It was announced that the United States would be ready for an attack on Syria which could be imminent. To do this they have several warships and submarines in the Mediterranean armed with cruise missiles and aircraft at various bases in the area with the capacity to bomb Syrian territory. They would count with the backing of Britain, France, some Arab governments (Saudi Arabia, Qatar) and Turkey. They would perform this action on the grounds that the Syrian regime is “unconscionable” for using “chemical weapons”.

We are witnessing a new farce of “humanitarian intervention” for the use of “weapons of mass destruction”, as if the chemical slaughter were qualitatively more serious than the more than 100,000 killed by the regime’s conventional bombs during the last two years in the popular neighbourhoods of Homs, Damascus and Aleppo. United States and Israel do not have an option to ensure its control, neither the regime nor a “moderate” wing of the opposition; therefore, the aim of the intervention is not to overthrow Bashar or to destabilize the balance of forces in the war – the goal is to continue the destruction of Syria.

According to media reports, the stated objective of the bombing would not be to overthrow Bashar al-Assad, but only to “punish him” for the use of chemical weapons with a few days of bombing and a ground invasion is not expected. It is not indicated what they will do to not strongly affect the civilian population, bearing in mind they will use Tomahawk missiles which use depleted uranium.

Moreover, the immediate political effect within Syria will be confusion and may even strengthen the dictatorship, giving them arguments to massacre opponents in the name of a false “anti-imperialist national resistance”. This also contributes to the confusion sown by the “Chavism” and the government of Venezuela, which will use this intervention to continue giving its backing to the butcher Bashar al-Assad.

In the two years of civil war, the U.S. and European imperialism has maintained a partial “blockade” to the entry of weapons for the Syrian rebels. And they have especially prevented the entry of heavy weapons and armour. While there is no blockade to the heavy weapons and all kinds that Putin, the Russian government and Iran send in support of the Syrian dictator. So it is totally unequal war between the Syrian army, which has all kinds of weapons, including missiles, aircraft, helicopters and armoured vehicles, provided by Russia (which also has a naval base in Syria), and the rebels who have only light weapons, others taken from the enemy in combat and some self-made weapons. The villages and neighbourhoods have to endure permanently rebel bombings from airplanes or missiles, against which they cannot defend themselves.

With the announcement of the bombing by the United States, we are totally clear: we condemn any military action or imperialist bombing in Syria, both by the United States, supported by NATO, as well as we condemn the Russian military intervention and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah. We revolutionary socialists repudiate all criminal actions of the dictator Bashar al-Assad, including the genocidal action of using poison gas on the people. We are against the Syrian dictatorship and support the rebel people’s struggle for its overthrow.

But we reject the idea that it is imperialism who intends to assume a “humanitarian” posture when they are those who have always supported all kinds of dictators, including the Syrian regime, until recently praised by those who now threaten it. All imperialist military intervention has always served to seek to oppress the peoples of the world. In this case, they would intervene to indicate that they are the global cop and to try to influence a future negotiated solution to the conflict (Geneva conference), seeking to prevent the triumph of the revolution of the rebel Syrian people. And to continue supporting the Zionist state of Israel against the Palestinian people struggling for liberation. Not surprisingly the regime of al-Assad has bolstered Israel’s northern border and has never lifted a finger to regain the Golan Heights, occupied since 1967.

We support the rebel people, the workers and young Syrians who fight and give their lives against the dictatorship. But we do not put any trust in the politics of Syrian National Coalition of Syria (NCS) or the staff of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which are monopolized by forces such as the Muslim Brotherhood, and supported by pro-imperialist governments like Qatar and Turkey, which currently endorse and call for imperialist military intervention. Moreover, the strengthening of radical Islamist forces in recent months (Al-Nusra Front, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, and others), is a consequence of attempts by Gulf countries and Turkey to corrupt and divide the revolution. Their strength comes not from popular support of the Syrian people, but from the economic and military aid from the Gulf States. The attacks of these groups against Kurdish and FSA battalions, their authoritarian and sectarian practices against the Syrian people have shown their reactionary nature. The main task of the world left is to support the Syrian masses which rose up against the dictatorial regime of al-Assad, and help in every way the Syrian revolutionary Marxists in their task of building a revolutionary party on the ground.

We call on the Arab and Turkish peoples to mobilize to repudiate the imperialist intervention and in support of the rebel Syrian people, demanding that their governments do not cooperate with the imperialist attack. Weapons for the revolution! Material support for the rebel people, without any conditions! Including heavy weapons and anti-aircraft weapons requested by the rebel Syrian people to overthrow the dictator al-Assad. We call on trade unions around the world, but especially those from Greece, Turkey and Cyprus, to demand that no ship or aircraft of imperialism use the military bases in those countries.

Stop U.S. imperialist intervention in Syria!

Down with the military support of Russia and Iran to the dictator!

Long live the struggle of the Syrian people against the dictatorship!

Down with the al-Assad dictatorship!

Coordination Committee IWU-FI / ILC
International Workers’ Union – Fourth International / International Liaison Committee (Workers Front, Turkey; Internationalist Struggle, Spain)

August 29, 2013