World News Online Information Update On the current protests in Lebanon: When spring comes late, would it achieve more?

On the current protests in Lebanon: When spring comes late, would it achieve more? by Mazen Kamalmaz (it)

Soon the massive upheaval, that swept the middle east since late 2010, was contained or 
even turned into devastating conflicts between competing authoritarian forces. That wave 
spared Lebanon, which is ruled since the departure of Syrian ( read: Assad ' ) troops in 
2005 by an elite divided between the pro-Iranian regime: 8 march camp, headed by "Shia'a" 
Hezbollah; and pro-Saudi regime: 14 march, headed by the "Sunni" oligarch Hariri. 
Religious sectarianism is very strong in Lebanon, and local sectarian elites enjoyed 
undisputed influence over the masses for long time, till nowadays. This sectarianism was 
responsible for several eruptions of civil violence among different sects since 1860. In 
1860, local Durzi landlords used sectarianism to mobilize their peasants against the 
revolting Maronite peasants, who were double exploited by those landlords; this ended in 
wide massacres against Christians, some targeted Muslims or Druzes themselves; that 
reached more tolerable cities like Damascus, under the patronage of the ruling Ottomans.

Western powers soon intervened "to protect" local Christians, the result was "great 
Lebanon" autonomous region under the direct rule of a Maronite landlord with nominal 
attachment to the Ottoman government. This tradition, and tension, continued under French 
mandate 1920 - 1946, and the "government" of independence that created the formula of 
dividing the three positions of presidencies among the three major sects: the president of 
the republic to be a Maronite, of the government a Sunni, and a shii'a for the parliament. 
The Muslim part of elite felt marginalized and sought more representation and influence, 
that was at the root of 1958 minor civil war, and the later devastating one in 1975 - 
1990. That war was ended by a mutual agreement between US administration and Assad' 
regime, to re-unite the country under the sole influence of Assad.. Despite prosecution of 
some christian sectarian leaders by the new regime, local elite became very soon 
accustomed to the rules of Assad, the new master; and shared the fruits of the new regime 
with senior Assad government and security officers. This lasted till 2005. A dispute 
between prime minister Hariri and the young dictator of Damascus, Bashar Al Assad; ended
in the assassination of the first.

Under the shock of the incident, big numbers of Sunnis and Christians took to the streets, 
it was the first serious challenge of Assad grip in decades. The angry elite, feeling 
strong enough due to the wide popular anger against Syrian military presence, and to the 
foreign support from western and arabian or presian gulf governments managed to force 
Assad out of Lebanon. Pro-Assad local agents, especially Hezbollah: that was a double 
Iranian -Syrian local agent which was invented by both to resist Israeli aggression at 
first then as the most useful card in the tense and difficult relations with Israel and 
US; felt threatened by these developments, and started to fight for more influence in the 
government. The country entered in a long cold sectarian war between the two camps, which 
was about to became violent in several occasions. The government was tactfully divided 
between the two competing camps with all the privileges assigned to it. But the escalating 
conflict within the ruling elite combined with the greed of this elite had very bad 
consequences on the old exhausting infrastructure of the country. Crises ensued. The 
chronic problem of low wages of government' employees mobilized them in a series of 
actions and minor strikes. The last crisis one was that of removing the garbage from the 
streets.

The old contract with the company that was doing the business for 20 years expired. As 
this company was owned by Hariri, the renewal of the contract was an opportunity to 
re-divide the profits. Hariri refused. And piles of garbage filled the streets of Lebanon. 
Activists decided to react, they took to the streets. Their first protest was harshly 
suppressed by government police, but this repression didn't stop the protest but turned it 
into a real movement and gave it more strength and popularity. Activists managed to keep
the pace of their movement and keep it away from competing sectarian camps of the elite,
which gave them more credibility among the people from all sects. In the protest of 16 th 
of september, police repression was very brutal. That attack was combined with a fierce 
attack by the strong propaganda machine of the elite against the protest movement. All 
that succeeded in one thing only: push the activists to more radical stand. Activists 
decided to defy the government in the streets in a big demonstration today, 20 th of 
September. Despite the reformist demands of their last statement they ended it with more 
radical slogan: Power, state, and wealth for the people.

