Re: [Marxism] Solidarity needed amid ongoing Turkish aggression against Kurds (Green Left)

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Hi Chris, I wonder what you and others think is going on with the US push
to get the PYD/SDF together with Kurdish National Council?

On Thu, Jul 2, 2020 at 2:04 PM Chris Slee via Marxism <
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> https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/solidarity-needed-amid-ongoing-turkish-aggression-against-kurds
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Re: [Marxism] Libya: Is Russia-Turkey conflict heightening over oil-rich Sirte? (Juan Cole)

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On Thu, Jun 11, 2020 at 8:47 AM Chris Slee via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

>
> https://www.juancole.com/2020/06/russia-conflict-heightening.html
>
> Not content with invading and occupying parts of Syria and Iraq, Erdogan
> is intervening in the Libyan civil war.
>
> Chris might also have noted that Russia, not content with invading,
bombing and occupying parts of Syria and Ukraine and annexing Crimea, is
also intervening in the Libyan civil war. A world view, however, that has
decided that the Turkish regime is the main enemy of the region's peoples,
won't see the Russian role in the same light.

Actually I agree with Chris regarding Turkey's intervention in Libya, and
even more so about the fact that Erdogan has turned former anti-Assad
rebels into mercenaries for Turkish geopolitical goals by sending them to
Libya to fight for the Libyan government, which is hardly their concern.
Neither side in Libya - the Turkish-backed government, nor the rebel LNA
based in the east, led by former Libyan general, then CIA-asset Haftar,
offer much that is substantially different to Libyans.

However, when weighing up, it is important to remember a couple of things:

Firstly, whatever one's view of the current Libyan government, it is a
product of local Libyan developments, long before the Turkish intervention,
and it is the internationally recognised government of Libya, holding its
UN seat, without any egregious war crimes to its name that would stain its
legitimacy in any major way; by contrast, the LNA is simply a regional
project led by Haftar that wants to violently overthrow the government
without offering anything better; and in its attacks on Tripoli, it has
committed war crimes such as the shelling of hospitals.

Second, while the Libyan government is backed by Turkey and Qatar, Haftar's
LNA is backed by a literal mug's gallery of the regional counterrevolution:
Russia, al-Sisi's Egyptian tyranny, the United Arab Emirates, the Saudis,
Israel and the Assad regime, while also receiving some support from France
and occasional encouraging words from Trump.

Part of the reason for such a varied reactionary united front is the
hostility of all these regimes to the regional Muslim Brotherhod, which
plays a role in the Libyan government (which however cannot be thought of
as in any way 'hard Islamist') and is backed regionally by Turkey and
Qatar. Egypt and the UAE view Turkey/Qatar/MB as their main regional
opponent, while Saudi Arabia sees them as its equal regional opponent
alongside Iran. This has led to a sharp pro-Assad alliance by Egypt/UAE and
a similar less sharp turn by the Saudis; all are strongly connected to
Russia as well as the US. For Israel, the MB means Hamas, and also see
Turkey/Qatar as its main supporters.

Another aspect of this great game is the struggle over control of east
Mediterranean gas supplies and its transport to Europe. This struggle pits
an Israel-Egypt-Cyprus-Greece alliance against Turkey's rival claims, which
it has tried to advance via the alliance with Libya. Interestingly though,
despite Russia being a leading part of the anti-Turkish alliance in Libya,
its Southstream gas project pumps Russian gas out into the Mediterranean
through Turkey! gets very complicated! Even more so when Russia has also
been involved in discussion with Israel about becoming part of its rival
gas project.
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[Marxism] Russia Today publishes KKK-style "advice" to "Minnesota negrs"

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RT editor-in-chief publishes KKK-style "advice" to "Minnesota negrs"

31-05-2020: This incredibly racist "advice" to "the negrs of Minnesota and
the U.S." comes from Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of Russia
Today (RT).

The 'advice', translated by Bellingcat, includes lines such as: "First of
all you need the police to beat the f*ck out of some delicate creatures,
not muscular criminal negroids, these are not to be pitied, not even by
those who crow about their rights"; "you need a stage where the negrs'
national dance, the twerk, is performed", and "Let the black bros make
amphetamine and meth in three shifts, in the name of the Revolution".

The re-post, expressing admiration for this racist drivel which cites
Hitler's favourite filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl as an expert on film-making,
is from Dmitry Steshin, a journalist known for his ultranationalist views.

From
https://www.facebook.com/RadioFreeSyria/posts/3001101696641684?__tn__=H-R

Original post:

https://twitter.com/bellingcat/status/1267119829733060609

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[Marxism] The Police and Surveillance State in the Post-Lockdown Phase

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Michael Probsting from RKOB has asked me to send this to the list for
informational purposes, so I am passing it on

Michael


The Police and Surveillance State in the Post-Lockdown Phase

A global review of the ruling class’s plans of expanding the bonapartist
state machinery

By Michael Pröbsting, 21 May 2020

https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/police-and-surveillance-state-in-post-lockdown-phase/



Contents



Introduction

An expected development

The Lockdown was not directed against the pandemic

Which “new normal” is the ruling class planning for?

China: the most successful regime in making “Big Brother” omnipresent

Moscow follows the Chinese model and creates a “Cyber Gulag”

The U.S.: “the ancient past known as February” and today

European Union: surveillance and the model of “red/green zones”

India: State Bonapartism under semi-colonial conditions

South Africa: Lockdown imposed by a “progressive” government

Conclusions
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[Marxism] Vietnam May Have the Most Effective Response to Covid-19

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By George Black 

They’ve done it through mass mobilization of the health care system, public
employees, and the security forces, combined with an energetic and creative
public education campaign.

*
*

Since the earliest days of the Covid-19 pandemic, three Asian countries
have been singled out for praise for their effective response. First, it
was South Korea. The country has a population of 52 million, and as of
April 22 it has 10,702 cases and 240 deaths. Taiwan has drawn a lot of
media attention because of its spiky relationship with the World Health
Organization, and, with 24 million people, its numbers are much better than
South Korea’s: 427 cases and only six deaths. Singapore, finally, with a
population of 5.5 million, has 11,178 cases and 12 fatalities, and was held
up as a model until last week, which brought a new surge that appears to
have begun in a hostel for South Asian migrant workers.

The glaring omission from this list is Vietnam. Almost three months since
its first case was detected on January 23, the number of recorded
infections has inched up to only 268, and so far no one has died. The
population of Vietnam is 95 million—more than South Korea, Taiwan, and
Singapore combined.

*https://www.thenation.com/article/world/coronavirus-vietnam-quarantine-mobilization/
*
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[Marxism] Vietnam donating hundreds of thousands of anti-bacterial masks, protective suits, to Europe, US

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(Compiled by Chuck Searcey, long-time American resident in Vietnam):

Vietnam is donating 550,000 anti-bacterial masks to European countries.

Viet Nam informed ambassadors of France, Germany, Italy, Spain the UK, and
the head of the European Union Delegation to Vietnam that Viet Nam is
donating 550,000 masks to counter the threat of COVID-19 in Europe, Thomson
Reuters <
https://kfgo.com/2020/04/07/vietnam-donates-55-masks-to-eu-countries-in-coronavirus-fight/>
reports. According to Nhân Dân <
https://en.nhandan.org.vn/politics/item/8553402-vietnam-presents-antibacterial-masks-to-european-countries.html>
newspaper, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs To Anh Dung said at the
handover event, “Amid the current global medical crisis, no single country
could effectively contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.” Viet Nam
has asked its mask producers to step up production to make 5 million masks
a day. [MORE]
<
https://kfgo.com/2020/04/07/vietnam-donates-55-masks-to-eu-countries-in-coronavirus-fight/
>

In early April, Vietnam sent Germany 6,000 test tubes <
https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/vietnam-donates-6-000-test-tubes-to-germany-for-covid-19-cure-trials-4078121.html>
to aid the country in finding a cure for the Covid-19 disease.

Meanwhile:

Viet Nam has sent 450,000 protective suits to the U.S. to help frontline
healthcare professionals fight the Covid-19 pandemic, and Pres. Trump has
tweeted his appreciation. "This morning, 450,000 protective suits landed
in Dallas, Texas,” Trump tweeted on Thursday morning (GMT+7). “This was
made possible because of the partnership of two great American companies –
DuPont and FedEx – and our friends in Vietnam. Thank you," [MORE]
<
https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/president-trump-thanks-vietnam-for-covid-19-protective-suits-4081958.html
>

Vietnam has also given medical equipment, including specialized protective
clothing, medical masks and Covid-19 test kits worth over VND7 billion
($296,000) as gifts to Laos and Cambodia.

In early February, Vietnam donated $500,000 worth of goods and medical
supplies to help China <
https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/vietnam-offers-china-500-000-to-fight-coronavirus-epidemic-4048746.html>
deal with the fast-spreading novel coronavirus outbreak. [MORE]
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Re: [Marxism] SARS-CoV-2: fear versus data (New Scientific Study)

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On 3/31/20 5:04 AM, RKOB via Marxism wrote:
>
> SARS-CoV-2: fear versus data
>
> A new scientific study to appear in: International Journal of
> Antimicrobial Agents
>
> https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924857920300972
Yes, data is a good thing. From the month-old article:

"As of 2 March 2020, 90 307 patients had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2
worldwide, with 3086 deaths (mortality rate 3.4%)."
Now those 90,000 are over 800,000, the 3000 deaths are 40,000 deaths. Even
more remarkably:

"As of 2 March 2020, among OECD countries, 7476 patients had tested
positive for SARS-CoV-2, with 96 deaths (mortality rate 1.3%)"
Yeh, and now just a few weeks later, that's over 100,000 just in Italy,
nearly 100,000 in Spain, 164,000 in the US, hundreds of thousands more,
11,000 dead just in Italy in conditions that sound like the Black Death,
likewise Spain, etc. That's before we even get to what awaits people
throughout the poor world when it hits deeper.
Michael, really what is the point of this "data" that has become so rapidly
irrelevant? You're in Austria, right? You don't see what is happening just
across the border?Yes, it is very strange to agree with lockdowns carried
out by capitalist governments, even though, in reality, in most cases they
are being dragged into it kicking and screaming. But stranger things have
happened. I declare myself here and now in support of lockdown.
You might say, this would not be necessary if the government had carried
out massive testing (like in S. Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam etc), if it had
millions of test kits ready, if there were plenty of ICU rooms and
ventilators, if there were plenty of hospital beds, isn't so bad that
capitalism has cut health spending for decades and the catastrophe hitting
the US could have been avoided etc, and lockdowns etc would not be needed.
Yes, agreed. But precisely the fact that there ahs not been much testing
and governments have devastated the health sector is the point. The "if"
statements are good political commentary but make no difference to what
needs to be done given the actual situation.
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[Marxism] Vietnam: Superstar fighter against Covid-19

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 We have quite rightly heard plenty about the success of South Korea in the
battle against Covid-19, and a little less so about the even more
successful case of Taiwan (see

https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/while-other-countries-lost-precious-time-taiwan-mobilised-to-keep-covid-19-at-bay-20200316-p54ah8.html)

which has kept cases to around 250, with 2 deaths, despite vast economic
interaction with China. Whatever the justified criticism we have of the
'NIC' model of capitalist development, they can be legitimately praised for
their reaction to this crisis, especially compared to the bumbling American
reaction. As I understand, North Korea has zero cases ... yeh, right Kim.


Interestingly, in this Taiwan article, one small bit notes that "One of the
CECC’s earliest steps was to ban the export of face masks and divert funds
and military personnel to boost production. The Taiwan Tobacco & Liquor
Corporation and the Taiwan Sugar Corporation, both state-owned, increased
production and imports of high-proof alcohol as demand for sanitiser
soared." Since the existence of state-owned companies in China that can be
utilised by the state for political/social purposes if often considered
that China remains a "workers' state", then perhaps Taiwan is one too.


But very few seem to know anything about the success of Vietnam, which has
kept cases to around 150, with no deaths to date. This is surprising,
because when the crisis erupted in China, it was reported that significant
numbers escaped Hubei province before lockdown and disappeared, and with
the fairly open (before recently) northern Vietnam-China border, it was
widely suspected they had escaped to Vietnam, and that the border would
pose a major problem in any case.


Yet just as Vietnam was the first country to eliminate SARS, it has again
stepped up almost immediately, above all with massive testing and fully
provided quarantine away from population centres. While this report below
is some kind of blog post, it is all easily verifiable:


"Did you know? *Vietnam is **the first country to develop a fast,
efficient, AND affordable test kit*
*
in one month that the WHO says should have taken 4 years to develop. *The
test, developed by a group of Vietnamese researchers from the Institute of
Biotechnology under the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, costs
about $15, and is capable of returning results within 80 minutes, with a
specificity of 100% and sensitivity of 5 copies per reaction.

"Here's an account of one of my friends who gets tested in Vietnam:

"I went to one of the 30 testing centers available in Vietnam. They swabbed
my nose and mouth. About 2-3 hours later, they let me know the preliminary
results. In my case, it was negative. I then waited for a few more days for
the Institute of Epidemiology in Hanoi to confirm the final result, which
was also negative. It was quick, efficient, and painless."

"The test kits were so efficient and easy to use, that as of last week, 20
countries and territories in the world are looking to purchase tens of
thousands of test kits from Vietnam . Vietnam's current
production capacity is 3,600 kits/day, but the country could make 10,000
kits a day, and triple the capacity if needed, said a representative.
All I see in our news is how the US is facing a testing shortage

(how?) and the first few test kits developed by the CDC were fault
y
(really?) Nothing about Vietnam test kits, of course.

...

*"Vietnam, on the other hand, has been mandating 14-day quarantine for all
foreigners as well as returning Vietnamese from Covid-19 epicenters, on top
of restricting travels from these regions*. At first, these applied to
people coming from China

& South Korea
.
Of late, the mandate has been extended

Re: [Marxism] Idlib: Putin-Erdoğan Deal is a Sell-Out of the Syrian Revolution!

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On Mon, Mar 9, 2020 at 6:56 PM RKOB via Marxism 
wrote:
I agree that "This sell-out deal was almost as predictable as night
becoming day". However, it is one thing to say so AFTER such an event has
happened or to warn about such a danger AHEAD of it.If comrades have
written such warning/predictions ahead of it, please forward the respective
link.

Reply:
Well, since you're responding to me, when I wrote that Turkey's attacks
smashing up Assad's genocide-arsenal and downing warplanes deserves the
total support of humanity, I followed this with:
obviously I am not saying rebels should trust Turkey or subordinate
themselves or put much faith in Turkish actions; the reality is that Turkey
will do little, caught up as it is in deals with Assad's owners, Russia and
Iran. Turkey did nothing to prevent the cities of the revolution falling;
we all know why. However, Turkey also has 3.7 million Syrian refugees, the
highest number of refugees in the world by far, and it cannot handle
another million or two crossing the border; right now it is blocking them,
so the displaced are trapped between Assad and Putin's genocidal bombing
and Turkey's wall. To the extent that this forces Turkey to draw a line
somewhere, in the northern half of Idlib, to keep it, not as a centre of
revolution obviously, but as a giant refugee camp, we must say: GOOD. Not
anywhere good enough of course, but that is now done. No-one ever expected
the US or Turkey or Gulf countries to support a revolution and they didn't,
but if Turkey's own needs now correspond to protecting civilians from
slaughter, then that must be supported.

Seems a pretty clear description of exactly what occurred.
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Re: [Marxism] Erdogan’s imperial play comes undone

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Not sure why John Reimann's addition to this thread is a separate thread
(since the subject is the same).
I agree with Patrick Bond that sub-imperialism is an extremely useful
concept, though I think that Callinicos used it far too broadly (Vietnam?
really?), but perhaps Patrick's own criteria are somewhat restrictive. I
basically agree with John Reimann that" Whatever term one wishes to use,
all capitalist states are driven by the
same forces that drive the most powerful. How could it be otherwise? And
that means that where they can, they will economically, politically and
militarily dominate another state." However, John seems to be saying that
this makes them all "imperialist", without a separate sub-imperialist
category.

Seems to me that it is useful to distinguish between capitalist countries
whose reach is global and those much less powerful states whose reach is
regional. That the first group also, by and large, correspond to other
aspects we have traditionally thought of as evidence of imperialism - eg
being highly advanced capitalist economies that dominate the world market
in other, less direct ways (trade etc) - is also a relevant distinction.
This allows us to understand that the US and China, for example, may be
engaged in economic rivalry, but that the quasi-conflict between the US and
Iran is unlikely to be caused by "competition"; whereas the Saudi-Iranian
rivalry is.

However, the mistake is to draw sweeping, rigid, undialectical conclusions
from all this, of the kind that since x country is sub-imperialist, if
there is a military clash with country y, which is imperialist, we must
always "support", whatever that means, country x, regardless of the actual
context. So, for example, when the Australian DSP supported Australian
intervention in East Timor in 1999, I guess we were "lucky" that Indonesia
decided to not shoot back - because based on this kind of dogma, we would
have had to "support" a sub-imperialist (or ... "oppressed" ...) Indonesia
against imperialist Australia. Even though the point of Indonesia doing
that would have been to complete its massacre of the east Timorese. Which
would have been nuts.

In the case of Syria, the theory of sub-imperialism in no way goes against
supporting (however critically) Turkey's glorious attack on Assad's
genocide equipment last week. After all, sub-imperialist Turkey was
confronting the vassal of Russian imperialism, which is not involved at
arms length, but a direct, large-scale belligerent. So that actually fits
the dogma well (unless one has decided that Russia is not imperialist). BUT
- and if I shock, perhaps that's partly the aim - I think it would have
been correct to support Turkey doing what it just did in 2002, 2003, 2004,
early 2005 - ie, before the Russian intervention. I said so on FB years
ago, received a lot of shock, and made sure I never withdrew or capitulated
to the crowd. So glad it finally happened (though of course, as expected
from Turkey, it was not sustained and was only a step towards a deal).

On Thu, Mar 5, 2020 at 4:28 PM Chris Slee via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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> *
>
> I don't agree that "...Erdogan is defending the remnants of the Syrian
> democratic revolution".
>
> Within Idlib province, the democratic revolution had largely been
> destroyed by reactionary groups, some of which are backed by Turkey, even
> before Assad's recent offensive.
>
> For example, one of the centres of the revolution was the town of Saraqib.
> But democratic forces there came under attack from a series of reactionary
> groups, and eventually had to leave the town. A February 10 article on the
> Guardian website quotes a democratic activist, Odai al-Hussein, who said:
>
> "We wanted a free Syria for all Syrians but they [the reactionary groups]
> wanted an Islamic state. We continued against all the odds: we challenged
> the [Assad] regime, Ahrar al-Sham, Islamic State and al-Nusra. In the end
> the jihadists took over, but we left our city with dignity knowing how much
> we endured to keep Saraqib free".
>
> I am sure there are still people struggling for democracy in Idlib, but I
> don't think Turkey will help them.  It will repress them in the areas it
> controls.
>
> The democratic revolution survives in north-eastern Syria, under very
> difficult circumstances.
> But Turkey, t

Re: [Marxism] Idlib: Putin-Erdoğan Deal is a Sell-Out of the Syrian Revolution!

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This sell-out deal was almost as predictable as night becoming day. That
may sound overblown, given the massive Turkish counterroffensive several
days ago that destroyed so much Assadist genocide-equipment and shot down a
bunch of warplanes. But it was very, very noticeable while this was
happening that it was essentially being facilitated by Moscow - the same
Moscow that had just killed 36 Turkish troops, which provoked Erdogan's
revenge on Assad (instead of on Russian forces). Demonstrating to both who
was in charge was important for Moscow to hammer through this deal. As for
Erdogan, well blowing hot and cold like that is what he does, but it was
clear he wanted a deal, via Moscow, that preserved the northern part of
Idlib province - now that Assad has conquered most of the revolutionary
towns - as a Turkish-controlled giant refugee camp, to prevent further
refugee influx into Turkey.

While the SDF/Kurdish leadership may have entertained some thoughts of
aiding Assad against Idlib in exchange for Assad helping them push Turkish
occupation forces out of Afrin, the actual result will come as a cruel blow
to these illusions. Just as the deal was being signed, Assad declared that
the “Kurdish issue” does not exist in his country, calling it “illusive and
a lie”. He also claimed that Kurds living in northern areas are originally
from Turkey.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/050320201. This is in the
context of rumours that the Russian-Turkish agreement may include secret
provisions for Putin to look the other way if Turkey occupies Kobani. While
tactical choices might be made ehre and there, ultimately a strengthened
regime is their worst enemy too.

On Sat, Mar 7, 2020 at 12:04 AM RKOB via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
>
> https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/idlib-putin-erdogan-deal-is-sell-out-of-syrian-revolution/
>
> --
> Revolutionär-Kommunistische Organisation BEFREIUNG
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Re: [Marxism] Russia backs Damascus as it closes Syrian Airspace, Threatens to down Turkish Jets

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"Russia backs Damascus as it closes Syrian airspace." Well, yes, now, after
Russia allowed Syrian air space to be wide open to Turkey for at least 5
days while Turkey obliterated more Assadist genocide equipment than has
been destroyed in the entire war, killed hundreds of Assadist troops
(Turkey claims 2000), as well as dozens of Iran-led mercenaries from
various countries (leading Hezbollah to formally announce its withdrawal
from northern Syria, after Baathist child-killer chicken troops ran away
and left Hezbollah true-believers to face the music), bombed Assadist
airbases as far as Aleppo, shot down half a dozen Assadist warplanes etc.
All with not a peep from Moscow, which controls the airspace. The Assadist
social media sphere is apparently full of wingnuts in shock, cursing Moscow.

Highly ironic, too, considering it wasn't Assad that killed the 33 Turkish
troops that provoked Erdogan's revenge, it was Russia. Why did Russia first
bomb and kill Turkish troops - following years now when Erdogan and Putin
have been meeting and working on the Astana process etc - and then open
Syrian airspace to Turkey to decimate Assad's war toys? Hard to understand
until you understand that Putin is pure Machiavelli - he couldn't give a
stuff about Assad, but Russian power and influence requires Putin being the
king-maker to hammer out the ultimate deal between his junior partner
(Erdogan) and his satrap (Assad).

Obviously if Putin's dirty manoevres have resulted in this absolutely
beautiful spectacle of the destruction of so much of Assad's genocide toys,
then I don't hold that against Putin, maybe it was the best result ever of
anything Putin did - his regime as responsible as Assad's for the genocide
in Idlib until a few days ago. But of course at the end of the day Russia
remains in charge and now is drawing the line to Turkey. Which is also fine
for Turkey - after all, Turkey's response is the first time Erdogan has
done anything but talk as Assad/Putin bombed the place the pieces and drove
another million to the Turkish border (on top of a million or so already
there). Erdogan hoped Assad would understand that there was a line, as
Turkey needs a buffer zone to prevent an extra 2 million refugees on top of
the 3.7 million already in Turkey. But Assad did not stop - and the irony
is that it was Russia - much more than Iran which was playing a very minor,
back-seat role in idlib (due to it's anti-Kurdish alliance with Turkey) -
that was pushing this super-hard confrontation, virtually leading Assad on.

I think the deal is set, and it seems a Russo-Turkish (and possibly
American) understanding will emerge from this. In the circumstances, with
the crushing of the main revolutionary centres, a huge enough buffer zone
plus a ceasefire (one that is actually a ceasefire this time, due to Turkey
FINALLY showing what it can do if necessary) is, unfortunately, probably
the best that can be hoped for at the moment in simple humanitarian terms.
That is the problem with the rebels being dependent on Turkey, but then
again that is something they were basically forced into. Turkey could
provide them with the weapons so they could keep shooting down Assad planes
themselves, rather than relying on Turkey doing it when it suits Turkey,
but it won't.

Needless to say, that means we should have no trust in Turkey's ambitions
and motivations, and given its occupation of nearby Afrin it is certainly
understandable if Afrin Kurds have mixed feelings about enhanced Turkish
power nearby, but for the 3.5 million people in Idlib, and for Syrians all
over Syria and the diaspora, this Turkish action of reducing Assad's forces
to rubble is the biggest cause for celebration for many years, the only
decisive hit against Assad ever, and I personally am celebrating with them.
Just a few days ago, the chicken-shit regime was still shooting old women
in the back as they were already fleeing, was bombing 10 schools in one
day, was bombing the IDP camps where they had fled to, and today it is
revealed to the whole world that when Assad has to fight an actual armed
force, rather than children, hospital patients and medical workers, old
people and fleeing refugees, his killing equipment becomes rubble and his
"troops' duck for cover.

If only this had been done in 2012, hundreds of thousands of lives would
have been saved and most Syrian cities would not be rubble.
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Re: [Marxism] Syria: Slaughter in Idlib (re: How Much Does the Pentagon Pay for the YPG?)

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 Chris:
> "The strongest armed group in Idlib today is Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a very
reactionary group with a history of persecuting religious minorities. Thus
the war in Idlib is now a conflict between what academic Gilbert Achcar
calls 'two counter-revolutionary poles' ".

Louis:
You got to get out of the habit of citing authority. Gilbert also voted
to give the Isaac Deutscher prize to the ultra-toxic Roland Boer. He is
not always right.

Me: More importantly, you need to avoid quoting people out of context. When
using this phrase, which he has used for years, Gilbert is talking in
sweeping terms about the entire Arab Swing period, including in Syria, but
that is not a tactical prescription for every theatre of war. Gilbert does
believe what he calls the '3rd pole' - the democratic forces - are more or
less crushed in Syria, and while this is increasingly true, I think he
simplistically jumped to that conclusion earlier than was warranted. Even
then, however, it is not possible to quote his sweeping formula as a "line"
on the slaughter in Idlib right now, which is essentially how your article
came across, and how it used his quote out of context. I accept your regret
about omitting reference to forces still resisting HTS as well as Assad,
but even if put in this does not appear to be the position of SA/GLW.

