"
This is the case between the Maronite Christian Ain al-Rumaneh district and the Shi’ite Shayyah district. Here some of the bloodiest lines of the Lebanese civil war were written. They are barrios where, in the Christian case the lower middle class predominate and in the Shi’ite case, working class bordering on the impoverished. According to data from the Lebanese General Union of Workers, 54% of the Lebanese population live on the borderline of poverty. The government, as one might expect, plays down this figure and reckons it at 31%. Still a significant figure in any case. However, what the government cannot deny is that the purchasing power of people in
Early in 2006 a completely unprecedented event took place in the Lebanese political situation: the agreement between the (Christian) Free Patriotic Movement and Hizbollah (Shi’ite). Symbolically, the agreement was signed in the street separating Ain al-Rumaneh and Shayaah. Two years later, on February 6th 2008, the agreement’s protagonists, Michel Aoun and Hassan Nasrallah, respectively, have re-enacted the agreement in the same place, reaffirming the validity of what was signed two years ago. An agreement that goes beyond the political context between two groupings that are in so many respects virtual opposites, but which have agreed a minimal programme and which was itself proven during the war against
This link continues today. The alliance between the FPM and Hizbollah is much stronger than many think and it is what is making the Lebanese political situation take on a relevance that transcends the local context to become a point of reference for the region, and even for the whole Arab world.
Economic decline
In
According to data published in the Euromoney magazine,
The above data express what is a daily reality for Lebanese citizens : the cost of living has reached historic highs with rises in basic products (bread, milk, rice, sugar, meat). The country is collapsing under a foreign debt of US$42bn, the situation caused by the US dollar’s weakness and the alarming rises in oil prices, which all mean that the proletarianization of the majority of
In fact, the General Union of Workers has begun to demand an increase in the minimum wage to 950,000 Lebanese pounds (currently it is 300,000 or about 192 Euros) which means a tripling of the current minimum wage, unchanged since 1996. And the GUW, which has 350,000 members and supports the forces of the opposition March 8th group, has threatened a new stage of protests and strikes if their social as well as their economic demands are not met. (4) The GUW opposes the privatization of public services proposed by Siniora (among which figure those of the national electricity company Electricité du Liban; the MEA airline, the airport management company of Beirut’s Rafiq Hariri international airport and the systems of water and water purification, among others) and demand immediate improvements to medical and social services.
While the government, supported by its Arab and Western allies, toughs it out, business people, alert to the gravity of things, have taken a first step and offered an increase in the minimum wage to 375,000 Lebanese pounds (243 Euros), far from what the labour unions are seeking but a significant move that seems to point the way for the paralyzed government. The business classes can see the ears of the wolf and want to slow down, if they cannot stop it, the approaching social explosion.
And in fact the situation really is explosive. Plenty of barrios in
Already wokers’ organizations, like that of the taxi drivers, have carried out blockades of highways in protest at the increase in fuel prices. Nonetheless, those taxi drivers’ protest was not joined by their memebrs in the Sunni district of Hamra, which points to a possible split among workers along political-religious lines. And most recently, on March 17th, workers in the MEA airline company staged a sit-down strike in
The US fleet, NATO and UNIFIL
It is in this context that one should see the presence of the US fleet, headed by the aircraft carrier USS Cole, positioned in international waters off Beirut. It is not just an alert to Syria as some have interpreted it, nor an attempt to distract attention from the Israeli repression in Gaza as others have remarked, but rather a clear attempt to intervene in the internal affairs of Lebanon, a clear armed reinforcement of Siniora’s neoliberal government and a clear intimidation with the threat of military intervention of the popular and patriotic forces opposed to the government. In particular it is a direct threat against Hizbollah after the Secretary General of that political-military movement declared at the funeral of the assassinated Imad Mughniye that if
As Thierry Meissan said recently (6) the
It is surprising to note the attitude of the forces supporting the Siniora government. Not one word of criticism or reproach at the naval deployment and more importantly in a document made public to coincide with March 14th, the name adopted by the coalition in memory of the 2005 demonstrations calling for the departure of Syrian troops, there is no mention of Israel’s responsibility for the war of 2006 nor for the war’s destructive consequences nor the avalanche of refugees it provoked. Nor does it mention the occupation by Israel of the Shebaa Farms despite this being included by the Siniora government, supported by the March 14th coalition, in the 7 point document handed to the UN during the 2006 war as a condition of accepting the cease-fire.(7) A document ratified by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in his last report on Lebanon (8) where as usual he again inclines to the Israeli side and blames Hizbollah and the Palestinian organizations the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-Fatah General Command and Fatah al-Intifada for refusing to disarm.
Precisely in the Shebaa Farms area, Unifil troops carried out a military exercise between March 3rd and 9th. The manoeuvres, described as "training" were carried out in the Aarqoub area and the zone was chosen "to familiarize Unifil troops with the landscape in preparation for whatever contingency in security developments along the Israeli frontier." (9) It is worth remembering that this is not the Israeli frontier but occupied territory
At the same time, continuing from the printed source quoted above, the French contingent did the same in other southern areas like Abbasiyeh, Mari, Ain, Wazzani and the Hamames hills. It is not the first time the French have done something similar : already in August 2007 they carried out similar exercises in the town of
The Lebanese situation is very fragile, but for now the opposition forces are acting with a very cool head. The forces supporting the Siniora government place all their hope in a
One has to remember that the election for a new President has now been postponed 16 times and that the post is vacant since November. The consensus candidate is current army chief Michel Suleiman, a man not at all to the liking of the
The latest proposal to escape this heated impasse, which gets hotter by the day, was rejected by Siniora. It consisted of an equality of Ministers, 10 for each of the March 14th and March 8th factions . Now the reason is becoming clear : the
The presence of the
Notes
(1) The Daily Star, 12 de marzo de 2008.
(2) Alberto Cruz, “La revuelta popular libanesa contra el neoliberalismo” http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=45681
(3) The Daily Star, 12 de marzo de 2008.
(4) The Daily Star, 15 de marzo de 2008.
(5) The Daily Star, 18 de marzo de 2008.
(6) Voltairenet, 10 de marzo de 2008.
(7) Ya Libnan, 14 de marzo de 2008.
(8) Punto 57 del Informe
(9) The Daily Star, 13 de marzo de 2008.
(10) Alberto Cruz, “La ONU en Líbano: el cementerio
(11) Ya Libnan, 18 de marzo de 2008.
(12) The Daily Star, 19 de marzo de 2008.
Alberto Cruz is a journalist, political analyst and writer specializing in international relations – ([email protected]).
Translation copyleft by tortilla con sal
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