Global crises and global revolts
Shireen Akram-Boshar on multiple global crises and revolts, signalling rising popular rage against the neoliberal capitalist order
Syria – ‘The people want the fall of the regime!’
Large demonstrations have been taking place across Syria in recent weeks. While their scale has yet to reach the peaks seen in 2011, many are hopeful that the government will be brought down. We republish an interview with an Australian based Syrian leftist.
Revolt and reaction: lessons from the struggles in Sudan, Syria, and Palestine
Revolution and reaction in Sudan, Syria and Palestine.
The earthquake in Türkiye and Syria
Earlier this month southern Türkiye and northwest Syria were struck by two devastating earthquakes, a tragedy which is fundamentally political, affected by the fault lines of counterrevolution, authoritarianism, racism, and capitalism.
Syria, Palestine, Solidarity
Palestinian liberation is intimately tied to the liberation struggles of the entire region. Shireen Akram-Boshar argues that Palestine’s dynamic interdependence with the revolutionary struggle against Assad in Syria has important lessons.
Solidarity against the Turkish invasion
Turkey’s invasion of north-eastern Syria (Rojava) must be opposed with practical international solidarity, not with calls for the US to continue its War on Terror.
Film review: For Sama
A documentary film charts the siege of Aleppo and represents a new addition to the depressingly growing genre of ‘genocide documentaries’.
Citizenship deprivation at the nexus of race, gender and geopolitics
Counter-terrorism policing functions to help further advance, harden and normalise the security state in the name of national security.
None of them care about Syrian lives
Emma Wilde Botta and Shireen Akram-Boshar provide the background you need to understand the conflicts and consequences of Trump’s Syria withdrawal plan.
Favourites of 2018: rs21 reviewers recommend…
Our reviewers recommend the music, films, books, exhibitions and TV they discovered in 2018.
Understanding the Arab right #HM2018
Lisa L reports from a session at Historical Materialism conference that included perspectives on Lebanon, Morocco, Egypt and the Syrian civil war.
The Looming Massacre in Idlib
The regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad is threatening to carry out a massive assault on the province of Idlib, including a potential chemical weapons attack, in a bid to crush one of the last strongholds of opposition. Such an assault would have a potentially devastating impact on civilians, many of them refugees from the […]
Welcome to The Jungle
Colin Revolting and his son were moved to tears by the new play The Jungle, currently showing at the Playhouse Theatre in London’s West End.
Life at the frontier: Samos in 2018
A report from the Greek island of Samos, home to many refugees seeking to enter Europe.
Marooned at Moria: Europe’s suppressed migration crisis
A report from the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos.
Syria and US intervention
Listen to Omar Sabbour on the real nature of the US intervention in Syria and the implications for anti-imperialists and the left.
Syria is not exceptional: interview with Joseph Daher | Part 2
In part 2 of a new interview with rs21, Syrian-Swiss socialist Joseph Daher looks at the relationship between the Kurdish PYD and Arab Syrian movements
Syria is not exceptional: interview with Joseph Daher | Part 1
Syrian socialist author Joseph Daher discusses the nature of the Assad regime and the social basis of the uprising against it which began in 2011
Western bombs won’t ease Syrian suffering
The latest Western bombings of Syria will do nothing to improve the lot of civilians struggling for survival
‘But we will stand upright’ – migrant hunger strike in Athens
Migrants awaiting reunification with their families in accordance with EU law have been on hunger strike in Greece and Germany for several days. Ida-Sofie Picard and Will Searby report from Athens. The hunger strike in Syntagma square has been ongoing for eight days now. In Lesvos migrants have been on hunger strike for 15 days. […]
Review: ‘The Impossible Revolution’ in Syria
Lebanese writer Joey Ayoub reviews Yassin Al-Haj Saleh’s The Impossible Revolution: Making Sense of the Syrian Tragedy. Barely a year after the start of the Syrian revolution, in May of 2012, the intellectual and dissident Yassin Al-Haj Saleh was hiding somewhere in Damascus and writing an essay entitled ‘the rise of militant nihilism’. He had […]
A united front against US aggression: difficult but necessary
Rob Owen argues that revolutionaries need to engage with the anti-war movement that exists to build the one we need On Tuesday 4 April two U.S. warships fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at the Al Shayrat airfield in Syria. The airport was the base from which the Assad regime had carried out the Sarin gas attack […]
Support the Syrian people – not the USA or Russia
No imperialist power can improve the situation in Syria – only the Syrian revolution itself can secure lasting peace
The counterrevolution crushes Aleppo
The Syrian regime and its Russian ally are in the last barbaric stages of an onslaught against Aleppo. Below we republish Ashley Smith’s analysis from the SocialistWorker.org website in the US. THE COMBINED forces of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Russian air power and Iranian-backed Shia death squads are reconquering Eastern Aleppo, according to reports–and with it, the […]
Building an anti-war movement
Pete Cannell reflects on the debates surrounding Syria and suggests how we move forward.
The democratic wager: why the Left must support the Syrian Revolution
Nick Evans Reviews Jules Alford and Andy Wilson (eds.) Khiyana. Daesh, the Left and the Unmaking of the Syrian Revolution. Essays by Muhhamad Idrees Ahmad, Javaad Alipoor, Leila Al-Shami, Mark Boothroyd, Joseph Daher and Shiar Neyo, Sam Charles Hamad, Bodour Hassan, Michael Karadjis, Louis Proyect, Eyal Zisser. London: Unkant, 2016. 278 pp. £9.99. The title of this book means “betrayal”: […]
On cultural appropriation, from American Spirit to Palmyra
While symbols and their deployment undoubtedly structure our experience, Charlie Jarsve argues that power relations have a materiality that an uncritical understanding of ‘cultural appropriation’ can obscure. I still remember the first time I came across American Spirit tobacco. I was in Berlin roughly two years ago and I saw a Swiss friend rolling a cigarette. Even […]
Syria: #TheRevolutionContinues
On the fifth anniversary of the Syrian revolution, Mark Boothroyd discusses the how people have recently returned to the streets, once again voicing their commitment to overthrowing the regime Protest in Kafranbel, Idlib With the lull in the fighting brought on by the ceasefire, Syria’s popular revolution has returned to the streets. Demonstrators have […]
Syria: Peace talks collapse, Aleppo encircled, disaster looms for rebels
Mark Boothroyd puts the Syrian regime’s offensives in Aleppo into context and discusses what anti-war activists in Britain and internationally can do. The past week has seen major developments on the ground in Syria which imperil the entirety of rebel held Syria. The regime has launched an offensive in the north Aleppo countryside which has cut the […]
Understanding Syria: resource page
Mark Boothroyd has gathered together news sites, analysis, cultural archives and links to a number of the best short films and documentaries to help in understanding the situation in Syria. The Syrian revolution has generated an immense amount of written coverage, analysis and culture. It can be hard to separate truth from propaganda given the competing world […]