Contribution of the Communist Workers' Party – For Peace and Socialism (Finland)

National Liberation and Socialism in Palestine, Lebanon and Syria

Today’s event deals with the important topic of the liberation of Palestine, and the quickly developing situations in Lebanon and Syria.

The recent announcement of a ceasefire fills us with joy and we hope that the Gazans will be able to catch their breath after the onslaught that has claimed far more than the 46 000 lives officially recorded, most of which were civilians.^{[1], [2]} This does not diminish the need for full Palestinian liberation.
Palestine has also seen a recent escalation in the West-Bank, with the Palestinian Authority acting once again as the long arm of the Israeli state.^[3]

In Lebanon Hezbollah has been significantly weakened by Israel. It upholds the ceasefire that Israel has violated hundreds of times^[4], has dropped support of the Ba’ath government  and supported the new Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in the second round of voting.^[5]

The Ba’ath government collapsed in less than two weeks with Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)^[6], backed by the US and UK, and Syrian National Army (SNA)^[7], backed by Turkey, advancing quickly on Damascus, ending the rule of the Ba’ath party and Assad on December 10.

The quick collapse of the Ba’ath-government was caused by internal and external factors.
Relevant internal factors were the inability to rebuild the country after the 2011 civil war and carrying out economic reforms, which further impoverished the Syrian people. This led to mistrust in the Ba’ath government, also within the armed forces.^[8] These developments culminated in the collapse of the state apparatus due to the increased external pressure.

External factors were the sanctions regime imposed by the West, supplemented by the politico-ideological attacks on the so-called “authoritarian” government and the support of opposition groups by foreign powers. These powers are willing to cut up the Syrian national territory, utilizing the different national and religious sentiments as their battering ram, if it serves their interests.

For the time being the new rulers in Damascus have adopted an outwardly liberal stance, which does not prevent them from using repression as well, since both are complementary for upholding state power.

It is of vital importance to combat separatism, not by suppressing different minorities, but by recognizing their right to self-determination, up to the right to secession. This must include cultural autonomy and the possibility of political participation.
For communists it means to combine the struggle for self-determination with the struggle for socialism, since only under socialism can these demands be fully guaranteed.

This necessitates the overthrow of the Syrian capitalists and their foreign capitalist allies, who are ultimately willing to violate political self-determination and the integrity of the Syrian state. Nationalistic and religious sentiments are only the form of this fight, while the essence is capitalist interest, especially those of the monopolies.

It was not against the will of the Syrian and capitalists that the recent change in power was organized, but precisely in their interest. This is shown by the economic reforms promised by the new government immediately after taking power, to open Syria for international trade and capital imports.

The struggle for self-determination is at the same time a struggle against foreign occupation and funding, as in the example of the Kurdish alliance with the US.

In Lebanon national sentiments and a culture of resistance are already strong. This has recently been intensified by the Israeli invasion between October and November of 2024. This struggle too must be directed towards the establishment of socialism, since only socialism can alleviate the economic hardships experienced by the Lebanese people in the long term.

The situation in Palestine is a qualitatively different one, since national liberation has not been achieved there. It is correct to support this struggle. It is however important to keep in mind that the law of capitalist development operates there too. It creates capitalist relations and with it a national bourgeoisie, which inevitably becomes strong enough to compete with others. This creates the basis for inter-imperialist conflicts, even between former colonies, as can be seen by the threat of war between Niger and ECOWAS in July of 2023.^[9]

In fact, Hamas is a capitalist party, just as the Social-Democratic Fatah in the West-Bank. Hamas was able to increase its popular support by its unwavering stance on the armed liberation struggle.

For all our support of the Palestinian liberation struggle, we should never forget that parties like Hamas, Fatah and Hezbollah cannot achieve socialist revolution, economic freedom and lasting peace between peoples. This is only possible by the Communist Parties (CPs), which follow the theory of Scientific Socialism and lead the masses through the Dictatorship of the Proletariat to communism. The CPs can only become the leaders of this mass struggle by fighting in the frontlines for popular reforms and against opportunism.

To blindly follow bourgeois forces, is a strategic mistake and has grave consequences, as the history of the International Communist Movement and the national liberation struggles teach us.

