 For more videos on people's struggles, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Hello and welcome to People's Dispatch and NewsClick. For the fifth day today, hundreds and thousands of people of Lebanon are on the streets protesting against the government. The protests began on October 17th after the government introduced attacks on VoIP calls via WhatsApp and Facebook, and soon escalated into a larger criticism of the government's economic policies. To talk more about the situation on the ground, the mood of the protesters, and the larger reasons for the protests, we have with us Janan Akhal of the Central Committee of the Lebanese Communist Party. Thank you so much for joining us. Could you start by first talking about the mood of the ground, because today the news has come that the Saad Hariri government has approved a series of economic reforms, and these include cutting the salaries of ministers, say reducing expenses from the state. So this has been portrayed as some sort of an effort to address the concerns of the protesters. And today was also the deadline given by Prime Minister Hariri to find a solution, failing which he threatened he would resign. So after this news has come, what is the mood on the streets? For the past three days, let's say, the shouts in the streets have been to actually curse the current minister of interior. After the speech, the curses started getting directed towards the Prime Minister himself. Because no matter how much, I mean, I don't know what's being said currently in the Western media, but the actual speech of the Prime Minister was to actually tell people that all austerity measures will be taken, that the projects, that the suggestions of the IMF will be followed, and that the finite and final privatization of what is left out of the Lebanese government will be implemented. So basically, this is what people have seen in the speech of the Prime Minister. Right. And how do you see the next couple of days panning out as far as the protests are concerned? It's a difficult question, but still. It's a very difficult question. Actually, our biggest fears were about today. Everyone was talking about today being a very important day because of many things. First of all, because Hariri had announced his, let's say, solution. Second of all, because of the extent and grandeur of this movement, I'm talking about yesterday, there was 2.5 million people in the streets all over Lebanon in a country of almost 4 million people. So the extent and strength of this movement meant that the political parties and power felt threatened. And we all know that when capital is threatened, it hits hard. And this is what we were afraid of that they took there. And this is what happened. They took their thugs into the streets all over Beirut, all over the regions. People were attacked. People were shot. People are threatened everywhere. So this is one thing that happened. But people stayed in the streets. And this is what showed how set-fast people are. We were also afraid of the media because we, meaning the left, meaning the Lebanese Communist Party, meaning everyone who's in the streets, don't own the media. Those who own the media are those who have the money. So the media is talking about what we call Muharribin Mundasin, which is something that would be like Sabotel, who are destroying the streets, destroying people's properties, etc. These are their arms. These are what they're fighting us with. And until now, the protesters, people are still supporting us. The protesters are still in the streets. There's no fear because actually it started, fear started to end at the moment where people stopped fearing that these parties would cut their services and stop paying them money. So this is the most important thing that happened today. Let's see at night. Hopefully the thugs won't come out again at night. What is also important is that after the speech of Hariri, people did not buy into the speech. People did not accept it. Several initiatives have been launched to propose what the protesters want, what the demands of the protesters are, and what, let's say, the plan of the protesters is until now everyone is agreeing upon the idea of the resignation of the government. I think that the coming two days would be a test for the steadfastness of these protesters if we really want to have a resignation, if we're not going to be afraid of the threats, the social and economic threats of the protesters. Yesterday night, they were saying that there are immortal things happening in these protests, knowing that people from all religious and non-religious backgrounds are there, nobody bought into this. So let's see how steadfast we can stay because we think that they are very much afraid. We're not the ones we're afraid. And to talk a little bit more about the protests, the general impression being given in the media is that these are entirely spontaneous, just comprised of a mass of individuals who were just angry. So could you talk a bit about the actual organization that is happening behind these protests? What are the progressive movements, including the Lebanese Communist Party? What is their stand and roll in this? Right. So basically this protest is the result of the protests that started years ago, specifically during 2011, the toppling of the regime protests, then 2014 movements, union movements that during two years unions were built around Lebanon and demonstrations and strike took place. Then the 2015, which was called the trash, you stink movement. And this has been, this is said not only by the Communist Party, everyone is aware of the connection of all of these movements, where people have been changing and turning issues and causes from trash into larger sociopolitical demands. Even now, because if you want to talk about now, the movements or the protests started because of a proposal by the Minister of Communications to put a tax of six dollars on the WhatsApp call. This is something people would laugh about if you think that such a suggestion launched the largest movement in the history, in the contemporary history, modern history of Lebanon after the civil war. It is not about communication, the communication minister. It's not about the six dollar bill or tax. This is about the accumulation of demands of movements and of awareness, political awareness for the people in Lebanon in general. So definitely all of the parties and groups and political organizers, organizations that were present since 2011, almost until now, but specifically those of 2015 from different leftist movements, secularist movements around Lebanon, and definitely the Communist Party have been or currently organizing in the streets. So could you, you mentioned some of the enduring resentments that have built up over the last couple of years. So could you give us a bit more background into what the economic situation is and what are these key resentments that are broken out right now? The economic situation in Lebanon is, let's start with talking about the minimum wage, where in a country that a minimum of four thousand dollars is needed for a family to live in the city, the minimum wage in Lebanon is almost three hundred dollars. The level of unemployment is almost, I think, 50 percent this year. The level of poverty has gotten to the extent that people, I mean, let's put it this way, people who have been for years supporters and members of the sectarian political parties are currently detaching themselves from these political parties because of the economic situation. We're talking unemployment, we're talking housing problems, we're talking services at all levels, we're talking of a country where there's only one sector working which is the banking and real estate sector. So this is what led people to go out to the streets. Right and a lot of the traditional forces, including Hezbollah, have in some senses expressed their support for the government. There is at some level there has been some sort of a, it seems like there's been a political unity established with all the parties saying no this government needs to continue. So like you said, it's an interesting thing that people have actually, despite the traditional support of two various parties have actually come out on the streets and seem to be saying that we are not going to stand for this anymore. I think Marx is laughing now because the alliances are very much clapped alliances. All the parties, meaning all the sectarian lords, meaning all warmongers, meaning all the bourgeoisie are supporting one another and the members and the groups who are in the streets are representatives of the proletariat, the working class, the disenfranchised women and refugees. So for us, the separation and division is logical and normal. Thank you so much, Jennifer, for talking to us. You're welcome. Thank you. That's all we have time for today. Keep watching People's Dispatch and NewsClick.