The August 4 explosion that destroyed the port of Beirut and half of the city was the result of 7 years of neglect. Caused by the abandonment and corruption of the bourgeois factions that have sustained their rule by dividing and pitting Lebanon and the working people against each other, as well as by disunity among them, the great explosion became the last straw after the crisis of capitalism and pandemic.

The uprising of the Lebanese people, which continued since October 17 with partial setbacks and outbreaks, is again on the upswing with the latest explosion. Overcoming the division of the country and having risen up, the people, on the one hand, are overcoming the explosion and completing the clearance of the ruins while, on the other, they have sought to occupy the buildings of two ministries and the Council of Banks, for first time since October. The Prime Minister and the government announced their resignations, but the demands of the growing uprising of the people have not been limited to the resignation of the government. The whole political system is being questioned with its social and economic base, starting with President Michel Aoun, with the removal of the political structure based on religious and sectarian division, a democratization has become part of the people's agenda.

The disaster of August 4 has redoubled the hatred and anger of the people towards the sectarian political system. At the same time, the sectarian bourgeois factions, which turned Lebanon into a country of foreign interventions, found the conditions for the continuity of their existence and domination in the religious and sectarian division that have perpetually fueled it and continue to do so. The current political system was established and is supported by the imperialists, with a part also supported by Israeli Zionism. The latest visit by Macron, the representative of the French imperialists, is a clear sign and expression of this support.

The people, in addition to demanding basic freedoms neglected by the system such as freedom of expression, assembly and organization, also show their anger against the destructive results of capitalism such as unemployment and poverty, which led to its uprising last year, and against the attempts to place on the people the accursed results of the capitalist crisis, which have reached unbearable levels; they also want a new social order in which they do not go to sleep hungry.

That this popular struggle is a united struggle that transcends the sectarian division, in addition to being a conquest of it, is a fundamental guarantee for the achievement of victory.

Regarding the state of Martial Law declared under the pretext of confronting the effects of the explosion, as in the example of Turkey, where it was declared after the coup of July 15, 2016 and used by the regime as a lever to reinforce its reactionary government, can become an instrument of repression of the people's struggle.

What the Lebanese people need is the establishment of a people's power in which the workers rule directly. This power can only be formed and consolidated by fighting the internal and external enemies of the people, which are the imperialists, collaborationist monopolies and warlords; to ensure success, the mass struggle must expand into a struggle for power.

As the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations (ICMLPO), we support to the end the demands and just struggle of the Lebanese people.

Solidarity with the struggle of the Lebanese people!

Coordinating Committee, ICMLPO

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