People's Democratic Republic of Yemen: Map & History

History

The first uprising against the British was in Radfan on 14 October 1963, when 7,000 armed Radfani tribesmen, inspired by the coup in the north, joined the National Liberation Front (NLF) with the goals of turning the tribes of the Federation of South Arabia against the British, and achieving independence through guerrilla warfare. The strategy of the NLF was to harass and exhaust the British military using hit-and-run tactics. By 10 December 1963, the uprising had reached Aden. An NLF grenade attack against the High Commissioner of Aden, Kennedy Trevaskis, killed the High Commissioner's adviser and a bystander, and injured fifty other people. On that day, a state of emergency was declared in Aden.

Government and politics

The People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY) developed as a Marxist–Leninist society, ruled first by the National Front, which later became the Yemeni Socialist Party in 1978.

The National Front (NF) won control of the party apparatus in 1966 and the state following the Corrective Move of 1969.

Only two political parties were allowed to operate alongside the NF in South Yemen: the Popular Vanguard Party, a Baathist party, and the Popular Democratic Union, a communist party. The two were incorporated into the Unified Political Organization of the National Front in October 1975.

The Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP) was established by Abdul Fattah Ismail in 1978 following a unification process of several Yemeni revolutionary groups in both South and North Yemen.

Economy

During British rule, economic development in South Yemen was restricted to the city of Aden, focused mainly on the port and on the British military bases. As a result, following the British withdrawal, there here was little to no industrial output or mineral wealth exploitation in the country until the mid-1980s, when significant petroleum reserves in the central regions near Shibam and Mukalla were discovered. Foreign aid was minimal, as the British government did not fulfil promises of aid and the Soviet Union offered only US$152 million from 1969 to 1980. By 1990, roughly 45 percent of both North and South Yemen's national debts were owed to the Soviet Union, chiefly for military equipment.

Legacy

According to journalist Bilal Zenab Ahmed, nostalgia remains strong in parts of southern Yemen for the PDRY. Ahmed compared nostalgia for South Yemen to nostalgia for the Soviet Union, noting their shared emphasis on cultural memory and ongoing impact on modern-day nationalism. Ahmed asserted that nostalgia for the perceived stability, social benefits, and low unemployment of South Yemen have played a strong role in support for modern-day South Yemeni separatism.