By the Internationalist Socialist League (RCIT Section in Israel / Occupied Palestine), 29 October 2019, http://www.the-isleague.com
The revolution in Lebanon, that is taking place within a growing series of revolutionary uprisings around the world, is not only raising revolutionary demands, but also shows that the masses, when in struggle, are able to overcome the ethnic-religious sectarian divisions that the local ruling class is relying on.
The Lebanese regime is based on confessionalism (the proportional power sharing between the country’s religious communities based on the French imperialists official census that was performed in 1932, that not only does not reflect the actual weight of the different religious groups today but also creates bloody conflicts). Today the revolutionary movement encompasses people from all the religious groups. The masses according to all reports understand the class nature of the Lebanese army – the officers are on the side of the ruling class while the simple soldiers’ sympathy is with the protesting masses. What is needed is to split the army along class line. The simple soldiers will join the revolution if the revolutionary masses will prove to the soldiers that the revolution can win. For this it is necessary not only to form self-defense units of the workers and the poor, but to work within the army by forming revolutionary cells. To march forward it is also necessary to form a revolutionary constituent assembly for a democratic constitution that will replace the existing constitution that is based on the undemocratic sectarian confessionalism.
The revolution in Lebanon is not alone in the Middle East. The revolutionary struggle is developing in Iraq as well. The masses are in the streets in spite of the fact that the army killed at least 60 people over the weekend in Baghdad.
“”We’re here to bring down the whole government, to weed them all out!” one protester, with the Iraqi tricolour wrapped around his head, was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.”We don’t want a single one of them. Not [parliamentary speaker Mohammed] Halbousi, not [Prime Minister Adel] Abdul Mahdi. We want to bring down the regime,” he added. Students could also be seen joining demonstrations in Baghdad, with activists saying a dozen schools and universities had decided to shut their doors and take part in the protests. Young girls in school uniform and rucksacks were seen trekking through streets littered with tear gas canisters. Nearly three-fifths of Iraq’s 40 million people live on less than six dollars a day, World Bank figures show, despite the country housing the world’s fifth-largest proven reserves of oil.” (1)
The revolutionary struggle may ignite the revolution once again in Egypt and may spread to Jordan as well. In Egypt, the Al Sisi brutal regime is suppressing every protest by violence and arrests but when the masses will take to the streets again, his days will be numbered. We have also seen this year protests in North Africa that may become mass movement with the advance of the Arab revolution in Lebanon and Iraq.
The revolution in Lebanon is not limited to the Middle East, we see the uprising in Chile and the growing protest movement in Indonesia, Hong Kong and Catalonia. Thus the global relationship between the capitalist class and the working class peasants and poor is shifting in favor of the working class and the masses.
We the communist revolutionaries in Israel (Occupied Palestine) are aware that only two major events can break a section of the Jews from Zionism. A serious military defeat for Israel and the victory of the Arab revolution. The two of them are possible. Netanyahu’s strategy of a joined US-Israel-Saudi Arabia war has failed because the US as a declining empire is withdrawing from the region and in the case of a war between Israel and Iran, Israel alone may face multiple military fronts at the same time: Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran and Gaza. Israel does not have a defense system against Iranian precise missiles. A major war will cost many lives of Iranians and Israelis. Iran however will survive even if it will lose hundreds of thousands or even millions but Israel will not survive a loss of tens of thousands of citizens. Most Israelis will simply leave the country.
“We’ve been left all alone now,” a high-ranking defense official admitted to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. “The strategic balance of power is shifting right before our eyes. The bad guys won, and the good guys are abandoning us. Now, Israel is left almost on its own to deal with the powerful Turkish-Russian-Iranian axis.” (2)
In the short term, the Arab revolution in Lebanon is weakening Hezbollah that stands with Hariri government and it may delay a war between Iran and Israel, but a victorious Arab revolution in the region will weaken Israel, maybe even more than a military defeat as the sympathy of the Arab masses are with the Palestinians.
What is missing in the region and around the world is a working class revolutionary International that the RCIT is building.
FOR AN INDEFINITE GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE THE GOVERNMENT!
FOR A REVOLUTIONARY CONSTITUTIONAL ASSEMBLY!
FOR ARMED SELF DEFENSE IN IRAQ AND LEBANON!
FOR A WORKERS GOVERNMENT!
FOR THE EXPROPRIATIONS OF THE BANKS AND OIL INDUSTRY UNDER WORKERS CONTROL!
FOR A WORKING CLASS REVOLUTIONARY PARTY!
Footnotes
1) Al Jazeera: Hundreds continue protests in Baghdad as death toll tops 60, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/special-forces-baghdad-protest-death-toll-reaches-60-191027083312026.html
2) Ben Caspit: US policy changes leave Israel alone against Iran, Al Monitor, October 11, 2019
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Other Articles of the RCIT on the Arab Revolution
Lebanon: A Revolutionary Situation, Article by Yossi Schwartz, Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/lebanon-a-revolutionary-situation/
Syria: Assad Regime and Kurdish YPG Strike a Reactionary Deal, Statement of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/syria-assad-regime-and-kurdish-ypg-strike-a-reactionary-deal/
No to the Turkish Invasion in North-East Syria! Statement of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/no-to-the-turkish-invasion-in-north-east-syria/
Syria: Defend Idlib against Assad and Putin! Emergency Statement of the RCIT, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/defend-idlib-against-assad-and-putin/
On the Israeli Aggression against Gaza, Statement of the Internationalist Socialist League (RCIT Section in Occupied Palestine), https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/on-the-israeli-aggression-against-gaza/
Iraq: Rally in Solidarity with the Popular Uprising, Report (with Pictures & Videos) from a Rally in Vienna on 8 Oct 2019, https://www.thecommunists.net/rcit/iraq-rally-in-solidarity-with-the-popular-uprising-8-10-2019/