Communist Students Supplement

Young activists waiting for long to see the LCP, the Arab nation saved

Following is an abridged version of the text of the speech that Dania El-Khishen delivered on behalf of Communist Students during the Dilb Conference last November. The conference saw the participation of communist opposition figures known as the Forces of Democracy and Reform, independent leftist groups and Communist Groups.

“We waited for so long, we speared no effort. We waited because we believed that dialogue within the Lebanese Communist Party (LCP) would achieve its goals.

But after all that time, the date of the Ninth National Congress -- organized with the aim to split the party through preliminary conferences where fraud prevailed -- neared. Those conferences do no reflect the aspirations of communists. The sole aim of these pseudo elections is to vertically divide the party.

We reached a state where we are far from where the Lebanese society is. We also found out that many of the issues we were debating were taboo issues.

We decided to bare the full responsibility of our beliefs. We still believe in the possibility of reaching a democratic pluralist party, which will modernize the political ideology and practice.

We believe in an exceptional party on the international and Arab levels, a party that would overcome the shock of the fall of the Soviet Union, the shock that today is the excuse for the situation of the LCP.

The situation today doesn’t permit any delays. The whole region is on the verge of a new war to set up a new British-American Sikes-Picot, which would go along with the neo-liberal policies.

Despite our support of the anti-war coalition, we were told that the war was imminent. The situation we are living is due to the dictatorship of Arab regimes, to the absence of the most basic democratic practices.

We cannot tolerate this situation in the name of the Arab-Israeli conflict or the unity of the Arab stance.

Internally, we as Lebanese youth and more specifically as leftists experienced a war that most of us endured without taking part in.

Several moral and material obstacles prevent us today from building a country on the principles of liberty, equity and sovereignty. We want a country where a genuine national reconciliation and dialogue contributes to the building of a secular and democratic state rather than a state of oppression and intelligence services.

This said, it remains our responsibility as secular forces to spearhead the revival of this political platform through assemblies for youth debates that would be held in all Lebanese areas.

It is not true that we are minority groups unable to influence the majority of the Lebanese public opinion.

We participated in the demonstration that linked the political and economic reforms to the issue of national sovereignty.

We participated in the sit-in that lasted for more than a month where we called on the Arab so called ‘resisting’ regimes and leading the Arab-Israeli conflict to stop “auctioning over” the Palestinian people and its democratically elected leadership, an exceptional occurrence in the Arab world.

Finally, yesterday’s demonstration at the museum (to protest the war on Iraq as part of the No War, No Dictatorship campaign) clearly marked our divergence from those who would accept dictatorships under the pretext of facing American pressures, better described in this part of the world as ‘winds.’ We rather adhered to the motto ‘No War, No Dictatorships”.

Finally, in this convention, in addition to young party members or the ones who were expelled or even those whose memberships were refused for unknown reasons, are individuals who came participate or to observe the proceedings of our meeting.

Either they will leave here and forget all what was said or we come out together with them to the street to raise the issues we were neglecting for over twelve years.