Syria: In imperialist sights
James Turley writes about the Imperialist campaign against Syria and asks where the Left and the Anti-War Movement are. Full text at link.
It is clear at this point that the Syrian uprising - met with such ruthless brutality by the Ba’athist regime - is in the process of being transformed into some kind of civil war. It is equally clear that imperialism has taken sides against the government of Bashar al-Assad. What is less clear is who exactly is fighting the Ba’athists....
All this raises the question: where is the workers’ movement and the left? In Syria, alas, it is hardly in a position to challenge the Islamists for dominance of the uprising. Its largest sections, especially the Syrian Communist Party, are hopelessly compromised by the regime. To the left of the ‘official communists’, there are only small, nascent organisations, which as yet lack visible penetration into society at large. The uprising has involved political strikes, but not on any large scale....
As for our own comrades on the British far left, the story is also somewhat dispiriting. Socialist Worker (February 25) is very keen to accentuate the positive in the rebellion, reporting demonstrations in that tone of forced breathless excitement we all know so well. The Socialist Workers Party still seems to be in ‘Tahrir Square mode’, unable to see that the forces contesting the legacy of the Arab awakening are more fragmental and, in places, more dubious than ever; realism, as ever, loses out to that starry-eyed optimism that no scale of disappointment seems to dissipate.
In any case, our first duty in Britain is to disrupt the game our imperialist rulers are playing with Syria - and what a dangerous game it is, involving not just the fates of Syrian protestors, but also the possibility of a truly horrific war on Iran. A pity, then, that political opportunism and cynical factional manoeuvres have left the anti-war movement in this country reduced to a desiccated, demoralised rump.
international |
anti-war / imperialism |
other press
Thursday March 01, 2012 15:15
by pat c
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Comments (11 of 11)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11You should watch Lizzie Phelans documentary on Syria when it comes out. Here is a YouTube link to her talking about it. She makes some very pertinent points as usual.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl0KndnqryM
http://www.piratemyfilm.com/projects/329
are firmly in the sights of the syrian governments onslaught. 3,998 killed to date in that town alone (UN figures to 28 Feb).
Would ye ever cop on and stop trying to whitewash this wanton murder.
I agree with your point on the attack of the Syrian army on Homs. Assad's father did the same in 82, and killed 10,000 people in the same area.
However, it's worth thinking about what may happen if the Syrian opposition's thousands of fighters do manage to topple Assad.
Firstly, the Alawites will get it in the neck. I don't think that many would question that given the history of Syria when the Alawites were not in power.
Secondly, according the Catholic News Service (and eyewitness reports, see the 'Time magazine article attached), the mass anti-Assad rallies took up the chant of “The Christians to Beirut, the Alawites to the grave”. Not a proposition that any socialist or secularist would welcome.
The Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) leader Cemil Bayik stated that if Turkey (where the Syrian opposition are based) were to intervene against Assad, the PKK would fight on the Syrian side on the basis that the Turkish were denying Kurdish nationhood there, and also that the opposition was hostile to the Kurdish minority.
As in the title.
"The March 4th (2012) Russian presidential elections this Sunday have been identified by Lyndon LaRouche as a highly probable trigger point for the British to launch World War III. Were Vladimir Putin to win that election, as is slated, the possibility that Russia would cede its sovereignty to 'regime change' intimidation would be nullified. In no uncertain terms, Putin intends to defend the sovereignty of his nation: 'The battle for Russia is on, and we will prevail!' "
YES to useful jobs, and NO to the bankers bailouts of derivatives-debt looting?
"So, Russia and China’s commitment to science, technological progress and physically productive societies -- at the same moment that the 'green' economies of Western Europe and the United States are facing an end-game breakdown crisis -- make those scientifically progressive nations, Russia and China, the mortal enemy of an empire whose own commitment is to radical global depopulation, ending of manned space exploration, and green energy."