The majority of the activists came from middle class, and most of them were active in 
local NGO's for some time. This imitates the situation everywhere in middle east. The 
activists who were engaged in the protest movements that reached its peak in Arab spring'
uprisings, were middle class, either in their class identity or political and social 
thinking. This fact set the frame of Arab spring' revolutions. The prevailing liberal ( 
even neo-liberal sometimes: right - wing "libertarianism" ) politics of the core part of 
the activists was due to this fact. That does'n't mean that lower classes didn't 
participate. But those who represent the widest current in the movement or claimed its 
leadership or representation were mainly middle class. That was seen also in Tiananmen 
square protests - 1989, when students claimed the leadership of the movement and asked 
workers to follow. Even in the Lebanese movement there were tensions between middle class 
activists ( leaders ) and those who came from poor neighborhoods. That doesn't mean to 
underestimate the potential or the libertarianism of middle class activists, especially 
the youngest ones and the students; but this is very important to understand their limits 
too. On the other side:

Lower classes, less represented, under-educated, politically inexperienced and 
disorganized; ended in supporting Islamists, especially Salafists, who were very active in 
poor neighborhoods since long time, since neo-liberal official policies meant to leave 
these neighborhoods to their own fate and misery. Salafists, properly financed by their 
masters in local social elite or by their Saudi counterparts, offered significant help to 
alleviate the misery of the poorest, and with it they indoctrinated them with their rigid 
teachings; turning these neighborhoods into their strongholds. Salfists themselves were 
later divided between the ISIS' insurrectionists and "salvage army" - like moderates who 
cooperated with the state and its repressive agencies ( today, Salafists constitute an 
important part of the pro- SISI camp in Egypt; in Lebanon they were divided between some 
militant groups and the pro-Hariri imams and scholars ).

Considering its reformist agenda ( fighting corruption ) and its class content, one can 
soon feel skepticism about the future of escalating protest movement in Lebanon. But there 
is something different here that might lead to different results: more radicalization of 
the movement maybe. When analyzing 1848's revolutions, Anarchist George Woodcock noticed 
that there were two types of 1848´ revolutions: the majority which took place against very 
repressive and authoritarian regimes, and the french type which was more proletarian and 
class conscious.

The bourgeoisie was already ruling in France. So the revolt was not only to strengthen its 
control over the state, working class opted to defy it, as Parisian workers did in July 
uprising. In Lebanon, the ruling elite practices its hegemony through representative 
democracy. In contrast to their neighbors, Lebanese people are used to elections, high 
degree of freedom of expression, compared to what their neighbors enjoy. This could have a 
double effect: that any real change imposed from bellow must go beyond such basic 
"liberties", or it could be used by the propaganda machine of the Establishment to 
convince people of the "benefits" of the prevailing system, despite its rotten corruption. 
The marginalized in Lebanon were trying to fight back against the system since long time. 
As their situation became more desperate they started to mobilize. But to little effect 
till now. The majority of workers work in government' departments. They are ill-paid. They 
supported the initiatives of the independent Syndicalist cooperating commission to 
increase their wages, but could get only minor increases. Government was always successful 
in containing such struggles and forcing people to retreat. The coming demonstration ( 
today ) could break this successful record.

But then, to where?. Personally, which could be very untrue, I think that the fate of 
recent protest wave depends on initiating the self-action and self-organization of lower 
classes, especially workers and unemployed. This only can be the base for a more radical 
and libertarian alternative to the status quo. Could this happen? If Arab spring could be 
considered as 1848 or 1905 type of revolutions, their main lesson or experience should be 
masses' self-organization during the first days of the uprisings, when police forces 
withdrew or were defeated in the street battles against young protesters. Then, masses 
occupied, organized and protected the whole social space by themselves, through grassroot 
organs ( what was called popular committees, later these were called coordinating 
committees in the first popular period of the Syrian revolution ). Highlighting those 
experiences and building on them, as I think, could decide the outcome of the ongoing 
protests in Lebanon, and tomorrow's ones everywhere


https://mazenkamalmaz.wordpress.com/2015/09/20/on-the-current-protests-in-lebanon-when-spring-comes-late-would-it-achieve-more/