AND: Editorial – Aggression against Syria: more Fuel for the Fire of Anti-imperialist Resistance
We publish an unofficial translation of the last Editorial by A Nova Democracia.
The military offensive that overthrew Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad shows how, increasingly, fluidly events in the international arena are taking place through wars. But in the midst of immense contradictions involving Syria, the primary cause of Assad’s fall could be none other than the serious internal situation in the country, which has been critical since long time. The unsatisfactory with Assad’s authoritarian government by the people’s masses could no longer be mitigated by the firm position it took facing the subversive ambitions and actions of Zionist colonialism and in defense of the Palestinian cause. So much so that, faced with the Blitzkrieg march of different armed Islamist organizations on Damascus, not a single handful of people came to its defense. The Syrian National Army itself has not moved, except for parts of it that are committed to fighting the Kurdish forces fighting for their territories, even though they are led by Yankee imperialism with the aim of weakening the government. Furthermore, large and acute contradictions that link Syria’s internal situation to the regional and the international situation left it in a complicated position in the region. Since the creation of the Zionist State of Israel, Syria has played a prominent role in confronting it, as well as in supporting the Palestinian cause, a role enough important to have made it a permanent target of attacks from Yankee imperialism and its spearhead in the region, Israel, and its insatiable colonialist expansionist greed.
Also, the fall of Assad confirms the maximum of national subjugation of a country, whose government is subordinated to one or more foreign powers, which is totally at the mercy of their interests like a pawn on the chessboard of the struggle for imperialist sharing-out. For the second time in recent years, Syria’s sovereignty has been overwhelmed and crushed due to foreign imperialist interests. For the first time, the ground troops of the two imperialist superpowers – the USA and Russia – confronted each other in favor of their own interests: the Yankee one for overthrowing the Assad government and replacing it with its own puppet, and the Russian one for defending it since decades, as its own sphere of influence and deepening this condition. Yankee imperialism mobilized mercenary troops on the ground called the “Free Army”, with support from Israel, on the one hand, and Russian imperialism with the Syrian National Army, supported by Hezbollah guerrilla units, on the other, led a war of destruction which forced tens of thousands of the Syrian people to flee the country to escape from death. Arriving at a serious situation that could precipitate a confrontation between the Yankee and Russian forces that were positioned outside the theater of operations, these imperialists entered an agreement to put an end to hostilities, the basis of which was the indecent imposition on the Syrian government to destroy its arsenal of chemical weapons. Thus, for the sake of his imperialist interests in Syria and the Middle East, Putin ravaged Syria’s sovereignty by forcing it to get rid of its most powerful defensive weapons in the face of the provocation and aggression of Zionist expansionism. Now, the second time that Syria finds itself completely violated by foreign forces, it cannot be completely ruled out that the same imperialists and their lackeys have made a new criminal agreement and left the way clear, at the price of tearing up the country. Such was the lightning-fast manner that the government could be overthrown with practically no resistance from this or its “allies” Russia and Iran.
However, to take as true a hypothesis like this, not at all impossible, as the cause of Assad’s fall, would be to oversimplify the very complex reality of the growing global disorder that reveals the advanced degree of imperialist decomposition and to make secondary its internal causes, contrary to the already stated above as the main factor. Nor is it a question of responding under the control of which power would be best for Syria, or any country as a colony or semi-colony. Only total national liberation and independence can save a nation from imperialist oppression and this can only be achieved completely, in the imperialist era, through revolutionary war under the leadership of the revolutionary party of the proletariat – a true and authentic Communist Party, that is free from all kinds of revisionism – and supported by a united front of the classes of the people, the worker-peasant alliance as a base combined with the petty-bourgeoisie and the non-coopted part of the middle bourgeoisie (the genuine national bourgeoisie). This is what the historical experience from the 20th century to the present day proves. There is no other solution. Every other solution means either just changing imperialist masters or the balkanization of the country. This is what is taking place in Syria, divided into several parts controlled by factions of different political orientations, whose common base is that of a mercenary force at the service of Yankee imperialism, the dispute between Russian imperialism and its installed military base and the disputed interests over regional hegemony between Israel and Turkey.
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How did the events occur? Within 12 days, a motley coalition, ranging from Yankee lackeys to Turkish mercenaries, marched from the northwest in a silent attack on Aleppo and, from there, captured Damascus. Taking refuge in Moscow, Assad was unable to resist with his conventional troops, who practically decomposed, many of which passed into the hands of the “opposition”.