Finally, I want to talk briefly about the danger and our characterization of fascism in the region, both in the form of Jihadism and Zionism.

It should be noted that the different Jihadist groups may pose a threat to some political freedoms, but not to the capitalist class. They are the tool of one group of capitalists against another or against the working people, but in either case they act in the interests of capitalism.
Anti-fascism means that we have to direct our main thrust at the masters and not their tools.

The genocide carried out by the Israeli state and its settler-colonial policy should not obscure the fact that this is done in the interest of capital. Israel employs a different method – one that has been historically employed by the United States in settling North-America and by the Nazis in their attempt to settle the Soviet territories – but this does not negate that the driving force behind this expansion is to secure monopoly profits.

Lessons should also be learned from a critical analysis of the shift in the Comintern with the VII. Congress and the tactics – and later strategy – of the “fronts” and their historical implementation. Much valuable work has been done in this regard by the KKE, which we should study. ^{[10], [11], [12]}

A common front with the bourgeoisie to protect abstract “democracy” means losing a class point of view and falling into class collaboration.

Comrades,
We are living through stormy times, caused by the contradictions of the imperialist system. Our task is to abolish it.

 

 

 

^[1] Higher estimates are as much as 186 000, including indirect deaths.
  Khatib, R., McKee, M., Yusuf, S. (2024). Counting the dead in Gaza: difficult but essential. The Lancet, 404(10449), 237–238. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(24)01169-3

^[2] This study finds that deaths are underreported by 41% and that women, children and the elderly make up 59% of the death toll.

  Jamaluddine, Z., Abukmail, H., Aly, S., Campbell, O. M. R., Checchi, F. (2025). Traumatic injury mortality in the Gaza Strip from Oct 7, 2023, to June 30, 2024: a capture–recapture analysis. The Lancet, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(24)02678-3

^[3] Kanj, J. (2024, December 24). Palestinian Authority: Protecting the “Homeland”, or a New Zionist Bantustan. Palestine Chronicle. https://www.palestinechronicle.com/palestinian-authority-protecting-the-homeland-or-a-new-zionist-bantustan/

^[4] Saleh, A. (2024, December 5). Israel jeopardizes Lebanon ceasefire agreement with dozens of airstrikes : Peoples Dispatch. Peoples Dispatch. https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/12/04/israel-jeopardizes-lebanon-ceasefire-agreement-with-dozens-of-airstrikes/

  News Desk (2025, January 13). Israel escalates bombing of Lebanon ‘in accordance’ with ceasefire. The Cradle. https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-escalates-bombing-of-lebanon-in-accordance-with-ceasefire

^[5] The Cradle’s Lebanon Correspondent. (2025, January 9). Presidential elections in Lebanon: A battle for sovereignty or foreign control? Thecradle.Co. https://thecradle.co/articles/presidential-elections-in-lebanon-a-battle-for-sovereignty-or-foreign-control

^[6] A group that previously governed in Idlib

^[7] A group of Islamist mercenaries, funded by and with a command center in Turkey

^[8] Ziadeh, R. (2024, December 17). Deciphering the Quick Collapse of the Assad Regime. Arab Center Washington DC. https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/deciphering-the-quick-collapse-of-the-assad-regime/

^[9] Al Jazeera. (2023, August 10). ECOWAS leaders say all options open in Niger, including ‘use of force.’ Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/10/ecowas-summit-begins-in-nigeria-as-niger-coup-leaders-remain-defiant

^[10] KKE (2024, May 14). Contribution of the Communist Party of Greece. https://www.eurcomact.org/m-article/Contribution-of-the-Communist-Party-of-Greece-00001/

^[11] KKE. (n.d.). Communist Party of Greece. The Founding, Action and Dissolution of the Communist International through the Prism of the Current Tasks of the International Communist Movement. Retrieved January 15, 2025, from https://inter.kke.gr/en/articles/The-founding-action-and-dissolution-of-the-Communist-International-through-the-prism-of-the-current-tasks-of-the-international-communist-movement/

^[12] KKE. (n.d.). Communist Party of Greece. 100 Years of the Communist International. Retrieved January 15, 2025, from https://inter.kke.gr/en/articles/100-YEARS-OF-THE-COMMUNIST-INTERNATIONAL/