Response to John Pilger on Syria

[This is a response to the article by Pilger: ‘This time it’s Syria, last time it was Iraq’, which appeared on the Stopthewar.uk.org website]

In this article by Pilger, he discusses everything else except what is really happening on the ground in Syria. He makes sweeping generalizations which are out of context. We attempt to deal with his main arguments:

1. He compares Syria today to Iraq 2003. In 2003 the US military invaded Iraq with over 50 000 troops and toppled the Saddam regime. In Syria, the US has sent 500 troops to assist the Kurdish YPG and KDF (Kurdish Democratic Forces). In Syria, the US troops have concentrated on supposedly fighting Isis, NOT the Assad regime. It is true that US proxies, the Saudi and Turkish regimes have been supplying weapons to the forces fighting against the Assad regime. However these weapons have been pea shooters and the supply of these arms have been with conditions, namely that the fight be waged against Isis.

The government has handed Sassa grants over to American loan sharks and is robbing the poorest of the poor

For years the government has claimed it has been helping the poorest of the poor. Now, research by ILRIG (International Labour Research and Information Group), has shown that the government has given over control of the Sassa grants to the hands of an American loan shark called Net1. This company was set up in Florida, USA, in 1997. This American loan shark is parasiting on workers in Iraq , South Korea, UK, Namibia, Nigeria, Malawi, Cameroon, the Phillipines, India and Columbia. Net 1 has partnered with Grindrod to set up Grindrod retail bank, a loan shark. Your Sassa grant is paid into a Grindrod account. Grindrod also owns Moneyline lenders. They offer loans to Sassa grantholders at 68% per annum interest.

Workers International Vanguard League/Party condemns, in the strongest terms, the march by the Mamelodi Concerned Residents scheduled for Pretoria/Tshwane on Friday 24th February 2017. 

Exploding the myth of Syria being ‘anti-imperialist’ – the working class needs to mobilise independently to seize power

Syria has a population of 21 million, of which about 54% are urbanised. This means that the working class has a much greater weight in the Syrian revolution today than 50 years ago. From the 15^th March 2011 up to the current date, much of the urban working class have not participated in the uprising against the Assad Baathist regime. The main reason for this is that the regime has managed to posture as ‘anti-imperialist’. Further, in March the regime gave a 20-30% wage increase to public sector staff and workers to attempt to curb the current revolt. But the central reason why the Assad military dictatorship has managed to sustain

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Continued imperialist plunder as an obstacle to free education

[EDITORS’ NOTE: This article suggests that access to education in South Africa is dependent on the unequal relationship between South Africa’s economy and imperialist global capitalism. Without solving the question of socio-economic plunder and inequality, we will not get free education.]

The UN Conference on Trade (UNCTAD) just published a report in July on invoice fraud by mining monopolies in Africa, including SA specifically. They reported that virtually all the gold between 2000 and 2014 left the country unreported. This amounted to $113,6 bn or (R1,7 trillion). Also guilty of fraud were the platinum, iron ore and silver mines. UNCTAD estimates $50bn leaves Africa every year through illegal trade. This amounts to over $700 bn over the past 14 years (about R10,5 trillion!). Here was the funds for free education, free health-care, housing to all, etc; this is separate from the reported profits. Yet we find that the government does not lift a finger to to tackle the imperialist mining companies but pursues poor students for not repaying NSFAS loans, while others are excluded for financial reasons.

11/01/2017

Syria

Aleppo, the capital city of the resistance, has fallen

√ The genocidal forces of Bashar the dog and Putin mercilessly slaughtered the people of Aleppo

√ The generals of FSA and Al Nusra openly sold it out

√ USA freed the area and air space of Syria so that Al Assad and Putin, with their missiles and barrel bombs, demolish the Syrian cities and Aleppo in particular

√ The Reformist left isolated the Syrian masses from the world working class. Their war cry: "ISIS is the enemy"; while Al Assad with his mercenary forces under the command of Putin and Obama were crushing the heroic 2011/2012 workers and peasants revolution

***

Aleppo did not surrender! Aleppo was sold out!

 First of all a big salute to all the students who stood up in the fight for free education, against high fees and an end to outsourcing. A big salute to the worker-student and staff alliance that was growing day by day. There are so many lessons that these struggles can teach us all. This breakthrough moment has come through many battles over the years, some partial victories and several defeats.

The activists Dinah Makheta, Sipho Mangane, Dan Molefe and Pulane Mahlangu are political prisoners of the capitalist state. We demand their immediate release. We call for all working class organizations to take up this

call to campaign for the over-turning of their sentences,for an end to the criminalisation of protest and for the arrest of the bosses of Anglo American, Lonmin and other mining giants that have stolen hundreds of billions over the years that could have been used for decent housing for all, jobs for all, free, quality health care for all, free, quality education for all and all the needs of the entire masses. More than 63% of deaths of children are caused by hunger. Hundreds of thousands of people are dying from diseases of poverty. Millions are crowded into small dwellings and shacks. More than half the youth that start school drop out before matric because of poverty conditions. Our pensioners are starving; this year they received only a 4% ‘increase’, which is a cut in real terms. Meanwhile Anglo American and other mining giants not only take hundreds of billions of Rands of profits out of the country and the region, they also do not pay the taxes that they should.