Page 200 - Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf_Neat

180 Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf

of social conservatism. Allegiance to tradition, community and to ‘nat-
ural’ hierarchies defined by kin ties, sect and patronage disrupted the
historical homogeneity of the nation. The tribal loyalties which bound
the Al Khalifah to their allies, including the British authorities, and the old
politics of patronage which dominated the municipal council of Manama,
were construed as the major source of sectarian division and primordial
conflict. Significantly, an editorial in Sawt al-Bahrayn condemned sec-
79
tarianism as ‘the deadliest of our diseases’. Moreover, the portrayal of
British imperialism as the mother of all the forces of reaction gained
momentum as a quest for solidarity with the Palestinians during the revolt
of 1936–9 and again during the Arab–Israeli wars which followed the
establishment of Israel in 1948.

al-Ha’yah: organising popular militancy, 1954–6
In October 1954 the creation of al-Ha’yah revolutionised the political
landscape of Bahrain. Based in Manama, the organisation provided cru-
cial links between the young nationalists and the popular base across the
country, with an executive committee of eight members assisted by a
network of 120 individuals recruited from both urban and rural areas.
The social composition of the leadership reflected the growth of the
nationalist movement since the 1930s. A majority of professionals and
traders led local committees while the nouveaux riches of the economic
boom of the late 1940s and early 1950s abstained from engaging overtly in
political activities. Very few individuals from the old notable class joined
the organisation, usually from families which had not regained their
fortunes after the collapse of pearling. 80
The mass appeal of al-Ha’yah can be readily explained by the raison
d’être of the organisation, the mobilisation of the labour force to redirect
local grievances towards national concerns. As labour relations became
central to the quest for national self-determination, the creation of
al-Ha’yah was part of a new populist strategy aimed at challenging the
government and foreign interests. Soon after the establishment of the first
labour union under the aegis of al-Ha’yah in 1955, the union claimed
some 6,000 members from BAPCO and government offices and forced

79
Khuri, Tribe and State in Bahrain, pp. 198–9; al-Bakir, Min al-Bahrayn, pp. 37–8; Sawt
al-Bahrayn, vol. I, p. 1369.
80
al-Bakir, Min al-Bahrayn,pp. 65–7. On the political activities of the organisation see
al-Bakir, Min al-Bahrayn,pp.63–116 ; al-Jasim and al-Sha‘ir, al-Bahrayn: qissah al-sira‘,
pp. 327–42; Khuri, Tribe and State in Bahrain, pp. 199–217; Rumaihi, Bahrain,pp.212–21;
Lawson, Bahrain: The Modernization of Autocracy,pp.58–68.