COMMUNIST AND PRO-SOVIET GROUPS IN THE ARAB WORLD

Created: 3/30/1945

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COMMUNIST AND PRO-SOVIET GROUPS IN THE ARAB WORLD

Communist and pro-Soviet groups In the Arab World have continued to be active since the dissolution of the Comintern Inlthough the rising international prestige of the Soviet Union has favored these organisations, their development has depended largely on the degree to which they have adjusted their programs to local political issues.progress has been greatest In Syria and Lebanon. In Iran the Tudehon-Communist but strongly pro-Soviet workers'haseal political power. In Palestine, on the other hand, the local Communist Party has split and weakened. In no Arab country except Iranommunist or pro-Soviet group reached the stage where it offers serious competition to the established political forces.

The opposition to Communism in the Arab countriesroad social base. The orthodox Moslem clergy and their followers continue to regard Communism as an anti-religious movement which promotessocial practices. Landowners and other propertied groupsto oppose Communismhreat to their social and economic positions. Although the local governments are anxious not to doto alienate the USSR, whose support they wish to play off against the British or the Trench, all except perhaps the Lebanese GovernmentCommunists as agentsoreign powerhreat to the state.

Apartew Russian-trained leadersmall group ofradicals, the following of the Communist Parties of Syria and Lebanon is drawn chiefly from the proletariat which, though growing in importance, Is notecisive political force. Despite the fact that the official membership of the two parties totals little morehey nevertheless have developed into the only reasonably effectiveParties In the Arab World. Officially they havetrictly nationalistic program and have avoided any apparent connectionoreign power.owever, Franco-British tension in the Levant and alleged British attempts to undermine Communist Influence In this area appear to have led the local Communists to an opportunisticwith the French. Local Communist propaganda has taken on an anti-British bias and has thereby attracted an Increasing number of pro-French adherents. The recent Franco-Soviet treaty has also improved Franco-Communist relations in the Levant, and better relations between the Communists and the Levant governments aeem unlikely.

In Iran, the Tudeh (Masses) Party appears toew Soviet policy of encouraging existing labor movements rather than working through an officially designated Communist Party. Founded before the

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first World Warroup of socialist Intellectuals, the Tudeh Party was suppressed4 but was revived againew days after the Anglo-Soviet occupation of Iran. It nowembership, and although itinority of the people is one of the two most strongly organized political groups in Iran. The revived Tudeh Party is socialist In program, advocating gradual constitutional reforms rather than revolutionary change, but its organizational3 have been strongly reminiscent of proceduresby the Communist Party in theew type of leadership, Including many young men who had been living in the Soviet Union, has infiltrated the party and taken over Its real direction. The party has enjoyed considerable support from the Soviet press and has in turnSoviet policy. The Tudeh was the most prominent of the leftist groups which attacked the Iranian Government for Its refusal to grant Soviet demands in the recent controversy over oil concessions in northern Iran.

Many upper and middle class Iranians believe that the Soviet Union means to absorb the northern border area of Azerbaijan. However, the USSR, whose interest in maintaining "the independence, sovereignty, and territorial Integrity of Iran" was expressed in the Tehran Declaration, would probably not risk alienating the other signatories of the declaration by outright annexation. Cm the other hand, since the present Iranian Government admittedly speaks formall part of the population, the Soviet Union might see no contravention of the Tehran Declaration or of the "Pour Freedoms" inorkers' movement such as the Tudeh Party toopular government In Iran.

During the past two years the Communist Party of Palestine, in contrast to pro-Soviet groups in Syria, Lebanon, and Iran, has been weakened by divisions due largely to conflicting nationalist aims. From its Inception4 the Palestine Communist Party hadoint Arab-Jewish body, never very large or Influential but always vocaLa majority of its founders and members were Jews, its program was outspokenly anti-Zionist. Immediately following the dissolution of the Comintern inhen the Party and Its many splinters totalled no moreembers, tho bulk of Arab and Jewishbroke away to form their own respective nationalist factions. The cleavage has since been widened by Arab charges that the Jewish Communists are secretly supporting the Zionist program, while tbegroup has accused the Arab Communist factions of being not only anti-Zionist but anti-Jewish as wea More favorable conditions forexpansion may be provided by substantial post-war unemploy-

ment, which is expected to follow the withdrawal of Allied forces from Palestine. Until the Arab-Jewish conflict is settled, however, the bulk of politically articulate groups among both Arabs and Jews will probably remain absorbed in their respective nationalist struggles and areto be influenced by Communist propaganda.

In Iraq it is doubtful whether any of the so-called Communist groups

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can accurately be described as such- In any case their membership is very small and personal rivalries among the various leaders haveunification of pro-Soviet groups and vitiated their political

In Egypt there ls no Communist or Communist-affiliated party. The strongest nucleus of pro-Soviet feeling ls among local Armenians, who have responded to Soviet propaganda for support of the Armenian SSR. Their response, however, has been due chiefly to Armenian nationalist feelings rather than to Communist leanings. Tbe Moslem clerics and propertied groups who control Egyptian politics remain strongly opposed to Communism, and the government Itself, aware of the rising political importance of the working class, endeavors to maintain control over all political activity in labor circle*.

Saudi Arabia under the absolute rule of King Abd-al-Azii Ibn Saud has no political parties, and any future development of Communist groups would be strongly hampered by the largely tribal economy and social structure of the country.

Original document.

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