I happen to be on a list-serve with Gilbert and others who deal with Syria.
Gilbert does not often throw in his opinion, but the titles of last few
links he has sent were:
The fall of Kafranbel; Investigating airstrikes on hospitals in Syria; US
visa denied to researcher who exposed Assadist chemical lies;Too little,
too late: Where Turkey undermined the rebellion; Syria: Fall of Saraqeb
delivers Assad a strategic and symbolic prize. AS these were not his
personal writing, I think it is OK I send the name of the articles here.

It is fairly obvious where he stands on these issues: on Assad's conquest
of Kafranbel and Saraqeb, its bombing of hospitals, on Assadist and
"anti-imperilaist" lies about Assad's chemical warfare etc; Turkey's role
is rightly condemned overall, but indeed "too little too late" is a perfect
description of its current standing up to Assad in Idlib.

If we talk about "two counterrevolutionary poles" in Idlib, even if we
could be that simplistic, then how do we understand that Assad's string of
conquests in the last month - Maraat al-Nuuman, Saraqeb, Atareb, Kafranbel
- have all been precisely the centres of democratic resistance throughout
the war. It is no coincidence that Assad and Putin, while pretending to be
most concerned about HTS, have mercilessly bombed these towns throughout
the war, and that they were first on the list to be conquered. Actually,
their continued existence till now contradicts Gilbert's own more extreme
analyses on the destruction of the democratic opposition, but it is clear
where he stands.

Does this mean however that, now these towns have been overrun, and thus
the domination of HTS over what is remaining is even stronger, that the
current massacre can be reduced to a conflict of counterrevolutions? That
would be an extremely undialectical and simplistic, and in context,
politically immoral, position to take. One side has an airforce and a
foreign invader that is bombing hospitals, schools, refugee camps, refugees
on the road, entire cities into dust. One side has driven some 2 million
people into camps along the Turkish border. There is no "neutrality" here.
If you want to use the "clash of counterrevolutions" thesis in a more
logical way, I would say that if HTS had massive armed forces and an
airforce with an awesome array of barrel bombs, cluster bombs and the rest,
and it was invading the Alawite-dominated coastal provinces or besieging
and bombing central Damascus, driving a couple of million Alawites into the
sea, then we could make a comparison with what Assad is doing in Idlib. A
situation, that is, with the same reality as Hamas breaking out of Gaza
with its airforce and besieging, conquering and carpet bombing Tel Aviv and
Jaffa, driving the Jews into the sea.

On Saraqeb this is a quote from the article Gilbert sent:

“We wanted a free Syria for all Syrians but they wanted an Islamic state.
We continued against all the odds: we challenged the regime, Ahrar al-Sham,
Islamic State and al-Nusra. In the end the jihadists took over but we left
our city with dignity knowing how much we endured to keep Saraqeb free.”
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[Marxism] Syria: Slaughter in Idlib (re: How Much Does the Pentagon Pay for the YPG?)

[mkaradjis . via Marxism]

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I don't agree that the YPG/SDF are mercenaries, Chris is right that they
fight their own fight which just happens, for years and years, to be in
full agreement with US aims in Syria, though at times it also corresponds
to Russian aims. It's no use arguing about how many hundreds of millions of
dollars: the US has lent its airforce to the YPG/SDF for years, as entire
cities were obliterated. It's simply hilarious that some western YPG
cheerleaders still play "anti-imperialism" and call the Syrian rebels
"US-backed" etc, while of course the US never flew a single plane for any
rebel group, and actively blocked them from getting manpads to shoot down
Assad planes. While Assad has bombed everywhere in Syria probably 100s of
1000s of times over 8 years, the one and only time the US ever shot down an
Assadist warplanes in all these years was when Assad tried to attack the
US's SDF allies.



Of course, all this alliance of interests with US and/or Russia could
conceivably be a long coincidence, but I don't think it can be analysed
outside of the arch-opportunist politics of the PYD leadership. As Louis
said, its fundamental problem was that it refused, from day 1, to join the
revolution against Assad, to even attempt to seek out alliances.



This is now a bigger problem: can Chris find us any statement in which the
PYD/YPG/SDF declares some kind of human solidarity with the people of Idlib
and northwest Syria as they are facing this genocidal slaughter by Assad
and Russia? Of course the answer is no. And even worse are their western
cheerleaders. For example, several weeks ago Chris sent a GLW article to
the list, written, sadly, by himself (I expected better of Chris), which
said, in the context of this horrific slaughter going on, that the only
resistance to evil in Syria is of course "Rojava", while the "conflict" in
Idlib is between two bad sides. That was an appalling article. Mind you, it
was written before Assad's recent reconquest of all the great revolutionary
cities and towns: Maraat al-Nuuman, Saraqeb, Kafranbel, Atareb etc - ie,
centres of the democratic revolution that always resisted HTS even as they
fought off Assad, yet for GLW even then they were all already swept under
the rug of being all jihadists or Turkey mercenaries. Even if you can't get
yourself to do a little study and know these things, and even now after
these towns have fallen, there is still no equivalence between the fascist
regime with all the horrific means of mass killing, including its airforce,
supplemented by the invading Russian imperial power, and the resistance in
Idlib, no matter how vile some of the forces involved in leading military
resistance are. This kind of simplistic nonsense analysis has been far and
wide on Syria, but in the past SA/GLW may have been able to do more complex
analysis; now all you have to do is check out what Rojavist sites are
saying.



Chris says when some rebel (or ex-rebel) groups jo0ihned Turkey's invasions
of Afrin and northwest Syria and attacked the SDF and Kurdish populations,
they had become mercenaries. I agree. Note by the way, that Euphrates
Shield, when Turkey invaded alongside Syrian rebels to evict ISIS from
mid-northern Syria, returning these rebel groups to regions they used to
run before the ISIS conquest, majority Arab and Turkmen regions, this was
entirely different; you can disagree 9there was much to criticise) but the
rebels were not acting as mercenaries but in their own interests.



In the case of Idlib let me go one better, and it doesn't really matter
whether one decides to call Turkey whatever name (imperialist,
sub-imperialist, non-imperialist, whatever you like): humanity requires we
give TOTAL support to any military action by Turkey, in support of the
independent rebel groups there, to resist Assad's genocidal attacks and his
regime's complete reconquest of the region. Right now a frightful massacre
is taking place. A million more people have fled their homes to escape
Assad and Putin, and even as they flee they are bombed in the back, their
IDP camps are bombed, countless hospitals and schools are bombed, children
are freezing to death, graves are meticulously desecrated, and in this
situation we want to argue about "neutrality" and everyone being bad and
such bullshit.



Of course when I say TOTAL support to Turkey's actions against Assad
obviously I am not saying rebels should trust Turkey or subordinate
themselves or put much faith in Turkish actions; the reality is that Turkey
will do little, caught up as it is in deals with Assad's owners, Russia and
Iran. Turkey did nothing to prevent the cities of the revolution falling;
we all know why. 

Re: [Marxism] How Trump killed Iraq's Popular Protests Against Corruption

[mkaradjis . via Marxism]

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Cole is right that Trump's killing of Soleimani aided the Khameini-led
forces in both Iraq and Iran itself to mobilise, thereby disrupting the
momentum of the revolutionary uprisings which had erupted in both countries
in late 2019.

However, he is completely wrong that it has "killed" them, and he
overemphasises the importance of the "defection" of political chameleon
al-Sadr from the protest camp (where Cole imagines he was, in fact only
ever partially and opportunistically - he tried to tail it, its momentum
had nothing to do with him) in terms of the the willingness of the Iraqi
regime and allied Khameiniite militias to crack down. He imagines that only
now the regime might mimic al-Sisi's brutal repression in Egypt.

This is rather odd since in the same article he reports that the (US and
Iran-backed) Iraqi regime and allied Khameiniite militia massacred 500
peaceful protestors in late 2019, before the Soleimani hit; yes, now the
regime is killing again, and al-Sadr's "defection" may have removed some
protection, but the level of killing is way smaller than the 500 already
killed; the regime was already well and truly "al-Sisi" style before
trump's hit. One reason that Trump's hit did not allow the regime (in
either country) to mobilise at quite the level they would have liked
(depite very large, one-off funeral marches) was that it was precisely the
murderous thugs led by Soleimani (the IRGC, the Iraqi Shiite death squads
etc) that had massacred the 500 in Iraq, and reportedly up to 1500 in Iran,
just before; yes, the regimes were able to mobilise their base, but anyone
who thinks the revolutionary masses in either country were part of this
mobilisation in support of their killers, that they took a day off
protesting to join in mourning their killers, means not thinking at all.

Of course, the revolutionary movement in Iraq has from the outset demanded
the expulsion of *both* Iran and the US from Iraq, and in response both to
the US embassy siege by Iran-backed thugs and Trump's assassination and the
Iranian revenge rockets, they demand both sides keep their war out of their
country. The reason they have not joined the al-Sadr called march to demand
US Out is not because they don't want the US out, but because they refuse
to be pawns in the political game of one occupier against the other,
especially given that occupier has so recently slaughtered them.

If Cole really thinks Trump's reckless and illegal action has "killed" the
movement, he ought to have a look at the hundreds of thousands who have
mobilised the day after the "US Out" march
https://www.facebook.com/RadioFreeSyria/videos/vb.363889943696219/837296300032073/?type=2&theater

"In response to Moqtada al Sadr's and his colleagues' decision to abandon
their support for Iraq's revolution and in the face of the militias'
murderous violence, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have again taken to the
streets in Baghdad (seen here) and across the country today [Sunday January
26, 2020] to reject the Iranian regime's proxy government and militias,
telling al-Sadr, Al-Amiri and all the other militias that their time is up.

"Other massive protests are taking place in Nasriya, Basra, Karbala and
other cities, in defiance of the Iranian-backed miltiias that have killed
over 500 people since October and are continuing to target the protesters.
It should be emphasized that the protests are non-sectarian in nature, with
Iraqis of every and no faith and every sect participating, most of the
protesters, especially in the aformentioned predominantly Shiite cities of
Nasriya, Karbala, Basra, etc, and the vast majority of of those killed and
wounded by Iran's proxy militias, are Shiite; this once again exposes the
Iranian regime's and its proxies' claims to be "protecting the Shiites".

"While Western media reported that thousands attended Sadr's 'Million Man
March' against the US on Friday which many believe was organised at the
Iranian regime's behest to distract from the revolution, the numbers
marching against the extremist sectarian militias massively dwarf that
figure. Despite the murderous efforts of all the counter-revolutionary
regimes, the revolution continues"

On Mon, Jan 27, 2020 at 12:10 AM Louis Proyect via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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> https://www.juancole.com/2020/01/popular-protests-c

[Marxism] Soleimani assassination spells trouble for Iraqis, Iranians and the region

[mkaradjis . via Marxism]

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 A very good article that discusses the danger Trump's attack has put the
region in, while emphasising that Soleimani was a psychotic mass murderer
with the blood of thousands of Syrians, Iraqis and Iranians on his hands
who should not be mourned by human beings. A very strong point that this
whipping up of Trump-Khameini, US-Iran warlike confrontation inside
occupied Iraq (occupied by both) will have a tendency to sweep aside the
mass popular Iraqi uprising we have seen in recent months, directed as it
was against the Iraqi rulers, corruption, injustice and both US and Iranian
occupation forces; its momentum is getting swept aside by bullshit
nationalism and "anti-imperialism" nonsense, bolstering the image of
precisely the people like Soleimani and the other Iran-owned sectarian
thugs who had just crushed the Iraqi uprising by open slaughter of 500
peaceful protestors (and up to 1500 peaceful protestors murdered in Iranian
streets by the same thugs). Let's hope this impact is short-lived.
"This is perhaps the most tragic aspect of Trump's assassination of
Soleimaini: Despite the US justifying the killing by absurdly claiming it
will "deter further Iranian attacks", it could instead reinvigorate Iran in
Iraq, at a time when criticism of its grip was gaining momentum through the
protests.

"The Iraqi protest movement had overwhelmingly disavowed the attack on the
US embassy, making clear that the same forces attacking the US embassy were
the ones who had attacked them.

"Now the line of polarisation risks moving away from the protesters'
demands for social justice, to one determined by a renewed pro-Iran/pro-US
dichotomy. This time, however, it could lead to outright war – or, at
least, a situation where Iran strikes back not directly at the US, but at
any force deemed to be supportive of their interests.

"Though there's no doubt Tehran is rattled by the assassination of Qassem
Soleimani, it seems that once again the demands for Iraqi
self-determination are being buried under the interests of foreign powers"

https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/Comment/2020/1/3/Soleimani-assassination-spells-trouble-for-Iraqis-Iranians-the-region?fbclid=IwAR0QeycT1WczDymi-MSkhOiMutn4hG0kXmox5BnuCuEYkGgFZY-GzbeRcqg
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Re: [Marxism] Australia weather forecast: Temperatures expected to exceed 50C | The Courier-Mail

[mkaradjis . via Marxism]

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Gary:

"I wish I could say that there was a huge groundswell demanding climate
action.  Instead there is triumphal talk in the Murdoch press of new
Australian coal mines being opened.King Coal now dominates both sides of
the Parliament."

Perfect timing Gary:

Equinor wins environmental approval to explore for oil in Great Australian
Bight

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-18/equinor-receives-environmental-approval-to-drill-in-bight/11811534


On Thu, Dec 19, 2019 at 10:22 AM Gary MacLennan via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
> I went for my lunch time stroll in the nearby Botanical Gardens but had to
> call my walk off. The temperature was probably the hottest I had
> experienced and actually I felt it was dangerous to be out in it.
>
> I wish I could say that there was a huge groundswell demanding climate
> action.  Instead there is triumphal talk in the Murdoch press of new
> Australian coal mines being opened.King Coal now dominates both sides of
> the Parliament.
>
> It is obvious now that with humanity things will have to get much worse
> before they get better. But the problem with climate change is that a path
> back may (will?) not be open to future generations.
>
> I have scrupulously avoided reading any of the fine articles Lou has posted
> on the GE in the UK. My grief/depression is just too florid. But I am
> working away and may be I will come out of this funk.
>
> Thanks to the lister who sent me the links to Lili Harden's story. For what
> it is worth I despise the Clintons and the Democratic Party, probably more
> than Trump. The latter at least has never been able to pretend to be
> anything other than a piece of shit.
>
> comradely
>
> Gary
>
> On Thu, Dec 19, 2019 at 7:14 AM Louis Proyect via Marxism <
> marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:
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> >
> >
> https://www.couriermail.com.au/technology/australia-is-on-track-to-record-its-hottest-day-ever/news-story/69918fab1f641f92800d5730bcfb2eec
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Re: [Marxism] Corbyn and Brexit

[mkaradjis . via Marxism]

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On Mon, Dec 16, 2019 at 10:40 AM Louis Proyect via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

>
> "As the results came in, the scale of the upset became apparent: a
> decisive 52:48 defeat for the government and its array of international
> allies, on a 72.2 per cent turnout that broke all recent records. In
> social terms, nearly two-thirds of the working class (C2, D, E), which
> overall makes up some 46 per cent of the population, voted Leave, on a
> turnout six or seven points above recent general elections."
>
> https://newleftreview.org/issues/II100/articles/susan-watkins-casting-off
>

Not sure about the two-thirds of the working class voting Brexit in 2016.
According to Wayne Asher in International Socialism, referring to the
extremely detailed Ashcroft data analysis of the brexit vote
http://isj.org.uk/the-left-and-brexit/#footnote-10080-13-backlink :

● Two out of three Labour voters voted Remain. (I suppose that voting
Labour rather than Tory counts as the minimum entry level of class
consciousness.)

● A majority of those in work voted Remain, irrespective of whether they
were in part-time or full-time work.

● Two-thirds (67 percent) of those describing themselves as Asian voted
Remain. Four out of five black voters (73 percent) voted Remain, and 70
percent of Muslim voters did so too. These voters obviously understand the
real dog-whistle message during the referendum campaign.

● The generally accepted idea that working class areas voted massively for
Leave is only partially correct; many did, but traditional working class
areas in London delivered the highest Remain votes (peaking at 75 percent
in Haringey and 78 percent in Hackney and Lambeth). Remain won in most of
the great working class regional capitals (Bristol, Cardiff, Leicester,
Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.) Only three cities of
similar importance voted Leave and even then they did so by tiny margins
(Birmingham, Sheffield, Nottingham). Working class Scotland voted massively
for Remain of course.

Not sure how much this holds up in this election. But where the above says
two-thirds of "the working class" voted brexit and describes that as
categories C2, D and E, this may be sweeping together completely different
things, because according to one set of good data on this election - once
again by "Lord" Ashcroft - while the Tories beat Labour in all social class
categories, the biggest Tory lead was among C2 voters (ie skilled workers),
by a margin of 20 points, whereas the *smallest* Tory lead over Labour was
among D & E voters (ie, "Semi-skilled & unskilled manual occupations,
Unemployed and lowest grade occupations"), a lead of only 6 points (much
less than the 12 and 3 point Tory lead in the middle class/white collar
worker and upper class categories)

https://lordashcroftpolls.com/2019/12/how-britain-voted-and-why-my-2019-general-election-post-vote-poll/?fbclid=IwAR2MK0t1GdfkLn2yjJ7imtc_mbsrQpQQJBq1ZvOJ3Kr-5rJmReee3M3hu2U
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Re: [Marxism] Lysenko

[mkaradjis . via Marxism]

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On Sun, Dec 15, 2019 at 2:25 PM Ken Hiebert via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:
"Tonight I had occasion to pick up a copy of The Spark, Marxist Theory and
Discussion, a publication of the Communist Party of Canada.It carries a
review of Lysenko’s Ghost: Epigenetics and Russia.  The reviewer claims
that advances in science have vindicated Lysenko."
...

Lysenko perhaps, but more so Lamarck. Not just this book. Lots and lots of
recent research.

New Neuroscience Discovery May Disrupt Biology

Study shows that nervous system cells can transmit information to progeny.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-future-brain/201906/new-neuroscience-discovery-may-disrupt-biology

Posted Jun 10, 2019

Can knowledge acquired during a lifetime be passed on to future
generations? Using innovative technologies such as CRISPR-Cas9,
optogenetics, and small RNA-sequencing analysis, scientists are closer to
answering this question. On June 6, 2019, researchers at Tel Aviv
University published a landmark study in Cell that shows how cells in the
nervous system pass on information to future generations in worms.

.

Based on this, Lamarck's giraffe didn't even have to stretch its neck, it
just had to think about doing that, for that information to be passed on.
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Re: [Marxism] Iran: Economic Blockade and Crowd Protests were also How the US made the 1953 Coup

[mkaradjis . via Marxism]

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Frankly I think Cole has lost his head. The current mass uprising in Iran
are just "crowd protests" like in 1953. Right ... Yes, in both cases there
is a US blockade, but the similarity ends there. The uprising today - which
has rapidly spread to dozens of towns and cities and began in the Arabic
Ahwaz region, is part of the revolutionary wave that includes Lebanon and
Iraq, in both cases uprisings that are also confronting Iranian-backed
regimes, while popular uprising continues in Idlib, Deir ezzor and has now
been reignited in Daraa, and a month or so ago was also in Egypt (not so
much an Iranian ally, but definitely an Assad all). Context matters.  Iran
in 1953 was in the midst of a revolutionary situation and the blockade
aimed at bringing back the Shah, via the state organs that still existed in
Iran. Iran today is run by a 40-year theocratic tyranny; people don't need
fuel hikes to want to destroy the regime that has oppressed them for
decades, they are a mere spark. Louis' last point - It is not even clear
what sort of regime the USA is pinning its hopes on - underlines another
key difference - all the organs of the capitalist state are fully under the
control of the mullah regime and have been for decades. The most that could
occur would be an internal coup within the regime, but for what purpose is
unclear. Worth remembering that the mainstream of the US capitalist class
supported the nuclear deal and was opposed to Trump ripping it up and
re-imposing sanctions. Sure, Bolton was a dolt leftover from a previous
era, but he's gone, and it was Trump that made him gone.  Frankly I doubt
there's more to it than Trump wanting a new deal he can pretend is "better"
but under his name.

On Tue, Nov 19, 2019 at 12:01 AM Louis Proyect via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
> Juan Cole's points are well taken but if Iran is to survive this
> economic warfare, it will only be a result of ending the clerical
> dictatorship and allowing ordinary working people to have control of
> their destiny, just as was the goal in Syria in 2011. It is not even
> clear what sort of regime the USA is pinning its hopes on. A return to
> the Shah?
>
> https://www.juancole.com/2019/11/economic-blockade-protests.html
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Re: [Marxism] Gallup Survey shows majority denounces Assad and YPG deal with the regime

[mkaradjis . via Marxism]

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Very interesting survey. I'd agree that 600 is not much to go by and that
it is obviously skewed by not including the areas where Kurds and others
are actively under attack by Turkey now. Nevertheless, quite a bit of it
rings true.

I agree with Nick that "Whatever the precise validity of the results, it
likely reflects a large
proportion of Arab people, in these areas, opposing the revolutionary
administration."

Unfortunately, Nick is so starry-eyed about the "revolutionary
administration" that he can't imagine that Arabs might have their own
reasons to not like being ruled over by a Kurdish militia (and one with
plenty of non-Syrian Kurds in command). According to Nick, the reason a lot
of Arabs in the region might oppose PYD rule is because of

"the Arab chauvinism propagated by the regime and many rebel groups and the
anti-Kurdish racism propagated by Turkey."

Geez Nick, about the liberation of the oppressed being the work of the
oppressed themselves and all that, so when ISIS was evicted from Raqqa by
so many US bombs that thousands of civilians were killed and 90% of the
city destroyed, in marched the SDF and the first thing they did? Erected a
gigantic portrait of Ocalan - a Kurd from Turkey - to dominate the city,
inhabited by Syrian Arabs. Highly symbolic.

I recommend having a read of Elizabeth Tsurkov here for a more nuanced view
of the issue of the effective domination of the official multi-ethnic
Federation structures by a Kurdish party:
https://carnegieendowment.org/sada/79542 and think about the struggles that
have already taken place against SDF rule in the region (eg
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2019/05/syria-deir-ez-zor-shuhail-protests-sdf-killing-arabs.html#ixzz5pwBnNwTG)
even before the SDF's deal with Assad. Obviously the people see SDF rule as
infinitely better than that of Assad, but of course now there is
generalised revolt in Deir Ezzor against the prospect of Assad's forces
returning as part of the SDF-Assad deal.

If Nick thinks these uprisings and movements and attitudes of Syrian Arabs
in the northeast is all caused by "Arab chauvinism" (yeh, how chauvinist to
not want to be ruled by a Kurdish militia) I think he needs to check his
SDF romanticism a little.

I'm more surprised at the idea that 23% of Kurds might support the Turkish
invasion. It doesn;t ring true, especially given the fact that the anti-PYD
Kurdish parties grouped in the Kurdish national Council (KNC) have
condemned the invasion, and even the Iraqi Kurdish leadership has.

As for most Arabs in the region preferring a return of ISIS over a return
of Assad, admittedly it is hard to imagine anyone desiring a return of a
regime as facist and totalitarian as that of ISIS. However, there probably
is more to it than people want to believe. Those who immediately brush it
off as rubbish probably have no idea what it means to live under the
fascist and totlaitarian Assad regime. The fact that so many westerners -
governemnt spokeseople and ordinary people, including leftists, alike, can
be heard saying that Assad is bad but he is a better alternative than ISIS,
is evidence mostly of ignorance. If there's anything to this poll, it tells
us who doesn't know anything about what's happening ion the ground, who has
no idea of how ordinary Syrians feel, as John O'Brien alludes to.


https://syriadirect.org/news/after-decades-of-suppression-kurdish-residents-in-syria%E2%80%99s-north-find-linguistic-freedom/
>
>
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Re: [Marxism] 3 Syrian soldiers killed, 12 others injured in Turkish attacks (ANF)

[mkaradjis . via Marxism]

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Am 09.11.2019 um 23:33 schrieb Chris Slee via Marxism:
>
https://anfenglishmobile.com/rojava-syria/3-syrian-soldiers-killed-12-others-injured-in--turkish-attacks-39169

> The invading Turkish army has killed and injured a number of soldiers in
Assad's army ... Hence the potential for armed conflict between the Assad
regime and Turkey.

The Assad regime and Erdogan will do as they're told. Putin is completely
in control. The clashes going on are on the new "borders" of the messy
lines between what has been given to Erdogan and what has been given to
Assad. There is zero potential for clashes beyond that. In this case Tel
Temr is both a Kurdish town and not directly south of Ras al-Ayn, but
slightly to the east, and therefore slightly outside the zone given to
Turkey. For their part, the YPG are of course right to defend a Kurdish
town against Turkey. Turkey is pushing because it is the nearest main town
to what would be the new "border" between the zones, while Assad will
sacrifice some "Syrian soldiers" because it is strictly speaking outside of
Erdogan's zone.

Both Assad and Erdogan are happy to sacrifice some cannon fodder despite
the "borders" already having been assigned by Russia, in both cases as
propaganda trophies showing "resistance".

I agree with RKOB that there is no-one to support in clashes between the
Turkish and Assadist armies. However, in specific cases we can judge based
on the will of the population and the relative weight of armies. As Tel
Tamr is Kurdish, if the key forces fighting there are the SDF rather than
Assad troops, they certainly have a right to resist Turkish invasion and
occupation, and probable ethnic cleansing. On the other hand, as we saw in
Manbij, the SDF is now acting in the role of Assadist cop against the
largely Arab population of the city. In the two major towns taken by
Turkey, there was clearly Kurdish resistance in the joint Arab-Kurdish town
of Ras al-Ayn (and its surrounds), and a brutal Turkish-led conquest
including both aerial bombing and death squad activity; in contrast, the
major regional town of Tal Abyad saw virtually no resistance; not only is
it a mainly Arab city, but there is also considerable evidence that among
the ex-rebel forces that entered were refugees from Tal Abyad who had been
expelled by the SDF when it (and the US airforce) seized the town from
ISIS, who have been living the last four years in Turkey.

