Monthly Archives: August 2012

Assisi 2012– Greece & Italy

29 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by in Anti Imperialist, Crisis of Capitalism, Socialism

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From the time of the Black Panthers I remember the following small story. Long after Black Power won and established its rule in the States, two black businessmen in posh suits were entering a pub in Manhattan when they saw a group of poor white youth sitting with some guitars on the edge of the pavement and singing. One of the black businessmen tells his friend: “See what beat those white folk have in their blood”.

For long time revolutionaries from the 3rd world used to look from above on their comrades from the imperialist centers. It is true that they enjoyed better living standards and more freedom, but all the real action was in other places. The imperialist countries gained so much from robbing the poor people all over the world that they could buy the consent of their own working class with social benefits and democratic freedoms, corrupt the elite and local leaderships and give a civilized look to their class rule.

This is not true anymore. With China surpassing the US as the major economic power and after the political and economic failure of its military adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan, the imperialist countries’ ability to bully and rob the rest of the world is not what it used to be.

This led to the global financial crisis that started back in 2007. This time it is not a cyclic crisis, correcting over investment and over capacity, but a structural crisis that already lasts 5 years and is not going away anytime soon. The Assisi 2012 Anti Imperialist camp was a great opportunity for us, coming from the Arab World in the idle of its revolution, to learn how the people in Europe are coping with this crisis.

Greece

On Friday morning, August 24, we met to hear about the situation in Greece, where the crisis is most severe. The comrades from Greece told the story of collapsing health services and education, idling fields and factories, rocketing unemployment and a population that is not sure whether it will have enough to eat. They described the rage of the people at the feeling that they are forced to pay the price for the corruption of the elite. They spoke of the despair as all the sacrifices of the poor people are tunneled to repay the banks and not to rebuild the economy that they destroyed.

But however clear it is what the international and local financial oligarchy is doing and causing, the alternative is far from clear.

Petros Al Achmar, from the Communist Organization of Greece (KOE) and the newly formed left coalition Syriza, presented the new hope of the left. Building a coalition of many political forces of the left since 2001, Syriza succeeded to raise it share of the vote from 5% to 27% during a short period in 2012, as the economic and political crisis reached new heights and people looked for an alternative that is different from the current corrupt system. Petros stressed that the key to the rapid development of Syriza is not only the collection of existing forces but also the openness to the new activists of the mass movement. It required the readiness of the leadership to hear and learn from the new activists and not to force on them its own ready solutions.

As Syriza prepared itself to form an alternative government after the June 17, 2012, elections, and as it rides the mass protest movement more than it leads it, its positions are duly reflecting the mood of the masses. It means that it is clear who is to blame for the crisis, but not too clear how to get out of it. Basically the question of exit from the Euro zone was not yet decided. To say the truth, I don’t know what the right path is, and whether Syriza could lead it, but I enjoyed hearing representatives of the sincere left in Europe trying to cope (even if only mentally, till now) with the task of leading their country.

Yiannis Rachiotis from “Antarsya” and Mikhalis Tiktopoulos spoke for the other part of the Greek left, which is not part of Syriza. They clearly proposed exit from the Euro zone but were more pessimistic about the potential of the mass movement for real influence on the state’s crisis. To some degree they were closer to the Anarchists position (that was not represented), which concentrates on fighting the system in the streets more than on posing a practical alternative. (Though comrade Yiannis made a nice try at posing concrete steps which a future left Greek government may take, including, for example, issuing internal bonds. As before, I enjoyed this one too.)

Italy

The last session of the Camp, on August 26, was dedicated to the crisis in Italy. The economic crisis in Italy is far from the Greek climax, but the crisis of the political system is even more profound. I will not handle it in much detail, but I wanted to mention Italy in connection with the Greek discussion because of the appearance of new type of social movements.

In Sicily a strong protest movement led by farmers and lorry drivers challenges the austerity and neo-liberal policy of the government. It was formed outside the established parties, blaming the whole elite, established political parties and the media for corruption and responsibility to the economic crisis.

From Sardinia we heard Felice Flori, leader of the Sard shepherds. He spoke of a unique local experience, with a broad coalition of popular organizations forming an “assembly” to challenge the established power. He showed a high level of consciousness when he spoke of the deliberations how to build popular power independent of the establishment, while trying to influence the established system through participation in elections.

