6 July 2021
The prevailing Western discourses about Syria are fundamentally flawed, and should be discarded in favor of "new, emancipatory" alternatives, writes Yassin al-Haj Saleh.
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In an open letter marking ten years since Syria's uprising began, over 300 signatories from Syria and 34 other countries decry the dehumanizing propaganda and disinformation with which Syrians are too often smeared in the name of left-wing or "anti-imperialist" politics.
When a new “Progressive International” invited Syria’s Yassin al-Haj Saleh to join, he was happy to accept. When he then submitted this letter for their publication, they ceased contacting him without explanation.
A diverse and often divided family, the international left is on the rise today in response to economic failures and right-wing demagoguery. A new collection of 77 interviews captures the contemporary leftist zeitgeist, revealing its promises and weaknesses alike.
When the self-styled “anti-imperial” left adopts the language and logic of Bush’s War on Terror, something has gone badly wrong, analytically and morally, argues Michael Degerald.
The problems of solidarity recently outlined by Yassin al-Haj Saleh are indeed part of a wider, historic breakdown in the values and impact of the Western left, writes Jules Etjim, who offers a “sketch” of one possible way forward.
Enthusiasm on the left for Vladimir Putin’s bombing campaign in Syria has strong echoes of the Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan that killed and displaced millions, including relatives of this author.
At a recent talk in California, Charles Davis encountered a microcosm of the left's rupture on Syria.
An exceprt from Yassin al-Haj Saleh's latest book on Syria, this commentary examines the anti-imperialist left's irrational support for Assad, and the double standards this attachment holds.