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When we write about important events, such as a revolution and war that has been in world headlines for 8 years, knowing what we're talking about is important, especially if you want to be taken seriously. Chris rightly corrects Dave's false claim that Idlib is dominated by "al-Qaida". Probably not Dave's fault, as I understand, the SA membership mostly relies on the wooden, Stalinoid-style Apoist media for, er, information on Syria, and the PYD and its fronts routinely call all Islamists "al-Qaida", kind of neocon style. Chris says that something he calls Jabhat al-Nusra/HTS has "seemingly" broken from al-Qaida. Chris, as someone who seems to follow events in Syria from a somewhat broader perspective, surely you know that in August 2016 - 3 years ago - Nusra broke with al-Qaida, changed its name to JTS, then several months later, JTS joined 5 other groups - some jihsdist like them and some not - to form the miltary coalition known as HTS. The formation is Islamist, but not jihadist, by definition, though the jihadist JTS is the dominant group. Incidentally, there remains a tiny pro al-Qaida group that spli with JTS at the time. Some of its leaders are in HTS prisons. The US recently bombed tghem in Idlib. Ironically for the SDF, the distinguishing feature of HTS was rejection of the growing Turkish hegemony over many of the Islamist and non-Islamist/FSA rebels in the region. As Turkey was seen as bargaining over the Kurds with Assad via Erdogan's new mate Putin, including selling out Aleppo, many rebels joined HTS in order to continue fighting Assad at all times, rather than accept their fight being turned off and on according to Turkey's interests. Meanwhile, other FSA groups rejected Turkish hegemony, wanted to maintain the fight against Assad, but would not join HTS. The most prominent is Jaysh al-Izza, which plays a leading role in holding back Assad, especially in Hama. For most fighters in any case, all our Kremlinology is largely irrelevant. They fight a genocidal regime because it is in their interests to. They join whichever brigade - FSA, Islamist, jihadist, Turkish-controlled or not, based on who has the strength, the money, the weapons in their area. Western leftists joining the war on terror by calling them "al-Qaida" would be of supreme indifference to them, but like, don't expect them to identify as "leftists" in the circumstances. They fight, previously, to overthrow the regime as they rightly saw it as the worst impediment to democracy, and knew they could deal with secondary, weaker impediments later. Now they fight merely to defend their region from the genocide regime reconquering them. They deserve our support. In any case, the Assadi-Russian massacre over the last few months is a massacre of civilians. Hundreds have been killed, literally dozens of hospitals and schools bombed, markets, bakeries, you name it. It is a world class crime going on as a global imperialist power massacres brown people in an oppressed country. I struggled to find any evidence of solidarity with the civilians being massacred (not with the fighters) in these last two GLW articles Chris sent to the list. I found none. Appalling, but sadly not surprising. Instead we read about "al-Qaida" and utopia in Rojava in the northeast, in an apparently disconnected reality. A utopia, of course, fully protected by a massive US intervention force, while "anti-imperialists" pay no attention to this fact and instead still fantasise that the US is behind the Syrian rebels, always a fantasy but today a grotesque lie. Five years ago when SA/GLW discovered the Rojava revolution I thought it was a good thing. Sad how rapidly we turned it into a sectarian shibboleth. Old habits die hard I guess. On Sat, 3 Aug. 2019, 1:32 pm Chris Slee via Marxism, < [email protected]> wrote: > ******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > ***************************************************************** > > There are some points in the article by Dave Holmes that we could quibble > about. He refers to "al Qaeda", whereas Jabhat al-Nusra/HTS has seemingly > broken with al-Qaeda. > > But this does not change the fact that, ever since Jabhat al-Nusra crushed > the Syrian Revolutionaries Front in 2014, Idlib province has been dominated > by reactionary Islamist groups such as HTS, Ahrar al-Sham etc. > > Chris Slee > > ________________________________ > From: John Edmundson <[email protected]> > Sent: Saturday, 3 August 2019 12:19 PM > To: Chris Slee <[email protected]>; Activists and scholars in > Marxist tradition <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [Marxism] Rojava revolution - seven years on > > I think statements like "However, [the Syrian Army's] failure to retake > the north-western city of Idlib from al Qaeda and its Islamist allies" > conforms to the simplification of the Syrian revolution that characterises > it as completely dominated by and representative of Islamist > fundamentalism. Ironically, if Rojava had never existed, a lot of leftists > would have been more willing to support (at least from the comfort their > own homes) the Syrian revolution. Green Left Weekly should know better. > > Cheers, > John > > On Sat, Aug 3, 2019 at 10:17 AM Chris Slee via Marxism < > [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > ******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > ***************************************************************** > > > https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/rojava-revolution-seven-years > > > _________________________________________________________ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: > https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/johnedmundson4%40gmail.com > > > -- > The law locks up the man or woman > Who steals the goose from off the common > But leaves the greater villain loose > Who steals the common from the goose > _________________________________________________________ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: > https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/mkaradjis%40gmail.com > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
