Above: the Israeli Offense Force invading Syria on December 12, photo by Matias Delacroix/AP
One of the biggest lessons from the destruction of Syria’s secular state is that it’s much too easy for bad actors to co-opt the pro-Palestine cause. The leftists who supported the destruction of Syria—and thereby the empowerment of the Zionist entity—can successfully present themselves within the media as Palestinian allies. This is a problem that the anti-imperialist movement must reckon with: because of how popular the pro-Palestine position is, the Palestinian cause is vulnerable to being warped by those who seek to promote imperialist goals. We’ve seen this with the “pro-Palestine, pro-Ukraine” rhetorical ploy. And when Turkey’s jihadist army uses its Syria victory to attempt more Uyghur terror attacks against China, we’ll see yet another version of it.
This tactic of feigning solidarity with Palestinians isn’t even something that’s exclusively utilized by the left; Trump has done this by performing a desire to bring peace for Palestine, then choosing genocidal maniacs for his cabinet. Erdogan, the Saudis, Egypt, Jordan’s king, the Democratic Party; all the actors which are right now most directly complicit in the genocide put forth statements about how upset they are about it. But there are limits to how well they can hide their hypocrisy, like there are limits to how well anti-Syria leftists can sell themselves as pro-Palestine.
Everybody who honestly looks at this situation can see the inconsistency in this stance; no one can argue that regime change in Syria hasn’t aided “Israel,” because the “Israeli” invasion in Syria is happening right there in front of us all. And given how the Zionist entity behaves whenever it feels it can get away with something, no doubt we’re also going to learn of how much Syria’s fall accelerated Palestine’s extermination. This expansion and escalation of the violence isn’t just happening in Palestine; “Israel” is testing to what extent it can violate the Lebanon ceasefire now that Hezbollah’s closest ally is gone. The entity and its Washington puppetmasters believe they’ve gained an unprecedented amount of impunity, and they’ll try to murder even more people than they would if Assad were still here. They’re preparing for a new campaign of slaughter in Lebanon; as well as for terroristic actions that will stretch all the way through Iraq, and into Iran.
These are the biggest ramifications of Syrian regime change, aside from the takeover by Al Qaeda and the triumph of Turkey’s neo-Ottoman regime. Everyone who’s looking at this in good faith sees how wrong the “Assad must go” camp was; how they put forth a promise of liberation and national dignity that hasn’t come true. All of the forces that this camp supported are trying to fully turn Syria into another Libya, with the former fighters in the Assad government’s army being the only ones who are actually working towards a better future. Will these anti-imperialist rebels win? Iran’s Khamenei has indicated he believes so. But for those of us who live outside of this struggle’s battle zones, there’s a responsibility to assist the rebellion. What we must do is build up a united front against the empire; an alliance of those who are truly principled in resisting the hegemon, and who will confront the genocidal war machine no matter the costs to themselves.
One of the most important parts of this coalition-building effort is the World Anti-Imperialist Platform, the formation that’s linked up numerous international communist groups. Last month, the Platform’s members in Dakar, Senegal put forth an analysis where they clarified something crucial about this moment: that the offensive we’re now seeing from the enemy is a reaction to the great gains the liberation forces have been making. Says the Dakar Declaration:
The revolutionary parties, workers and peoples of the world are faced with the task of overcoming the unprecedented crisis into which the capitalist-imperialist system has plunged humanity and of building a new era of based on peace, fraternity, liberation and self-determination. The imperialist camp’s drive towards all-out global war, backed up by the establishment of a “New Cold War” political, media and economic framework, is a reflection not of the strength but of the weakness and desperation of the imperialist system and its rulers. Our response must be to strengthen the anti-imperialist front and help to bring strength and clarity to the inevitable people’s uprisings. The imperialist countries are experiencing a serious political and economic crisis, with low approval ratings, corruption scandals, soaring government debt, high prices, and high unemployment. The more that they pursue war policies to escape this crisis, the deeper the crisis will become and the more intense will be the resistance of their people. The imperialist camp is caught in a trap with no way out.
This continues to be true following Syria’s fall. Now that Washington and its proxies are mobilizing to take advantage of the power vacuum, they’re facing the blowback from expanding their wars during a historical moment like this one. By invading Syria, the “Israeli” settler entity can only drive itself deeper into economic ruin, and thereby demographic decline. “Israel” will not be able to commit these violations against Syria without repercussions. The Assad-aligned army members are launching new attacks, and successfully picking off HTS members; this is just the start of a long-term fight for restored Syrian sovereignty, and it’s going to become yet another problem for the Zionists.
Meanwhile, capitalism’s crises threaten to consume the NATO powers that orchestrated Syria’s dismemberment. Erdogan’s latest act of betrayal towards Palestine has furthered Turkey’s internal social crisis; it’s provoked a Turkish working class that’s reeling from economic disaster, and that sees its government prioritizing war while assisting genocide. Class struggle will keep intensifying within Turkey, for a similar reason that it will in the United States: the masses aren’t willing to accept the imperial order’s continuation.
That’s why many in the USA have embraced MAGA: they see it as a way to dismantle the rule of banks and multinationals, which would let us build up our society’s wealth rather than focusing on foreign interventions. We communists in the United States must make it clear that we share this goal, and that we welcome anyone else who shares it. As Trump continues to betray his base, this is the role we’ll be able to take on: providing an alternative to the right’s false populism. As we build a mass anti-imperialist movement, and expand our united front, we’ll be able to escape the cycle of defeat which the compatible left has kept our movement in.
The U.S. class struggle has been held back for so long because it’s gotten diverted by opportunists; the same opportunists who’ve co-opted the pro-Palestine movement so that they can promote NATO propaganda. They’ve prevented the rise of a movement that can channel the people’s discontent, or seriously challenge capital’s war machine. But now we have an opportunity to put together such a force. The compatible left is not capable of preventing this; it represents a petty-bourgeois radical layer that’s propped up by our ruling class, and that can’t win over the broad masses.
If we can bring the people into the anti-imperialist project, we’ll be able to defeat the empire from within, and fulfill our part in the global liberation effort. This defeat in Syria must not deter us from this mission, but instead motivate us to strike back. And our enemy has many weaknesses, ones which the Syria situation’s fallout will soon expose.
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