Progressive Socialist Party - Administrative Organisation

Administrative Organisation

The stronghold of the PSP/PLA laid in the Jabal Barouk area within the Shouf, which they turned into a semi-autonomous canton in the early 1980s, known unofficially as the ‘Druze Mountain’ (Arabic: Jabal al-Duruz). Centred at the Druze town of Baakline – the PSP political and military HQ – the canton comprised the Shouf proper, including the historical towns of Moukhtara (the Jumblatt family’ feudal seat near Beiteddine), Deir al-Qamar, Aley, and Bhamdoun. At west Beirut, the PSP controlled since May 1985 the Druze-populated Karakol quarter, parts of Rue Hamra and a large portion of Rue Watta el-Msaytbi; the latter a small Druze street that housed the Party’s main political offices in the capital city.

A well-organized civil service network, the ‘Civilian Administration of the Mountain’ (CAM), was set up on October 1, 1983 at Beiteddine, headed by an eight-man supreme council that included a central committee and a general congress. The CAM's own 23 bureaus provided everything from education to medical care and also employed 2,000 seasonal workers in agricultural and industrial projects in the Shouf. Upon the inclusion of the Iqlim al-Kharrub coastal enclave south of Beirut into the canton in 1984-85, a Druze-run ‘Holding’, the COGECO group, was made responsible for running illegal activities at the ports of Jiyeh and Khalde, including importation of fuel from Iran, drug-trafficking and gambling at clandestine permises.

Beiteddine was also the home of the PSP media services, responsible for editing its official newspaper (Arabic: Al-Anba’a) and operated their own radio station, the "Voice of the Mountain" (Arabic: Iza’at Sawt al-Djabal) or "La Voix de la Montagne" in French. In addition to Palestinian and Syrian backing, the PSP/PLA received further military assistance from Libya and the USSR, whilst the expatriated Druze community in the United States provided financial support.