This is a joint statement supported by the International Socialist Network, Socialist Resistance, Workers Power and the Anticapitalist Initiative The defeat of the government pro-war resolution in Parliament is important. Even though Labour voted against the Tory motion, it too had submitted a pro-war resolution, albeit calling for a pause until after the report from […]
By Marcus Halaby / 30 August 2013 On 21 August, reports emerged that hundreds of people had been killed in a chemical weapons attack in Eastern Ghouta, a rebel-held agricultural region just outside of the Syrian capital Damascus. With reports of up to 1,700 dead, this atrocity is just the latest in a long series […]
The League for the Fifth International totally condemns the preparations by the US administration, warmly supported by the British and French imperialists, to launch missile attacks on Syria. We call on the labour movements and progressive forces of all countries to mobilise to prevent such attacks and to make the perpetrators pay heavily for it […]
This motion was proposed by Workers Power members and passed by Lambeth Left Unity branch on 27 August 2013. Lambeth left Unity condemns the preparations by the US Administration and the British Government for missile attacks on Syria. We also condemn in the strongest terms the Assad regime¹s use of chemical weapons in Ghouta on […]
By Marcus Halaby The Stop the War Coalition (StWC), led by Counterfire, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and the Communist Party of Britain (CPB) called a protest in central London for 15 June to “Stop Western Intervention in Syria”. Originally formed to oppose the “War on Terror” declared by the United States under President George […]
By Marcus Halaby “To imagine that social revolution is conceivable without revolts by small nations in the colonies and in Europe, without revolutionary outbursts by a section of the petty bourgeoisie with all its prejudices, without a movement of the politically non-conscious proletarian and semi-proletarian masses against oppression by the landowners, the church, and […]
A member of the League for the Fifth International’s German section interviewed Thaer, a resident of Yarmouk, Syria’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, located in Damascus. He escaped the camp, currently besieged by the Assad regime’s forces, in December 2012. LFI: How is life in Yarmouk going now? Thaer: There are 125,000 residents in Yarmouk, and […]
By Marcus Halaby Causes that you are on record as supporting sometimes have a habit of following you around. And so it proved to be with the Syrian revolution in Tunisia. I didn’t, I might add, go to the World Social Forum in Tunis with the sole intention of attending events on Syria; probably like […]
Marcus Halaby analyses the great – and as yet uncompleted – Arab revolutions of 2011, debunking a number of myths and proving the relevance of Trotsky’s theory of permanent revolution today.
As the rival imperialist powers manoeuvre to gain an advantage from the mass uprising against Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship, Marcus Halaby examines the regime’s strategy and tactics as it struggles, if not for outright victory, then at least to cling on to some vestiges of its power. One of the historic claims to legitimacy of Ba’athism, […]
As sectarian militias roam the countryside seeking to drown the Syrian revolution in blood, Marcus Halaby argues that the only progressive solution is one based on class After the massacres in Houla on 25 May and in Qubair on 6 June, anyone on the left who still opposes the Syrian revolution should be treated […]
The Arab Spring of 2011 inspired millions around the world through its acts of heroism. But now the revolutions have stalled. In the spirit of solidarity with these movements and communist internationalism, Marcus Halaby takes a critical look at the far left in these countries and Syria in particular One of the most noticeable […]
The future of Syria is being fought out town by town as the resistance grows against Assad’s regime. Marcus Halaby looks at how imperialist governments are doing all they can to conservatise and control the Syrian revolution.
Despite president Bashar al-Assad’s promises not to shoot protesters, his regime has continued to kill civilians, most recently in Damascus and Homs. The Arab League’s week-long talks to produce a peace plan made his regime hypocritically issue an amnesty for those carrying arms. But the uprising itself remains largely unarmed, while most armed civilians belong […]
The Syrian uprising continues despite the murderous violence from the Assad regime, writes Marcus Halaby
SYRIAN security forces shot dead over 80 protesters on 22 April. They killed another 12 the next day, as the democracy movement attempted to bury its dead. President Bashar al-Assad has opened a river of blood between his regime and the people.