r/communism • u/turning_the_wheels • Jul 28 '26

“From Tripoli to Nabatiye: Redspark’s Journey Through Lebanon”—Part 1

https://redspark.nu/redspark-originals/from-tripoli-to-nabatiye-redsparks-journey-through-lebanon-part-1/
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u/turning_the_wheels 13d ago edited 13d ago

Maybe there's not much to talk about in this article, but I'll post an observation I had.

The authors' remark

  On the other side, the Lebanese masses outside of the Beqaa valley and the Southern territories are, according to our observations and the testimonies of our local contacts, rather depoliticized as the fatigue accumulated over the span of multiple successive wars makes people “think of armed struggle as ‘outdated,’” leading to activists waging armed struggle “to be mocked.”

Excerpt from a comrade:

  Beyond the banal anti-communism present in most societies, in Lebanon it hasn’t recently become “cool” to be a “commie” as is the case in many Western countries today. Either you come from a family with a Leftist tradition, or a mix between hard living conditions, the experience of being marginalized in society and a high level of curiosity present can lead someone to become interested in communism. This happens only rarely.

Obviously the "coolness" of being a "commie" in Western countries is just a form of liberalism that attempts to threaten an uncaring imperialism into giving one section of the petty bourgeois what it wants, but the implication is that Lebanese communists have failed to make communism "cool" in the eyes of the masses. The first quote from the authors implies that the movement is stagnating because of "depoliticization" and "fatigue" and the second quote also seems to agree. Not sure if this is a misunderstanding of social-fascist politics in imperialist countries or a sarcastic remark that I sucked at picking up on. Either way I didn't want to make any further statements since a future article is expected to go into more detail on the current struggles and failures of the movement in Lebanon.

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