Syria: Pakistan socialists condemn the impending US-led bombing

[For more left statements on the crisis in Syria, and more coverage, click HERE.]

September 6, 2013 – Statement by the Awami Workers Party, Pakistan

We condemn the impending us bombing of Syria and the hypocrisy of the Pakistani government – including the armed forces – which claim to be against such aggression but themselves pander to the dictates of imperialist powers. We similarly reject the claims of right-wing parties that are parading themselves as committed anti-imperialists, both in Pakistan and around the Muslim world. In fact such parties have enjoyed a consensual relationship with imperialist powers and ruling classes in Muslim countries to the detriment of the left.

It is now a well-established fact that the Americans and NATO have been patronising the worst jihadi elements in Syria to destabilise the Assad regime, and have now resolved to follow this up with air strikes across that country. Such antics prove that imperialist powers, no matter what rhetoric they employ, are committed only to their narrow geostrategic interests and will ally with whomever will serve these interests. Only in a world free from imperialism in all its forms can there be substantive democracy and freedom from oppression and want.

We affirm that the Syrian people have every right to oppose, and even depose, the Assad dictatorship. But bombing Syria will only push that country closer to uninhibited civil war and strengthen anti-people forces on both the government and rebel sides of the conflict. In such conflicts it is the most vulnerable elements in society who suffer the most, particularly women and children. This is why there can be no question of even democratic forces condoning military strikes.

It has been almost a decade since the invasion and occupation of Iraq under the false pretext that the Saddam regime possessed weapons of mass destruction. Yet another lie has been concocted by the US establishment and the corporate media to justify the bombing of Syria, and the so-called "international community" is unwilling to take a firm stand against the warmongers. Our party remains clear that only a genuine anti-imperialist bloc of countries can resist the aggression of Washington and its junior partners, and it is up to anti-imperialists in all parts of the world to close ranks to build such an alternative bloc of countries. We welcome the efforts of Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Russia that have been the only states to openly oppose the imminent military action.

As for our own country: we harbour no pretensions about the posture of our ruling classes, and in particular our armed forces, which have been loyal servants of the Empire since the very inception of the state. In the current conjuncture, contradictions between imperialist powers, the religious right and our own military establishment have been exposed for the world to see. None of these forces –- and the establishment most of all –- will ever act in the interest of working people. This is why we oppose them and reject their hollow slogans regarding the rights of the Syrian people.

Signed Abid Hasan Minto, president

Fanoos Gujjar, chairperson

Farooq Tariq, general secretary