For War in

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ment of workers' and poor 6. Lebanon-the only solupeasants militias, distribu- tion is in working class tion of weapons, and estab- victory. on the masses of workers Syrian intervention in The Israeli threat against Tel-a-Za'atar massacre and oppression, has reached a blind alley ' until now, and won't win any political gain even if winning in the military sense.

The Syrian forces entered Lebanon in 1976 in order to prevent a revolutionary victory of the Palestinian and Left militias in the civil war. It was the Syrian forces which saved the Phalangists from being totally crushed at that time.

This was a continuation of President Assad's policy of ousting the left wing of the Ba'ath Arab nationalist party in 1970 and improving his relations with imperial ism.

But the Assad regime, in the name of the Syrian bourgeoisie, tried to play a double game and to preserve a certain independence for its country, while relying upon military and political support from the Soviet Union.

Pressures

After the evolution danger in Lebanon had. passed, imperialism and Israel turned to further. pressures on the Syrian bourgeoisie. Israel encouraged the Phalangists to attack the Syrian soldiers in Lebanon, and inside Syria the "Moslem Brotherhood" organisation opened a terror campaign against the regime.

Assad rose to power boy means of a coup against the™ Ba'ath left wing after the latter refrained from defending the Palestinians against the killer Hussein in ber 1970.

Now he fears his own fall to a right wing coup, if he is defeated by Israel Lebanon.

Repression

' But the Assad regime, which until now, has relied more and more upon internal repression, cannot pose the real answer to the Israeli and imperialist attack on Syria and Lebanon.

This answer can be given only by the Syrian, Pales tinian and Lebanese massesin alliance for revolutionary defènce through a general moblisation, int estauusi _-liliandin tha antaklichlishing a government based and poor peasants.

Syria was made possible by Syria's isolation in the Arab East. This is a result of the strengthening of the oil bourgeoisies, from SaudiArabia to Iraq, wher are now pursuins an open pro imperialist policy.

Only now have the oil states withdrawn their support to the maintenance of the Syrian army in Lebanon, after at first supporting its entry into Lebanon against the Left and the Palestinians.

Swift reaction.:

But an overall: Israeli attack on Syria will bring a swift reaction among the Arab masses in the whole region. The Arab regimes can in such a case try and avoid 'the masses' anger by antiIsraeli and anti-imperialist demagogy, and even by a limited action.

The foundations of the position of imperialism, in the region, apparently strengthened much in the oil decade, rest on sand under which the proletarian revoluis moving.

Any attempt by imperialism to change the equilibrium in its favour will bring the reaction of the masses in Syria, Lebanon and in the whole Arab East.

Five years after the Lebanon, five years after the the defeat of the revolution in this country, Lebanon has still not approached its reconstruction as a bourgeois state.

The unceasing bloodbath in this country is the bitter fruit of the legacy of French imperialism. The state constitution rests on a sectarian and undemocratic basis, guaranteeing the supremacy of the . Maronite minority in the government.

Today, the Phalangist fascist remnants of what was left of the supremacy of the Maronite bankers, try to establish a Christian ghetto in which they will continue their rule.

They are realising this policy by means of forceusing terror and murder against the majority of Chris. tians. They cannot continue this without Israel pouring endless weapons and "support" onto the fire.

Nor has the Syrian plan for the reconstruction of the bourgeois state in Lebanon by agreement between fragments .of the feudal bourgeoisie in Lebanon advanced very far.

The Lebanese bourgeoisie is torn between the sects and the feudal families. Now, when the inter-sectarian balance is disrupted,. the bourgeoisie can reach only temporary "cease fires"

The bourgeoisie cannot pose any new elements on a democtatic basis for its rule, on the basis of general and local elections for a constit sent sat is also incapable -of stabilising a national army or ruling through a militarypolice dictatorship, like the other bourgeoisies of the region.

Economically, the Lebanese bourgeoisie had existed as a co-ordinating financial centre between the West and the gulf states-but it lost this role due to the civil war on the one hand, and the development of the gulf states, on the other.

Lebanon and the whole region have paid a high price for the failure of the revolution of the workers and poor peasants in 1976. Only a revolutionary victory can save the masses in Lebanon from continuing to be the scapegoats. for all the regional conticts.

Only a working class regime in Lebanon will be able to convene a democratic constituent assembly and to abolish the sectarian structure which has bred all the civil wars...

Only a unity of the workers and the poor peasants, on the basis of their class interests for the sharing of lands, for workers' control in the factories and the economy, can pose a way forward, to unite the masses in Lebanon on a non-sectarian basis and establish new,. socialist foundations for the country's economy.

7. The immediate taskmobile in line the are the Jewish masses for a new war on the one hand, and the fear of the reaction of the Syrian and Lebanese masses and the Palestinian masses in Lebanon, in the region under Israeli rule on the other hand-all these are causing Begin and Us imperialism to postpone the war. This war can still be prevented if we make it clear for its inítiators that the political price they will have to pay for it will be high.

The way to prevent the war here is to open the broadest struggle, under one slogan:

*No to the wai provocation of Begin's government!

Mobilise But this will not suffice. The masses of workers and inhabitants of the poor neighbourhoods should prepare themselves to mobilise against the very regime which initiated all the wars and is preparing another disaster.

Independent •working class organisation, the alliance between Arab and Jewish workers-this is the only way to mobilise against the system which has led to wars.

Working class unity will pose the plan which will prevent imperialism in future from using the Jewish masses for war against the peoples of the region.

*Down with ..the • war *Down with: all the parties of the bourgenisie!

*For a government of the Jewish and Arab workers!

*For the full Palestinian national liberation!

*The alliance between the Arab and Jewish workers will remove imperialism and its allies in the region and will establish peace!

*The first task on the way to peace, in order to remove the most immediate danger of war is Israel, Hands Off Lebanon!

15.5.81 NOTES 1) The "Ma'arach" is one the two largest Zionist bourgeois parties in Israel. Although calling itself a "Labour Party" and, affiliating to the Second International, it is the central bourgeois party, having a key role in the formation of the Zionist state.

2) The Land Day'; «was called as a day of mass struggle against mounting expropriation of Arab lands according to the Zionist "Judaisation of -Galitee"

Mass demonstrations were nea au over resis, -11 ... air Datantino involving clashes with the Zionist army, , during which six demonstrators were shot dead. Since then, every March 30 is a day of mass demonstrations and rallies against the expropriations of Arab lands and oppression of the Palestinian people.

3) The "Green Line" is a term used to separate those parts of Palestine which were occupied by the Zionists in 1948 and constitute *the State of Israel" from those parts occupied by Israe) in 1967 (West Bank, Gaza inst and Fatan Heights).