I went to the link Chris sent that told us about how the "Turkish invasion
army and allied ISIS/Al-Nusra mercenaries" had killed some "Syrian
soldiers", and so went to the page that says "Rojava/Syria". Since the page
promised to talk of Syria in general, not only Rojava, I thought there
might be some expressions of solidarity with, or at least some basic
information about, the people of Idlib getting pulverised by the Assad
regime ("Syrian soldiers") and the Russian invasion airforce. As I might
have expected, I was disappointed. It seems the PYD/YPG tunnel vision of
the world, where the word solidarity hasn't been discovered yet, continues.

> >
>
>
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[Marxism] Leila al-Shami: Idlib resists

[mkaradjis . via Marxism]

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Leila's latest article is very timely. Just in the last week or so, the
Assad-Putin terror in Idlib and northwest Syria has stepped up, with more
hospitals bombed, countless civilians killed, a refugee camp hit etc, all
the usual. Of course, for most of the world media, and the global left, the
ongoing grisly mass-murder of Arabs by Assad is nowhere near as interesting
as solidarity with "the Kurds" under attack by Erdogan. That's a particular
kind of Orientalism shared by the western left, right and centre.

One of the justifications for essentially supporting the Assadist terror
(which dwarfs the killing during the Turkish invasion even at the height of
the invasion) is the western-media-created discourse that Idlib is a
"terrorist enclave", a neocon/war on terror discourse lapped up by much of
the global left, and especially by Apoists. Even if it were true, why this
would justify massive terror against millions of civilians - an idea the
left has traditionally argued against - is unclear. But of course, it is a
filthy lie.

Leila here talks about the ongoing revolutionary movement of the masses,
which challenges not only Assad, but also HTS, the hard-line Islamist group
that dominates much of the province (and that the western media and its
leftist echo call "al-Qaida"). Alongside the ongoing uprising in Deir Ezzor
in the east - which has been under SDF control but is now mobilising to
prevent any return of Assadist forces under the Assad-SDF agreement - and
ongoing assassinations of Assadist officials in Daraa in the south
(formerly revolution territory which was reconquered by Assad last year),
this popular uprising in Idlib reflects the regional revolutionary wave
that has engulfed Lebanon, Iraq and recently Egypt, all pro-Assad regimes.

Incidentally, the slaughter of hundreds of Iraqis by the US/Iran-backed
Iraqi regime and by Iranian-backed death squads, and the violent attacks on
the revolution in Lebanon by Hezbollah and its ally Amal, alongside the
Iran regime's attack on the regional uprising as being a "Zionist"
conspiracy (sadly lacking originality these ancient mullah-brains), are
further evidence (as if we needed it after Syria) that the so-called 'Axis
of Resistance' is merely the Axis of Resistance to Arab freedom.

Leila al-Shami:

In September large scale protests erupted against HTS and the continuing
aerial bombardment of the province by the regime and Russia. The regime
intensified its assault on the province in April conducting a
scorched-earth campaign against residential areas which has caused around
half a million to flee, has killed over 1,000 and has directly targeted
civilian infrastructure including over 50 hospitals and medical centres.

The dominant narrative promoted by the regime and supporters of Syrian
fascism is that Idlib is a ‘terrorist enclave’. The presence of a few
thousand extremist militants is presented as justification for the campaign
of extermination waged against Idlib’s civilian population of some 3
million people, which includes 1 million children.

Today’s uprising should challenge this narrative. Syrians have continually
resisted all forms of authoritarianism and sought to defend their autonomy
and desire for freedom and democracy since 2011.

Despite being trapped between the regime and extremists, Idlib remains home
to many inspiring civil initiatives and outpourings of creative resistance.
Just a few weeks ago, 20 year old rapper Amir Al Muarri released the fierce
track ‘On All Fronts’ produced
in Idlib. The video (which has subtitles in English, Spanish and Russian)
provides a portrait of the province and the diversity of its residents who
continue to survive and resist despite living apocalyptic conditions. He
spares no criticism for the brutality of the regime, the armed factions
which have hijacked the revolution and the foreign interventions of Russia,
Iran and Turkey.

Full: https://leilashami.wordpress.com/2019/11/09/idlib-resists/
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Re: [Marxism] Syria's Al-Assad: Trump, Openly Criminal, is the best US President we could Wish for

[mkaradjis . via Marxism]

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The clock isn't right even once a day in this case.

yes, Assad is correct that Trump is the best US president for Assad. But
not for the reason he gives here.

Trump is the best for Assad because Trump just made an abrupt move that
allowed the Assad regime tom re-take almost the entire northeast border,
which it has been locked out of for 7 years; and it was no accident, he
openly said he supported the SDF doing the deal with Assad. He just thanked
Assad and Russia for help locating al-Baghdadi, though they both deny
having any knowledge of it. He formally cut off whatever funding for the
some FSA units that had still remained, even though much of it was largely
dormant by late Obama period anyway. He also ended the $200 million program
funding civil initiatives in opposition areas in Syria. His government made
even clearer than Obama that the only "rebels" who get any US arms were
those who don't rebel, ie, agree to only fight ISIS and not Assad. His
government gave Assad permission to bomb even these US-backed anti-ISIS
rebels, even within a US-protected enclave, when one unit had the gall to
*fight back* when attacked by Assadist troops. He dramaticalLy stepped up
the bombing of HTS in the early months, killing 57 worshippers in an Idlib
mosque (that was around the time that Tulsi Gabbard condemned Trump for not
bombing them enough). The US airforce even directly fought alongside
Assadist and Russian forces helping them conquer Deir Ezzor from ISIS. So,
yes, Trump is the best US president for Assad

However, Assad claims he is the best US president because his statement
about the US might "keep the oil" shows how transparent he is about US
policy. Except it doesn't. Anyone who thinks US policy is to "keep the
oil", or that it entered Syria to seize Syria's insignificant amount of
destroyed oil wells, has really no idea. Trump made that statement not to
be transparent, but because he is a political illiterate. He is good for
Assad in that sense because he enables Assad, and a whole lot of leftist
and far-right political illiterates, to say "see, it was all a war for
oil". Which of course is rubbish; the statement is only Trump being dumb.

The entire policy of returning troops, just after they left, using the
excuse of "protecting the oil", is a face-saving device for US imperialism,
aimed at trying to rescue some of its lost credibility, and keeping some of
the links it had made with the SDF, which Trump burnt. US imperialism wants
to keep doing what it was doing before October 6, before Trump ripped up 5
years of US work: maintaining an SDF statelet (for the time being, I don't
believe long-term), with a number of aims, mostly to keep fighting ISIS, as
a buffer to Iran, and to keep a foot in the political process which is
otherwise dominated by Russia, Turkey and Iran via the Astana process.. So
they are maintaining one, a much smaller one than before. Trump wanted
right out. So they said the word "oil" to bullshit him, coz they remembered
Trump had this thing about how the US "should have kept Iraq's oil". So a
literate guy, Defense Secretary Esper, explains clearly that "We want to
make sure that SDF does have access to the resources in order to guard the
[IS] prisons, in order to arm their own troops, in order to assist us with
the 'defeat ISIS' mission." A logical statement of ruling class interest.
Far from the US "keeping the oil", the US is just continuing to protect SDF
control of the oil, control the SDF has had since the US helped them seize
the oil from ISIS. By protecting the SDF the last 5 years, the US was
thereby already protecting its control of the oil. Nothing new at all,
except that previously the US was protecting the SDF more extensively. But
then Trump makes the completely illiterate statement that the US will be
"keeping the oil", an entirely different thing, and one with no relation to
reality, or US ruling class intentions. He didn't say that because he is so
transparent about US intentions, he said it because he says a lot of dumb
things.

On Sun, Nov 3, 2019 at 1:39 AM Fred Murphy via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

>
> Even a stopped clock is right twice a day 😜
>
> On Sat, Nov 2, 2019 at 8:16 AM Louis Proyect via Marxism <
> marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:
> >
> > https://www.juancole.com/2019/11/syrias-criminal-president.html
>
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Re: [Marxism] YPG & Assad: beyond "necessity"

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I agree with Chris that the SDF getting help from the US, or from Assad,
when the areas where it has its base of support, especially Kurdish areas,
are under attack, is not the same as the 'TFSA' taking part in Turkey's
conquest operation in northeast Syria, or in Afrin. In the first case it is
defensive of their own interests and those of their base; in the second
case they are far from their base of support and essentially subordinate to
Turkey's interests.

Of course, that is not always the case. As I have continually pointed out,
the SDF's conquest of Arab-majority, rebel-held northern Aleppo/Tal Rifaat
region in early 2016, under air cover of the Russian airforce, was
basically similar to what the 'TFSA' is doing now - conquest outside their
base of support, expulsion of the local population, collaborating with an
invading power which was already raining massive death on Syrians.
Unfortunately, in that case, Chris and other Rojava supporters and SA
members always justify or provide apologetics for this. This will be coming
in Chris's next response. Yet it can hardly be avoided, because this action
cut East Aleppo off from its hinterland which reached the Turkish border,
making it easier for Assad to surround Aleppo (and the SDF also later aided
the actual Assad conquest of Aleppo) and this is remembered by the rebels
and their base.

As I said, the opposite is the case at the moment.

The problem however is the question of what the SDF may have given away, or
agreed to do, to get this Assad "protection". There have been rumours that
the SDF may have agreed to take part in Assad's offensive against Greater
Idlib as quid pro quo. In that case, it would be doing the same as the
'TFSA' now, and we should of course wish for the defeat of any such
sold-out 'Rojava' forces in that case. But for the moment, I will give the
SDF the benefit of the doubt on that. (Ironically, if it were true, it may
be quite similar to the quid pro quo that Turkey has no doubt agreed to for
getting Putin's support for seizing 3000 square kilometres between Tal
Abyad and Ras al-Ayn: that Assad be allowed to reconquer Greater Idlib from
the rebels!)

Unfortunately, there does appear to be more evidence that the info sent by
John Reimann - of the SDF collaborating with Assad forces arresting
anti-Assad protestors in (Arab-majority) Manbij, in which case it does go
way "beyond necessity" and puts them back in the other position. According
to Elizabeth Tsurkov reporting from the region:

"Concerning developments in Arab-majority areas under SDF control as the
regime seeks to return to these areas. The SDF is arresting activists
organizing anti-regime not even anti SDF protests and strikes. Contacts
told me the Asayish is searching phones for any pro-FSA content."

27-Video issued by what so-called the Internal Security Forces of Manbej
Military Council showing confessions of 2 activists accused of organizing a
strike to block entry of the regime into Manbej.The headline of the video
is"MMC thwarts an attempt 2 harm the stability of Manbej"

https://twitter.com/Elizrael/status/1188150113081929728?fbclid=IwAR3BR1MJ-Q9Ro3Vz8A1XQceeBFbTH1Sbyv2xMh9JW-L1H9wUAnX_r8fibr8


Tsurkov is no apologist for Turkey or the 'TFSA' (or for that matter for
the FSA itself). She writes also in the same thread:


"The Turkish-backed Syrian "National Army" enjoys almost 0 popular support
anywhere & are seen as undisciplined marauders.[However] Civilians should
not be arrested merely for having brothers in the ranks of the SNA. SDF
fighters themselves often have relatives in the SNA."


She also wrote this damning article about the Turkish invasion:

https://forward.com/opinion/433095/oh-my-god-why-are-they-doing-this-northeastern-syrians-await-their-fate/

As I earlier wrote, my fears of what they SDF plans are were raised when
Chris earlier sent that statement where they said that their new
arrangement with Assad opened the doors to the "liberation" of Jarablus,
al-Bab, Azaz, mare and Afrin. At least that statement specifically excluded
Idlib. But, apart from Afrin, all four other cases would be support to
Assadist conquest of rebel-held zones (as in Tal Rifaat), and "liberation
only in the sense of what the 'TFSA' is doing now.

Let's hope it was just Apoist bluster.



On Sat, Oct 26, 2019 at 10:15 PM Chris Slee via Marxism <
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Re: [Marxism] Meet the Man Doing More to Protect America from ISIS than Donald Trump: Hassan Nasrallah, the Islamic World’s Che | Washington Babylon

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The problem with Silverstein's article is that most of it is actually quite
good! Leave out the absurd hagiography (Che, right ...) and the pathetic
little paragraph on Syria, which Louis rightly describes as so crude and
stupid that he wouldn't know where to begin, its crudeness and stupidity,
and brevity, is a mismatch with the detail in the main part of the article.

Basically, the article points out that Hezbollah evolved over time away
from its heavily Khomeiniite origins as it adapted to the real world in
Lebanon. It remains a Shiite-communalist organisation, but does not act in
an excessively sectarian or "fundamentalist" way. yes, it is in coaltion
with a major Christian party and has been for years. No, it is not
"terrorist", does not focus attacks on civilians. No, it's history of
resistance to Zionist occupation of Lebanon involved very little
anti-Semitic discourse, if any.

In other words, it evolved into a mainstream bourgeois-nationalist
organisation. And bourgeois-nationalists still do oppressive things, even
if they are not forcibky imposing veils (they don't) or attack non-Shiite
Lebanese (they don't).

Bourgeois-nationalists for example can send troops into a neighbouring
country to help a brutal tyrant crush his population in rivers of blood.
Not out of sectarianism (ie, not because Assad's Alawite base is kind of
semi-Shiite, coz actually they're not) and not because they want to
slaughter Sunnis who make up the bulk of opposition, but rather because
bourgeois-nationalists look after their interests, the interests of their
class, which might involve crushing people fighting for freedom against
some bloody tyrant. Hezbollah has never been "terrorist" but for the last 8
years has been in Syria as a death squad for a state-terrorist enterprise.

Silverstein thinks Hezbollah saved Syria from ISIS who he thinks was backed
by the US etc. Aside from the fact that it was actually US imperialism that
defeated ISIS, via its last 5 years of air war in Syria, backing the SDF on
the ground, and it is kind of nuts to accuse the US of "supporting" those
it has spent 99.9% of its intervention bombing; and that even the
Assad-Russia role in defeating ISIS was only very litttle, very late, years
after the US-SDF war on ISIS began, and once they had done 80% of the work
(of course few remember that it was actually the FSA and rebels that drove
ISIS out of the whole of western Syria in early 2014, never to return, with
no aid from any airforce); but even given the Assad-Russia late role, where
was Hezbollah in even that? Nowhere, that's where. I doubt that anyone
could even find a battle between Hezbollah and ISIS in 8 years. Wrong side
of Syria.

As for the hagiography, how sad. I guess he regrets having penned it just
before this magnificent Lebanese uprising against the Hezbollah-backed
Lebanese government. Which is also in Hezbollah areas, eg this article:

Protests erupt in Hezbollahs heartland of south Lebanon despite
intimidation 
(https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/protests-rage-hezbollahs-heartland-south-lebanon-despite-intimidation).
Intimidation,
that is, by Amal and Hezbollah thugs.


The article quotes one  Ikram Yazbek: “I voted for them. In the 1970s, Amal
defended the poor and gave us back our dignity. I also have a lot of
respect for Hezbollah who protected us from Israel. But now I understand
that those fighting on the border are not those who sit at the government.
They are thieves and I will never vote for them again.”

Che indeed.


On Thu, Oct 24, 2019 at 12:48 PM Ken Hiebert via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
> Among the many differences between Nasrallah and Che is the attitude to
> religion.  Che did not ask people what their religion was.
> Nasrallah does.  No one can join Hezbollah unless they are a Shia Muslim.
> ken h
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[Marxism] The Turkish invasion: Latest step in the Russian-led destruction of the Syrian revolution

[mkaradjis . via Marxism]

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*How Erdogan handed northeast Syria to the Assad regime without it firing a
shot *

On October 6, the Turkish regime of Tayyip Erdogan launched its
long-heralded invasion of northeast Syria, aiming to expel the Kurdish-led
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) from a 30-kilometre border region, and then
to dump some its 3.5 million Syrian refugees into territory from which the
local population has been expelled. Erdogan’s deal with Russian president
Putin consecrates a victory for both Erdogan and Syrian tyrant Bashar
Assad, who will divide SDF-held territories between them.

https://mkaradjis.wordpress.com/2019/10/23/the-turkish-invasion-latest-step-in-the-russian-led-destruction-of-the-syrian-revolution/
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Re: [Marxism] Russia-Turkey 10-point agreement disclosed

[mkaradjis . via Marxism]

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Here's another:  https://www.nationalreview.com/author/conrad-black/
Though I agree they are the absolute minority.

By the way, not surprisingly Trump has hailed the Putin-Erdogan agreement
to reinstate the Assad regime all over the former SDF territory:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1186768817822806016?fbclid=IwAR35ejzkhMV2CozwdcQuGqOz_-QjwRpIpUY-A0q312hkw10zY_nORJwI7yY



On Thu, Oct 24, 2019 at 1:28 AM Glenn Kissack via Marxism <
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>
> > Will Chris Slee, or anybody else, please provide any evidence that any
> significant wing of the US capitalist class and their strategists supported
> Trump's withdrawal of troops from NE Syria?
>
> https://www.charleskochinstitute.org/news/statement-on-syria/
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Re: [Marxism] Russia-Turkey 10-point agreement disclosed (ANF)

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This is a better text of the agreement
https://thedefensepost.com/2019/10/22/russia-turkey-syria-mou/?fbclid=IwAR2z__UK7rrRlojQVIarwMmE4LdmuYksw8kapDePGpwvI4E7HsJZnrE-tz8

For example, it clarifies Point 3, which reads:
3. In this framework, the established status quo in the current Operation
Peace Spring area covering Tel Abyad and Ras Al Ayn with a depth of 32 km
will be preserved.
In other words, the only place Turkey gets its troops in 30 km is the 100
km stretch between Tel Abyad and Ras al-Ayn, a mostly non-Kurdish zone,
except Ras al-Ayn itself which Turkey has succeeded in ethnically
cleansing. This part is thus identical to the Pence-Erdogan agreement of
last week. In both cases, Turkey's absurd demand for the 30 km to extend
the whole border east of the Euphrates never even got a hearing.

Both statements agree that the 30 km along all the rest of the border (ie,
covering all the Kurdish population centres and much more) will be
controlled by Assad regime and Russia, and they will expel the SDF. That's
no defeat for Turkey, because Erdogan has been saying all along that Turkey
is happy as long as Assad takes the border, he just doesn't want the SDF
there.

Both also note that following the explulsion of the SDF from the 30 km by
Assad/Russia, a 10km border zone will be patrolled jointly by Turkey and
Russia (ie, Russia representing the Assad regime). This statement however
notes that this part excludes (heavily Kurdish) Qamishli city.

This is a total victory for Assad and Erdogan, both controlled by master of
ceremonies, Russia's Vladimir Putin.

Chris writes that "First Trump gave the green light for the Turkish
invasion of northeastern Syria.  Now Putin says SDF-YPG forces are to be
"withdrawn and disarmed".Thus US imperialism and Russian imperialism have
combined with theTurkish state to suppress the Rojava revolution."

It is certainly true that the US and Russia have had much more in common in
Syria, not just now but for many years, than they have differences.
Incidentally, so much ink has been spilt on Trump betraying the SDF (ie,
the implication being that the US should be keeping troops, bases and
warplanes in Syria) that very few noticed that Putin gave a much more
explicit green light to Erdogan (at least Trump wrote a letter telling him
not to be a "tough guy". Putin didn't). And Russian imperialism as a whole
has been completely on board, whereas some 95% of spokespeople of the US
ruling class were furious with Trump. They knew that destroying US
credibility would only have the efect of handing the entire northeast Syria
file to Putin, which is what happened.

Putin knew perfectly well what he was doing. Turkey would invade a
restricted, mostly Arab-populated,  zone, forcing the SDF into agreement
with Assad to allow Assadist and Russian troops all over the rest of the
border, an agreement, Trump also supported, setting the stage for Assad to
control all the territory that yesterday was run by the SDF, and thereby
divide Rojava between them.

Before the Turkish invasion, the US and Turkey had already agreed to a
"security mechanism" along the border, to be patrolled by Turkish and US
troops, where there would be no SDF. The SDF had already agreed to a 5km
zone along most of it, and to 9-14 km between Tel Abyad and Ras al-Ayn.
Erdogan ionvaded ebcause ehw anted more. He got a little more, but Assad
and Putin got vastly more. the US got nothing. The difference between the
US-Turkish mechanism before the invasion, and the Russian-Turkish agreement
now:

1. Before: US-Turkish patrols to a depth of 5km along most of the border;
now Russian-Turkish patrols to a depth of 10km along most border (ie Russia
reprsents assad regime on border)

2. Before: US-Turkish patrols to a depth of 9-14 km between Tel Abyad and
Ras al-Ayn; now Turkish occupation to 30 km for this section only.

3. Before, everywhere south of the 5km zone controlled by SDF; now, 30 km
zo0ne south of border controlled by Assad-Russia, no SDF.

As expected, total victory for Putin and Assad in Syria, with Erdogan
providing the shock troops. As expected, never even a remote possibility of
"confrontations" between Assadist and Turkish forces.


>
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Re: [Marxism] WSJ: Inside America?s Chaotic Retreat from Syria (On the "Saigon Moment")

[mkaradjis . via Marxism]

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I tend to agree with Chris on this, although admittedly this article is
probably the one and only place we have seen such clear discussion of the
existence of "pro-Turkey" advisors in the Trump administration. Seems
logical that at least some would exist - after all, we all know that
ultimately US imperialism would have thrown the Kurds and the SDF to the
wolves and patched up with a powerful capitalist state like Turkey (and
like the Assad regime, which has actually gained much more than Turkey out
of this). So it is in this sense that I think we can say that Trump's move,
even if the way it was done, the timing, the language etc may have been
just Trump acting on whim, it would have corresponded to the views of at
least some small section of US ruling class opinion, and it does have its
own logic.

That said, John is of course correct that the overwhelming majority of the
US ruling class is not just opposed but absolutely furious with this move -
the Pentagon, most of Congress, all Democrats and most Republicans,
including close Trump allies, from liberal doves through hard-nosed
realists to rabid neocons, almost all are opposed, for a variety of
reasons. Now was not the right time, and the way it was done is a savage
blow to the credibility of US imperialism. And even from the article, the
suggestion is that even the more "pro-Turkey" advisors were thrown
off-course by the suddenness of the move and the resulting chaos.

Russia, which is pulling the strings of both Assad and Erdogan, and which
has arranged the partition of the former SDF territories between its two
poodles, is absolutely the master of ceremonies (and all talk about
"possible clashes between Turkish and Assadist forces is complete
nonsense). The US has not only lost all credibility as a reliable ally, but
has also made itself irrelevant as Russia is in complete control. Iran has
also gained. And this fact pisses off a lot of US ruling class figures.
However, once again, this is anything but universal - Trump's
"Kissingerism" in this respect (I know it may sound to compare a master of
imperialist diplomacy to a dunce like Trump, but here I'm talking about the
"muscular" version of the "realist" school of US imperialism) is more
consistent than we often realise, even if Trump himself doesn;t always
realise. The US has no special interests in Syria (other than defeating
ISIS) and has been backing a Russian-led solution with a modified Assad
regime in power, over a more chaotic Iranian-led situation, for years now.
That's also the Israeli and Gulf view. Of course both Israel and the
Saudi-UAE-Egypt alliance were furious about the Turkish invasion and
especially Israel was furious about betrayal of the "gallant Kurds"
(Netanyahu), but if a Russian-backed Assad emerges a clear victor they will
be back on board.

On Sun, Oct 20, 2019 at 12:02 PM Chris Slee via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
> The WSJ article says:
>
> "After years of balancing between competing Kurdish and Turkish interests,
> Trump
> administration policy began to shift toward Ankara, as new advisers
> sympathetic to Turkey joined the team."
>
> The article does not specify the names of these advisers, but it does
> claim that advisers sympathetic to Turkey do exist.  I assume the authors
> know what they are talking about.
>
> I can't prove this, but I suspect the decision to withdraw was not quite
> as sudden as it appeared.  There was a facade of negotiations resulting in
> the SDF withdrawing a few kilometres from the border.  I believe this was
> aimed at facilitating the Turkish invasion.  The vast majority of US
> personnel in Syria would have been left in the dark, to avoid them alerting
> the SDF.  This meant they were unprepared, resulting in a certain degree of
> chaos.
>
> Chris Slee
> 
> From: John Reimann <1999wild...@gmail.com>
> Sent: Sunday, 20 October 2019 10:25:55 AM
> To: Chris Slee 
> Cc: Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition <
> marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu>
> Subject: Re: [Marxism] WSJ: Inside America?s Chaotic Retreat from Syria
> (On the "Saigon Moment")
>
> Chris Slee says the chaos resulted from the division among Trump's
> advisors regarding withdrawal from Syria. In the first place, that is
> manifestly untrue just in the sense that the reason for the chao

[Marxism] [SUSPICIOUS MESSAGE] Re: Statement of the Internationalist Commune on the agreement between self-administration and the Syrian state

[mkaradjis . via Marxism]

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 The statement also says:

"The agreement would also give the opportunity to expand the fight [ie, the
fight by the joint SDF-Assad regime forces] to the occupied territories
west of the Euphrates, i.e. Jarablus, Bab, Azas, Mare and Afrin, which
would allow hundreds of thousands of displaced people to return."

Thus, with the exception of Afrin, the SDF here offers itself up as shock
troops for the Assad regime in exactly the same way as these ex-rebel
("TFSA") brigades have offered themselves up as shock troops for Turkey.

The Jarablus-al-Bab region is, yes, under Turkish control, but local rebel
brigades run it day to day, apparently with local support, as this is a
largely non-Kurdish region, partly Arabic and partly Turkmen. Before Turkey
and its rebel allies took this region in 2016, it was not run by the SDF
(ever), it was run by ISIS. Thus Turkey and FSA liberated the region from
ISIS much like the SDF and its allied US imperialism liberated the
northeast from ISIS.

