One of the bloodiest dictatorships in human history was relegated to the past exactly one year ago. On 8 December 2014, with the end of the Assad dynasty after 54 years, a new chapter opened not only in the future of Syria but also in that of the entire region. Today, we share in the celebrations and joy of the Syrian people, who brought an end to this bloody regime at a tremendous price.
The change in Syria began when the revolutionary wave that started in Tunisia in late 2010 and spread throughout the region reached Syria in March 2011, and the people took to the streets demanding “freedom and dignity.” After almost 14 years of a process marked by advances and setbacks, during which the Assad dictatorship attempted to crush the popular uprising with bloodshed, the slogan “The people want the fall of the regime!” finally became a reality. With the fall of the regime, the prisons, which served as centres of torture and massacre, were closed, political prisoners regained their freedom, and the Syrian people made significant progress in terms of freedom of expression and assembly. However, during the past year, very serious events occurred that threatened the gains of the revolution. The massacres perpetrated in the coastal region and in Suwayda were the most significant events that demonstrated the fragility of this new period. The expansion of the Zionist occupation in the south and the continuation of its military operations, the absence of any serious improvement in the economic and social conditions of the working population, as well as developments that threaten women’s rights, formed other defining characteristics of this stage.
The fundamental feature of this new period, full of both opportunities and dangers, is that, after the fall of the regime, power remained in the hands of a provisional bourgeois government that does not represent the revolutionary demands for “freedom and dignity.” The priority of this provisional government, formed under the leadership of HTS leader Shara, is to rebuild the capitalist state damaged by the revolution and consolidate its political power.
The provisional government, which attempted to legitimise its power first through a unilaterally declared “Victory Conference” and then through a sham election in which only 6,000 people were eligible to vote, tried to maintain itself in this phase through two central policies. First, it attempted to monopolise the representation of the Sunni Arab majority by exploiting the sectarian and national divisions inherited from the previous regime. Within this framework, it did not hesitate to portray the ethnic and sectarian minorities, which are historical and original components of the country, as a threat. The results of this policy materialised in the systematic exclusion of all political actors outside the provisional government and, ultimately, in the massacres that occurred in the coastal region and in Suwayda.
The other fundamental policy of the provisional government was to secure the support of regional and global powers, regardless of the cost. Seeking to consolidate its legitimacy through international recognition, it adopted a strategy of offering all kinds of concessions. It took no stand in defense of national sovereignty against the new Zionist occupations in the south, nor against the Turkish occupation in the north and its continued control over various areas through its military extensions, nor against the US military presence and operations in the country, nor against the Russian military bases that remain and protected the former regime.
This accommodating approach aimed to secure the lifting of existing sanctions and achieve economic development through foreign investment and privatisations. However, despite dozens of agreements signed, from the Gulf states to Europe and the United States, no concrete results have been achieved to date. Moreover, the implementation of these agreements would not improve the living conditions of the working people, but rather transform the country’s status: from a semi-colony of Russia and Iran in the past, it would become a semi-colony of Western imperialism and the Gulf states.
While the interim government continues to ask for “more time” to achieve concrete progress, we say that “what you have done is a guarantee of what you will do.” That is why we take part in the mobilisations commemorating the anniversary of the regime’s fall with clear demands and slogans. The authentic demands of the Syrian revolution can only be realised through the mobilization of the Syrian working masses, and only under a workers’ and people’s government can they become lasting and definitive gains. The Assad regime has fallen, but our struggle for freedom and dignity continues!
- Justice now for the murdered, the disappeared, and the imprisoned!
- The country’s wealth must be used for the urgent needs of the working people. All properties belonging to the Assad oligarchy and its associates must be nationalised without compensation. Payments on the external debt to Russia and Iran must be cancelled. Public debts inherited from the Assad era must be cancelled, and the resulting resources must be allocated to meet the people’s most urgent needs: housing, food, transportation, health, and education.
- Zionism out of Syria and Palestine! The Golan Heights are Syrian. Free Palestine from the river to the sea.
- The United States, Russia, Turkey, and all foreign forces must leave the country immediately.
Let us intensify the struggle against all policies of exclusion and marginalisation applied to women in political, social, and labour life, as well as against the oppression directed at oppressed peoples! These rights will not be guaranteed by promises or by the current authorities, but only through the mobilization of the Syrian people.
- Zionism out of Syria and Palestine! • No to sham elections! To guarantee all democratic rights and freedoms, we demand a free and sovereign Constituent Assembly.
International Workers’ Unity – Fourth International (IWU-FI)
