Juan Carlos Giordano, the Argentinian MP and leader of the ‘Izquierda Socialista‘ (Socialist Left) party, itself a member of the Trotskyist ‘Frente de Izquierda y de los Trabajadores’ (Workers’ Left Front) coalition, gave a powerful speech on the situation in Aleppo at the Buenos Aires City Council.
On Twitter, Giordano said:
Mi intervención en solidaridad con el pueblo rebelde de #Siria contra el genocidio que comenten Assad y Rusia con el aval del imperialismo pic.twitter.com/NuycHH7Ok4
— Juan Carlos Giordano (@GiordanoGringo) December 22, 2016
“My intervention in solidarity with the rebellious people of Syria against the genocide committed by Assad and Russia with the endorsement of imperialism.”
Here is a transcript of his speech, translated by Elisa Marvena:
My motion of privilege, that we have brought up in this parliamentary work, is about denouncing an international genocide. When one is asked in what way is an MP, the chamber of deputies of the nation affected? An international genocide! A crime against humanity perpetrated against the people of Aleppo, Syria, which we want to condemn. And this flag represents not the dictator Bashar al Assad, but the rebellious people of Aleppo against the dictatorship of Bashar al Assad. What has been named the Guernica of the 21st century, where bombs condemned by the international community have been dropped… on hospitals, schools… Where the civilian population has been murdered, [where] 95 per cent of all physicians have fled. Aleppo has been put under siege, food and medicine were not allowed to enter. The dictatorship of Bashar al Assad, the bombardment from Russia with the complicity of the United States and the complicity of the European Union, because this is a people that rose up against dictatorship as part of the Arab Spring in 2011 and [the situation] transformed into a civil war, provoking a humanitarian catastrophe. Therefore, we defend the people of Aleppo, the rebellious people of Syria against Bashar al Assad, against the bombardment and imperialist interference. And we are demanding that the national government break all diplomatic relationships with this dictatorship, corner the dictator and side with the rebellious peoples struggling with dignity against dictatorships in the world. Thank you, Mr. President.
The reference to the bombing of Guernica, the April 26, 1937 bombing of the city at the behest of the Spanish nationalist government by its allies, the Nazi German Luftwaffe’s Condor Legion and the Fascist Italian Aviazione Legionaria, echoes the work of Portuguese artist Vasco Gargalo, whose work ‘Alepponica‘ shows some of the actors in the Syrian conflict the way Picasso drew his famous painting ‘Guernica’ in 1937.
Palestinian activist ‘malak12d‘, who was raised in Syria, tweeted the moment leftwing activists raised the Syrian revolutionary flag in the city council.
أحزاب اليسار في الأرجنتين ترفع علم الثورة السورية في البرلمان الارجنتيني اليوم و تطالب الحكومة بقطع العلاقات الدبلوماسية فوراً مع الأسد . pic.twitter.com/tLcvExpOc8
— مَلَك (@Malak12d) December 17, 2016
Leftwing parties in Argentina raise the flag of the Syrian revolution today and demand that their government cut all diplomatic ties with the Assad regime.
Syrian activist Omar Abbas praised the work of Giordano and other Argentinian Leftists, saying that the grassroots work of Syrians and their allies in Argentina should be emulated everywhere else in the world.
Syrian activists are doing excellent grassroots work (away from opp) in Argentina, reaching out to unions and leftists to great effect.
— Omar (@omarsyria) 17 December 2016
There are too few examples of this – Syrians & allies must do independent grassroots outreach to their communities and strengthen ties.
— Omar (@omarsyria) 17 December 2016
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