was a victory for the left. The congress defined the NF as "a revolutionary organization that represents the interests of the workers, peasants, soldiers, and revolutionary intellectuals and adopts scientific socialism as its method of analysis and practice." Party membership was restricted to the aforementioned groups. Following the end of the congress, the party began the immediate creation of popular councils, implementing agrarian reform, nationalizing foreign capital, conducting a purge of the army and its administration, and implementing a program of mass education. Consequently, the army did not agree with the outcomes of the congress, as it was facing a purge. During the congress, leading army officials had been carrying out propaganda campaigns within the army in which they denounced "communist influence," and following the end of the congress, they decided to stage a coup. The army decided to take action when NF cadres in Aden held a meeting on 19 March 1968, in support of the Fourth Congress's outcomes. On 20 March 1968, a group of officers, led by army commander Colonel Hussein Osman Aschal, arrested eight leaders of the left-wing General Command, surrounded the presidential residence, and demanded that a new government be formed to "liberate the country from the communist threat." However, the officers lacked sufficient support, and al-Shaabi himself, for whom the coup was intended, distanced himself from the rebels as a series of demonstrations broke out in Aden, Ja'ar, Yafa, and Hadhramaut against the rebels. The rebellion ultimately failed.[21][10]

Eventually, a confrontation developed within the National Front leadership between the left-wing, which advocated for "new reforms in the interests of Yemeni workers," and the right wing, which aimed to preserve the existing state apparatus and its management experience while granting broad powers to al-Shaabi.[22] The right-wing faction, led by Qahtan al-Shaabi, opposed the significant changes proposed by the left-wing regarding the social and economic structure. They maintained a conservative stance on issues such as "liberating all Arab lands from colonialism, supporting the resistance of the Palestinian people, and backing socialist regimes worldwide in their resistance to imperialism and colonial forces in the Third World."[23] The leftist faction aimed to advance significant social and economic changes that would benefit the working majority, rather than maintaining advantages for the privileged elite.[24] They promoted the establishment of popular forces and proposed land nationalization. They were focused on serving the interests of the working class rather than the wealthy minority. Qahtan believed in the continuation and development of existing institutions.[23]

Qahtan ordered the release of the cadres imprisoned by the army as a gesture of support for the imprisoned left leaders, and called the army's move "sincere, but in error." Soon, al-Shaabi dismissed 150 officers and officials from the army and the state apparatus. To further establish his radical image, he published a hurriedly prepared land reform act on March 25, modeled after the Egyptian system, which confiscated lands and distributed them to National Front supporters.[10] Opposition was already spreading from below: the Organization of True Partisans demanded an end to the "riot of the communists." The student newspaper Al-Unf al-Thawri advocated for extreme measures, suggesting that "ashtrays be made from the skulls of the bourgeoisie, and fertilizer from their bones."[25] Nevertheless, the army had dealt a severe blow to the left and was now removed from leading positions both in the party and in the government. The Fourth Congress's decisions became ineffective. There were further arrests, leading many cadres to flee from Aden to the hinterlands and North Yemen.[10]

On 30 March 1968, the right-wing faction, unhappy with the results of the congress, staged a violent leftist purge to stop the implementation of the ideas that were brought up during the congress.[9] It led to their temporary dominance of the party,[7] but ultimately they failed to purge the left. At a rally in Aden on 1 May 1968, the participants were barely kept from clashing.[25] Two days later, left-wing students and soldiers rebelled in Madinat Asha'ab district. The uprising was suppressed, but already on May 14, the left-wing staged a counter-coup, led by Abdul Fattah Ismail and Salim Rubaya Ali.[7] 14 (out of 21) members of the General Committee gathered in Zinjibar and demanded that the president implement all the resolutions of the Fourth Congress. The situation reached a military confrontation, but it eventually failed too[9] after negotiations with Ali Antar, al-Shaabi again agreed to a compromise—the participants of the uprising not only avoided repression, but also returned to their previous high positions.[26] The leftists and rightists together suppressed the anti-government uprisings and in October 1968 adopted the Program for Completing the Stage of National Democratic Liberation, which indicated a further move to the left.[26]