This new type of popular power, building from the local level by uniting organizations of popular struggle, may be the way to solve the puzzle posed by the Greek comrades. If you start with taking the government from above, let’s say through elections, you may find that with the tools of a capitalist government you can’t really implement a very different policy. If you just fight it in the streets you leave it to the representatives of the system to lead and to give solutions. Maybe they are simply unable to do it. The ordinary people that suffer from the crisis must have some intermediary steps to develop their role from protest to leading a new type of society.

Independence vs. European Unity

Both in Greece and in Italy, one main scheme was the need for national independence or sovereignty. The most convincing argument in this direction is that the rules of the European Union are a dictate of Capitalist Neo-Liberal policies that the local government has no way to challenge. Regaining local independence in decision making is a pre-condition for trying to do something else.

This is in contrast with the natural tendency to think that a greater union is progress. It makes sense at a time of crisis to take a step backward in order to gain self control in a smaller framework. But the left should also regain the initiative and pose its own vision for European unity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anti Imperialist Camp – Assisi 2012 – Day I

25 Saturday Aug 2012

Posted by in Anti Imperialist, Arab Revolution

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Coming to Italy you get some historic perspective. Roma is a proud city. Its best days were some two thousand years ago, when its legions were strolling all over Europe and around the Mediterranean. Our hearts are, of course, with the poor slaves that were brought in from all over the Empire, and especially with the heroic rebellious few led by Spartacus. But looking at Rome’s many imperial monuments you must admit that they are also part of Humanity’s proud cultural heritage. So when the Italians speak about Anti Imperialism they should know something about it.
Assisi, two hours by train into the mountains North East off Rome, also has its proud history, documented in stone as well as paper, mostly about the Christian Church, its Monasteries and the Franciscan Order. This may be a good reminder of the big steering wheel of history, where a movement starts up as popular rebellion for liberty and justice, pays with the blood of the martyrs to save the masses and bring a better world; At a later stage, as results of its success, it becomes the establishment and oppresses others that fail to share its vision.
Assisi 2012 Anti Imperialist camp’s main Motto is “Tahrir – popular uprising at the gates”. Tahrir, as you all know, means “liberation” (in Arabic), and it is the name of the famous square in Cairo, which is the beating heart of the Egyptian revolution.
With the big Arab Democratic Revolution still making headlines more than a year and a half after it suddenly erupted in Tunisia, and attractive speakers from different movements of the Arab spring coming to give first hand report to the progressive European audience, you would expect that the mountain camping ground looking over Assisi would be full of freedom loving and progressive types. In fact some scores of the really serious Anti Imperialists are lost among the ordinary camping masses, and there is plenty of time for discussion in the meetings tent.
* * *
The first lecture, hosting the quietly spoken sympathetic Ajmi Lourimi from A-Nahda in Tunis is clearly the easy part. It is so easy to love the Tunisian revolution. Ajmi himself is saying all the right things. He speaks about the democratic and social character of the revolution; about the need for pluralist democracy; about the hardship of building a new just order.
The second session was set to deal with Libya. Here comes the real test. Will the opposition to the NATO intervention overshadow the basic support to the revolution and convert into de facto defense of Qaddafi? It is not an historic issue of analyzing the Libyan events post-mortem, but it bears heavily on the position on Syria and other revolutions to come.
In fact Moreno Pasquinelli, the spirit behind the Anti Imperialist Camp in Italy, gave a very good opening, stressing the main issues: The character of the Libyan regime that was fast deteriorating over the last 15 years into a corrupt family business and was tightly integrated in the imperialist system. He explained the legitimacy of the popular democratic revolution against the tyranny. He was even brave enough to remind the audience that the fact that imperialism supports one side in the struggle doesn’t necessarily imply that this side is reactionary or serving imperialism. To make it crystal clear he cited the example of the Italian Anti Fascist Resistance that was helped by US imperialism during the Second World War.
After the official presentations ended, the stage was opened for the participants. One after the other, many of the participants, from different Arab movements and from the European left, utilized the opportunity to express their faith in the Arab Spring as a just and necessary popular movement for democracy – that will put the Arab masses at the center of the political stage and will be a big step in the struggle for Social Justice as well as Human Rights and Freedom.
The last session was dedicated to Syria, and there was only one speaker, Haitham Manna. An internationally known figure at the heart of the most important and burning stage of the Arab Spring, he stunned the public with details of the regime’s cruelty and inability to respond to any attempt at reconciliation and reform, as well as with internal criticism of the opposition. Hearing him speaking of is martyr brother and many other friends killed or imprisoned, you can’t avoid admiring him. He is extremely informed, like telling us that he just talked with the son of Syria’s vice president, Farouk A-Shera, which verified that his father is still in Syria.
But with the over detailed narrative of the daily suffering and the futile attempts to stop the bloodletting, you lose the focus and forget that basically there is a revolution out there and that this revolution is fighting to win the freedom of the Syrian people. After all, I wished that the Anti Imperialist camp would have also bring us some simple minded ordinary revolutionaries that we can not only sympathize with but also get the spirit of the popular struggle and the strive for victory.
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Discussing Syria, one point was repeatedly mentioned that I would like to comment about. In addition to the common justified concerns about imperialist intervention, some Anti Imperialists express concerns about young enthusiastic volunteers that come to fight it in Syria, bearing romantic Islamist dreams. Some commentators even go as far as calling this influx of volunteers “an external intervention”.
From historic perspective, romantic brave youth are an integral part of any revolution. As long as the revolution requires people to risk their lives, nobody that wants the revolution to win (and do it as fast as possible to save blood, suffering and destruction) will give up this vital help. The enthusiastic Islamist youth in the Arab Spring are not different from the Communist, Anarchists and Trotskyites that poured to Spain in 1936 to stop fascism.
The problem is not with the wild dreams of the youth. Even in our daily struggle in Haifa the main work is done by (local) youth that many times didn’t have time to think about all the consequences of the struggle. Palestine is swamped with idealistic youth of all beliefs from all over the world. If there is a problem, it is with the leaderships that tend to lose connection with aspirations of the masses.
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The first day of the of Assisi 2012 was August 23. Due to problems with the internet connection the publication of this post was somewhat delayed. Please accept my apology. Farther reports on the camp may come later.

