Ten years after the popular uprising in Syria by Joseph Daher, International Viewpoint, April 5 https://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article7094
Ten years after the beginning of the Syrian popular uprising, the regime now rules over more than 70% of the country’s territory. Assisted by Russia, Iran, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and other confessional and reactionary militias, Damascus has crushed the initial uprising and largely won what had progressively devolved into a regional and international war. However, the Syrian regime faces enormous socio-economic challenges which are far from being overcome. . . . The various counter-revolutionary actors all helped crush the Syrian uprising. While we should not shy away from blaming the defeat on these forces, we must also examine and criticize the mistakes and shortcomings of the Syrian opposition. The various leftist groups were too weak after decades of repression at the hands of the regime to constitute an organized democratic and progressive independent pole. As a result, the opposition to Assad failed to present a viable political alternative that could galvanize the popular classes and oppressed groups. The failure to address the questions stands out in particular on two main issues: women and Kurds. In both cases, wide sectors of the Syrian opposition reproduced discriminatory and exclusionary policies against these groups, alienating key forces that would have been crucial to unite against the regime. To win against the Assad regime the opposition would have had to combine struggles against autocracy, exploitation and oppression. If it had raised democratic demands as well as demands in the interests of all workers and those for Kurdish self-determination and women’s liberation it would have been in a much stronger positions to build much deeper and more extensive solidarity among the social forces in the Syrian revolution. Another weakness of the opposition was the weak development of mass class organization and progressive political organization. The revolts in Tunisia and Sudan demonstrate the importance of mass trade union organizations such as the Tunisian UGTT and the Sudanese Professional Associations in cohering successful mass struggle. Similarly, feminist mass organizations have been of particular significance in Tunisia and Sudan for promoting women’s rights and winning democratic and socio-economic rights, even if they remain fragile and not fully consolidated. Syrian revolutionaries did not have these organized forces in place or at the same level of mass organizations, weakening the movement, and they will be essential to construct for future struggles. . . . -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#7840): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/7840 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/81965750/21656 -=-=- 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. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
