RLS@Beirut

Rosa Luxemburg Beirut office

RLS has been working in Lebanon since 2017. The Beirut office currently works within Lebanon and Iraq as its main countries of cooperation, in close coordination with local partner institutions, groups, and individuals. RLS also cooperates with Syrian communities in exile and analyzes developments in Iran. The office’s programs focus on Migration and Forced Migration, Conflict and Post Conflict, Political Economy and Social Rights, Food Sovereignty and Feminist politics.

Who is Rosa Luxemburg?

Rosa Luxemburg was arguably one of the most iconic figures of the German and international workers' movement of the last centuries. She still inspires us today with her steadfastness for peace, her eloquent critical intellect, and her lifelong commitment to democratic socialism from below.Rosa Luxemburg was arguably one of the most iconic figures of the German and international workers' movement of the last centuries. She still inspires us today with her steadfastness for peace, her eloquent critical intellect, and her lifelong commitment to democratic socialism from below.

Programs

Program

Conflict and post conflict

The Beirut office of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation works, among others, on the countries of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Wars, conflicts and violence have affected all of these countries for decades and continue to do so today. In our program we deal with different forms of structural violence and resistance against it. How do post-civil war countries deal with their past and what can we deduce from this for the current situation? What forms of social resistance and socio-cultural engagement can there be in the midst of wars, how can we support them? These are some of the questions we are addressing in our program.

Program

Migration and Forced Migration

Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq have been countries with diverse migration movements for decades. One of our thematic programs is therefore a broad engagement with the topic of migration. We mainly focus on the access of migrants, refugees, and stateless people to social and human rights, as well as the challenges faced by these groups due to their denial of these rights. We also look at the self-organization of migrants and refugees in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq and support different forms of grass root activism.

Program

Political Economy and Food Sovereignty

With our program, we aim to break down the complex economic and political relations that have caused the economic collapse in our countries while also discussing just policies and alternative economies. A main area of relevance is supporting measures of food sovereignty, to promote social justice and a fairer distribution of wealth and resources.

Program

Intersectional Feminisim

Feminist and queer movements in Lebanon & the larger SWANA region have historically been one of the main drivers towards social change and intersectional equality. The lives behind these movements have committed themselves to addressing and politicizing so-called “social” issues including domestic violence, women’s right to pass on nationality, and queer rights in the face of discriminatory civil laws and policies governing the existence of women and marginalized identities by the Lebanese sectarian system. Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung aims to support grassroots and community-led alternative groups, collectives and initiatives that work towards an intersectional and inclusive reorganization of society.

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Publications

It is one of the most difficult choices of his life. Rationally, returning to a place where stability is emerging would make sense. However, a person’s value is often defined by their principles and stances, by the causes they support and the freedoms they devote their lives to fight for.

Writer's Home in Maarakeh, Southern Lebanese Village. August 22, 2024.

“I had a dream yesterday. We were all at Teta’s place, with our uncle there too, playing in the garden with my cousins. Suddenly, the house was hit by an Israeli missile. Then the houses around us, where our relatives live, were bombed one after another. Everything around us was destroyed.”

We invite you to travel with us through the history of what was once known as the fertile granary of Mesopotamia with stories of farmers from different parts of Kurdistan and Iraq who have struggled to preserve their land, their livelihoods, and their heritage in the face of political, economic and climate challenges over the last century.

Abstract
Different wars have long subjected Iraq to toxins. Today the international trade of highly hazardous pesticides, in the name of increasing agricultural profitability, continues this violent legacy. Many studies have pointed out the global toxic effects of pesticides on humans, agriculture, food, and the environment. This study aims to understand the pesticide trade in Iraq, specifically. It gives an overview of the trade and the pesticide market in Iraq. It names the companies and the way they work in the Iraqi market. It looks at the specific kinds of pesticides that are introduced into the Iraqi market. The study also provides an insight into the role of the state within this trade, the outcomes of this illegal trade, and its toxic effects on farmers and peasants.

In terms of Lebanon’s ongoing crisis, nothing has changed in the meantime. The elites are fighting off political reforms with all their might, despite the rampant economic devastation in the country. More than three quarters of the population live below the poverty line and yearly inflation has spiked to around 200 percent, meaning an average of around 17 percent per month.

Abstract
Relying on extensive fieldwork, this article provides a summary of research exploring the interconnectedness of image, imagination, and space, with a specific focus on the experiences of migrants and refugees. It investigates the intricate relationship between economic development, geography, and narratives surrounding guilt and racism within a capitalist system. Through the analysis of political ideologies, media representation, social discourse, and historical experiences, the research sheds light on the social, economic, and political implications of the spatial fix.

As part of the RLS interview series, Yalda, who was visiting Beirut from Germany, February to
May, conducted this interview with Rania, a psychologist, from Al Najdeh Association.
Yalda Wardasbi is a scholarship holder of the RLS and is undertaking her BA degree in
Political Science in Berlin.
Rania Al Sous is an architect and clinical psychologist. She works in refugee camps in
Lebanon and is a volunteer online psychologist.

Peasants in the region continue to suffer from the impacts of conflicts both old and new.
War and imperial violence have not only shaped society and the political structures in Iraq, but have an impact on contemporary agricultural relations. Agriculture and the reproductive labour performed by farmers in Kurdistan has historically played a major role in sustaining resistance to the former Ba’ath regime of Saddam Hussein. Whether in central Iraq or Kurdistan, war continues to have devastating consequences for the security of peasants.

If you don’t know where it is, you might simply walk past it: a place where the bodies of hundreds of women and children killed in the Sabra and Shatila massacre are buried. An invisible graveyard whose location seems to have been chosen chaotically and by chance. As if there had been nowhere else to put them.
It’s a hidden place, but Nuhad Srour Mirai always finds it, sometimes she even wanders there in her sleep. With sure steps she makes her way through people, scooters, chickens, and stalls. Between a stall selling vegetables and one selling clothes, she turns to the right.

Barely four months after independents entered the Lebanese parliament, their meagre progress points to the need for a more radical approach.
When the results of the elections in Lebanon were announced in May this year, the excitement within the opposition movement was palpable: 13 opposition candidates who were not affiliated to any of the establishment parties entered parliament. In some areas, they replaced candidates who had dominated local politics for decades.

Faced with diminished seed diversity, local farmers are raising demands to strengthen food sovereignty in the country
In 2003, Iraq’s central seed bank, located in Abu Ghraib, was destroyed by a bombing raid carried out by the US military. The seed bank was tremendously important for agriculture in Iraq and the entire region. Some 1,400 seed varieties had been stored there since the 1970s, some of which have now become extinct. The loss of this thousand-year-old collection of various seeds has had grave consequences for biodiversity and agricultural production in Iraq.

This guide is based on recent experiences with food, worker, and feminist cooperatives in Lebanon between 2015 and 2022. It also benefits from cross-country conversations and networks attempting to adapt cooperation to platform economies and understand how artificial intelligence will impact labor rights in the coming years. You can use it for your own learning but also as a tool to discuss with others. It draws learnings from failed and successful attempts equally - and most initiatives sit somewhere between the two.
We focus here on two types of cooperatives important to our context and time: food coops and worker coops.

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