Young people and residents of south Syria\u2019s Suwayda say that two youth organizations of the ruling Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) are pushing high school students towards ideology and militarism, and away from their and their families’ aspirations to achieve an academic future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Revolutionary Youth Union (RYU) was established in 1970 as an auxiliary organization to the ruling Ba\u2019ath Party in Syria. The Union issued the al-Masirah<\/em> (The March) newsletter and supervised the management of properties and investments in the Syrian governorates such as the Medina Shabab<\/em> (literally \u201cYouth City,\u201d or places for culture, sports, and other activity for youth).<\/p>\n\n\n\n At a time when the youth organization is changing its leadership and launching projects and initiatives to revive its activities, it only uses high school students for applauding and chanting its slogans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 18-year-old Adham Rowad (a pseudonym), a student at Shakeeb Arslan High School in Suwayda who spoke to North Press on the condition of anonymity, and stated that he and his friends were made members of the Revolutionary Youth without even being asked if they wanted or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He told North Press that the work of the Revolutionary Youth was limited throughout his high school years to “attending nationalist events in the governorate halls and theaters to applaud and cheer the leader and the [Ba\u2019ath] Party.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The number of people aged 18-32 is estimated at 63% of the total population of Suwayda, a government employee in the Personal Status Department told North Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rowad believes that the parties involved in the conflict in Syria, especially the government, have exploited the youth during the war. \u201cWe, the war generation in Syria, have become mere tools of the government, which manipulates us as it pleases, and it should have realized that we have our own ambitions and ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Political activists in Suwayda believe that the RYU was not completely immune from militarization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The official website of the Young Revolution Union in the presentation of the organization states, “Tens of thousands of young men have joined the ranks of the Syrian Arab Army and the Ba’ath Brigades since 2011.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unlike the two party organizations for youth, as well as the armed groups that seek to increase the number of their members, civil youth organizations are absent from the arena, which negates any effective role for youth according to activists in Suwayda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rifaat Abu Saleh (a pseudonym), a 50-year-old political activist residing in the city of Suwayda, said that during the war, the RYU had become an auxiliary for pro-government armed groups, such as the National Defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the end of last week, the leadership of the RYU launched a program under the name Wasiya<\/em> (testament) aimed at supporting wounded veterans of the “Syrian Arab Army and the auxiliary forces,” caring for their families among the students. A center was opened for the initiative in the city of Homs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The organization plans to launch two projects to support small and micro-enterprises, \u201ctraining\u201d to support talents, as well as setting up productive and ideological camps for \u201cpreparation for the struggle,\u201d according to what RYU leader Afif Dalla told the state-owned Tishreen <\/em>newspaper last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, Abu Saleh told North Press that “through these practices, restrictive party organizations have lost generations, and over fifty years, the spirit of initiative, democracy, free dialogue, and openness to the various cultures inside Syria.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 18-year-old Moataz Rawand (a pseudonym), a student at Kamal Obeid High School, said that the presence of his father in the ranks of the SSNP imposed on him “belonging to the Syrian nationalist youth, as I am considered the son of this party.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He added, “I now realize my mistake in joining a party that incites people to take up arms and fight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The SSNP is allied with Ba’ath Party within the National Progressive Front and has representatives in the Syrian Parliament and government, and it also has youth offices in Syrian government-held areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The party has camps east of the town of Arra in the southwestern countryside of Suwayda, where training in the use of weapons is carried out, and its fighters have participated in many military operations alongside government forces inside and outside of Suwayda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although Rawan has found in the ideas of the SSNP to be “chauvinist, inciting of intolerance, and pushing the youth towards camps that belong to it\u201d since he joined the party in 2018, he believes that he had no choice at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The number of young people who joined the organizations of the SSNP in Suwayda is estimated at about 1,900 people aged 17-35, according to an SSNP source in the city of Suwayda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 43-year-old Shadi Mahmoud (a pseudonym), a former leader of the RYU in Suwayda, said that “ideological youth organizations will remain stagnant and are destined to disappear if they do not improve their performance and leave the mantle of power.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He added that his experience inside the RYU in Suwayda, which lasted only two years, revealed to him “the degree of the government\u2019s disdain for youth in high schools in the governorate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe, the war generation in #Syria, have become mere tools of the government, which manipulates us as it pleases, and it should have realized that we have our own ambitions and ideas,\u201d said one student from #Suwayda.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":54538,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pgc_sgb_lightbox_settings":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[39,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-reports"],"yoast_head":"\nCheers and applause<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Ba\u2019ath Brigades<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Incitement<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Reporting by Sami al-Ali <\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"