At the onset of the Syrian revolution, Syrian youth began organizing themselves in their neighborhoods, villages and towns so they could plan protests and deliver their news to global news agencies. As the revolution spread throughout the country, there came a need for coordination between people in different neighborhoods in the same city on one level, and between cities and governorates nationwide on another. This is how the Local Coordination Committees of Syria (LCC) was born.
Activists in different neighborhoods, villages, towns and cities created coordination committees to organize revolutionary activities within their areas. Eventually, they decided to unite these committees under the LCC umbrella. The LCC was established by a group of activists and lawyers, who aimed to document regime violations, coordinate communication between activists on the ground, unite the political vision of these activists, and reach out to the media to report on events. The LCC continued to grow and develop until it established a presence in most Syrian cities. The group created a media office, and appointed official spokespeople to present the LCC’s political vision, including activist and poet Omar Idlibi and scriptwriter Rima Flihan.
A few months into the Syrian uprising, the LCC was able to gain the trust of media outlets because of its ability to document events and report to the media. The group also gained a reputation for high quality reporting, due to the large number of activists who joined, and who became citizen journalists reporting amid the action.
In order to provide further documentation for its work, the LCC established an English and an Arabic website. Events are reported on the websites as they unfold. Also on the website is a daily report that includes all events that took place on the ground throughout the day.
In addition to its website, the LCC publishes a bi-monthly newspaper titled We Came Out For Freedom. Many prominent activists and lawyers write for the paper, including Razan Zeitouneh. The paper is distributed in many areas inside and outside of Syria.
Over the last two years, the LCC has also organized a number of campaigns and grassroots movements. Examples of the campaigns are “Syria is Colorful,” “The Revolutionary Flag Represents Me,” “The Fingerprint of a Fighter,” and “Tomorrow Will be Better.”
Education is also important to the LCC, which is why the group has organized field schools that aim to support the education of internally and externally displaced refugee children. The LCC has held parties for children in areas like Darayya, Dael, Hasaka, Busra al-Sham, Muhassan and Khirbet Ghazala, and has also worked to provide psychological support to children and to distribute food baskets among them.
This email address has been created for people looking to contact activists, for journalists looking to be updated on the news of the Syrian revolution:
lcc.news.syria gmail.com
Contact the LCC at this email address to coordinate or plan something with the group:
lcc.syrianr gmail.com
Contact the LCC at this email address for issues related to relief work:
lccaid2012 gmail.com
The LCC’s Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/LCCSy?fref=ts
The LCC’s Arabic website
The LCC’s English website
http://www.soutenir-la-syrie.com/ASPS-english.html
* Jun 24 2013:
http://www.syriauntold.com/en/work_group/local-coordination-committees-of-syria/
Local Coordination Committees of Syria
The Local Coordination Committees of Syria (LCC) is a network of 70 coordination groups (tansiqiyat) operated by media and street activists connected to the grassroots revolt inside Syria. Since March 2011, the LCC has played a key role in organizing anti-regime demonstrations and disseminating information about the revolution.
MAJOR FIGURES
Razan Zaitouneh: human rights lawyer and member of the LCC media office, based in Syria
Manhal Bareesh: LCC representative in the Syrian National Council, based in Turkey
Omar Idilbi: spokesperson and member of the LCC Executive Committee, based in Qatar
Rima Flihan: journalist and member of the LCC Executive Committee, based in Jordan
Murad al-Shami (pseudonym): spokesperson and member of the LCC Executive committee, based in Syria
Fares Mohamad (pseudonym): filmmaker and member of the LCC Executive Committee, based in Syria
Rafif Jouejati: spokesperson for the LCC, based in the United States
BACKGROUND
The LCC is an umbrella organization that brings together local committees that have emerged in neighborhoods, cities, and villages across Syria since the beginning of the Syrian uprising in March 2011. These groups were originally formed to organize and document local revolutionary activities on the ground. However, as the protest movement intensified, they united under the LCC banner to enhance their coordination and visibility. There are roughly 70 local committees across the country. The oldest and most established are in: Deraa, Homs, Banias, Saraqeb, Idlib, Hasaka, Qamishli, Deir Ez-Zor, the Syrian coast, Hama, al-Raqqa, Suweida, Dael, Damascus, and the Damascus suburbs.
Young Syrian journalists and human rights activists from different ethnic, religious, and class backgrounds operating within Syria account for the large majority of committee members. However, the LCC also includes representatives in Syrian expatriate communities. The committees are headed by 140 representatives who meet every two weeks via Skype to coordinate and synchronize their activities. All LCC activities are supervised by the decentralized executive, media, translation, and relief offices and financed through private donations.
Since March 2011, local committees have been responsible for reporting news and developments on the ground in Syria and relaying information to Arab and international media outlets. The LCC media office gathers, checks, and provides real-time information about the uprising that is published and constantly updated on the LCC website and Facebook page. The LCC also collaborates with the Center for Documentation of Violations in Syria to document human rights violations in the country and report statistics on the number of war casualties, detainees, and people reported missing since the 1980s.
Another important function of the local committees is promoting civil disobedience as a means of fighting the Assad regime. Since the beginning of the uprising, the LCC has organized thousands of peaceful protests and strikes as well as mobilized anti-regime demonstrations within local communities across the country.
In some cases, these local committees have grown into important centers of civic authority, providing for medical and legal needs as well as humanitarian aid. The relief office of the LCC, for example, is in charge of sustaining various humanitarian initiatives, such as a food basket program, which provides food for Syrian families in need, and the Orphans of Freedom program that provides orphaned children food, shelter, clothing, education, and psychological support.
