SYRIA

Syrian government escalates its attacks

by Peter Hogarth

Amid ongoing state violence, the Syrian democracy movement has forced concessions from the government, which has drafted a law allowing the creation of new political parties alongside the long-ruling Baath Party.

This move reflects the pressure of the ongoing demonstrations on president Bashar al-Assad. Massive demonstrations of people in Syria over the last five months have forced Assad to lift the decades-old emergency laws that gave the government power to make sweeping arrests without charge.

Assad has also dismissed the governor of the oil-producing province of Deir az-Zor after protests demanded his ousting.

Neither these concessions, nor the brutality with which the regime has dealt with demonstrators and activists, has slowed the momentum of the protests.

The Assad government has been unrelenting in its use of military force to crush the opposition. Syrian troops have stormed villages and rounded up civilians. According to the Syrian Observatory, 1,483 civilians are now confirmed dead in the government crackdown on dissent. However, the resistance of the people in Syria has continued to push back against this repression and win concessions.

Unlike in Tunisia and Egypt, where the demands for “the end of the regime” were heard on the first day of protests, in Syria, this slogan emerged only after the bloody suppression of demonstrations in the southern city of Deraa.

Also unlike Tunisia and Egypt, Syria has not seen the working class play a significant role in the struggle. The only strikes in Syria have been the city-wide strikes by merchants and shopkeepers in protest of Assad.

However, the Syrian movement has shown its strength of unity, its opposition to sectarian and ethnic divisions and opposition to Western-backed groups. If this can spread to the key cities of Damascus and Aleppo, there is a real potential for revolution in Syria.