Corso di Dottorato di ricerca in Studi Sull'Asia e Sull'Africa ciclo XXX Tesi di Ricerca Labor and Conflict in pre-War Lebanon (1970-1975) A retrival of the political experience of Factory Commitees in the industrial district of Beirut SSD: SPS/14 Coordinatore del Dottorato Prof. Patrick Heinrich Supervisore Prof.ssa Barbara De Poli Dottorando Rossana Tufaro Matricola 956157 Index Introduction..……….............…………………………………………..….……….……......….….…p.1 Prologue……..…………….....……….………………………...…………………………….……..……p.13 • Chapter 1 – Inside the Merchant Republic: numbers and trajectories of a mythology..……......….………...……….………………..….………….………...p.17 I. – Before the Merchant Republic: the integration of Mount Lebanon in the global capitalist market and its impact on the development of Lebanese economy I.I – The silk road: dependent integration in the age of imperialisms I.II – From silk to banks, from the mountains to Beirut: the political economy of the French Mandate and the seeds of the Merchant Republic I.III – The road to lassaiz-faire: the political economy of Lebanese Independence II. – From the Merchant Republic to the Chihabist Reforms and beyond: the political economy of independent Lebanon II.I – “Laissez faire, laissez passer”: Rise and consolidation of the Merchant Republic (1943-1958) II.II – Changing turns and broken dreams: the Chihabist reforms and the Intra Bank crack II.III – Exasperating laissez-faire: the end of Chihabism and the domination of foreign capital III – Beyond banking and trade: the subordination of agriculture and industry and the role of émigré capital III.I – A double subordination: marginalization and marketization of the agricultural sector III.II – By credit, by inputs, by imports: patterns of subordination of the industrial sector III.III – The invisible side of extrovertion: turnover and function of the émigré capital • Chapter 2 – The Merchant Republic revisited: realities beyond the myth…………………………………...….…………….......…………......p.54 I – The Republic of Inequalities: insights from a “growth without development” I.I – A boom for a few: the Lebanese miracle revisited I.II – A ‘two speed’ country: Beirut-centrism and the underdevelopment of peripheral Lebanon I.III – Sectarian inequalities II – The Republic of Monopolies: capital concentration and market appropriation in the Merchant Republic II.I – Which laissez-faire? The Merchant Republic as a consociational oligarchy II.II – «Fifteen capitalists and forty of their lackeys»: the economical in the political in the Merchant Republic II.III – The «Consortium»… II.IV – ...and the “consortia” III – Back to the roots: Sect, clientele, and the making-of Lebanese post-colonial order III.I – Setting up the post-colonial order: the National Pact and the emergence of Lebanese power system III.II – The making-of the post-colonial civic order: Sect, clientele and the reproduction of Lebanese power system III.III – Dominant classes’ ideology as national myth-making: the political thought of Michel Chiha and the authorities of delimitation of the Lebanese Nation-State • Chapter 3 – Who was going where: Class positions and Class trajectories in times of transition……….……….……………………..….….....……………………….p.83 I– Migration, Urbanization, Salarization: social changes in times of transition I.I – A forced urbanization: rural exodus and the hypertrophic growth of Beirut I.II – Tertiarization, diversification, salarization: changing patterns in the employment structure I.III – Emigration vs Education: dominant patterns of social mobility II.IV – The conservativeness of the sect: the role of sectarianism in the reproduction of Lebanese socio-economic structure II.-- Who was who, who was where: Class positions, conditions and trajectories in the Merchant Republic II.I – To whom the top belonged: Sketching a profile of Lebanese dominant classes II.II – Between ascension and pauperization: The multiple faces of the middle classes II.III – Subalterns of the subalterns: the rural and urban proletariats • Chapter 4 – The making of the Lebanese worker: defining the workers’ terms of membership in the post-colonial civil order..….….……….………….p.101 I – Workers before Lebanon: the emergence of organized labor and the struggle for social rights under the Mandate I.I – Before the Merchant Republic: workers in the colonial order I.II – Cracking the colonial order: workers’ activism and the road to the Independence I.III – Re-negotiating the social hierarchies: the Labor Code and the struggle for the evacuation II – Defining the space for Lebanese workers: the Labor Code and the post-colonial civil order II.I – A victory or a Trojan Horse? The Labor Code as a disciplinary dispositive II.II – Playing with the patrons’ rules: the Code and the reiteration of master- laborer paternalism II.III – Full workers vs subaltern workers: rights distribution in the Lebanese Labor Code III. – To enforce and not to enforce: State and workers’ rights after the Code III.I – A game of empty boxes: the politics of (non) enforcement of Khouri and Chamʿ oun III.II – Reshuffling the rules of the game: Fuad Chihab social reforms III.III – Changes and continuities in Chiahab’s reforms: partial re-shapings and reiterated denials • Chapter 5 – The re-organization of Lebanese labor: anatomies of cooptations and dislocations.