Coup d'etat

The Corrective Move aimed to "restore the revolution to its correct course", which was aligned with Marxist socialism, and was significantly influenced by the Soviet Union.[7] The balance was upset on 15 June 1969, when Qahtan al-Shaabi dismissed Interior Minister Muhammad Ali Haitham, a right-wing leader who had recently started building his relations with the left-wing, from his post.[27][28] The move had been made to prevent Haitham, who aimed to become prime minister, from garnering the support of the armed forces.[28] The NF General Command declared this decision unilateral, taken without consultation with the Front leadership,[29] and called for Haitham to be reinstated.[28]

After much debate, the president announced his resignation, and the General Leadership session immediately accepted it. Al-Shaabi went to the capital's radio station to address the population with his position, but the Front leadership saw this as an attempt to rouse their supporters to rebellion: the radio station was occupied by the military, and agitators arrived at the army and police barracks, who prevented the armed forces from intervening, and al-Shaabi was forced to abandon his intention, and the General Leadership argued for four days without interruption about the future of the country.

On 22 June 1969, it was announced that president al-Shaabi was removed from all his posts. The post of president was abolished, and a Presidential Council headed by Salim Rubaya Ali was formed to govern the state. The post of Secretary General of the National Front passed to Abdul Fattah Ismail. At the end of November 1969, the General Leadership session expelled 20 former right-wing leaders from the organization, including the ousted president.[30] The left-wing came into control of the state, launched radical reforms in the country, and the coup was considered a victory for progressive forces.

Reforms

State and government reforms

South Yemen was transformed into a revolutionary[3] Marxist-Leninist state until its unification with the Yemen Arab Republic in 1990. The NF continued to rule the PDRY, and in 1978, after a merger with the People's Vanguard Party and the Democratic Popular Union Party, it was transformed into the Yemeni Socialist Party by Abdul Fattah Ismail. Pursuing socialist policies, the ruling party transformed South Yemen into a welfare state with good education, women's rights and low corruption.[31][2] The new government, committed to uplifting the "toiling masses", excluded "feudalists" such as sultans, sheikhs, and their like from its people-oriented planning. The liquidation of this class formed an integral part of its broader agenda for social transformation.[32] In 1986, the country faced another party split and a bloody coup attempt.[33]

Agrarian reforms

See also: Democratic Yemeni Union of Peasants

On 27 November 1969, the government nationalized the country's main economic sectors. According to the decree that nationalized them, all foreign monopolies in the commercial, financial, and banking sectors of the local economy were abolished and transferred to the state sector.[7]

The Marxist government soon organized several peasant uprisings in the country. This was done to prepare the necessary ground for the implementation of socialist reforms in agriculture. The first of these took place on 3 October 1970 in the southern regions and was followed by similar uprisings in other parts of the country.[7] Later, the government issued an "Agrarian Reform Ordinance". This Ordinance greatly increased the importance of the public cooperative sector, for example, by creating several state farms and agricultural cooperatives. In July 1971, the government organized the first "Poor Peasants' Congress," which adopted several resolutions and recommendations, aimed at "solving the agricultural question in the interest of the farmers and poor peasants through the peasant uprisings and the march on the road of establishing and forming the public cooperative sector".[34] Five years later, the government organized a "Constituent Congress," which in turn created the Union of Democratic Yemeni Peasants. All these measures gave a noticeable boost to agriculture: according to official data, the growth of the agricultural sector was 70 percent. The production of eggs, chicken, dairy products, vegetables and fruits increased significantly. The First Five-Year Plan achieved notable progress in agriculture, with a strong emphasis on boosting the production of foodstuffs and raw materials vital for industrial development. It also prioritized the expansion and improvement of irrigation systems to enhance food security and reduce reliance on imports.[35]

