OACL was closely allied with the Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine led by Naif Hawatmeh, which had a similar background to the left-wing sector of the ANM.

[2] In the spring of 1972 a large number of OACL members, who felt that neither group had committed sufficiently to "people's war", defected to Fatah.

After the defeat of 1982, Muhsin Ibrahim elaborated a critical review of the politics of the LNM during its decade-long existence, which were disseminated through the party weekly organ Beirut al-Massa in the end of that year.

Hawi claims that the joint communique calling for resistance to the Israeli occupation of Beirut was written by himself and Ibrahim on 15 September 1982, while the initial resistance activities against the Israelis were undertaken jointly by the Communist Party and the OACL along with some smaller organizations, with Hawi and Ibrahim meeting daily in secret to coordinate activities.

The anti-Syrian coalition was defeated and by 1987 the OACL was forced underground, since Muhsen Ibrahim refused to go along with the Syrian policy of opposition to PLO chairman Yasser Arafat.

[11] During 1982-2000, the OACL supported the Shi'a Islamist Hezbollah movement in its campaign of guerrilla warfare against the Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon.

In virtue of Mohsen Ibrahim's position as the executive secretary of the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) since 1973, the OCAL played a major role in the 1975-76 Civil War thanks to his allegedly 2,000-strong militia, trained and armed by the Palestinian DFLP and Syria.