A meeting in Haifa on One Democratic State in Palestine

21 Tuesday Aug 2012

Posted by in ODS, Palestine

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On Wednesday 15/8/2012, there was a meeting in Haifa about the proposition of the solution of one democratic state in Palestine. More than 20 activists from Haifa, Akka (Acre), Jdeideh, Al-Makr and Tel Aviv attended.

The call for the meeting came on the background of the “Munich Conference” (29/6 – 1/7/2012), which called for communication between all the supporters of this solution in order “to move to the stage of implementation”. The participants in this conference agreed that “it is necessary that the initiative for implementing this program comes from within Palestine”.

The meeting in Haifa discussed the history of the proposal for “one democratic state” and “one secular democratic state”. It continued to discuss the practical meaning of this perspective as a solution to the Palestinian cause and as a framework for the restoration of the Palestinian national rights, especially the return of the refugees and the displaced persons.

Many of the participants stressed the need to oppose Zionism and to pose a democratic alternative to it in different segments of the Arab and Jewish public. This should be done by cooperation with different forces and movements that may support this solution. In the struggle for the future one state, all those that may be citizens of this state should take part:  Residents of Palestine in the present and the past, refugees and displaced people, people from the 48 territories, from 67 and from the Palestinian Diaspora.

Many also expressed the necessity that the movement toward one democratic state will be complementary to all the other different national, democratic social and class struggles. The movement should be integrally connected to the resistance activity.

Many of the participants also stressed that any movement toward one state should be place in the context of struggle and liberation from all sorts and forms of oppression that stem from the Zionist regime. They expressed their refusal to any step that may open the way for normalization with the occupation or to legitimize the Zionist racist institutions.

At the end of the meeting the majority of the attendees agreed to continue to build communication with supporters of the democratic solution and to continue the dialogue about the meaning of this solution and how to work for its implementation on the ground. The activists from Tel Aviv will check the feasibility of holding a meeting there, with the participation of activists from different movement and from different schools of thought who support the one state solution. A temporary coordinating committee was formed.

This post was also published in Arabic..

How to support the Syrian Revolution? – Discussion with Anti Imperialist friends

18 Saturday Aug 2012

Posted by in Arab Revolution, Syrian Revolution

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I very much respect the Anti Imperialist Camp. At the days of the mass movement against the imperialist invasion of Iraq, they came out of the peace loving mass with a brave principled position of defense and support of the right of the Iraqi people for armed resistance against the occupation. When Hamas was democratically elected to rule the Palestinian Authority in 2006, they held firm against all the anti-Islamic propaganda and led a campaign against the siege of Gaza.

So it is with some sorrow that I follow how my Anti Imperialist friends are taking a hesitant stand in their declared support for the Syrian revolution. In the spirit of revolutionary solidarity and the frank discussion between comrades, I would like to try to clear some of the mess of the position paper, “Democratic revolution against Assad AND the Gulf-backed forces“, published by my good friend Wilhelm Langthaler on August 4, 2012.

