Yemeni Socialist Party
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The Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP) (الحزب الاشتراكي اليمني, al-Hizb al-Ishtiraki al-Yamani) is a political party in Yemen. It was the former ruling party in South Yemen before the unification into Yemen. Now YSP is an opposition party in the Republic of Yemen.
Current leader:
Dr. Yasin Said Numan (2005 - ...)
Previous leaders:
Ali Saleh Obad (Moqbel) (1994 – 2005);
Ali Salim al-Baidh (1986 – 1994);
Ali Nasser Muhammad (1980 – 1986);
Abdul Fattah Ismail (1978 – 1980).
[edit] History
In Yemen, radical and progressive ideas came in the 1940's and 50's with the first waves of Yemeni students abroad. Political organizations in this Muslim country emerged and evolved to become governing parties.
The YSP evolved through several stages of struggle to liberate, unify and transform the Yemeni society. Its inauguration in 1978 by Abdul Fattah Ismail,its first leader, came as a result of the progressive unification process of a number of Yemeni revolutionary groups in both South and North Yemen, including the Unified Political National Front Organization, itself the result of merging 3 parties, namely the National Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen (NLF), Democratic Popular Union Party (Marxist), and Popular Vanguard Party of South Yemen (left Ba'ath Party); and the Popular Unity Party of North Yemen, itself the result of merging of 5 leftist organizations, namely: Democratic Revolutionary Party, Popular Vanguard Party North Yemen, Revolutionary Resistance Organization, Labor Party, and Nasserite Front.
The main strands constituting the composite ideology of the YSP are pan Arab nationalism, Marxism, and social democratic trends. Since its inception the YSP has evolved through 7 distinct stages. Surviving many upheavals and civil strife in Yemen, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the crisis of international socialism, the YSP was instrumental in achieving Yemeni unity and the establishment of multi-party democracy in the Republic of Yemen in May 1990.
Subsequent to the 1994 civil war the party's infrastructure and resources were confiscated by the GPC government and its cadres and members are regularly subjected to unwarranted arrests and torture. As a result, at the last legislative elections on the 27th of April 2003, the party only won 3.8% of the popular vote and eight out of 301 seats in the House of Deputies, the Parliament.
Currently, the YSP along with other parties in the opposition coalition, including Islah Party (Islamist) are waging a peaceful struggle for free and fair elections, peaceful transfer of power, and reformation of the Yemeni political system .
