The New Worker
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 28th October 2011
OVER two million Syrians rallied in central Damascus on Wednesday to show their support for President Assad and their rejection of the imperialist-inspired terror gangs fighting to oust the his government.
The protesters, waving Syrian flags and brandishing pictures of Assad, marched into Omayyad square in the heart of the Syrian capital chanting “the people want Bashar al-Assad”.
They voiced support to the comprehensive reform programme led by President al Assad, expressing appreciation for the stand of Russia and China which supported Syria in facing the conspiracy hatched against it.
Then they raised a 500-metre long “family tree” with the photo of President Bashar al-Assad at its centre together with the Syrian flag and papers containing the names of Syrian citizens who signed with their blood their support for national unity and the rejection of all foreign interference in Syria’s affairs.
The mass rally was clearly timed to show a visiting Arab League delegation that the vast majority of the Syrian people were behind the Baathist-led popular front government and its official reform package.
Two weeks ago the Saudis and the Gulf oil princes convened an emergency meeting of the Arab League in Cairo to condemn the crackdown on the reactionary Syrian Muslim Brotherhood and other alleged “human rights” violations.
Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy where until last month women could be flogged for driving a car and the Gulf states are corrupt feudal oligarchies that live off oil profits and the backs of an army of immigrant workers who have no rights at all.
But these implausible defenders of “human rights” failed to kick Syria out of the League and they had to settle with the sending of a joint delegation to Damascus for talks on ways to promote “national dialogue” to end the violence. Though the League’s ministerial committee was led by Qatar, whose troops played a major part in the overthrow of the Gaddafi government in Libya, the delegation included the foreign ministers of Algeria, Egypt, Oman and Sudan as well as Arab League chief Nabil al Arabi.
But little will come from the Arab ministers’ mission because the anti-Assad opposition believe they can bring down the Assad government with the help of the imperialists and Arab reaction and they refuse to talk to the Syrian leadership.
smokescreen
The reactionary Arab move at the Arab League came days after imperialist plans to use the United Nations as a smokescreen for Libyan-style aggression against Syria were stopped in their tracks when Russia and People’s China vetoed a western motion at the UN Security Council.
Syria’s ambassador to the League, Youssef Ahmed, naturally told Arab ministers the timing of the meeting was “strange and suspicious”.
“We hope it is not connected in one way or another to the failure of the United States and its European allies against Syria in the Security Council, although we believe that to be the case,” he said. Meanwhile in Lebanon Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah underlined that Syria is a partner in the victories of the resistance movements in Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq, because it stood by them, adding: “Syria’s support was a decisive factor in these victories.”
“What is wanted from Syria today is not reforms or democracy but the fall of the resistant regime which rejected the US demands and supported the resistance against the new-Middle East Project,” Nasrallah declared on Lebanese TV on Monday.
He stressed that the majority of the Syrian people back the Syrian government’s reforms saying, “We have seen hundreds of thousands of Syrians taking to the streets in Aleppo and Damascus to express support to the reforms.
“What is wanted in Syria now is calm, going to the table of dialogue and co-operating in carrying out reforms? the interest of the nation, resistance and the Syrian people pour out in this direction.” Nasrallah said.