National Liberation Front - Bahrain
|
National Liberation Front – Bahrain
جبهة التحرير الوطني—البحرين |
|
|---|---|
| Founded | 15 February 1955 |
| Headquarters | Manama |
| Ideology | Marxism–Leninism |
| Political position | Far-left |
| Council of Representatives |
0 / 40
|
| Shura Council |
0 / 40
|
| Website | |
| nlf-bahrain.com | |
The National Liberation Front—Bahrain (جبهة التحرير الوطني—البحرين) is a clandestine Marxist-Leninist party in Bahrain. It was founded on 15 February 1955, the first left party in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf. Among the founder-members were Hassan Nezam (1922–1958), the principal founder, who was killed in Tehran in 1958 by SAVAK (this extraordinary activist was also a leading regional figure in the Tudeh Party of Iran, Khuzestan province, under the name Hassan Dorood); Erik Mansoorian, who died in Abadan after returning to Iran in 1964; Hassan M. Saleh (1926–2000), who, from the early 1960s, was in a state of a chronic mental dysfunction as a result of severe torture; Ali Madan (1932–1995); Ahmed al-Thawadi, “Saif Bin Ali” (1937–2006); and Ali Dwaigher (born 1930).
In the 1960s and 70s the NLF, headed by Saif Bin Ali, assisted by Yousif Ajaji (born 1939) and Abdulla Rashid Binali (born 1935), played a leading part in two major events: the March Intifada (uprising) of 1965, in which nationalist forces rose up against British colonialism, and the labour movement of the early 1970s. The first event led eventually to the independence of Bahrain from British in 1971; the second event accelerated the move towards a significant improvement in the political atmosphere and the emergence of the first parliament in the history of the island and the first constitution (the constitution of 1973).
By the first half of the 1970s the NLF was the major political force in the country, and following the 1974 parliamentary election it succeeded in having eight members in the first Bahrain National Assembly (parliament) or 40 per cent of elected MPs (twenty elected and twenty appointed). In 1976, however, the parliament was dissolved and the constitution was suspended. The NLF was harshly repressed by the regime, and many activists and leaders went into exile. The most severe assault came in the mid-80s, specifically in 1986, with the decision of the authorities to crush the NLF. Almost the whole clandestine organisation collapsed, some members died under torture, and a large number were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment after false and illegal confessions.
...
Wikipedia