Editing Ba'ath Party (section)

====Peasant and workers====
{{One source|date=December 2024}}
The early Ba'ath gave little attention to the problems facing the peasants and workers.{{sfn|Batatu|1999|p=136}} As the historian [[Hanna Batatu]] notes, "Aflaq was basically urban in outlook. The peasants never constituted an object of his special concern. In his writing there is scarcely an expression of concentrated interest in the country's husbandsmen."{{sfn|Batatu|1999|p=136}} While peasants and the issues they faced are mentioned in some of Aflaq's work, there was scarcely any depth given to them.{{sfn|Batatu|1999|p=136}} Aflaq never expressed explicit enmity towards traditional landowners.{{sfn|Batatu|1999|p=136}} Issues such as these would only gain prominence when [[Akram al-Hourani]] became a leading party figure and when the "transitional Ba'athists" took power.{{sfn|Batatu|1999|p=136}} Of the four members in the 1st Executive Committee, [[Wahib al-Ghanim]] was the only one who paid much attention to the problems of peasants and workers,{{sfn|Batatu|1999|p=136}} as the other members (Aflaq, [[Salah al-Din al-Bitar]] and Jalil al-Sayyide) had a [[middle class]] upbringing and upheld middle-class values.{{sfn|Batatu|1999|pp=134–136}} 

The early party organization never cultivated a deep following in rural areas.{{sfn|Batatu|1999|p=136}} In fact, at the party's founding congress, only one peasant and one worker were present among the 217 delegates.{{sfn|Batatu|1999|p=136}} Most of the delegates were either school teacher or students attending universities.{{sfn|Batatu|1999|p=136}} When [[Akram al-Hourani]]'s [[Arab Socialist Movement|Arab Socialist Party]] (ASP) merged with the Ba'ath Party, the majority of ASP members of peasant origin did not join the Ba'ath Party, instead becoming personal followers of Hawrani.{{sfn|Batatu|1999|p=136}} However, the majority of Ba'ath members were of rural upbringing.{{sfn|Batatu|1999|p=136}} The "Transitional Ba'ath", which grew out of the dissolution of the Syrian Regional Branch (1958) and the Military Committee, was more rural in outlook, policy and ideology.{{sfn|Batatu|1999|pp=144–145}}