We Must Support the Syrian State

international | anti-capitalism | press release Wednesday January 16, 2013 19:00 by CPIR

CPIR Statement: We Must Support the Syrian State

In their New Year statements, The Syrian Communist Pary and the Syrian Communist Youth Union, have called on all progressives, around the world, to stand stedfastly behind the Syrian national resistance against the Anglo-Zionist imperial forces, who now do all they can to destroy the Syrian nation and leave it prostrate before Israeli and US firepower.

The Syian Communist Youth state: "Today the Syrian people and youth are facing terrorist operations, massacres and incitement on the various components of the Syrian people, including civilians, soldiers, academics and active youth. These operations are carried out by terrorist groups and extremist reactionary forces, especially the obscurantist Muslim Brotherhood, who are supported by Zionist media campaigns and armed and funded by the reactionary Arab Gulf régimes, in collaboration with NATO."

For two years now, the Syrian people have shed their blood and tears to resist the genocidal greed of the Anglo-Zionist empire, and it's Salafist mercenary gangs. The once beautiful face of Syria is now scarred with unspeakable horrors. Children have been forced to hack the heads off defenseless prisoners in the streets, by crazed sectarian gangs, who make the Shankill Butchers seem quite sane. And all the while, the Western Left has, for the most part, either sat on the fense or actually supported the sectarian gangs. It is a shameful fact, that over the last ten years or so, certain well known Leftist parties have been building ties with the Muslim Brotherhood. We don't need to name them. They know who they are. We will, however, repeat the wise words of Tony Cliff, who described the Muslim Brotherhood as a Fascist organisation under the control of MI6. This unclean collaboration actually saw these groups supporting racist lynch mobs in Libya, and left them unable to speak out against the bombing of Bani Walid last October, by the very same racist gang who dubbed themselves "The Brigade for the Purging of Black Skins," as they ethnically cleansed 30,000 Black people from Tawarga.

There, are, however, honest and well meaning people, on the Left, who say nothing, even as Syria burns. Their attitude is that ALL states should be opposed, and if one state wants to destroy another, then we should do nothing to stop their mutual destruction. This is a very mistaken attitude. The destruction of Libya did not weaken the US, British or French states. It has made them stronger, bolder, and more savagely greedy. With Al Gaddafi out of the way, they have now launched a full scale Scramble for Africa. Only this week, French imperialists have begun bombing Mali, and their British henchmen are preparing to supply military aircraft and ground forces for this colonial adventure. Yes, as Communists, we all look forward to the withering away of the state. But, this cannot happen while the forces of imperialism are on a genocidal rampage. All that stands between the Syrian people today and sectarian genocide, on an unimaginable scale, is their state - no matter how flawed it may be, and how far it remains from our Communist ideals. We would quote the unforgettable words of Leon Trotsky (though, it seems, they are quite forgettable to many who use his name): "The struggle against war and its social source, capitalism, presupposes direct, active, unequivocal support to the oppressed colonial peoples in their struggles and wars against imperialism. A 'neutral' position is tantamount to support of imperialism."

In his address to the Syrian people, on January 6th, 2013, President Bashar al-Assad asked some interesting questions - questions the Western Left would do well to ask itself: "They call it a revolution, but in fact it has nothing to do with revolutions. A revolution needs thinkers. A revolution is built on thought. Where are their thinkers? A revolution needs leaders. Who is its leader? Revolutions are built on science and thought not on ignorance, on pushing the country ahead not taking it centuries back, on spreading light not cutting power lines. A revolution is usually done by the people not by importing foreigners to rebel against the people."

Where are the thinkers in the Western Left today? Where are those who dare to go against the herd, once it has been stampeded by the imperialist media? Where is the will among the leaders of the Western Left to challenge ignorance - rather than leading from behind the latest opinion poll? Where are the efforts being made to build revolutionary structures, that the people can join - rather than corralling them into futile pleading to the bourgeois governments?

The Western Left failed terribly in Libya. The chaos and gang rule that is now the reality for most Libyans is partly the doing of the Western Left, who cheerled racist lynch mobs and applauded the destruction of a secular, socialist, state. The Western Left continues to fail in Syria. It continues to either openly support those who make children dig their own graves, or it sits on the fense. It's well past time that the ordinary members of these Leftist organisations started to ask questions of their leaders, and demand to know why such a catastrophic collusion with imperialism is now their policy.

We wish, also, to draw the attention of our comrades to a particular issue, that is likely to become more chronic as time goes on. This issue pertains to Ireland. Last December, a young Irish citizen was killed in Syria, fighting as a mercenary for one of the sectarian gangs. Several other individuals holding Irish passports, including the self confessed CIA agent, Mahdi al-Harati, have been boasting to the media about their terrorist exploits in both Libya and Syria. It is clear that a sophisticated network for the recruiting, funding and export of terrorist mercenaries from Ireland is now in place. While Irish Republicans are jailed for attending protests, the self confessed Zionist minister for "justice" turns a blind eye to this expanding network - as long as these terrorists are doing Israel's dirty work.

We extend our sympathy to the families of more than eighty students, murdered as they sat their university exams in Aleppo. We extend our sympathy to the scores of young people seriously injured, many maimed and disfigured for life. This was an act of utter desperation on the part of the sectarian gangs. They have been rejected by the ordinary people of Aleppo, and by the people of Syria, as a whole. Now all they can do is punish the Syrian people for this rejection, through indiscriminate, no warning, attacks. It is well past time that NATO and its Gulf puppets stopped supplying money and sophisticated weapons to mindless thugs, who have no prospect of cowering the Syrian people into submission.

Páirtí Cummanch na Poblachta salutes the resistance of the Syrian people. We salute the valiant determination of the Syrian Arab Army. We salute those states who have come to Syria's aid, including Russia, China and Iran. We salute our comrades in the Syrian Communist Party and the Syrian Communist Youth Union.

Today, you hold the front line in the struggle against imperialism. Your fight is not only for your Syrian homeland, but for the future of all humanity.

Beirígí bua agus beannacht - Carry victory and blessing!

Páirtí Cummanch na Poblachta
Communist Party of the Irish Republic
16iú Eanáir 2013