Lebanese Communist Party

The Lebanese Communist Party (LCP; Arabic: الـحـزب الشـيـوعـي اللبـنـانـي Hizbu-sh-shuy‘uī-l-lubnānī) is a communist political party in Lebanon, founded in 1924 by the Lebanese intellectual, writer and reporter Youssef Ibrahim Yazbek, and Fou'ad al-shmeli a tobacco worker from Bikfaya.

History

Creation

The Lebanese Communist Party was officially founded on October 24, 1924, in the Lebanese town of Hadath south of Beirut. The first meeting held a boast of union workers who formed real unions for the first time in Lebanon, unlike the ones dictated by the French mandate. The meeting was also attended by scholars, academics, writers and journalists, who were active in promoting the ideas of the French Revolution, and were familiar with the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The party was then founded to cover the area held under the French mandate, what is now Syria and Lebanon. Initially, the party's name was "Lebanese People Party", in an attempt to evade the French ban on "Bolshevik" activities.

The party was declared illegal when the French ruled Lebanon 1939, but the ban was relaxed during World War II. For about twenty years, the LCP organized communist political activities in both Lebanon and Syria, but in 1944 the party was split into the Lebanese Communist Party and the Syrian Communist Party.

Post-independence activities

During the first two decades of Lebanon's independence, the LCP enjoyed little success. In 1943, the party participated in the legislative elections but failed to win any seats in the Chamber of Deputies. The LCP again ran for election in 1947, but all of its candidates were defeated; in 1948 the party was outlawed. During the 1950s, the party's inconsistent policies on Pan-Arabism and the Nasserite movement cost it support and eventually isolated it. The party was active on the anti-government side during the 1958 uprising. Surviving underground, the LCP in 1965 decided to end its isolation and became a member of the Front for Progressive Parties and National Forces, which later evolved into the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) under Druze leftist leader Kamal Jumblatt.

In the mid-1960s, the U.S. State Department estimated the party membership to be approximately 3000.

The 1970s witnessed something of a resurgence of the LCP. In 1970, Kamal Jumblatt as Minister of the Interior legalized the party. This allowed many LCP leaders, including Secretary General Nicola Shawi, to run for election in 1972. Although they polled several thousand votes, none of them succeeded in gaining a seat. But the LCP's importance grew with the start of civil disturbances in the mid-1970s.

The LCP during the Civil War

During the early 1970s, the LCP established a well-trained militia, the Popular Guard, which participated actively in the fighting of 1975 and 1976 at the start of the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990). The LCP was aligned with the mostly-Muslim LNM-Palestinian coalition, despite its mainly Christian membership (in particular, Greek Orthodox and Armenian).

Throughout the 1980s, the LCP generally declined in influence. In 1983, the Tripoli-based Sunni Islamist movement Islamic Unification Movement (Tawhid), reportedly executed fifty Communists. In 1987, in union with the Druze Progressive Socialist Party, the LCP fought a week-long battle with the Shi'a militants of the Amal in West Beirut, a conflict that was finally stopped by Syrian troops.

Also in 1987, the LCP held its Fifth Party Congress and was about to oust George Hawi, its Greek Orthodox leader, in favor of Karim Mroue, a Shi'a, as Secretary General. Syrian pressure, however, kept Hawi in his position. Hawi, who had been a close ally of Damascus, was reportedly unpopular for his lavish life-style and for spending more time in Syria than in Lebanon. Mroue was probably the most powerful member of the LCP and was on good terms with Shi'a groups in West Beirut. Nevertheless, between 1984 and 1987 many party leaders and members were assassinated, reportedly by Islamic fundamentalists.

After the Lebanese Civil war

The end of the Lebanese civil war was in sync with the collapse of the Soviet Union, two back-to-back congresses saw the exit of Hawi, Mrouwweh and other prominent leaders of the party, leaving it in a major crisis, the congresses witnessed the election of Farouq Dahrouj as the new secretary general of the party, Hawi returned to the party as head of its national council (formerly the central committee), but later abdicated in the 1998 8th congress, which also saw the second election of Dahrouj as secretary general. The party is now lead by Dr. Khaled Hadadi, elected in the 9th Congress in December 2003. Saadallah Mazraani who was Vice General Secretary under Dahrouj remained in the same position with Hadadi.

The party participated in the 2005 parliamentary elections] in many regions and received a considerable number of votes. In South Lebanon, its Vice General-Secretary Saadallah Mazraani accrued 8886 votes in the second district, and Anwar Yassin, a former detainee in Israel recieved 18244 votes in the first district. The former General-Secretary Farouq Dahrouj obtained 10688 votes in the Bekaa third district. Due to the Lebanese winner-takes-all system, none of these candidates captured a seat.

In the 2009 legislative elections, the LCP, running independently with candidates in five districts, performed marginally and failed to win any seats.

Hawi assassination

In an interview for al-Jazeera in June 2005, George Hawi, who had by then left the party, claimed that Rifaat al-Assad, brother of Hafez al Assad and uncle of Syria's current President Bashar al-Assad, had been behind the 1977 assassination of Kamal Jumblatt. It is claimed by the March 14 Alliance that Syria was behind Hawi's own death in a car bomb some days later Hawi's son, however, denies this charge and awaits an investigation into his father's death.

Organization

The Lebanese Communist Party is one of the few Lebanese parties that have affiliation throughout different sects and regions. It is spread in most of the Lebanese districts, although its strength is greatest in the South Lebanon. This structure gives the party a national presence, but at the same time weakens its representation in the local and central governmental bodies including municipalities and parliament. The party, as other traditional communist parties, operates through several popular organizations to recruit and spread its political message. Those organizations include Union of Lebanese Democratic Youth (youth organization), The Committee of Woman's Rights (Women organization), The Popular Aid (Health organization) and The General Union of Workers and Employees in Lebanon (labor union).

The smallest organizational structure is a branch, usually found in a town or village. Several branches belong to a Regional Committee (usually made up of 5-10 branches), then every few regional committees belong to a Governorate (Mohafaza).The party has now an estimated membership of around 5000 members.

External links

• Official party website
• Union of Lebanese Democratic Youth Website
• Jammoul Website