On a more serious note, I would remind comrades of an interview I did with a Syrian-American who is raising funds for a humanitarian aid mission to Aleppo. You can see my video and the video that Mohamed Khairullah did himself on his last trip to Aleppo here:
http://www.thenorthstar.info/?p=7963 As everybody understands, there are three distinct forces operating in Syria today: the Baathists, the home-grown resistance that emerged from the peaceful protests, and the "foreign fighters" and their local allies who are a real threat to the long-term interests of Syrian democracy even if they are effective combatants (largely thanks to the largess of the Arab Sunni ruling classes.) We want to do everything in our power to aid the middle group. I assume that there are no Salafist sympathizers here and also assume that the really hard-core supporters of Assad have left out of disgust some time ago. With nearly 1500 subscribers to Marxmail, we should be able to count on at least 100 people contributing $10 each to the fund-raising effort being led by Mohamed Khairullah. I heard him speak at a rally last year where he made his opposition to jihadist tactics clear, especially the killing of the US diplomat in Benghazi. By contributing to his fund-drive, you are contributing the cause of the people in Syria whose goals are closest to our own even if none of them are Marxists or even leftwing radicals. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels were deeply committed to the democratic revolutions of 1848 and we should be committed to those taking place in the Middle East and North Africa today. A ten dollar donation would hardly matter to someone living in the USA. It costs about the same as a movie ticket or a fast food meal but could mean a huge difference to someone in Aleppo who does not know where their next meal is coming from or who badly needs antibiotics to treat a wound, etc. I call upon everybody to contribute $10 or more if you can spare it. I chipped in $100 myself and know that there are many others reading this who could afford such a donation themselves. If you want to use a credit card, go here: http://aleppo.eventbrite.com/ If you want to use Paypal, send funds to [email protected] The credit card cut-off date is 3/24 and Paypal's is 3/27. DO IT NOW. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
