Cairo calling

International Campaign against Zionist and American Occupation

Announcement and Call for Participation
Cairo International Conference and Liberation Forum, 27-30 March 2008
For National and Individual Liberation
In support of resistance to the Zionist/American Project
Against Zionism and Imperialism
Against despotism and oppression
Against exploitation and corruption

The Egyptian Organising Committee announces the start of preparation for the Cairo International Conference and Liberation Forum, 27-30 March 2008. This year's events will be held under the general motto: "Towards an International campaign against Israeli Occupation and Apartheid in Palestine"
In addition, the following issues will be addressed:
• Reinforcing resistance to the occupation of Iraq;
• Combating racist policies of imperialist countries;
• Opposition to despotism and exploitative globalisation in Egypt and the Arab countries.

The Egyptian Organising Committee invites all political and popular movements, as well as individual fighters for freedom, democracy and social justice, in Egypt, the Arab countries and the world at large, who stand against imperialism, zionism and exploitative globalisation, to contribute to the activities of the Conference and Forum.

For additional information and communication of proposals, please contact the executive director: Nivin Samir:
Email: cairoconference4@yahoo.com
Cell phone: +2- 0123567772

Don't interfere!

George Bush has warned Syria not to interfere in Lebanon's elections.

The money quote is:

"I am deeply concerned about foreign interference in the election. The message has been sent to nations such as Syria that they should not interfere."

The report in China's news agency then dropped a little fact in for us to chew on: 'A top U.S. military commander will go to Lebanon to asses the needs of Lebanese security forces, Bush said.'

Hmmm, and that's not interfering, apparently.

Meanwhile the counterterrorismblog reports that, "A well-informed sources close to the teams working on the Lebanese file within the Administration and in Congress told us today that the Lebanese legislators are the only ones who have been mandated by their voters to elect a new President of the Republic in Lebanon..."

But, "The sources added that they have been informed about a so called proposal by Iran’s leadership to politicians in Lebanon on virtue of which Tehran and Damascus would stop the violence campaign, allow an acceptable President (by them) to be elected and conclude a truce; in return the new cabinet formed after the election would stop calling for the implementation of UNSCR 1559 and the disarming of the militias, particularly Hezbollah.

"The sources said if this is what these politicians want, they need to understand that they will not be backed by the international community or by the United States. They will face Syria and Iran alone and will have to explain it to their constituents.

"The sources said these messages will be soon transmitted to whoever has to hear them."

I wonder if Hariri "got the message". Well yes, apparrently, as he rushed to announce that "his country was facing a potential crack-up unless the United States threw its weight behind the pro-democracy movement" (otherwise known as the sectarian rulers and war criminals).

The US 'not interfering' in 1958

US troops enter the port of Beirut in 1958. Over 38,000 US troops were send to Lebanon to crush a national rebellion against the western backed government of Camille Chamoun.

Bint Jbail

A new play by Saseen Kawzally has caught the attention of the Guradian newspaper in London. Saseen covered the the July War with the BBC and is writing a play about how a family in the small town of Bint Jbail survived the onslaught.

Ben Harrison writes in his blog:
"We go and fetch the actors, and they all sit in the space. It is like a shrine. A dead place, empty, annihilated. An almost total sense of emptiness. Saseen asks around and we get the address of two of the survivors.

"A childlike woman of 70 welcomes us into her home, and is very open about the details of her terrible experiences, until one of the other survivors, the matriarch of the house, interrupts: 'We don't want to talk about the past. What about the future, the promised reconstruction?' "

What price for bread?

Tymat’s (Leftist Assembly for Change— Lebanon) has an article by Adnan Hajj on the price rises during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Below is an edited translation, the original in Arabic can be found on their website.

“This year Ramadan comes against a background of continuing political and economic crises, and amid the wave of inflation—in recent weeks prices have risen by over 15%.

“The month of fasting also coincided with a growing bread crisis. This is due to the global rise in wheat prices, a curb on imports and low stocks of flour.

“Compounding this is a rise in the price of diesel fuel for heating. With the advent of winter, this will hit the poorest hardest, especially in the mountainous and remote areas.

“These extra burdens come at bad time of year for most families with the start of the new academic year. School costs, including textbooks, have risen 20 percent.

“This fact has increased the burden of living of families and is compounded by the rise in unemployment, a the drop in social benefits and in the health insurance fund (the social safety net for Lebanon’s poor).

