I'm writing something on the foundation of the party, and will follow up with later articles (and later questions :P) about its subsequent development and internal crises until the restoration of capitalism.

Essentially, I'm looking at the Ba'ath as a parallel development of a Stalinist party, with Aflaq having participated in French Communist Party meetings while in Paris, then rejecting the Communist International as "slaves to Moscow" and forming his own party upon his return to the Middle East. As a Trotskyist, that's kind of an understandable conclusion, but I digress xD

Anyways, when he gets back he forms study circles and launches the Ba'ath, which takes off through a merger of different groups too.

It's been tough finding good sources. I have read a book by David Roberts, a former British ambassador to Syria, titled "Ba'ath and the Creation of Modern Syria". It was very interesting, but is very short and doesn't go into a lot of detail.

I'm particularly interested in:

• Aflaq's experience with the PCF in France
• The early days of the study circles in the universities in Beirut and Damascus
• The early debates and discussions leading to the publishing of "The Constitution", the party's first public communiqué which explicitly calls for a classless society.
• Info on the (at least) two other parties Aflaq merges with, and their history and political tendencies
• Info on the influence of fascism on the confused ideas of others in the early years of the party who while rejecting Germany in the war, still flirted with Hitler and Mussolini's texts and inspiration for nationalism. This aspect is certainly exaggerated, the party developed more as a Stalinist party and the nationalism of an oppressed people is not the same as the nationalism of an imperialist nation, but still would be good to get some info on that to get the idea of the extent of the confusion.