Kassioun Editorial 1139: Lessons of the Past are the Movement’s Tools, Now and in the Future

The lessons are abundant and great, with the abundance, breadth, and depth of the pain and suffering. However, perhaps the most important lessons are the following:

First: Self-reliance, and the self here is the people. What this means is not only the rejection of any external interference of any form or type, including financial, but also the assembling of the fragments of this “self” to the maximum extent. More clearly, the popular movement cannot become stronger without including in its ranks the hesitant, frightened, and skeptical members of the plundered 90%. The process of including those requires daily continuous effort, not only within the demonstrations and protests, but outside that too. It also requires not being condescending to people and not looking down at their fears, not mocking their remarks, and certainly not acting with the logic that the participants are brave and others are cowards. Quite the contrary. Discussions should be carried out with nonparticipants responsibly and respectfully, and their correct remarks should be noted, including the continuous correction of the movement’s slogans and forms. The main strength of the plundered is their gathering and solidarity with one another. Whoever does not care the gathering of the plundered and their participation, is either arrogant under the impression of having power that he does not possess, or a fraud waiting for some support and power from outside for which he is just a pretext, and the movement is in essence innocent of such people.

Second: Isolating extremism because it is an entry point for the movement’s internal and external enemies. What is meant by “extremism” is working against the political solution and against the implementation of UNSC Resolution 2254, whether directly or indirectly, as well as pushing towards subversive projects whose purpose is to isolate the movement, causing bloodshed in it, and making it easier for its enemies who outside the movement to encircle it. Syrians have tried and experienced this lesson for a long time, so much so most of them are now convinced that there is no difference between the extremists in the regime and those in the opposition, and that both of them are investing in the movement not for its own interest, but exactly against its interest and against the interest of the country, in pursuit of narrow interests, not to mention that these interests intersect with the interests of the historical enemies of Syria and Syrians.

Third: Going step-by-step with the events and not burning stages. This means that the movement must develop gradually and not slip into losing breath and desperate adventures. Rather, it must get a solid footing with every new step it takes before moving on to the next. The first criterion for steadfastness in every step is the extent of the popular and national consensus about the movement. Additionally, the movement must be able to criticize itself responsibly and correct its mistakes continuously during the movement.

Fourth: Within the process of moving forward, the movement must achieve an additional victory every day, no matter how small this victory might be. Even if such small victory is convincing an additional small number of the plundered with the need to join the movement, it is a victory that should be bolstered and on which more can be built. When the movement senses that it cannot achieve additional small steps forwards, it must review itself, figure out the reasons, and address them firmly and quickly.

Fifth: During the movement’s progress, the foe could retreat, albeit temporarily. In this case, pressuring the foe must continue and its retreat must be reinforced continuously so that it cannot regain strength to attack again. In this context, the movement’s worst enemies are those who climb its ranks from within and help the extremists of the other side in undermining the movement. Those must be quickly and firmly isolated, through focusing on the national issue and unequivocally highlighting it, especially the clear position from the Zionist entity, the enmity to which all Syrians agree, despite all that divide them. The movement should also focus on the correct slogan that has become unifying, which is the slogan of implementing UNSC Resolution 2254.

(النسخة العربية)