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228 Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf

between 40 and 50 per cent of the workforce. 11 Following the footsteps of
al-Ha’yah, a host of underground organisations inspired by Nasserism,
Ba‘thism and Communism supported the student movement in 1965 and
coordinated strikes among civil servants and oil workers, paralysing oil
production and public services. 12 Radio Baghdad became one of the
voices of the movement championing Ba‘thist propaganda from Iraq,
which rehearsed themes familiar to the old Nasserist rhetoric: the con-
demnation of the vicious imperialist apparatus of rule supported by Great
13
Britain and of the ‘anachronistic’ regime of the Al Khalifah.
The pluralistic and autonomous tradition of the town of the pearl boom
survived in the guise of a thriving and subversive public life and modern
political culture. The Suez crisis of 1956 highlighted the strikingly differ-
ent reaction of the urban population of neighbouring Kuwait, the other
hotbed of Arab nationalist sentiment in the region. In April 1957 the
representative of the British Council in the Persian Gulf duly noted that
‘Kuwait reacted with a cold and disciplined hostility; Bahrain rioted.’ 14
Despite the constraints on political activism posed by the government
after 1957 and 1965, grass-roots organisation continued to proliferate in
the city. By 1970 professional associations gathering together lawyers,
writers, pharmacists and intellectuals, cultural clubs, sports teams and
even musical bands presented a striking cross section of Manama’s pop-
ulation as they attracted individuals of different age groups, status and
wealth. 15 At the time of writing similar associations are still in place,
providing continuity to the corporate identity of Manama and a challenge
to the government still under the control of the Al Khalifah family.

Manama since 1971
Since independence, Manama’s inner city has changed beyond recogni-
tion. Gone are the days of cosmopolitan Manama and of the city of
11
‘The Bahrain Economy’, memorandum by the Ministry of Overseas Development, 15
October 1968, CAB 148/90 PRO; ‘Report by the UN Good Offices Mission Bahrain to
Secretary-General of the United Nations’, 24 April 1970 in ‘Note by the Secretary-
General of the United Nations to the Security Council’, 30 April 1970, p.6 and annex 1,
FCO 8/1370 PRO.
12
These disturbances have not yet been studied. Details are included in FO 371, files
179788 to 90 PRO.
13
Political Agent Bahrain to Political Resident Bahrain, 1 May 1965, FO 371/179746 PRO;
interviews with ‘Ali Rabia‘, London, 10 September 2006 and with ‘Ali Akbar Bushehri,
Manama, 16 and 23 April 2004.
14
‘Annual Report for 1956–57’ by British Council Persian Gulf Representative, 29 April
1957, BW 114/6 PRO. I am indebted to James Onley for this reference.
15
‘Report by the UN Good Offices Mission Bahrain to Secretary-General of the United
Nations’, 24 April 1970, in ‘Note by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to the
Security Council’, 30 April 1970, pp. 8–9 and annex 1, FCO 8/1370 PRO.