Socialist Appeal
The Marxist voice of Labour and youth
In the Presidential elections held at the beginning of June, Assad was declared the winner with 88.7% of the vote. Whilst the election result is clearly exaggerated, it is still the case that a significant section of the population is backing Assad. Why is this?
Last week, the Israeli army embarked on a ground offensive into Gaza. Whilst hundreds of Palestinians die at the hands of the Israeli state's criminal attacks, the imperialists continue to offer their support to Israeli's "proportionate actions to defend itself". Fred Weston analyses the cynicism and hypocrisy of the Israeli government and of the international bourgeois media and politicians.
A storm of bombs and fire grotesquely denominated “Operation Protective Edge” has been unleashed by the Israeli government on the civilian population of Gaza. Francesco Merli discusses the latest attacks by the Israeli state and the hypocrisy of the imperialists.
The speed with which large swathes of Iraqi territory have fallen to a relatively small force of armed militias begs the question as to how this was possible. The Iraqi armed forces were numerically much superior to the groups who took over towns such as Mosul in the north. The army actually melted away. This cannot be explained simply by referring to armed Islamic groups. Something deeper is going on.
On Tuesday, the militant Islamist group ISIS captured Mosul, one of the key cities in Northern Iraq and then proceeded South towards Baghdad, capturing several important cities on the way. Hundreds of thousands have already fled fearing their lives under the rule of this reactionary group. This spectre of barbarism rising on the horizon, is the direct result of the cynical adventures of American imperialism.