On the StWC's statement regarding Agnes's 'withdrawal' from the Nov 30 conference

The withdrawal of Mother Agnes, but the lack of apology for the invitation, is understandable in view of the politics of Counterfire and the Stop The War Coalition. Having turned their backs on the revolution in Syria, because it occurs in a bloc not tied to American imperialism, they parody the position that Trotskyists take in the case of a sub-imperialist taking on a major imperialist power, that of military but not political support. But as there is no intervention by the West, their efforts have been to push the revolutionaries into Assad-prolonging negotiations all along, to maintain the fiction that America is the threat to Syrians rather than Bashar, the Russians & c., they have had to lie repeatedly about the situation that has developed. Thus the denial that the régime used chemical weapons in Eastern Ghouta (Lindsey German used to call even the régime's possession of chemical weapons "alleged"), the claim that the FSA is nothing but a US proxy force, without these untruths it would be clear that they are defending the indefensible. So on Mother Agnes they can't say they got it wrong, because once they admit that promoting Assad's line on the conflict is mistaken, they might have to justify why it is pretty much their line.