"The painful facts can be summarised as follows:
Prices of vegetables and potatoes have risen by more than 55 percent in recent weeks, making the cost of an Iftar meal for family of four about 5000LL (£2,50), without counting the cost of a bag of bread (1500LL).

"The quantities of flour available to the mills is only sufficient for ten days.

"The price of a kilo of lamb rose from 12,000LL (£6) to 20,000LL, and beef from 8,000LL to 12,000LL. The price of chicken has risen between 20 percent and 25 percent.

"The prices of milk products have risen 40 percent, while medicine has rocketed more than 15% in two months."

What causes inflation?

In an analysis of the causes of inflation Anindya Bhattacharyya writes in Socialist Worker:

During a period of growth, bosses compete to invest where they think they can make a profit. Typically this involves different capitalists all trying to buy the same raw materials – thus driving up their price.

This price rise eats into their profits, so they respond by raising the prices of the commodities they produce. The effect is to pass the costs on to other capitalists, who in turn raise their prices, all the way down the chain to commodities bought by ordinary people.

Wage rises are a secondary effect of inflation. As inflation kicks in, workers start to notice that their pay packets do not stretch as far as they used to. This in turn leads them to demand pay rises from their employers.

Employers do not want to give their workers pay rises, but can be forced to do so through industrial action, or to head off a threat of industrial action. In certain circumstances, they may have to compete for scarce labour, which again raises wages.

A rising wage bill once more eats into profits, which can be yet another excuse for bosses to raise prices. But the overall reason for inflation is always the drive to keep profit rates up, not the "greed" of workers trying to make ends meet in a climate of rising prices.

If the economy could be planned, then in theory these kinds of vicious circles could be ironed out. But that would involve the interests of businesses being subordinated to the interests of the people.

Arming the world

Mosaic TV picks up story of US arms sales... including to poverty stricken Africa. And a good report on Palestinian mothers and resistance.

Pepsi

Yes, aparently Pepsi Cola will be shooting "a ground breaking film" in Lebanon.

Ground breaking? What does that mean?

Well according to Talal el-Khalil, vice president for the Levant Unit: "Pepsi has already brought many local and international superstars together such as Amr Diab with Beyonce and Jennifer Lopez and Elissa with Christina Aguilera and now the new movie, produced by Pepsi will introduce a totally new experience for our consumers, who are always eager to discover the company's new creations."

Oh my lord!

Sectarianism 2007

While I was involved in a futile persuit at the Lebanese justice ministry in Adlieh (I won't bore you with the details) I overheard a conversation at a roadside cafe.

A customer (Maronite Christian from the south) was telling the woman at the till that when his father died all his old Shia neighbours—that his family lost contact with during the civil war—made the trip to Beirut to attend the funeral.

The customer said he was very moved that his father's old friends "attended the funeral mass with us".

In the atmosphere where Lebanese are suppose to hate each other, it was a reminder that the "other Lebanon" is surviving the sectarian rhetoric of the country's political leaders.

Hope springs eternal....

Presidential elections

Sami Moubayed gives a good general briefing on the Lebanese presidential elections in Asia Times.

"Lebanese politics is sharply polarized into two camps, which refuse to back down...

"One faction is headed by Saad al-Hariri, the parliamentary-majority leader who rose to fame after the assassination of his father, former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, in 2005.

"It includes heavyweights from the Sunni community, like Prime Minister Fouad al-Siniora, the Christian community, including former warlord Samir Gagegea and ex-president Amin Gemayel, and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.

"Most of this team (with the exception of Gagegea and Gemayel) were once loudly pro-Syrian. They worked with and legitimized the Syrian military presence in Lebanon throughout the 1990s.

"As long as the Syrians continued to support and reward them with government office, they remained pro-Syrian. All of them, including Jumblatt and Siniora, were ministers under Rafik Hariri, during the Syrian heyday in Lebanon."

Photo: Election posters of Free Partiotic Movement leader (and presidential hopeful) Micheal Aoun are defaced by supporters of the right wing Lebanese Forces. Posters of Bashir Gemayel, who was killed by a missive bomb in 1982, are eveywhere in Christian east Beirut. However the pro-resistance FPM still enjoys popular support from a majority of Lebanese (Christian and Muslim).

Nahr al-Bared 2009?

According to a confidential technical report to the Lebanese government on the reconstruction of Nahr el-Bared camp seen by Sursock, the Palestinian camp will be rebuilt on a new model.

Out go the tight alleys and close quarter community housing, and in comes European style housing blocs separated by wide roads.

There are two elements to this “new model camp” that should be noted.