The Azaz-Mare region is not run by Turkey but by the rebels, and is
overwhelmingly Arabic. These have been liberated cities since 2012.
Previously they were connected to rebel-held east Aleppo city, but in early
2016, the SDF invaded the rebel-held region in coordination with the
Russian airforce, bombing the rebels from the sky, and they seized iconic
rebel-held Tal Rifaat and other towns which linked Azaz-Mare to Aleppo,
expelling tens of thousands of Arabs. In other words, they already did what
the "TFSA" later did to the K7urds in Afrin and now in the northeast, with
Russia in place of Turkey. By cutting off Aleppo city from the stretch of
rebel-held territory to the Turkish border, this action greatly facilitated
Assad encircling the city and crushing it.

Turkey and its ex-rebel goons did the same to the Kurds of Afrin two years
later. How ironic that Afrin Kurds who were dispossessed from Afrin now
reside in Tal Rifaat, from where the SDF had earlier dispossessed the
locals.

And now the SDF offers itself up to the Assad regime as vanguard of its
reconquista in Jarablus, al-Bab, Azaz and Mare.

Utterly disgusting.



On Thu, Oct 17, 2019 at 5:36 PM Chris Slee via Marxism <
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>
>
> Statement from the Internationalist Commune, a group of international
> activists working in northeastern Syria on various projects (educational,
> ecological, etc):
>
>
> https://secure-web.cisco.com/10QuNSyFUFOpRmfo0m2XFOXDVkXFdoGeZeAdMhgcNppG8ntH3HCo-M8hOQPEALb8rMN50ENGyjQDM7iaao667f1pvg_swF2brnQJXPs-Vi-aSDfHDZ1J6ycuO3R6PI5QEWudrnr0WQP3xyNMCj7Jw8MjNASh_DpO9jwLLK56VXpfJi-b-Zcf7Ma6PT90A5CPQTM6VZ9Bb5OS1OJZgKJN1vcd_crf7liGktlOuz_Yv8xrw3aZGTsr59FwK5U4qEMIkKsSt41ZYI7kxxDwzhXHyrYIQKRdSFEay1VC2dnuh2TQDpPlTR7slRveyCzbtcSAJRrfKUFod16_bZmxl-1tZ4okQiA4euOjlcrQHSH5F-9wBiduPPdCixq7Pcgk34EJi/https%3A%2F%2Finternationalistcommune.com%2Fstatement-of-the-internationalist-commune-on-the-agreement-between-self-administration-and-the-syrian-state
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[Marxism] Turkey, the Kurds and the demographic re-engineering of Syria

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Excellent, well-balanced article by Amr Salahi.

The recently launched Turkish operation against Kurdish militias in
northeastern Syria brings with it fears of ethnic cleansing and demographic
change. Turkey has said that "Operation Peace Spring" aims to set up a
30-kilometre wide "safe zone" in northeastern Syria, which would be under
the control of Turkish-allied Syrian rebel groups. President Erdogan has
said that Turkey aims to settle nearly three million of Syrian refugees in
the safe zone.


Much of the area where Turkey plans to settle Syrian refugees has always
had a Kurdish majority, particularly the areas of the Jazirah region to the
northeast of al-Hasakeh, including the city of Qamishli. Other areas of
northeastern Syria have a majority Arab population or a mixed Kurdish-Arab
population.
…..


Both Turkey on the one hand and the PYD and SDF on the other have offered
unconvincing justifications as to why refugees cannot return to the areas
in Syria that they control. Turkey says that Kurdish refugees from Afrin,
living in dire conditions in the surrounding area, have been prevented by
the YPG from returning, while the SDF says that refugees cannot return to
its territories because of delays in reconstruction and the presence of
landmines.


While they are implacable enemies, both sides have won some Syrians over to
their side, the PYD by offering security and allowing a measure of freedom,
and Turkey with its proclaimed support for the Syrian revolution and Syrian
rebel groups.


However, their conflict is likely to lead to more displacement and shifts
in population, and to exacerbate the divisions in Syrian society even more,
drawing Syrians further and further into Turkey's decades-long conflict
with the Kurds

https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/indepth/2019/10/16/turkey-the-kurds-and-the-demographic-re-engineering-of-syria?fbclid=IwAR1cqjtRcPbGQcD3Xsh8Q6p4G0-PQ3f4EI_lPUOralShQsYJVfj_OmJkWHY
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[Marxism] Leila Al Shami: On the Turkish offensive on north eastern Syria

[mkaradjis . via Marxism]

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As usual, Leila Al Shami gets it right on both the Turkish invasion:

Inhabitants of the region have good reason to fear a Turkish occupation.
The Kurdish-majority city of Afrin, which fell to Turkey and allied forces
last year, sets a terrifying precedent. Many civilians were displaced from
their homes and prevented from returning, and there was widespread looting
of abandoned property, as well as arrests, rape and assassinations.

and on what the SDF will be facing now forced by Erddogan to dealo with
Assad:

Yet it’s unlikely the regime will ever accept Kurdish autonomy, as it’s
repeatedly made clear in public statements. Elsewhere in Syria all promises
given by the regime in ‘reconciliation’ deals were not worth the paper they
were written on. Anti-regime activists, both Arabs and Kurds, are now at
risk of being rounded up and detained for possible death by torture. SDF
fighters are also not safe. Just days ago Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister
Faisal Maqdad declared that they had “betrayed their country and committed
crimes against it.” Whilst many Kurds, abandoned by the US, may feel safer
under Assad than Turkey, some Arab civilians living in SDF controlled areas
such as Deir Al Zour and Raqqa fear a reconquest by the regime and Iranian
militias above all else, and feel safer under Turkish protection. Syrians
are rendered desperate, and dependent on foreign powers for survival.
Foreign journalists also under threat by the regime have fled Syria leaving
atrocities to unfold out of sight of the international media

and on the appallingly selective "solidarity" of a large part of the
western left:

Once again the situation in Syria has highlighted the moral bankruptcy of
segments of the left. Many of those protesting Turkey’s assault on north
eastern Syria failed to mobilise to condemn the ongoing Russian and regime
assault on Idlib where three million civilians are living in daily terror.
In fact they’ve failed to notice that for years Syrians have been massacred
by bombs, chemical weapons and industrial scale torture. Some of those
calling for a No Fly Zone to protect Kurdish civilians from aerial
bombardment previously slandered Syrians elsewhere calling for the same
protection as warmongerers and agents of imperialism. Once again solidarity
seems dependent not on outrage against war crimes, but on who is the
perpetrator and who is the victim. Syrian lives are expendable in the
battle for narratives and grand ideological frameworks.
Full:

https://leilashami.wordpress.com/2019/10/14/on-the-turkish-offensive-on-north-eastern-syria/?fbclid=IwAR05Qq-ff-fdMd-x7sT-6TS5fsK6oGOCOm5TO6wFSBIJtGfF08QP4CQZyQ0
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[Marxism] Turkish operation producing more sectarian hatred in Syria

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*Scattered and disconsolate thoughts*
*WRITTEN by Fouad Roueiha, translated by Mary Rizzo*

The US green light for the Turkish operation in northern Syria is a
disaster and yet another demonstration of how damaging the divisions
between Kurds and Arabs have been, actually serving the interests of
others, rather than to those of people living or who have lived in Syria.
The Kurdish forces, the YPG and YPJ of the PYD party, have been the
backbone of the “Syrian Democratic Forces” (SDF) sought by Washington and
used for the purposes of not having to deploy American boots on the ground
in the fight against ISIS. A battle that took place without regard for the
local populations (see Raqqa, razed to the ground by US bombing) and which
handed over large Arab-majority territories to a force perceived as Kurdish
nationalist (not wrongly) and therefore as foreign, as if it were an
invasion. Emblematic was the entry of the SDF into Raqqa after its
“liberation”: no Syrian flags, many flags of the most powerful Kurdish
party and enormous portraits of its ideologue Abdullah Ocalan. On the other
hand, the military collapse by the Arab anti-Assad militias, increasingly
becoming hostages to the “sponsors” and therefore quarrelsome and competing
with each other, crushed by the enormous weight of the Russian air force
and Iranian ground troops and other allies of Assad, has pushed whoever
remained standing either to embracing Al Qaeda (in some of its recent
incarnations) or becoming factually under the auspices of Turkey.

Full:
https://wewritewhatwelike.com/2019/10/11/turkish-operation-producing-more-sectarian-hatred-in-syria/
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[Marxism] Gilbert Achcar on the Grayzone School of Falsification

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On Gutter Journalism and Purported “Anti-Imperialism”

By: Gilbert Achcar 
https://newpol.org/on-gutter-journalism-and-purported-anti-imperialism/
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Re: [Marxism] Syria: US Imperialism Deserts the Kurds ? Once Again

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Yeh, except I didn't exactly say that. I completely agree that "we should
not equate the policies of Trump with those of US imperialism." But not
that it can be entirely explained by Trump acting on whim. Yes, that does
seem to be the nature of the snap decision itself, but seems to me it
reflects the views of some parts of the US ruling class, and even has its
own logic from a certain imperialist point of view. But I agree, it is very
much the minority view at this moment.

What strikes me is that last time Trump suddenly announced “withdrawal from
Syria”, nearly everyone said that this was just his personal whim, there
will be no withdrawal, the ruling class disagrees and will have its way
etc, whereas this time, nearly everyone is saying “US imperialism” has
given the green light to Erdogan etc. Unless what I’ve read is just
coincidental in that way. The ruling class (civilian and military,
Republican and Democrat) in both cases is more or less identical, about 9:1
against Trump.

Remains to be seen how this plays out in practice.

It is somewhat similar in the Gulf “crisis”. Again, the overwhelming
majority of the ruling class, civilian and military, Republican and
Democrat, was against the Trump/Bolton line, ie, about 9:1. But of course,
even Trump never actually had the same line as Bolton (who had the same
line as exactly no-one), so once he outlived his usefulness as attack-dog
for pressure, he was gone. Trump’s actual position is the one in place now
(ie, begging Rouhani for a meeting). Given the stack-up within the US
ruling class, it is not surprising that the “state of crisis” continually
led to nothing.

Meanwhile, there remains a major imperialist war going on in the region:
Russian imperialism’s war on Syria. Now with Putin’s ally Erdogan marching
into northeast Syria with Trump’s blessing, even if it doesn’t come to much
in the end (which of course it may), it takes thousands of ex-FSA fighters,
now Turkey-loyalists, away from the fight in Idlib, so Assad and Putin can
complete the reconquest.
On Wed, Oct 9, 2019 at 1:51 AM John Reimann via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

>
> I agree with what seems to be the implication of what Michael Karadjis
> wrote in reply to the above-entitled article: That we should not equate the
> policies of Trump with those of US imperialism. This is clear in the fact
> that even his most wild supporters, such as US Senators Lindsay Graham and
> Mitch McConnell, have strongly opposed Trump's call for a troop withdrawal
> from the border region between NE Syria and Turkey.
>
>
>
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Re: [Marxism] Syria: US Imperialism Deserts the Kurds … Once Again

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Of course I agree with the main messages in this statement: that US
imperialism never cared less about the Kurds, that its support for the SDF
was just due to a convergence of interests at a particular point, that the
illusions expressed by the SDF leadership in the US and its dealings with
Assad should be heavily criticised (although I don't think it is possible
to condemn anyone for accepting protection, and that's a bigger issue),
that betrayal was always going to occur eventually, and of course that the
Kurds need to be defended against Turkish invasion.



However, I'm not sure that "US imperialism" is keen on betraying the SDF
just now. The timing and character of betrayal, of withdrawal, are
important to the credibility of US imperialism. Like the last "withdrawal"
announcement, this announcement was made by Trump after a phone call with
Erdogan. Meanwhile, virtually every other representative of US imperialism
that has spoken out, countless leading Republican party figures, including
close Trump allies, and the Pentagon, have condemned this move and assert
that it is against "US interests." That doesn't necessarily mean that
Trump's own view and decision doesn't represent one possible imperialist
policy, supported by some faction of the ruling class. The idea that
leftist Kurds have outlived their usefulness and that now the US can mend
things with a NATO ally by allowing it to have its way with the SDF might
well appeal to some sections of US imperialism; and the reality that the
more likely outcome is that most of Rojava won't go to Turkey, but to
Assad, in a position to force the SDF into subservience in order to
"protect" it, is also no long-term problem for US imperialism. And since
Russia, Turkey and Iran have been dealing over Syria the last 2 years in
the Astana process, somewhat sidelining the US, well, why not buy in via
patching things up with Erdogan.



But at the moment, that view, that Trump's whim agrees with, is the
minority view. Most are expressing views along the lines Pompeo expressed
last time, "we can't let the Turks slaughter the Kurds". Lindsay Graham has
stated he'll push for sanctions on Turkey "if they step one foot in
northeastern Syria" . Even Trump felt compelled to announce that if Turkey
does anything wrong he will "totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of
Turkey", not that this should be taken seriously, but then  is this Trump's
"progressive" voice? There are a number of reasons for this. The
credibility of US imperialism, the perception that ti does not defend its
allies, the use of Rojava as the US's bargaining chip in the Syrian
negotiated outcome, the use of a US-backed Rojava as a block to Iran in
Syria etc.



Most likely the immediate outcome will be some kind of compromise between
the two positions, as what occurred last time. So far the concrete
announcement is that 50 US special forces will be moved away from the
border region. Turkey will likely be allowed to enter some of the
relatively non-Kurdish parts of the border region at the outset to test the
waters. There have already been reports of the Turkish airforce bombing SDF
positions near the Syria-Iraq border, but invading major Kurdish population
centres would be a different matter. Erdogan may decide on a broader attack
on the Kurds, but would face large-scale resistance and it would explode
the entire region. It's not certain that the US would be able to just sit
back and allow that to happen.



On another matter, RCIT’s last paragraph is interesting:

“The new turn in Trump policy is also a message to Israel: “You are alone
in a war with Iran”. This message also comes with the new approach of the
USA and Saudi Arabia to Iran. Behind it is the expected role of Iran to
repress the new wave of the Arab revolution that seems as possible in the
near future.”

Quite perceptive, but then I’ve been arguing that the Gulf ‘crisis” has
been theatre for 6 months and have never been stirred up about “defend
Iran” for a moment for this very reason (obviously the economic blockade
should be condemned). The only problem I have with the paragraph is the
implication in the first line that Iran represents any kind of “threat” to
Israel; that’s just a 25-year theatre, on both sides, mediated by
geographic distance.


On Tue, Oct 8, 2019 at 7:20 PM RKOB via Marxism 
wrote:

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[Marxism] Trump versus Chomsky on US interventionism

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Pick the leftist:

Trump: " “I held off this fight for almost 3 years, but it is time for us
to get out of these ridiculous Endless Wars."

Chomsky: "The US should do whatever is possible to protect the Kurds
instead of keeping to past policies of regular betrayal."

I honestly wonder if, if the names of the authors were not there, we would
be able to "pick the leftist". Especially if the word "Kurds" were changed
to another people.

No, I'm not just doing this to show fun-facts. It is a call for the
internationalist left to have the discussion that we always want to avoid
like the plague.
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Re: [Marxism] Yemen: Another Humiliating Blow for the Saudi Aggressors!

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RCIT: “Contrary to many pseudo-socialists who denounce the Yemeni civil war
as reactionary on all sides, we have unconditionally supported the Yemeni
resistance from the beginning of the war in March 2015 … The main reason
for this is that the Houthis are leading a legitimate national liberation
war which has broad popular support … we stress that it is the duty of
democrats, anti-imperialists, and socialists in Yemen and the Arab world,
as well as internationally, to support the Yemeni people’s struggle for
national independence.”



I'd agree with RCIT that it's good to see the Saudis humiliated in this
way. There is no question that the Saudis’ barbaric air war is responsible
for most of the killing going on in Yemen, as is the case with other
situations where one side has air power and the other does not (Assad/Putin
versus Syrian rebellion, Israel in Gaza etc). Obviously the Saudi war needs
to be condemned, and the fact that the US directly aids this war means
demands for that aid to end.



However, these facts do not automatically lead to RCIT’s conclusions. The
concrete situation needs to be looked at in each case. For example, I
suggest a full accounting of the US air war against ISIS in both Syria and
Iraq will find that killings by US bombing outnumber those murdered by ISIS
on the ground. But that does not tell me that we should support ISIS as a
“national liberation struggle” against the US. On the contrary, despite my
many criticisms of the US-backed SDF, above all its abstention from the
Syrian revolution, I believe they are waging a legitimate liberation
struggle in the east of Syria where they fight against ISIS.



The Houthis are not waging a struggle for national independence.
Independence from whom? Saudi Arabia does not run Yemen, any more than the
US runs eastern Syria (well, actually, the US has so many bases and troops
in SDF-controlled territory that it would be closer to the truth to say the
US runs eastern Syria than that Saudi Arabia runs Yemen). Saudi Arabia’s
intervention – horrific as it is – is an intervention on one side of a
Yemeni civil war.



The Houthis have “broad popular support”? No, they don’t. They have broad
popular support in their base in the far northwest of Yemen, around Sa’ada,
where the Zaydi branch of Shia Islam predominates. In the many wars that
the former bloody dictator Saleh waged against the Houthis, the Houthis
were waging a just war to defend their autonomy in their regions. However,
following the Arab Spring overthrow of Saleh’s dictatorship in 2011, and
its replacement by part of his own former regime (led by his deputy Hadi,
the famous Yemeni solution), the Houthis and Saleh formed an opportunistic
alliance as Saleh aimed to ride the Houthis back to power. So the
subsequent Saleh-Houthi offensive throughout the centre and south of Yemen
would be similar to Mubarak trying to overthrow the post-Mubarak Egyptian
government, or Assad trying to regain power if he had been replaced by
another part of his regime.



The Houthis from the north marched into the capital Saada in 2014 with
little resistance, not due to “broad popular support” (otherwise the mass
arrests of activists, journalists etc, tortures, disappearances etc would
not have been necessary), but because Saleh still had effective control of
the armed forces leadership and their heavy weaponry. Following this, the
Saleh/Houthi alliance, armed to the teeth by the Saleh-controlled military,
marched south, where it met mass resistance, especially in the city of
Taiz, where the Arab Spring had been centred, and in Aden and the whole of
the former South Yemen territory.



It was as the Houthi-Saleh alliance approached Aden that Saudi Arabia and
the UAE began their war against them in 2015. Not because the Saudis love
popular resistance of course; and not even because the Saudis really
believed their own propaganda about the Houthis being backed by Iran (the
Saudi war itself has brought the Houthis closer to Iran); rather, because
the entire Yemeni solution set-up, aimed at derailing revolution and
stabilising the situation, was a Saudi achievement, which Saleh was now
scuttling. The Saudi bombing was of course as ineffective as it was
barbaric, as the Houthi-Saleh forces seized Aden *after* the Saudi attack
began.



Nevertheless, a vast popular resistance continued in Aden, Taiz and
throughout the south and east. The popular resistance forces in the south,
heavily based around former South Yemeni officers and newer forces who have
been fighting for a new South Yemen independence, soon drove the
Houthi-Saleh forces out of Aden. Meanwhile, an epic resistance against the
Houthis/

[Marxism] Walden Bello: China: An Imperial Power in the Image of the West?

[mkaradjis . via Marxism]

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*China: An Imperial Power in the Image of the West?*

https://focusweb.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/A4_ChinaAnImperialPower_WEB.pdf

by Walden Bello

This study seeks to answer the question:  Is China an imperial power in the
image of the West in its relationship with the global south?

Over the last 15 years, there have been increasing accusations of Chinese
state enterprises and private companies being involved in unfair labor
practices, environmentally damaging projects, land-grabbing, locking
borrowing countries into debt, and indirectly providing support for
dictatorships. many of these accusations parallel similar criticisms of the
behavior of state-owned enterprises, private capitalists, and local
authorities within China itself. China has also drawn criticism for its
unilateral moves in seizing disputed maritime formations and violating the
territorial and economic rights of its neighbors in the south China sea.
Many of these criticisms are valid, and unless China addresses them in a
positive fashion soon, these questionable behaviors and practices could
congeal into structures of domination similar to those that have marked the
relationship of the West with the global south.

Perhaps, equally worrisome is that China’s expansion has its own complex of
worrisome characteristics that are not reducible solely to reproducing
western patterns but can also lead, if unchecked, to hegemonic behavior.
Foremost among these is a technocratic top-down approach to development
with a cross-ideological appeal that is resistant to democratic control and
insensitive to environmental considerations, fully on display in Beijing’s
Belt and road Initiative.

Frank and fearless criticism of China's disturbing practices, the study
argues, is the best way to help prevent it from following in the footsteps
of the West.

*"Walden Bello has been one of the most powerful intellectual warriors
against Western hegemony and an empathetic advocate of independent
development in the Global South for decades. Now, confronting the rise of
China, Bello pulls no punches in critiquing this new hegemon and analyzing
its origins and weaknesses.” *


*Ho Fung Hung Wiesenfeld Professor in Political Economy, Johns Hopkins
University; author of The China Boom: Why China Will not Rule the World.*
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Re: [Marxism] Assad Receives a Delegation From the French National Rally - The Syrian Observer

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A couple of days after Italian fascists from Casa Pound visited, which the
Assadist Tourism Ministry used to demonstrate that the "tourism groove" was
on the rise:

https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/amp/news/2019/8/28/tourism-groove-italian-fascist-group-visits-syria

An Italian fascist political party visited the Syrian city of Aleppo, the
Syrian Ministry of Tourism posted on Facebook.

Italian neo-fascist group CasaPound visited the Syrian city of Aleppo, the
Syrian Ministry of Tourism said Tuesday.

"Syria is gettings its tourism groove back," the ministry posted on
Facebook. The post described extreme right-wing CasaPound as "the Italian
delegation" and said the group visited Aleppo's Old City.

"They expressed their pleasure to experience the fast restoration process
and resilience & steadfastness of Syrian People," the ministry wrote.

Pictures show the group standing with the Italian and CasaPound flags in
front of the Aleppo citadel.

In 2018, *the Guardian* described CasaPound as "the fascist movement that
has brought Mussolini back to the mainstream".

On Sun, Sep 1, 2019 at 3:31 AM Louis Proyect via Marxism <
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>
> Assad meets with fellow fascists.
>
>
> https://syrianobserver.com/EN/news/52634/assad-receives-a-delegation-from-the-french-national-gathering.html
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Re: [Marxism] Rojava revolution - seven years on

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When we write about important events, such as a revolution and war that has
been in world headlines for 8 years, knowing what we're talking about is
important, especially if you want to be taken seriously.

Chris rightly corrects Dave's false claim that Idlib is dominated by
"al-Qaida". Probably not Dave's fault, as I understand, the SA membership
mostly relies on the wooden, Stalinoid-style Apoist media for, er,
information on Syria, and the PYD and its fronts routinely call all
Islamists "al-Qaida", kind of neocon style.

Chris says that something he calls Jabhat al-Nusra/HTS has "seemingly"
broken from al-Qaida. Chris, as someone who seems to follow events in Syria
from a somewhat broader perspective, surely you know that in August 2016 -
3 years ago - Nusra broke with al-Qaida, changed its name to JTS, then
several months later, JTS joined 5 other groups - some jihsdist like them
and some not - to form the miltary coalition known as HTS. The formation is
Islamist, but not jihadist, by definition, though the jihadist JTS is the
dominant group.

Incidentally, there remains a tiny pro al-Qaida group that spli with JTS at
the time. Some of its leaders are in HTS prisons. The US recently bombed
tghem in Idlib.

Ironically for the SDF, the distinguishing feature of HTS was rejection of
the growing Turkish hegemony over many of the Islamist and non-Islamist/FSA
rebels in the region. As Turkey was seen as bargaining over the Kurds with
Assad via Erdogan's new mate Putin, including selling out Aleppo, many
rebels joined HTS in order to continue fighting Assad at all times, rather
than accept their fight being turned off and on according to Turkey's
interests.

Meanwhile, other FSA groups rejected Turkish hegemony, wanted to maintain
the fight against Assad, but would not join HTS. The most prominent is
Jaysh al-Izza, which plays a leading role in holding back Assad, especially
in Hama.

For most fighters in any case, all our Kremlinology is largely irrelevant.
They fight a genocidal regime because it is in their interests to. They
join whichever brigade - FSA, Islamist, jihadist, Turkish-controlled or
not, based on who has the strength, the money, the weapons in their area.
Western leftists joining the war on terror by calling them "al-Qaida" would
be of supreme indifference to them,  but like, don't expect them to
identify as "leftists" in the circumstances. They fight, previously, to
overthrow the regime as they rightly saw it as the worst impediment to
democracy,  and knew they could deal with secondary, weaker impediments
later. Now they fight merely to defend their region from the genocide
regime reconquering them. They deserve our support.

In any case, the Assadi-Russian massacre over the last few months is a
massacre of civilians. Hundreds have been killed, literally dozens of
hospitals and schools bombed, markets, bakeries, you name it. It is a world
class crime going on as a global imperialist power massacres brown people
in an oppressed country.

I struggled to find any evidence of solidarity with the civilians being
massacred (not with the fighters) in these last two GLW articles Chris sent
to the list. I found none. Appalling, but sadly not surprising. Instead we
read about "al-Qaida" and utopia in Rojava in the northeast, in an
apparently disconnected reality. A utopia, of course, fully protected by a
massive US intervention force, while "anti-imperialists" pay no attention
to this fact and instead still fantasise that the US is behind the Syrian
rebels, always a fantasy but today a grotesque lie.

Five years ago when SA/GLW discovered the Rojava revolution I thought it
was a good thing. Sad how rapidly we turned it into a sectarian shibboleth.
Old habits die hard I guess.



