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Arab Socialist Action Party – Lebanon

Arab Socialist Action Party – Lebanon
حزب العمل الاشتراكي العربي - لبنان
Secretary-GeneralHussein Hamdan
FoundersGeorge Habash
Founded1969 (1969)
NewspaperTariq al-Thawrah
IdeologyMarxism
Anti-Zionism
Pan-Arabism
International affiliationArab Socialist Action Party
Party flag
Politics of Lebanon

Arab League Member State of the Arab League

Constitution
Human rights
Executive
Legislature
Subdivisions
Elections
Foreign relations

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The Arab Socialist Action Party – Lebanon or ASAP–L (Arabic: حزب العمل الاشتراكي العربي - لبنان | Hizb al-'Amal al-Ishtiraki al-'Arabi - Lubnan), is the Lebanese branch of the Arab Socialist Action Party. The party is the Lebanese equivalent of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Origins

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The party was founded by George Habash in 1969 and was closely linked to the PFLP, which Habash also led.[1][2] The party held its first congress in 1972, during which it distanced itself from other communists by advocating violence as the best means by which to end class conflict.[3] Although a secular group, most of the party's membership came from the Shia Muslim community.[3]

Military structure and organization

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Arab Socialist Action Party – Lebanon
حزب العمل الاشتراكي العربي - لبنان
LeadersHussein Hamdan
Dates of operation1975–1991
HeadquartersWest Beirut
Active regionsLebanon
Part ofLebanese National Movement
Lebanese National Resistance Front
Allies Al-Mourabitoun
Progressive Socialist Party (PSP)/ People's Liberation Army (PLA)
Lebanese Communist Party (LCP)/Popular Guard
Organization of Communist Action in Lebanon (OCAL)
Lebanese Arab Army (LAA)
Palestine Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)
Syrian Arab Armed Forces
Opponents Lebanese Front
Lebanese Forces
Lebanese Armed Forces
Internal Security Forces
South Lebanon Army (SLA)
Israel Israel Defense Forces (IDF)
Battles and warsLebanese Civil War

The ASAP–L's own militia was trained by the PFLP and provided with small-arms by Libya, but collapsed by August 1975.

The ASAP–L in the Lebanese Civil War

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The ASAP–L was a member of both the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) and its successor, the Lebanese National Resistance Front (LNRF) during the Lebanese Civil War.[4] In 1976, the party confiscated the estates of the Shia za'im (political boss) Kazem al-Khalil at a village near Tyre. The purpose of the confiscation was to turn the estates into a collective; but the ASAP–L soon lost control of the estates in the wake of the June 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.[3]

The party's leader Hussein Hamdan took part in the founding of the LNRF, along with George Hawi of the Lebanese Communist Party (LCP) and Mohsen Ibrahim of the Organization of Communist Action in Lebanon (OCAL).[5]

Illegal activities and controversy

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Main article: People's Republic of Tyre

The ASAP–L was also involved in January 1976 in the founding of the so-called People's Republic of Tyre (Arabic: جمهورية صور الشعبية| Jumhūriyya Ṣūr al-Ša'biyya), a short-lived autonomous Canton formed that same month at the port city of Tyre in Southern Lebanon.[6] With the active support of their ASAP–L and Lebanese Arab Army (LAA) allies,[7] local Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) commanders took over the municipal government of the city, proclaimed the "People's Republic of Tyre", occupied the Lebanese Army's Adloun and Benoit Barakat Barracks, set up roadblocks and started collecting customs at the port.[8] However, the joint PLO-LAA-ASAP–L "People's Republic of Tyre" government quickly lost the political support of the local population,[9] mostly due to their "arbitrary and often brutal behavior".[10]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Lebanon: The Fragmented Nation p.171
  2. ^ The Republic of Lebanon: Nation in Jeopardy p.89
  3. ^ a b c Shanahan, Rodger (2005). The Shi'a of Lebanon – The Shi'a of Lebanon Clans, Parties and Clerics (PDF). LONDON • NEW YORK: TAURIS ACADEMIC STUDIES. pp. 42–43, 46, 57, 62–63, 67–69, 77, 79–80, 94, 104, 149. ISBN 9781850437666.
  4. ^ The Communist Movement in Syria and Lebanon, p.115
  5. ^ Yearbook on International Communist Affairs. Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace; Stanford University. 2009. p. 424. ISBN 9780817988012.
  6. ^ Fisk, Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War (2001), pp. 115-118.
  7. ^ Goria, Sovereignty and Leadership in Lebanon, 1943–76 (1985), pp. 90; 179; 222.
  8. ^ Schiff and Ya'ari, Israel's Lebanon War (1985), pp. 79-80; 139.
  9. ^ Who's Who in Lebanon 2007–2008 (2007), pp. 49; 84; 88; 196; 391-392; 398-399; 416-417.
  10. ^ Schiff and Ya'ari, Israel's Lebanon War (1985), pp. 79-80; 139.

Bibliography

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  • Robert Fisk, Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War, London: Oxford University Press, (3rd ed. 2001). ISBN 0-19-280130-9 – [1]
  • Tom Najem and Roy C. Amore, Historical Dictionary of Lebanon, Second Edition, Historical Dictionaries of Asia, Oceania, and the Middle East, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Lanham, Boulder, New York & London 2021. ISBN 9781538120439, 1538120437
  • Wade R. Goria, Sovereignty and Leadership in Lebanon, 1943–76, Ithaca Press, London 1985. ISBN 978-0863720314
  • Who's Who in Lebanon 2007–2008, Publitec Publications & De Gruyter Saur, Beirut / Munich 2007. ISBN 978-3-598-07734-0
  • Ze'ev Schiff and Ehud Ya'ari, Israel's Lebanon War, Simon and Schuster, New York 1985. ISBN 978-0671602161 – [2]
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