Imperialist hands off Lebanon!
A ceasefire accord was announced in Beirut on September 25. As we go to press, it is not yet clear whether it is going to hold, even temporarily.
In military terms, the accord confirms the defeat of the Phalangists at the hands of the Shi'ite militia, Amal, in the southern suburbs of Beirut and at the hands of
Only imperialist intervention saved the Gemayel regime from total defeat. The the Druze forces in the Chouf mountains.
basic facts thus remain unchanged:
Livio MAITAN
Once again Lebanon has been thrown into turmoil by military clashes arising out of a combination of communal and international conflicts.
the imperialists are determined to prop up
Gemayel militarily and will have to continue to do so.
The rebuilt Lebanese army and the Christian Phalangist militias are locked in combat with Walid Joumblatt's Druze forces in the Chouf mountains and with the Shi'ite militia, Amal, in Beirut.
At the same time, the U.S. is making
For the first time since the end of the Vietnam war, the U.S. army, the No. 1 imperialist army in the world, is using its fire power to defend another puppet regime.
In the worst tradition of gunboat diplomacy, the U.S. navy has begun shelling the positions of fighters opposed to the reactionary Phalangist regime of Amin Gemayel in Lebanon, a regime that is obviously remote controlled from Washington.
What is more, the airplanes carried by the U.S. Sixth Fleet are flying over these positions also threatening to ready to land to join the 1,200 U.S. soldiers already lined up alongside Gemayel's troops.
In all these moves, the U.S. has had the active collaboration of the other imperialist powers. The French, Italian, and British soldiers of the Multinational Force sent to back up the Gemayel regime are dividing up the job on the ground with the U.S. soldiers. French and British planes are flying sorties through Lebanese skies, alongside the U.S. airforce.
In this situation, it is an urgent task for anti-imperialist militants throughout the world to mobilize to force the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of imperialist troops from Lebanon.
Imperialist troops out of Lebanon!
At the same time, 2,000 Marines are a show of naval power off the coast of Lebanon and beefing up its military forces on the ground.
For its part, the Zionist government is threatening reprisals against the Druzes and the Syrian government that supports them if in the course of these clashes, they overstep a certain "red line." THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF ACHIEVING
A NATIONAL CONSENSUS
The Zionist aggression in the spring of 1982 led to the establishment of a reactionary regime headed up by Amin Gemayel (who succeeded his assassinated brother, Beshir).
Bureau of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International
22 September 1983
The Gemayel regime was set up in a climate of national consensus. It clearly represented a victory for the imperialists, and at the same time a solution that did not make the reactionary Arab governments unhappy.
The Lebanese bourgeoisie, the bulk of which lined up behind Gemayel, were aiming for the reunification of the coun try after a decade of upheavals, the elimination of all the Palestinian positions, and the withdrawal of all occupation forces. This project fizzled.
Already by the beginning of this year, conflicts had erupted in various regions, putting an end to the national consensus, Which proved to be quite ephemeral. A year after the Israeli invasion, the government of Amin Gemayel controlled no more than the capital city and the adjacent area.
For some weeks now fighting has been raging in Beirut as well. And the international airport that the Lebanese government wanted to make the symbol of its rebuilt power has become the target of bombardment by Druze and Syrian forces and even of ground attacks.
In the Chouf, communal conflicts resumed in an extremely violent form. The northern part of the country also continues to be a powderkeg. It is completely out of the control of the "central government."
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the reactionary Lebanese army. It was here that he was killed in the fighting.
His devotion and courage can be a source of inspiration for all revolution-
In several respects, Lebanon seems to have reverted to a situation comparable to the 1975-76 civil war.
This state of affairs is the result first of all of the fact that after the departure of the PLO forces from Beirut no progress has been made toward solving the Palestinian question for achieving a recomposition of the situation in the region.
A second factor is that the new Lebanese regime has found it impossible to reach a general agreement with the state of Israel, although the Israelis played a decisive role in putting it in power. play an effective role of arbiter in the name of "national unity." rebuild the Lebanese bourgeois state, he relied essentially on the Phalangist apparatus and militia. This inevitably led to growing conflicts with the other forces and to a resumption of communal war-
A final, more immediate factor, was results of the withdrawal of the Israeli troops to the line of the Awali river in southern Lebanon.
This withdrawal was carried out despite pressure from Washington in particular, which regarded it as premature. There were a number of reasons behind it.
First of all, the Zionist government cannot contemplate the occupation of a major part of Lebanese territory for an indefinite period. This could embroil the Israeli forces in a bloody struggle against growing mass resistance and have serious repercussions inside Israel itself.
