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#THREAD | Reality check on the current status of Yemeni Socialist Party, Yemeni leftist politics, and "South" Yemen (PDRY):
The Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP) was originally founded in 1978 after various leftist parties in PDRY agreed principally to merge into a single socialist coalition party. Obviously, it later becomes PDRY's sole ruling party until the unity in 1990.
YSP creation was a merger of Popular Union party, NLF (who fought Brits), Vanguard party, Labour Party, Revolutionary Democratic Party etc and so on. As such huge merger comes from various leaders with different interests, this foreshadows the upcoming internal conflict in South.
Even though it was a Marxist-Leninist party, YSP under Abdul Fattah Ismail leadership was never created to serve the local populist South Yemeni interests. Ismail pursued pro-USSR policy and PDRY had been economically dependent on the Soviets since then.
Therefore, Ismail continuous following Soviet lines is what made some critics exaggeratedly claim PDRY was some sort of Soviet puppet state even though it wasn't the case.
With USSR request, PDRY supported Dhofar rebellion in Oman and finance socialist rebels in Global South.
With USSR request, PDRY supported Dhofar rebellion in Oman and finance socialist rebels in Global South.
However, the Soviets under Brezhnev begun to abandon Ismail after the failure of Dhofar rebellion and Ismail failure to reduce financial aid from Soviets which would have reduce Soviets burden to bear. USSR then reached out with YSP leadership to start looking for a replacement.
Ismail resigned in 1980 and said he went to Moscow for health checkup, but others believe that Ismail in reality was escaping since there were attempts by anti-Ismail factions within YSP to assassinate him and replace his leadership. He was succeeded by Ali Nasser Muhamad.
Unlike Ismail, Ali Nasser was expectedly pursuing a more moderate stance. He began reaching out with PDRY enemies YAR, House of Saud, Oman, and the West. He also attempted to reach out with the southern tribes at inner lands of PDRY which was ignored for years under Ismail rule.
Ali Nasser moderate actions angered pro-Soviet and pro-Ismail factions who sees him as a traitor for attempting to normalize relations with the sworn reactionary enemies in PDRY. Some of them begun to miss Ismail rule, while others are ambiguous.
Hence, the infamous South Yemen civil war broke out in 1986 between Ismail (pro-radical) and Ali Nasser (pro-moderate) factions. Ismail was killed by naval bombardment fired by pro-Nasser's PDRY navy in Aden. But Ali Nasser rule was defeated and Ismail's faction won in the end.
Ali Salem al-Beidh and Haider Abu Bakr al-Attas, both belonging to Ismail faction, assumed power for the next 4 years until PDRY is dissolved and merged with North Yemen as a united country.