The group, considered to be mainly responsible for the offensive, is Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), whose leader is Abu Mohammed Al-Jawlani, who has been most wanted for years by Yankee forces, who are offering 10 million dollars for his capture. This is because HTS and its head come from a long process of Salafist organizations commanded by him, which were an integral part of Al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Islamic State in Syria. These forces are those that have either been fighting Yankee troops or in their pay throughout the beginning of this century with the aim of deposing governments, dominating territories for oil exploration and occupying strategic geographic positions. During the war of aggression against Syria, the head of HTS tries to improve his image for Yankee imperialism: in the province of Idlib, governed by him since 2007, Islamic laws do not apply like by other Salafist groups, he stubbornly speaks about the importance of religious diversity and guarantees that HTS does not intend to establish a transactional caliphate as the Islamic State did, all to receive the blessing of permission to be the servant of the Yankee imperialism, to receive from this the power of attorney to establish a pro-Yankee lackey regime. The HTS operates in coalition with Turkey-backed forces, such as the Syrian National Army and other armed forces supported and equipped by Turkey. The Turkish bureaucratic-fascist regime of Erdogán has been carrying out interventions in Syrian territory since 2017, with occupations in the northwest and attacking Kurdish troops from the YPG and other groups, which were once financed by the Yankees and which are now left to their own devices – demonstrating that they were only financed when they were useful to the Yankees, and then discarded. In recent days, Turkish-funded forces have been encircling and crushing the Kurds, having already taken the strategic city of Manbij in northeastern Syria. Turkey, in collusion with Yankee interests, was therefore part of the hardest blow of the aggression and retaliation of Syrian territory, created difficulties for the resistance and thus provided great direct assistance to Zionism in crisis, demonstrating who Erdogan is.
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The statement of Yankee President Joe Biden gives an idea of the complex international situation and, in particular, of Syria: “The fall of this [Assad] regime is an act of justice. It is a historic moment of opportunity for the people of Syria, and it is also a moment of risk and uncertainty.” In fact, for Yankee imperialism, the fall of Assad, whatever is the force involved, is an “act of justice”: it immediately destabilizes the presence of Russian troops in the Middle East (which until then had its outpost in Syria, we will see what will happen in the new situation), forcing him to reorganize his forces and divert his attention from Ukraine, opening a new front in crisis. It is noteworthy that this defeat of Assad’s forces is based on the actions of Zionism on the border with Lebanon: forced to concentrate on defending its territory, Hezbollah reduced its operations in support of Assad’s troops, already there are many dependents on it.
Furthermore, now, the Yankees will be able to take advantage of the opportunity to expand their presence in Syria, by co-opting lackey groups, and try to further restrict the presence of anti-imperialist forces in Syria, which have carried out a kind of potential siege of the Zionists troops. For this reason, Zionist troops are bombing Syrian military defense installations and advancing their occupation of the Golan Heights, with the presence of Zionist tanks 25 km from the capital Damascus. The Arab oligarchies are threatened, which will tend to deepen and increase the anti-imperialist mobilization in the region. This is more fuel for the fire of armed national and anti-imperialist resistance struggles!
Syria, for years, has been a nation attacked by a Yankee imperialist intervention and then torn apart by other imperialist nations or regional forces in their “agreements and commitments”. In fact, Russian imperialism is part of its process of retaliation and division. Faced with imperialist aggression, first through mercenary groups and then with direct Yankee intervention, the Assad government proved itself incapable of raising national and anti-imperialist resistance: afraid to mobilize and arm the masses for the war of national salvation and in defending territorial integrity, Assad clung to illusions that Russian oligarchs would defend Syria above everything, leaving Syria heavily dependent on Moscow’s dictates. Moscow, however, has its own interests and, to safeguard them, exchanges the interests of others. His capitulation in the face of imperialist aggression, the lack of energetic and uncompromising action in the face of any compromise, led to growing demoralization of his government and all kinds of rejection by public opinion in his country – only favoring the division of the country and its conquest by forces of imperialist lackeys.
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Raising the flag of the anti-imperialist struggle is an urgent need, in these times we live, in which a new period of people’s and anti-imperialist revolutions and the danger of a new and third world war are inaugurated. The situation in the Middle East shows that the international situation is marked by major seismic shocks, crises of all types among imperialist nations; disorders and revolutionary storms, on the one hand, of reaction across the board on the part of imperialism, on the other. The main trend continues to be the World Proletarian Revolution, which demands new proletarian revolutionary struggles to give communist direction to the anti-imperialist and national resistance struggles of oppressed peoples. This, and only this, can drive revolutions and conjure a third world war.
