Shawi, Niqula

Born Mar. 14, 1912, in Tripoli, Lebanon. Figure in the Lebanese working-class and national liberation movement.

In 1933, Shawi joined the Syrian Communist Party, which at that time included both Syrian and Lebanese Communists. In 1934 he was elected to the Central Committee of the SCP, and in 1937 he became secretary of the Central Committee. After the division of the SCP in 1944 into the independent Syrian and Lebanese Communist parties, Shawi became secretary and a member of the Central Committee of the Lebanese Communist Party (LCP). From 1948 to 1958, while the two parties were reunited as the Communist Party of Syria and Lebanon, he was a member of the party’s Central Committee and Central Leadership. From 1958 to 1965, Shawi was secretary of the Central Committee of the LCP, and from 1965 to 1979 he was general secretary of the Central Committee. In 1979, Shawi became honorary president of the LCP.