Tag: anarchists

Greater Middle East
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IFC

As the Assad regime and its Russian backers prepare an offensive to take Idlib, the last area of opposition control in Syria, the people of the northern province have been holding demonstrations, organized by the civil resistance, waving the Free Syria flag and calling on the world to act to prevent the impending massacre there. But dozens of Kurdish fighters who had fought in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in the US-backed campaign against ISIS, are now reported to have joined the regime offensive on Idlib. The SDF's civilian wing, the Syrian Democratic Council, has sent a delegation to Damascus to open talks on coming to accommodations with the Assad regime. Despite these overtures, the regime continues to reject any recognition of the Kurdish autonomous zone of Rojava. The Rojava Kurds have had to make very hard decisions. Despite their leftist politics, they allied with US imperialism against ISIS. They now appear to be closing ranks with the Assad regime—because Turkey, which wants to crush them, is backing the Free Syrian Army. Kurds and Arabs have been pitted against each other by the Great Powers. But just as the Kurds are likely to be betrayed by the US in a carve-up deal with Turkey now that ISIS is effectively defeated, they may similarly be betrayed by Assad once the FSA is defeated. (Photo: EA Worldview)

Greater Middle East
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Greek youth fight back

This book is a necessary corrective to the dominant perception—left, right and center—that the opposition in Syria are all jihadists and dictator Bashar Assad the best bet for "stability." Long a left-wing dissident in Assad's Syria, Saleh is a veteran of the dictator's prisons. Here, he traces the origins of the Syrian revolution to agony caused by the regime's "economic liberalization" (socialist phrases aside), describes the initially unarmed opposition's popular-democratic nature, and discusses the struggle to keep the Free Syrian Army accountable to this grassroots base after it became clear a military dimension to the revolution was necessary. He makes the case that the Assad regime can be termed "fascist" even by the most rigorous definition, and has been making good on its pledge to "burn the country" before ceding power. (Image: Haymarket Books)

The Caribbean
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Diego Alexander Pulgarin Ossa

 ABRAA group of Cuban anarchists announced "a new phase in the process of self-emancipation," with the opening of ABRA Social Center and Libertarian Library in Havana's Vedado district. This endeavor of the Alfredo López Libertarian Workshop (an anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist initiative launched in 2012, which forms part of the Anarchist Federation of the Caribbean and Central America), with the collaboration of allied collectives such as the Cuban Critical Observatory, seeks "to build an autonomous and sustainable space in today's Cuba."

Greater Middle East
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Basra electrical workers

The group Syria Solidarity New York City will feature a screening of the VICE/HBO film Assad's Syria, a documentary depicting life under brutal dictatorship and war conditions. Followed by a discussion with Malek Rasamny, a journalist and film-maker with experience on the ground in Syria. We will examine the causes of the refugee crisis, and what we as part of the world community can do to help. April 27, 6:30 PM at Word Up Community Book Shop, 2113 Amsterdam Ave. (at 165 St.), Washington Heights, New York City.. Syria Solidarity NYC also holds a Weekly Syria Peace Vigil every Friday at from 6-8 PM in Union Square Park.

Greater Middle East
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Women at Jiftlik clinic

The Turkish assault on Afrin has forced the enclave's Kurdish defenders into an alliance with the same Assad regime that is committing war crimes in Eastern Ghouta. This tragically poses an obstacle to any solidarity between the respective defenders of the besieged enclaves. But we in the West are faced with no such grim choices, and should be capable of a consistent position. Yet Noam Chomsky, who signed a statement in support of Afrin, has shamefully abetted Putin's propaganda portraying the repeated chemical attacks on Ghouta as "fake news." (Photo of Aleppo ruins from UNHCR)