Collective Action

Despite pouring rain, protesters gathered across Lebanon once again Wednesday for the seventh consecutive day of anti-government demonstrations.

The heavens opened on Beirut in the afternoon, but crowds were not put off. Instead, they took shelter in shop doorways and at the entrance to Mohammad al-Amin Mosque, where they continued to chant revolutionary songs.

Turnout in Riad al-Solh, which has been a focal point for the demonstrations, started out lower than it had been in previous days. However, as the rain eased, numbers picked up, with protesters keeping as dry as they could under different-colored umbrellas sold to them by astute street vendors.

Crowds gathered in other cities across the country – including Sidon, Tripoli and Aley – to protest against government corruption, deteriorating living conditions and a series of reforms approved by Cabinet in an attempt to appease the Lebanese people.

Roads were cut off at countless points. In some places, this led to clashes between protesters and security forces who had been ordered to reopen the routes.

Once again, volunteers woke up at the crack of dawn to clear and sort garbage for recycling and to tie plastic bags to trees and lampposts, in an effort to encourage Wednesday’s protesters to be waste conscious.

In the capital, tents remained pitched in the center of public spaces, such as Sassine and Martyrs’ Square, with protesters having camped there the night before. In Riad al-Solh, campers rose early and shared a communal breakfast of labneh, olives and bread in front of the reels of barbed wire separating them from the Grand Serail.

Homeware store Khoury Home parked a van next to Downtown Beirut's Azarieh Building, which allowed protesters to charge their cellphones to continue to be able to find their friends in the crowd, take photographs and post live protest updates to Twitter.

Hundreds of protesters once again headed to the headquarters of the Central Bank in Hamra and Tyre, calling for the resignation of Governor Riad Salameh.

At Saint George Hospital in Ashrafieh, doctors and nurses dressed in their white coats gathered in the main lobby, waving Lebanese flags and chanting, “The people want the toppling of the regime.” A similar demonstration was held outside American University of Beirut Medical Center in Hamra.

In Tripoli’s al-Nour Square, demonstrators painted a giant Lebanese flag on the wall of an industrial building using two towering cranes. Below the red, white and green, protesters painted slogans such as “People’s revolution” and “Tripoli, city of freedom.”

The northern capital has been one of the most consistently occupied locations since the start of protests on Thursday night. Wednesday was no exeption, with hundreds gathered by late afternoon.