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U.S./Israel Out of Syria!

By Quest Riggs

As Syria fights the last battles of its over 7-year war against U.S. and Israeli-backed terrorist insurgency, it still faces many challenges and a rough road ahead. This long, dirty war which has been fueled by the US and its allies, has cost 500,000 Syrian lives and an estimated $400 billion in damages. The war has driven 10 million Syrians to flee their homes, creating one of the worst refugee crises in the world today. Needless to say, despite their celebrating their victories against terrorism and invasion, the people in Syria will live with the trauma of this war for generations.

However, western imperialism and its puppets in the middle east are still aggressively harassing the Syrian people and the Syrian army. In the past 18 months Israel has shot over 200 missiles into Syria. The U.S. still maintains its illegal invasion of Syrian territory, with 12 military bases and up to 2,000 special operations soldiers. U.S. Generals (Trump’s best friends) continue to regularly threaten Syria with further bombing and invasion.

Syria is now openly engaged in the early stages of what could be the last major battle of the war. Most of the western-backed terrorist forces, Al Queada, ISIS, al-NUSRA, which the U.S. has branded as terrorists are the so called “rebels” receiving support from the U.S. and Israel. They are concentrated in the northwestern city of Idlib, and the Syrian Army is preparing for an offensive with the support if its allies. They have had to make these preparations and conduct negotiations in the face of the aforementioned bombings and constant threats of intervention from imperialist politicians.

But why are the imperialists being so aggressive and threatening when Syria is close to ending its war? The answer is clear if you look at the history of U.S. war-mongering in the middle east: the imperialists make money off of wars and stealing natural resources, so they’ll only allow peace if they can hold a dominant, colonizer position.

Just within my generation, the U.S. has invaded and devastated Iraq, Libya and Afganistan. These countries, home to some of the world most ancient civilizations, had long been victims of western intervention and aggression, but they remained relatively stable until the U.S. and its allies invaded. They all now lay in ruins.

In Libya, the U.S. invasion caused the growth of a domestic slave trade as well as terrible sectarian violence between warlord and fundamentalist groups. In Iraq, the U.S.-installed government is viciously repressing protests where everyday Iraq citizens are demanding basic necessities like food and water and jobs. Afganistan has never seen an end to violence since the U.S. invaded, and NATO today uses the war-torn country as a military training ground. Last year the U.S. even dropped its most powerful non-nuclear bomb in Afganistan. One thing is for sure: the military industrial complex and the oil executives are laughing to the bank every time workers and oppressed people in the U.S. believe the lies that they feed us on the corporate media to justify these wars.

We should express our support for Syria in in their struggle against imperialism and for their right to self determination. We also must voice our opposition to the threats that U.S. politicians and generals have been issuing and demand that the U.S. & Israel stop their attacks and pull their troops out of Syria. Only then can Syrian workers rebuild their communities and advance their struggles against capitalist and imperialist oppression.

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Venezuelan President Survives Assassination Attempt

Working Class, Oppressed Masses Rally to Support Maduro

By Quest Riggs

In early August the world watched as Nicolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela, narrowly survived an assassination attempt. While he was giving a speech to soldiers of the Venezuelan military, two large explosions detonated in the air injuring seven military personnel. The two bombs were attached to small drones that were on course to the stage where the president and his wife were standing, alongside many of the highest ranking officials of the government and military. In this way, this terrorist attack was not only an assassination attempt on the president of the Republic: it was yet another coup attempt by the farright bourgeoisie of Venezuela in cooperation with North American imperialism.

In a speech after the attack, Maduro asked, “What would have happened if this attempt on my life was successful? What would be happening today in the streets of Venezuela?” He went on to say, “I tell the Venezuelan opposition that I guarantee you can live in this country peacefully. If something happens to me, you will have to face millions of Campesinos and humble people making justice with their own hands.”

The next day, thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets to show their support for the government and their willingness to mobilize in defense of their revolution. Thousands of workers, peasants and students marched dressed in red, and they were joined by the armed community militias who organize to defend Venezuela’s independence. They rally because of the social improvements for many workers and poor people in Venezuela in housing, education and wages during Maduro’s presidency. But their main objective is to protect Venezuela’s independence from North American imperialism, which is in the offensive to dominate the workers of South & Central America and the Carribean.

Across the continent the forces of imperialism and capitalism, the richest people in the Americas, are murdering poor workers- especially those who organize and fight for their communities. They are plotting to strip all of the independence fighters in Latin America of power and tear down all barriers to their profits and domination. But the people, the workers, will never lie down in the face of oppression and exploitation!