{"id":8552,"date":"2017-07-23T00:01:23","date_gmt":"2017-07-23T00:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/litci.org\/en\/?p=8552"},"modified":"2017-07-23T00:01:23","modified_gmt":"2017-07-23T00:01:23","slug":"democracy-is-the-alternative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/democracy-is-the-alternative\/","title":{"rendered":"Democracy is the alternative"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 18 July women and men in Saraqib, Eastern Idlib, participated in elections for their local council. According to the election commission, 2475 people cast their ballot, 55 percent of eligible voters. Just days earlier, the three candidates had held a lively public debate.[1]<\/strong><\/a> This is unheard of in \u2018Assad\u2019s Syria\u2019 where free elections have not been held in five decades of dictatorship. And this is the alternative to the regime \u2013 self-organization, democracy, and local autonomy \u2013 not Daesh and not foreign occupation.<\/em>
\nBy Leila Al Shami.<\/strong>
\n 
\n

\"\"

A woman votes in Saraqib in local council elections<\/p><\/div>
\nFree from the state, more than 150 local councils exist in Idlib province alone to administer basic services to the population. They operate under unimaginable conditions. The regime and its allies continue their reign of terror from the skies \u2013 trying to eliminate the viability of any alternative.
\nThe people of Idlib face other challenges and threats to their hard won freedom too. Extremist groups are powerful in Idlib province and there\u2019s been ongoing local power struggles between armed groups. Numerous local councils across the province have issued statements declaring their neutrality and calling for an end to infighting. In recent days and weeks people in Idlib, have been protesting against Hayaat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS \u2013 formally Nusra) in response to its acts of aggression against civilians, activists and Free Army groups. The largest protests have been in Ma\u2019arat Al Numan where thousands have been on the streets calling on the extremist group to leave the city.[2]<\/a> And today HTS gunmen opened fire on protesters in Saraqib who raised the revolution flag. Local activists have launched the online campaign \u2018Idlib is Green\u2019 \u2013 raising revolution flags (as opposed to the black flag of Nusra) as well as the campaign \u2018Al Jolani is the enemy\u2019 to tweet against the leader of HTS.
\nThe Syrian regime\u2019s narrative that the choice for the country\u2019s future is between it and Daesh\/Al Qaeda is popular amongst western commentators. It\u2019s been used to discredit the opposition and provide justification for the ongoing \u2018War on Terror\u2019. Yet most Syrians are not represented by either of these two fascisms; there has always been a third option.
\n**
\nOriginally published @ https:\/\/leilashami.wordpress.com\/2017\/07\/19\/democracy-is-the-alternative\/#more-888<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0–\u00a0\u00a0July 18, 2017.
\nNotes:<\/strong>
\n[1]<\/a> Debate for local council candidates in Saraqib https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/alwan6070\/videos\/746061172232881\/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED
\n[2]<\/a> See Mustapha Itani, \u2018Protests break out across Idlib against Syria\u2019s Al Qaeda branch\u2019, https:\/\/globalvoices.org\/2017\/06\/17\/protests-break-out-across-idlib-against-syrias-al-qaeda-branch\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 18 July women and men in Saraqib, Eastern Idlib, participated in elections for their local council. According to the election commission, 2475 people cast their ballot, 55 percent of eligible voters. Just days earlier, the three candidates had held a lively public debate.[1] This is unheard of in \u2018Assad\u2019s Syria\u2019 where free elections have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8554,"menu_order":1316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"litci_post_political_author":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3678],"tags":[4852,5058,5059,5060,5061,5062,4205],"class_list":["post-8552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-syria","tag-bashar-al-assad","tag-daesh","tag-leila-al-shami","tag-leilas-blog","tag-protests-against-hayaat-tahrir-al-sham","tag-saraqib","tag-syrian-revolution"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/litci.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/HTS.jpg?fit=652%2C435&ssl=1","fimg_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/litci.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/HTS.jpg?fit=652%2C435&ssl=1","categories_names":["Syria"],"author_info":{"name":"litci","pic":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c5ccde5393ccb83747702c5ca92f55d8fdaf99be9432d0142571c6d437fbaadb?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"political_author":null,"tagline":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}