POLITICAL VISION AND POLICY TOWARD THE CRISIS
The LCC has emerged as an alternative channel for political change outside of traditional party politics. Its primary objective is to reflect the voice of the Syrian street. While opting for an independent political stance, the LCC issues frequent statements and takes clear positions on developments occurring within Syria.
The organization views the overthrow of the Syrian regime as the first and foremost goal of the revolution. It prioritizes dialogue and the use of nonviolent and noncoercive measures while calling for a peaceful transition to a democratic and pluralistic state, based on freedom and equality for all citizens.
At the start of the revolution, the LCC was opposed to foreign military intervention and the arming of the opposition. However, its position gradually shifted as regime violence escalated. With the formation of the Free Syrian Army in late 2011 and its expanding role in early 2012, the LCC began calling on the international community to take a stronger stand against the Assad regime while recognizing the role of the Free Syrian Army. On August 8, 2012, the LCC urged leaders of various military councils and battalions across Syria to sign a code of conduct that established the moral and political principles for military action. The LCC also provides logistical and technological support to the Free Syrian Army as well as intelligence regarding regime activities and the Syrian army’s movements and whereabouts.
Due to the militarization of the Syrian conflict, however, the LCC has lost ground among civilian activists and is being sidelined by groups that are actively involved in the armed rebellion. Unlike other grassroots networks—such as the Syrian Revolution General Commission and the Supreme Council for the Leadership of the Syrian Revolution—the LCC refuses to provide financial support or weapons to the Free Syrian Army or any armed groups, as that would betray its ethos and policy of nonviolence. In fact, despite being one of the largest and best-organized opposition groups inside Syria, the LCC receives the least amount of funding due to its nonmilitary stance and lack of religious affiliation. This has become a source of tension within the organization with some local committees now quitting the LCC in order to take part in the armed struggle.
Though politically independent, the LCC seeks to liaise with all Syrian opposition bodies to encourage opposition unity and dialogue. In October 2011, the LCC supported the formation of the Syrian National Council (SNC), recognizing it as the legitimate representative of the Syrian opposition, and placed a number of LCC representatives in the SNC’s Revolutionary Movement. However, relations between the LCC and the SNC have gradually deteriorated, and on May 17, 2012, the LCC issued a statement accusing the SNC of betraying “the spirit and demands of the Syrian Revolution” and marginalizing its representatives.
Since August 2012, the LCC has backed the call for the formation of a national transitional government. According to the LCC, this government must be formed in close consultation with the LCC and the Free Syrian Army and other opposition groups and should represent the Syrian nation in its entirety.
In October 2012, the LCC threatened to withdraw from the SNC and ceased all activities within the SNC until its demands for restructuring, improved representation of the revolutionary movement, and greater democratization of decisionmaking were met. Dissatisfied by the results of the council’s plenary meetings in Doha in early November, the Executive Committee of the LCC announced its formal withdrawal from the SNC on November 9, accusing the council of being under Muslim Brotherhood control and of failing to reform into a truly representative structure. LCC spokesperson Rafif Jouejati additionally condemned the SNC’s failure to elect any women to its new General Secretariat. However, a number of LCC representatives within the SNC’s Revolutionary Movement bloc, including Manhal Bareesh, Zeina Bitar, and Homam Haddad, rejected this decision and retained active membership.
On November 12, the LCC issued a statement recognizing the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces as the legitimate representative of the revolution and the Syrian people, affirming its participation in the new structure.
* http://carnegieendowment.org/syriaincrisis/50426
Report on the humanitarian aid work of the LCC
Preliminary Report and Summary
Regarding humanitarian aid work of the Local Coordination Committees in the period between 01-12-2011 and 10-01-2012
The Local Coordination Committees continued its work in providing humanitarian aid during the past period with the help and support of donors from inside and outside of Syria. The Committees received, during this period, a total amount of 875,000 Syrian Pounds + $ 8,000 + € 8,500 + € 3,500 (in the emergency box). This amount does not include the donations collected through the Committee’s website, which have not been withdrawn yet due to procedural reasons. In addition, we also received gifts in kind, especially: clothing of all types, food baskets, and other gifts in kind to affected families.
The Committees bought and distributed 650 food baskets (basket price ranged from 1600 to 1700 SP) mainly in the area of Damascus and its suburbs. It also disbursed, in cash, the amount of 207,000 SP to activists, freed detainees, and the families of detainees in the regions of Damascus, the Damascus Suburbs, Daraa, Hama, and Homs. Four laptop computers were purchased for activists in three different regions of the country, including one laptop for an activist who has been recently released from prison; and a mobile phone was sent to Homs. The Committees also provided financial aid to activists suffering from hardship, and spent the amount of 119,980 SP to buy gifts in kind for the families of displaced peoples.
The Local Coordination Committee would like to thank all those who donated and participated in aiding the victims of the murderous regime of Syria. Your ongoing participation is the guarantee of our ability to continue our humanitarian aid provision.
The Local Coordination Committees assure you that it adopts highly transparent criteria in auditing and scrutinizing its financial transaction. We would have preferred if we could show the details of all the transactions that we do, including the dates, names and amounts; but the current unfortunate circumstances do not allow that. Sponsoring bodies can always contact our financial office for any queries or suggestions.
Local Coordination Committees, 12/01/2012
* Posted by abeer on January 12th, 2012:
http://www.lccsyria.org/5074