On August 2^nd, 2011 a sit-in was called in-front of the Syrian embassy in Beirut at 8:00 pm in support of the syrian revolution. Around 50 independent activist and leftist gathered at the embassy, in 10 minutes time, groups of pro-Assad supporters – which included members of the Syrian Baath Party and Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) – gathered as a counter sit-in and stood at the gates of the embassy.

At 8.15, the pro-Assad supporters launched an attack at the activists standing in support of the Syrian revolution, with knives, metal rods, and leather belts, which resulted in the injury of five people, two of them having severe injuries.

The police present at the scene retreated and did not even call for any backup but let the protestors get severely beaten up, as a result none of the attackers were arrested, and when some of the activist tried to report the attack at the local police station the reply came: “we do not have the jurisdiction to file this incident” while another policeman said that: “the counter attack is covered by the SSNP, and reporting it will lead us to loose our jobs”.

Both of these political parties are solid supporters of the Assad regime in Syria, and after the outbreak of the Syrian revolt, they have been spreading security checkpoints all over Hamra (one of the busiest streets in beirut, and the street where the Syrian embassy is based). Attacks have been widespread against many pro-Syrian revolution activist throughout the past few months.

The threat of these groups trespasses the incident that occurred on August 2^nd, but warns of the development of a extremely violent political wing that threatens the state of liberties in Lebanon, especially that the direct allies of the syrian regime are now in government in Lebanon.

Moreover, the opposition currently composed of Pro-Hariri political groups, who since 2005 have been the classical enemies of the Syrian regime are attempting to ride the wave of protests to benefit their positions within the Lebanese political scene and to win leverage over the loyalist forces currently in government.

The hypocrisy of both the loyalist camp and the opposition camp in lebanon when dealing with the Arab uprisings has been widely exposed, as their support is limited to the extent of their regional allies, while the loyalists support the uprising in Bahrain, while supporting the regime in Syria, the opposition supports the uprising in Syria, and opposes the uprising in Bahrain.

The reasons behind these double standards are due to the sectarian affiliations both camps are strongly engaged in, on the one hand Hizbullah supports the uprising in Bahrain, due to the fact to its oppressed Shia population, and Hariri supports the uprising in Syria due to its oppressed Sunni population, while ignoring calls from the masses of both countries to reject sectarianism.

The revolutionary left, along with some independent activists (excluding the Communist Party) have been pushing since the outbreak of the Tunisian revolution to create a political space that gather popular support to the Arab revolutions as a whole, and pushing to look at this revolutionary wave as a process, that engages the whole of arab masses, while acting against sectarian politics that are being injected by the ruling dictatorships and western imperialism as well as the dominant regressive political forces in the region.

This last incident in Beirut, triggered a widened support for the Syrian uprising, but it is still not enough, and a new correlation now exists between supporting the syrian uprising and defending the freedoms of expression in Lebanon that are being threatened by a bourgeoning fascist political forces such as the SSNP, which is a copy-cat organization of Nazi Party in germany, and whose main ideology call for the purification of Natural Syria from “alien elements”, while the Syrian Baath Party which is the ruling party in Syria is trying to extend its oppression into Lebanon and threatening the lives of both syrian and lebanese activists who dare support the syrian people in their fight against the regime.

Due to this situation, we call on all progressive and revolutionary currents to heighten the level of support to the Arab masses in their struggle for freedom and especially in Syria, as it is one of the hardest knots in this revolutionary wave, and to stand united against the interference of western powers in these revolutions and to show that the only real ally for these uprisings and revolutions are the world masses and not western ruling classes.

The only guarantee for the success of the Arab uprisings are the heightening of the struggle against the ruling classes, heightened solidarity with the Syrian and the Arab people as a whole in its fight against oppression, dictatorship, impoverishment and for freedom and social justice.

Bassem Chit