The Fall of Assad is a Victory for the Syrian People and the Oppressed of the World!

Joint Statement by Socialist Organizations (see the Note at the End of the Text), 3 January 2025

1. The Syrian Revolution which began with the popular uprising in March 2011 led on 8 December 2024 to the fall of a 54-year dictatorship, with advances and setbacks over these thirteen years. This is a historic event – both for the country itself as well as for the Middle East and globally. It liberated the popular masses from the yoke of the Assad tyranny and smashed one of the longest-lasting and most brutal dictatorships in the world. It destroyed a pillar of imperialist order in the Middle East which was a puppet of Russian imperialism (Putin was one of the most important supporters of Assad) as well as of the bourgeois-repressive Iranian regime and which made sure that Israel did not have to worry about its northeastern border. It inspires the masses in the region and makes the dictators tremble as they fear a revival of the Arab Revolution. The revolutionary overthrow of Assad – irrespective of its unfinished democratic character – is a victory for the workers and oppressed all around the world!
2. While we have supported the liberation struggle against the Assad regime since, we never harboured any illusions or gave political support to the leadership of the movement for its overthrow. We now share the jubilation of the masses about the downfall of the dictatorship, but we do not inspire confidence or give political support to the new government headed by al-Julani. We recognise that al-Julani’s HTS and other factions are pro-bourgeois nationalist and Islamist forces. The overthrow has opened a revolutionary process in the country in which the masses spontaneously try to organise themselves and to punish the killers and torturers of the old regime. However, the new rulers in Damascus oppose a deepening of such revolutionary process and want to build a bourgeois regime which is accepted at the table of imperialist and regional powers. For this purpose, al-Julani tries to pacify the revolutionary process and to disarm and demobilise the masses.
3. We denounce those “socialist”, “communist” and Bolivarian parties which supported the Assad dictatorship as a so-called “anti-imperialist force”, and which now mourn its downfall. They spread slander against the overthrow of Assad, claiming ridiculously it would have been a conspiracy of the U.S. and Israel. These friends of Russian imperialism and its allies “forget” that the Assad regime never fired a single shot against the Zionist state of Israel for more than half of a century. And if Israel would have orchestrated the downfall of the regime, why does Israel’s foreign minister denounce the new rulers in Damascus as a “terrorist gang”?! And if the Zionists would welcome the new government, why does its air force launch hundreds of attacks against civilian and military targets in Syria in order to disarm the revolutionary forces?! In fact, the Israeli Apartheid state clearly would have favoured the continued existence of the Assad regime. It is no secret that it held close ties with Assads intelligence apparatus as it had been recently reported by various news outlets like Middle East Eye and even the reactionary Zionist Israel Hayom. It will be forever a badge of shame of Stalinism that the two Syrian “Communist” parties were part of Assad’s regime until the bitter end and supported its counterrevolutionary war against the Syrian people since 2011.
4. We do not agree with those socialist organisations which, while opposing the Assad dictatorship, refuse to support the Syrian Revolution. They denounce the struggle between the rebels and the regime as a conflict between “reactionary forces” in which socialists could not take a side. They claim that the revolution was merely a coup d’état by separating the profound popular and democratic struggle of the masses which began in 2011 from its result – the civil war and the final offensive of the rebels from 27 November to 8 December 2024 which was supported and cheered by millions of people on the streets. They wrongly deny the fact that the popular victory against Assad is an unfinished democratic revolution which socialists need to drive forward in the process of permanent revolution. It is the duty of revolutionaries to support revolutions, even if they have an unfinished and limited character.
5. The key task for the masses now is to defend, to deepen and to expand the Syrian revolutionary process. It must be defended against counterrevolutionary attacks by remnants of the Assad regime. All reactionary attempts to stoke sectarianism and to discriminate ethnic and religious minorities must be repelled by popular mobilization. Likewise, the newly conquered democratic liberties must be defended against authoritarian measures of the new regime. In order to withstand al-Julani’s attempts to hijack the revolution, the masses have to build their own independent organisations, taking up the experience of the coordination committees from the beginning of the 2011 revolution, in workplaces, neighbourhoods and villages, armed militias which are subordinated to such councils, as well as trade unions, student associations, women’s organizations, etc. As revolutionary socialists, we advocate the formation of a workers and popular government which should nationalize the key sectors of the economy under workers control and open the road to a socialist Syria.
6. Along this path we must support the Syrian people’s struggle for emergency measures driven by popular mobilization. Among these measures is the demand for trial and punishment of the torturers, the creation of conditions for the return of millions of refugees, full right to protest and to organize politically and socially, free and democratic elections, guaranteeing full equality for women in all spheres of society, recognizing the rights of ethnic and national minorities – such as the Kurdish people – to autonomy or even a separate state, if they so demand, and respecting the rights of all religious communities in the country. Urgent measures should include the nationalization without compensation of all the assets of the Assad oligarchy, the cancellation of debts to Iran and Russia – the powers which are mainly responsible for the devastation of the country – the expropriation without compensation of companies related to these countries, the suspension of payment of public debt in order to use these resources to meet the immediate needs of the Syrian people.
7. A truly free Syria must be independent and expel all foreign powers. This means it has to close all imperialist military bases (those of Russia as well as of the U.S.). Likewise, it should kick out the Turkish military which only serves Erdoğan’s goals to oppress the Kurdish people and to subjugate Syria. It is of particular importance to liberate all occupied territories of Golan and to drive the Israeli forces out.
8. The fate of the Syrian Revolution is closely linked to the liberation struggles across the Middle East and to the emergence of a revolutionary political alternative in Syria. It is therefore indispensable that the Syrian Revolution links with the Palestinian liberation struggle and declares its unambiguous support for the heroic resistance against Zionist occupation. Likewise, it needs to reach out to the oppressed masses in Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Türkiye and the whole region and support their desire for freedom, justice and dignity. Down with all Pharaohs, Kings and Sultans! Smash the Zionist state, the aircraft carrier of imperialism in the region! For a free, secular, and democratic Palestine from the River to the Sea.
9. The task of the most advanced forces of the Syrian workers and oppressed is the formation of a new revolutionary socialist political alternative which aims at driving forward the struggle to defend, deepen and expand the revolutionary process and supports the independent organisation of the masses. Such a new political leadership must be built in opposition to the new regime and fight for workers’ power in a socialist Syria as part of a socialist federation of the Middle East.
10. We, the undersigned organisations, call for an international solidarity campaign with the Syrian Revolution in defence against its internal as well as external enemies. Such a campaign should be linked with solidarity activities with the Palestinian liberation struggle. We demand an immediate lifting of all sanctions against Syria. Likewise, the workers and popular organisations in Europe, Türkiye and other countries should oppose any attempts by reactionary governments to expel Syrian refugees. Furthermore, we also call the Syrian working people to advance their self-organisation, fully independent from the HTS-led government, to fight for the most critical demands for the working people, as well as for workers’ power!

Signatories:

International League of Workers [International Secretariat] – Fourth International (LIT-CI, www.litci.org)

International Unity of Workers – Fourth International (UIT-CI, www.uit-ci.org)

Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT, www.thecommunists.net)

P.S. We invite organizations that agree with it to join this declaration and campaign.