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Communist Action Organization In Lebanon




The Communist Action Organization in Lebanon (COA) or '''Organization of Communist Action''' ( Arabic ''munażżamatu-l-‘amali-sh-shuyū‘ī fī lubnān'', French ''Organisation de l'Action Communiste du Liban'', OCAL) was a minor Marxist-Leninist Political Party and Militia in Lebanon .


MEMBERSHIP


It was one of Lebanon's few multi-sectarian parties, incorporating Christian s, Muslim s and Druze , but its main base was among Shi'a Muslims. In the 1980s, it had a membership of about 2000.[http://www.country-data.com/frd/cs/lebanon/lb_appnb.html


HISTORY OF THE COA


The COA was formed through the merger of the Organization Of Socialist Lebanon and the Movement Of Lebanese Socialists in 1970, under the leadership of Muhsen Ibrahim . These groups included veterans of the Lebanese branch of the Arab Nationalist Movement (ANM), a Left-wing radical Pan-Arab group which had splintered into national factions in the late 1960s. The COA was not affiliated to George Hawi 's Lebanese Communist Party (LCP), which it criticized for "reformist tendencies" {Link without Title} , but held unsuccessful talks on a party merger in the mid-1970s.

The COA was involved in the Lebanese Civil War , on the side of the Lebanese National Movement (LNM), of which Ibrahim was Executive Secretary. However, the LNM dissolved after the death of its founder, Druze PSP leader Kamal Jumblatt in 1977. As Syria strengthened Its Hold On Lebanon , the COA was forced underground, since it refused to give up its alliance with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) of Yassir Arafat , who was opposed to the Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad . The COA had strong relations to the Marxist Palestinian faction of Naif Hawatmeh , Democratic Front For The Liberation Of Palestine (DFLP), and was involved with that group's party newspaper Al-Hurriya (Liberty). {Link without Title}

During 1982-2000, the COA allied, despite being a Secular movement, to the Shi'a Islamist Hizbullah movement in its campaign of Guerrilla Warfare against Israel i Occupation of South Lebanon.


SEE ALSO