Thirty thousand people have been killed to date in the carnage that is Lebanon's civil war, and the city of Beirut is beginning to give way under the strain.
Even the city's life support systems have ceased to function. There is no electricity in Beirut today and no water supply. Drinking water is being sold for about 70 pence a litre. Garbage is dumped on the streets, and if it is burned it continues to smoulder, fouling the air. The city is alive with rats, pests of all kinds and cockroaches, and there are rumours to the effect that the first hushed up cases of typhoid and cholera have been confirmed.
Tel Al Zaatar, a Palestinian refugee camp with 12,000 inhabitants, and scene of the heaviest fighting over anywhere between 1,000 and 3,000 shells and rockets daily. The Beirut river is said to be choked with Palestinian corpses from the Tel Al Zaatar and Jist Al Pasha refugee In the early months of the civil war, ceasefires were announced with boring regularity by Lebanese parliamentary politicians. This procedure was more or less terminated in January, when the Syrians took over completely the job of sponsoring ceasefires.
VICTORY Faced with the strong possibility of a joint Palestinian-Lebanese left victory over the Christian right-wing forces, leading to a shift in the relationship of forces throughout the whole Middle East, which could have damaged Syria's chances of negotiating a settlement with Israel over Golan, the Syrian regime opted for a policy of curbing the Palestinian and left forces in Lebanon.
Between January and May the Syrians developed from a policy of negotiating useless ceasefires, to applying diplomatic pressure on the left, to blockading arms and supplies going to the left, to open political ians and members of the Saiqa these measures forced the Syrian volatile card.
rality to the wind - sent several up to around 25,000, including cars.
CHARADE ance from the Lebanese left and halt. The game of arranging ceaseArab League.
patch an all Arab 'peacekeeping Arab League.
Minister, Abdul Salam Jalloud, was forging ahead with a Libyan support for the Christian right, and finally to infiltrating Syrian troops into Lebanon disguised as Palestinorganisation. The failure of all of regime to play its final and most On 1 June, the Syrian regime were taken fortified with the blessings of both American imperialism and Zionism, and throwing all pretence of neutarmoured columns into Lebanon from the North and East. With this invasion the total of Syrian-controlled forces in Lebanon was brought several hundred tanks and armoured But unexpectedly fierce resistthe Palestinian movement brought the Syrian advance to a temporary fires and marking time now develved on the venerable governments of the On the morning of 10 June, a meeting of the Arab League in Cairo decided to call a ceasefire and desforce to supervise it. The force was to be made up from contingents from Syria, Libya, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and the Palestine Liberation Organisation. But the arrival of the Arab League contingents was delayed as a result of the refusal of President Franjieh and the Christian right-wing forces to accept the decisions of the Meanwhile the Libyan Prime Dement me arao seamue decisios Finally, on 22 June, the Arab League forces entered Beirut composed of soldiers and a 'token' Libyan force in the words of The Arab world was now treated replacing Syrian soldiers, painting white stripes on their helmets, and hastily stenciling in on their vehicles new Arab League 'peace' markings!!
As if the underline the impotence of this charade, the private reactionary Minister of Foreign Affairs) launched bombardment of the entire war on 23 June on the two encircled Palestinian refugee camps of Tal Al Zaatar and Jisr Al Pasha, just outside Beirut. It is as a result of this attack that all electrical and water supplies to Beirut have been cut off. The left and the resistance responded defensively, threatening to unleash all-out war if either of the two camps Reports late last week confirmed that Jisr Al Pasha or parts of it have fallen to the right-wing forces. The left is hard pressed and it is clear that both the Syrians and the rightwing forces have taken their toll during such that it is very difficult - if the last four weeks of fighting.
It should be pointed out that the Syrians have so far avoided waging an all-out war themselves on the left and the Palestinians. They obviously prefer to leave this to the Lebanese right, which is benefiting from the fact that the very presence of Syrian troops severely curtails the ability of the left forces both to defend themselves and even more to regain the military initiative.
The situation remains loaded with possibilities. On the one hand, the Syrian intervention against the Palestinians has had its repercussions on the internal situation in Syria, with reports coming in of arrests and deep discontent even within the ruling Baathist apparatus. This increasing destabilisation of the Assad regime makes it much harder for the Syrians to launch an all-out war against the Palestinians. PROVOCATION It is apparent that Assad, through agreeing to the presence in Lebanon of a force nominally linked to the Arab League, is now trying to give an all-Arab 'peacemaking character to me van uitervendon. Assad prefers to act in the name of the whole of the Arab bourgeoisie in Lebanon, rather than solely in the Arab workers and students march in London against the Syrian invasior name of the Syrian bourgeoisie. To what extent he will succeed in this On the other hand, the assault of the Christian right on Tal Al Zaatar and Jisr Al Pasha is clearly a provoca tion aimed at compelling the Syrians to finish off quickly what they had set themselves to do - i.e. the destruction of the Palestinian resistance movement. The fall of these camps will constitute an important moral victory for the right. But the overall military situation remains not impossible - for the right wing singlehandedly to defeat the left and the Palestinians throughout Lebanon HISTORIC There remains one fundamental thing of which every revolutionary must be aware. Despite the political backwardness of the Palestinian resistance movement and the majority of the Lebanese left, their decisive defeat on the battlefield will constitute a historic defeat for the Arab revolution. It will set back for a long period of time all the gains made by the Arab revolution since the wave of radicalisation set in motion after the June 1967 war.
Their defeat will automatically be a defeat for the struggle of the Arab masses in the West Bank and Israel' against Israeli occupation. It will also be a defeat for the current ly rising wave of combativity of the Egyptian working class. A black period of total abject reaction threatens to set in on the whole of the Arab world.
Solidarity with the Palestinian Resistance and the Lebanese left! A war to the finish with reaction in Lebanon!
Syrian soldiers and workers: turn your guns the other way!
ARAB WORKERS UNION
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