لكي لا يدوم هدر الطاقات والفرص… تنظموا

So that energies and opportunities are not wasted… Organize!

Under the criminal Assad regime (father and son), the Syrian masses lacked effective, mass-based organizational tools to achieve their economic, social, political, and even cultural demands. The primary reason is that the Assad regime crushed all forms of opposition political organization and eradicated all independent trade union and social work: it seized control of unions, associations, and even sports federations.

Over these long five decades, Syrians have largely lacked experience and traditions of organized, independent collective action.

The popular revolution erupted in March 2011 against the backdrop of this terrifying void. Although revolutionary consciousness develops rapidly in revolutionary moments, outpacing years or decades of stagnation and oppression, the remarkable attempts to build tools for organizing the revolutionary masses – like Coordination Committees – and for managing daily life in rebellious areas through local and civil councils, did not last long for three reasons: First, the savage, bloody repression of peaceful demonstrations by the fallen plutocratic regime. Second, the widespread shift of revolutionaries to armed struggle. Third, the intervention of regional and international states, each supporting a faction it sponsors to serve its own interests.

During the revolution and even after its defeat and the victory of the multi-faceted counter-revolution around 2013-2014, until the collapse of the fleeing Assad regime late last year, local experiences across various regions of Syria, despite their limitations and local character, have proven that organized mass protests and demand-driven activities possess greater impact, a better chance of realization, and a higher likelihood of emerging to express people’s needs and demands when they are based on pre-existing organized bodies founded on the principles of organized collective action, compared to being mere spontaneous, improvised outbursts of anger.

It goes without saying that work and engagement in public affairs require organized and conscious collective action. This is not unique to Syria; it is a hallmark of modern societies. All major social and political changes (revolutions) and even reforms resulted from organized and conscious mass struggles.

The current situation following the collapse of the fallen Assad plutocracy is characterized by the emergence of a new authority from one faction of the counter-revolution: a caretaker authority. This authority remains fragile, seeks to monopolize power and the state, and appears willing to make maximum, continuous concessions to regional and international powers to achieve this. Simultaneously, it is narrowing, if not closing, the space of freedom Syrians wrested through their immense sacrifices, and is actively working to intimidate them.

Sectarian massacres, security chaos, encroachments on people’s freedoms and beliefs (especially women’s freedom), and the incitement of sectarianism and chauvinism are tools aimed at fragmenting the Syrian masses and diverting them from uniting around their shared interests in confronting hunger, impoverishment, unemployment, and the theft of freedoms by a power that openly adopts neoliberal policies and squanders the Syrian people’s sovereignty over their land and national wealth.

The Syrian masses face an immense array of challenges: Economic and social deterioration with extreme poverty, an army of unemployed, and pitiful wages for those working without the slightest social guarantees. The growth of sectarianism and chauvinism. The erosion of national sovereignty with multiple foreign armies and militias present, and the escalating pace of attacks and the continuous expansion of the Israeli occupation of our country. Instead of confronting Zionist aggression, a path of normalization with it is emanating from the authority. The authority harbors conservative and misogynistic ideologies and practices. It is also continuously shrinking the space for political freedoms and freedom of opinion and expression, accompanied by the receding horizon of a possible democratic transition. Among other urgent and direct issues facing millions of Syrians.

In confronting these major challenges, the Syrian masses need to build independent, effective, and popularly rooted trade unions, associations, parties, and alliances. Without these tools, mass activities and energies may dissipate uselessly or without significant impact. The masses need tools for their struggle to achieve their immediate, demand-driven, and political goals on all fronts. Just as mass energies can evaporate without organizations, organizations cannot fulfill their role in the absence of mass activity.

We call upon the toilers, workers, oppressed, marginalized, and persecuted in our country to join our party, which raises high the banner of socialism, social justice, and equality. A party forged by a decade and a half of experience in comprehensive, internationalist liberation struggle alongside the Syrian masses.

Guided by the experience of the Russian Revolution of 1917, Trotsky wrote in his History of the Russian Revolution: “Without a guiding organization, the energy of the masses would dissipate like steam not enclosed in a piston box. But nevertheless, what moves things is not the piston or the box, but the steam.”

All Power and Wealth to the People!
Revolutionary Left Current
June 2025