On Syria

Luna17

 Alex Snowden does one of the least bad accounts of Syria I've seen from the anti-revolution left. The first paragraph here is bang on; the answer to the second in the first instance is to support the demonstrations of Syrian revolutionaries rather than those who support Assad, as his organisation Counterfire has done. If they really believe that imperialism (Western, they don't seem to recognise any other type) is the main enemy in Syria right now, they should be showing open support for Assad's military, rather than pretending to be on the other side.

 "Seymour’s argument is that the internal class struggle inside Syria – regardless of any kind of imperialist dimension - is the ‘dominant antagonism’ here. Therefore the ‘strategic priority’ – the thing that dictates what we should ‘bend all of our words and efforts around’ – flows from recognising ‘the principal contradiction is the class struggle in Syria’’.

 What does this mean in terms of our practical activity in this country? I have no idea. But if ‘practical activity internationally, including antiwar activism, should be based on this understanding’ then we presumably shouldn’t be focusing our energies on campaigning to stop Western intervention. What we should be doing remains a mystery."