The Syrian revolution started off as a bottom-up, working class uprising from the peripheries organised through local coordination committees. They set up local councils throughout the liberated areas that coordinated to provide services in the absence of a state.
They actually experienced life without the state, and they thrived. They were the living proof that not only can it be done, but that it can be fun and meaningful. Libraries, clinics, hospitals, schools, soup kitchens and more - all organised by the people who belonged to their communities.
There’s nothing romantic about all of this. There were challenges, ups and downs, loads of failures, but also an extraordinary amount of successes. The anarchist Omar Aziz pointed out, correctly, that Syrians lasted more than the Paris commune.

The first thing ppl did once the regime collapsed was liberate the prisons. Carcerality was widely understood as a core component of the regime’s apparatus. He couldn’t just kill everyone every day on the streets. He had to forcibly disappear and kill 100,000s to break communities. And he failed.
As an anarchist I believe that any effort, however flawed, that contributes to a freer world ought to be supported, even if critically. This is why I believe that the Left, broadly speaking, almost everywhere, failed Syrians.
In the 13 years since 2011, as the prisons continued to be filled and turned into the living hells we saw in Saydnaya, the global anti-carceral movement largely ignored Syria. The Western pro-Palestine movement attacked and condemned Syrians and Syrian-Palestinians for revolting against Assad.
The absolute minimum right now is for everyone who failed to listen when the screams were at their loudest - when Aleppo fell, when Homs was decimated, when Daraya was emptied, when Yarmouk was starved, when Daraa’s kids were tortured, when Ghouta was gassed - to be humble and reflect.

There is now a lot of interest in making sure that what comes after Assad is chaotic. The Gulf does not want democracy in the Arab world. Israel and the USA do not want democracy in the Arab world. Turkey, Russia, Iran neither. The Egyptian military dictatorship? Same.
That’s not even including problems from within. The Assad regime annihilated the organised Left over decades, decimated the unions. They sectarianized the population to divide it. The challenges ahead are herculean, but it doesn’t mean that they can’t be overcome.
Again, these are the people who created the local councils and local coordination committees while Assad and Iran and Russia and Hezbollah were besieging, bombing, gassing, torturing and disappearing them. They held elections in hundreds of villages and towns
Pity and charity are not what’s needed here. Pointless ‘I hope it doesn’t get worse’ comments are useless at best and at worst insulting to those who suffered under Assad. Worse than a toddler born of rape in Saydnaya prison? Bodies crushed to be disposed of in mass graves? You monsters.

Samir Kassir understood this long ago. Freedom in Syria is tied to freedom in Palestine is tied to freedom in Lebanon (etc etc). He was just a journalist and a historian and yet so dangerous that he was the *first* to be assassinated by Assad in Lebanon after the prime minister Hariri was killed.

Assad could have killed other politicians with Hezbollah’s help, as he did to Hariri, but no he went for the journalist. Who was the 2nd person killed after Kassir? George Hawi, the ex leader of the Lebanese Communist Party. They were creating a new movement together.
As in Syria, any real alternative to the status quo was assassinated or disappeared in Lebanon. And in both Syria and Lebanon any Palestinian who dared link Palestinian freedom to the freedom of Lebanese and Syrians was pursued with the full savagery of the state. Kassir was all 3 identities.
But what the Assadists did in Lebanon was always a fraction of what they did in Syria. In Lebanon we also knew their Shabbiha well. I was a kid but I remember Assad’s thugs - and that was nothing compared to what they did in Syria.

There are a lot of lessons to learn from what Syrians have gone through. It’s a ridiculously rich and messy and complicated experience, and anyone anywhere can learn from it. Dictators can be toppled. States can be overcome. Imperialism can be defeated.

Elia Ayoub @ayoub@spore.social
Dec 13, 2024

Comments

anon (not verified) Fri, 12/20/2024 - 12:00

He recommended Lebanese in the u.s. vote for Kamala Harris.

That's not in itself a comment on whether his analysis holds up, but just worth pointing out.

anon (not verified) Fri, 12/20/2024 - 12:41

That's something of a red herring here. Is his account of events in Syria accurate?

anon (not verified) Fri, 12/20/2024 - 16:40

In reply to by anon (not verified)

I hadn't read the article when I commented (briefly skimmed, noted the anarchist self-ID). Having read it now, it's pretty much on point, though he & others have gone into much more detail elsewhere.

anon (not verified) Fri, 12/20/2024 - 16:45

"States can be overcome. Imperialism can be defeated."

Syria still has a state. A regime was toppled, not the state, which is just getting a new regime. Syria is still occupied by Israel, the US and Turkey, so imperialism was not even defeated in Syria yet, let alone everywhere else. Amazing how some anarchists operate on pure delusion and other anarchists just eat it up.