What is more, the Zionist leaders are not at all unhappy to see the process of de facto partition of the country that is which was further stimulated by the withdrawal of Israeli troops.
It should not be forgotten that the Zionist leaders have never made bones about their schemes for Balkaniz-
In particular, they would like to see the formation of a Druze mini state as a buffer between Israel and
In line with this perspective, on several occasions, there has been a certain connivance between the Israelis and the
Joumblatt, which failed to fire a single shot when the Israelis invaded last year.
More specifically, at the present time Israel may be favorable to a partition that would involve their maintaining their control of southern Lebanon and accepting Syrian control of the Bekaa valley and the northern part of the country.
To be sure, this scheme would not be easy to achieve either, because the imperialist countries do not want to see any reinforcement of the positions of Syria, which remains the Soviet bureaucracy's only ally in the region. standing, the Zionist leadership's policy involves a dynamic leading to the parti-
THE REAL SOCIAL STAKES
AND THE COMMUNAL DIVISIONS
While it is useful to note the similarity with the 1975-76 civil war, it should be kept in mind that the present situation is not exactly the same.
In 1975-76, the Palestinian resistance played a major role, and the general framework was defined by the ArabIsraeli conflict. Nationalist, anti-imperialist, and anti-Zionist aspirations thus had an undeniable weight.
In the present confrontations, Palestinians are only an auxiliary force. Moreover, the old components of the progressive front are divided, and the moment they are not mobilized essentially in support of anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist aspirations.
In other words, in the civil war that is developing today the social and political stakes are being obscured and distorted by communal differences. On the one hand, this is the result of the defeat of the PLO represented by its withdrawal from Lebanon and of the setback for the Lebanese national and workers movement itself. On the other, it is the consequence of the failure of the scheme for reunifying the country on a reactionary basis in the framework of the Gemayel regime.
In this context, centrifugal forces have been growing, and the main element holdcommunal loyalty. And this has a diabolic logic. That is, the various communities draw together for self-defense and survival and become more and ferociously hostile to the other commun-
From this standpoint, Lebanon seems to be falling back into the worst sorts of turmoil that it has experienced in the past century, situations in forces can intervene as "peacemakers"
### OF THE IMPERIALISTS
In fact, external forces are manipulating the communal conflicts, them as well as restraining them. the pretext of "peace making," the imperialists have been intervening increas ingly in support of the "legal" Lebanese government, that is, of the reactionary
The so-called international Interposition Force has been getting involved more and more openly in the fight against Joumblatt's Druzes and militia - despite the fact that neither of these groups has the slightest intention of challenging the basic framework of the neocolonial regime. It has been more and more openly backing the reacitonary government of Amin Ge-
There is a charming harmony among the imperialist family. The British government is sending its Jaguar planes over
The French government is making a display of its Super-Etendard
The Italian contingent is threatU.S. troops have been notably beefed up, and have now been authorized in the words of the White House spokesperson "use the weapons they have, their tanks."
It is this imperialist intervention that is the fundamental problem on which the throughout the world must take a stand and act. And this is the special duty of the workers movement and revolutionarso-called progressive forces of Walid ing various forces together has become
Obituary The Revolutionary Communist Group, Lebanese section of the Fourth International, announces with sorrow the death of Comrade Afif Obeid ("Fahd").
died fighting to defend his village, which was besieged by the Lebanese army and the Phalangist militia.
was the LCR's most experienced cadre in military affairs. He participated in all the stages of the long war against the Lebanese reactionaries and their various allies. He led the participation of the LCR in the resistance to the 1978 Israeli invasion.
Arrested by the Zionist troops during the second invasion in 1982, he was A see he was released, comrade "Fahd conurned to is viage, where he tool
After he was released, comrade part in the fight against the fascist "Lebanese Forces," as well as in activity against the Zionist occupiers.
With the Israelis looking for him again, he was forced to go underground.
Following the retreat of Israeli troops from the Aley region and the Chouf, "Fahd" took part in the defense of his village (near Souk El Gharb) against ists.
Kabr Chmoun, ies in the imperialist countries.
In order for the Lebanese masses to be able to defend their legitimate interreorganize Lebanon democratically on a noncommunalist basis, it is essential to prevent the imperialists from imposing their solution to the con-
What the imperialists want to do is to set up a reactionary regime throughout the country, eliminate the rest of the Palestinian forces, and establish a new framework in the region in accordance with the interests and aspirations of the
To combat these reactionary plans, it is essential to continue to mobilize to demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Zionist troops from all of Lebanon and for the withdrawal of the multinational Interpositon Force. This is an urgent task and a vital part of the more general struggle against all the imperialist war threats.