The Syrian Revolution Is a Class War

Never in human history has there been a revolution quite like the Syrian revolution.

Never in human history have a people dared to struggle against such an imposing array of forces as the Syrian people. Ranged against them is the regime of Bashar al-Assad and all its resources – sarin, scud missiles, MiG jets, death squads, allied media outlets, and useful idiots like Robert Fisk. Ranged against them are not only Assad’s armed forces but the armed forces of Hezbollah, Iran, and Iraq’s militias, tens of thousands of Shia men with an unlimited supply of modern Russian weapons, a sophisticated command-and-control system, billions of dollars in funds, and a logistical infrastructure stretching from Tehran to Beirut. Ranged against them is an unholy alliance of imperialist powers (East and West) and their ‘anti-imperialist’ opponents in which Rand Paul and Donald Rumsfeld join hands with George Galloway and Nicolás Maduro to keep the Syrian people politically isolated as they battle the most murderous fascist since Adolf Hitler. Ranged against them are the combined forces of famine, pestilence, cynicism, treachery, paralysis, infighting, indifference, defeatism, fatigue, exhaustion, and death.

Some Observations on the Social Roots of Syria’s Ruling, Military Group and the Causes for Its Dominance

Author: Hanna Batatu.
Source: Middle East Journal, Vol. 35, No. 3. This essay is a revised version of a talk given at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University, on April 11, 1979.

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At the heart of Syria’s regime stands a cluster of military officers. They hold in their hands the crucial threads of power. This much is obvious. Their common military profession, however, does not explain why they cling together and act in concert. Far more significant in this connection is the fact that the ruling element consists at its core of a close kinship group which draws strength simultaneously, but in decreasing intensity, from a tribe, a sect-class, and an ecologic-cultural division of the people.

Rifat and Hafez al-Assad.

FSA Southern Front’s Political Program for Post-Assad Syria

Text: The Southern Front

The collapse of the current Assad-led regime will not be the end of the Syrian people’s revolution. The end of the regime will be only the start of a new and, hopefully, final phase of the people’s struggle for freedom. In order to ensure that the final phase succeeds the establishment of a new national model of governance based on respect for human dignity and a rebirth of Syria’s tremendous potential will be initiated.  It is imperative that all nationalist forces commit to a course of action during the period of transition from authoritarianism that will fulfill the will of the people.

Revolutionary War 2014 Round Up: Dynamic Stalemate as Fronts and Sides Multiply

Every year since the revolution began has been the most painful and difficult year for the Syrian people.

2014 was no exception.

Todos los Viernes: Los nuevos lemas de la Revolución Popular

GAB

Publicado originalmente en Inglés por Not George Sabra.

Traducido al Español con permiso del autor.

La revolución democrática del pueblo en Siria ha logrado algo de importancia histórico-mundial: ha unido a ambos imperialistas y a los antiimperialistas en contra de ésta. El imperialismo del Este dirigida por Rusia arma a Bashar al-Assad hasta los dientes, el imperialismo de Occidente liderado por los EE.UU continúa con el intenso bloqueo de armas  para la oposición de al-Assad, y los llamados antiimperialistas liderados por As’ad Abu Khalil, George Galloway, Rand Paul, Cynthia McKinney, Stop the War Coalition y ANSWER Coalition calumnian sin descanso a cada paso del camino el levantamiento en todas las formas inimaginables.

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بالأسماء والتفاصيل، قائمة كاملة وقابلة للتوسع للفصائل المعتدلة

بعد فترة وجيزة من إعلان الرئيس الأمريكي باراك أوباما الحرب على ما يسمى تنظيم “الدولة الإسلامية”، انتشرت إشاعة حول اتفاق وقف اعتداء بين تنظيم الدولة الإسلامية وفصيل من الجيش السوري الحر صادرة عن المرصد السوري لحقوق الإنسان، وساهم في انتشار تلك الإشاعة كالنار في الهشيم جهل المحيط العام بالفصائل المعتدلة التي ستدعمها الولايات المتحدة ومجموعة أصدقاء سوريا.

وفيما يلي محاولة لإجلاء الصورة، وتقليل احتمالات التزييف في المستقبل حول الفصائل المعتدلة التي تدعمها الولايات المتحدة،أعدها @hasanmustafas باستخدام مصادر المعلومات المفتوحة.

يدعي معارضو تسليح الجيش الحر غالباً أن الأسلحة المتطورة القادمة في الدعم قد وصلت أو ستصل إلى إيدي متطرفين، لكن نتائج تسليح قوات المعارضة تشير إلى خلاف ذلك، وكشف تقرير صدر مؤخراً عن مركز كارتر من خلال تتبع صواريخ مضادة للدبابات وردت إلى قوات المعارضة المعتدلة ما يلي:

The Moderate Rebels: A Complete and Growing List of Vetted Groups

(Note: Hasan Mustafa has the most up to date version of this list and there have been some significant changes. Please visit his blog by clicking here.)

Shortly after U.S. president Obama declared war on the so-called Islamic State (ISIS/IS), a bogus claim by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) about a non-aggression pact between ISIS and an unnamed unit of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) went viral largely due to ignorance about which moderate rebels the U.S. and its “Friends of Syria” allies are supporting. This guest post by Hasan Mustafa (@hasanmustafas) is an attempt to cure that ignorance and make future pseudo-scandals less likely by detailing who the U.S.-backed moderate rebels are using open-source information.

YPG and FSA Unite Against Terrorism and for a Free, Democratic Syria

To the media and the general public,

It has been 33 days that the city of Kobane has been fighting terrorism in eventful days of resistance, redemption, and enormous sacrifices in combating the terrorist attacks of ISIS and its evils. For this organization which has become the biggest threat to the global peace and stability, the battle of Kobane poses a historic turning point. We are certain that the result of this battle will shape the future of Syria and the democratic struggle for freedom and peace. We want it to be known that the victory in Kobane is a victory for all Syria, and it will also be a major defeat for ISIS and terrorism.

A U.S. War on Jabhat al-Nusra: Just What Baghdadi Ordered

The same day the U.S. and an internally contradictory ‘grand coalition’ correctly and justly launched airstrikes on the Islamic State’s (ISIS/ISIL/Daesh) Syrian safe haven in Syria, the U.S. launched another war, a unilateral war, on Syria’s Al-Qaeda branch, Jabhat al-Nusra, in separate but simultaneous attacks in Idlib and Aleppo governates.

Declaration of the Homs Liberation Movement

Harakat Tahrir Homs (Homs Liberation Movement) is a military formation, founded by a group of dissident Syrian officers and revolutionary intellectuals as a result of the injustice and oppression inflicted on the Syrian people by the regime of Al-Assad, the criminal, in order to protect the people from this systematic killing machine that has exceeded all humanitarian and ethical boundaries that were not confined to one component of Syria’s fabric but affected all Syrians, Christians, Muslims, and various sects and groups.