CalvinSmith (not verified) Fri, 12/20/2024 - 17:58

However, my skepticism is not about "it getting worse", but someone exactly like Assad filling the power vacuum.

This seems mostly inaccurate:

"The Gulf does not want democracy in the Arab world. Israel and the USA do not want democracy in the Arab world. Turkey, Russia, Iran neither. The Egyptian military dictatorship? Same."

Does Russia really care if they have democracy? Doesn't the Russian government consider itself a democracy (they have elections)?

The USA and Israel absolutely DO want their version of "democracy" in the arab world, and that's the whole reason the U.S. funds Israel: they would have little to no leverage in the middle east without Israel. You are praising the toppling of Assad, and it's really obvious that this is the outcome both the U.S. and Israel wanted, I'm really confused by this contradiction.

anon (not verified) Sat, 12/21/2024 - 06:47

Tthe topic is Syria, and the ongoing struggle of 100,000s who fight for freedom in the most incredible circumstances... .

America is not, i repeat: is not, the centre of the world... .

CalvinSmith (not verified) Sat, 12/21/2024 - 07:48

In reply to by anon (not verified)

the recent toppling of Assad is related to an ongoing civil war, and the U.S. and Israel were both part of that war.

Let's see how far we can go with this, actually discussing the topic...The article above seems to imply that the people who actually toppled Assad somehow have absolutely nothing to do with US/Israel. The writer also seems to angrily condemn anyone who doesn't agree with them:

"Pointless ‘I hope it doesn’t get worse’ comments are useless at best and at worst insulting to those who suffered under Assad. Worse than a toddler born of rape in Saydnaya prison? Bodies crushed to be disposed of in mass graves? You monsters"

I find this kind of binary/indignant logic to be pretty aggravating

anon (not verified) Sat, 12/21/2024 - 07:50

"There is now a lot of interest in making sure that what comes after Assad is chaotic. The Gulf does not want democracy in the Arab world. Israel and the USA do not want democracy in the Arab world. Turkey, Russia, Iran neither. The Egyptian military dictatorship? Same."

Fine... let's get Islamic fascist dictatorships instead, coz that'll be sooo much less bloody and repressive. Those women wearing black burkas are really anarchist comrades, and a Caliphate's about popular freedom despite what the Western JEWISH imperialists are saying, brah! Al Qaeda our new ally! (?)

CalvinSmith (not verified) Sat, 12/21/2024 - 14:34

In reply to by anon (not verified)

Was related to sufi mysticism, which has some things in common with liberal philosophies.

Earlier i mis-spoke: islam has the religious and ideological aspect in common with anarchism, but "islam" literally means "submission", and overall the religion is very similar to the old testament judaism. Anarchism is all about "no gods, no masters" if we're speaking seriously.

anon (not verified) Sat, 12/21/2024 - 18:12

In reply to by anon (not verified)

I'll accept Islam to anarchism the day a Muslim can accept the atheist hypothesis. Some Xians and Jews have... so why Muslims have a special privilege here?

CalvinSmith (not verified) Sat, 12/21/2024 - 20:16

In reply to by anon (not verified)

read a lot of the Quran, and overall the basic religious text is very simple: "obey". The whole thing is basically just Leviticus, a listing of regulations done in a droning and repetitive manner. The Bible is a lot larger and has a lot more diversity. Some of it is clearly authoritarian, but the violent stories of the Old Testament are kinda adventurous and cryptic, and the New Testament has many similarities to western anarchism (and these are honestly also common to boring liberal philosophy ideas):

-don't judge since you probably don't want to be judged yourself

-be nice to whores

-"i have not come to bring peace, but the sword" (if Jesus actually existed, then he clearly wanted to be a problem for both the jews and the romans, which reminds me of the typical anarchist attitude about conflict)

-the money isn't yours, it's the property of the emperor

However, the Quran is fairly similar to The Gospel and western ethics in terms of the emphasis on self defense as the only solid justification for killing (sorry extremists...you're going to hell). Also, the forgiveness aspect is important (which is kinda healthy and Nietzschean, but whether that's anarchist or not is questionable). However, one thing I notices is that there doesn't seem to be any instructions in The Bible for how to punish sinners, whereas in the Quran there are specific instructions for how to punish women and thieves. I think it's possible to interpret The Biblical references to hell as being anarchist, because it's saying that it doesn't really matter how successful the evil people are, their actions will still haunt them. The Quran says similar things about hell and infidels (non-believers), yet if there's a specific instruction for beating a wife or mutilating some crimthinc. kid, that doesn't seem to leave any room for interpretation...

The quran and the gospels are against inflicting any sort of harm against children though, which is kinda anarchist...

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