On Sat, 3 Aug. 2019, 1:32 pm Chris Slee via Marxism, <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
> There are some points in the article by Dave Holmes that we could quibble
> about.  He refers to "al Qaeda", whereas Jabhat al-Nusra/HTS has seemingly
> broken with al-Qaeda.
>
> But this does not change the fact that, ever since Jabhat al-Nusra crushed
> the Syrian Revolutionaries Front in 2014, Idlib province has been dominated
> by reactionary Islamist groups such as HTS, Ahrar al-Sham etc.
>
> Chris Slee
>
> 
> From: John Edmundson 
> Sent: Saturday, 3 Augus

[Marxism] Criticising Erdogan: Dont romanticise the Kemalist legacy!

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Criticising Erdogan: Dont romanticise the Kemalist legacy!

https://en.qantara.de/content/criticising-erdogan-dont-romanticise-the-kemalist-legacy




The narrative of an "enlightened" and generally democratic Turkey, a
country that is currently in the process of being destroyed by Erdogan,
should not go unchallenged, says Tayfun Guttstadt
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[Marxism] New think tank with funding from Koch and Soros aims to shift US foreign policy away from penchant for war

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Koch and Soros? Here's one to confuse everyone ...

https://www.stripes.com/news/us/new-think-tank-with-funding-from-koch-and-soros-aims-to-shift-us-foreign-policy-away-from-penchant-for-war-1.589811
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[Marxism] Syria, the YPG/SDF, and the concept of solidarity

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I've given this its own thread because it was a bit off-topic where it was.

When Chris explained, not wrongly, that liberation movements sometimes have
to make deals with the devil for the purposes of survival, referring to the
SDF's alliance with US imperialism in Syria, I noted that while this is
true, it is even more important to build alliances with other people
struggling. Therefore, I asked if there had been any statement from the
PYD/YPG/SDF condemning the current Idlib-Hama massacre. Chris responded:


“I am not aware of any such statements. I am also not aware of any
statements by rebel groups in Idlib and Hama denouncing the Turkish
invasion and occupation of Afrin.  If such statements exist I would like to
see them.”



The context here is that the people of Idlib and Hama are being mass
murdered for months on end now, in a truly frightening round of barbarism,
while the world ignores it (if I go all conspiracist I might even suggest
that the theatrics in the Gulf which, as I predicted, have not led to a
shot being fired, are designed as a good cover for Putin and Assad
“finishing the job”, while the US has now even joined in
https://www.voanews.com/middle-east/us-targets-al-qaida-militants-northern-syria,
following the US-Russia-Israel summit in Jerusalem
https://www.albawaba.com/news/us-takes-calm-steps-contain-iran%E2%80%99s-presence-syria-1296303?fbclid=IwAR3HuUouso4Bvj9EnE83o00ZLQ9aISmH176vklF6RdqNgcNVQ7xMYvis-MQ,
but anyway …).



So, in this context, I am asking for statements from the SDF, PYD etc of
solidarity with *the people* being massacred, as literally dozens of
hospitals and schools are being hit, by a global imperialist power
intervening in the affairs of an oppressed country. I’m not expecting them
to express solidarity with the rebel groups defending the region, or their
politics. But never mind, I realise that’s asking a bit much.



Of course, the vast majority of those around the world who have supported
the Syrian revolution over these years condemned the invasion of Afrin and
the participation in it by some of the rebel groups there. You’re right,
other rebel leaderships not taking direct part did not condemn it.



The political quality of leadership of the revolution in Syria has never
been a factor cited as a reason to support the people’s uprising. That’s a
pity, and part of the reason for their defeat, but that’s reality emerging
from decades of totalitarian rule. Hell, we supported the “Iranian
revolution” in 1978-79, in a case where the equivalent of Jabhat al-Nusra
(ie, the Khomeini forces) was the central, undisguised, unrivalled
leadership; predictably the result was disastrous, but I’ve never heard
anyone go all Spart on the actual overthrow of the Shah; and in contrast to
that situation, leadership in Syria was always much more contested; and the
Khomeini equivalent, Nusra,. Was never more than 10-15% of the armed
rebellion (but a bigger proportion now in Idlib).



Meanwhile, if the SDF can justify years of collaboration with US
imperialism in 5 years of bombing Syria, even levelling entire cities and
killing thousands of civilians, on the basis of the SDF being under siege
by ISIS or by Turkey, then surely those who are *actually* under armed and
bloody, near genocidal, siege for years might have the same rationale, no?
And given that it is only Turkey which, for its own reasons (it doesn’t
want 100s of 1000s more refugees pouring in), that is giving some active
assistance to the cornered Idlib-Hama rebels, it seems all the more reason
for them not to be criticising Turkey at this point. I’m not justifying,
just noting the situation.



By contrast, the SDF in (allegedly) the same circumstances (well, nothing
like the same, but anyway …) would perhaps be justified going quiet on
criticising its protector, US imperialism. So what excuse does it have for
not criticising Assad?


Seems to me the difference is that those who chose to narrowly support only
Rojava rather than the rest of the uprising do so on the basis of the
quality of the political leadership, seeing it as socialist, feminist,
left-wing, revolutionary etc. That is quite different to the reasons we
support the Syrian uprising more generally.


And it is in that spirit that I ask the question. Saying “neither do the
others say the right thing” is therefore irrelevant. If the PYD/SDF is
unable to issue a sim-ple statement condemning this bloody massacre
occurring under their noses, then all the chatter about “Rojava
revolutionaries” being somewhat exceptional are just bunk. There’s this
thing important to revolutionary politics called *solidarity*. But this
word does not exist in the

Re: [Marxism] Gray Zone versus the deep state, regime change, Trotskyite devils | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[mkaradjis . via Marxism]

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Chris, since movements that are under some kind of siege need to build
alliances first and foremost among other people struggling (regardless of
whether there might still be a necessity to deal with the devil as you
describe), could you please send through any statements of solidarity by
the "Rojava revolutionaries" with the people being mass murdered in Idlib
and Hama for months on end now by the regime and Russian imperialism, with
literally dozens of hospitals and schools being bombed, at least 500 killed
and 100s of 1000s displaced. Thanks.

On Thu, Jul 11, 2019 at 5:59 PM Chris Slee via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

>
> Today two examples are Venezuela receiving aid from Russia and the Syrian
> Democratic Forces receiving aid from the US.
>
> Such aid always involves the danger of cooption and degeneration.  But
> this is not inevitable.  Whether a movement gets coopted depends on a range
> of local and international factors.
>
> For example, if the Turkish government stopped threatening to invade
> northeastern Syria, the SDF would no longer need US support to deter such
> an invasion, and the danger of cooption would be reduced.
>
>
>
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Re: [Marxism] Istanbul's new mayor and Syrian refugees

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Yes, Istanbul is very much a plague on both your houses situation, where,
from the point of view of a Syrian refugee, the AKP's defeat in Istanbul
must seem the worst of two bad options. Here's more on that from the Syrian
Observer:

https://syrianobserver.com/EN/news/51300/turkey-after-the-oppositions-victory-syrians-out-of-here.html


The hashtag #SuriyelilerDefoluyor (Syrians out of here) became one of the
most circulated hashtags in Turkey following the victory of opposition
candidate Ekrem Imamoglu for Istanbul mayor.

Turkish sites in Arabic said that supporters of the Turkish opposition
attacked Syrian refugees on Twitter, calling for them to be expelled a few
hours after Imamoglu’s victory, according to preliminary results. Thousands
of Turkish Twitter users used the hashtag, celebrating the victory as if it
was a victory over Syrians and the policies of the Justice and Development
Party (AKP).

The tweets by the Turkish opposition included images they claimed were of
Syrians on Turkish beaches, expressing resentment at their ability to relax
while Turkish citizens can find no time to relax. They also included videos
of instances of harassment attributed to Syrians and condemned their
presence on Turkish territory at a time when Turkish citizens were fighting
in Syria instead of them.

Turkish political analyst Mehmet Canbekli wrote on Twitter: “With the first
victory by the Republican People’s Party in Istanbul, a racist hashtag
against Syrians in Turkey was issued: #SuriyelilerDefoluyor.” He added that
this meant, “Syrians out of here. May God help our Syrian brothers and
sisters from this abhorrent racism.”

It appears that Imamoglu’s victory has motivated thousands of supporters of
his party to attack Syrian refugees, with some of them tweeting that the
next step will be to expel them, suggesting they had successfully achieved
the first step, which was “removing the AKP from Istanbul.”


Oddly, though, before Imamoglu’s current turn to racist speech as shown in
the article John sent, he was projecting an image much, much better than
the openly chauvinistic CHP Kemalist leadership:

" Refugee affairs have always been centrally controlled from Ankara by the
Migration Directorate, and the AKP during its 15-year grip on power in
Istanbul has acquiesced to that arrangement. Imamoglu, however, is
threatening to shake things up by breaking with that approach and with
CHP orthodoxy and introducing new approaches toward the city's Syrian
population, including establishing a municipal institution able to act
quickly to address local tensions and issues in districts with large
numbers of Syrians, and greater integration with the international
humanitarian response, which has focused disproportionately on Syrians
living in state-run camps, instead of the 96% of Syrians who live in
Turkey’s urban centers"

https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2019/06/turkey-syrians-vote-istanbul-election.html?fbclid=IwAR2HjCNz9pD7bRLE8asBIy7y4G_vHoqlBs_uwujpqtr1pkZFj4YkLAuFd9E

The CHP leadership has been trying to out-MHP the MHP for years on the
question of Syrian refugees, and is allied to the MHP-split group the "Good
Party", which is as racist as the party it split from:


"Before Imamoglu won the Istanbul election, CHP mayors in several Turkish
municipalities publicly used anti-Syrian rhetoric. "The mayor of the town
of Kemalpasa in western Turkey, Ridvan Karakayli, said on TV, "We will get
rid of Syrians. There is peace in Syria, so what are they doing here? There
are shops with signboards with the Syrian language [a reference to Arabic]
near our party [building]. I will remove them. They will be taken away from
here." CHP chairman Kemal Kilicardoglu alleged in 2017 that Syrians had
become "first-class citizens" and Turks "second-class", saying there would
be "an account for this".
https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2019/6/25/racist-anti-syrian-hashtags-spread-following-turkish-oppositions-istanbul-victory

However, things are not straightforward. While the AKP has long been seen
as the party most friendly to Syrian refugees (Turkey's 3.7 million
refugees is the largest refugees population in the world), since its sharp
right turn and alliance with the MHP - formerly its sharp critic - since
2016, the AKP has increasingly played the same racist card as the CHP and
MHP:


"During the election campaign, AKP candidate Yildrim, for example, said,
"Istanbul residents should know that Syrians are not here to stay. And we
will not allow for them to engage in illegal activities while here. Zero
tolerance. We'll grab them by the ear and throw them out".

https://www.alaraby.co.uk/e

Re: [Marxism] Gulf of Oman Crisis: What happened? Where is it headed?

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Great article John. I fully agree - while it is obvious that both European
and Japanese imperialism are opposed to war with Iran, it is also clear
enough that the mainstream of US imperialism is on the same page as its
allies/rivals on this one. I get tired of simpleton analysis that points
out that capitalism is always on a "war drive", something that may be true
on a large historic scale but is a pretty embarrassing way for a "Marxist"
to try to analyse every event. Who is pushing confrontation? (1) Bolton - a
nutter from another, bygone, era, who Trump has employed as his attack-dog
to raise the pressure on Iran, until he serves his purpose and can be
dispensed with (2) Pompeo - back and forth, one day to the next - currently
trying to out-trump Trump in that role, (3) MBS/Saudi monarchy - wants to
see its key regional rival cut down to size, to employ the US more
decisively in Yemen, and to maintain its key role in the US arms market and
the oil/arms/dollars nexus. Who's not on board? Obviously European and
Japanese imperialism, but also (1) as you show very clearly, the mainstream
of the US capitalist class, (2) the Pentagon - all their statements have
been guarded and defensive, "we can defend ourselves if Iran attacks us",
which can obviously be interpreted in various ways, but none of their
statements or rhetoric concur with the Bolton/Pompeo line; the Pentagon
sees blowing things up with Iran as a clear danger to their strategy in
Iraq and their presence in the region. Who is in the middle? (1) Obviously
Trump. Trump does not want a war and to get bogged down in some stupid
neocon fantasy, he's good with war, but smarter than often assumed. he's
definitely smarter than Bolton, who is being played. Trump wants to emerge
the King-maker. I suspect Pompeo wants to end up by his side rather than
Bolton's in the long run. (2) Israel - here I somewhat disagree with your
article - all the statements coming from Israel have been highly muted on
this; and as I've long said, the Israeli-Saudi "alliance" is greatly
exaggerated, in practical terms. Israel doesn't need a bloody conflict with
Hezbollah just because MBS wants a Gulf conflict and Bolton wants to live
out superseded fantasies; not because Israel is scared of Hezbollah (a
breathtaking fantasy), Israel could wipe out all the military junk
Hezbollah has accumulated over the years in a few days, but Israel would
prefer to choose when it engages in conflict - not just now when it is
negotiating a demarcation agreement with Lebanon (where Hezbollah is part
of the government ...) over the gas fields in the Mediterranean Sea, (3)
Russia - I agree with your points about Russian-Iranian rivalry in Syria,
and also Russia has excellent relations with the Saudis and UAE; it does
not support a US-neocon attack on Iran, but would benefit from it as
king-maker. I slightly disagree with your explanation re Syria that Russia
was happy for Iran to come to Assad's aid until Israel objected, then
Russia changed course; more like, Russia was happy for Iran to supply
ground troops for Assad that Russia wouldn't, while it just employed its
airforce (and the US also had little objection, sometimes even worked
alongside Iranians in Syria); but once Assad's throne was safe, all that
Iran-led sectarian rabble was no longer necessary, so in the context of
Russian-Iranian rivalry over the spoils and "reconstruction" and Israel's
attacks on Iranian assets, Russia can now join the US and Israel in moving
Iran aside in Syria. Anyway, once again, great analysis

On Sun, Jun 16, 2019 at 9:53 AM John Reimann via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
> 'On Thursday, June 13, two Japanese-flagged oil tankers were attacked in
> the Gulf of Oman, off the coast of Iran. The Trump administration
> immediately claimed that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards were responsible.
> They based this claim on a video they released of a patrol boat of the
> Guards standing alongside one of the tankers, the Kokuta Courageous,
> apparently removing something attached to the side of the ship. Trump & Co.
> claimed the Guards were removing a limpet mine they had attached earlier,
> and that they were removing it to hide the evidence.
>
> *'N.Y. Times *
> *Article*On Friday, the NY Times published an extremely interesting article
> <
> https://www.nytimes.c

[Marxism] More Arab protests expected against Kurdish SDF in Syria

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More Arab protests expected against Kurdish SDF in Syria
Read more:
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2019/05/syria-deir-ez-zor-shuhail-protests-sdf-killing-arabs.html#ixzz5pw1UFLBz
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Re: [Marxism] Pink Floyd star's attack on Syrian rescuers provokes outrage

[mkaradjis . via Marxism]

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 Roger Walters: You're an idiot. Just another Brick in the Brain. The guy
is so completely stupid that he makes all these disgusting attacks on the
White helmets, even slanders them as murderers because he has assessed that
they "probably" launched the chemical attack themselves (how??), yet he
apparently doesn't know that it wasn't even the White Helmets who initially
reported from the scene of the Douma attack and presented the footage etc,
it was another pro-opposition media organisation. Who cares about facts
when you can be Comfortably Dumb in the service of genocide.

On Wed, May 22, 2019 at 12:40 AM Louis Proyect via Marxism <
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>
> https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2019/5/19/pink-floyd-stars-attack-on-syrian-rescuers-provokes-outrage
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Re: [Marxism] US Official: “We Worried that the Assad Regime Might Finally Collapse"

[mkaradjis . via Marxism]

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 Yeh I saw this, once again another of the countless pieces of information
that show the US never wanted "regime change" etc. Note how even in these
kinds of discussions when they're essentially talking to each other, they
still have to embellish facts to make their essential support for Assad
seem a little more palatable: "in which the Islamic State had assumed
control of most of eastern Syria and had begun to also threaten Syria’s
main cities in the West." This of course is simple bullshit, which the
speaker knows even as he says it. Yes ISIS had control of eastern Syria,
but the US was already 9 months into bombing them there by "the summer of
2015", the period being referred to. But ISIS was in no way threatening
"Syria's main cities in the west." Not at all, never in fact, the very idea
was always the purest of fiction, but especially after the Syrian rebels
drove ISIS root and branch from the whole of western Syria in January 2014,
never to return, from the provinces of Idlib, Aleppo, Hama, Homs, Latakia,
Damascus and Daraa (except the odd spot here and there, such as Yarmouk,
which posed zero threat to any city), in fact they even drove ISIS from
Raqqa briefly, but ISIS put all forces into getting it back, and they even
drove ISIS from Deir Ezzor further east, and held it for 6 months until
ISIS, flush with all the US weapons it had seized from Mosul when the
US/Iranian Iraqi army ran away, re-invaded from Iraq and laid siege to Deir
Ezzor for a month, during which time the Assad regime helped ISIS by
joining in bombing the besieged rebels, while the US, which was already
bombing ISIS in Iraq, made no attempt to prevent the fall of Deir Ezzor. In
other words, the "catastrophe" the US was concerned about was not that
Assad would fall to ISIS, but that Assad would fall to the rebels.

On Thu, May 16, 2019 at 12:36 AM RKOB via Marxism <
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> *
>
> *“We Worried that the Assad Regime Might Finally Collapse”*
>
> */New revelations about the approach of U.S. imperialism to the Assad
> regime/*
>
> /By Michael Pröbsting/
>
>
> https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/us-official-we-worried-that-the-assad-regime-might-finally-collapse/
>
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Re: [Marxism] Is Rep. Tulsi Gabbard being doubly described unfairly for holding pro-drone, pro-occupation views?

[mkaradjis . via Marxism]

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 "it seems to me that Gabbard is called "anti-war" or "anti-establishment"
from supporters and critics alike and neither is
correct in this description."

Seems to me that Gabbard is fairly well-known to be a classic Red-Brown
islamophobe. She is very much pro-drone war/"war on terror". She's
'anti-war" when anyone suggests action against some fascist regime she
likes, such as that of Assad (who she admires for waging its own "war ion
terror"), but that's never happened; she is not anti-war with regard to the
actual US war in Syria, mostly against ISIS. She is also very pro-Zionist,
strongly supports the US unconditional support for Israel, which, once
again, is waging its own "war on terror." Likewise her close relationship
with the Hindu-chauvinist Modi in India, Modi after all being the leader
responsible for the huge slaughter of Muslims last decade in India. Not
sure why these well-established facts about Gabbard are so easily ignored
by people who see her as progressive or anti-war. Whatever Sanders'
shortcomings, she is well to his right. Bannon actually thought she might
make a good State Secretary at one point.

On Sun, May 12, 2019 at 3:32 AM J.B. Nicholson via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

>
> It seems to me that although Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) doesn't call
> herself
> a socialist, much the same criticism of being pro-drone could be raised
> about her. I've written about this in
>
> https://digitalcitizen.info/2019/02/13/is-tulsi-gabbard-really-anti-war-no-shes-pro-drone-and-for-surgical-strikes/
> where it seems to me that Gabbard is called "anti-war" or
> "anti-establishment" from supporters and critics alike and neither is
> correct in this description.
>
>
>
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Re: [Marxism] Regime preservation: How US policy facilitated Assad’s victory

[mkaradjis . via Marxism]

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Apologies to the list, I didn't mean for this personal message to go
through, hadn't realised the message to me had been sent via my earlier
message to list.

On Fri, May 10, 2019 at 1:41 PM mkaradjis .  wrote:

> Hi Steffan,
>
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Re: [Marxism] Regime preservation: How US policy facilitated Assad’s victory

[mkaradjis . via Marxism]

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Hi Steffan, I am aware of two links not working, but since being informed I
have found both on the wayback archive. Could you please send me a list of
links that are not working for you, both for my sake but also because I
could then send you either the wayback link or the original article if I
have it in my files (most likely do). I don't think I have the article with
the original links, I think I amde them hyperlinks straight off. In any
case, for the 2 I'm aware of, that would make no difference.
The two I am aware of are:
"Meanwhile, in the initial months of the uprising Saudi Arabia, the UAE,
and Qatar all gave strong support to Assad" (the Saudi link doesn't work,
the others do). Saudi link:
https://web.archive.org/web/20180419184933/http://eaworldview.com/2013/06/syria-special-the-us-saudi-conflict-over-arms-to-insurgents/
<https://web.archive.org/web/20180419184933/http:/eaworldview.com/2013/06/syria-special-the-us-saudi-conflict-over-arms-to-insurgents/>
"At times, the US blocked any and all weapons getting to the FSA from its
regional allies." https://web.archive.org/web/20
180419184933/http://eaworldview.com/2013/06/syria-special-
the-us-saudi-conflict-over-arms-to-insurgents/

On Fri, May 10, 2019 at 4:13 AM Steffan Wyn-Jones via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
> Great work as always. Some of the hyperlinks in the piece don't seem to
> work, or at least I'm having trouble accessing the websites they direct
> to. If you made a word document or pdf with the original web addresses
> of the articles you link to, could I get a copy please? Or perhaps
> you'll be posting it on your academia.edu page?
>
> Once again, thanks for this, and all your work on these topics.
>
> SWJ.
>
>
> On 08/05/2019 15:13, mkaradjis . via Marxism wrote:
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> > *
> >
> >   Here in my debut on the wonderful al-Jumhuriya site, I have attempted
> to
> > comprehensively take apart years of nonsense spouted by pro-Assad writers
> > (like the epigone version of Ben Norton) about what they claim was some
> US
> > role in pushing "regime change" against Assad in Syria, which both denies
> > the agency of the millions of Syrian people who rose up to overthrow a
> > tyrannical regime, while also being false to the very core factually. "As
> > the military conflict in Syria has been largely decided in favor of the
> > Bashar al-Assad regime, there have been a number of attempts to review
> the
> > role of US intervention, or lack thereof, in the Syrian outcome. Late
> last
> > year, Washington’s special envoy to Syria, Jim Jeffrey, clarified that
> > while the US wants to see a regime in Damascus that is “fundamentally
> > different,” it is nevertheless “not regime change” the US is seeking.
> > “We're not trying to get rid of Assad.” Much commentary jumped on this as
> > some kind of major shift in US policy, or a signal the US had “given up”
> on
> > regime change. Yet, as will be shown below, the US never had a “regime
> > change” policy. On the contrary, Washington has always sought a modified
> > form of regime preservation. Jeffrey’s statement was followed by
> President
> > Trump’s announcement of an immediate US withdrawal from Syria. While the
> > “immediate” was later dropped for reasons of expediency, a more gradual
> US
> > withdrawal is still on the cards; a process coinciding with a creeping
> > rapprochement with Assad by Trump’s Gulf allies, spearheaded by the
> United
> > Arab Emirates and Bahrain restoring diplomatic relations with Syria in
> late
> > December 2018."
> >
> https://aljumhuriya.net/en/content/regime-preservation-how-us-policy-facilitated-assad%E2%8

Re: [Marxism] CIA polices weapons entry to Syria as spooks invade Turkey

[mkaradjis . via Marxism]

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I deal extensively with the question of the TOW missiles in my article. Re
the US embargo on anti-tank weapons, yeh this article Louis posted was from
2012 when US spooks turned up on the borders to prevent anti-tank and
anti-aircraft weapons getting to the rebels. The first TOW anti-tank
weapons were received by some rebel groups in April 2014, ie, that embargo
was lifted 2 years later. My article thoroughly goes through the whole
story oft he rise and fall of the TOW, the restrictions on them, and the US
cut-off of them once it was clear the rebels refused to give up the fight
against Assad and direct all their fire against ISIS.
The offensive you refer to where rebels took out a lot of Assad tanks with
TOWS was early 2015 (certainly not 2016, by which time the program was well
and truly shut down). In my opinion, this relatively one-off success was
due to other factors of the moment. As you say, the total number of TOW
ATGMs (anti-tank guided missiles) distributed to the rebels over 2014-15 is
reckoned to be about 1000. It is difficult for me to figure out how
decisive that could be considering the regime itself had some 5000 ATGMs -
as well as the 9000 or so tanks and armoured vehicles.

