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April 25th, 2012

Denounce the slaughter of the Syrian masses by the Assad government!

Denounce the Assad regime continuing brutal suppression against the toiling masses
Despite its own announcement that ‘military operations will be ceased on April 12th’, the Syrian Baathist government is still continuing its ruthless suppression throughout the country. Hundreds of people are reported to have been killed by Syrian forces since the very day of April 12th. The butcher president of Bashar Al-Assad accepted the ceasefire plan drawn up by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan because it was proposed on the premise that his regime would continue to exist. He accepted it also because he was able to ‘regain control’ of major cities temporarily after the furious attacks. Exploiting the ‘ceasefire’ terms to buy more time, his government intends to fabricate an appearance of ‘democratization’, thereby somehow maintaining its authoritarian, military ruling system.
Since March 2011, when the Syrian masses rose in protest against the oppression and corruption of the Assad regime, their fight has swept all over the country and developed as a struggle for toppling the government. They have set up their self-governing organizations in districts and regions, calling for demonstrations and distributing food and other living necessaries that tend to be in short supply. Volunteer soldiers including rebels in the National Army have been bravely fighting back against the repression with their scanty small firearms under the unified flag of the Free Syrian Army.
Faced with the uprising of the toiling masses, the Assad regime was seized by the premonition that the same fate as Libya’s Gadhafi would befall it. Driven by the sense of impending crisis, this regime has been reiterating horrible bloodsheds, fully mobilizing its army, security forces, and intelligence agency, which are made up mainly of Alawites and are commanded by the kindred of the Assad dynasty. It is even using gangster-like militias known as ‘shabiha’. This criminal Syrian regime has killed more than 11,000 people since March, 2011.

Rivalry intensified between Russian/Chinese rulers and US/EU imperialists over Syria and the whole of the Middle East
Russian and Chinese governments have been acting as major backers for the Assad regime. The Putin government, in cahoots with the Hu Jintao government, is scheming to end the US imperialist dominance over the Middle East. Taking advantage of the current situation in which the Obama administration is obliged to pull out its army from Afghanistan on the heels of its withdrawal from Iraq, Russian and Chinese rulers are aiming to obtain hegemony over this region in place of the US.
The US imperialist Obama administration and the governments of France, Britain and other European states are loudly calling for impeaching Assad. Looking for a chance for interference, they initiated the so-called ‘Friends of Syria’ conference, embracing Turkey as well as Sunnite Arab monarchies. Now, however, they are unable to take any concrete measures. This is not simply because Russia and China vetoed UN Security Council resolutions, which were supposed to be a pretext for military intervention. There is another reason, which is more decisive for them. The Syrian National Council, participating in the ‘Friends of Syria’ group, is mainly composed of members of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, which is akin to the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt. And besides, in Syria, there are no pro-US or pro-Western elements seceding from the Assad regime, such as Mustafa Abdul-Jalil and Mahmoud Jibril of Libya. The Obama administration has yet to be able to set up their preferable political figures or groups that could take the place of the Assad regime. Its true intention is therefore to bring the matter to a ‘soft landing’ under the current regime led by al-Assad, despite its clamorous condemnations against his ‘inhumane’ acts of violence.

Fight in solidarity with the Syrian masses combating against the brutality of the Assad regime!
The Assad regime, backed by Russian (and Iranian) rulers, still controls main cities of the country. By resorting to carrot-and-stick policies, it is desperate to maintain its ruling system, now on the brink of collapse. This regime is intentionally emphasizing the need to ‘foil the plot of foreign influence’, posing as the utmost hard-liner against Israel. By so doing, it is trying to take advantage of the present state of the opposition groups, which are splitting over issues, such as whether or not to hold talks with the government and whether or not and to what extent they should call upon Western (and Islamic) states to intervene in their affairs.
The power base of the Assad regime is made up of Alawite tribes. (The Alawite sect is a blend of a native religion, Christianity and Shiite Islam.) In order to keep up its nepotistic ruling system, the Assad family have deployed its family members and followers in important positions in the violence apparatuses of the state power. This regime has wittingly showed off its stance of ‘anti-US imperialism and anti-Zionism’ to justify its policies, by abusing the popular feeling of Syrian masses indignant against Zionist Israel and its supporter US imperialist rulers, especially against their double standard policy towards the Middle East. Externally, this regime has been intent on forming a ‘common front’ with the Iranian Ahmadinejad government ‘against US imperialism and against Zionism’ in support of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders. At home, it has formed a ruling coalition, namely the National Progress Front, embracing ‘left’ organizations including the Syrian Communist Party and Nasserite groups.
By displaying its policies ‘against US imperialism and Zionism’, the Assad regime has certainly pretended that it was a guardian of the ‘Arab cause’, or the interests of the Syrian and Palestinian people. But now, as we see clearly, the regime is revealing its true colours. This regime, which can only maintain its rule upon more than 11,000 Syrian corpses, is precisely a military Bonapartist power oppressing the Syrian workers and peasants. It feigns to be the embodiment of Syrian people’s common interests, especially of their indignation against Israel’s occupation of the Golan Heights; however it is a regime which carries out an authoritarian rule to realize the interests of Alawite rulers and the newly emerged urban capitalists benefiting from the ‘economic liberalization’ starting in 2000.
The heroic Syrian masses who have risen in demonstrations all over the country are defiantly continuing their resistance against the tyrannical rule of the Assad regime. They are fighting under the banner of ‘Step out, Assad!’ Free Syrian Army soldiers are carrying on courageous armed struggles. The people’s denunciation is targeted not only at the brutal suppression by the regime and government corruption; it is also directed at the growing impoverishment caused by the ‘economic liberalization’ and the soaring international food prices (one third of the nation live on less than $1 a day). Palestinian Hamas is expressing support for the uprising of the Syrian masses.
We, revolutionary Marxists in Japan, resolutely fight in solidarity with the Syrian rebel masses fighting against the violent suppression by the Assad regime. We denounce Stalinists and degenerate Trotskyists who keep silent in the face of the bloody slaughter carried on by the Assad government. Let us fight in solidarity with workers and all the toiling masses in the Middle East and North Africa who are advancing with the struggle ‘against US imperialism, against Zionism’ and with the struggle to overthrow the governments of their own countries!

Akira Kato

Japan Revolutionary Communist League (Revolutionary Marxist Faction)