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TheLebanese National Movement (LNM;Arabic:الحركة الوطنية اللبنانية,Al-Harakat al-Wataniyya al-Lubnaniyya) was a front ofLeftist,pan-Arabist andSyrian nationalistparties andorganizations active during the early years of theLebanese Civil War, which supported thePalestine Liberation Organization (PLO). It was headed byKamal Jumblatt, a prominentDruze leader of theProgressive Socialist Party (PSP). The Vice-President was Inaam Raad, leader of theSyrian Social Nationalist Party andAssem Qanso of thepro-Syrian Lebanese Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. The general secretary of the LNM wasMohsen Ibrahim, leader of theCommunist Action Organization in Lebanon (CAOL).[1]
The LNM was one of two main coalitions during the first rounds of fighting in the Lebanese Civil War, the other being the militias of the mainlyChristianLebanese Front, which comprised thenationalistPhalange, theNational Liberal Party and others; as well as parts of theMaronite-dominated central government.
The Lebanese National Movement had its genesis in a previous organization, theFront of National and Progressive Parties and Forces – FNPPF (Arabic:Jabhat al-Ahzab wa al-Quwa al-Taqaddumiyya wa al-Wataniyya) orFront for Progressive Parties and National Forces (FPPNF), also known as theRevisionist Front, an alliance of anti-status quo political parties originally formed in 1969, which later ran in the 1972 general elections on areformistsecular platform. Overwhelmingly left-wing andPan-Arabist in both its composition and orientation, the LNM claimed to be a "democratic,progressive andnon-sectarian" broad organization that gathered parties and organizations opposing theMaronite-dominatedsectarian order inLebanon. It was reorganized as the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) in the 1970s, and led byKamal Jumblatt as the main force on the anti-government side in the early years of theLebanese Civil War.
Among the members were theProgressive Socialist Party (PSP), theSyrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), theLebanese Communist Party (LCP) and severalNasserist andMarxist groups. It was also joined byPalestinian factions based in Lebanon'srefugee camps, mainly from theRejectionist Front.
Its membership was overwhelmingly left-wing and professed to be secular, although the fairly obvious sectarian appeal of Jumblatt'sProgressive Socialist Party (PSP) and some of theSunniArab nationalist organizations in some cases made this claim debatable. However, to say that the LNM was an all-Muslim organization would be a grossoversimplification. Its main ideological positions were: the abrogation of sectarianism, political and social reforms, the clear proclamation of the Arab identity ofLebanon, and increased support for thePalestinians. In order to coordinate the military and political actions of the LNM an executive structure, theCentral Political Council – CPC (Arabic:Majliss Tajammu al-kinda) orBureau Politique Central (BPC) inFrench, was set up shortly after the outbreak of the hostilities at the town ofAley, a mountain tourist resort in theChouf District, which became the military headquarters of the Front. The Council was presided over from its inception by Kamal Jumblatt of the PSP, withMohsen Ibrahim of the OCAL appointed as Executive Secretary; after Kamal's death in 1977, he was replaced by his sonWalid Jumblatt, who led the LNM until 1982.
Among the participants in the LNM were theLebanese Communist Party (LCP), theCommunist Action Organization in Lebanon (CAOL or OCAL), the PSP, theSyrian Social Nationalist Party in Lebanon (SSNP), both aSyrian-led Ba'ath Party branch and anIraqi-led Ba'ath Party branch,al-Mourabitoun (aNasserist group) and several other minor Nasserist and Marxist groupings. Several Palestinian organizations joined the LNM, notably many from theRejectionist Front. Both thePopular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and theDemocratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) were active participants.
TheShiaAmal Movement, although supporting some of the LNM's positions, did not join it formally.[2]
Above and beyond this, an 'alphabet soup' of other lesser-known smaller Parties were associated with the LNM.
Most of them were marginal political organizations ofrevolutionary orpopulist trend (Arab nationalist,libertarian/anarchist,liberal/idealist, radicalsocialist,Marxist–Leninist,Hoxhaist,Trotskyist, orMaoist) that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and despite their rather limited base of support, they were quite active. Anti-status quo,Pan-Arabist, and pro-Palestinian in policy, they strived for a social revolution that would transform Lebanese society, therefore sharing the same objectives as the leading LNM secular parties – the recognition ofLebanon as anArab country and unwavering support for the PLO.
However, apart this minority of committed idealists, the vast majority of the remainder 'movements' were actually façades or 'shops' (Arabic:dakakin) – slightly politicised neighbourhood militias operating under grandiose pseudo-revolutionary labels – set up by PLO factions (mainlyFatah) in a misguided effort to widen its base of local support among the unemployed Lebanese urban youth. In most cases, their small, poorly disciplined, ill-equipped militia establishments weread hoc formations made of lightly armed and largely untrainedChristian orMuslim youths that rarely surpassed the 100-300 fighters' mark – about the size of an understrengthcompany orbattalion. Some groupings were lucky enough to possess a fewtechnicals armed withheavy machine-guns andrecoilless rifles but others, for the most part, fought on foot aslight infantry, withsmall arms pilfered from the government forces, acquired on the black market or obtained via the Palestinian factions. Those groups either unable or unwilling to raise their own militias played a political role only by engaging in propaganda activities, keeping themselves out of the 1975-76 savage street battles and sectarian killings, with some of their militants preferring instead to join themedical relief agencies organized by the LNM.
