Bashar al-Assad has fallen: 54 years of dictatorship has ended

The Syrian regime has collapsed like a house of cards. Completely unexpectedly, it has unraveled in less than two weeks: the army, the police, and the prisons built during 54 years of criminal dictatorship have collapsed. People in the cities have revolted, emptied the prisons, taken down statues of the dictator father and the dictator son. The prisoners of the dictatorship have been freed in a new Syria. Police officers and soldiers panicked and deserted en masse.

The offensive of the opposition coalition seemed incapable of changing the situation when it started only ten days ago. Their weapons and arsenal were nothing compared to those of the dictatorship, supported by Russia and Iran. The regime of Bashar al-Assad had thrown thousands of barrel bombs into defenseless neighborhoods, had gassed its own people with chemical weapons, had erected prisons that were massive torture chambers, which had their own crematoria as in Sednaya, had cut the vocal cords of singers and thrown them into rivers, had raped thousands of men and women, had bombed schools and hospitals.

This machine of hatred, terror and destruction was able to stand because of the support the dictatorships of Russia and Iran gave to Al-Assad for their own interests. The United States and Israel had indicated that they clearly preferred Al-Assad remaining in power rather than a revolutionary situation with the potential to destabilize the region. However, when the support of Tehran and Moscow weakened, the Syrian people saw the emperor naked and overthrew him. What occurred is not just a rebel military offensive; it has been a popular uprising. Daraa, the cradle of the revolution of March 2011, was liberated without waiting for the rebel columns to advance.

It was a surprise military action that triggered a rebellion and exposed the weakness of a security apparatus that seemed invincible. The Syrian regime was a pillar of stability in the entire region, which is why all governments in the region feared its fall. This is what the governments of Qatar, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Iran, Turkey, and Russia declared on Saturday, December 7, one day before Bashar’s flight, in a joint proclamation. Some attacked Al-Assad, others defended him; but none of them ever wanted the triumph of a revolution they could not control.

The fall of Al-Assad is good news for the peoples of the Middle East and the world. The bloody suppression of the Syrian revolution put a damper on the 2011 revolutionary process, for many years leaving the impression that Syrian and MENA freedom is impossible. In Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon and other countries, whenever workers of these countries rebelled, their local regime threatened them with “another Syria” – with another massacre.

The Syrian people and the opposition coalition have made their support for Palestine very clear. Also Hamas, unlike Hezbollah, had cut its ties with the murderous Syrian regime. No one can understand better than the Syrian people the ongoing genocide in Gaza because they have been under systematic bombardment, hunger and thirst sieges and massive displacement for 14 years. Aleppo was liberated with flags of the Syrian revolution and of Palestine. The rebels have already attacked Israeli positions in the occupied Golan, whereas the rotten and murderous Al-Assad regime never even fired a single bullet against Israel, even during the Gaza genocide. Only a free Syria could aid the Palestinian cause.

Israel had said and repeated throughout the revolution that it preferred Bashar al-Assad to remain in power, and in the last few days it has openly threatened the Syrian opposition. Al-Assad used the Palestinian cause for his own interests , but in reality, he was the best guardian of Israel’s northern border. He delayed retaliation against Israel after Israel’s attacks against the Iranian positions in Syria , briefly stating “We will respond when the time is right,” a promise unfulfilled for 54 years.

Most of the left around the world abandoned the Syrian revolution, anchored in the precepts of Stalinism and colonialism. These segments, masters of confusing the consciousness of the masses, continue to defend the undefendable: They will claim the existence of “good dictatorships” such as Syria, Iran and Russia – regimes which none of them would truly want to live under. These so-called “left” currents will continue to subscribe to a nonsensical logic of campism, where you can claim some regimes to be anti-imperialist and drowning their own people in blood is acceptable for these regimes. They have, on the one hand,, Putin’s propaganda, and on the other, the so-called anti-imperialist support of the fake left; such as Maduro (Venezuela), Daniel Ortega (Nicaragua), or Diaz-Canel (Cuba) on their side… but nothing they say holds up looking at what is happening in Syria. The only way to square their analysis with reality is to misrepresent it. 

The fall of Bashar is the triumph of the revolution that started in March 2011 as part of the revolutionary process that began in Tunisia and toppled dictatorships of more than 30 years of existence.

The Syrian revolution is not a bed of roses. No revolution is. There are many challenges ahead. At the moment, the Islamists of HTS, who have led the coalition that led the military offensive, and the Kurdish political leadership PYD are in talks about the future of Syria. Only a Syria which recognizes the right of self-determination of all its peoples can be a free and democratic country.

As the IWU-FI, we have always supported the Syrian revolution and have been part of this struggle together with the Syrian left. However, we do not trust the political leanings of neither the HTS nor the PYD. The ultimate solution remains to be the continuation of  the struggle for a Socialist Syria under a government of the working class and popular sectors. We support and stand in solidarity with the Syrian people and this first revolutionary triumph they achieved by toppling the regime.

The crocodile tears from Stalinism and the reformist left criticizing the Syrian revolution for its leadership have no place now. The voices of the left in Syria had been silenced with the active complicity of this blind and campist international left. We, as the IWU-FI, believe that the Syrian left that is today in exile and with whom we have had the honor of working side by side, will play an essential role in the struggle for the construction of a new Syria.

The recent events that have overturned the map of Syria can only be understood from this approach: On the one hand, the collapse of a decayed regime that has lost its social base and that has only maintained itself with the military support of external forces; on the other, the military advance of a political coalition that, alongside all of its reactionary characteristics, reflects in a distorted way the legitimate demand of the people for the overthrow of the dictatorship.  We have great political differences with HTS (the group that has led within the coalition the military offensive), with the rebels under the patronage of the Erdoğan administration and with the Kurdish leadership (PYD). However, we also have significant differences with Hamas, and this does not lead us to detract one iota of support from the Palestinian people. Similarly, with the dictator Bashar Al-Assad out of power, the struggle enters a new phase: fighting, among other demands, to guarantee full democratic freedoms, for the withdrawal of all foreign military forces and for the realization of social demands against capitalist-imperialist exploitation.

Long live the Syrian revolution!

Long live Solidarity among the peoples!

From the river to the sea Palestine will be free!

International Workers’ Unity – Fourth International (IWU-FI)

8 December 2024