Social reforms

See also: 1974 Family Law

Despite the conservative environment and resistance, women became legally equal to men, polygamy, child marriage, and arranged marriage were all banned by law and equal rights in divorce were sanctioned; all supported and protected by the state-affiliated General Union of Yemeni Women.[36] The Republic also secularized education and sharia law was replaced by a state legal code.[37] Slavery in Yemen, which had been abolished in North Yemen by the 1962 revolution, was now abolished also in South Yemen.[38]

Health care reforms

The new government emphasized the importance of adopting policies aimed at modernizing health care and providing it to all its citizens. For example, in the reports to the so-called "Unification Congress", the need was noted for such things as: training and development of medical personnel, the establishment of several medical institutes, and the opening of hospitals and other medical centers in all governorates of South Yemen.[39]

Electrification

Since Britain did not attempt to electrify anything outside Aden, after their (and their specialists) flight in 1967, the whole country was in complete darkness (except for Aden itself). As a result, the Socialist authorities created the "Public Corporation for Electric Power" (PCEP).[40] The main goals of the PCEP in the early stages were to restart the power plants, connect them to the general electricity grid, and establish a center to train Yemeni personnel to work with electricity. Soon, the government and the PCEP launched three and five-year plans aimed at increasing electricity production to meet the needs of the South Yemenis.[40]

See also

References

Explanatory notes

  1. ^ Arabic: الخطوة التصحيحية, romanized: al-khutwah at-taṣḥīḥiyyah
  1. ^ also referred to as the 22 June Corrective Move,[2] Glorious Corrective Move,[3][4] or the Glorious Corrective Revolution[5][6]

Citations

  1. ^ Halliday 1985.
  2. ^ a b Lackner 2022.
  3. ^ a b Brehony 2013, p. 45.
  4. ^ Müller 2015.
  5. ^ a b Burrowes 2010.
  6. ^ Gerasimov 1979, p. 348.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Mehra 1978, p. 895.
  8. ^ Stookey 1982, pp. 61–67.
  9. ^ a b c d e al-Hamdani 1987, pp. 11–15.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Halliday 2013, pp. 232–239.
  11. ^ a b Gerasimov 1979, p. 163.
  12. ^ a b Stookey 1982, pp. 63–64.
  13. ^ Brehony 2013, p. 61.
  14. ^ "CAIRO: SOUTH YEMEN ADMITTED TO ARAB LEAGUE". Reuters. 13 December 1967. Retrieved 12 July 2025.
  15. ^ "Admission of the People's Republic of Southern Yemen to membership in the United Nations : resolution / adopted by the General Assembly". United Nations Digital Library. 14 December 1967. Retrieved 12 July 2025.
  16. ^ Brehony 2013, p. 108.
  17. ^ Halliday 2013, p. 227.
  18. ^ a b Gerasimov 1979, p. 162.
  19. ^ Halliday 2013, pp. 227–228.
  20. ^ a b c d e f Muhammad 2020.
  21. ^ Gerasimov 1979, p. 164.
  22. ^ Gerasimov 1979, p. 161.
  23. ^ a b Halliday 2002.
  24. ^ Brehony 2013, p. 58.
  25. ^ a b Gerasimov 1979, p. 166-167.
  26. ^ a b Gerasimov 1979, p. 169.
  27. ^ Halliday 2002, p. 23.
  28. ^ a b c Brehony 2013, p. 43-44.
  29. ^ Gerasimov 1979, p. 171.
  30. ^ Gerasimov 1979, p. 172-173.
  31. ^ Lackner 2017, p. 689.
  32. ^ Mehra 1978, p. 900.
  33. ^ Burrowes 1989.
  34. ^ Mehra 1978, p. 896.
  35. ^ Mehra 1978, pp. 896–897.
  36. ^ Lackner 1985.
  37. ^ Cigar 1990, pp. 185–203.
  38. ^ Miers 2003.
  39. ^ Mehra 1978, p. 899.
  40. ^ a b Mehra 1978, p. 898.

Bibliography

Further reading

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