Saadehism

Saadehism, also referred to as Pan-Syrianism or Pan-Syrian Nationalism, is the ideology of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), which refers to the nationalism of the region of the Levant and Mesopotamia, or the Fertile Crescent as a cultural and political entity known as Greater Syria.

Ancient history
During the Bronze age, the Old Assyrian empire came to the realisation that its homeland in northern Mesopotamia had no natural borders, and to protect itself it needed to expand in all directions. This sparked the beginning of Assyrian conquest which reached its peak in the Iron age, where the Neo-Assyrian empire at its height controlled the entire Levant, Mesopotamia, Cyprus and Khuzestan; expanding its borders to the Zagros and Taurus mountains, Red and Mediterranean Seas, Arabian desert and Persian gulf. Within these natural borders, a loose ethnic group of northern Semitic peoples inhabited the land, whom practiced very similar religions, were almost culturally homogenous and later were united linguistically by the Assyrian empire; adopting Imperial Aramaic.

Etymology
The origin of the Hellenistic term Syria is linked in the etymology of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, so a "Greater Syria" in this sense corresponds to "Greater Assyria", which includes all of the Levant and Mesopotamia.

Revival
The first Syrian nationalist is considered to be Butrus al-Bustani, a Mount Lebanon-born convert from the Maronite Church to Protestantism, who started one of the region's first newspapers, Nafir Suria in Beirut in the aftermath of the Mount Lebanon civil war of 1860 and the massacre of Christians in Damascus in the same year. Bustani, as a result deeply opposed all forms of sectarianism.

As early as 1870, when discerning the notion of fatherland from that of nation, Francis Marrash would point to the role played by language, among other factors in counterbalancing religious and sectarian differences, and thus, in defining national identity.

An influential follower of al-Bustani was the Belgian Jesuit historian, Henri Lammens, ordained as a priest in Beirut in 1893, who claimed that Greater Syria had since ancient times encompassed all the land between the Arab peninsula, Egypt, the Levantine corridor and the Taurus Mountains, including all the peoples within the Fertile Crescent.

20th century
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Modern times
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Ideology
Syrian nationalism posited a common Syrian history and nationality, grouping all the different religious sects and variations in the area, as well as the region's mixture of different peoples. Thus, while not per se anti-Arab it opposed the Arab nationalist ideology and its pan-Arab underpinnings, preferring an all-encompassing Syrian nationality.

It views the modern borders and the creation of Israel as an independent state, as artificial and illegitimate imperial divisions, imposed on the region by the Anglo-French Sykes–Picot Agreement.

Syrian nationalism advocates a "Greater Syria", based on ancient concepts of the boundaries of the region, first realised by the ancient Assyrian kings; the Zagros mountains and Persian gulf in the east, to the Red and Mediterranean Seas in the west, also including Cyprus, and from the Arabian desert in the south till the Taurus mountains in the north.

It supports the rise of a profoundly idealistic patriotism, largely resembling European romantic nationalism, idealizing the coming of a National Revival (Renaissance) to the Levant and Mesopotamia, that would shake off the Ottoman and Arab past and propel back what many started to see again as the cradle of civilization into the modern world's front stage.

The 8 Basic Principles

 * 1) Syria is for the Syrians and the Syrians are a complete nation.
 * 2) The Syrian cause is an integral national cause completely distinct from any other cause.
 * 3) The Syrian cause is the cause of the Syrian nation and the Syrian homeland.
 * 4) The Syrian nation is the product of the ethnic unity of the Syrian people which developed throughout history.
 * 5) The Syrian homeland is that geographic environment in which the Syrian nation evolved. It has distinct natural boundaries and extends from the Taurus range in the northwest and the Zagros mountains in the northeast to the Suez canal and the Red Sea in the south and includes the Sinai peninsula and the gulf of Aqaba, and from the Syrian sea in the west, including the island of Cyprus, to the arch of the Arabian desert and the Persian gulf in the east. (This region is also known as the Syrian Fertile Crescent).
 * 6) The Syrian nation is one society.
 * 7) The Syrian Social Nationalist movement derives its inspiration from the talents of the Syrian nation and its cultural political national history.
 * 8) Syria’s interest supersedes every other interest.

The 5 Reform Principles

 * 1) Separation of religion and state.
 * 2) Debarring the clergy from interference in political and judicial matters.
 * 3) Removal of the barriers between the various sects and confessions.
 * 4) The abolition of feudalism, the organization of national economy on the basis of production and the protection of the rights of labour and the interests of the nation and the state.
 * 5) Formation of strong armed forces which will be effective in determining the destiny of the country and the nation.

Economics
The organization of the national economy on the basis of production is the only means for the attainment of a sound balance between the distribution of labor and the distribution of wealth. Every citizen should be productive in one way or another. Moreover, production and producers must be classified in such a way to assure coordination, participation and cooperation in the widest extent possible and to regulate the just share of laborers in production and to insure their right to work and to receive just compensation for their labor. This principle will put an end to absolute individualism in Production because every form of production in society in genuinely a collective or a cooperative one. Grave injustices can be perpetrated against labor and laborers were individual capitalists to be given absolute control. The public wealth of the nation must be controlled in the national interest and under the superintendence of the national state. Progress and strength of the national state can not be achieved save with this policy.

