The Assad regime in Syria tries hard to conflate the democratic resistance to its fascist rule with the Daesh (ISIS) terrorists. The Syrian Freedom Charter is the latest proof of Assad’s slander. It is a national unity document based on tens of thousands of face-to-face interviews with Syrians, in every governorate of the country, about what kind of society they want. Meanwhile the ‘anti-imperialism’ of the so-called western left serves well the US administration’s Ditherer-in-Chief in failing to effectively support the pro-democracy anti-fascist forces. A genuine left-wing position is no different today than it was in the 1960s: we oppose the oppressors who drop barrel bombs on the people and we stand with the oppressed. We understand that ‘Wherever there is repression, there is resistance’.

As the old folk song put it: Which side are you on?

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