The decline of the LNM in the late 1970s, culminating in its collapse in the aftermath of theIsraeli invasion of June 1982, sounded the death toll for many of the minor Lebanese leftist organizations. As the war progressed, many of these small factions – at least the more politically oriented ones – were destroyed in the violent power struggles of the 1980s. For the most part forced to go underground, some evolved toIslamic fundamentalist groups, whilst the less politicized simply degenerated intocriminal street-gangs that engaged in assassinations, theft, smuggling, and extortion. As a result, only a small fraction of the truly ideologically committed groupings managed to survive the war to re-emerge in the 1990s as politically active organizations.
At the beginning of the war in 1975, the different LNM militias were grouped into a military wing, designated the"Common Forces" (Arabic: القوات المشتركة,Al-Quwwat al-Mushtaraka), but best known as"Joint Forces" (LNM-JF), which numbered some 18,900 militiamen (not including allied Palestinian factions). Manpower was distributed as follows: the PSP militia (thePeople's Liberation Army) and the LCP militia (thePopular Guard) each had 5,000 men; the SSNP militia had 4,000 men; the pro-Syria Ba'athists and pro-Iraqi Ba'athists had 2,000 and 1,500 men respectively. The others militias shared the remainder.
This number was to increase in the following months with the inclusion of 21,900 Palestinian guerrilla fighters from both theRejectionist Front (RF) and mainstream PLO factions, later joined by 4,400 Lebanese regular soldiers from theLebanese Arab Army (LAA) led by Lieutenant Ahmad al-Khatib who went over to the LNM-PLO side in January 1976. In the end, the LNM-PLO-LAA combined military forces reached an impressive total of 45,200 troops by March that year, aligned against the 12,000-16,000 right-wing troops theirLebanese Front adversaries were able to muster.
| Group | Manpower |
|---|---|
| LCP (Popular Guard) | 5,000 |
| PSP (PLA) | 5,000 |
| SSNP-L | 4,000 |
| Pro-Syrian Baath | 2,000 |
| Pro-Iraqi Baath | 1,500 |
| Remaining militias | 1,400 |
| Total | 18,900 |
| Lebanese Arab Army | 4,400 |
| PLO &Rejectionist Front | 21,900 |
| Total | 45,200 |
The LNM-JF received financial aid and arms from many countries such asSyria,Libya,Iraq andSouth Yemen, in addition to Palestinian support; besides lending their political backing and contributing with their organizational skills, experienced Palestinian cadres from RF and PLO groups provided weapons, equipment, and in many cases, military leadership to the Lebanese leftist militias. In addition, they also provided training, which was conducted at therefugee camps in the major cities or at PLO bases in southern Lebanon, mainly in theBeqaa Valley (a.k.a. "Fatahland").
As fighting escalated, the LNM allied itself with the umbrellaPalestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and by early 1976 the LNM controlled 80% of Lebanon's territory.[4] But as its relations withDamascus deteriorated, thepro-Syrian Ba'ath branch,Union of Working People's Forces and an important SSNP faction left the movement, and formed alongsideAmal Movement theFront of Patriotic and National Parties.
In June 1976, the Syrian Army, fearing that a Palestinian victory would weaken its own strategic position, received a request from theLebanese Front to intervene on their behalf.[5] After strong initial resistance, the LNM/PLO forces began losing ground, and once theArab states eventually approved the Syrian intervention after theCairo andRiyadh conferences, the common forces accepted a cease-fire. The Syrian Army then took the role of peace-keepers, as part ofArab League'sArab Deterrent Force (ADF), between the belligerents. In 1977,Walid Jumblatt became the head of the LNM after the murder of his father Kamal, in an ambush widely accredited to either pro-Syrian Palestinian militants or Lebanese SSNP agents working for the Syrian intelligence services.[6][7][8][9][10] Despite this, Walid aligned himself with Syria, and maintained a good working relationship with Syrian PresidentHafez al-Assad (who had shared with his father a mutual distrust).
In 1978 theIsraeliOperation Litani in southern Lebanon was partly directed against LNM militias, then fighting alongside the PLO after relations improved with Syria. In June 1982, the Movement was virtually dissolved after theIsraeli invasion of Lebanon. On 16 September 1982, following Israel's occupation of west Beirut and theSabra and Shatila Massacre, the LMM's successor was formed by Walid Jumblatt as theLebanese National Resistance Front – LNRF (Arabic:جبهة المقاومة الوطنية اللبنانية,Jabhat al-Muqawama al-Wataniyya al-Lubnaniyya), which commenced guerrilla operations against theIsrael Defense Forces (IDF) in September of that same year.
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