The Trading of Slogans

Even in those cases in which the national political slogan is raised, and even with the democratic slogan, it is sufficient for economic policies to be biased against the interest of the general population and in the interest of the few, in order to destroy the first two slogans in application. Because what will result in time from a situation like this are inevitably two things:

First: The plundering oligarchs, and in order to defend their interests, they will defend an oppressive political situation whereby the power apparatus within the state will turn into devices whose primary function is to silence the general population from demanding their share of the wealth they produce, and which is stolen right before their eyes.

Second: With the continuation of the plundering and repression operations, all the national slogans presented by the dominant regimes gradually transform in the eyes of the people into a mere veil that these regimes use to cover plundering and injustice. Day after day, those slogans begin to separate in the people’s minds from their real content, which is not related to those regimes in the first place, but rather to the homelands and their peoples.

Going back to the beginning, the trio with which we started, generate each other and call for each other. However, there is something more dangerous in the long run when regimes try to present a heterogeneous mixture of this trio – this heterogeneous mixture is always a transitional state, long or short, because a precise harmony among the nature of the three essential aspects is inevitable.

For example – and this dangerous situation that could directly concern us in Syria – when the authorities raise national slogans, anti-imperialist slogans, and progressive slogans, while for years and years they practice liberal policies hostile to the general population in the socioeconomic framework, and undermine the ceiling of political freedoms so that they are almost non-existent; then, the impact is more dangerous and deadly. The outcome does not stop at the disruption of society and the natural opposition of the people to the repressive policies against them, but rather leads people (with the presence of an appropriate effect) to become hostile towards the progressive and national slogan itself and turn it into an object of ridicule. This may be a real targeting by some in the first place, particularly since it is the main hobby of some types of the externally-manufactured “opposition” is to mock national slogans and make them and the regime one and the same.

So one can imagine what the situation is like if we are living in an ocean of “normalizers” and those who prostrate, and within a historical situation in which Syria is meant to be completely terminated, partitioned, and subjugated – things to which there is no objection by the major thieves and warlords from the various sides.

The contradiction between raising a rightful national slogan and the concrete policies against the interest of the general public transforms the national slogan in the people’s eyes into a mere “commodity” that is being sold to them. This commodity does not cost its producers anything, as it is slogans that does not get implemented, except for words and promises. Dealing with a national slogan as a commodity is precisely the door through which the enemy runs through when its false offers start pouring in, whether directly or through its agents: “Give up the national slogan and the national cause and you will have a good life!”

The truth is that abandoning the national slogan will be the last step necessary to complete the trio and take it towards complete homogeneity. That is, to give up the national slogan and perhaps the unity of our country, and also live in a plundering economic pattern in which we are plundered, and the oppression is necessary for the plundering to continue, that is, we would be nationally plundered, oppressed, and humiliated all at the same time.

Just as abandoning the national slogan is the last step for a homogeneous trio of destruction, so adhering to it and restoring its brilliance is the indispensable step to creating a homogeneous trio of prosperity in which “Syria is unified and dignified, and a true advocate of the Palestinian cause, and its people are economically prosperous and politically free”.

Expressing the connection among the three aspects – national, democratic, economic social – ultimately reflects a class position in the interest of a specific social group. There are those who conceal this deceitfully and ambiguously, because they want to mislead the general public about the fact that they are serving the very small plundering group. Then there are those who announce this connection and their position from it publicly and all the time, as an expression of commitment to the interest of the vast plundered class of people, as is the case with the People’s Will Party.

Restoring the brilliance of the national slogan in its various dimensions begins with removing it from the “commodities market” and from bargaining, because Syrians’ nationalism is a vital and tangible issue today more than ever before. The entry point to this is not just through “education”, “awareness”, and “enlightening” (not to undermine the importance of those), but rather, the entry point is through concrete and direct action in uniting the affected and plundered Syrians from all sides and in all Syrian regions, to push together toward reaching a political solution and reunifying the country through comprehensive radical change ... and before it is too late.

(Arabic version)