THE APPOINTMENT of a new prime minister in Syria on October 31 was just one inclicator of the gravity of the economic and social crisis confronting the
Ba'athist regime.
Mahmoud al-Zubi's appointment followed several months of an official campaign against corruption, thousand people (including five death sentences) and
SALAH JABER
HE MILITARY-bureaucratic
T dictatorship of President Hafez al-Assad has only been able to survive since coming to power in 1970 thanks to aid from the Soviet Union on the one hand, and the Arab oil monarchies on the other.
Syria's support for Iran in the Iran-Iraq war led to the Arab financial help accorded to the Ba'athist regime for the war effort against Israel being cut-off.
An explosive socioeconomic situation
Iran's aid to Syria has not fully compensated for this loss, particularly as this aid has been irregular and accompanied by increasingly embarrassing political pressure on Hafez al-Assad, particularly in relation to Lebanon, where the Syrians and Iranians have different goals. This is why the tyrant of Damascus had to negotiate a shift in position on the Gulf war during the recent Arab summit in
Amman,
Jordan on
November 7-11.
While waiting to see the tangible results of this bargaining, which has been going on for several months a secret reconciliation meeting between the Iraqi and Syrian dictators was organized by
King Hussein of Jordan last
April, but led to nothing), the
Hafez al-Assad regime has
26 had to face an explosive socio-economic situation. with
International Viewpoint • November 23, 1987 unbridled inflation mounting alongside shortages, waste and embezzlements at all levels. The campaign against corruption had to be launched to calm the situation. At the same time, there has been a fiercely repressive campaign against the communist opposition (the Stalinist faction of Khaled Bekchdache, supported by Moscow, is allied with the regime, unlike the dissident faction of the "Political Bureau" led by Riad el-Turk, himself a prisoner since 1980).
Most dynamic force of the opposition
This offensive is particularly aimed at liquidating the Communist Action Party (PAC), a revolutionary organization which is the most dynamic force of the opposition to the dictatorship, and the most capable of expressing the dissatisfactions of the workers (see box). The PAC is also the left organization which has the most members in Syrian jails — almost 330 in all.
Alongside the vigorous protests of Amnesty International against repression in Syria (Amnesty published a dossier on torture in Syria in October), an international petition of solidarity with the Syrian communist activists suffering from repression, and particularly comrades of the PAC, will be launched. We publish here extracts from an information bulletin published by external representatives of the PAC to aid the organization of this vital campaign that the Fourth International has decided to launch. *
Communist
Action
Party