Last winter, the National Salvation Front in Syria, which emerged from a meeting of opposition figures in Brussels and is headed by former Syrian Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam, sent a message to Syrian workers calling on them to break the wall of fear and express their feelings of anger through statements and sit-ins in protest against the country’s conditions and their own conditions. Of weakness and poverty, as stated in the text of the letter, the full text of which is published by Elaph
“Oh brothers, struggling for a homeland free of fear, oppression, injustice, and poverty, striving for a decent life, the National Salvation Front calls on you to consider the country’s conditions and your conditions of weakness and poverty under a regime that turned Syria’s strength into weakness, its unity into division, and its wealth into poverty.”
The ruling family’s control, corruption, transgression of laws, and prioritization of its interests over the interests of the people have led to the following:
1 - Following floundering economic policies that led to stagnation in economic development, a decline in state resources, a decline in the standard of living, and an increase in prices, which increased the wealth of the ruling family and the wealth of its agents, and the poverty and suffering of citizens.
2 - The high rate of unemployment, especially among young people, exceeding more than a third of the labor force in various fields, which led to an increase in the percentage of citizens living below the poverty line to more than half of the Syrian population, in addition to the other half being close to the poverty line.
3 - The increase and spread of corruption in various state agencies after the ruling family practiced and encouraged it, in addition to weak salaries and the high cost of living.
4 - Paralyzing the union movement, preventing it from carrying out its role in defending the interests of the working class, and putting pressure on it to form a cover for economic decisions that are harmful to the country and that serve the corrupt in the state and in society.
5- The ruling authority’s decision to take and prepare a set of laws, decrees, decisions and procedures aimed at transforming public facilities and their management into investments that give members of the ruling family or companies associated with them gains, as is being done in the ports of Latakia and Tartous, in the docks, squares, and silos of these two ports, and the silos that will be built. This will deprive the state treasury of huge sums of money and lead to the dismissal of thousands of workers in the two ports
This comes within the framework of a plan to tighten the aforementioned family’s control over the country’s wealth and sources of income. In this context, Rami Makhlouf was given the privilege of external telephone communications as well as running internal transportation lines in Damascus. He had previously been given the privilege of collecting garbage in Damascus.
The former union leaders and those at the head of their institutions are called upon to realize the danger of what is happening and to assume their responsibilities and lead the union movement in a move to prevent disasters that will befall workers and thus increase the suffering of the people.
Dear fellow workers
The corrupt ruling apparatus that continues to plunder the country does not realize or feel your suffering and bitterness while you are unable to meet the minimum requirements of your families. They do not realize the feeling of any of you when you are unemployed and do not find the opportunity to provide the minimum requirements of life at a time when it is available to your children and relatives. And their agents gain all opportunities through corruption, bypassing laws, and controlling government agencies and institutions
They cannot feel your feelings of oppression and deprivation, and they are the ones who created poverty, oppression and deprivation for you
Dear fellow workers, the continuation of the corrupt and tyrannical family system will increase your suffering and your anxiety about the future of your children.
Break the wall of fear and unleash your full power against the corrupt regime. Your fathers had already unleashed it in previous eras when the military dictatorship was controlling the country. They were victorious, the dictatorship was defeated, and they were able to achieve some of their basic demands.
Express your feelings of anger through statements, sit-ins, and by launching your demands aimed at guaranteeing your rights, raising your standard of living, and providing job opportunities for your brothers and children.
Do not be afraid of a regime that is on the brink of collapse, for it is more fearful and less secure because its owners realize the extent of the great dangers they have inflicted on the country and realize that a reckoning is coming. Their arbitrariness in injustice, oppression, and suppression of freedoms will not benefit them, and the security services will not be able to provide reassurance to their hearts. They know that there is neither security nor peace for a corrupt regime. And a tyrant
Fight for your children and the future of your people to overthrow the tyranny and corruption regime and build a modern, civil state within a democratic framework in which citizens are equal in rights and duties and the principle of transfer of power is achieved through free elections.
Fight for freedom, for freedom alone unleashes the energies of peoples, the freedom of individuals and the freedom of groups. Fight for a happy tomorrow for your children and your people.”
National Salvation Front in Syria