The Organization of Lebanese Socialists ( ar, منظمة الاشتراكيين اللبنانيين, ''Munaẓẓamah al-ištirākiyyin al-lubnāniyyin'') was a political organization in

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

. The organization was led by

Muhsin Ibrahim Mohsin Ibrahim ( ar, محسن إبراهيم ''Muḥsin ‘Ibrāhīm''), kunya Abu Khaled (; 1935 – June 3, 2020), was a Lebanese politician. He was a prominent personality of the Lebanese and Arab left. Initially a Nasserist nationalist, he ...

and Muhammed Kishli. It had its roots in the Lebanese branch of the

Arab Nationalist Movement The Arab Nationalist Movement ( ar, حركة القوميين العرب, ''Harakat al-Qawmiyyin al-Arab''), also known as the Movement of Arab Nationalists and the Harakiyyin, was a pan-Arab nationalist organization influential in much of the Ar ...

(ANM), a radical

pan-Arab Pan-Arabism ( ar, الوحدة العربية or ) is an ideology that espouses the unification of the countries of North Africa and Western Asia from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea, which is referred to as the Arab world. It is closely c ...

movement.Yazīd Sāyigh. ''Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993'', Oxford University Press, 1997, pp. 302-303. . During the 1960s Ibrahim was a leading figure in the leftist tendency with the ANM. This tendency, led by

Naif Hawatmeh Nayef Hawatmeh ( ar, نايف حواتمة, Nāyef Ḥawātmeh, Kunya: Abu an-Nuf) is a Jordanian politician who was active in the Palestinian political life. Hawatmeh hails from a Jordanian clan and is a practicing Greek Catholic. He is the ...

, argued that the ANM ought to adopt a

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

outlook. This was opposed by the top ANM leader

George Habash George Habash ( ar, جورج حبش, Jūrj Ḥabash), also known by his laqab "al-Hakim" ( ar, الحكيم, al-Ḥakīm, "the wise one" or "the doctor"; 2 August 1926 – 26 January 2008) was a Palestinian Christian politician who founded the ...

who, although being open to introducing Marxist concepts like

imperialism Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic and ...

into the discourse of the ANM, wanted to retain the

anti-Communist Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...

character of the organization.Kazziha, Walid, ''Revolutionary Transformation in the Arab World: Habash and his Comrades from Nationalism to Marxism''. As the central leadership of ANM had shifted to

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

, the Lebanese branch began to function more autonomously. The official ANM organ ''

al-Hurriya Al-Hurriya, alternatively Al-Horaya is a neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is ...

'' ('Freedom'), of which Ibrahim had become editor in 1960, became a ''de facto'' mouthpiece for the Marxist sector. In 1968 the Lebanese branch of ANM broke its links to the mother organization, and renamed itself as the Organization of Lebanese Socialists. The viewpoint of the Organization of Lebanese Socialists on the split were formulated in the pamphlet ''Limadha Munaẓẓamah al-ištirākiyyin al-lubnāniyyin'' (literally, "Why the Organization of Lebanese Socialists?"). Around 1970 the Organization of Lebanese Socialists and

Socialist Lebanon Socialist Lebanon ( ar, لبنان الاشتراكي, ''Lubnān al-ištirākī'') was a Marxist group in Lebanon. The group was formed in 1965 by intellectuals and academicians including Ahmad Beydoun, Waddah Sharara, and Fawwaz Traboulsi.Kazziha, ...

merged to form the

Communist Action Organization in Lebanon The Communist Action Organization in Lebanon – CAOL ( ar, منظمة العمل الشيوعي في لبنان , ''munaẓẓamah al-‘amal al-shuyū‘ī fī lubnān''), also known as Organization of Communist Action in Lebanon (OCAL) or Orga ...

.Different sources provides different dates for the merger. Sāyigh (in Yazīd Sāyigh. ''Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993'', Oxford University Press, 1997, pp. 302-303.) claims that the OACL was founded in May 1971. Reilly (in Reilly, MERIP Reports, No. 108/109, The Lebanon War (Sep. - Oct., 1982), pp. 14-20) mentions the 1970 as the year of foundation.

References

Arab nationalism in Lebanon Arab Nationalist Movement breakaway groups Arab socialist political parties Defunct political parties in Lebanon Nationalist parties in Lebanon Political parties with year of disestablishment missing Political parties with year of establishment missing Socialist parties in Lebanon {{Lebanon-party-stub