Syrian Communist Party
The Communist Action Party ( "Hizb Al-'Amal Al-Shuyu'iy") is a Syrian communist party active in the 1980s and early 1990s. The party, a Marxist–Leninist splinter group from the Syrian Communist Party, was first formed in August 1976 as the "League for Communist Action," and was renamed to "Syrian communist Action Party" on 6 August 1981. The party, banned by the government of Syria since its establishment, was victim to a number of crackdowns, where 200 of its members were arrested in 1986 alone. 21 members were sentenced by the Supreme State Security Court for "membership in a secret organization created to change the economic or social structure of the state". Amnesty International protested on behalf of the prisoners. The party continued to secretly distribute its publications–"ar-Raya al-Hamra'a" (""The Red Banner"), "ash-Shyu'i" ("The Communist"), "al-Brulitari" ("The Proletarian")–until 1991. On 6 August 2003, the party announced its return to the political scene in a statement, followed by a new publication called "al-An" ("Now"").