{{Update|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox political party | name = Arab Revolutionary Workers Party | native_name = حزب العمال الثوري العربي | colorcode = {{party color|Arab Revolutionary Workers Party}} | chairman = Tariq Abu Al-Hassan | secretary_general = Abdul Hafiz Hafiz | founder = Yasin al-Hafiz | foundation = {{start date|1966}} | native_name_lang = ar | split = [[Ba'ath Party]] | ideology = [[Marxism]]<br />[[Scientific socialism]]<br />[[Arab nationalism]] | position = [[Left-wing politics|Left-wing]] | national = [[National Democratic Rally (Syria)|National Democratic Rally]] | seats1_title = [[Council of Representatives of Iraq]] | seats1 = {{Composition bar|0|328|hex={{party color|Arab Revolutionary Workers Party}}}} | seats2_title = [[People's Council of Syria]] | seats2 = {{Composition bar|0|250|hex={{party color|Arab Revolutionary Workers Party}}}} | country = Syria }} The '''Arab Revolutionary Workers Party''' ({{langx|ar|حزب العمال الثوري العربي|Hizb Al-'Amal Al-Thawriy Al-'Arabi}}) is a [[political party]] active in [[Iraq]] and [[Syria]].<ref>[[National Democratic Institute]]. ''[http://www.ndi.org/files/1625_iq_report_072503.pdf NDI Assessment Mission to Iraq June 23 to July 6, 2003] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120516005240/http://www.ndi.org/files/1625_iq_report_072503.pdf |date=May 16, 2012 }}''</ref><ref name="p3"/><ref name="p4"/> As of 2008 the general secretary of the party is Abdul Hafiz Hafiz.<ref name="dec"/> As of 2011, the chairman of the party is Tariq Abu Al-Hassan.<ref>World Bulletin. ''{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20111229205201/http://worldbulletin.net/?aType=haberYazdir&ArticleID=73117&tip= Who is who in Syrian opposition?]}}''</ref><ref>Asrarr. [http://asrarr.com/civil_actions/detail.asp?articles_id=7 سورية - الأحزاب السياسية]</ref>
The party was founded in 1966 by {{ill|Yasin al-Hafiz|ar|ياسين الحافظ}}, as a [[Marxism|Marxist]] splinter group of the [[Ba'ath Party]].<ref name="p1"/><ref name="p2"/> The party rejected the [[Ba'athism|Ba'athist]] ideology of [[Michel Aflaq]] as reactionary and backward-looking. Instead the party opted for [[scientific socialism]].<ref name="p1">Tibi, Bassam, Marion Farouk-Sluglett, and Peter Sluglett. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=fHwuhk-yYMMC&pg=PA212 Arab nationalism: between Islam and the nation-state]''. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997. p. 212</ref><ref>Choueiri, Youssef M. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=pgmc35nCzjIC&pg=PA117 Islamic Fundamentalism: The Story of Islamist Movements]''. London: Continuum, 2010. p. 117</ref> Another early prominent leader of the party was Ali Salah Saadi.<ref name="p2">Seddon, David. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=qmYMy1Ls8ucC&pg=PA63 A Political and Economic Dictionary of the Middle East]''. London: Europa Publications, 2004. p. 63</ref> This split in the Ba'ath Party emerged parallel to the growth of leftist dissent in the [[Arab Nationalist Movement]].<ref>Salem, Paul. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=KZru-kaTZCcC&pg=PA187 Bitter Legacy: Ideology and Politics in the Arab World]''. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1994. p. 187</ref>
The party was active in [[Lebanon]] during the 1970s.<ref>Buwārī, Ilyās. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=i4wzAAAAMAAJ Tārīkh al-ḥarakah al-ʻummālīyah wa-al-niqābīyah fī Lubnān]''. Bayrūt: Dār al-Fārābī, 1979.</ref> During the initial years of the [[Lebanese Civil War]] (1975–76), al-Hafiz lived in [[Beirut]].<ref>''[https://books.google.com/books?id=KE8YAAAAIAAJ Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East 2. D - K]''. New York [u.a.]: Macmillan [u.a.], 1996. p. 756</ref> Al-Hafiz died in Beirut in October 1978.<ref>سؤال التنوير. [http://www.assuaal.net/studies/studies.566.htm في الذكرى الثلاثين لوفاة ياسين الحافظ] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090227061811/http://www.assuaal.net/studies/studies.566.htm|date=February 27, 2009}}</ref>
During the "[[Damascus Spring]]", the initial period of [[Bashar al-Assad]]'s rule, the party could meet somewhat undisturbed under the guise of the 'Left Forum'.<ref>Zîser, Eyāl. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=pVovmiI-ijQC&pg=PA83 Commanding Syria: Bashar Al-Asad and the First Years in Power]''. London [u.a.]: Tauris, 2007. p. 83</ref> The party, along with other left-wing groups in Syria, decided to boycott the [[2003 Syrian parliamentary election|2003 parliamentary election]].<ref>Al-Ahram Center for Political & Strategic Studies. ''[http://acpss.ahram.org.eg/eng/ahram/2004/7/5/ARAB29.HTM I. Internal Reforms in the Arab World] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425083217/http://acpss.ahram.org.eg/eng/ahram/2004/7/5/ARAB29.HTM|date=April 25, 2012}}''</ref> The party was one of the forces behind the [[National Democratic Rally (Syria)|National Democratic Gathering]] and the [[Damascus Declaration]].<ref name="dec">Damascus Centre for Theoretical and Civil Rights Studies. [http://www.dctcrs.org/syriennews15.htm أمين عام حزب العمال الثوري العربي يدعو للإفراج عن معتقلي إعلان دمشق وطي ملف الاعتقال السياسي] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425083224/http://www.dctcrs.org/syriennews15.htm |date=April 25, 2012}}</ref>
The party is part of the [[Syrian opposition]] and was active in the [[Civil uprising phase of the Syrian Civil War|civil uprising phase]] of the [[Syrian Civil War]]. On June 30, 2011, the party took part in forming the [[National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change]]. A politburo member of the party, Hazem Al-Nahhar was included in the leadership of the Association.<ref name="p3">''[[Al-Ahram]]''. ''[http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2011/1055/re141.htm New voices for change] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110907231548/http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2011/1055/re141.htm|date=September 7, 2011}}''</ref> On October 10, 2011, the party decided to withdraw from the Coordination, but retained its commitment to working with the National Democratic Rally.<ref name="p4">Nidaasyria. [http://nidaasyria.org/ar/?p=649 حزب العمال الثوري العربي.. قرار انسحاب من هيئة التنسيق الوطني] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425083206/http://nidaasyria.org/ar/?p=649|date=April 25, 2012}}</ref>{{citation needed|date=November 2013}}
==References== {{Reflist}} {{Iraqi political parties}} {{Syrian political parties}}
[[Category:1966 establishments in Iraq]] [[Category:1966 establishments in Syria]] [[Category:Arab nationalism in Iraq]] [[Category:Arab nationalism in Syria]] [[Category:Arab socialist political parties]] [[Category:Ba'ath Party breakaway groups]] [[Category:Political parties established in 1966]] [[Category:Political parties in Iraq]] [[Category:Political parties in Syria]] [[Category:Socialist parties in Iraq]] [[Category:Socialist parties in Syria]] [[Category:Syrian opposition groups]] [[Category:Transnational political parties]]