Origins and Early Organisation

On 14 October 1963 an organisation which called itself “The National Liberation Front of the Occupied South” (al-Jabhah al-Qawmiyyah li-Taḥrīr al-Janūb al-Muḥtall, (NLF)), declared an armed revolt against British rule. The NLF was a coalition of several clandestine organisations: The earlier mentioned Qawmiyyūn al-^cArab, “The Nāsirist Front” (al-Jabhah al-Nāsiriyyah), “The Revolutionary Organisation in the Occupied South” (al-Munaththamah al -Thawriyyah fī Janūb al-Yaman al -Muḥtall), “The Nationalist [Patriotic] Front” (al-Jabhah al-Wataniyyah), “The Secret Organisation of Free Officers and Soldiers” (al-Tashkīl al-Sirrī lil-Dubāt wa-al-Junūd al-Aḥrār), “The Yāfi^cī Reform Movement” (Jabhat al-Islāh al-Yāfi^Ciyyah), “The Tribal Organisation” (Tashkil fll-Qabā’il). “The Revolutionary Pioneers” (al-Talā’ī^c al-Thawriyyah), “The Secret Organisation of the Freemen of Occupied South Yemen” (Munaththamat al-Aḥrār al-Sirriyyah lil-Janūb al-Yamanī al-Muḥtall) and “The Youth Organisation of the Mahrah District” (Munaththamat Shabbāb Mintaqat al-Mahrah). ¹