[The following account of incidents occurring recently in Lebanon appeared in the December 28 issue of Rouge, French Trotskyist weekly. The translation is by Intercontinental Press.]
In its December 14 issue Rouge published a statement on the Yom Kippur war issued jointly by the comrades of the Lebanese Revolutionary Communist Group and the Israeli Socialist Organization (Matzpen-Marxist). [The text of the statement appears on page 31 of this issue of Intercontinental Press.] These two groups are members of the Fourth International.
This joint declaration was distributed in Arabic in Lebanon during a 15,000-strong demonstration in Beirut protesting the Middle East tour of American Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who had just put into operation his plan for liquidating the Palestinian resistance under the cover of an Arab-Israeli peace plan.
Extremely serious events took place at the demonstration after this joint declaration of Matzpen-Marxist and the RCG was distributed.
At the end of the demonstration, several minutes after our comrades had begun handing out the declaration, some participants jumped on our comrades to attack them. There was an immediate reaction to this, not only among our own comrades, but also among militants of other Palestinian and Arab organizations who came to their assistance.
Militants of various revolutionary and Palestinian leftist organizations drew out their automatic weapons and began firing in the air, thus surprising the assailants, who stopped for a moment before responding by also firing in the air. The confusion added to the panic and scuffling.
One comrade was seriously injured by being kicked; one demonstrator was hit in the face by a shot. Six comrades were arrested, but were released almost immediately thanks to the very vigorous intervention of leftist Palestinian militants opposed to the peaceful solution now being prepared by the Arab bourgeoisies with the tacit agreement of the right wing of the Palestinian resistance.
The initiative in these confrontations was taken by some members of Fateh, or more exactly, of Rasd, Fateh's intelligence and internal police division, and by members of the Democratic Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DPFLP), which has been sliding ever further to the right since September 1970, after having earlier played an eminently positive role in radicalizing in a revolutionary direction the Palestinian left.
The motivation for this ominous act is quite clear. The leaders of Fateh (that is, the leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which was recognized at the Algiers summit meeting of Arab governments as the sole voice of the Palestinians) are increasingly revealing their acceptance of the "peaceful solution" and especially the idea of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and in Gaza. Such a state is one variant among other equally possible plans for liquidating the Palestinian cause as a revolutionary one. The political vanguard of this rearguard battle is none other than the very sad DPFLP, which has literally passed from the far left of the Palestinian movement to the far right.
The DPFLP has even gone so far as to initiate the most brutal action against the opponents of the "peaceful solution." What a turnabout! Those whom the DPFLP is fighting are mainly tendencies in the left wing of Fateh. These left tendencies find themselves in a very critical situation, for they are unable to capitalize on the incontestible support they enjoy from broad masses, and because of this they must on the one hand fight the DPFLP bare-handed and on the other hand struggle against the Fateh leadership and its repressive apparatus, of which Rasd is the central instrument.
The political clarification that is now going on is quite positive, but it entails a heightened risk for leftist currents that oppose the so-called peaceful solution and call it what it is: liquidation of the Palestinian cause. Groups are arising out of Fateh, the DPFLP, and the Arab Liberation Front (the pro-Iraqi-government group) that are after the hides of the oppositionists in order to prevent the crystallization of an opposition that is prepared to denounce their policy of capitulation.
The leaflet that we are reproducing below was distributed by our comrades in the wake of the Beirut incidents. (It is superfluous to add that we are in total agreement with our comrades of the RCG both in their actions and in their positions.) The leaflet explains what happened and once again reiterates the correct positions that must be supported by all partisans of the Palestinian cause and the Arab revolution.
Leaflet Distributed After Beirut Clashes
Regrettable incidents took place yesterday [December 16] at the end of the demonstration against the tour of Kissinger, American imperialism's errand boy for capitulation affairs. Some elements opposed our comrades distributing a joint declaration signed by our organization, the Revolutionary Communist Group, and the Israeli Socialist Organization (Matzpen-Marxist). These people claimed that the leaflet was "Israeli" and used this as a pretext to incite attacks on our comrades. A certain number of militants from various organizations came to the assistance of our comrades and some clashes ensued. We feel it appropriate to make the following points:
1. It is most extremely regrettable that certain groups get excited and fly into a rage just because they see a leaflet bearing an "Israeli" signature. It is extremely regrettable that these groups resort to slogans that are racist in both form and content in order to whip people up against our comrades. Are there still groups today that are ignorant of the existence of revolutionary anti-Zionists within the Israeli state itself? Do they think that anyone who resides inside the borders of the Zionist state, whether Jew or Arab (and by the way, comrades of Matzpen-Marxist include both nationalities) is automatically a Zionist? Are they still wedded to the racist idea that "all Jews are Zionists," an idea that even Fateh itself went beyond several years ago?
Let them read our declaration before getting so excited. It very clearly stresses its support to "the struggle of the Arab peoples against the Zionist state, a colonial phenomenon, the No. 1 bastion of imperialism in the Arab East." And it unambiguously defends "the national cause of the Palestinian Arab people, that is, its right to return to the territory from which it was expelled and to live free of any form of national oppression, which necessarily implies destruction of the Zionist state." We affirm that the attitude of our comrades of Matzpen-Marxist corresponds a thousand times more to the interests of the Arab revolution than that of the champions of racist excitation. And we ask ourselves what these people can mean by a "democratic" Palestinian state when they are incapable of respecting the freedom of expression of revolutionary anti-Zionists, whether Arabs or Jews.
What's more, we observe with real astonishment that the "most ardent nationalists" who incite people against our comrades are the very ones who are ready to accept solutions that liquidate the Palestinian Arab cause.
These positions are shameful!
2. Apart from what some people may have erroneously believed about our declaration (and the responsibility for their myopia lies with the leaders in charge of their education), we want to point out that certain groups used the distribution of our leaflet as a pretext to disrupt the demonstration, and their action seems to have been premeditated. We cannot but make a connection between what happened during yesterday's demonstration and the provocations committed, during the conference held at the Arab University of Beirut, against the representative of a tendency that rejects the liquidationist solutions. Certain circles want to impose their opinions by force of arms, arms that in this case are only an extension of the arms of the capitulationist Arab regimes.
We protest in the staunchest way these brutal acts against the most elementary democratic principles and against the attempts of certain groups to follow our comrades and arrest them.
These repressive acts will not scare us off. We affirm our resolve to continue pressing our line and to put it forward before the broadest masses. In doing this, we will be no less courageous than our comrades who dare to raise their voices in solidarity with the Arab peoples in the very heart of the Zionist state and against its repressive apparatus. The voice of revolutionary Marxists penetrates all repression.
We extend on this occasion our thanks to all the patriotic Palestinian and Lebanese groups who intervened to defend our comrades, and we invite them to raise their voices in protest against this incident and against all attacks on democratic rights within the national liberation movement.
Let us oppose the repressive acts of the champions of racism and capitulation!
Let us oppose the plans to liquidate the Palestinian cause and the Arab revolution!
For a common revolutionary struggle of Arab and Jewish workers against imperialism, Zionism, and the Arab bourgeoisies!
Revolutionary Communist Group
December 17, 1973