What is Revolutionary Solidarity?

Back in May 31, 2012, under the title “International Solidarity Initiative with the Syrian People“, we read (on the Anti Imperialist site) that “When the Arab popular revolt toppled the western-backed tyrants in Tunisia and Egypt, electrified the oppressed masses across the Arab world and eventually reached Syria, we all hoped for a quick victory of the democratic movement.”

For me this is simple enough and should stay this way. As we support the Syrian people, support their right for freedom from tyranny and terror, we should continue to support the Syrian revolution and wish for its quick victory. One consequence is that we should support the unity of all the forces of the revolution and call for progressive and democratic people outside Syria to support the revolutionaries in all possible ways.

Somehow the Anti Imperialist camp is obsessed with dividing the Syrian revolutionary forces between good and bad guys. It also devotes an unproportional share of its writing to teach the Syrian revolutionaries what is the best tactics for their struggle. It is a far reminiscent of the old days when revolutions were led from the center of a centralized international… It didn’t work even then. The Anti Imperialist camp used to be our symbol of real revolutionary solidarity – acknowledging that the leadership should stay with the people that are fighting on the ground.

Mass struggle and armed insurrection

The development of the Syrian revolution from peaceful demonstrations to armed struggle is natural and legitimate. On May 31, we read that “Unfortunately the Assad clique was frontally against the massive democratic mass movement… The only answer they had was bloody repression targeting any dissent. So armed self-defense increasingly became a more than legitimate necessity and, as many soldiers defected, developed organically from within the popular movement.”

In fact, in the face of deadly oppression, the armed struggle is not an alternative to the mass movement but a new form of it, the only practically possible form. You can’t expect people to put their lives in constant danger and not do everything that they can to defend themselves, their families and their communities.

Still there is an unexplained suspicion on the side of the Anti Imperialists of the justified Syrian armed revolt. In May they wrote that “the movement in the streets continued to peacefully face the guns of the regime for many months despite the utmost imbalance of force… no to violence and civil war”. In August, in response to the insurrection in Aleppo, they asked whether “the increasingly militarist strategy… prompt the closing of the regime’s ranks and alienate parts of the population?”

The plain truth is that the Syrian peaceful masses called for the organization of the Free Syrian Army to defend themselves and that only the military victories of the FSA will allow all the Syrians that support the revolution to break the chains of fear and terror – as well as will let the regime supporters to change their evaluation of their own self interests.

Reading developments on the ground

In the spirit of distrust of the forces waging the armed revolution, comrade Langthaler writes: “… the armed insurgents in Damascus were put down by the regime with relative ease. There seem to have been a kind of withdrawal without decisive battle. But in spite of drawing a political conclusion from this partial defeat – namely that the situation was politically not ripe for an armed uprising in the capital – an important section of the armed opposition, the FSA Salafi combine, rushed towards a much bigger endeavor under much worse political conditions: the attack on Aleppo.”

When Guerrilla forces fight regular army they don’t push for head-on military victory but for attrition of the army.   The uprising in Damascus and Aleppo did very much to change the psychological balance of forces – showing that there are no safe havens for the regime. (In the words of one revolutionary on Al-Jazeera, “we proved that there is no regime rooting out pockets of terrorists, but mass resistance rooting out pockets of the regime”.) In the face of military superior forces and ruthless bombardment of the civilian population the guerrilla force retreat and reorganize.

The uprising in Aleppo forced the Syrian army to withdraw its forces from most of the north of Syria (in order to attack Aleppo), creating for the first time big chunks of territory under rebel control. It is a big victory for the revolution, even if Aleppo will fall to the government again.

In Aleppo, unlike Damascus, the rebels have direct access to military supplies from Turkey – so they have the “strategic depth” that is essential for military victory – and they can still get it.

The Islamic Monster

As we were used to the brave and principled defense by the Anti Imperialist camp of the legitimacy of Islamic resistance, it is with special pain that I read the repeated reference to the “danger” of Islamic forces in the Syrian revolution, like in the following sentence: “Also leftist forces from within the opposition report that for the first time there is a Salafi/Islamist hegemony – which actually corresponds to the militarist concept and also to the superior armament secured by foreign funding.”

