Syrian–Lebanese Communist Party

Syrian–Lebanese Communist Party
الحزب الشيوعي السوري اللبناني
Parti communiste de la Syrie et du Liban
Leader Khalid Bakdash
Founded 1924
Dissolved 1964
Succeeded by Syrian Communist Party and the Lebanese Communist Party
Ideology Communism,
Marxism–Leninism
Political position Left-wing
International affiliation Communist International
Colours Red and Yellow

Syrian–Lebanese Communist Party (Arabic: الحزب الشيوعي السوري اللبناني, Al-Ḥizb Al-Shuyū'ī Al-Sūrī Al-Lubnānī; French: Parti communiste de la Syrie et du Liban), a communist political party operating in Syria and Lebanon founded in 1924 by the Lebanese Egyptian Fu'ad al-Shimali, the Lebanese Yusuf Yazbek and the Armenian Artin Madoyan.[1] Its general secretary was Khalid Bakdash. It was the second communist party to be formed in the Levant, after the Communist Party of Palestine, but it was the first to be largely Arab, as the Palestinian party initially drew largely from the Jewish community.[2]

In its earliest years, the party supported the Syrian Revolt of 1925, but was quickly repressed, and could only begin building in earnest after party leaders were released from prison in 1928. The party was represented at the 6th Congress of the Communist International in 1928 by Fu'ad al-Shimali. It was also in 1928 that the party, despite operating in what is now both Syria and Lebanon, adopted the name "Communist Party of Syria ("Al-Hizb Al-Shiouy'ie al-Suri"), reflecting its commitment to Syrian unity and rejection of the division of the historic region under colonial mandates.[3] However, it later reverted to its original name. Under the French Mandate it was an underground organization, then legalized in 19361939 by the French Front Populaire government, and again in 1941. The party took a new option of collaboration with the nationalist movement and playing down its socialist themes in 1936, in accordance with the 7th Congress of the Communist International in 1935.[1]

Later the party was divided into the Syrian Communist Party and the Lebanese Communist Party, but the decision, taken at the end of 1943, was only implemented in 1964. In between, common central committee and political bureau were maintained.[1]

Sources

  1. 1 2 3 Claude Palazzoli, La Syrie - Le rêve et la rupture, Paris, Le Sycomore, 1977 ISBN 2-86262-002-5
  2. Ismael, Tareq. The Communist Movement in Syria and Lebanon. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1998. Print. 21.
  3. Ismael, Tareq. The Communist Movement in Syria and Lebanon. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1998. Print. 15.
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