The concept of basing an economic system on productivity has been interpreted in the past, naively, to imply regulation of wages according to work performance. While the latter formulation is acceptable within the framework of safeguarding the rights of workers, it is not the correct interpretation of the concept of productivity. It is likely a formulation made to parallel the popular communist slogan ‘To each according to his need and from each according to his ability’. Saadeh’s formulation was rather concerned with an economic view for the society at large, not of the issue of wage regulation. It is directed at the entire economic life of the nation not at a regulatory component of a single aspect.

The safeguarding of the rights of labor is not a call to unionism. SSNP members have been active in the union movement in Syria since the inception of unions in the early thirties. The Party has, at various stages in its history, supported the rights of workers when presented in the context of union struggle. The limitations of unionism, however, have also been considered. Unionism is usually based on a narrow view of economic life. It is frequently limited to a specific sector of the economy, and the demands are perceived in isolation of more general issues. The framework of the national character of the economy is absent from most union demands. A call for wage increase, for example, is a frequent union demand. The consequences of this event on the competitiveness of the product in international markets is rarely considered. While many political groups catered to the nascent labor movement in Syria by uncritical endorsement of unionism, and admittedly achieved political gain because of this endorsement, Saadeh had the intellectual foresight and the political courage to objectively assess the benefits and drawbacks of unionism in Syria. His resistance to unbridled unionism is not only on the basis of the principle of safeguarding primarily the interest of the entire nation, but also on the realization that unionism in Syria has frequently been exploited by political exploiters, duped by capitalists or controlled and emasculated by ‘socialist’ governments. Based on these theoretical and observational factors, Saadeh calls for organization of productivity and labor on the basis of specialization, but only as a means of improved productivity and streamlined management. The economic system, however, does not call for militant unionism because it presupposes the application of the economic view within the framework of a Social Nationalist state.

Politics
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Society and Culture
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How To Draw
Saadehism flag.svg Saadeh's design is based on a combination of the Islamic crescent and the Christian cross creating a hurricane called the Zawba'a. The Zawba'a has also been found on ancient Sumerian and Babylonian art.


 * 1) Draw a ball.
 * 2) Fill it in with grey/black.
 * 3) Draw a white circle and fill it in.
 * 4) Draw a red Zawba'a and fill it in.
 * 5) Add a deep red kangol and add the emblem to it and a grey lining at the bottom of the kangol.
 * 6) Add the eyes, and you're done!

Friends

 * Leftnat.png Left-Wing Nationalism - Basically me these days.
 * [[File:Irridentism.png]] Irredentism - I shall make Greater Syria into a reality.
 * [[File:Socauth.png]] Social Authoritarianism - We need a strong social state.
 * [[File:Cultural Nationalism.png]] Cultural Nationalism - Syria for the Syrians, and the Syrian nation.

Frenemies

 * [[File: Baath.png]] Ba'athism - We have to work together... for now.
 * [[File:ML.png]] Marxism–Leninism - You also will die for Palestinian liberation, but Communism is flawed!
 * [[File:Sorelia.png]] National Syndicalism - Great economic ideas, but unionisation can be exploited by a small group of individuals.
 * [[File:Khom.png]] Khomeinism - Although you're just as bad as [[File:Jihad.png]] Daesh i'll tolerate you just because of [[File: Baath.png]] Assad.  GIVE ME FUCKING KHUZESTAN!! 
 * [[File:WelfChauvin.png]] Welfare Chauvinism - You take things a bit too far.

Enemies

 * [[File:Zio.png]] Zionism - EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS WILL NOT BE TOLERATED ON OUR LAND!
 * [[File: Necon.png]] Neoconservatism - Look at what your "democracy" did to Iraq. No thanks!
 * [[File:Multicult.png]] Multiculturalism - The Syrian nation is for the Syrian people!
 * [[File:Jihad.png]] Jihadism - GTFO.
 * [[File:Kahan.png]] Kahanism - The Syrian nation will triumph!
 * [[File:Ottoman.png]] Neo-Ottomanism - You are just as bad as the Zionists!
 * [[File:Neoliberal-icon.png]] Neoliberalism - No degeneracy in Syria!
 * [[File: Imp.png]] Imperialism - Absolute scum of the Earth.
 * [[File:Muslim_2.png]] Islamic Theocracy - Opposes the secular state.
 * [[File: Demcon.png]] Democratic Confederalism - Against a united Syria.
 * [[File: Cap.png]] Capitalism - Individual Capitalists are the greatest danger to the Syrian people’s rights of labour.

Literature

 * The genesis of nations by Antoun Saadeh
 * The making of a Syrian identity by Fruma Zachs

Official Websites

 * SSNP Sydney

Wikipedia

 * Syrian Nationalism
 * Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP)
 * Antoun Saadeh

Online Communities

 * r/SSNP
 * SSNP Discord Server
 * ssnparty YouTube