The first is that wide roads provide better entry for armoured patrols and thus leaving the Palestinian less able to defend their areas. The Humvees supplied recently by the US would fulfill this task.

Alongside the new style housing, the announcement that the Lebanese army will be running “security” in the new camp.This takes us back to the 1950s and 1960s when Palestinians lived in fear of the internal security services known as Deuxieme Bureau.

These security forces were driven out of the camps in 1969 during a mass uprising. The deal that allowed Palestinians to run their own affairs was concluded that year in Cairo—known as the Cairo Accords (for more on this see Tripoli 1969).

Over the past few years the US and France have sponsored UN resolutions demanding the Lebanese government “disarm all militias” (apart from government approved militias, of course).

Nahr el-Bared was established in 1949 by the Red Cross to rehouse Palestinian refugees who suffered a terrible winter in the Bekaa Valley and the suburbs of Tripoli.

Lying 16 kilometers north of Tripoli and spread over 20 square kilometers, the camp quickly established itself as an important trading hub on the road to Syria. Over the years mini suburbs of wealthier refugees grew around the old camp (the "new camp").

The word is that Bared was an important post in the smuggling route to Syria, with an extensive black market that supplied the surrounding areas (“Black market” can be read as any business not under the control of one of the major Lebanese families).

The camp derived most of its wealth from its gold market and small workshops. The Bared refugees were among the wealthiest (relative wealth that is) of Palestinians in Lebanon.

All of that is now gone:

The latest tally of damage presents a bleak picture. The total bill comes in at $221 million.

The three month siege destroyed 60 percent of the old camp and 40 percent of the new camp. The repair bill is estimated at between $155 million to $180 million.

6,000 residential and commercial units were damaged or destroyed, with the “structural integrity” of the surviving buildings classified as “a risk”. Included in this is a large number of small workshops an single family artisans (many homes doubled as workshops).

The camp lost 3 hospitals, 4 clinics and 15 primary schools (excluding the ones inside the UN compound).

Also lost were mosques, community centers and the offices of associations.

Infrastructure services like water supplies, electricity and telecoms were also destroyed with extensive gorund water polution. Roads have been ruined by heavy military equipment.

Over $14 million in personal property was lost.

The health and psychological damage is difficult to quantify, however the tally of dead stands at around 400, with over 1,000 seriously injured or disabled as a result of the siege.

The main thrust of the report is a mini “Marshall plan” to revive a very depressed area. Included is massive investment in the north, including job creation. These recommendations are the basic building blocs for economic growth and stability… so no doubt they will be completely ignored by the government.

Who will benefit form these giant contracts? Well the NGOs in the north have been swarming around the Future Current of Saad Hariri like flies round shit.

Plus sa change…

Nahr al-Bared 2007

Picture: Grace Kassab/AP Photo

Nahr al-Bared 2004

The camp had:
31,023 registered refugees;
1598 families of 8627 persons.
One Agency health centre with an average of 494 patients per day;
Ten UNRWA elementary/preparatory schools for 5,686 enrolled pupils in 2003/2004;
One community managed women's programme centre that runs skill-training courses and apprenticeship, organizes awareness raising sessions on health, social, legal, human rights and gender issues and coordinates with local NGOs to respond to community needs. Income generation loans and group guaranteed lending are also provided to women.
Mainstreaming programme run in partnership with CBR and Ghassan Kanafani KG.
One Youth Center.
One kindergarten teaching French for 22 enrolled pupils in 2003-2004;
Two community run rehabilitation centres provide facilities for 64 refugees with disabilities.

Nahr al-Bared 1951

Women walk through the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in Lebanon in 1951. Picture: J. Madvo, UNRWA

Emigration 1960

Air Liban

Beirut Film Festival cancelled

"Political instability in Lebanon has forced the organizers of the Beirut Film Festival to cancel this year's event."

African Maids

All Africa news web is running an exposé of the treatment of black maids in Lebanon.

"Sixteen-year old Elisa is from Ethiopia. Her mother died last year, and six months ago she came to Lebanon to work and send money home to her family. For 100 dollars per month she maintains five houses a day.

"When I started work with this family I was sexually abused all the time by the father of my employer. The kids would beat me everyday and I would try to explain to Madame but she wouldn't do anything.

"Sometimes the father would come to sleep with me and threaten that if I refused he would beat me. So I left the house."

Haifa to Beirut in five hours

Haifa-Beirut Service 1920

Beirut 1900s

Postcard of coffee house. Coffee grew in popularity with the rise in factory work, and wages, in the late 1800s.