Creation: Proletarian Liberation Struggle Association Political Economy Group
ㅤㅤOn the evening of December 8th, Syrian opposition armed forces entered Damascus, the capital of Syria, and stormed the Syrian Presidential Palace. The then-president Bashar al-Assad fled without fighting, escaping by plane to Moscow. Subsequently, the Syrian opposition controlled the Syrian state television and announced that “the free Syrian people have overthrown Bashar al-Assad’s government,” establishing a national transitional council. Citizens in major cities such as Damascus and Hama gathered in city squares to celebrate the fall of the Ba’ath Party government. Thus, the Arab Ba’ath Socialist Party, which had been in power in Syria for 61 years, fell. The anti-Assad government war ignited by the “Arab Spring” in 2011 finally came to an end. At this moment, only 12 days had passed since the opposition armed forces’ “Syrian National Salvation Government” launched an attack on Aleppo, the most important city in northern Syria.
ㅤㅤThe rapid fall of the Ba’ath Party government in Syria stunned the entire world. On November 27th, the armed group “Sham Liberation Front” in Idlib Province in northwest Syria launched an attack on Aleppo. This city, which has never been fully captured by opposition forces since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, was taken within just two days. On December 5th, opposition forces captured Hama in central Syria. The next day, the Syrian Free Army, which had accepted the Ba’athist government’s decree during the later stages of the civil war, re-initiated its uprising and took control of the southern provinces of Syria, moving northward toward Damascus. On December 7th, opposition forces entered Damascus, encountering almost no organized resistance, and by the next day, they controlled the Syrian capital. The speed of these developments exceeded all expectations. Initially, few people thought that the Ba’athist government, which had received strong support from Russian imperialism during the civil war, could fall so quickly. From a purely military perspective, the current situation in Syria is incomprehensible. Before this round of civil war, the Ba’athist government still controlled all major cities in Syria, with an army of 300,000 on paper, supported by Russia with tanks, fighter jets, and even advanced missile defense systems. The opposition only had a small number of armored vehicles seized during the civil war, homemade armored pickup trucks, no air force, and was at a manpower disadvantage. Yet, despite such a vast military gap, the Ba’athist government collapsed like an avalanche, with most cities falling under opposition control with little to no armed resistance.
ㅤㅤ"War is the continuation of politics," and the rapid fall of the Syrian Ba’athist government must also be examined from the nature of its ruling party. The Arab Ba’ath Socialist Party was originally a nationalist bourgeois radical party in the Middle East, similar in nature to the Kuomintang led by Sun Yat-sen before the “April 12” counterrevolutionary coup in China. Its founder, Al-Suz, was a “subjective socialist” similar to Sun Yat-sen, with a worldview rooted in idealism. He believed that the foundation of modern society was “liberty, equality, and democracy,” and that the reason Arab countries opposed colonialism was an abstract “demand for freedom.” Due to his class position, he did not support Marxism. The Arab Ba’ath Socialist Party he established advocated that “the Arab homeland is an inseparable whole of political and economic unity,” demanding the unification of Arab states, with the purpose of achieving “Arab unity, freedom, and socialist people’s national revolution.” Although the party verbally called for “socialism,” it was not a proletarian party; its policies of nationalizing imperialist industries and land reform aimed to establish a capitalist state most suitable for the development of bourgeois nationalism. In the 1950s, the Ba’ath Party was active in Syria, Iraq, and other Arab countries, and once facilitated Syria’s joining the United Arab Republic led by Nasser. However, Nasser’s nationalization policies offended the interests of Syrian landlords and upper bourgeoisie, leading Syria to withdraw from the UAR. In 1963, the Ba’ath Party seized power in Syria. Under the leadership of Jaddid, a series of policies favorable to bourgeois nationalist development were implemented, including confiscating large feudal landlords’ lands and redistributing them to peasants, nationalizing imperialist industries, and calling for the elimination of Israel and the liberation of Palestine in international forums, even advocating for a “one-party system based on socialist” people’s democratic dictatorship.
