THE PEOPLES WANT THE FALL OF THE REGIMES

Syrian Echoes in the Awakening of the Yellow Vests
Published in lundimatin # 169, December 14, 2018

We, who have known the Syrian revolution, both in place and in exile, are glad to see the uprising of the French people. Instead, we are concerned about the "security measures" and "maintenance of order" exercised against yellow vests in this country that is said to be the cradle of "human rights". However, we do not deceive ourselves with the democratic showcase of the French Republic, we just want to record that it is the State itself that is breaking it.

The dumbfounding number of arrests that have taken place in recent weeks, the reasons and the immediate appearance trials that charge people for their political convictions without evidence of crime, the calls for army intervention, preventive arrests, the videos of the police repression that are everywhere in France, the governmental and media propaganda and their ridiculous attempts to appease the situation, all this reminds us of what we experienced during the outbreak of the Syrian revolution.
The violence of French law enforcement, of course, is far from the live ammunition of the Syrian regime. However, we understand it as a sign of prudence and not as an unwillingness to intensify the means employed. In the statements and behavior of the president, the police and, often, the media, we recognize the reaction of a regime that is willing to maintain its power at all costs.
The scene of the raid in Mantes-La-Jolie (where the police made secondary students kneel with their hands on the head, NdT) gave us chills. To us Syrians it reminds of the students in Daraa, in 2011, that for some graffiti ("your turn arrives, doctor" and "Freedom") on the walls of their school they were arrested, and some were ripped off their nails. Both scenes, although they differ in the magnitude of the violence, demonstrate the same capacity of the governments put in question to humiliate those who destabilize them. The revolution in Syria began de facto after the governor of Daraa refused to release the detained children with an answer: 'Forget your children, your women will give you others. If not, bring us your women. We will do it for you. '

But let's go back; the Place de la Contrescarpe last 1st of May. Because that was something we thought we had in exclusivity. Benallas (ex-chief of security to Macron that was videotaped beating some demonstrators, among them a woman, on 1st May, 2018 - NT) we have many! We call them Shabiha; the militias of the regime, a bit like the BAC (anti-criminal brigade of the French repressive forces, NdT) except that they are neither the army nor the police, but bands of civilians. In addition to the looting and confiscations previously instigated by the regime, during the revolution the Shabiha specialized mainly in the beating, torture and killing of armed demonstrators or not.
In fact, tashbih has become a way to normalize the regime's violence and make it patriotic. It is a discursive and material mechanism that has been extended, little by little, to people not linked to the Government, but who are determined to defend the regime until the end. The comment (from a police officer? From a civilian?) that is heard in the video of the Mantes-la-Jolie raid: "This is a course that behaves well", is an example of the tashbih par excellence. In the end, all repression is sadistic.
Certainly, repression does not manifest itself in the same way here - there are several ways to dominate a population. In the French case of today, the crumbs that this regime accepts to yield reluctantly are no more than pretexts in front of the public opinion to better justify the blows to people who still do not want to return to their homes.

A few years ago, the Arab peoples were congratulated for their rebellion. The Arab Spring was a big surprise because, finally, they no longer accepted the yoke of the dictatorship. As for the French people who supposedly have freedom of expression and assembly and who can vote in "free" elections (although staged by the rich, their money and their media), they would rise for "social issues", such as say experts and specialists. To answer these questions, we must remember that people in Syria have not risen just to use their ballots or write opinion pieces in a newspaper. It was about dignity. So we stand up against the dictatorship in Syria. Today in France we accompany protesters who fight for a better distribution of wealth and against a minority that abuses power. We cannot remain neutral. Dignity must be conquered here as in other places.
So there is talk of radicalization. What we see is, on the one hand, violence against things, damaged glass windows in luxury stores, banks. Very (in) significant things. On the other hand, it is a violence against people, a violence that, in order to defend these "things" puts lives in danger. The State, it kills. Everywhere and not only in countries like ours.
The vocabulary is very familiar to us. Their vandals (casseurs) and troublemakers are our "criminals", "agitators"; their ultra-left and far right are our "infiltrators" and "external agents". The Syrian regime created a whole lexicon. Now, the deletion of anger and contestation, disqualifying them, making them foreign - and thus extremist - shows us that as soon as it is questioned, the power begins to speak the same language. Never allow them to install confusion.

Finally, in regards to immigration and racism, we have listened to Macron's speech. The change that he has operated responding to "the crisis of taxation and representation" for what would be an "upset before the changes of our society, an overflowed secularism and ways of life that create barriers, distance", is serious and dangerous. This speech is not different from that of Le Pen and others. Nor is it new, and it results in concrete and systematic effects; confinement, humiliation, deportation. For those who are reluctant to join the yellow vests, one thing is for sure: the first thing you have to counteract is the racist state.
As for the anti-migrant words of some yellow vests, the combat is different. Here, the meeting, the dialogue can be an occasion. A tea in a roundabout, talks on the barricades, finally allow to speak far from the institutional and governmental mouths, which are the real barriers. To say that we think that what deprives the French of a decent life is neither the immigrants nor the exiles, but the insolent wealth of some.
Therefore, we call the exiles in France to manifest themselves, to have the courage to assume our presence, to never feel indebted to a colonial state as if it had granted us by grace the right to live. There are no longer people to whom this does not concern.
We did not want to make a comparison. However, it seemed important to draw some parallels. Make cross the roads. Let us feed the revolutionary circulations that go beyond unilateral solidarity (often white, bourgeois, humanitarian and charitable). For our part, we chose to make our forces available to try to build a true exchange of tools, ideas and concerns. Basically, we mean - what we would have liked to hear in recent years - that our struggle is common. The will to throw out is neither fragmented nor restricted at the national level: one can not be in favor of the revolution in Syria at the same time as on the Macron side. Fighting against him and his world is for us a step forward to end Assad and his hell.

It is still too early to return home, but it is not too late to leave. It will always be time to draw some heads. In any case, things will not be as before. The people no longer want a rotten world. But the overthrow of the regimes will not be enough, it is in what follows where we have to win our battles ... It is the fall of a system that engenders the Macrons and Assads what will satisfy us.

See you soon.

Syrian revolutionaries and Syrians in exile.