Arab Socialist Action Party – Lebanon

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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
National affiliationLNRF
International affiliationArab Socialist Action Party

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[edit]

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]

The ASAP–L in the Lebanese Civil War[edit]

The ASAP–L was a member of the Lebanese National Resistance Front during the Lebanese Civil War.[4] In 1976, the party confiscated the estates of the Shia za'im Kazem al-Khalil at a village near Tyre. The purpose of the confiscation was to turn the estates into a collective; but the SAAP soon lost control of the estates in 1982 with the Israeli invasion.[3]

The party's leader Hussein Hamdan took part in the founding of the Lebanese National Resistance Front, along with George Hawi of the Lebanese Communist Party and Mohsen Ibrahim of the Communist Action Organization.[5]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  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.