Houla, Mazraat al Qubeir massacres in Syria- imperialism wants to perpetrate a 1000 new Sabra-Shatilla’s
Imperialism divided the Iraqi masses, deliberately putting ‘Sunni’ against ‘Shia’ in order to help defeat the resistance to the imperialist invasion and occupation. Now in Syria, imperialism is supporting the butcher regime of Assad by deliberately portraying the fight as being between ‘Alawite’ and ‘Sunni’. In both Iraq and Syria, people of different denominations have lived in peace, side by side, often inter-marrying. To portray the fight of the Syrian masses as being against Alawites, is an artificial imperialist invention- divide and rule is what they are really wanting to achieve.
In 1982 the Israeli and Hafez Assad Syrian regimes worked together with the UN to support the Phalangist militias to slaughter the Palestinian masses in Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. The UN promised the Palestinian fighters that should they disarm, they would be given safe passage out of Beirut. The Palestinian fighters disarmed and the Phalangist militias were let loose on them with the direct support of the Israeli and Syrian regimes.
Today we have the ‘peace plan’ of the UN through JP Morgan Board member, Kofi Annan. The centre of the plan is for ‘both sides’ to ‘cease fire’. This has helped to further disarm the Syrian masses who have put down the few weapons they have. In any event, the leadership of the Free Syrian Army, which is headed by an ex-Assad general (and thus headed by imperialism), was only too willing to force the rank and file fighters to cease fire. This is in addition to the role of the leadership of the Free Syria Army to prevent the masses from getting weapons, just like in Libya, imperialism set up the Free Libya Army, led by ex-Gaddafi generals’ as a means to gain control over the masses and more crucially, to keep the heavy weaponry away from the masses, ie to deliberately disarm the masses.
The result of the JP Morgan-Annan ‘peace plan’ is to create the space for fascist militia, Shabbiha, backed by the Assad tanks and heavy weapons, to commit the massacres in Houla on the 25th and 30th May and the massacres in Mazraat al Qubeir on the 7-8th June. The Kofi Annan monitors, despite tank shell fragments and tank tracks in evidence at the massacre sites, deliberately cover up for the Assad regime- they are not sure who is responsible! The Iranian and Israeli regimes are giving support to the Assad regime. The Stalinist WFTU (World Federation of Trade Unions) is giving political support to the Assad regime, as are most of the world’s ‘left’. The Stalinist dictatorship of China, and the military dictatorship of Russia, are the suppliers of arms, to the brutal Assad regime, thereby fulfilling the wishes of their imperialist puppet masters to drown the Syrian masses in blood. The ANC-SACP regime supports the Assad regime through having signed ‘most-favoured nation’ status between them in 2010. The SA regime acts as the conduit for JP Morgan, through Sasol and Eskom, to provide ‘gas to fuel’ and electricity generation equipment to the Assad regime. The Syrian regime does not have sufficient oil refining capacity but the imperialist oil companies keep their tanks moving through continued supplies of refined fuel. The talk of ‘sanctions’ by the UN is nothing but a hypocritical cover for consumption of the masses on their home soil, to cover their bloody role as the main sustainer of the Assad regime and thus of the current slaughter of the masses in Syria.
All over the world, in Spain, in Greece, in Egypt, in the USA itself, imperialism is showing its turn to greater repression of the masses through increasingly more bloody methods. Imperialism is fighting for its life. In Syria, imperialism wants to commit 1000 Sabra-Shatila’s in order to attempt to bring an end to the world resistance of the masses against the capitalist system.
116 were massacred in Houla, 78 were massacred by imperialist-backed fascist forces of Assad, more than 50 were children. Yet the ‘left’ are in denial- the casualty figures are inflated they say. But imperialism is giving warning- Syria today, the world masses tomorrow.
We call for international brigades to support the Syrian masses in their fight against the imperialist puppet Assad regime. We call for the Libyan militias, for the Tunisian militias, for the Lebanese militias, for the Yemeni masses for the Egyptian, Jordanian, Bahraini and Palestinian masses to rally to a united front with the Syrian masses against the Assad regime. Today there are terrible atrocities being perpetrated by the Assad regime on behalf of world imperialism. Today it is Syria, tomorrow it will be all of us suffering the same fate. In opposition to the Arab League who support the Kofi Annan slaughter plan, we call for the mobilization of a region-wide general strike to stop the slaughter of the Syrian masses, and against the respective imperialist puppet regimes.
We call, further, on the Iranian, Chinese and Russian working class to rise up against your own regimes over their complicity in the slaughter of the heroic Syrian masses. Your regimes are the ones who drowned the revolution of 1979 in blood, who crushed the working class revolutions of 1989. Now they crush the Syrian masses, tomorrow, they will turn their guns on you.
To the Greek working class, the head of fascism is starting to raise itself. The same imperialists who wish to crush your heroic spirit are the main force behind the current slaughter of the Syrian masses. The fight against the Syrian regime is part of the same fight against your own regime. You need to set up workers councils and armed workers militia in your fight against your own regime.
To the working class and war veterans in the USA, we call for the transformation of the Occupy Wall Street movement into an Occupy White House movement- in other words, for marches and demonstrations to challenge the main and direct agency of Wall street in the suppression of the masses of the world. It is not for nothing that the CIA captures activists from around the world and renders them to the Assad regime for torture. The massacres by the Assad regime is just an extension of the real foreign policy of US imperialism. US imperialism, Wall Street, are the main instigators of the massacres of the Syrian masses. The Syrian masses are but one part of the same world proletarian army. Let us stand with them in their hour of need. If the Syrian working class takes power, the regional and international system of capitalist exploitation will be mortally threatened. This is why imperialism is so desperate to crush it. It is why the world working class has a duty to ensure that the masses succeed.
Arms for the Syrian masses. For armed grassroots workers councils in Syria- for the rank and file soldiers to break from the Free Syrian army and to join and arm the grassroots councils. For a general strike to bring down the Assad regime. Down with the Assad regime, away with the SNC (Syria National Council).
We call for the exposure of the complicity of all the capitalist regimes, of the UN, of Kofi Annan-JP Morgan, in the slaughter of the Syrian masses. The slogan of ‘defence of the Syrian masses’ and ‘down with the Assad regime’ should become part of the localized struggles against the capitalist state. We call for working class organizations in South Africa to make a start on this. We also call for June 16th rallies and activities to be turned into rallies for the defence of the Syrian masses.
For the masses to shut down all Syrian embassies and to blockade the Syrian regime.
The struggle for workers councils to be set up and for workers to take power in Greece, Libya, Tunisia and Egypt must go hand in hand with support by the masses to help overthrow the Syrian regime. The fight to overthrow the Zionist regime and the imperialist puppet regimes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Yemen, the Emirates and Iran is part of the same struggle to overthrow the Assad regime. The fight for a United Socialist Soviet states of Europe is inextricably linked to the fight for the overthrow of the Syrian regime, the TNC, the Zionist regime, the Bahraini regime, the Tunisian regime, the Egyptian regime, and indeed all regimes in the semi-colonies and colonies.
For an international congress in Athens to refound/rebuild the Fourth International, with sections, revolutionary working class parties, in every part of the globe, based on the above programme.
Workers International Vanguard Party
9.6.2012
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