"For this reason, Putin's policies must be defended not only by patriots of Russia, but also patriots of all nations around the world."
The above excerpts have come from the following location: http://larouchepac.com/forvictory
Related link:
http://www.humanrightsireland.com/MEPs/5December2011/Em...l.htm
W Finnerty where do you stand on defence of Assad?
Patc quoting from Taylor and CPGB seems unsure whom to support in Syria...
Syria is a complex situation. Assad should be driven from power by the opposition forces who stand for a Democratic Syria. Whats happening at present is that a bunch of Islamic fundamentalists are posing as the Syrian Opposition. This opposition has openly stated that they will ethnically cleanse the Alawi and Christian communities and they will drive Womens rights back to the stone age.
No Socialist could support such an opposition. Targeting of civilians by Assad cannot be supported but the fundamentalists are the main enemy at this stage.
Even from your point of view Felix, I fail to see how it is in Israels interests to have Islamic Fundamentalists in power in power in Syria.
I would not like to see President Assad murdered in the way Colonel Gaddafi was murdered.
Neither would I like to see Syria bombed in the way NATO bombed Libya.
"War does not determine who is right; war determines who is left."
Related link: http://www.finnachta.com/Confucius.htm
Patc says:
" Assad should be driven from power by the opposition forces who stand for a Democratic Syria"
I would never ever say that in this context where the UN/NATO has declared war on Assad.
In this contect, the real context, Assad stands for a secular type Syria and in this real context the person who is standing for democracy is Assad. he must be defended unconditionally.
I am bitterly opposed to any Israeli, Israeli leader, or Jewish leader who does not defend Assad on the basis I have described.
People have got to fight always on the basis of principle and if the Jews do not defend Assad unconditionally then they are betraying for a start the Christian minority in Syria who hold on to Assad in fear of fundamentalism. And indeed you are right on that and see it more clearly than all the Israeli leaders I meet.
" Asked about the situation in Syria, Ramsey Clark (former US Attorney General) confirmed that 'Syria is a part of the effort to eliminate every government independent of US control. 'Brutal regimes are perfectly acceptable, if they are dominated by the US.' "
The above excerpts are from: http://rt.com/news/obama-iran-syria-assad-599/
Related link:
http://www.humanrightsireland.com/MEPs/3March2012/Email...lions
Pure propaganda about syria on 6pm news on friday 2nd march.
13"06-15"02
http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1138671
(you may need to enter the "v=1138671" bit manually in the web address as the direct link doesn't work)
All in all The message to Irish citizens is "assad bad man. war criminal. (more)weapons should be given to the nice syrian revolutionaries. "
and pause at 22"56 - This is what the people creating the news at RTE must think their viewers look like!!!
28"40
Iran elections bad bad bad too. Can't possibly be genuine. Unlike US ones. *cough florida *cough
Maybe we should ask Ron Paul how he feels about the media and the US election process? Or Chomsky.
Still, at least the passports shown were genuine unlike some Israeli ones we could mention!!
How about closing THAT embassy instead of the Iranian one to save money?? THEY are the ones threatening to bring us all into world war three in the middle east after all!
nuclear fear terror war ahmadinejad khameni assad bad bad bad"
other off topic bits of interest included:
Herr Enda telling us "ze Irish people VON'T use ze referendum as a means to get ze better financial deal mit ze financial reich er.. europe. And a bit of scaremongering along the lines of "zis is a vote whether ve vill stay in europe"
Even the IMF are blushing at the financial treatment of Ireland this stage. They are saying something should be done to lower the eye watering payouts to anglo Irish promissary notes. It's bad when even the IMF can't even keep a poker face about it.
oh a nice bit of ass covering PR for a private company airtricity. 2 whole minutes of positive spin and "reasonable excuses" on prime time news as it puts the screws on the poor with an increased standing charge. not an increase on the units themselves. Flat charges hit the poor harder as we all know.
18"35-20"34