Democratic Left Movement

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Democratic Left Movement ( French Mouvement de la gauche démocratique au Liban , abbreviation MDG , Arabic حركة اليسار الديمقراطي, DMG Ḥarakat al-Yasār ad-Dīmuqrāṭī , abbreviation HYD ) is a political party founded in Lebanon in September 2004 .

Ideological profile

The Democratic Left Movement advocates a social democracy in Europe a style and the gap will close between rich and poor, without interfering with the freedom or economic productivity. However, the party enables the existence of different currents with different views and platforms. In this respect, the ideology of the Democratic Left Movement is broad and based on a common denominator from all those involved.

The Left Democratic Movement is one of the few parties in Lebanon that advocates a secular state. However, the movement takes the pragmatic view that Lebanon should gradually overturn the sectarian system rather than implement a single radical change.

The party took an active part in the Cedar Revolution , which culminated on March 14, 2005, when over a million demonstrators came together to end Syrian hegemony over Lebanon . During these protests, the movement also spoke out against racism and chauvinism .

structure

The Democratic Left Movement is the only political party in Lebanon that enables different currents and decentralization within the movement.

The general assembly of the party elects a national committee on the basis of proportional representation, with each current drawing up a list. The general assembly decides on the political priorities, alliances and elects an executive office for decisions on the following daily political issues.

Regional and technical committees are also elected, but these have relative autonomy and are not controlled by the executive office or the party assembly.

formation

The movement was formed from intellectuals who had previously split from the Lebanese Communist Party (LCP) and left student groups. The founders had made some critical statements about the Syrian presence in Lebanon and called for the creation of a new left and called an assembly in which a founding committee was elected.

history

During the late 1980s, one was the Syrian regime wave of attacks set in motion, which, among others Hussein Mroue and Mahdi Amel fell victim. This wave coincided with the collapse of the left's main supporter in Lebanon, the Soviet Union .

The Syrian presence in Lebanon created a dilemma among the leading left . Should the left adapt to this presence in order to fend off the danger from outside or should democracy be sought first as a means of liberating the Arabs and as a key to warding off danger, whether from outside or inside?

The division of the left survives to this day and has fallen under various developments since its inception. The first and most important development was the resignation of George Hawi , the leader of the Lebanese Communist Party (LCP) in 1992. Hawi is quoted as saying that it is better to "get off the ship before it goes down" , thus taking on the collapse of the Soviet Union Reference.

Various voices among the communists then began to call for the rejection of the Soviet model and a renewal of the party as a spearhead in the struggle for Lebanon's sovereignty and independence.

The first break of the left came when communist students formed so-called Independent Left groups. These achieved an initial success, which aroused opposing groups in the Lebanese Communist Party, which in turn opposed the leadership and began to demand a renewal of structure, ideology and external appearance.

At that point, the gap between the party leadership and left-wing intellectuals widened. The party's leadership excluded some student members in an attempt to silence opposition voices within the party.

The excluded students were determined to implement their different ideas and now founded the Communist Student Organization, causing further rifts within the Communist Party.

The divisions within the Lebanese Communist Party peaked during the 9th General Assembly, when quasi- Stalinists made their way to the top of the party, but these elections showed democratic flaws.

The opposition groups in the Communist Party left it and, together with other left intellectuals and the Independent Left groups, formed the Democratic Left Movement.

Assassinations

On June 2, 2005, Samir Kassir , a well-known Lebanese journalist and one of the founders of the movement, was assassinated . Less than a month later, on June 21, 2005, George Hawi, the former general secretary of the Lebanese Communist Party, died in a car bomb attack in Beirut . The movement accuses Damascus and the government of President Bashar al-Assad and their intermediaries in the Lebanese security apparatus of being responsible for the killings.

elections

In Lebanon's penultimate parliamentary elections in 2005 , the left-wing movement won a seat in the National Assembly as a member of the March 14 anti-Syrian Alliance and became the first left-wing party to ever be represented in parliament.

Web link