Solidarity with the people of Lebanon

In October 2019, the Lebanese people took to the streets to express their exasperation at the corruption, the bankruptcy of a state incapable of providing them with basic services such as water, electricity, public transport and good public education. They also expressed their rejection of the austerity measures proposed by Hariri, which obviously hit the poorest. This massive and inter-community movement lasted for months until the Covid-19 crisis and the lockdown dramatically worsened the situation of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese people just managing to survive thanks to precarious odd jobs.

The explosion of thousands of tonnes of material stored for years in the port of Beirut on 4 August, killing more than 100 people and destroying a large part of the city, hit a population already stretched to the limit.

Since then, the IMF, the major powers and Emmanuel Macron have been lining up behind the microphones to offer aid on condition of a change in the political system, which France itself put in place at the end of the mandate. Without a word about the requisition of the colossal fortunes accumulated through corruption by leaders they have always supported, that are hidden with their complicity in Swiss, French or other banks. Not a word either about the hundreds of thousands of refugees, Syrians, Palestinians that Lebanon is hosting on its tiny territory.

Faced with an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in Lebanon, the IMF and Emmanuel Macron, are setting conditions for aid that should be spontaneous and massive, and the USA is even seeking to impose the presence of Israel, the country that regularly attacks, bombs and massacres in Lebanon, in this reconstruction.

The USA, Saudi Arabia and, on a smaller level, France, want first to get rid of a governmental coalition that includes Hezbollah, in their geopolitical war against Iran.

No, the accomplices in the theft of Lebanon’s wealth cannot dictate their conditions.

No, Lebanon is no longer a colony or a pawn in a political and economic war in the Middle East.

Solidarity in the face of this disaster must be massive, and the Lebanese will decide their own future when they have bread and a roof over their heads again.

The NPA stands alongside the Lebanese left, which is fully mobilized against the confessional system and against the manoeuvres of the great Western powers to put Lebanon under guardianship.

10 August 2020