Syria–a Catastrophe
The Baath Party lifted Syria out of poverty in the 1960s into an independent, low-income but strong state-sector economy. Most of this fell apart owing to brutal sanctions of 15 yrs and a war imposed on them by Imperialist powers to destroy any resistance to Israel

Already using the past tense, Syria was the most decent bastion of a patriotic and secular regime in the region, respectful of religious communities, promoting the rights of women and children, and those rights to free education and health care claimed since the 1950s by Arab socialisms. Damascus is and always has been a pillar of civilization, sophistication, and clean people in the region, so the loss of Syria will be a catastrophe for the Levant. The fall of Assad will imply the immolation or flight of the last Christianity with real social, political, and cultural influence, but also of those layers of Syrian society that we can unhesitatingly recognize as equal or even superior to functional elites. Washington and Tel Aviv’s strategy of implementing an Islamic state in the heart of the Middle East to divide and rule will have tragic consequences for all and it won’t be long before it ricochets in Europe. At the next terrorist attack, people will definitely remember these words.
A Syrian living in Europe

“The Great Betrayal….”
Sumanta Banerjee’s article “The Great Betrayal of the Ideal of Communism by Stalin Mao and their Political Heirs” that has appeared in the Autumn No of Frontier Vol 57, No. 15 - 18, Oct 6 - Nov 2, 2024 is in bad taste as his pontification on the ‘failure’ of the Great Revolutions of Russia and China and his dark portraits of Stalin and Mao awfully lacks any substantial back- up material to prove his case. He seems to be one who puts his faith in the ‘Western Marxists’ who have the tendency to fetishize the ‘purity’ of the basic tenets of Marxism and Communism laid out by Marx and Engels. In truth, there could be no pure revolution except in Plato’s Cave. Mao said that the revolution is not a dinner party and one can add that it would have ups and downs and what is needed is a thorough study with a historical and philosophical perspective to understand why a revolution went wrong or how it could not stand up to the promises made without denigrating the great leaders that led them and thousands and thousands of men and women who martyred themselves to keep the revolution move forward.
S V Rajadurai

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Frontier
Vol 57, No. 30, Jan 19 - 25, 2025