Unions of the World Unite in Solidarity With Murderers, Righteous War-Mongers  

"We had no interest in being represented there. We're taking this seriously. We're trying to get to the bottom of it."
"We take our international relations very seriously. When we make a conscious decision to get involved internationally, there's a discussion that happens. That never happened."
"So obviously we're really concerned and we're trying to get to the bottom of how this came to pass."
"Having someone more or less freestyle like this is beyond my immediate experience. We need to find out how and why this came to pass."
"Questions need to be answered."
CLC (Canadian Labour Congress) spokesman Joel Duff

A Syrian man carries his two girls as he walks across the rubble following a barrel bomb attack on the rebel-held neighbourhood of al-Kalasa in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Sept. 17, 2015. Karam Al-Masri/AFP/Getty Images

Actually, it is not really all that surprising. Unions everywhere seem to be in increasing solidarity with both left-and-right-wing ideologies. And, in fact, when CLC executive vice-president Donald Lafleur was once a national vice-president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers before he joined the 3.3-million Canadian Labour Congress in 2014, CUPE was notorious for some of its alliances. And the Canadian Union of Postal Workers is known for their anti-Israel stance in solidarity with the public relations campaign in support of BDS by Palestinian groups and their supporters.

Admittedly for a Canadian unionist to join the likes of North Korea, the Islamic Republic of Iran, China and the 'Luhansk People's Republic' in breakaway, Russian-controlled eastern Ukraine to attend a trade unionist solidarity conference along with representatives from Russia, Venezuela and Nicaragua does represent a road less travelled. So to settle the puzzling question of how a Canadian union member saw fit to travel to Bashar al-Assad's Syria in support of the Baathist government's concerns over labour matters does require an explanation.

And Mr. Duff was quite prepared to take the matter up with the president of the Canadian Labour Congress, Hassan Yussuff, about these bad optics, as soon as he returned from attending a meeting of the International Union of Operating Engineers in the United States. Perhaps most of the three million-plus CLC members would be interested in discovering why one of their own would want to travel to an event convened by the World Federation of Trade Unions, a relic left over from the Soviet era, when the CLC is formally affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation based in Brussels?

A Syrian girl holds an oxygen mask over the face of an infant at a makeshift hospital following a reported gas attack on the rebel-held town of Douma on the outskirts of Damascus on Jan. 22, 2018. Hasan Mohamed/AFP/Getty Images

Puzzling, if for no other reason than that in so doing he was paying homage to a country whose president is a vicious butcher, responsible for the deaths of over a half-million of his own citizens, a man who through his unstinting devotion to slaughter and displacement has sent his Sunni Syrian citizens in their millions to find haven from his military's use of chemical weapons, barrel bombs and helicopter gunships destroying lives, bombing hospitals and medical clinics, schools and marketplaces.

The unionists in Syria have adopted their president's view of their Sunni brethren as 'terrorists' for having had the gall to protest their unequal treatment at the hands of the Alawite Shiite government.
But just as the unions continue to support and praise the ruinous destruction of human rights and the Venezuelan economy by President Maduro, they obviously see nothing wrong in giving allegiance to a master of death and destruction, satisfied to send millions of Syrian refugees to Europe, depriving them of their birthright and human rights.

Well the answer is out there, and Fra Hughes of the Irish Republican Socialist Party who left Caracas to attend the Damascus meeting where he met Assad, describing him as "an affable, engaging, clever man", the perspective he brings to the matter of Syria's collapse into civil war is not to be blamed on Assad, nor on Russia, Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah, much less Shia militias. "The West" is responsible, eager to look after "the expansionist dreams of Zionism come to fruition". There, isn't the truth good to know?

That belief and dedication to the truth also brought to the Damascus convention the U.S. Green Party's nominee for vice-president in 2015, and the Lebanese-Californian founder of the Free Gaza Movement.

A Poster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is seen on the main road to the airport in Damascus, Syria, on April 14, 2018.  Omar Sanadiki/Reuters

Open Letter to trade unionists in support of brother Donald Lafleur, Executive Vice President, Canadian Labour Congress/ Syria Solidarity Movement

Dear Comrades,
We write to you as fellow trade unionists and comrades dedicated in the struggle for workers’ rights in support of Donald Lafleur and his visit to the GFTU trade union congress in Damascus. Brother Lafleur has been unjustly placed on administrative leave despite the fact that he attended the meeting as a private individual, on his own time and at his own expense. The Union Executive is continuing its deliberations and considering further actions against him.  We demand that he be permitted to resume his full duties!
We are surprised by the witch hunt against a fellow comrade and double standards taken by western media and governments when it comes trade unionism in Syria! We draw your attention to the fact the Canadian Labour Congress has never endorsed the economic sanctions against Syria and we don’t believe it would ever support actions that would bring hardship and undermine fellow trade unionists.
Donald had the courage to accept an invitation to the congress in Syria in order to listen, learn, see with his own eyes and try to understand the experience of fellow trade unionists in Syria and the 42 other countries represented at the conference. Unlike many others, he kept an open mind and did not accept without question the one-sided accounts and demonization in the western media and governments.  Now he is under attack by those same media and governments, as well as the many, many persons and organizations that have been willingly brainwashed by the prevailing war propaganda. He deserves to heard and honoured for his efforts and solidarity, not pilloried and reviled.
SYRIASOLIDARITYMOVEMENT.ORG