On Fri, May 10, 2019 at 1:07 AM DW via Marxism 
wrote:

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>
> The article appears to be behind a pay wall.
>
> I've argued that the concept of regime change in Syria was given lie
> because of these bans on MANPADS (surface to air missiles) and other
> heavier weapons...and the fact that the US could easily have destroyed the
> Syrian armed forces in about a week, at least enough for an early victory
> by the rebels.
>
> However, the CIA did, through Qatar or S. Arabia, provide many Tow II
> anti-tank weapons, which disabled around 18 Syrian T-55 and T-72 tanks
> (most of which were returned to service) in 2016. There are youtube videos
> of this available. [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvVd1e8Gwug ], I
> can't
> remember what year this was. But...the Syrian Army has one of the largest
> armored equipped armies on the entire planet with close to 5,000 armored
> vehicles with at least 3000 of that being heavy tanks (mostly T-55s, now
> obsolete but fine for urban warfare it seems). But total number of TOW
> anti-tank missiles are much higher according to this recent article:
>
> https://www.newsweek.com/us-military-targeted-own-missiles-middle-eeast-1277293
> It seems that there were over 1000 TOW missile launchers given to the
> rebels in Syria. So the US via it's Arab state allies provided the
> missiles. But...
>
> The problem then really lies in the obvious lack of anything else such as
> command and control, access to satellite intelligence, MANPADS and even
> heavy machine guns to down helicopters and Russian fighter jets. Zip. Zero.
> There ARE YouTube vids of rebels using MANPADS to shoot down choppers and
> jets early on in the civil war but these were all taken from the Syrian
> arsenal by deserting Syrian troops. They are clearly Igla surface to air
> missiles being used by the rebels.
>
> So it goes again to motivation of by the US to supply some, but not enough,
> heavy defensive and offensive weapons by the CIA/NATO/EU.
>
> David
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[Marxism] Regime preservation: How US policy facilitated Assad’s victory

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 Here in my debut on the wonderful al-Jumhuriya site, I have attempted to
comprehensively take apart years of nonsense spouted by pro-Assad writers
(like the epigone version of Ben Norton) about what they claim was some US
role in pushing "regime change" against Assad in Syria, which both denies
the agency of the millions of Syrian people who rose up to overthrow a
tyrannical regime, while also being false to the very core factually. "As
the military conflict in Syria has been largely decided in favor of the
Bashar al-Assad regime, there have been a number of attempts to review the
role of US intervention, or lack thereof, in the Syrian outcome. Late last
year, Washington’s special envoy to Syria, Jim Jeffrey, clarified that
while the US wants to see a regime in Damascus that is “fundamentally
different,” it is nevertheless “not regime change” the US is seeking.
“We're not trying to get rid of Assad.” Much commentary jumped on this as
some kind of major shift in US policy, or a signal the US had “given up” on
regime change. Yet, as will be shown below, the US never had a “regime
change” policy. On the contrary, Washington has always sought a modified
form of regime preservation. Jeffrey’s statement was followed by President
Trump’s announcement of an immediate US withdrawal from Syria. While the
“immediate” was later dropped for reasons of expediency, a more gradual US
withdrawal is still on the cards; a process coinciding with a creeping
rapprochement with Assad by Trump’s Gulf allies, spearheaded by the United
Arab Emirates and Bahrain restoring diplomatic relations with Syria in late
December 2018."
https://aljumhuriya.net/en/content/regime-preservation-how-us-policy-facilitated-assad%E2%80%99s-victory?fbclid=IwAR0ZDa2HWqC4HA0ZP-He2DdgsalCPWcX7xXcgXYamUQnnTfnEedVhdYd-bA
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Re: [Marxism] Putin, Trump and Pompeo

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True. But Pompeo is also a meathead, let's not forget. His claim that
Maduro was ready to flee Venezuela, and that he only stayed because Putin
told him to, suggests he was tripping. Flee from what? Meanwhile Trump
reported that Russia wasn't seeking to get involved in Venezuela. In this
case, Trump is correct. What does Russia want there (except a bit of a
bargainung chip I suppose).

On Sat, 4 May 2019, 10:21 pm Louis Proyect via Marxism, <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
> On 5/4/19 8:08 AM, Chris Slee via Marxism wrote:
> > Putin may have pointed out to Trump that Guaido's attempts to win over
> the army have been unsuccessful.  Hence any US invasion of Venez.uela would
> meet strong resistance.  Hence Trump may have decided it is not a good idea.
>
> I wouldn't put much stock in Trump's off-the-cuff statements. Ever since
> he has been president, his foreign policy statements, especially on
> places like North Korea, are more stream of consciousness than a
> Virginia Woolf novel.
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Re: [Marxism] Huffington Post: New York Times Apologizes For Anti-Semitic Cartoon In International Edition

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"And the yarmulke on Trump’s head, what point does that make?"

I think it suggests that America is being run by a Jew, and that's why it
is so strongly supportive of Israel.
I usually agree with Amith on these issues, but I think here the cartoon is
pretty disgusting.

On Mon, Apr 29, 2019 at 2:48 PM Ken Hiebert via Marxism <
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>
> I don’t know what the cartoonist intended, but the cartoon has problems.
> There is a distinction to be made if you want to indicate Israel with a
> Star of David.  On the Israeli flag it appears between two bars.  By itself
> it might indicate Israel or it might simply indicate someone or something
> Jewish.
> If you want to indicate Israel, why not use the flag?
>
> And the yarmulke on Trump’s head, what point does that make?  How does
> that help anyone to understand the relationship between the US and Israel?
>
> ken h
>
>
>
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[Marxism] Yassin al-Haj Saleh: The Dark Path of Minority Politics

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The Dark Path of Minority Politics

Why Privileging Minorities Will Only Perpetuate the Syrian Catastrophe

Yassin al-Haj Saleh 
https://tcf.org/content/report/dark-path-minority-politics/?agreed=1

Since the inception of the Syrian uprisings, the Syrian regime has had an
implicit justification for its violence: the protection of minorities. The
regime has never been open about this, yet it is there. The justification
reveals the dual structure of the Syrian state under the Assads: there is
an outer, public discourse of national unity and an inner, publicly
unexpressed discourse of minority protection and a minorities’ alliance.1

After eight years of war in Syria that saw savage oppression, genocidal
massacres, and the rise of brutal extremist groups, the regime’s claim that
it must exist to protect minorities proved to be a self-fulfilling
prophecy—at least for a while, especially between 2013 and 2016. This
reality has emerged not because the “protection of minorities” was
necessary to begin with, but because the Syrian regime’s strategies,
response to the uprisings, and role in the civil war made it all but
inevitable.

This report argues that the temptation to give the Syrian regime credit for
protecting minorities must be refuted and resisted. The truth is rather the
opposite: the regime’s top priority is to protect itself, using minorities
as a shield. The entire minority-versus-majority narrative in Syria is one
that the regime carefully crafted long before the uprisings of 2011
began—indeed, since the 1970s. It fashioned this narrative on a pattern
inherited from colonial powers, which had earlier cast themselves as
protectors of minorities throughout the Levant. To understand the
possibilities for a better future in Syria, activists and analysts need to
unshackle themselves from the false narratives and fears of inevitable
minority persecution. This is not an easy task, but the cycles of violence
and repression in Syria will continue until its politics can confront a
very basic truth: what Syria needs is not a politics of minority
protection, but civil and economic rights for all on the basis of
citizenship, neither enhanced nor restricted by the divisive identity
markers bequeathed from the colonizers and reinvigorated by the Assad
regime.

What Syria needs is not a politics of minority protection, but civil and
economic rights for all on the basis of citizenship.

This report provides a constructive critique of the minority-protection
narrative. It focuses on the historical basis and permutations of this
narrative, before moving on to an evaluation of the possibilities for
escaping it, and some warnings about the dangers to come.
This report draws heavily from an essay I first published in Arabic in
early 2013, when I was still living underground in Damascus. It was
motivated by a March 2012 statement
 by Sergey Lavrov, the Russian
foreign minister, warning of “Sunni rule” in Syria.2

I wrote the essay believing that my experience as an activist and
intellectual contemporary to the Assad family rule during half a century
gave me an important perspective on the historical and political origins of
what I called “minority politics” and its implications. Needless to say,
the regime never commented on Lavrov’s flagrant comments. Nor, of course,
did it comment on Iran’s pretext for intervention in Syria—protecting Shia
holy shrines—which recalled the Crusaders’ justifications for their
destructive campaigns almost a thousand years before. What might seem more
surprising was how little Lavrov’s comments, and others like his, were
questioned from other quarters. Not a comment was heard from any Western
government, international analyst, or anti-imperialist leftist. Indeed, in
the years since, there has been continued silence on comments like Lavrov’s
and the logic underlying them, even from groups and individuals who should
have been in a position to give a critique

Full: https://tcf.org/content/report/dark-path-minority-politics/?agreed=1
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[Marxism] Statement of solidarity with the Sudanese and Algerian Uprisings

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Sign on at the google doc:
Statement of solidarity with the Sudanese and Algerian Uprisings
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd2lsgXbqtLArebWpBgCqfUV-cnV9VmW_PAG9E-A1g9zp4-Sw/viewform?fbclid=IwAR345pUt4S_wOzn8W8Ags7FmpeTqqKHL1hG0rzTH7rLarJZ3i-LVfc3u1S0
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Re: [Marxism] The Mueller Report: Glenn Greenwald vs. David Cay Johnston on Trump-Russia Ties, Obstruction & More

[mkaradjis via Marxism]

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Actually I think the Mueller report shows that Trump was up to his eyeballs
in collaboration with the Russian Tsars, and I’m not sure why there has
been a rush to exonerate him on the left, when the report clearly does not
do that at all. Just to make clear, I don’t think Trump’s election victory
had much to do with the obvious attempts by Russia to interfere in the US
elections, the obvious and proven collusion by Trump and his entire team
with the Russians, and wikileaks blatant collaboration with Trump-Putin – I
agree entirely with all the points that Trump won because of Clinton and
the failures of US capitalism under Obama, but that’s a different matter.

Was this collaboration due to Trump being an agent of the Russian oligarchy
as John claims? Trump may well have more special links with the Russian
oligarchs than others have, but I just don’t think that is necessary to
explain US policy. The position of the Trump team that China rather than
Russia was the major rival to US imperialist interests was entirely
logical; as any study of the massive export of Chinese capital, compared to
the pathetic level of Russian capital export (Michael Probsting’s book
‘Anti-Imperialism in the age of great power rivalry, and Louis’ review of
it here on marxmail for reference) would suggest. Russian imperialism also
rivals US imperialism (as do EU and Japanese imperialisms), but I’ve always
thought it a mistake to view economically weak Russian imperialism as the
major rival of US imperialism.

Certainly there is the fact that Russia has greater military power than any
of the other rivals to US imperialism, so it can throw its weight around
more, and there is its diplomatic weight and the ideological echoes of
history that weigh on US and Russian ruling class attitudes to each other
in terms of “credibility” and such, but while these are important factors
they should not be confused with more fundamental rivalry.

Actually on the question of “sub-imperialism” which Patrick Bond hammers on
about, I’ve always found it very useful, except when it comes to drawing
the line questions. While the BRICS are a good metaphor for
sub-imperialism, I think we could very usefully add states such as Saudi
Arabia, Iran and Turkey, while I think China has clearly emerged as an
imperialist power more so than Russia. Russia if anything has more
characteristics of sub-imperialism than China does, and I think it is
useful to see US-Russia relations in that light. The fact that neither the
Obama nor Trump administrations has had any problem with the 4-year Russian
terror-bombing of Russia and effective occupation of parts of that country,
and of parts of Syria’s state apparatus, is not some coincidence or
something unique about both leaders, it is US imperialism looking after its
interests. The fact that more anti-Russian voices under both
administrations have tended to be oppositional, and thus rhetorical, is
also the opposite of coincidence. It corresponds completely to the attitude
of major US ally in the region, Israel, with its very close relations with
Moscow, and increasingly with US allies in the Gulf, especially under Trump
as the US-Saudi-UAE alliance has strengthened while these same states are
developing excellent relations with Moscow and recognising Assad’s regime.

From the onset of Russian intervention to bolster Assad – about a year
after US intervention against ISIS began – the two superpowers have
cooperated closely in Syria. Sure there have been bumps in the road, but
overwhelmingly their agreement to share the Syrian sky as both bomb Syria –
in many cases, bombing the same targets even at the same time - has been
almost a model of cooperation. Is this due to US weakness, or to Trump
being a money-launderer for Russian oligarchs? I my opinion, no, it is due
to US imperialism looking after its interests. Just to be clear, John may
well be right that Trump is also a money-launderer for Russian oligarchs,
but I think that is of minor significance to the rest of the US ruling
class.

Who has the upper hand in Syria in this cooperation? Many would say Russia
does, with the US showing its “weakness” or “retreat” etc. This is
extraordinary nonsense. The US war against ISIS (and often against
Nusra/HTS and sometimes other Islamist or even mainstream rebels) has cost
countless billions of dollars, has destroyed entire cities, has killed
thousands of people, all with full intelligence collaboration with Russia
and the Assad regime. It is not a small war. Russia is waging a much bigger
and far more murderous war in Syria on behalf of the tyrant, because the US
(and even more, Israel) is fine with that happening, in 

Re: [Marxism] Russian and Iranian troops clash in Syria

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Clashes have been going on for some time, especially in the south, but also
in Aleppo and elsewhere. This article gives quite a bit of detail:

Russia Curbs Maher al-Assad’s Influence
https://syrianobserver.com/EN/features/49024/russia-curbs-maher-al-assads-influence.html?fbclid=IwAR2yrJDD1MBhkQ_eJ7oGizGO7YVAKz1c2-pluzItSvkxmQB0Dy9BNJoP-dU

Netanyahu is banking on Moscow:

Russia Wants to Get Iran Out of Syria, Netanyahu Says After Putin Meet
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/russia-wants-to-get-iran-out-of-syria-netanyahu-says-after-putin-meet-1.6978647?fbclid=IwAR1Nj2fCTuHMzul6U6tglmtqKxV_iMFIL7fPaZPxyFVdHNvpRkfnvAnGxdU

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>
> Open exchange of gun fire between Iranian and Russia troops has erupted in
> Damascus. I suspect that this conflict is a product of (1) competition
> between the imperialist interests of Iran and Russia; and (2) Russia's
> closeness to the Israeli regime.
>
>
> https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190416-11-dead-in-syria-clashes-between-russia-troops-and-pro-iran-militias/?fbclid=IwAR2bMrTNMmrj5uzuUw8SYPr4Si2HAbq-7wNo0pzKsh8o8-otWU8asdnBQzk
>
>
> --
> *“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
> Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
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[Marxism] Syria: The South’s Uprising Escalates Again

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The revolution "crushed"? not quite ...

The South’s Uprising Escalates Again

Tuesday March 26th, 2019 by Human Voice (opposition)

https://syrianobserver.com/EN/news/49384/the-souths-uprising-escalates-again.html
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Re: [Marxism] Algerian activist criticises NZ liberal women wearing hijab as 'solidarity' re the mosque murders

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An extremely unfortunate article.
Of course we should all support women's struggles against compulsory
veiling. In Iran a female lawyer has just been sentenced to 38 years in
prison for defending women's rights activists, who wre protesting
compuslory veiling.
But women have the right to wear a scarf over their heads just as they have
a right not to. Much as I can understand where an Algrian activist is
coming from, the sentence "At the times of Al Qaeda and Daesch – i.e. when
no one in the world can pretend to ignore what happens to women who do not
conform – isn’t donning the veil somehow short sighted?" - is basically
conflating the wearing of a scarf with al-Qaida and Daesh!
Where I work in western Sydney, many Muslim teachers, and countless Muslim
students, wear a scarf. Many would rightly laugh me off if I told them they
were only wearing it due to oppression. Imagine what they would think if I
compared them to Daesh. I'd probably lose my job as a racist. At least I'd
like to hope so.
Michael

On Wed, Mar 27, 2019 at 2:44 PM Philip Ferguson via Marxism <
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>
> "New Zealand Prime Minister Ms Jacinda Ardern, followed by other officials
> (and then by ordinary citizens as well) saw it fit to wear a so-called
> Islamic head covering during their public functions.
>
> "We believe that there were many other symbols that could have been chosen
> in order to comfort Muslim believers, than one which is contested the world
> over by women of Muslim heritage, - believers and unbelievers alike. . . .
>
> full at:
>
> https://rdln.wordpress.com/2019/03/27/open-letter-from-algerian-woman-activist-on-the-wearing-headscarves/
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[Marxism] Syrian opposition condemns Trump's recognition of Israel's annexation of the Golan

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http://www.anews.com.tr/world/2019/03/22/trumps-tweet-on-golan-defies-will-of-syrian-people?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=twitter&fbclid=iwar1kjw_rmnmxfanwm8tlreaw3bkwojwq40t_mx_q-ms_egwbthcmjboefqa



Published March 22,2019

The Syrian opposition has condemned U.S. President Donald Trump's recent
statements on the occupied Golan Heights in which he said it was "time for
the U.S. to fully recognize Israel's sovereignty" over the territory.

In a Friday statement, the opposition's High Negotiations Committee
described Trump's assertion as "contrary [UN] Security Council resolutions,
which regard the Golan Heights as [Israeli-] occupied Syrian territory".

The U.S. president's claim, the statement added, "directly challenges the
will of the Syrian people, who retain the right to liberate occupied
territories by all means guaranteed under international law".

What's more, the statement continued, Trump's declaration "further
complicates the regional situation and undermines prospects for stability
and peace".
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[Marxism] Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib speak out in support of Syrian uprising

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Ilhan: The people of Syria revolted against Assad's repressive dictatorship
8 years ago today, demanding a more just and free government. Peace loving
people around the world stand in solidarity with them in this struggle!
https://twitter.com/Ilhan/status/1106729645003685888
Rashida: The anniversary of the uprising against the oppression in Syria
was yesterday. We must recognize the struggle of those who organized and
stood up against injustice. It is my hope that we can see a Syria that is
truly free one day.
https://twitter.com/RashidaTlaib/status/110706555403520
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Re: [Marxism] Blumenthal in Venezuela

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Blumenthal probably get led to one of the government run markets where you
can get food and consumer items, which however says nothing about the rest
of the country and John is right that it is absurd to use such propaganda
to deny there is a crisis. If your point is simply to try to show the
government does have some good initiatives which may in some places be
working, that's one thing, but using it to deny the crisis is playing the
old worn potemkin politics.

But at least this one was less laughable than his other supermarket visit,
where he walked around an obviously high class supermarket and showed
packed shelves to prove there was no crisis! What an idiot, how can anyone
take this guy seriously:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbXqGiNlWWw

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>
> Wouldn't you know it? Our dear friend and "journalist", Max Blumenthal, has
> traveled to Venezuela to deny the fact of any crisis there. There are
> legitimate debates within the left about the cause of the crisis in
> Venezuela. Likewise about the popularity - or lack of it - of Maduro. But
> the existence of a crisis there? No, there is no serious debate about that.
>
> Clearly, Blumenthal's visit was coordinated by the Maduro administration.
> We can all decide for ourselves what it says about them that they are in
> effect denying the fact of a crisis there.
>
> https://www.rt.com/news/452325-max-blumenthal-venezuela-food/
>
> John Reimann
>
> --
> *“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
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[Marxism] Uganda's major assets to be taken over by non-imperialist power

[mkaradjis via Marxism]

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China to take over Uganda’s main assets over unpaid rising huge debt
https://www.africanstand.com/news/africa/east-africa/china-to-take-over-ugandas-main-assets-over-unpaid-rising-huge-debt/?fbclid=IwAR3lOmo30BfEwk_XvC9m7akgNXgQrSAZR9P3IkDn2nb4sf6DOAofOruDT_A
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Re: [Marxism] Turkey accuses US Coalition members of supporting HTS in Syria

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I doubt that Erdogan means funding of civil society, which has largely been
allied to, if critical of, the local FSA and anti-HTS forces. More likely
it is just Erdoganist conspiracist talk.

Radio Fresh is still running, despite Trump's cut-off of US aid, as they
received some funding from another source. However, thsi runs out in March,
and they don't know what happens then. here is a recent podcast 'Good
Morning Kafranbel', with a great review of thee radio's history :
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/667/wartime-radio/act-two-3

On Mon, Feb 4, 2019 at 11:06 PM Chris Slee via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

>
> When Turkish foreign minister Cavusoglu complains about "some  Western
> countries" giving money to HTS, he may be referring to the funding of civil
> society organisations in HTS-controlled territory. Trump said he would end
> such funding, but perhaps some other governments are continuing to give
> some aid.
> I don't know if Radio Fresh is still broadcasting, but if it is, I suspect
> it would be critical of Turkey.  If so, Turkey would want to silence it by
> cutting off its funding.
>
> 
>
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[Marxism] Red Flag: The battle for Venezuela

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A fairly grim assessment of the situation of the revolution now under
Maduro, more the gravedigger than the continuer according to this Red Flag
article. Written by Jorge Jorquera, who no-one is likely to call an
anti-Chavista.


The battle for Venezuela



https://redflag.org.au/node/6668?fbclid=IwAR33VQkfKYZApSyt-7aeHvSd8a22mvtJ0zCDBY6U548HHEIxEVz7Ro6mcaI
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[Marxism] Blackwater successor to aid China's "war on terror"

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Blackwater founder's Hong Kong firm signs Xinjiang training camp deal

Agence France-Presse

Sat 2 Feb 2019 01.20 AEDT First published on Fri 1 Feb 2019 15.38 AEDT

A Hong Kong-listed security firm founded by Erik Prince has signed a
preliminary deal with authorities in China to build a training centre in
Xinjiang, where Uighur Muslims have experienced a huge security crackdown

.

Frontier Services Group, which specialises in providing security and
logistics for businesses operating in risky regions, said it had signed a
deal to run a training base in the city of Kashgar, according to a
statement posted on its Chinese website.

The firm was founded by Erik Prince, a former US Navy Seal and the brother
of the US education secretary, Betsy DeVos.
Prince was also the founder of the US military contractor Blackwater, whose
mercenaries had a prominent and controversial role during Washington’s wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan – including the 2007 killing of 14 unarmed Iraqi
civilians by Blackwater employees

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/01/blackwater-founder-erik-prince-to-build-training-camp-in-chinas-xinjiang?fbclid=IwAR2PhYCGZA9ngja08VbFYnzf6S0XW8GrNUi5d1Q_8ZzQMaNEcaIz6f3NTSE
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Re: [Marxism] Turkey accuses US Coalition members of supporting HTS in Syria

[mkaradjis via Marxism]

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I assume you're aware that al-Masdar is vile Assadist propaganda? The fact
that it is now channeling absurd Erdoganist propaganda about "the US
supports al-Qaida" - jesus, who hasn't heard that grotesque fairy tale
before - is evidence of how far apart the Turkish and US positions remain
in Syria..

On Sat, Feb 2, 2019 at 3:15 AM RKOB via Marxism 
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>
> https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/turkey-accuses-us-coalition-members-of-supporting-isis-and-hts-in-syria/
>
>
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[Marxism] Croatia’s Socialist Champion Braces for Uphill Presidential Race

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Croatia’s Socialist Champion Braces for Uphill Presidential Race




As Croatia heads towards presidential elections in December, Katarina
Peovic of the Workers Front says the race will be very unequal – but her
anti-capitalist message needs to be heard.

Anja Vladisavljevic BIRN Zagreb

While Croats await the list of candidates standing for the big parties in
presidential elections due in December, the radical left-wing Workers’
Front has already named its choice – Katarina Peovic, a Cultural Studies
professor at the University of Rijeka.

The front’s former representative in the Zagreb City Assembly presented her
program last week, *Democratic Socialism for the 21st century*.

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/croatia-s-socialist-champion-braces-for-uphill-presidential-race-01-27-2019
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Re: [Marxism] Amy Goodman publicizes racist: More of the red-brown alliance in action

[mkaradjis via Marxism]

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To be fair, I very much doubt Amy Goodman knew anything about Zaya's
background. I also unknowingly quoted him in some discussion, though only
on a purely factual matter. If you look at this wikipedia page on him,
there is nothing about nazi connections, in fact his work looks rather
impressive:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred-Maurice_de_Zayas?fbclid=IwAR2Cbu8DNIEWnBFNcoUUmIHBy_u5IGNlggnkxC8B7nOV_5jMui1k6uXSris
The link, I think, is that he did genuine research on the mass expulsion of
the German population from eastern Europe and the Balkans in 1945, one of
the world's largest ever forced population movements, some 13 million
German civilians uprooted, who form some 20% of today's population of
Germany. This valid work is what seems to have attracted the attention of
the German far-right, but unfortunately there is now overwhelming evidence
that Zayas himself has right-wing and anti-Semitic ideas.
Just on Amith's comment:

>
> • "Israel emerged out of terrorism against the indigenous population" and
> its representatives should be denied U.N. accreditation. Source
> "
>
> So to criticize leftists at DN for bringing on a right-wing mouthpiece like
> de Zayas, you guys cite a leftist blog (CounterVortex) that cites
> right-wing mouthpieces and Zionist war propaganda (like UN Watch)?
>
> There is nothing "problematic" about half of those quotes.
> 


I agree there is nothing problematic about half the quotes, it is the other
half that are the problem ("George W. Bush and Tony Blair too are
Pharisees."!) Weinberg himself is anti-Zionist so his inclusion of this bit
is confusing, likewise his point about the US destabilising the middle
east, but further down he seems to be saying that, yes, some of these
points are valid, but he put them next to the bad ones in order to put them
in context, ie, a far rightist can appear anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist
when taken out of context. He says for example yes the US destrabilised
Iraq, but not Syria. On the Israel bit, he says "this (ie, the anti-Semitic
stuff) taints whatever points he may have about the origins of Israel
(although it is hardly the only state to have "emerged out of terrorism
against the indigenous population").
Admittedly, at first sight, the list does seem a bit of a shocker though,
and he could have avoided that if he's done it better.
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[Marxism] Great strides in Chinese Marxism: "Follow our party, start your business.”

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Ads promoting the latest mobile phone brand appear next to signs urging
pedestrians to join the Communist Youth League. Street-art style renditions
of the hammer and sickle pepper the plaza walkway. Across the street from
Tencent’s soon-to-open headquarters sits a new sculpture that arrived in
the months ahead of the just-concluded 19th party congress. It’s a metal
cube that features the slogan: “Follow our party, start your business.”

https://qz.com/1102948/chinas-communist-party-is-all-in-on-the-power-of-technology-and-thats-tricky-for-its-tech-giants/?fbclid=IwAR3F7pagTdowLCempaER6LSBBEUe4wN1P66YArkLh7SXKlA0gWy4GMUv3x4
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Re: [Marxism] This memo is being circulated online from Wikileaks re: Syria and ousting Assad.

[mkaradjis via Marxism]

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Patrick, noone cast doubt on the memo. The problem is the interpretation:
the Mintpress article, and the conspiracist universe, decided it was an
email from Clinton. But it was an email to Clinton. I gave the link to the
public article by James Rubin. There is no evidence that it was Clinton's
view; she never argued that way, loet alone acted that way in office.
Wikileaks can only reveal the memos etc. The significance we need to
determine case by case. As I said, this was one of probably 10s of 1000s of
policy suggestions sent *to* politicians in power, not a message *from* one
of them.