ㅤㅤHowever, since the Ba’ath Party was not a vanguard of the proletariat, it was infiltrated by many upper bourgeoisie and former military officers. In 1970, right-wing factions within the Ba’ath Party, supported by domestic landlords, compradors, and former officers, launched a military coup, seizing power in Syria, with Hafez al-Assad, father of the current president Bashar al-Assad, coming to power. He was a figure akin to Chiang Kai-shek, who immediately launched the so-called “Corrective Movement,” ending all internal and external revolutionary measures of the Ba’ath Party’s left wing. From then on, the Ba’athist regime became a reactionary party representing the interests of large landowners and compradors, similar to the Kuomintang after the “April 12” counterrevolution. Domestically, Hafez al-Assad halted land reforms, released many landlords, rich peasants, compradors, clerics, and tribal leaders suppressed by Jaddid’s regime, restoring their feudal privileges; internationally, he betrayed national sovereignty, selling coastal regions to the Soviet Union as military bases in exchange for economic and political aid. Hafez al-Assad, a minority Alawite Muslim, strengthened his rule by promoting relatives to senior military and political positions, collaborating with Alawite feudal landlords and compradors, and oppressing the Sunni Muslim majority (75% of the population) under the guise of “secularization.” In 1982, to suppress opposition, the Ba’ath government used chemical gas in Hama, central Syria, resulting in the massacre of tens of thousands (up to 40,000). As the Soviet Union was on the brink of collapse, the Ba’ath regime turned to the United States, supporting the Gulf War to prolong its survival. Under Hafez al-Assad, the Ba’ath government once again imposed the “three mountains” on the Syrian people—regime, ethnic dominance, and religious authority—trying to enslave them with reactionary chains.
ㅤㅤIn the 21st century, Hafez al-Assad died, and his son Bashar al-Assad inherited his reactionary throne. At this time, Russia, relying on its military bases and economic aid established during the Soviet era, re-colonized Syria, making it Russia’s most important foothold in the Middle East. In 2011, the revolutionary wave of Arab peoples swept across the Middle East, igniting the “Arab Spring.” However, the leadership of the Arab people’s movement largely fell into the hands of comprador bourgeoisie supported by U.S. imperialism, and Syria was no exception. U.S. imperialism exploited the revolutionary tide against the Ba’athist government, supporting its proxy, the “Syrian Free Army,” which at one point controlled most of Syria. The Ba’ath regime was on the verge of collapse. But at that time, both Syria and Iraq were embroiled in rebellions led by reactionary clerics and landlords, with ISIS controlling northern Iraq and eastern Syria. The U.S., unable to support the opposition forces in Syria, had to temporarily compromise with Russian imperialism, focusing on quelling ISIS insurgency. This allowed Russia to take advantage of the situation, providing large quantities of weapons and direct air support to the Ba’athist government, which relied on Russian power to bomb opposition forces and the Syrian people, gradually regaining control of most of Syria by 2017. Without Russian imperialist support, the Ba’athist government would have fallen in 2011. Now, Syria has become a chessboard of imperialist struggle: the Ba’athist government controlled by Russian imperialism in the main regions, the Kurds supported by U.S. imperialism in the northeast, some opposition forces retreating to the northwest supported by Turkey. The Syrian people live in extreme misery; due to domestic fragmentation, the main oil and grain-producing regions are controlled by U.S.-backed Kurdish armed groups, and the Ba’athist government is corrupt and incapable of self-sufficiency even in food. Moreover, since the Ba’athist government has become a puppet of Russia, U.S. imperialism continues economic blockade for imperialist rivalry. By 2021, Syria’s per capita GDP was only $421, even lower than the Central African Republic. After COVID-19, the Ba’athist regime is on the verge of financial collapse. To maintain control, they have pinned all hopes on Russia, carrying out large-scale military cuts and reducing soldiers’ wages. As of this year, the monthly salary of ordinary Syrian soldiers is only $20 (about 140 RMB), barely enough for basic living, forcing them to rely on smuggling. Internally, the conditions for the Ba’athist regime’s fall are already ripe: although it appears to still control most of Syria’s territory and population, it is actually a house on the verge of collapse, ready to fall with a light kick. Externally, the situation is also ripe: Russia, deeply involved in the Ukraine conflict, is unable to support the Ba’athist regime and has even withdrawn some troops from Syria. The opposition forces seized this opportunity to launch a deadly attack, quickly ending the era of the Arab Ba’ath Socialist Party, which was neither united, free, nor socialist.
