The world’s ‘left’ are isolating the Syrian masses

The world's left is the most to blame for the isolation of the Syrian masses in their revolt against the dictator Bashar Assad. In fact the 'left' claims that the Assad regime is anti-imperialist and the revolt against his regime is somehow an imperialist coup.

Let us examine the supposed 'anti-imperialism' of the Baathist regime:
1. In 1976 the Syrian regime sent its troops to support the Maronite-Falangists in Lebanon against the Palestinians. In this they worked together with the Israeli and Jordanian army; The Syrian army was the policeman for imperialism in Syria from 1976- 2005;
2. In 1990 the Syrian regime sent troops to be part of the US imperialist coalition against the forces of Saddam Hussein;
3. The Syrian regime was rewarded by the US imperialist coalition forces with military funding and equipment;
4. Such military hardware supplied by US imperialism is part of the weaponry being used by the Assad Baathist regime against the masses;
5. the military coup of 23 Feb 1966 by the Baathist army officers was against the masses, to prevent a workers revolution
6. The main imports of Syria come from Saudi Arabia, China, Turkey and UAE- all regimes that are total lackeys of US imperialism
7. Over 70% of exports are raw materials, oil and gas, to mainly to Iraq, Germany, Italy and Saudi Arabia. Thus Syria is still largely a producer of raw unprocessed raw materials with a small manufacturing sector;
8. the Nationalization of the oil and gas, water, electricity and public transport is not under workers control.

The world proletariat needs to shake off the notion that the Assad regime is 'worker friendly'. There has been a continuous state of emergency for decades, up to 2011. The origin of the world proletariat being misled into believing that the Assad regime was progressive is mainly the fault of the stalinist Communist parties of Syria- they were part of the ruling National Progressive Front in Syria which accepts that the Baathist regime is in control and controls the army and students- in other words the CP's are in alliance with Bashar Assad, even now when the masses are being drowned in blood. This is part of the world historic role of stalinism as a lackey of world imperialism, to betray revolutions from within and to ensure that no workers revolution succeeds on the planet. In Argentina, the CP denied that there was a dictatorship - and during that time more than 30 000 activists were killed off.

Imperialism is drawing the lessons from Libya by preparing a Syrian National council as a reserve agency in the event the masses move decisively over to armed revolt- as they are beginning to do now.

Let us not allow the flower of the Syrian resistance be slaughtered by world imperialism and their partnership with the 'left'. We need to be wary of the petti bourgeois left who call for the building and strengthening ‘popular committees’ in Syria. The main base of the Assad regime is precisely the ‘popular committees’, just as in Libya, the popular committees were the base of the hated Gaddafi regime. The calling for popular committees in Syria helps prepare the way for the base of an imperialist ‘TNC’ in Syria. What is necessary is to call for workers delegates to go to the fighting structures, called the local co-ordination committees and to call for rank and file soldiers to join them, based on a programme for working class power.

Note: this is a first part of an expanded statement where we will present a draft programme for the Syrian revolution, which has to be connected with the struggle for workers power in the entire region.

17.10.2011