It should be clear for all, for some time now, if not from the beginning, that the main organized political forces in the Arab revolution are Islamic parties and movements. This doesn’t change the character of the Arab Spring as a great democratic revolution. Like the Russian masses in their revolution in 1917, the Arab masses in 2011 rose up to throw away their Tsars. Like the Russian Social Democrats that prepared for the revolution through their newspapers and trade union grassroots struggle, the Moslem Brothers prepared for the Arab spring through their mosques, social welfare networks and Al-Jazeera.

For many years tramping up the “Islamic danger” was the ultimate justification for Western “progressive democratic” Imperialism to support the most corrupt, repressive and backward dictatorships in the Middle East.

The brave and highly politicized Syrian people, who are fighting for their freedom in the harshest of conditions, will consider any political force according to its real contribution for their victory.

Of course, there are many dangers to the revolution, and the Syrian people are the best to know them. Sectarian revenge, for one, is directly playing into the hands of the regime. But it can come out of ignorance, as well as out of religious extremism, and should be denounced and prevented in any specific case when it happens, without throwing general accusations and raising suspicions between the partners to the revolution.

Foreign agents

The Syrian revolution is an insurrection of the popular Syrian masses against the corrupt bourgeois military dictatorship. After all the talk of foreign intervention, the astonishing thing is how little help the Syrian people receive. This is no surprise. Libya has a lot of oil and few people – so it was a lucrative revolution. The same imperialist politicians that were rubbing with Qaddafi in luxurious parties were quick to offer military help for his overthrow.

The Syrian people that demonstrated week after week for “no fly zone” over Syria are not un-patriotic. They just don’t like to be bombed. They noticed that the Syrian air force was not flying to fight Israel but to bomb Syrian cities and villages. Till now even this most simple request for foreign intervention was not met.

When people fight for their lives, they will welcome any help they can get. Even from the enemy, which they plan to fight over the next days. Don’t forget that Lenin in 1917 coordinated his return from Switzerland with German government agents. Ben-Laden was on the American government’s pay while fighting the Russians in Afghanistan, before turning his sights on the other front. On another level, most Human Rights organizations in the Middle East, Palestine included, get some funding from Western governments or semi-official sources.

So speaking today in Syria on “revolution against Gulf-backed forces” is empty words that confuse the political map. First the revolution should win. For this it needs unity and help. Then what will be left on the ground is the brave Syrian people that fought for the revolution and sacrified so much to get their freedom. All we can wish for them is that they will be strong enough to establish democracy and let the people decide the composition of their post-revolutionary government by elections and not by another period of violent struggle between the revolutionary forces.

Who wants Coup D’Etat?

Maybe the most surprising element in the article is the obsession with coup d’etat as the preferred solution to the current Syrian uprising.

As was written in “the economist” (3/8/2012) it is the imperialist forces that are afraid of an all out victory for the Syrian revolution and try to do whatever they can to inspire a military coup d’etat that will leave some of the ruling elite at the helms of power. They regard the ruling elite as more reliable in guarding the important interests of imperialism, not least the security of the Zionist state.

It is a shame if some people on the left are so suspicious of the Islamic tendencies of their brothers in the revolution to the extent that they prefer half victory and limited democracy to full revolutionary victory. (It is not new: In Turkey I met many leftists that wanted the army to keep some powers to hold back the democratically elected Islamic government; In Egypt some leftist were not fully supporting the Islamic-majority elected parliament against the army’s intervention.)

It is part of the imperialist strategy of delaying a revolutionary victory that is behind preventing the FSA the weapons that can save lives and decide the battle like anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

Saying that, of course, any move of the army top command to stop obeying the orders of the Assad gang to massacre the Syrian people will be most welcomed, today, any day. So I’m also for a coup d’etat. Even if it will slow the revolution for some time – you can rely on the Syrian people that it will not be for long. But this is wishful thinking and not a revolutionary strategy.

Anti Imperialism and the Revolution

To the best of my knowledge, we are Anti Imperialists because we are Pro People, not the other way round. So we don’t seek to impose a program on the Syrian people. Nor do we look what imperialism is saying and doing its reverse. We strive to find the best way for the people to defend themselves and build a society, economy and state that will serve their interests.

Qaddafi’s Libya, or Socialist, Salafist, Capitalist or Anarchist Libya, will still sell oil to the imperialist countries. There may be some difference in the price, in environmental safeguards, and more difference how much of the money is stolen and how much is spent for local development.  There is a lot of difference who will benefit from the local development. Democratically elected government, freedom of organization, transparency, conscious and involved public, all will go a long way in the right direction – and they are the fruits of the Arab Spring as a great democratic revolution.

