#YouStink Grows Up To Pose Real Challenge to Lebanese State

Protestors Clashing With Police: Image from AP

Over the past few weeks protesters in Lebanon have reemerged after a short slumber in great numbers, talking over downtown Beirut. “You Stink” protests, which started as result of a “garbage crisis” and government incompetence have been met with extreme repression leading to one death and hundreds of injuries. Bay Area Intifada reached out to a comrade on the ground who has been engaged in the demonstrations. Leyla is a anti-authoritarian queer from Beirut in their early 30’s. The following interview was conducted on Monday August 30th- Tuesday Sept 1st. No changes or edits have been to the text.

Lebanon, August 2015: Notes on Paralysis, Protests, and Hope

Protestors Clashing With Police: Image from AP

by Maya Mikdashi

The past ten years in Lebanon have been a study in political paralysis and escalating anger and frustration among citizens and residents of the country. To recap only the most basic of facts, since 2005 the country divided and polarized into two “camps”—March 14 and March 8, led by the Future Movement and Hezbollah, respectively. In these ten years there has been a war with Israel, armed clashes between these two camps, and a series of political assassinations. These years have also brought the military destruction of a refugee camp (Nahr Al-Bared), armed clashes between the army and Islamists in Saida and Tripoli, a war in Syria that has again polarized the population, a series of bombings by radical Islamist groups across the country, and an ongoing war against ISIS in the north of the country. Lebanon has become a front in the international war on terror, according to the US, Israel, and the Lebanese government. Politicians have failed to form governments, leading to power vacuums and a series of caretaker governments and the degradation of government services and institutions. There has been a presidential vacuum for over fourteen months, and Parliament has illegally extended its own term twice so far. In short, there is no legitimately elected political representation in the country.

LEBANON: A Letter from Radical Beirut to North American Anarchists

17.05.2013 by Radical Beirut

Comrades,

The Arab uprisings and Occupy Wall Street and the rest of global uprisings since 2011 have opened more doors for us to communicate and realize more than ever how our struggles against the state and dominant power structures are interconnected and the same. Our fight against the beast is one; we are informed and inspired by your past and current struggles, as well as we know that you are informed and inspired by our struggles, yet we still have a long way to go to understand one another and scale up our common fight.

LEBANON: Women and politics in Lebanon

Article by a Lebanese woman describing the position of women in both Muslim and Christian communities as the country slid into civil war.