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This motion was passed unanimously at the recent CPGB-ML party congress
This congress salutes the people and leaders of Syria in their continuing resistance to the murderous islamist rebellion fomented by the West, and sends its congratulations to the Syrian army for the strenuous measures it has been undertaking in Aleppo and elsewhere against the armed rebellion and its foreign auxiliaries.
Congress denounces the vicious imperialist meddling in Syria’s internal affairs, which has for its goal the forcible removal of Syria’s president and the sectarian destruction of Syria’s unity and independence.
Congress further denounces the role played by Turkey in providing the rebels with a military base area, the role played by Saudi Arabia and Qatar in arming and funding the insurgency, and above all the barely-concealed imperialist, primarily US imperialist, hand that lies behind the proxy war being fought out by the incompetent thugs of the misnamed ‘Free Syria Army’ (FSA).
In particular, this congress denounces the pipsqueak British foreign minister William Hague’s recent proposal to funnel “humanitarian aid” through the FSA.
This congress applauds the steadfast refusal of both Moscow and Beijing to aid and abet the West’s criminal adventure in Syria, and congratulates them on having decisively wrested the diplomatic initiative from the warmongers, leaving imperialism without a fig-leaf to camouflage its warlike intentions.
This congress notes with satisfaction the declaration by Iran’s envoy Saeed Jalili that Iran stands with her neighbour in an “axis of resistance” which cannot be broken, and urges British workers to likewise stand shoulder to shoulder with Syria in our own unbreakable “axis of resistance”.
This congress reaffirms its belief that an anti-imperialist victory for Syria will in turn weaken imperialism’s axis of oppression – a welcome setback not least for our own British imperialist ruling class.
Congress therefore calls on workers in Britain to refuse to cooperate with the criminal aggression against Syria, whether by fighting directly, making or transporting arms, or assisting in the broadcast of slander and lies demonising the Syrian leadership, and resolves to do all in its power to spread awareness of the need for such active non-cooperation.
Victory to Syria!
Victory to President Assad!
Death to imperialism!
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From the International Report delivered to the CPGB-ML’s central committee on 3 December
The Arab League has allowed itself to be persuaded to announce sanctions against Syria, as have Turkey and Jordan. Syria has been expelled from the Arab League, and international sanctions are in place designed to make sure it is unable to export its oil or import essentials.
The justification for these sanctions is supposedly that the Syrian regime is ‘killing its own people’, which is especially rich coming from the likes of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, which have both been drowning the Bahraini protesters in blood.
China and Russia are resisting allowing any resolution to pass the UN Security Council that opens the way for military intervention in Syria by imperialist forces, but it is clear that the so-called ‘rebels’ in Syria are being given armaments and military support from outside.
On 20 November, the so-called ‘Free Syrian Army’ launched a rocket-propelled grenade attack on the headquarters of the ruling Arab Ba’ath Socialist Party in the heart of Damascus. Three days earlier they had attacked an air force intelligence complex in a Damascus suburb.
The myth of ‘peaceful protesters’ has been well and truly exploded – and it turns out that most of them are not even Syrian!
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From the International Report delivered to the CPGB-ML’s central committee on 3 December
It has been admitted, not that it wasn’t already known, in the report (arranged by the king) of an independent commission into the uprising in Bahrain that the country’s security forces used disproportionate force and resorted to torture to extract forced confessions from detainees.
The report admitted that 35 people died during the protests, including five security personnel, while five detainees were tortured to death. Other detainees endured electric shocks and were beaten with rubber hoses and wires. Hundreds of people were also injured.
The purpose of this ‘independent’ report is to scapegoat “rogue elements” in respect of the violent abuses of human rights that were displayed for all to see on TV screens all over the world. This scapegoating will then allow the fascistic Bahraini monarchic government to present itself as a ‘respectable’ member of the ‘international community’ as it prepares aggression against Syria – supposedly in the interests of the ‘human rights’ that were so clearly flouted in Bahrain, with the assistance of that other bastion of Arab ‘democracy’ Saudi Arabia.
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From the International Report delivered to the CPGB-ML’s central committee on 5 November
The bellicose rhetoric of US imperialism and its allies against Iran, which became somewhat muted during the Arab spring has now been taken up again at an even more hysterical level.
In October, the US claimed to have uncovered a failed plot on the part of Iran to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the US on US soil. This alleged plot is strenuously denied by Tehran, and even most bourgeois press reports are skeptical about its likelihood.
Having mounted this absurd aunt sally, the US regime has gone on to demand that UN nuclear inspectors release classified intelligence information showing Iran is designing and experimenting with nuclear weapons technology, obviously hoping to set up another ‘weapons of mass destruction’ hue and cry (which is rich coming from a country that has been supplying the thermobaric bombs deployed in Afghanistan and Libya).
What the US expects to get from this is greater enforcement of sanctions against Iran on the part of countries desperate for trade with Iran (or anywhere else). By strict enforcement of banking transactions US imperialism hopes to bring Iran’s oil exports to a complete halt, which could cause such hardship to the people that regime change might come about through popular discontent. Failing that, tighter sanctions can be expected to weaken Iran considerably, as happened to Iraq, preparing the ground for imperialist military intervention of one kind or another.
In Britain, Ofcom has contributed to the aggression by closing down Press TV. The latest news is that “Britain’s armed forces are stepping up their contingency planning for potential military action against Iran amid mounting concern about Tehran’s nuclear enrichment programme …
“The Ministry of Defence believes the US may decide to fast-forward plans for targeted missile strikes at some key Iranian facilities. British officials say that if Washington presses ahead it will seek, and receive, UK military help for any mission, despite some deep reservations within the coalition government.” (Guardian, 3 November 2011)
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From the International Report delivered to the CPGB-ML’s central committee on 5 November
Having with the help of the Saudi army put down the Arab spring protests of the downtrodden masses of Bahrain, the authorities, who were clearly terrified by the popular uprising, are now turning on anti-government activists quite literally with a vengeance.
In a country whose population is only half a million, 34 people have been killed, over 1,400 have been arrested and 3,600 have been fired from their jobs. Those arrested have been subjected to torture, of which four have already died. Among those arrested were dozens of doctors and nurses from the Salmaniya Medical Complex (Bahrain’s largest public hospital), who have been sentenced to terms of imprisonment between five and 15 years for treating demonstrators wounded by violent attempts to disperse them. Eight prominent protest leaders have been sentenced to life imprisonment.
The sentencing of medical personnel is all part of a government campaign to deny medical treatment to anybody injured in the ongoing and growing protests. However, the punishment meted out to the doctors and nurses so clearly exposes the fascistic nature of a regime that western imperialism is anxious to support that pressure has been brought on the Bahraini government to back down. As a result, it has announced that the cases are to be re-tried.
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From the International Report delivered to the CPGB-ML’s central committee on 1 October
At long last Saudi women are to have the right to vote and to run in municipal elections. It is a start, as the medieval regime struggles to maintain its authority against the tide of the Arab spring.
However, as well as continuing to be barred from state elections and office, women have to have their male relatives’ permission not only to stand but even to vote. And this reform is not due to be implemented until 2015. Fathers or husbands still control whether women can travel, work, receive health care, attend school or start a business.
The ban on driving or going out in public without male chaperones remains. Women lawyers are not allowed to appear in court, and a reform proposed recently to permit female shop assistants to be employed for the sale of women’s undergarments was abandoned as a step too far.