ㅤㅤDue to the lack of clear information about the current situation of the Syrian opposition forces overthrowing the Ba’athist regime, it is difficult to make a reasonable prediction of Syria’s future. The opposition forces in Syria are also mixed; the main force in overthrowing the Ba’athist regime, the Sham Liberation Organization, was originally a branch of Al-Qaeda, advocating reactionary Islamic law, later breaking away from ISIS. This organization is still regarded as a terrorist group by both U.S. and Russian imperialism, and it also contains remnants of the East Turkestan forces suppressed by China. In recent years, this organization has tried to portray itself as a “moderate” bourgeois democratic party. Its leader, Julani, in a recent CNN interview, claimed that Islamic rule like the Taliban’s was wrong to dispel U.S. doubts, directly portraying himself as a bourgeois democrat, stating, “No ethnic group has the right to annex another; these sects have coexisted on Syrian land for hundreds of years, and no one has the right to eliminate them,” proposing to legally protect these groups’ rights in the constitution. The Sham Liberation Organization is likely to soon defect to U.S. imperialism, while the actual control of Damascus remains with the previously U.S.-supported “Syrian Free Army,” and northeastern Syria is controlled by U.S.-backed Kurdish forces. Currently, Syria may form a federation supported by the U.S., while Russian imperialism is likely to be expelled from the Middle East entirely. The Syrian people have ended the fascist dictatorship of the Ba’athist right-wing government that had oppressed them for over fifty years, but the chaos of war is likely to continue. With some new developments, Israel has taken the opportunity to invade southern Syria, seeking a share, while Turkey-backed Syrian National Army has begun attacking U.S.-backed Kurdish forces. The vast land from the Mediterranean to the west of the Euphrates remains shrouded in smoke and fire. The 25 million Syrian people are still far from achieving their liberation. Nevertheless, the Assad father and son Ba’athist right-wing government has long become a despised target. It has brought countless disasters to the Syrian people and betrayed their struggle for independence and freedom. The Syrian people have expressed their stance through nationwide celebrations—they will never miss such a reactionary regime that enforces religious oppression and fascist dictatorship, and has been thrown into the trash heap of history.
ㅤㅤMeanwhile, on the Chinese reformist internet, a wave has emerged defending the fall of the Ba’athist regime and Bashar al-Assad. Many “Little Pink” supporters attribute the regime’s fall to “U.S. imperialism,” and some have even become supporters of women’s liberation, lamenting that the Middle East has lost a “secular” regime that would implement Islamic law, cursing the Syrian people celebrating Bashar’s fall, wishing for continued chaos, claiming “you will miss Bashar later!” They sympathize with such a figure akin to Chiang Kai-shek, but who will mourn the thousands of Sunni Muslims in Hama who died under religious oppression? The “Little Pink” treat the Syrian people as fools who don’t recognize their own interests, but the Syrian people are very clear—they neither welcome the Ba’athist government nor accept reactionary Islamic law. Otherwise, why would the Sham Liberation Organization abandon its plans to implement Islamic law? These “Pink” have never regarded the Syrian people as human; they only support whoever benefits their imperialist rivalry. But “the small world, how many flies hit the wall,” no matter how some attack Syria’s struggle for liberation, the Syrian people will learn from the failures of the left wing of the Arab Ba’ath Socialist Party and find a true path to liberation.
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So that’s how it is, I’ve learned something.
So that’s how it is, the fate of the Syrian nation is full of hardships.
All the heavy disasters imposed by imperialism on the people of the Middle East and the Arab people will be justly judged by history with the anger of the people.
People of the world, unite to defeat imperialist aggressors and all their allies!
No peaceful resolution, no kneeling and surrender, a million no’s!
Our people march forward proudly along the path of victory, never stopping until the dawn of liberation!
The people of Syria will win! The Arab people will win! The people of the world will win!
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The Assad reactionary regime is also reactionary in its stance on the Palestinian liberation issue. After Assad came to power, he tried to extend his hand into the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which had not yet been corrupted at the time, attempting to seize the leadership of the Palestinian liberation movement and use this to help him take control of other areas of Palestine not controlled by Israel, thereby expanding his own sphere of influence. He not only betrayed his own people but also betrayed the entire Arab nation’s liberation cause.