On Sat, Jan 12, 2019 at 6:05 PM Patrick Bond via Marxism <
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>
> On 2019/01/12 6:09 AM, Stephen Shalom via Marxism wrote:
> > ... Mintpress writer Whitney Webb has quoted from this document multiple
> times
> > Sept 2018
> >
> https://www.mintpressnews.com/new-russian-s-300-air-defense-system-to-make-syria-untouchable-but-israel-seems-ready-to-test-it/249774/
> ,
> > Feb. 2018
> >
> https://www.mintpressnews.com/israel-preps-for-syrian-war-with-golans-oil-and-water-in-its-sights/237566/
> ,
> > and Sept. 2017
> >
> https://www.mintpressnews.com/why-conflict-syria-was-always-israels-war/231532/
> > implying but not explicitly saying it was written by Clinton.
> >
> > On Fri, Jan 11, 2019 at 9:24 PM mkaradjis via Marxism <
> > marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:
> > The article in the conspiracist tabloid Mintpress begins by saying that
> > this Wikileaks "Clinton email" "has not gotten the attention it
> deserves."
> > Small wonder, since anybody seriously interested at the time it was
> > published would have done about 10 minutes research and found it wasn't
> an
> > email by Clinton, but an email to Clinton, like 1000s of emails with
> policy
> > suggestions and advice that circulate each year, the overwhelming
> majority
> > of which wind up in obscurity or the trash.
>
> Comrades, on this general point of whether material on Wikileaks is
> reliable, surely we start with that presumption?
>
> On the general point of whether a U.S. State Department cable or email
> that Assange has opened up for the world to see is valuable, surely this
> is one of the great windows into contemporary imperialism? I use the
> State Dept cables and emails occasionally and encourage others in
> academia and anti-imperial activism to, as well (for some reason, most
> social scientists get squeamish and ignore Wikileaks as a source, as
> Assange has pointed out). We should all be enormously grateful to
> Wikileaks, via first Chelsea Manning and then second, whomever in 2016
> hacked the Clinton emails.
>
> On the specific question of how to interpret a given State Department
> cable or email, this one on Syria looks quite frank and plausible. But
> sure, if there were competing interpretations from other forces within
> State, the Pentagon or Presidency, then please enlighten us.
>
> I'm an opponent of conspiracy theory, just as much as you other
> structural Marxists. But are there ways to handle bits and pieces of
> evidence that would fit this kind of memo into some sort of bigger
> picture, rather than cast doubt on it?
>
>
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[Marxism] No Surprise: First EU government to mull recognising Assad is the most ultra-right one

[mkaradjis via Marxism]

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Far-right Italy government mulls recognising Assad with Syria embassy
reopening
https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2019/1/11/far-right-italy-government-mulls-syria-embassy-reopening?utm_medium=sf&utm_source=twitter&fbclid=IwAR2MMG3Py7MPmWKx5WnhbzGIUBRpEQjoMlk0gwhS252aGWUnGTjRW9T2baA

Ali Mamlouk’s Visit to Italy Is a Stab in the Back of Syrian Victims of
Assad’s Torture
https://syrianobserver.com/EN/features/47764/ali-mamlouks-visit-to-italy-is-a-stab-in-the-back-of-syrian-victims-of-assads-torture.html

No coincidence that Salvini is also the closest friend in Europe to Israel
and Netanyahu:

Netanyahu sparks backlash by hailing Italy's far-right Salvini as 'great
friend of Israel' during two-day trip
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-netanyahu-matteo-salvini-italy-far-right-immigration-hezbollah-tunnels-lebanon-terror-a8679791.html?fbclid=IwAR2j_nPnFM-kURajdRMy4qaBTrVJ9u6hmowoegApvae1Pd6ZnxfhbvDpkZQ
Top

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Re: [Marxism] This memo is being circulated online from Wikileaks re: Syria and ousting Assad.

[mkaradjis via Marxism]

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The article in the conspiracist tabloid Mintpress begins by saying that
this Wikileaks "Clinton email" "has not gotten the attention it deserves."
Small wonder, since anybody seriously interested at the time it was
published would have done about 10 minutes research and found it wasn't an
email by Clinton, but an email to Clinton, like 1000s of emails with policy
suggestions and advice that circulate each year, the overwhelming majority
of which wind up in obscurity or the trash.

Here's the original; it was actually a little more public than most,
because James Rubin published it in Foreign Policy:
https://foreignpolicy.com/2012/06/04/the-real-reason-to-intervene-in-syria/

If Clinton had held those views, she could have said so. Instead, in that
same year (2012) she was more interested in claiming that to arm the rebels
would effectively be supporting "al-Qaida," and Hamas, which “is now
supporting the opposition.” If “you're trying to figure out do you have the
elements of an opposition that is actually viable, that we don't see.”


But imagine, Mintpress spreading untruths and conspiracist rubbish! Surely
never!

On Sat, 12 Jan. 2019, 9:35 am Louis Proyect via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu wrote:

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>
> On 1/11/19 5:15 PM, Andrew Stewart via Marxism wrote:
> > https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/18328#efmAdyAr8
> >
> >
> https://www.mintpressnews.com/this-2012-clinton-memo-that-killed-half-a-million-people-in-syria/253775/
> >
>
> Lazare is a conspiracy theorist. Many years ago, he was a member of the
> sect that would go on to form WSWS.org. Conspiracy theory in these
> circles is an occupational hazard.
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[Marxism] What do Trump’s ‘withdrawal’ from Syria and the Gulf’s rapprochement with Assad have in common?

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https://mkaradjis.wordpress.com/2019/01/09/what-do-trumps-withdrawal-from-syria-and-the-gulfs-rapprochement-with-assad-have-in-common/

In the days since Donald Trump’s announcement that the US was to rapidly
withdraw its 2000 troops from Syria, an enormous amount of speculation
about what this means has taken place. In *my initial piece*
,
I expressed a number of views that are not widely shared.

First, I gave more credit to Trump having a valid position, from the point
of view of US imperialism, than what was generally conceded. Overwhelmingly
Trump’s move has been viewed as a pure personal whim, which is allegedly in
conflict with what all other US ruling class circles prefer to happen.

Secondly, while almost every analyst claimed this move was a sell-out of
the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to the Erdogan
regime in Turkey, I stressed that it was just as much, if not more, a green
light for the Bashar Assad tyranny to take control of the SDF-controlled
regions.

With masses of contradictory information, it has been difficult to make
coherent sense of the developments; none of us are seers. In this follow-up
piece, I hope to shed more light on what I think is occurring.

*Did Trump’s move contradict US ruling class interests?*

On the first question, it is of course true that Trump acts on whim, and
has *a tendency to speak jibberish*
, which might well
suggest that his orders came from a place of complete ignorance and be at
variance with US ruling class interests. However, the idea that momentous
decisions are made entirely by one guy with quasi-dictatorial powers is
problematic. I will argue here that, Trump’s idiosyncrasies aside, the
decision to withdraw, and the consequences thereof, are entirely within the
bounds of US ruling class interests, so whether or not it was entirely
accidental is not so material.

As Steven Simon, who served on the National Security Council in the Clinton
and Obama administrations, puts it succinctly, Trump’s “impulsive and
uncoordinated move” nevertheless “coincided with strategic imperative
,
even if the president himself was unaware of it.”

Of course, one could argue that a 24-hour withdrawal would indeed be
destabilising, but it was naïve to believe that an order to withdraw would
automatically mean that all US forces, weaponry, bases, aircraft and
intelligence are gone the next day, whatever a tweet may say. Between
Trump’s impulsive statements and the realities and complexities of actually
withdrawing, there was plenty of wiggle room for Trump’s “immediate”
withdrawal to turn into *a four-month timetable*
,
involving negotiation between Trump and other ruling class figures, such as
Senator Lindsay Graham.

Graham got Trump to agree that complete withdrawal should only take place
once ISIS is totally defeated in Syria, which has always been Trump’s own
condition (though Trump is basically correct that the US and SDF have
driven it from 99 percent of the country), and that “*our Kurdish allies
are protected*
.” Similar
statements were then made by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and *National
Security Advisor John Bolton*
.

Meanwhile, the US military is reportedly establishing new military bases
just across the Syrian border in Iraq, from where it can continue to bomb
the last tiny piece of ISIS remaining. Despite alarmist forecasts that
Trump was even selling out to ISIS, “between December 16 and December
29, US-led
coalition military forces conducted 469 air and artillery strikes targeting
ISIS

in Syria.” The last major towns occupied by ISIS, Hajin and Kashmah, were
captured by the SDF on December 25 and January 2 respectively.

Of course, none of the statements extending the withdrawal said anything
whatsoever about pressure on the Assad regime. That has simply never had
anything to do with the US presence, one way or another.

*‘Withdrawal’ a green light to Assad, not Erdogan*

On the second question, I am now even more convinced of the correctness of
my initial view, that the ‘green light’ is mainly aimed at the

[Marxism] REVEALED: How Gulf states hatched plan with Israel to rehabilitate Assad

[mkaradjis via Marxism]

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https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-uae-egypt-israel-syria-khashoggi-1467976694?fbclid=IwAR1RROTJoZCm6Ci1taXCh_LUnjsfFLNAtMgS_YhWwhEgqLrVFUE9WS1C4RM
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Re: [Marxism] YPG seeks alliance with Assad

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Just in case anyone might think this was due to having few options
following US semi-withdrawal, some SDF leaders seek to clarify:

Syrian Kurds seek Damascus deal regardless of U.S. moves

Rodi Said 
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-kurds/syrian-kurds-seek-damascus-deal-regardless-of-u-s-moves-idUSKCN1OY1ET?fbclid=IwAR0unvUEGIt5Kc3CQeuq4cL80BxzkzHzgy65hbDWgRMX-4nc_Uourq74s7A

On Mon, Jan 7, 2019 at 1:29 AM Andrew Pollack via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
> "“Reaching a solution between the autonomous administration and the Syrian
> government is inevitable because our areas are part of Syria,” said
> Khalil."
> So much for Ocalanist federated non-state communal blah blah blah.
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[Marxism] US, SDF demonstrate another dimension of "withdrawal"

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*International Coalition & SDF militias commit a massacre during the
storming a village of Deir Al-Zour (Photos)*

*  4 Jan, 2019 15:05Syria  *

http://nedaa-sy.com/en/news/10842?fbclid=IwAR14H0OarYdGg3IQwdvSlM6w80m-nWKQrshvHBL0aCe2k3vPeJGat3G3kKw


International Coalition forces and "Syria's Democratic Forces" militias
committed a massacre of civilians from one family in the eastern
countryside of Deir al-Zour during their raid on the village.

The massacre was terrible in the town of Kashkiya, killing seven civilians,
including two women and a child, as well as others were injured after a
raid carried out by militants to their home at dawn Friday," the local
network "Furat Post" reported.

The militants of "Syria's Democratic Forces" raided the houses of the
people in the town on the pretext of searching for persons accused of
affiliating to the "Islamic State" organization, and followed by clashes
that prompted the International Coalition air forces to intervene with
helicopters and targeting them with automatic weapons.

This comes a day after a massacre committed in the besieged town of
Al-Shafa, the eastern countryside of Deir al-Zour, in which 11 people from
one family were killed by the bombing of the International Coalition over
their home.

It is noteworthy that the "Islamic State" organization has taken control of
only three towns in the eastern villages of Deir Al-Zour: Al-Soussa,
Al-Shafa and Al-Bagouz, as well as areas of the uninhabited Badia, the
villages of Deir Al-Zour and Homs in the center of the country
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[Marxism] Syria: Assad has decisively won his brutal battle

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... The nature of this conflict, then, has changed drastically, with
influential Arab countries now using their diplomatic capital to enable the
regime to restore control over Syria. Countries that once funded the
opposition fighting against Assad are working hard to strengthen him in the
hope that he becomes less reliant on their rivals.

Turkish officials have also frequently stated that they would welcome a
regime takeover of YPG-controlled areas if that involved removing the
militia from those areas. Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said on
Friday that Turkey would have “no business in Manbij if the YPG terrorists
leave”.

Aside from fears related to Iran and Turkey, the recent tumultuous
geopolitical changes in the region also favour a lasting consolidation for
Assad. A counter-revolutionary axis, led by the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain
and Egypt, sees his victory as part of their effort to reverse the legacy
of the popular uprisings of 2011 and restore autocratic rule throughout the
greater Middle East. Even though the UAE frames its diplomatic move as a
way to counter Iran, the real driver in Syria – as it was in Egypt and
Libya– is about restoring the *status quo ante*.
This suggests that Assad is unlikely to face the isolation that Saddam
faced in the 1990s. Jordan has already reopened its borders with Syria,
meaning that Damascus now has trade ties with all its neighbours except
Turkey.
https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/30/syria-year-cemented-assad-victory-trump-us-troops?__twitter_impression=true&fbclid=IwAR329N0e7WZhCvmOwyU2TG8Hc2C57iKn7oOJ8OJ0NvtP7Nn53snDFR9MC60
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Re: [Marxism] ‘We had an opportunity to assassinate Assad,’ top ‎Israeli official reveals ‎

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Thanks RKOB. I hope people read past the title:

"According to the report, the “prolonged conflict in ‎Syria saw Israel
often hold negotiations with the ‎regime in Damascus in order to reach an
agreement in ‎Syria.”

"The Israeli official was also quoted as confirming ‎that the
Diplomatic-Security Cabinet “held extensive ‎discussions on the situation
in Syria and decided ‎that Israel would not allow an Iranian military
‎presence there. Since then, Israel has invested ‎considerable efforts in
preventing Iran and ‎Hezbollah from establishing themselves in Syria,
‎while making sure it [Israel] inflicts minimal ‎damage to the Damascus
regime.”

"The senior Israeli official refused to comment on ‎the decision by some
Arab states, such as Bahrain ‎and the United Arab Emirates, to reopen their
‎embassies in Damascus, saying only that the ‎rapprochement between Arab
states and Syria was ‎‎“less dangerous for Israel because these Arab states
‎also want to see Iran out of Syria.”‎

This long-term Israeli position: yes Assad, no Iran, move to separate them,
in particular via aggressive collaboration with Assad's major patron,
Russia, is now in line with the increasingly assertive position of the
Gulf, as seen in the United Arab Emirates - always a bastion of regional
counterrevolution - being the first to re-open its embassy in Damascus
(actually the UAE has been pushing for this for over 2 years but tried not
to act unilaterally, till now. This was followed almost i9mmediately by
Bahrain, and similar hints coming out of Kuwait, along with the Syrian
regime's recent top-level visit to Cairo (though Sisi's regime has been
pro-Assad ever since the UAE-backed bloody coup in 2013, so this is not big
deal), and Jordan re-opening its border with Assad. All of these states -
UAE, Bahrain, Jordan and Egypt - have extremely close ties with Putin (as
does Israel course), and so Trump's recent move, which so many have seen as
merely a personal whim that is allegedly against the main view of the US
ruling class, has to be seen as fully aligned with this trend. In
retrospect, the well-publicised semi-secret meetings between Trump and
Putin personnel involving the UAE, the UAE- and Egypt-backed Palestinian
reactionary thug Dahlan, Israeli officials and even Blackwater folk have a
clear logic: push back the oversized Iranian influence by moving to bolster
the Assad regime's 'stability" so it is no longer in need of Iranian rabble.

This is even more significant now with Assad's need for "reconstruction"
funding, which neither Russia nor Iran are flush enough to provide much of,
while western countries are (currently) sticking to the line that the
Geneva process of political settlement needs to get off the ground first.
The move by the Gulf is a clear signal to Damascus, push Iran aside
somewhat, we're here to provide the funds you need.

The wild card is the big regime behind UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan and
Kuwait: Saudi Arabia. The gang-land leader MBS is strongly aligned with his
UAE counterpart and the Sisi regime, and has long made clear he gives a
stuff neither about the Syrian nor the Palestinian people; these more
forward moves almost certainly have his backing, and there have been
various hints coming out of Riyadh that it is willing to accept Assad
without Iran. However, it is necessarily more tempered about it (as it is
also more tempered about rapprochement with Israel) due to its special
position as religious head of the Sunni world, and the fact that it has
more at stake in its regional rivalry with Iran than its underlings do (the
UAE for example has a raging economic relationship with Iran, while there
are no Shia in Egypt for al-Sisi to care anything about Iranian influence;
like the UAE his number one hate is the Muslim Brotherhood). But clearly he
is part of the picture.

Much binary, mechanical "geopolitics" in recent years imagined the moves by
some of the Gulf states to mend ties with Israel as representing a
"US-backed axis" as opposed to a "Russian-backed" Iran and Assad etc. Take
a breath, dear Manicheans: exactly the same Gulf states and regional allies
that are carrying out rapprochement with Israel are those carrying out
rapprochement with Assad. The closest to both Israel and Assad is al-Sisi's
Egypt; the race to the finish line ones are UAE and Bahrain; the more
cautious behind the scenes power is the Saudis, again for both.

It is something of a pity that leftists (and mainstream media) are writing
things that reveal they are still living about 50 years in the past, 30
years into the post-Cold War world, and this passes for "analysis". Not to
mention how that deals with such elephants in

Re: [Marxism] Syria: Assessment and Prospects

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I agree with Chris that the writer's advocacy of "working with Turkey to
liberate eastern Syria from SDF" is way wrong. Other than that though,
there is much value in the perspectives of the rest of the piece.

Unfortunately, I don't think Chris's own prescriptions are much better than
the mistaken presciption of the writer on the eastern Syria question. Chris
notes "the YPG has responded to the threat of a Turkish invasion by asking
the Assad regime for help," and this "may just mean that a few of Assad's
troops are stationed on the border between Turkish-controlled and
SDF-controlled areas as a deterrent to a Turkish attack." While the Assad
regime "may try to restore its effective control over SDF-controlled
areas.," Chris hopes that the regime's 'weakness" may prevent it from
fulling restoring its rule over SDF-co0ntroled regions.

I think this is the wrong interpretation of "weak." The regime's "weakness"
has not prevented it from mass arrests and killings of ex-rebels who have
"reconciliated" elsewhere in Syria. It does not prevent it from imposing
its totalitarian tyranny elsewhere in Syria. However, it is "weak" in
relation to the mass of criminal militias, Russian-backed militias,
Iranian-backed forces, Shabbiha gangs etc, and the rivalries within its own
base. New revolts will break out, whether in the form of new revolutionary
outbreaks or a new ISIS surge (or another jihadist alternative), due to the
very nature of the regime which bred revolt, and later jihadism, in the
first place. But the SDF would be kidding itself if it thinks the Assad
regime would allow it to maintain its autonomous and democratic structures
due to its "weakness."

Of course I understand that the idea of a temporary alliance with Assad
being "a good idea" is now prevalent among Rojava supporters. Apparently
they see Erdogan as running a more terrible dictatorship than Assad. That
turns reality on its head to a rather enormous extent. It seems to me that
if the non-Kurdish populations in the northeast, especially the Arabs, are
really as supportive of the Rojava federation as supporters claim, then
there is potential for huge resistance to any Turkish invasion. It also
seems to me that the best way to lose a lot of those Arabs in the northeast
is to invite back Assad. That may be exactly the cue for them to jump ship.

It is of course a rotten decision to have to make. But it is well-known
that the PYD's softness on Assad did not begin now, but rather goes back to
the beginning of the uprising and has been part of the problem leading to
this juncture.

The other thing though is that both the Kurdish-led forces and the mostly
Arab rebels now supporting Erdogan may be equally being misled by Erdogan.
Erdogan has just now essentially welcomed the news that Assad troops have
arrived in Manbij, even though the SDF invited them as a block to Erdogan.
Erdogan said that it is "Syrian" (ie Assadist) territory; once Assad ejects
the YPG, he has no more problem in Manbij. Interesting for both FSA and SDF
to dwell on that for a moment.

And also interesting from the point of view of my assertion in my article
that T5rump's withdrawal is just as much an invitation to Assad as it is to
Erdogan. More, in my opinion.


On Sat, Dec 29, 2018 at 4:05 PM Chris Slee via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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> *
>
> Dr Zaineddin (see below) is an apologist for the Turkish state.  He
> advocates "working with Turkey to liberate eastern Syria from SDF".  In
> other words, he wants a repetition of the Turkish invasion of Afrin on a
> larger scale.
>
> The YPG has responded to the threat of a Turkish invasion by asking the
> Assad regime for help.
>
> What this will mean in practice I am not sure.  It may just mean
> that a few of Assad's troops are stationed on the border between
> Turkish-controlled and SDF-controlled areas as a deterrent to a Turkish
> attack.  (Presumably Turkey would not want to start a war with Assad regime
> and its Russian backers).
>
> On the other hand, the Assad regime may try to restore its effective
> control over SDF-controlled areas.
>
> This would be a bad outcome.  But as Zaineddin notes, the Assad regime is
> weak, so it may not be capable of restoring its rule in northeast Syria.
>
> Chris Slee
> 
> From: Marxism  on behalf of MM via
> M

Re: [Marxism] Why I?m Suing Max Blumenthal and Benjamin Norton ? Sulome Anderson ? Medium

[mkaradjis via Marxism]

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I completely agree. I don't know what these clowns wrote exactly but if, as
she claims they slander her as an Israeli or US agent while she does
reporting work in the Mideast, I hope she sues their areas of.

On Sat, 22 Dec. 2018, 3:59 am John Reimann via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu wrote:

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>
> I'm not against it at all. She is absolutely doing the right thing. How
> else can reporters like her protect herself? Simply combatting their lies
> by writing the truth has zero effect. None. This is not a matter of a
> political difference; this is a matter of agents of a repressive government
> - the Putin regime - trying to silence a reporter. My only criticism of her
> is that she's reluctant to do so.
>
> John Reimann
>
> --
> *“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
> Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
> Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook
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[Marxism] US withdrawal from Syria and myths of "regime change"

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John: “this removal [of US troops] is a nod towards Erdogan, which means
pulling the rug out from under guess who... the PYD, who depend on US
forces to remain in power.”

Yes, it’s a nod towards Erdogan, and also towards Assad, and of course
towards the big ally of both, Trump’s friends in Russia, who of course
praised Trump’s decision


John points out rightly that “nowhere in the editorial is "removing Assad"
mentioned as a goal.”

Of course not, and of course it never has been a US goal. I suppose it is
no coincidence that Trump’s order to withdraw comes a few days after his
special envoy to Syria, Jim Jeffrey, declared that while the US wants to
see a regime in Damascus that is “fundamentally different,” nevertheless,
“it's not regime change” the US is seeking, “we're not trying to get rid of
Assad.”


However, I say “I suppose” because it is not as if this is the first time
the US declared it was not trying to get rid of Assad or carry out regime
change. Those statements have been going on for years (especially under
Trump, but also before). Of course, even before US leaders began declaring
this openly, “removing Assad” was never the US policy at any time, that was
only the figment of feverish alt-left and far-right imaginations, but let’s
just focus on the open declarations, because the interesting thing is that,
on every such occasion, the media pumped out the same discourse of
“surprise” and “policy reversal” and “no longer” (!) focused on regime
change (I wonder how many times you can “no longer” be doing something
you’re already “no longer” doing?).

-  In 2016, declaring that the US was “not seeking so-called regime
change as it is known in Syria,” Obama’s Secretary of State John Kerry
added that the US and Russia see the conflict "fundamentally very similarly
."

-  In March 2017, Trump’s UN representative, Nikki Haley, declared
that the Trump administration was “no longer” focused on removing Assad
 “*the way the previous
administration was*.”

-  The same month, Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary,
noted that “The United States has profound priorities in Syria and Iraq,
and we’ve made it clear that counterterrorism, particularly the defeat of
ISIS, is foremost among those priorities. With respect to Assad,

there is a political reality that we have to accept.”

-  In July 2017, then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson clarified
that the only fight in Syria is with ISIS
,
that Assad’s future is Russia’s issue
,
and he essentially called the regime allies: “We call upon all parties,
including the Syrian government and its allies, Syrian opposition forces,
and Coalition forces carrying out the battle to defeat ISIS, to avoid
conflict with one another

…”

-  Following the one-off US strike on an empty Assadist air-base
after Assad’s horrific chemical weapons attack on Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib,
US National Security Advisor HR McMaster clarified that the US had no
concern with the fact that the base was being used to bomb Syrians again
the very next day, because harming Assad’s military capacities was not the
aim of the strike; and far from “regime change”, the US desired a “change
in *the nature of the Assad regime*

and its *behavior* in particular.” [note: not a change in the nature of the
regime, a change in the nature of the *Assad* regime].

-  Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s speech in January
 2018 focused
on supporting the Geneva process for a “political solution,” but now the US
no longer expected Assad to stand down at the beginning of a transition
phase as under early Obama, *or even at its end* as under late Obama;
rather, US policy was to wait for an eventual “free election” under Assad:
“The United States believes that free and transparent elections … will
result in the permanent departure 

Re: [Marxism] [UCE] What lies behind Trump's troop withdrawal from Syria and what it means

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I agree with John on Eastbrook's "comment."

However, while I generally share John's analysis, I cannot agree that he
gets his marching orders from Putin (or Erdogan). US imperialism is far
more powerful than its junior Russian cousin. The difference between the
Trump rapid withdrawers, and the "remainers", is a tactical difference
within US imperialism. Trump rightly has no problem with a
Russian-dominated Syria, because US imperialism never did have any such
problem. There has simply never even been a hint of it during the entire
last 8 years. There has been an awful lot of counterrevolutionary
US-Russian collaboration (and of course tactical and "credibility"
differences). The "remainers" may have a little more of a problem from the
"credibility" point of view with rapid withdrawal (both the credibility of
rapidly ditching allies such as the SDF, and the *appearance* in such a
sudden action of "giving in the the Russians") but if you look carefully
they also don't care a fig about Russian influence in Syria. Rather, they
don't trust Russia will be strong enough to push out Iran alone, and want
to stay and help; Trump however knows that the strengthening of a
Russian-dominated Assad regime, by allowing it to take nearly all of the
country (and further neutralising Turkish opposition to assad by giving
Erdogan a further slice at the expense of the Kurds), makes the
destabilising Iranian role increasingly superfluous to Assad.

