Tasks of the New Stage (1973) – historical PFLP document now available electronically

Tasks of the New Stage, the classic PFLP document laying out its political vision developed at the Front’s March 1972 Third National Congress, is now available electronically.

Honouring former PFLP General Secretary Comrade Abu Ali Mustafa on the 12th anniversary of his assassination, we are pleased to make clear that the thought and struggle of the Palestinian people and its leaders cannot be slain by guns, bombs, or helicopter gunships. We are very happy to see this classic historical document – whose lessons and discussions remain of interest and deeply relevant in the current time of struggle and crisis in the Palestinian liberation movement.

The document analyzes the next steps and the current situation of the Palestinian revolutionary movement following severe attacks by the Jordanian regime, looking forward to mass mobilization, building a national front, building the revolutionary party and armed struggle to liberate Palestine, among many other questions that continue to remain at the top of the agenda of the struggle for Palestine.

Tasks of the New Stage was published in English in 1973 by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s Foreign Relations Committee and  widely circulated internationally.

Table of Contents

Published by the Foreign Relations Committee PFLP Beirut 1973

This is a translation of the PFLP’s Political Report of its Third National Congress held in March 1972. The original program was published in Arabic in 1972, under the title “Muhimmat al-Marhalah al-Jadidah”. No other translation is considered official.

I. Introduction

II. A view of the experience in the previous stage

III. The Objective Conditions

IV. The Subjective Conditions of the Resistance

V. The Left-wing of the Resistance Movement

VI. The battle of September 1970-July 1971

VII. The post-September Stage

VIII. The New Political Battles facing the Resistance in the New Reality

IX. The Tasks of the New Stage (Headlines of the Programme for the Present Stage)

X. The Building of the Revolutionary Party

XI. The New National Front

XII. The Mobilization of the Masses

XIII. Revolutionary Violence

XIV. Arab Revolutionary Action

XV. The Alliances of the New Stage on the Arab and International Level

XVI. Resistance Inside Occupied Palestine

XVII. The Battle of the Resistance Against the Reactionary Regime in Jordan

XVIII. The Battle of the Resistance Against the Liquidatory Plan

XIX. Who Represents the Palestinian People and their National Rights

XX. The Future of the West Bank and its Relationship with the East Bank of Jordan

XXI. The Resistance Outside Palestine and Jordan

XXII. Conclusion