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Biography of Michel Aflack

Born: January 9, 1910, Damascus, Syria
Died: June 23, 1989, in Paris, France
Books: On the Way of Resurrection, The Starting Point: Speeches Delivered After June 5th
Party: Ba’ath Party
Influenced by: Zaki al-Arsuzi, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, MORE
Organizations founded: Ba’ath Party, Arab Socialist Baath Party – Syria Region, Arab Ba’ath Movement
Education: University of Paris

Michel Aflaq was a Syrian philosopher, sociologist and Arab nationalist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of Ba’athism and its political movement; he is considered by several Ba’athists to be the principal founder of Ba’athist thought. Wikipedia

Michel Aflaq (Arabic: ميشيلعفلق‎) (1910 – 23 June 1989) was a Syrian philosopher, sociologist and Arab nationalist. His theories had a profound impact on the development of revival socialism and its political movement; he is regarded by some revival socialists as the primary founder of the revival socialist doctrine. During his lifetime, he published some books, mainly “For Revival”, “The Battle of the Only Home” and “The Struggle Against the Distorted Arab Revolutionary Movement”.

Overview

Aflaq was born into a middle-class family in Damascus, Syria. While studying at the Paris-Sorbonne, he met future political partner Salahuddin Bitar and became interested in communism and socialist doctrine. In 1932 he returned to teach and began his political career. He initially became a communist activist, but broke with the communist movement when the Syrian-Lebanese Communist Party supported French colonial policies.

Later, in 1940, Aflaq and Bitar founded the Arab Revival Movement (later referring to the “Arab Revival” led by Zaki Arsuzzi, the Arabic word for “revival” was changed from إحياء‎ to بعث‎ ). The movement was so successful that in 1947 it merged with Arsuzzi’s “Arab Baath” organization to form the Ba’ath Party. Aflaq entered the party’s executive committee and was elected chairman (Arabic: عميد‎, meaning leader of the party).

In 1952, the Arab Baath Party merged with the Arab Socialist Party led by Akram Hulani to form the Arab Baath Party; Aflaq was elected general secretary of the party’s national leadership in 1954. In the mid-to-late 1950s, the Baath Party cooperated with Egyptian President Jamal Abdul-Nasser, which eventually led to the merger of Egypt and Syria into the United Arab Republic. After the establishment of the United Arab Emirates, Nasser forced Aflaq to dissolve the Ba’ath Party, and Aflaq was forced to execute it without consulting other party members.

Shortly after the disintegration of the United Arab Emirates, the Baath Party resumed its activities, and Aflaq was re-elected as the general secretary of the party’s national leading body. After the Syrian coup in 1963, although the Ba’ath Party seized power, Aflaq’s own leadership in the party was weakened, and he had to resign from the leadership in 1965. After the 1966 Syrian coup, Aflaq was exiled, a move that also split the Ba’ath party. He went into exile first in Lebanon and later in Iraq. In 1968, Aflaq was elected general secretary of the national leadership of the Iraqi leadership branch of the Ba’ath Party, but had no real power. He held this symbolic position thereafter until his death in Paris on June 23, 1989.

Aflaq’s theory on politics, economy and society is collectively known as the revival of socialism, and he advocates that the countries of the Arab world unite and strive for the unity and prosperity of the Arab motherland. He was critical of both capitalism and communism, especially Karl Marx’s view that dialectical materialism is the only truth. The revival of socialist doctrine focuses on freedom and Arab socialism—a socialism with Arab characteristics that is not part of the international socialist movement as defined by the West.

Aflaq believed in the separation of church and state. He was a firm believer in secularization, but opposed atheism. Although he was a Christian, he believed in Islam as proof of “Arab genius”. After the Ba’ath split in 1966, the party’s leading Syrian branch accused Aflaq of plagiarizing Arsuzzi’s theories, calling him a “thief”, an accusation that the party’s Iraqi leadership rejected, not acknowledging Arsuzzi’s involvement in the revival. Contributions to socialist doctrine.