They're not only fleeing Assad. They're fleeing ISIS and US and Saudi
bombing.
Miriam
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From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Roger Loran
Bailey (Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Sunday, September 20, 2015 11:53 AM
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Subject: [blind-democracy] Solidarity with Syrian toilers,, refugees key for
working class
http://themilitant.com/2015/7934/793420.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 79/No. 34 September 28, 2015
(front page, editorial)
Solidarity with Syrian toilers,
refugees key for working class
Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees, fleeing slaughter at the hands of
the Bashar al-Assad regime, are facing riot police, razor wire fences and
other dehumanizing treatment on the part of the continent's capitalist
rulers.
It's a pressing question for the working class today to fight to organize
these men and women as part of the class struggle, in whatever country they
end up. Organize all workers into the unions! Fight for government-funded
programs to provide jobs at union wages for native-born and refugees alike,
building infrastructure, schools, hospitals and other things workers need.
Fight against the rulers'
attempts to criminalize or deny civic rights to refugees and other
immigrants! No to discrimination and thuggery, whether at the hands of the
border patrol or rightist gangs!
The labor officialdom in the United States and the different capitalist
countries in Europe have refused to carry out the fight for working-class
unity over decades, instead joining with each of their bosses' governments
in advancing a nationalist and protectionist course.
Workers everywhere have to chart a new road forward.
It's different than a general call to "open the borders," as an editorial in
last week's Militant put forward. That's a utopian demand, and, if adopted
under capitalist rule, would lead to increased competition among workers,
unemployment, lower wages and social misery.
Workers worldwide also need to extend the hand of solidarity to the
embattled people in Syria, the vast majority of whom, including most workers
and farmers, remain within the country or have been forced to seek refuge in
surrounding nations. Nearly 8 million are displaced inside the war-torn
country; another 4 million are in Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and elsewhere in
the region.
Demand an end to the brutal assaults of the Assad government and other
enemies of the toilers in the region.
The one place in Syria where the masses have produced a capable fighting
force and successfully defended themselves is in the Kurdish-dominated
areas, where they have beaten back Assad's army and Islamic State alike.
Workers around the world need to back the Kurds' struggle for national
rights and a homeland and oppose assaults against them by the rulers of
Syria and Turkey, backed by Washington.
The crisis in Syria is a product of the defeat of the 2011 uprising against
the Assad regime, and its continuing slaughter in the years since; the
emergence of the reactionary Islamic State in both Syria and Iraq, filling a
vacuum of working-class leadership left by decades of betrayals by Stalinist
and nationalist misleaderships; and the effects of Washington's wars and
occupation of Iraq.
It is exacerbated by the unraveling of the imperialist order forged by the
victors of the two World Wars, principally Washington, and the efforts of
the imperialist rulers and capitalist governments in the region today to
maintain a grip. It is accelerated by the Barack Obama administration's
drive to seek a strategic accommodation with Moscow and Tehran in Syria,
Ukraine and elsewhere with the futile hope of achieving stability for U.S.
imperialism in the Mideast and beyond.
It's through fighting for working-class solidarity and organization - in the
U.S., the Mideast and across Europe - that working people can begin to break
with the capitalist rulers and organize ourselves politically, advancing the
interests of all the toilers on the road toward taking power out of the
hands of the capitalist exploiters and war makers.
Related articles:
Assad's war creates refugee crisis in Syria, Europe
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