…………………………………………….…………………………p.130 I. – The great “Labor Game”: repression, cooptation and the ‘geopolitics of labor’ from Khouri to Chihab I.I – Resetting labor unionism: the autocratic centralism of Beshara al-Khouri I.II – Winds of Pan-Arabism, winds of Cold War: inside Camille Chamʿ oun’s gentle cooptation I.III – New 'enemies', old practices: Fuad Chihab and the labor movement II. – Towards a common ground: the social crisis and the process of unification of Lebanese labor movement I.I – Winds of change: the failure of Chihabism and the emergence of unified class stances II.II – Reorganizing leftwards, 'unifying' rightwards: pattern of unification of Lebanese labor movement II.III – Change everything so that nothing changes: struggles, gains and constraints of the united CGTL • Chapter 6 – Where was industry going: Early 1970s industrial development and its impact on Lebanese industrial employment……………………………p.150 I. – Towards a new industry? Patterns of industrial development on the eve of the 1970s I.I – New markets, new investors, new productions: expansion and changes in the Lebanese industrial sector I.II – Changes and innovations in the Lebanese traditional sectors: developmental patterns in the food and textile industry I.III – A two-fold development: the articulation of early 1970s industrial development in the craft and industrial sectors II. – Changing industries, changing industrial workforce: the impact of 1970s industrial development on the structure of Lebanese industrial employment II.I – Expanding industry, expanding industrial workforce: patterns of growth of Lebanese industrial employment II.II – From periphery to periphery: geographical origin and residential collocation of Lebanese new industrial working-class II.III – Young, men, rural: age, gender and sectarian composition of the new working-class • Chapter 7 – Inside the factory: Labor conditions and relations in the early 1970s big industry…………..…………….…………..…...……….……………………p. 168 I. – New industries, old practices: hiring, firing and paying in the early 1970s big industry I.I – Exasperating extrovertion, exasperating exploitation: employment and wage policies in early 1970s big industry I.II – Hiring, firing and paying in practice: factory gates as a limbo I.III – Maximizing working-time: working-hours, working rests and working premiums in early 1970s big industry I.IV – No costs at any cost: social security, labor indemnities and cost of living allowances II. – Discipline and Punish: Labor division and the production of docile working subjects II.I – A primitive Taylorism: the organization of labor division in early 1970s big industry II.II – Exploitation and alienation: an insight on labor tasks, labor conditions, and self-exploitation II.III – Discipline and punish: labor division and the subordinating control of the workforce • Chapter 8 – Planting the seeds of insubordination: origins, diffusion and organization of the Factory Committees…………….…………….p. 188 I. – «To pivot around the working-class»: the Organization for Communist Action and the organization of the Factory Committees I.I – Profiling the father: Lebanese New Left and the Organization for Communist Action I.II – “What is to be done?”: Setting-up an action plan I.III – The 'paper comrade': Niḍāl al-ʿ Ummāl and the recourse to the delegated word II. Inside the Factory Committees: diffusion, organization, action II.I – A specter hunting the factories: the Committees and the organizational management of political activity II.II – Driving the revolution in the factories: anatomies of a dangerous crescendo II.III – Driving workers towards the revolution: • Chapter 9 – Breaking-up the lines: militant working-class and the political turmoil…….………………….……………………….……….….……………..…p.207 I – Connecting leftwards: The Gandour strike and the bloody irruption of the working- class on Lebanese public life I.I – Towards the strike: the Gandour factory and its tensions I.II – Towards a new beginning: the strike and its bloody end I.III – The quiet before the storm: strike's aftermaths and the end of the age of innocence II – Tu quoque: the Mkalles days and the definitive dislocation from the CGTL Epilogue………………..……………………..…….….………………..……….…………..……………….…..p.216 Conclusions……..…………….….…………………………………………..….….....….…………..…………p.217