“After the fall of the former regime, the level of satisfaction with the new situation was higher than the level of dissatisfaction and concern regarding the country’s economic and social conditions. However, one year after the regime’s fall, dissatisfaction with the domestic situation began to increase. The real danger will arise when the level of dissatisfaction exceeds the level of satisfaction over the fall of the previous regime. The degree of public dissatisfaction with living conditions is steadily rising. While this dissatisfaction reflects a certain level of resentment, that resentment has now reached a level of social mobilization”.

The fate of Syria—as a people, a state, and as political forces in different places—depends on what we do in the coming weeks and months, and on how quickly we act. It also depends on the rapidly unfolding international and regional developments. These are major and turbulent transformations that must be understood well, and we must act based on that understanding.

The country is experiencing a persistent deadlock on every level, particularly in the socioeconomic and living conditions of its people, alongside manufactured security and social tensions that increasingly threaten civil peace. All of this is unfolding amid major shifts in the regional balance of power as well as at the international level.

The scope of protest activity among Syrian farmers and workers is expanding daily across the country. They are demanding their right to a dignified life; the right to wages sufficient to secure housing, feed their children, provide them with education and healthcare; and the right to be treated in a humane and respectful manner, whether by employers or by state institutions.