On Fri, Dec 21, 2018 at 3:19 PM John Reimann via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
> CG Estabrook's comment is the kind of snide personal attack that people
> make when they cannot reply politically.
>
> John Reimann
>
> On Thu, Dec 20, 2018 at 7:16 PM C. G. Estabrook 
> wrote:
>
> > Whom the gods would destroy, they first drive mad.
> >
> > Be careful, John. The madness is showing.
> >
> >
> > > On Dec 20, 2018, at 4:35 PM, John Reimann via Marxism <
> > marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > >   POSTING RULES & NOTES  
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> > > *
> > >
> > > The main reason for his withdrawal is that he got his marching orders
> > from
> > > his paymaster, Putin. As I had predicted last night on Facebook, these
> > > orders apparently came through Erdogan, with whom he'd been on the
> phone
> > > just a couple of days earlier. This decision not only means a new stage
> > in
> > > Syria, it threatens to force an all-out war by the mainstream of the US
> > > capitalist class against Trump, who has shown once again that he is
> > Putin's
> > > agent. Even his closest foreign policy advisors - Bolton and Pompeo -
> are
> > > adamantly against this withdrawal. Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi is hinting
> at
> > > raising Trump's links with and dependence on the Russian oligarchy.
> > >
> > > For international working class solidarity instead of relying on ANY
> > > capitalist/imperialist force be it the US, Russia, or any other!
> > > Read full article here:
> > >
> >
> https://oaklandsocialist.com/2018/12/20/trump-withdraws-troops-from-syria-what-does-it-mean/
> > >
> > > --
> > > *“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
> > > Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
> > > Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook
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> >
> >
>
> --
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> Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
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[Marxism] Yellow rage through Syrian eyes

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https://correspondent.afp.com/yellow-rage-through-syrian-eyes
Yellow rage through Syrian eyes

Abdulmonam Eassa , Sameer
Al-Doumy , Zakaria Abdelkafi


 Monday 10 December 2018

*Paris** -- Of the thousands of people witnessing the “yellow vest”
protests in Paris over the past few weeks, three young men have had a
decidedly different perspective.*

*Cameras in hand, they have had great fun at the demonstrations, exchanging
knowing looks, smiles and jokes whenever they crossed paths. Every once in
a while, a painful memory or a philosophical reflection would pierce
through the merriment. Then the good humor would return.*

*They are Syrians who have seen friends and loved ones die and their
hometowns reduced to rubble. Having escaped war, they are now covering
violence in a European capital. With a smile.*

*The “yellow vest” protests have gone on for four straight weekends and
have been some of the worst rioting France has seen in decades, with
hundreds arrested, millions of euros in damage and four people dead. The
police have fired tear gas, water cannon and stun grenades. The worst
damage has come over the past two weekends, when vandals and trouble makers
joined the original “yellow vest” demonstrators protesting against
declining living standards*
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[Marxism] Marxism-Leninism-MBS Thought

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 Stability in Saudi Arabia is the cornerstone of prosperity and progress in
the Gulf, and China firmly supports Riyadh in its drive for economic
diversification and social reform, President Xi Jinping told Saudi Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-g20-argentina-saudi-china/china-supports-saudi-arabia-in-economic-and-social-change-xi-idUSKCN1NZ2FN
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Re: [Marxism] latest gas attack in Syria

[mkaradjis via Marxism]

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Russia apparently having some trouble with its BS:

Russia Scrambles Over “Terrorist Chemical Attack” Claim

https://eaworldview.com/2018/11/syria-daily-russia-scrambles-over-terrorist-chemical-attack-claim/

>
>
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Re: [Marxism] Raed Fares, leader of Kafranbel killed by HTS gunmen in Idlib

[mkaradjis via Marxism]

ect them when confronted with a more immediate threat to themselves and
their children, is simply testament to the problems we as the western left
have with internationalism, as Syria has starkly revealed. Especially since
the west, especially the US, has been intervening in Syria for years, but
not by preventing Assadist warplanes from anything, but rather by just
joining in the bombing, bombing Anyone But Assad. No-one ever called on the
West to invade and take out the regime, and certainly Raed did not support
the actual US intervention in Idlib, which consisted of bombing Nusra/HTS
alongside the regime.

Incidentally, while people like Raed and the Idlib civil resistance in
general were closer to the anti-HTS rebels in Idlib (ie, all of them except
HTS), due to HTS’s greater penchant for attempting repression, they were by
no means proxies for Ahrar or anyone else, even the FSA, and definitely not
for Turkey. Actually, the civil movement tended to be very critical of the
Russia-Turkey-Iran Astana process, in this sense their criticisms
paralleled HTS’s own criticisms, whereas the Turkish-backed front
hesitantly supported it.

“4) Finally: as sad as this killing is, let us not forget that, in this
year alone, about 390 people have been assassinated in Idlib. The majority
of them affiliated to HTS. Why is there no outcry about this?”
Good point, these killings should be condemned. Not sure if it is Assad
agents or Turkish agents behind these killings.

On Sat, Nov 24, 2018 at 8:03 PM RKOB via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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> *
>
> No doubt, the murder of Raed Fares and Hamoud Janeed has to be condemned.
>
> However, some words of caution seem necessary to me.
>
> First, people affiliated with Raed Fares accuse HTS of killing them.
> Obviously, I don’t know if this is the case and one can not exclude
> this. But one also should bear in mind:
>
> 1) They were killed in Kafranbel which is NOT under control of HTS but
> Ahrar al-Sham. This does not exclude the possibility of a HTS commando
> to kill them there but it is also very possible that someone else did
> so. However, in order to reach Kafranbel, Fares and Janeed had to cross
> HTS-controlled territory. If HTS would have wished to kill him, why
> should they choose a risky place to do it where their people could
> easily have been captured?
>
> 2) HTS killing Fares and Janeed would contrast their efforts in recent
> months to play an integrationist role in Idlib (including forming a
> joint operation room with all other factions). Again, I repeat, that
> this does not necessarily exclude such a possibility, but there are at
> least serious counter-factors which should be taken into account.
>
> 3) The people close to Fares have a political interest to accuse HTS of
> this because they are very close to US and EU imperialism. Raed Fares
> himself worked for a U.S. funded radio station
> (
> https://www.stripes.com/prominent-syrian-activist-killed-in-rebel-held-province-1.557758).
>
> As far as I know he called for Western military intervention in Syria.
> The US and the EU were very quick in denouncing the murder (see e.g.
>
> https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/54373/statement-spokesperson-killing-two-prominent-syrian-civil-society-activists-idlib_en
> )
>
> 4) Finally: as sad as this killing is, let us not forget that, in this
> year alone, about 390 people have been assassinated in Idlib. The
> majority of them affiliated to HTS. Why is there no outcry about this?
> The reason is obvious: these were people opposed to the West, Russia,
> Assad and the Astana/Sochi process. Raed Fares and Hamoud Janeed, in
> contrast, were friends of the West.
>
> Am 24.11.2018 um 05:28 schrieb mkaradjis via Marxism:
> >   POSTING RULES & NOTES  
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> > *
> >
> > Louis earlier sent the terrible news of the murder of Raed Fares, iconic
> > leader of the Syrian people's uprising in Kafranbel, in Idlib province.
> The
> > killers are not yet known but it is strongly suspected to be HTS.  Here
> is
> > a dedication put together by Clay Claiborne:
> >
> > Raed Fares, leader of 

Re: [Marxism] latest gas attack in Syria

[mkaradjis via Marxism]

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Regarding the rebel attacks on Kurdish civilian targets in Aleppo during
April 2016, Chris asserts that the rebels used chemical weapons, and has
continually done so. Since no one disagrees that these were a series of
criminal attacks, that other rebel leaderships and the opposition
leadership as a whole condemned, I’m not sure why it needs to be
embellished with the chemical stuff. It seems to be some way of equalising
regime and opposition.



Yet when asked for evidence, we come back to the doctor’s claim in the
Amnesty report that these symptoms “could be the effects of a chlorine
attack."



Chris says this is “fairly strong evidence.” However, “could be” is not
“strong.” When the Assad regime launched massive sarin attacks on a range
of rebel-held Damascus suburbs, surrounding regime-held central Damascus in
an arch-shape that strongly indicates the attack came from the regime, and
given the massive nature of the attack that every expert knew would have
required aircraft or at least far more advanced weaponry than anything
possessed by the rebels, GLW decided the chemical attack had been carried
out by “unknown” sources. Yet when symptoms “could be” the effects of a
chemical attack, this apparently is evidence that the rebels “have carried
out chemical attacks.”



All killing of civilian populations by any side should always be condemned,
and nom party is innocent. But the only qualitative difference in Syria is
between the regime/Russia and everyone else; the first are responsible for
nearly all civilian slaughter. Even HTS, sectarian and reactionary as it
is, is a little mouse compared to the regime, by every possible objective
standard. Did they do this? I dunno, I need better evidence than that a
pathologically lying genocidal regime said so.
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Re: [Marxism] latest gas attack in Syria

[mkaradjis via Marxism]

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So far the evidence that the rebels fired chlorine gas into regime held
Aleppo is that the regime said so.
No, there is no good evidence that rebels used chlorine against the Kurds
as Chris suggests.

On Mon, 26 Nov. 2018, 7:06 am Chris Slee via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu wrote:

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>
> Rebel groups have used chlorine as a chemical weapon.  (Chlorine, which
> has civilian uses, is widely available, unlike sarin which requires
> specialised production facilities).
>
> In 2016 rebels used chlorine against the predominantly Kurdish Sheikh
> Maqsoud area of Aleppo city.  See Amnesty International report:
>
>
> https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/05/syria-armed-opposition-groups-committing-war-crimes-in-aleppo-city
>
> Chris Slee
> 
> From: Marxism  on behalf of Tristan
> Sloughter via Marxism 
> Sent: Monday, 26 November 2018 3:53:44 AM
> To: Chris Slee
> Subject: Re: [Marxism] latest gas attack in Syria
>
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>
> Not knowing the full details I wouldn't have reason to doubt HTS would use
> chlorine. Full details matter though because wasn't there a case of the SAA
> misfiring and strong winds resulting in their own gas coming into
> government controlled areas and they tried to blame rebels?
>
> Are there any other cases of groups like HTS using gas? I can only think
> of daesh use of mustard gas.
>
> Tristan
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[Marxism] Raed Fares, leader of Kafranbel killed by HTS gunmen in Idlib

[mkaradjis via Marxism]

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Louis earlier sent the terrible news of the murder of Raed Fares, iconic
leader of the Syrian people's uprising in Kafranbel, in Idlib province. The
killers are not yet known but it is strongly suspected to be HTS.  Here is
a dedication put together by Clay Claiborne:

Raed Fares, leader of Kafranbel killed by HTS gunmen in Idlib

Raed Fares The Syrian revolutionary *Raed Fares* was murdered today, along
with fellow activist *Hamoud Juneid* in the town of Kafranbel, Fares' own
Radio Fresh is reporting. They are reporting Fares and Juneid were *"shot
dead by unknown assailants riding a van in Kafranbel."* It is widely
believed the dominate jihadist group in Idlib, HTS [Hay'et Tahrir al-Sham],
was behind the assassination.

Raed Fares became one of the few Syrian activists I had the opportunity to
meet in the flesh. I meant him almost five years ago when he came to Los
Angeles  in December 2013

*Al Jazeera* has this report

:

'Immense loss for Syria': Gunmen kill Idlib activist Raed Fares
*Raed Fares, who heads Kafranbel-based Radio Fresh and survived a 2014 ISIL
shooting, dies in gun attack, reports say.*


Raed Fares gained prominence with protest banners that drew international
attention on social media [File: Raed Fares via Reuters]
Gunmen in Syria's rebel-held Idlib province have killed Raed Fares, a
prominent activist who ran an independent radio station in the country's
last opposition stronghold.

Fares was shot on Friday along with his colleague Hamoud Juneid in the town
of Kafranbel, according to their Radio Fresh station.

Fares and Juneid were "shot dead by unknown assailants riding a van in
Kafranbel", Fresh FM, which provides independent news and satirises both
President Bashar al-Assad

and opposition groups, said in a post on Facebook.

Salman, a 33-year-old mathematics teacher, who witnessed the attack, told
the Middle
East Eye website
 that
attackers in a van driving "at high speed ... fired shots from a machine
gun, before speeding away".

Juneid died during the attack while Fares died of his wounds at the Orient
Hospital, Middle East Eye reported. More...


Go to url for countless pics of the famous banners:
https://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2018/11/raed-fares-leader-of-kafranbel-killed.html
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Re: [Marxism] Fw: New post published New Wave of Strikes / Protests in Iran Need Solidarity from International Socialists and Progressives

[mkaradjis via Marxism]

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On that issue, an open letter to Corbyn requesting that Labour criticise
the Tories from the left on Iran, rather than, at present, from the right:

Open letter to Jeremy Corbyn on Jeremy Hunt’s trip to Iran and repression
in Iran.
https://shahrokhzamani.com/2018/11/19/letter-corbyn1/?fbclid=IwAR3-MzPrRIyUuObns-XbWIil-L3D0w2JPFsmIxFHmxoDmchhc1N5hm8Qbl8

On Fri, Nov 23, 2018 at 10:10 PM Chris Slee via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
> 
> From: Alliance of Middle Eastern Socialists <
> i...@allianceofmesocialists.org>
> Sent: Friday, 23 November 2018 6:30:28 AM
>
> Hello ,
> We have published new blog in our website. New Wave of Strikes / Protests
> in Iran Need Solidarity from International Socialists and Progressives
> During the past two weeks,  the ongoing wave of protests and strikes in
> Iran have gained a new intensity.
> On the one hand,  the impact of the second and more cruel wave of  the
> U.S. Trump administration’s  sanctions on Iran is truly breaking the backs
> of the masses. Although the sanctions which …
>
> You may view the latest post at:
>
>
> https://www.allianceofmesocialists.org/new-wave-of-strikes-protests-in-iran-need-solidarity-from-international-socialists-and-progressives
>
>
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Re: [Marxism] [SUSPICIOUS MESSAGE] Question: Are Catholics persecuted in Vietnam?

[mkaradjis via Marxism]

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Sorry for overlooking this Chris. The short answer is that I believe the
discourse of "religious persecution" regarding Vietnam is BS, driven by the
desire to catch the attention of right-wing US leaders who love that kind
of stuff.

Many Catholics have indeed been persecuted, as have Buddhists, atheists,
communists (including CPV members), liberals etc - for political
oppositionist activity. That does not prevent the Catholic Church doing all
the things that churches do, nor does it prevent millions around the
country massing into churches,monasteries, cathedrals etc.

There have been some specific disputes between the government and the
Catholic church,but not over religious freedom or "persecution of religious
minorities" (minorities? Catholicism is second only to Buddhism in Vietnam,
and Buddhist leaders, when persecuted for their political activism, are
also likely to raise the "religious freedom" banner). Often land disputes.
When I was there and following more closely, I judged there were instances
where the government was in the wrong (eg, taking the property of a nunnery
here the nuns were engaged in great social activity with the poor, for the
"public interest", but in fact for private looting for the "cadres"), and
some where the church was in the wrong (eg, mass demonstrations in Hanoi to
get land returned that had been nationalised after 1954 like other feudal
land - the actual church buildings were still in use for church purposes,
they just wanted their feudal property restored; and in fact it had been
Buddhist land before the French gave it to the Catholic church; the
government wanted to use the land for a public park).

The Catholic Church is also opposed to Vietnam's widely used legal abortion
laws, and to its leading role east Asia on gay rights and same-sex
marriage,but from what I could see, they tended not to push these ideas too
forcefully or publicly, perhaps understanding they would be too out of step.

There is no religious persecution, but a regime that continues to live so
far in the past in terms of political repression is going to give
ammunition to almost any conceivable charge, as the arbitrariness and
opaqueness makes rational public discussion very difficult.

On Mon, Sep 24, 2018 at 12:51 PM Chris Slee via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

>
> rac-vic.org/2018/09/07/2pm-sat-22-sept-public-meeting-dont-deport-huyen
>
> The Refugee Action Collective in Melbourne has been campaigning against
> the planned deportation of a Vietnamese woman called Huyen.The
> advertisement includes the following statement:
>
> "Catholic asylum seekers who were returned to Vietnam from Indonesia last
> year were harassed, arrested, and threatened with imprisonment. Government
> led and government sanctioned land confiscations, church burnings, violence
> and threats of torture continue against Catholics and other religious
> minorities in Vietnam."
>
> I was a bit surprised by this.  I don't doubt that there is political
> repression in Vietnam, but I am surprised to hear of a campaign against
> "religious minorities".
>
>
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Re: [Marxism] Syria: Reply on Idlib, SDF, Radio Fresh etc

[mkaradjis via Marxism]

2. He did
> not disclose the exact location, but said it was organized by a third party
> and took place in an area where the FSA is active.
>
> "According to Abu Musafer, two decisions were reached: First, to halt
> infighting between Nusra and IS and second, for the groups together to open
> up fronts against Kurdish fighters in a couple of new areas of northern
> Syria
>
> "According to the opposition official, the meeting included an IS
> representative, two emissaries from Nusra Front, and attendees from the
> Khorasan Group, a small but battle-hardened band of al-Qaida veterans from
> Afghanistan and Pakistan. Also reported present at the meeting was Jund
> al-Aqsa, a hard-line faction that has sworn allegiance to IS; and Ahrar
> al-Sham, a conservative Muslim rebel group.
>
> "The official said IS and the Nusra Front agreed to work to destroy the
> Syrian Revolutionaries Front, a prominent rebel faction armed and trained
> by the United States and led by a fighter named Jamal Maarouf. They agreed
> to keep fighting until all of the force, estimated to be 10,000 to 12,000
> fighters, was eliminated, the official said."
>
>
> https://web.archive.org/web/20141116155833/http://news.yahoo.com/ap-sources-al-qaida-reach-accord-syria-190921017.html
>
> Similarly the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on November 1, 2014:
>
> "Reliable sources informed SOHR that some IS fighters reached individually
> to the village of al- Barah, town of Kensafrah and the eastern countryside
> of Ma’arret al- Nu’man to support al- Nusra Front and Jund al- Aqsa
> Organization in their clashes against the Syria Revolutionaries Front."
>
>
> https://web.archive.org/web/20141113083220/http://syriahr.com/en/2014/11/islamic-state-sends-some-fighters-to-support-al-nusra-front-in-idlib/
>
> This is not surprising.  Turkey's priority was to crush the Rojava
> revolution.  To achieve this goal Turkey collaborated with ISIS.  It also
> pressured the other groups it supported to fall into line.
>
>
> 2) Radio Fresh:
>
> When I said I didn't know anything about Radio Fresh apart from what was
> reported in the fund appeal, what I meant was that I don't know what
> political line (if any) it takes on issues such as the Turkish invasion of
> Afrin.
>
> This was the reason I was cautious rather than effusive about Radio Fresh
> (I just said it "sounds OK").
>
> This does not mean I insist they have to vigorously denounce the invasion
> of Afrin (which might get them killed).  But if they were to actually
> support the invasion that would be a major concern.
>
> Chris Slee
>
>
>
>
> 
> From: Marxism  on behalf of
> mkaradjis via Marxism 
> Sent: Wednesday, 24 October 2018 2:00 AM
> To: Chris Slee
> Subject: [Marxism] Syria: Reply on Idlib, SDF, Radio Fresh etc
>
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> *
>
> Chris Slee [in the thread "Sochi didn’t succeed, it’s just that the
> weapons are hidden” (ANF)"] disputes my assertions that that the SDF
> commander Ebu Omer Idlibi is fantasising, where he talks about his
> little group getting kicked out of Idlib by other rebel groups
> (collectively called “terrorists” acting “under Turkey’s orders” in
> Apoist discourse) because his group “continued to fight ISIS.”
>
> My two main points were, firstly, that ISIS had been driven from Idlib
> (and all of western Syria) root and branch by the rebels in early
> 2014, so there was no ISIS to be fighting later in 2014 when these
> events allegedly occurred, and that in any case, all rebel groups –
> FSA, Islamists of all stripes, and Nusra – fight ISIS.
>
> Chris claims to have discovered ISIS in Idlib later in 2014:
>
> “In reality, there was a temporary revival of ISIS in Idlib in the
> second half of 2014, as a result of the greatly increased prestige and
> resources it gained through its capture of Mosul in June 2014.”
>
> He quotes Aron Lund: "The Islamic State’s whirlwind successes in Iraq
> in June 2014 sparked a flood of new defections. … In the northwestern
> province of Idlib, the so-called Dawood Brigade (which was already
> very close to the Islamic State) also decided to jump on the bandwagon
> and sent a large convoy of fighters to the Islamic State capital of
> Raqqa. Stray groups of rebels are in fact arriving to Raqqa from Idlib
> even now, months la

[Marxism] Greek comrades on the vacuousness of "anti-imperialism"

[mkaradjis via Marxism]

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Terrific work:

The Syrian revolution and the failure of the “anti-imperialist” left

Monday 22 October 2018, by Kostas Kousiantas, Pantelis Afthinos

This article was written after the bombing of Syrian military
installations carried out by US, UK and French military forces on
April 14th 2018 and before the attack by the Assad regime against
Dara’a began.

Kostas Kousiantas Pantelis Afthinos Kostas Kousiantas and Pantelis
Afthinos participate in the editorial team of the Greek
anti-capitalist web site “e la liberta” and in the local Kallithea
committee of the Greek anti-capitalist political alliance ANTARSYA

http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article5756

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[Marxism] Syria: Reply on Idlib, SDF, Radio Fresh etc

[mkaradjis via Marxism]

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Chris Slee [in the thread "Sochi didn’t succeed, it’s just that the
weapons are hidden” (ANF)"] disputes my assertions that that the SDF
commander Ebu Omer Idlibi is fantasising, where he talks about his
little group getting kicked out of Idlib by other rebel groups
(collectively called “terrorists” acting “under Turkey’s orders” in
Apoist discourse) because his group “continued to fight ISIS.”

My two main points were, firstly, that ISIS had been driven from Idlib
(and all of western Syria) root and branch by the rebels in early
2014, so there was no ISIS to be fighting later in 2014 when these
events allegedly occurred, and that in any case, all rebel groups –
FSA, Islamists of all stripes, and Nusra – fight ISIS.

Chris claims to have discovered ISIS in Idlib later in 2014:

“In reality, there was a temporary revival of ISIS in Idlib in the
second half of 2014, as a result of the greatly increased prestige and
resources it gained through its capture of Mosul in June 2014.”

He quotes Aron Lund: "The Islamic State’s whirlwind successes in Iraq
in June 2014 sparked a flood of new defections. … In the northwestern
province of Idlib, the so-called Dawood Brigade (which was already
very close to the Islamic State) also decided to jump on the bandwagon
and sent a large convoy of fighters to the Islamic State capital of
Raqqa. Stray groups of rebels are in fact arriving to Raqqa from Idlib
even now, months later."

Chris concludes that “Given that ISIS was present in Idlib in the
second half of 2014, there is no reason to doubt that Abu Omar
al-Idlibi's group fought against it at that time.”

Really, Chris? Lund’s article says nothing about any fight against
this little defection to ISIS in Idlib, not because every group would
not have fought it, but because he seems to suggest that as soon as
they defected, they fled from Idlib to the ISIS capital Raqqa. Even if
Chris’ little grouplet, and everyone else, did fight it as soon as it
appeared, this would have lasted days at the most – it does not leave
much scope for “continuing to fight ISIS.”

Still less would “continuing to fight ISIS” be a reason for the
alleged crackdown by the other rebels on the groupsicle, since there
were no groups that did not fight ISIS. In fact, Chris’ stress that
the commander did not say his group “alone” continued to fight ISIS,
but also “some forces like us”, puts him in a difficult position,
because I don’t think the SDF, or its global backers, see themselves
as being “like” the Islamic Front, who were responsible for expelling
Dawud from Idlib:

“… the Islamic Front, an umbrella group of Islamist fighting forces,
had arrested and executed eight Islamic State agents, and that this
drove Hassan Abboud, the brigade’s [ie, Dawud Brigade] leader, to head
to Raqqa.”
https://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/article2603226.html#storylink=cpy

Back to the SDF commander:
"We and some forces like us fighting under different names were
removed from Idlib in 2014 by terrorist forces. Jabhat Al Nusra
attacked us as we were fighting the regime and ISIS" claims the SDF
commander. But Nusra crushed the Syrian Revolutionaries Front (SRF),
the largest FSA coalition in Idlib, in November, long after the brief
June appearance, and expulsion, of the Dawud defection. The claim that
they were then “fighting ISIS”, and even more, that this is the reason
they were expelled, is pure fantasy.

By the way, I cannot find any reference to “Liwa Shimal Demokratik” in
Idlib, in fact, the only reference at all, in English, is to this very
article. Regarding the FSA situation around Idlib/northwest in 2014,
no such group was among the constituents of the Syrian Revolutionaries
Front (http://carnegie-mec.org/syriaincrisis/?fa=53910), or Harakat
Hazm 
(https://www.huffingtonpost.com/charles-lister/american-anti-tank-weapon_b_5119255.html)
or the Fifth Corp
(http://en.etilaf.org/all-news/news/merger-of-five-rebel-factions-into-the-fifth-corps.html),
the three main FSA coalitions.

But it’s not really the point. The problem is the tendency to want to
grab onto some “real revolutionaries”, to want to find “the left” in
such catastrophic situations, and, while that may be understandable in
the abstract, to then go on and hang off every word they utter, no
matter how self-evidently false and self-serving.

The YPG/SDF may have done a lot of good things in Rojava (actually I
never said any different, just that I was also willing to recognise it
when the opposite was also true), but surely anyone can see that the
wooden and self-serving language of the Apoist media is the same old
language of Stalinism. Everything revolves around the sect, around the
“true