Socialist Appeal
The Marxist voice of Labour and youth
The downing of a Russian jet in Syria by the Turkish military was clearly a provocation on the part of the Turkish president Erdogan. His aim was to stop an alliance being formed between Russia and the West in Syria. He has achieved the opposite with Turkey now more isolated and the major world powers coming closer to each other.
We publish here two recent video talks in which Alan Woods and Hamid Alizadeh discuss the Syrian civil war, the role of imperialism in the Middle East, and the refugee crisis that has been created as a result, as millions flee war and poverty.
Over the past few weeks international media have reported on growing tensions and daily violence escalating in Palestine and Israel. These attacks are not organised by any of the Palestinian factions but are clearly a symptom of the desperate rage of a layer of Palestinian youth against the asphyxiating stranglehold of the Israeli state.
The American imperialists and their “allies” in NATO now find themselves in an impossible situation in the Middle East. They are trying to face two ways at once; in the process they find themselves at every step entangled in new and insoluble contradictions. Meanwhile, Putin has outmanoeuvred the Americans at every step.
Since last week when Russia began bombing targets inside Syria, Western media has been overflowing with articles about the crimes of Russian imperialism in Syria. But, as Hamid Alizadeh explains, the idea put forward that “moderate” rebels are being bombed by ruthless Russians raises more questions than it answers.