RIMA
FLIHAN: WANTED CRIMINAL
FOR
ANTI-WAR REFUGEE ACTION!
11-10-2015 – When
a refugee rights protest has a keynote speaker who expresses “no remorse” for
the slaughter of 87 University students sitting an exam, you know something has
gone terribly wrong. Unfortunately, such is the actuality of the “Stand Up for
Refugees” action in Brisbane today. One of the speakers is one Rima Flihan,
billed as a “Syrian human rights activist”. Far from it. Ms Flihan cares only
about the human rights of NATO armed death squads which have been committing
unspeakable atrocities across Syria for the last four years. The Syrian
government has an outstanding warrant for her arrest, after collaborating with
US and Saudi Arabian armed mercenaries attempting to overthrow the Syrian Arab
Republic. Wanted criminals as “human rights activists” – you have got to be
kidding.
The reasons why the Syrian
government had little option but to seek the arrest of Ms Flihan became obvious
when she gave an interview to a Lebanese television station in January 2013,
soon after a mercenary terrorist attack on the University of Aleppo, in which
87 students sitting exams, were slaughtered. Ms Flihan stated that she felt
“absolutely no remorse” for the students, as they were “supporters of the
regime”.[1] Since fleeing Syria in
September 2011 to avoid facing criminal charges, Ms Flihan has paraded around
the world as a “political activist”. Such “activism” in her case, means being a
part of virtually every body which claims to be a legitimate opposition in
Syria, from the “Local Coordinating Committees” (which included non-local
expatriates!!)[2],
to the “Syrian Opposition Council” to the “National Council of the Syrian
Revolution and Opposition Forces”. All of these bodies have now vanished, and
some have now been absorbed into the “Free Syrian Army” which has in turn
absorbed itself into ISIS.
Above: Aftermath of the University of Aleppo terrorist
attack of January 15, 2013, which killed 87 people, most of them students
sitting exams. It was one of the worst atrocities committed by NATO armed
mercenaries in Syria. In an interview, Rima Flihan stated she felt “absolutely
no remorse” for the attack. Photo from the BBC.
At fault is not the Refugee
Action Collective – the organisers of today’s rally – per se. The Refugee
Action Collective contains many honest and ethical people who are doing what
they can to protest against both the Australian government’s horrific abuse of
refugees and asylum seekers as well as against the US led wars which have
created waves of refugees worldwide. Yet the Refugee Action Collective has
become beholden to what has become known as the “Imperial Left” – leftist
parties who, despite claims to “socialism” and “Marxism”, have nonetheless been
the biggest backers of the imperialist wars waged first on Libya, and then on
Syria. The Imperial Left has the greatest amount of influence in the Refugee
Action Collective, and similar respective bodies around Australia. Such parties
include Socialist Alternative, Socialist Alliance and Solidarity. Buying into
the fanciful claims of Libyan and Syrian “revolutions”, such parties have
performed yeoman’s service for the very imperialist powers they claim to
oppose. In fact, so far have the imperial left gone in providing “left” cover
for US led wars, they now virtually omit any mention of imperialism, or even
claim that US imperialism is not the main enemy!
Imperialism can be
succinctly described as “the expansionist policy of finance capital”. That is,
where finance capital dominates, it must expand into other countries (i.e.
through war) in order to seek an adequate rate of profit after the home market
has been exhausted. And, with the capitalist economies worldwide in a state of
deep recession, especially in Europe, the US, Japan and Australia, unprovoked
wars against independent nations – or even those deemed to be not totally
compliant - become ever more part of daily operation. However, there is
resistance. Syria today is a laboratory for the imperialist versus
anti-imperialist global blocs which have emerged. On the one hand, imperialism
is represented by the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany
(despite some differences with the others) and their allies Saudi Arabia,
Israel, Turkey and other Gulf Monarchies. The anti-imperialist bloc is
represented by Russia, China, Iran, Syria and their allies such as Belarus, the
DPRK, Cuba and Zimbabwe. The anti-imperialist bloc contains some socialist
states – China, the DPRK, Cuba – and some capitalist states – Russia and Iran.
However, without necessarily endorsing the politics of the respective leaderships,
workers of the world have a stake in mobilising in temporary blocs with the
anti-imperialist alliance where its actions coincide with the interests of
working people. Currently, Russia’s assistance to Syria is objectively in the
interests of preventing wider war, in the sense that they have checkmated US
imperialism by calling their bluff and actually carrying out the demolition of
ISIS, which the US and their allies falsely claimed the current “war on terror”
was all about.
To permanently end the
scourge of war, what is required is nothing less than the overthrow of
capitalism and the triumph of socialism. In the meantime, what the refugee
rights movement desperately needs is to break free from the “left” parties
which have railroaded the movement in support of US led wars. The refugee rights movement needs new
leadership, one which allies it with the interests of the working class
domestically and internationally. This means advocating for the rights of
refugees while simultaneously opposing, not backing, Washington and Canberra’s
latest criminal wars. This may mean temporary blocs with those forces halting
the advance of the NATO/Saudi/Israeli forces to gain a breathing space from
which to prepare the organisation of the working class for its historic tasks.
To truly be pro-refugee, we need to be anti-war.
MARXIST-LENINIST GROUP (MLG)
PO Box 66 NUNDAH QLD 4012
www.mlgroup271@gmail.com
www.ML-Group.blogspot.com.au
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