The big regional issues will also come back, not least the issue of Palestine. This is the most important issue where imperialism is standing unequivocally against democracy and against the aspirations of the Arab people. Decades of decay under corrupt dictatorships kept the Arab people out of any influence of the region’s development. The Arab Spring brings the Arab People to the center of the local political stage. It is the only force to rely on for the restoration of the Palestinian national rights.

Admiring the Syrian People

05 Sunday Aug 2012

Posted by in Arab Revolution, Syrian Revolution

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When the revolution started, we were all enthusiastic of the revolution. It was like a dream comes true. Millions of people that had no voice suddenly spoke out freely, even at the risk of being arrested or shot. It was an explosion of creativity. In Syria, more than in all other centers of the Arab Revolution, the revolution was marked by good humor, popular songs, and people dancing in the streets to keep their spirits in the face of deadly oppression.

It was with great joy that we made our first pro Syrian revolution demonstrations in Haifa, singing the viral revolutionary lyrics of Ibrahim Qashoush from Hama. But after the revolution has already cost the lives of more than twenty thousand Syrians, how can one keep enthuse about it?

You might wonder whether the Syrians themselves would start this revolution, had they known in advance the real price in martyrs, wounded people, suffering and destruction. It was, famously, some kids in Daraa who made the first step by writing slogans on the walls against the fearful Assad tyranny. But from the arrest of the kids of Daraa, back in March 2011, till the bombing of the poor neighborhoods of Damascus and Halab (Aleppo) over the last weeks, it is the indiscriminate unproportional brutal oppression of the regime that galvanized the public and made the next step of the revolution inevitable.

At any stage of the revolution, while oppression becomes ever more brutal, people are faced with the same cruel choice. To stop here will be to let all your sacrifices, the blood of the martyrs and the life long suffering of the wounded, to go in vain. Worse, to stop here will be to submit oneself to long years of humiliation, suffering the vengeance of a brutal wounded regime. And then you know that you or your children will have to start the struggle for freedom all over again.

So there is only one way for the Syrian revolution – and this is the way forward for revolutionary victory, the toppling of the regime and the establishment of democracy.

In this long and bloody road, the Syrian revolution has already gone far beyond what the Arab revolution has done in all the other countries where it erupted. In Tunisia and Egypt the army, guided by its mentors in the US, let go the head of the regime in order to keep as much as possible of the old establishment and the old order in place. You can see the limits of the Egyptian revolutionary victory every day by the intervention of the military clique, which resolved the elected parliament and limits the power of the elected president. It doesn’t mean that it would be better for the Egyptians to fight it in the streets to get rid of all the remnants of the regime. As long as there is a cheaper way forward, there is no justification for a bloody revolutionary confrontation. But the Syrian people had no such choice and they proved that no massacre can stop the revolution.

In Libya, after the first stage of the popular uprising, the imperialist powers decided to drop Qaddafi, which served them very well in his last years of lunatic dictatorship. The NATO intervention neutralized the regime’s airpower and tanks. Still it was the local revolutionaries that fought to liberate town after town on the ground – but they could hardly won against the might of the army without outside help. In Syria there was a long and soul torturing argument in the opposition about calling for foreign intervention – until it became clear on the ground that nobody will intervene of their behalf. So the Syrian revolutionary victory will be wholly owned by the Heroic sacrifices of the Syrian people.

Basically the struggle of the revolution is the struggle for the hearts and minds of the Syrian people. For many people the very lack of freedom, their impoverishment and marginalization in their own homeland, was reason enough to join the fight. Many others preferred the known relative safety of the current regime, or at least wouldn’t put their lives and their families at risk to challenge it. Much of the revolutionary logic is how, after the open struggle started and people are bravely challenging the regime, more people are joining in just because they can’t stand silent while their compatriots are so brutally oppressed.

Till now we see on Al-Jazeera the daily defectors from the army, the diplomatic corpus, the police or even the security services, declaring their choice to follow their consciousness and join the people’s uprising. If they stayed so long they surely had a hard decision to do. You don’t know what pressure they were under and what they stand to loose. As they regime is determined to regain control of his people by simply blowing them up, it is surely loosing the battle for their souls.

As we, in occupied Palestine, follow with admiration the heroic battle of the Syrian people, more and more people remember that Palestine used to be the southern part of Syria. Decades of humiliation and incapacity divided the Arab people, sending each group to look for its own interests. Now the winds of freedom are blowing over the artificial borders and the sense of pride is strengthening the common identity. Syria was always the beating heart of Arab nationality – now it is radiating the message of revolution, freedom and democracy.