Author: Alliance of Middle Eastern Socialists

Facebook Livestream Dialogue between Chinese, Algerian, Sudanese, Iranian, Venezuelan and U.S. Labor Activists on International Labor Solidarity.

As the Indian government resorts to annexation of the state of Jammu and Kashmir at gunpoint, detaining its political leaders and cutting off all means of communication, we extend our solidarity to the people of Jammu and Kashmir as they

This Facebook event will happen on Saturday, August 3, 2019, 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Geneva time.

A Dialogue Between Venezuelan, Syrian and Iranian Socialists on the Challenges of Offering an Emancipatory Internationalist Alternative to Imperialism, Capitalism, Sexism and Racism. Sunday July 21, 2019, 6:00-8:30 p.m. Geneva Time.

What sparked these latest uprisings, and what has made them so successful thus far? What are the balance of forces today in Algeria and Sudan? And what has changed since 2011 that may allow for a different outcome than the bleak reality we have seen across the Middle East for the past six years?

Critical developments around the globe compel the creation of a new type of transnational socialist and anti-authoritarian solidarity network.

We, the Alliance of Middle Eastern Socialists, support the ongoing uprising which erupted across Sudan starting December 19th, 2018. The protests were set off by the lifting of subsidies on bread, wheat, and electricity as well as spiking inflation. The United Nations Development Program has estimated that nearly half of the population, i.e. 20 million, live below the poverty line. However, their demands go much deeper and call for the downfall of the regime of Omar al-Bashir because of its decades of economic, political, and social repression. The dictator al-Bashir was also on the verge of obtaining constitutional amendments allowing him to run in the presidential election in 2020.

Donald Trump’s sudden decision to withdraw 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria is a green light to Recep Tayyip Erdogan to decimate the Kurds in what remains of Rojava in northern Syria. Earlier this year, Turkey invaded the Afrin area with the assistance of Syrian reactionary armed opposition groups, leading to the forced displacement of large sections of Afrin’s Kurdish population and continuous violations of the human rights of the local population.

Below we print a summary of a longer article by two Iranian socialists who are opposed to Iran’s military intervention in Syria.  Their article is followed by a response from Frieda Afary and Joseph Daher.

Five years after the beginning of the popular Syrian Revolution which demanded democracy and human rights, the Syrian revolutionaries have been decimated through the combined military force of the Assad Regime, the Iranian regime with its sectarian militias, Russian air strikes and military assistance on the one hand, and the ultra-terrorist ISIS and other Salafist – Jihadist organizations on the other hand.   Nevertheless a partial reduction of airstrikes by Russia and the Assad regime in early March led to an immediate revival of mass protests of the democratic opposition across the country with banners such as the following in Idlib:  “Our peaceful revolution is still in progress until toppling Assad and imposing justice all over Syria.”