The responses of most leftists to the Syrian uprising and subsequent war (it’s often forgotten that it started as an uprising — indeed a nonviolent and nonsectarian one) have been deeply disappointing. Disappointing to many Syrian activists, and to many of us on the Left who support the Syrian struggle for dignity and justice, which is now a struggle against both Assad’s killing machine and the jihadi counter-revolutionary forces.

The Left’s responses fall into three main categories:

explicit support for the Assad regime monochrome opposition to Western intervention, end of discussion (with either implicit or explicit neutrality on the conflict itself) general silence caused by deep confusion

The first camp, while relatively small, represents a truly hideous, morally obscene and, I would argue, deeply reactionary position – siding with a mass murderer and war criminal who presides over a quasi-fascist police state.

The second camp, which encompasses a majority of peace activists and soi-disant anti-imperialists in the West, represents an (ironically) Eurocentric/US-centric stance (it’s all about the West, not the Syrian people) — a total abandonment of internationalism.

The third camp is at least understandable, given the complexity of the Syrian conflict. The book I co-edited on the subject is titled The Syria Dilemma for a reason. Yet this stance remains disconcerting: silence in the face of what UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calls “the biggest humanitarian and peace and security crisis facing the world” is a cop-out. Complexity is not a gag order.

There is a fourth camp, however: a small but growing group of progressives who embrace the goals of the Syrian revolution. There are several shades within this camp – it includes Marxists, pacifists, feminists, Third Worldists and leftists of various sorts. Some support the armed struggle in Syria, others do not, standing instead with the nonviolence activists in Syria. But what unites this camp is its solidarity with the Syrian struggle for dignity, justice and self-determination.

The body of writings and arguments this camp has produced directly challenge the dominant narratives on the Left about Syria and offer a critical alternative to it. Here, collected in one place, are some of the key texts of this dissident left camp. Emphasis on some of the key texts – this list is by no means exhaustive. It’s limited to English-language sources. We offer it here as a living resource, one that is expanding on a daily basis. (If you have suggestions for other texts, please post them here.) Here ’tis (in no particular order):

Molly Crabapple

How the Western left ignored Syria’s activists as inconvenient glitches in a story about ourselves

Firas Massouh

Left Out? The Syrian Revolution and the Crisis of the Left

Mohammed Al Attar

What Kind of Support Do Syrians Want?

Solidarity With the Syrian Struggle for Dignity and Freedom

The Campaign for Peace and Democracy Salutes Syria’s Courageous Democratic Movement

A Personal Statement from Campaign for Peace and Democracy Co-Directors Thomas Harrison and Joanne Landy

Louis Proyect

A tale of two Syria conferences

Robin Yassin-Kassab

Reporting Syria: How Robert Fisk, Nir Rosen & Joseph Massad have framed Syria all wrong

Blanket Thinkers

Muhammad Idrees Ahmad

On Monsterphilia and Assad: The problems with the “anti-imperialist” position on Syria

Why Bosnia is a better analogy than Iraq in the Syria debate

Syria and Surrealism

What is to be done about Syria?

Gilbert Achcar

Syria in the Context of the Arab Uprisings

Welcoming the vote of the British Parliament while supporting the Syrian uprising

Interview with Gilbert Achcar

Afra Jalabi

Streams of Light: The Heroic Struggle of the Syrian People

Anxiously Anticipating a New Dawn: Voices of Syrian Activists, in The Syria Dilemma (not available online, alas — but get the book)

Mariam Barghouti

Palestine Must Stand in Solidarity with the Syrian People

Mohja Kahf

Then and Now: The Syrian Revolution to Date — A young nonviolent resistance and the ensuing armed struggle

Syria: It’s Still a Revolution, My Friends

Lack of U.S. Peace Movement Solidarity with Syrian Uprising and the “No Good Guys” Excuse

Danny Postel

Mission Accomplished? Syria, the Antiwar Movement, and the Spirit of Internationalism

Nader Hashemi

Syria, savagery, and self-determination

International Appeal to Stop the Starvation Sieges/End the Blockades in Syria

Danny Postel & Nader Hashemi

Break Syria’s Starvation Sieges—By Any Means Necessary

Max Blumenthal

The right to resist is universal: A farewell to Al Akhbar and Assad’s apologists

‘We Just Wish for the Hit to Put an End to the Massacres’: a report from the Zaatari refugee camp

Syria and the Left–a conversation between Max Blumenthal & Danny Postel

Talal Alyan

Shell Shocked and Rouged: Syria Is Not a Disposable Bride

While you were neutral about Yarmouk

Yarmouk: an unnerving silence about the ongoing siege of a Palestinian camp in Damascus

An Interview with Syrian Writer and Former Political Prisoner Yassin al-Haj Saleh

Yassin Al Haj Saleh

The Syrian Shabiha and Their State

From the Kingdom of Assad to the Third Republic

Yassin Al Haj Saleh & Rime Allaf

Syria dispatches: Robert Fisk’s independence

Rana Issa

The Destruction of Syria: In Memory of Edward Said

Thomas Pierret

No Stability in Syria Without Political Change

Wendy Pearlman

On the Third Anniversary of the Syrian Uprising

Intervening Against Assad: Reflections From Syrian Refugees

Love in the Syrian Revolution



Ian Williams

From the Spanish Civil War to Syria: Parceling Out Truth Subverts Justice

Bill Weinberg

Syria: civil wars in the civil war

Syria: denialism delegitimizes ‘anti-war’ position

‘Anti-war’ movement still betraying Syrian people

Why I am renouncing my Project Censored award

Mary Kaldor

Bordering on a new World War 1

What to do in Syria?

Richard Falk

What Can Be Done About Syria? Tragedy and Impotence

On Syria: What is to be done?

Syrian leftist sends devastating reply to Assad apologist Tariq Ali and ‘Stop The War’

Syrian Anarchist Challenges the Rebel/Regime Binary View of Resistance–an interview with Nader Atassi

Virtually everything Scott Lucas has written for EA WorldView’s outstanding Syria section

Clay Claiborne’s Syria diaries on his Linux Beach blog

* Above image: Syrian flag flutters during an anti-regime protest, by Freedom House (CC-by-2.0)

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