Progressive Socialist Organizations of the Mediterranean

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The Progressive Socialist Organizations of the Mediterranean (PSOM), [1] [2] [3] also known as the Mediterranean Socialist Conference, [4] [5] was a bloc and gathering of socialist parties and movements of the Mediterranean region, conceived and planned by Andreas Papandreou of Greece and Dom Mintoff of Malta and mostly funded by Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya.

Contents

PSOM aimed to function as an alternative to the Socialist International (SI), which, PSOM members felt, was under the negative influence and hegemony of the West German SPD, which was considered an “almost conservative” party, and this despite the personal friendship of Willy Brandt and Papandreou. Dislike towards the SPD had mainly to do with its embrace of what PSOM members felt was West Germany’s “subservience” regarding NATO’s “inordinate hostility” towards the Soviet Union and anti-colonial left-wing movements.

PSOM was also notable for bringing together mutually hostile parties and trying to bridge their differences, such as with the case of the Syrian Baath of Hafez al-Assad and the Iraqi Baath of Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr and Saddam Hussein, or the Syrian Baath and Yasser Arafat’s Fatah, that presided over the PLO, despite Syrian and Libyan opposition. The generally moderate ruling party of Tunisia (Socialist Destourian Party) also participated, and, after Hosni Mubarak rose to power in Egypt in 1981, he made sure to maintain some contacts with PSOM, but without officially joining. Andreas Papandreou eventually convinced François Mitterrand, Bettino Craxi and Felipe González to also join PSOM.

Leadership

PSOM was coordinated by a Permanent Secretariat, headquartered in Tripoli, Libya (Gaddafi was the chief financial sponsor of PSOM) and presided over by the Secretary-General, Libyan diplomat Ahmed al-Shahati [6] (1936-2006, a career diplomat who had joined the Libyan diplomatic service during the regime of King Idris). Karolos Papoulias, Secretary of PASOK’s International Relations Committee (later Foreign Minister and President of Greece) played a key organizing role for PSOM’s events and conferences.

Activities

PSOM organized a series of conferences, of which the first took place in November 1976 in Barcelona, Spain. The next was in Valletta, Malta in June 1977, which led to the signing of the “Malta Document”, [2] outlining the basic thrust of PSOM’s policies and officially establishing the Permanent Secretariat in Tripoli, Libya. In May 1979, the third conference took place in Greece, in the seaside Athenian suburb of Vouliagmeni. [4] The fourth conference was in Algiers, Algeria (May 1982), [7] the fifth in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (May 1984) and the sixth in Nicosia, Cyprus (October 1988).

Member parties and organizations

In the first conference that took place in Barcelona (November 1976), the following parties (not all of them from the Mediterranean) were represented (in alphabetical order of countries): [8]

Between 1977 and 1982, as a result of lobbying and development of contacts, more political parties and movements agreed to join PSOM, so that by the time of the 4th conference in Algiers (May 1982), the following parties and organizations had become members, in addition to those previously noted: [7]

References

  1. ↑ Heinz-Jürgen Axt, Die PASOK: Aufstieg und Wandel des verspäteten Sozialismus in Griechenland, 1985, pp. 91-103
  2. 1 2 The Malta Conference: Recommendations and Decisions 20-25/6/1977, Costas Simitis Repository
  3. ↑ Sozialistische Perspektiven im Mittelmeerraum und ihre internationalen Implikationen : Materialien einer Tagung an der Universität Bremen 3.-6.6 1978 / veranstaltet von Progressive socialist organisations of the Mediterranean (PSOM), National Library of Sweden
  4. 1 2 LA CONFÉRENCE DES PARTIS SOCIALISTES ET PROGRESSISTES DES PAYS DE LA MÉDITERRANÉE S'EST OUVERTE À ATHÈNES, Le Monde, 17 May 1979
  5. ↑ [Contactos PSOE-Conferencia de Partidos Socialistas del Mediterráneo, El País, 3 September 1978
  6. ↑ Professor Hajj Ahmed Abdel Nabi Al-Shahati: May God accept him with His vast mercy, Jalu Oasis, November 23, 2006
  7. 1 2 Cahiers du Communisme. 58è année. N°6, pp. 68-81, June 1982
  8. ↑ 1re Conférence socialiste méditerranéenne, Première Conférence des organisations et partis socialistes progressistes réunis à Barcelone du 26 au 28 novembre 1976, pp. 23-25, Editions Syros, 1977
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