Unions are mulling whether to join budding opposition campaigns to press popular demands for political accountability, parliamentary elections and reliable public services. “You Stink,” which has the largest following of the myriad campaigns that have materialized in response to the stifling trash crisis, announced Saturday it had little faith in Speaker Nabih Berri’s “national dialogue” planned for Wednesday, Sept. 9, and said it would demonstrate at Beirut’s Nejmeh Square that evening.
“This dialogue is beyond the bounds of the constitutional framework,” said Lucien Bourjeili, a You Stink leader, at a news conference. “It is nothing but a call for the authorities to close their ranks in face of the people, and to protect their own interests.”
The group is calling for parliamentary elections and a slew of political reforms.
Berri last week invited political parties to a “national dialogue” in Parliament to break the protracted political logjam that has left Lebanon without a president since 2014 and parliamentary elections since 2009. The Parliament extended its own term in 2013 for four years.
The depth of the dysfunction became clear for all to see this summer, when authorities failed to maintain reliable garbage collection in Beirut and Mount Lebanon, and municipalities turned to dumping trash in forests, rivers and populated areas. Residents suffered from particularly severe power cuts, and the Cabinet was unable to hold a productive meeting in June or July.
You Stink demonstrators occupied the Environment Ministry last Tuesday in a bid to force the resignation of Environment Minister Mohammad Machnouk, who surrendered the waste management portfolio to Agriculture Minister Akram Chehayeb in the days before. But security forces broke up the sit-in after nine hours, sending seven to the hospital, and Machnouk remained in his post.
At the news conference Saturday, in view of the Environment Ministry offices, Bourjeili mocked the minister and repeated the call for his resignation.
“The environment minister won’t resign until he becomes a caricature of irresponsibility,” Bourjeili said, wearing a neck brace to treat the injuries he sustained at the sit-in.
Bourjeili also blasted the findings of an Interior Ministry review that led the minister to discipline eight security personnel for acting without orders on the night of Aug. 22, when security forces violently dispersed a large You Stink demonstration. He called the investigation inadequate and called for Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk “to be held to account.”
You Stink is demanding authorities release seven demonstrators still jailed. It is also calling on the state to release municipality funds, devolve waste-management responsibilities, forbid makeshift trash dumps and support sustainable waste management practices. It is also demanding the financial prosecutor open a transparent investigation of corruption in the waste-management sector.
Police have barricaded Nejmeh Square, where You Stink is planning to rally Wednesday, since Aug. 22, but the campaign says it plans to approach the space anyways.
“We’re going to enter with our bodies,” Bourjeili told The Daily Star. “It is a public square, it should be available to the public.”
The campaign is calling for a march to coincide with the national dialogue and for a larger rally at Nejmeh Square Wednesday at 6pm.
The Union Coordination Committee, a coalition of labor and professional syndicates, already announced it would strike Wednesday, to coincide with the national dialogue, though it remains to be seen which of its organizations will actually join.
The Union of Beirut Port Workers will debate among its membership Monday whether to support the popular campaigns.
“If we do agree to strike, it will halt the whole country,” union president Beshara al-Asmar said of the outsized role of port workers in the national economy.
A new activist group named the People’s Court announced Sunday that it had filed a criminal complaint against Environment Minister Mohammad Machnouk for committing an environmental disaster.
“We filed a complaint against Machnouk over his administrative violations that led to the spread of diseases and epidemics,” the movement said during a press conference in Martyrs’ Square in Beirut.
“We want to tell [officials] that they are from the people and shall return to them ... we are on the lookout for you,” the movement added.
It demanded a modern electoral law that would constitute a platform for political reform in Lebanon and the implementation of administrative decentralization in the state.
Soldiers were seen deployed around Downtown Beirut on an otherwise quiet afternoon, Sunday, in a show of force before the week’s expected dialogues and demonstrations.
By Philip Issa
