Democratic Palestine : 9 (ص 22)
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- Democratic Palestine : 9 (ص 22)
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National and Class Struggle
The following is part of an interview with George Hawi, General Secretary of the Lebanese Communist
Party, printed in «Al Nahj», theoretical journal of the Arab communist parties, No.4, May, 1984. He
addresses the question of strategic and tactical tasks and alliances at that particular stage of struggle
in Lebanon, as well as the relation between national and class struggle. His analysis is an important con-
tribution to evaluating the foregoing period in order to understand the new phase heralded by the Israeli
withdrawal. Printing this is part of our tribute to the heroic Lebanese National Resistance which forced
this withdrawal.
At present we face two kinds of tasks. Although they are
undoubtedly interlinked, each has its own characteristics and
distinctions. The first is the continuation of the national libera-
tion of Lebanon, while the second is related to the issue of
democratic reform of the political system.
Within this framework, the Communist Party sees the
central task to be the mobilization of all energies in order to end
the Israeli occupation unconditionally, as implementation of
the UN resolutions, including Security Council resolutions 508
and 509, without infringing on the sovereignty of Lebanon and
the freedom of its people.
Our party saw from the beginning that armed struggle will
become the primary among other forms of struggle to liberate
the occupied Lebanese territories. This was based on our
analysis of the objective reality of Lebanon and the situation
under occupation; it was based on the experience of the suc-
cessive Israeli occupations of other Arab lands since 1947-8,
and the failure of all Arab policies to end these; it was also
based on our understanding of the nature of the struggle and
relations on the international level.
The primacy of armed struggle
The beginning in this respect does not mean June 6th,
1982, the day the massive Israeli invasion of Lebanon began.
Rather it goes back to the second national congress of the
party in 1968. That congress specified the nature of the strug-
gle being waged in the Lebanese arena in connection with the
overall Middle East conflict. It also specified the Israeli plans for
Lebanon and called for preparations to carry arms in support of
the Palestinian resistance movement in order to contribute to
the pan-Arab liberation led by the Palestinian revolution, as
well as to confront a possible Israeli invasion; this became
more than a mere possibility as Lebanon was becoming an
essential arena for the Arab national liberation struggle.
In 1970, after the massacres in Jordan and the death of
Abdul Nasser, the Party’s Central Committee reaffirmed our
view of the overail imperialist-Zionist-reactionary assault on
the Arab people’s national liberation movement, and our
expectations of how this would impact on Lebanon, including
the expectation of Israeli attacks that would go beyond skir-
mishes with limited purposes to become direct occupation.
Accordingly, we accelerated execution of the Central Commit-
tee’s decisions, taken in the light of the second national con-
gress, related to the task of preparing the Party militarily. The
formation of the Popular Guard (Al Haras al Shaabi) in the
South in 1969 was the result of this long-range vision. Our
initiative then, to form the Popular Militias (Quwat al Ansar) in
collaboration with our sister communist parties in the countries
surrounding Palestine, originated from the same conviction:
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that it was becoming increasingly important to practice armed
struggle as an essential ingredient in the overall struggle. Our
party continued to develop its military preparedness together
with the fighters of the Palestinian revolution. Our party learned
from their rich experience and distinguished assistance, and
attempted to develop this experiment whenever and however
it was possible. On the other hand, we paid with them the price
of the errors involved in such an experiment, as well as the
heavy price extracted with the transformation of Lebanon into
the main arena of the pan-Arab national struggle against Israeli
aggression and the overall imperialist-Zionist assault in the
region.
In the mid-seventies, when the basic contradictions esca-
lated in Lebanon and reactionary violence imposed itself, the
Party continued preparations to increase its role in the military
field. At the beginning of June 1982, when we were confronted
by the open and massive Israeli aggression, the Party threw
most of its weight into confronting the US-supported invasion,
side by side with the Palestinian revolution and other national
and progressive forces in the South. The Party threw most of
its weight into the battle which reached its peak in the stead-
fastness of Beirut. However, in light of the Israelis’ quantitative
technological and firepower superiority, our long-range Marx-
ist-Leninist vision determined that the Party should not throw
all of its weight into an open confrontation that would destroy all
the potentials for steadfastness. There were other prepara-
tions made earlier by the Party, called the Special Forces; their
role was exemplified in the beginning of the anti-occupation
military action behind the lines reached by the Israeli army and
in areas it had «pacified».
The birth of the LNRF
After the Israeli occupation forces had consolidated their
control in Beirut, September 14-16th, 1982, the Party initiated
its famous call to start Lebanese national resistance against
the occupation, and announced the formation of the Lebanese
National Resistance Front (LNRF). A few hours thereafter, the
first operations took place in Beirut, to prove to the masses and
the national and progressive forces, as well as to the enemy,
that the Lebanese people would not accept the occupation,
that the fight had not yet been settled in favor of the US and
Israel, and that their occupation of Lebanon was not necessar-
ily a point of strength. In fact, Beirut and all Lebanon might
become a suitable beginning for the process of Lebanese liber-
ation that is organically linked to the pan-Arab struggle against
imperialist and Zionist interests. The LNRF’s operations
accumulated to become an essential component among the - هو جزء من
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