really offsets
in Syria I there's obviously a lot of
questions about who the rebels are where
they represent there's multiple factions
the rebels we all know that
there certainly is al Qaeda Islamic
militant group is also
I moderates there's liberals there's
progress is there's members have
defected from the Syrian government %uh
there's a number of different
actors but what you might not know on
what might surprise many views that a
significant part
the routes to the grassroots uprising
against
the Assad government and a group that is
still playing an active role
the formation of a new Syrian politics
are syrian energy asx:
and at Strutz out
caught up with a leader for the Syrian
anarchists are syrian anarchist
organizer
writer named I excuse me
roses his name is and needy year
me dear a Tassie and he's a political
a researcher and writer is originally
from homes and Syria
and currently splits his time to the
United States and beirut runs a blog
called
darth nader which reflects on the Syrian
Revolution
I any said some really interesting
things first about
the role that anarchists have played in
the formation of the uprising in Syria
and basically the Syrian anarchists
what allow them to start organizing
was some restrictions that the Assad
government relaxed several years ago
not for protests against the Assad
government or the state but for protests
arm against around the US occupation
invasion of Iraq
and solidarity with the Palestinians so
anarchists started organizing a college
campuses and Syria
around these issues and %uh connected
them
with opposition to Assad so that's or
some other kind of political contacts
that they come from
and he basically explains that the real
point I think this is so fascinating
because in some ways here is a template
for everything right now
you have a Assad government which really
is in some respects it kinda was
classically fascist typeof regime I'll
bath this were inspired by to tell Terry
in regimes
Europe there's a brand that so that
along with the kind of
cronies sxe small-scale capitalist
state I a lot of self a basic lease
market self-enrichment cronyism with a
fascistic a political structure then you
have these broad-based movements which
include the rise in islamic militancy in
groups like al-qaeda
then you just have people from the
regime who don't a sport anymore the
have
liberals then you have the client state
to mention the proxy word to mention
that Syria is just a place for
other nations to project their interests
on Russia Iran the United States the
Gulf
Israel whatever proxy work upon
and what atari the same is that
a ta6 his people to see things that
anarchists want
genuine self-determination they don't
just even mute the mic
at the national level to Anika sleep
talking about a micro level politics
there
organizing in certain areas that are
liberated where they have some power
they're talking about community
decision-making
they're talking about collective forms
of governance
and multiple forms of self-expression so
he says week we oppose
Assad because he wants totalizing
control our identities and we oppose
are the islamic fundamentalist because
they also see
one-way a of controlling
and governing and and conforming Syrian
society
so I think basically he says
this is about the centralization it's
about radical self determination not
just at a national level but even at a
localised level
I think this is fascinating because
you're seeing some parallels here the
politics he's talking about
in this incredibly violent and dangerous
environment to
what people when they're occupier
something are called out for being
utopian and practical all these people
are trying to implement this politics
I invited the most dangerous zones
in the planet right now I so he he goes
on
I he talks about why it's false to see
the opposition is a binary
are just between the the Syrian regime
are
and and and and other rebel forces
opposed to a size that the movement
opposing Assad is much more
arm is much broader and he actually
talks about a city that
called your broad which is halfway
between damascus and homes
and his quote in his the quote Syrian
uprisings commune also a model sectarian
coexistence
and a model for Tana me and
self-governance
fascinating and there's a YouTube video
that accompanies it I recommend a really
watch
moving on the asking about US
intervention and he basically says the
problem with US intervention was that it
would be a
a it wouldn't change that much on the
ground that it would be a propaganda
coup for the government
to assert that they're fighting against
imperialist when really they're just the
patron of a different imperialist
interests
are in Syria are so he was very critical
the idea attacks in Syria
arm and has said there's not much that
can be done from his viewpoint to
intervene one way or another in Syria
from his energies viewpoint
though he did say that what he would
want some people in the left outside of
Syria
is he says and I'm just gonna read this
to wrap this up
for people outside stuff in terms of
pool have material support there's very
little that can be done
the only thing I think that is possible
in a large is a large-scale discursive
an intellectual support
the left has been very hostile to the
Syrian uprising treating the worst
elements anti-regime activists as if
they were all the only elements of it
and accepting the regime's narrative at
face value this is what I've been
objecting to so strenuously
and everybody on the show's been up to
objecting to what asked people do is
help set the record straight
and show their element to the Syrian
uprising that are worth supporting
help break that harmful binary decision
between Assad are al Qaeda
Assad at US imperialism be hit be fair
to the history in sacrifices that the
Syrian
people by giving it an accurate account
perhaps it's too late
the hegemonic narratives are too
powerful in the present to overcome
but if people start maybe the history
books can at least be fair
I think that's why the most moving
statements that I've ever read about
this conflict and frankly
I actually choked up a little bit when I
was reading this and I
there are people on the ground there
fighting against every sort of odds
because they're fighting
basically against every political
economic health ology imaginable
and they deserve our accounting and our
support
