syrian anarchist challenges the rebel/regime binary view of resistance

[bcbm]

http://tahriricn.wordpress.com/2013/09/07/syria-syrian-anarchist-challenges-the-rebelregime-binary-view-of-resistance/

[Skyhilist]

I have a muslim friend who knows a lot about the politics of Islam who was talking to me about this the other day. He was also rejecting the idea of it being "rebels vs Assad" because the rebels vary greatly and even fight with each other based on what faction and/or sect of Islam they are. The distinctions are made by politics too sometimes obviously, but this plays a major role in it with most factions.

EDIT: It's too bad US imperialism will mainly help the Islamist and right wing factions of the FSA. If the FSA wins with the US intervening we can be almost certain that Syria will be as reactionary as ever (because it is in the interest of imperialism). The prospects for the leftist factions of the rebel resistance seem pretty bleak right now tbh.

[hatzel]

Why is Nader Atassi considered a Syrian at all? Just how long does a person have to live in Amerika before they are considered just another Amerikanized comprador?

You realise that the first half of this directly contradicts the second half, right? For Atassi (or anybody else) to be considered a comprador, he must be considered Syrian, because that's literally the whole point, that is the very essence of the word itself and the distinction between foreign bourgeoisie and comprador bourgeoisie. It may also be worth pointing out that the longer he lives in America (or any other country), the less likely he is to be considered a comprador - or at least the less suitable he becomes for the role - because the comprador's nativeness and embeddedness in the country is precisely what made him attractive and useful to the foreign bourgeoisie in the first place, whilst living overseas for an extended period of time tends to result in greater disconnection from the homeland, thereby putting an obvious limit on the extent of role he can play within Syria itself and his corresponding usefulness as even a potential comprador... (note that for the sake of the discussion at hand I have decided to accept the premise that the concept of a comprador - particularly as these Maoheads use it - retains any interest or legitimacy in the post-/neo-colonial present for anybody who isn't a bourgeois nationalist, but that doesn't necessarily imply that I actually accept such a premise)

What I mean to say is that leftoid clowns be spitting all sorts of tired old phrases despite not knowing what they're saying but I'm not surprised by that at all, because as Montell Jordan very nearly said: this is how they do it.

[Comrade Sun Wukong]

It may also be worth pointing out that the longer he lives in America (or any other country), the less likely he is to be considered a comprador - or at least the less suitable he becomes for the role

lol

Abdurrahim el-Keib was living in Alabama before NATO bombs made him the prime minister of Libya. The worth of a comprador to imperialism is all in perception, which is controlled by the corporate mass media anyway.

[MarxSchmarx]

I have trashed the pointless oneliner cheapshots. Anybody who keeps this up will be infracted going forward.

[The Idler]

I'm not sure where the binary perspective is considered 'virtually the only narrative'. Certainly not among public opinion, not among the internet, not among politically minded people, not among socialists, and not on revleft.

[ckaihatsu]

The article is all well and good, but objective world events have reduced everything to the question of who set off the chemical weapons in August, if only as a pretext -- regardless, that, then, *is* a binary question with a response that will determine the immediate outcome of the standing situation.

[The Idler]

The article is all well and good, but objective world events have reduced everything to the question of who set off the chemical weapons in August, if only as a pretext -- regardless, that, then, *is* a binary question with a response that will determine the immediate outcome of the standing situation.
Objective world events have reduced no such thing to a question of who set off the chemical weapons. Anarchists don't normally put forward strawman arguments, I expect better.

[ckaihatsu]

Objective world events have reduced no such thing to a question of who set off the chemical weapons.


Yes, this *is* the current situation -- there is enough public opposition to U.S. bombing, due in part to doubts about the source of the chemical weapons attack, that Obama, Kerry, etc., have been forced to *delay* the aims of U.S. imperialism.

See:


Response to Obama's Speech: Accelerate the Antiwar Movement!

http://www.revleft.com/vb/showpost.php?p=2662286&postcount=273





Anarchists don't normally put forward strawman arguments, I expect better.


I don't claim any anarchist credentials, and it's *not* a strawman argument -- it's an argument of expediency.

[The Idler]

When I say anarchist strawman arguments of binary views, I'm talking about the article the OP linked to.

As for public opposition, I think a lot of it is isolationism and people have short memories, but not that short.