Syria

Quote:

well... I was not saying that Libya, Sri Lanka, India, and so on are socialist countries. I was saying that, if Syria should be regarded as socialist only because it has socialism in its Constitution, we should do the same with the other States I mentioned.

And I keep saying Qaddafi is a dictator, albeit the said political system of Lybia. He is even the head of State by virtue of his "post" as Leader of the Revolution... a post to which he is not elected, and from which he cannot be dismissed.

sorry i misinterpreted your statment

Communists should support Syria. Syria is the only Arab country, besides Libya, that actually dares to stand up against Israel.
The Ba'ath Party is supported by the Syrian Communists, and effectively helps the Syrian Working Class.
I see no reason not to support Syria.

I'm sorry to root out this old thread again, but I think as there is NATO war in Libya and maybe soon also in Syria, I think this subject could be regarded newsworthy.

To me, there are two questions:

1) Is Syria a socialist state? My answer is: No, it is not. The reasons are already mentioned in this thread. By the way, I could say the same about Libya.

2) Should we support Syria? My answer is: Yes, we should. Though the Baath Party is not really socialist, it is at least social and nationalist in the good sense of the word - they represent and defend the people's interests rather than becoming a colony of the US imperialism. Again, I could say the same about Libya.

To cut a long story short: Though they are certainly no socialists, I'd rather see Gaddafi or Assad in power than any of those puppets the USA want to bring to power right now.

Quote:

syrian government also includes communists. i think that's a good reason as to why we should support them.

Didn't the Syrian Government work with the U.S. a few years ago? I heard that they had Black Sites there and that Maher Arar was tortured there at the behest of the U.S.

The relationship between Syria and the USA seems to be one similar to the US and many other dictatorships. The US government probably saw the current government Syria as necessary to contain Islamic extremism, and likely had no qualms to support and have the Syrians take care of some American dirty laundry, but it's unlikely that they were ever in a really friendly situation. It does look like another case of the US supporting and using a strong arm government and then turning against said regime when it looks like the tides have turned and the government in question is no longer useful.

We should defend Syria against imperialist interference from NATO or the USA. No matter the current status of Syria we shouldn't forget the socialist policies the Ba'ath party has had. Also Syria's government is very anti-imperialist, and has given aid to the DFLP. Here's a interesting video about the current situation in Syria by the Stalin Society. You might hate Stalin, Harpal Brar, or anti-revisonism. But it's still a good video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZN_q6ES91k

basically,Ba'ath party is national socialist party ?? The founder of The ba'ath Michel Aflaq,has studied politics of German nationalists and proto-nazis however by the downfall of Germany,He started to admire leninism.
Syria is a bourgeois socialist country,There is no social health care or any state protection.
Baa'th is a National socialist party beleiving in arab supremacy and arabe union,that the levant(lebanon-syria and few other countries) shall all unite together to form a socialist country. Al Baa'th banned The SCP(syrian communist party) after winning the elections in 1958 and According to the SCP,the regime has done grave mistakes against them.
I used to live in syria, because my parents were born there( and they are from palestinian origin). Palestinians in syria have no right of getting nationalised.
In 2005 until 2006, i lived in a town called Dahia Qodsya near Damascus, I didn't like or appreciate the situation there.It was pretty corrupt like i said.

Red Commissar wrote:

Yeah, you're going to need a lot more to look at beyond what they declare in some paper. Need to see how they do it in reality, what the social relations are existing, etc. At best Syria is state-capitalist with a nationalist bent.

sth like FLN in Algeria today