Syria’s divided opposition and the West

2012-07-30 · first published in Counterfire · 183 words

This was not a Socialist Resistance publication. marxsite was Phil Hearse’s own long-form site, run alongside the paper he helped edit. It is kept here with his agreement, recovered from the Internet Archive after the domain lapsed and was taken over by someone else; nothing here links to the address it now points at.

As credited on the page: “link to counterfire.org”

Only part of this piece survives. The capture it was recovered from is truncated, so the text below stops before the article did.

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The question of revolutionary potential in Syria is not a question of whether a popular uprising exists independent of western imperial powers and their regional stooges. It is a question of the relative organisation and strength of each contending side, taking into account both state forces and imperialist forces.

The danger is that this effectively sidelines mass popular mobilisations. The Free Syrian Army (FSA) instructs Syrians to stay at home during fighting and reports suggest that thousands are fleeing the country as the civil war intensifies.

Divided opposition

Attempts by Local Coordinating Committees (LCCs) to act independently of the Syrian National Council (SNC) or the FSA have encountered difficulties, as evidenced by the failed surge to capture Damascus and Aleppo of recent days.