Events in Syria - Which side are you on?

[Bolshy]

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[Lenina Rosenweg]

Until very recently Hillary Clinton did not call for Assad to step down, its only after months of unrest that she is grudgingly doing so. The US wants "regime change" in Libya, its more reluctant in Syria. The removal of Assad, who rules though a vast, complex communal patronage network, could be very "destabilizing" and neither the US nor Israel wants this now.

The article also seems to accept the corporate media myth that the Arab Spring is a "Facebook or Twitter" revolution. For the most part its a class revolution (it's not yet a revolution in the Marxist sense of course).

Undoubtedly the US is aiding pro-US elements in Syria. The US always does this everywhere. Syria has also been under severe strain directly or indirectly created by US imperialism. Just the same, a very large proportion of the Syrian population is erupting in rage and raw anger at the regime, which is seen as corrupt, brutal, and despotic.This anger has not been created by listening to the VOA or Al Jazeera.

In denying the agency of the working class, in assuming however indirectly that rebellion against a leader who poses as "anti-imperialist" leftists make the work of imperialism that much easier.

Whose side am I on? That of the Syrian workers, who very obviously hate the Assad regime.

No to Assad the butcher, no to US and other western interference and intervention, yes to working class revolution in Syria.

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

More of the same old shit from the authoritarian left. Syria roks cuz the US and Israel don't like it, Assad is not a murderer because Bahrain kills its people too and that means there's nothing wrong. Don't talk about the common people getting massacred by their own state because then the Imperialist US wins. It's basically just American bullshit "Us vs them" propaganda in reverse.

How many people does Assad need to kill before you people realize that Baathism is quite clearly a murderous and dangerous military-fascist movement?

[Thirsty Crow]

Oh, so we have at least two "anti-imperialist" regime in the Middle East, namely, that of Mr. Assad and Iran? Which are the contradictory forces that the Syrian state represents? That of the world capitalist class and thw working class, at the same time?
It's ridiculous even to assume that there is a possibility of a capitalist state representing the interest of the working class. Temporary concessions and setbacks for shor term bourgeois interests, yes, definitely, but to conclude that any of the capitalist states function as an agglomerate of class forces, other than organizing and regulating inter-capitalist antagonisms, is to open the gates of reformism wide open.

Whom do I support? That's easy since I hold the communist position. I support the global working class, and no matter the Israel baiting of the crowd supporting authoritarian capitalist states, I support a potential political revolution in Syria. I'm quite sure that the politics of support for Palestinians do not find their base solely in the current state administration.

[agnixie]

Fucking real politik. It doesn't make you less of a monster because you wrap yourself in the red flag and aren't named Kissinger.

[TheGeekySocialist]

im on the side of democracy, always, if neither side in a certain conflict is on the side of democracy, then I support neither side.

we have democracy or we have nothing imo, socialism cannot exist without democracy because socialism is the democratisation of all of human society.

[KurtFF8]

Fucking real politik. It doesn't make you less of a monster because you wrap yourself in the red flag and aren't named Kissinger.

It's fair enough to criticize real politik I suppose, but it can certainly often lead you to a position in conflicts that doesn't really exist.

Take Libya: it would be great if a revolutionary Left wing segment existed and had a chance for victory. But instead it was Gadaffi's government versus NATO and rebels. Those were the choices, and now that NATO has won, Western oil companies are already planning on how best to divide up the oil fields of Libya as we speak: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14610908

That is the consequence of the victory of one of the two sides.


im on the side of democracy, always, if neither side in a certain conflict is on the side of democracy, then I support neither side.

we have democracy or we have nothing imo, socialism cannot exist without democracy because socialism is the democratisation of all of human society. Does that just mean that you have no opinion or analysis of the situation, or opinion of the possible outcomes?

[Os Cangaceiros]

It's probably wrong to use "realpolitik" when refering to leftist conduct during the war, anyway. That word often refers to one sacrificing ideology for practicality, and leftists didn't do anything to support Ghaddafi's side other than make ineffectual statements about "hands off Libya". We're about as ineffectual as Libya's proles are at the moment, so I'm not sure what the importance is of choosing a side between, yes, two factions of the ruling class (one an ascendant faction, one an entrenched faction).

[Nox]

I'm on neither side. But just 'cos I hate imperialism so much, I'm gonna say Syria.

[agnixie]

It's probably wrong to use "realpolitik" when refering to leftist conduct during the war, anyway. That word often refers to one sacrificing ideology for practicality, and leftists didn't do anything to support Ghaddafi's side other than make ineffectual statements about "hands off Libya". We're about as ineffectual as Libya's proles are at the moment, so I'm not sure what the importance is of choosing a side between, yes, two factions of the ruling class (one an ascendant faction, one an entrenched faction).

Supporting Assad because the other team decided to take on him (lol, it hasn't actually, it took until he started massacring people in Lattakieh for the US to even utter a word about this, much like they dropped Mubarak and Saleh only when the country had gone to hell) and pretending to be a leftist is realpolitik. Baath is a right wing nationalist party based on Renan's philosophy.