Syria and the Left
Behind the humanitarian disaster of the Syrian civil war is a political crisis the Left urgently needs to understand.
The Syrian tragedy is a key moral and political question today. Yet it has not been easy for leftists around the world to decide where they stand on Syria.
To illuminate the history and nature of the Syrian conflict, Yusef Khalil for Jacobin conducted an extensive interview with Yasser Munif, a Syrian scholar who studies grassroots movements in the country. The wide-ranging discussion that follows focuses on such core issues as the character of the Assad regime; the roots and development of the Syrian revolution, and the various opposition groups active there; regional and global interests and interventions; and the tasks and responsibilities of US solidarity.
Yusef Khalil
The United Nations has called Syria the worst humanitarian crisis of our time. More than eleven million Syrians, which is more than half of the Syrian population, are displaced. Hundreds of thousands have streamed to Europe, with thousands drowning in the sea because of Europe’s border and asylum policies. We have 4.8 million refugees in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, and neighboring countries, and 6.6 million are internally displaced inside Syria. More than half of those refugees are children. Are these refugees simply victims of a humanitarian crisis? What are they fleeing, and what experiences do they carry with them?
Yasser Munif
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