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Communist Labour Party (Syria)

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Soman (talk | contribs) at 19:52, 5 November 2012 (rv name. amal can be translated both as labour and action, but in this case labour makes more sense). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Communist Labour Party
حزب العمل الشيوعي
LeaderFateh Jamous
Gegründet1976 (1976)
IdeologyMarxism–Leninism
Political positionLeft-wing
National affiliationNational Coordination Committee for Democratic Change
National Democratic Rally
Marxist Left Gathering
Parliament of Syria
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The Communist Labour Party (Arabic: حزب العمل الشيوعي Hizb Al-'Amal Al-Shuyu'iy; also translated as the "Party for Communist Action") is a Syrian communist party active in the 1980s and early 1990s. The party, a Marxist–Leninist splinter group from the Syrian Communist Party,[1] was first formed in August 1986 as the "League for Communist Action," and was renamed to "Communist Labor Party" on 6 August 1981.[2] The party, banned by the government of Syria since its establishment, was victim to a number of crackdowns, where 200 of its members were arrested in 1986 alone.[1] 21 members were sentenced by the Supreme State Security Court for "membership in a secret organization created to change the economic or social structure of the state".[3] Amnesty International protested on behalf of the prisoners.[4] The party continued to secretly distribute its publications–ar-Raya al-Hamra'a ("The Red Banner"), ash-Shyu'i ("The Communist"), al-Brulitari ("The Proletarian")–until 1991. On 6 August 2003, the party announced its return to the political scene in a statement, followed by a new publication called al-An ("Now").[2]

The party is led by Fateh Jamous, who was imprisoned between 1982 and 2000. He was again arrested in 2006.[5]

The party worked with a Palestinian dissident group, called the Palestinian Popular Committees, in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus. The group was founded in 1983. The Palestinian Popular Committees were disbanded in 1985, as a campaign of arrests was launched against the Syrian party.[6]

One of the sentenced activists of the party, Tuhama Mahmoud Ma'rouf, received a suspended sentence in 1995, only to be rearrested and ordered to begin serving her sentence in 2010 for unknown reasons.[7] In February 2011, she began a hunger strike protesting the conditions of her detainment at Adra prison. She was released on 20 June of that year in a mass presidential amnesty for political dissidents.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b Rabinovitch, Itamar; Shaked, Haim (1988). Middle East Contemporary Survey 1986. The Moshe Dayan Center. pp. 607–608. ISBN 978-0-8133-0764-0. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  2. ^ a b "حزب العمل الشيوعي : Syrian Parties" (in Arabic). http://www.syrianparties.info/. Retrieved 25 January 2012. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  3. ^ "Far From Justice: Syria's Supreme State Security Court" (PDF). Human Rights Watch. February 2009. Retrieved 24 January 2012.
  4. ^ "Further information on UA 292/93 (MDE 24/07/93, 26 August 1993) Fear of torture/legal concern". Amnesty International. 2 December 1993. Retrieved 24 January 2012.
  5. ^ "تأجيل محاكمة فاتح جاموس وتحديد جلسة استجواب سرية للمعارض السوري فائق المير أسعد أمام محكمة الجنايات الأولى في دمشق" (in Arabic). Arraee.com. 21 July 2007. Retrieved 24 January 2012.
  6. ^ Ali Badwan (12 March 2006). "حركة فتح المجلس الثوري تتخذ الاغتيالات وسيلة لترجمة مواقفها السياسية" (in Arabic). www.albayan.ae. Retrieved 24 January 2012.
  7. ^ "Urgent Action: Female Political Prisoner on Hunger Strike". Amnesty International. 4 March 2011. Retrieved 23 January 2012.
  8. ^ "Case Information". Committee on Human Rights of the US National Academy of Sciences. 2012. Retrieved 24 January 2012.