Communist Students Supplement

LCP’s officials expelled themselves

by Omar Harqous

I joined the Lebanese Communist Party (LCP) in 1983. Until 1987 I was an active and militant member especially on the student level.

After 1987, I continued my student activism within the rank and file of some of the Regional Branches of the party. Until 1998, the date of the LCP’s Eighth National Conference, I served on the party’s Student Bureau.

After that date, I continued activism within the party’s rank and file until I was expelled and joined Communist Students in 2000.

I cannot deny my emotional attachment to the party. My expulsion had a tremendous impact on me. It caused me and internal conflict despite being sure that the true Communist Party, the true left, all of them, maintained contacts with me and were even willing to debate and sponsor joint activities with me.

On the first day of my expulsion, I felt sick and was trying to control myself as much as I could especially when I was with some of the comrades.

My attachment to the party is unique and personal. The attachment of comrade Kanj Hamadeh, for instance, came out of his ideological and political beliefs.

As for me, I was born to a communist family. I was there with the martyrs and the detainees. I was there during the worst of times.

All this came back to me at the moment of my expulsion.

What relieved me, however, was my true conviction of my political track, truly convinced of democracy within the party. Expulsion did not terminate my LCP membership. On the contrary, it expelled the LCP officials from society and the country.

Modernizing the party is costly and this is the price to pay. There is no choice but to stand still facing such a dogmatic mentality, facing those who think they are still in the era of purge trials.

I still consider myself a member of the party. It is not their decision that will dismiss me. I never doubted myself because I tried every possible solution with them. It is a hopeless situation. With time, the party’s leadership proved that I cannot doubt of myself.