There are two for continued, even increased, British backing for the Sultan: they want to hang onto their base on the Sultan's island of Masira, and they want to June 6 at a guerrilla's funeral in Zerka, near Amman, and fighting between guerrillas and beduin spread to the capital. Although al-Fath and Hussein announced cease-fire on June the two self-proclaimed Marxist-Leninist groups, the Popular Front (PF) and the Democratic Front (DF), refused accept it until Hussein sacked his key advisersfrom the command of the Army Sharif Nasser himself; General Keylani, Minister of the Interior; and Colonel Shaker, Commander of the Amman European and American tourists host- The PF held a group of age in the plush Intercontinental Hotel until these demands were met. Later in the week they were. THE SPLIT These events provoked a major split the guerrilla movement. Both Hussein and President Nasser singled out al-Fath for praise and attacked the DF and the PF for adventurism. The DF leader Nayyef Hawatmeh had called for the dissolution of the King's special anti-guerrilla militia, and Hussein replied by accusing Hawatmeh of provocation. But the public positions adopted by the different groups may not necessarily be an accurate guide to what is really going on. The DF (which split from the PF in February 1969) has attacked the "petty-bourgois" regimes of Egypt, Syria and Iraq which give groups as-Saiga respect towards an alance with toe respectively)
SAD (June 14, 1969, no. 19). They have also openly supported the Dhofari struggle, and have close ties with antiBaathi forces in Iraq. They have called for a democratic and socialist Palestine with equal rights for Jews and Arabs. But the DF are also the weakest of the groups, and hence the most exposed to attacks from the right. They claim that one of their miliary cadres, Sahel Ghazal, was shot by Sharif Nasser early in June and when the fighting occurred las February they felt forced to put their hame an al-Fath communique calling for an "Arab Palestine". -a chauvinist slogan.
The PF on the other hand, led by the Christian Dr. George Habbash. have received backing from Iraq. Using a Marxist vocabluary they have denounced al-Fath for being a petty-bourgeois organisation and until last February refused to participate in the co-ordinating committees of the guerrilla movement. To win support from al-Fath, they engaged in a series of spectacular actions, some of them (shooting up air-liners, attacking school buses) were totally indefensible and have played into the hands of Zionist propaganda inside Israel and in Europe ("they are allcut-throats and terrorist" etc.). They have adopted a verbally revolutionary position, and are clearly willing to con flict with Hussein, although they go may be limited by their association with Iraq. They have not or Marxism into a fully revolutionary converted their verbal profession Long Live the Fighters of the People's Liberation Army and of the Popular Militia!
Hold High the Banner of Organised Revolutionary Violence against Imperialism, Zionism, and Reaction!
Habbash greater leverage, but Iraq wants to keep Hussein as a puppet and impose a cabinet of bourgeois politicians sympathetic to guerrillas. The other Arab states are None of the guerrilla groups is pre pared, or willing, to clash openly with the Arab regimes now by bring Hussein down, nor do they want to remove the mild buffer between themselves and Israel that Hussein provides. Even Hawatmeh appeared at a press conference on June 15 with Arafat and declared: "There are several phases in a liberation move ment... We must now all unite to meet the conspiracy which aims to liquidate the Palestinian revolution." Both the DF and the PF joined joint Palestinian-Jordanian Coordinating Committee designed to settle questions at issue. They are all therefore trapped in the of manoeuvring for influence behind the facade of Hussein's rule.
The US were very upset by this fighting and alerted the 6th Fleet anc the 82nd Airborne Division in preparation for an invasion under cover of removing US civilians (as in SantoDomingo in 1965). The Russians were equally angry, and Pravda accused the DF and the PF of bein "American agents."
These events illustrate the fragility of Hussein's position, but they also show the guerrillas are split among themselves, that the left is still unable to break with the Arab regimes, and that their revolutionary aims have still to find an effective, and inter-
----- pull-quotes -----
the Matzpen article on Arab Revolu- tion printed in Black Dwarf last year
all behind Hussein, and are trying to build up al-Fath as a stabilising force.