There is a solidarity campaign for two-month-old Karim Abdallah where men, women, & children around the world are posting photos of themselves with one eye covered using the hashtag #SolidarityWithKarim. These little kids are from Eastern Ghouta, where baby Karim is trapped.

If you  join the campaign, please post your photos.

(Photo from Ghouta Media Center)

There’s a dead tip-off to propaganda: kissing ass, bending the knee to power, sycophancy. This photo has been posted by dozens of Assad supporters, one more groveling than the next, including Eva Bartlett. The caption reads, “Humble Syrian leader Assad: Mr. President Bashar Al-Assad & the first lady provide food for the children of martyrs.” This is almost as revolting as the photos of Tim Anderson, Eva Bartlett & Vanessa Beeley with the ‘exalted Syrian Arab Army’. Humble is not a political virtue either for the oppressed or a dictator. For the latter, it is nothing but propaganda. Otherwise, how does he explain the bombing of civilians with barrel bombs & gas?

This is two-month-old Karim Abdallah whose mother was killed in a Syrian airstrike last month in Eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus under ‘surrender or starve’ bombardment as a stronghold of revolutionary resistance to Assad’s dictatorship. Both Syrian & Russian war planes & helicopters are bombing the district though there is supposed to be a ceasefire.

In the Syrian airstrike that killed his mother, baby Karim lost his left eye & endured a skull fracture. His doctors say that because of the bombing siege & denial of humanitarian aid, the required medical treatment & supplies are not available in Eastern Ghouta to protect the infant’s right eye from the spread of infection . The infant needs to be safely evacuated for treatment outside Syria. The infant’s father Abu Mohammed said hundreds of other infants in Eastern Ghouta require evacuation for medical treatment which is a requirement under international law even in a war zone.

Fifteen-year-old Muhammad Najem from Eastern Ghouta posted this photo of baby Karim along with several other photos of infants & children injured & disfigured by Syrian & Russian airstrikes. He said “I am not going to apologize about the ugliness” of the photos. A teenager witnessing such carnage should not have to apologize since he is forced to witness & endure such death & destruction in defense of a murderous dictatorship. He is serving as a citizen journalist to tell the world the truth about the character of the Assad regime.

Stand with the Syrian people & demand the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all foreign military operations in Syria & that Assad immediately stop the bombing. Those who support Syrian & Russian bombing of civilians have crossed over to the dark side in politics. May they find their way back before the counterrevolution in Syria has killed any more men, women, & children.

(Photo from Muhammad Najem @muhammadnajem20)

Those who supported the Jill Stein & Ajamu Baraka Green Party presidential ticket in 2016 might want to take a closer look at the politics of some of the most prominent individuals in that party. Particularly the public associations of Cynthia McKinney with anti-Semites & fascists & those of Ajamu Baraka with fascists Eva Bartlett & Vanessa Beeley. This photo is from two years ago when Bartlett & Beeley were more discreet about their connections to European fascism & used Palestinian solidarity as a facade (which they still do). But Baraka posted this photo just several days ago, seeing no need to distance himself from fascism. Glen Ford, the editor of Black Agenda Report & also an Assad supporter, is sitting next to Beeley; Bartlett is the photographer.

The politics of the Green Party are all over the place within a framework that includes Stein’s Zionism, McKinney’s anti-Semitism & fascism, & Baraka’s association with fascists. Glen Ford is just a lost soul pickled in libertarianism.

We’ve got a couple more UN rebukes on our hands. One chiding against genocide in Burma & one against Trump’s Jerusalem provocation. A UN rebuke is the equivalent of the naughty finger, only less threatening. Imagine doing rebukes over war, occupation, genocide instead of blistering condemnations. The UN is “their” international. We need our own rooted in solidarity, not wimpy-assed rebukes.

An invaluable interview about revolution & counterrevolution in Syria with exiled revolutionist Yassin al-Haj Saleh whose activist wife Samira Khalil was abducted along with other activists in 2013 by unidentified armed men. Her whereabouts remain unknown.

https://isreview.org/issue/107/revolution-counterrevolution-and-imperialism-syria

It’s quite deplorable how many groups still use images of macho, muscular men wielding manly tools to represent the working class. They use Mean Girls to represent women workers. Get with the program, busters. Since women have always worked it’s never been a reality but nowadays women don’t put up with that exclusion crap. Find images that include us with all our dignity intact if you don’t want to look like a caricature.

If the quality of prisons are any measure, the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela hasn’t made it to the prisons yet. They’re like the tenth circle of hell.