This is simply a marvellous orthodox Trotskyist article. I could have written it myself. In fact the following passage follows quite closely what we in Socialist Fight and our comrades in the LCFI DID write in 2011 on Libya and Syria several times since:

“You are supporters of the dictator”

“The fact that such phrases are used by people who refer to Trotsky is sad yet indicative of the degradation of certain parts of what used to be the Trotskyite current. Yes, gentlemen, that’s right: we “support” Assad – in exactly the same way that Trotsky had “supported” Chiang Kai-shek against Japanese imperialism [12]. We “support” Assad in the same way that Trotsky had “supported” Vargas in Brazil and Haile Selassie in Ethiopia against British and Italian imperialism, respectively [13, 14].

Without forgetting the issues we have to resolve with the Syrian regime – as we do with every bourgeois regime on the planet – and without giving it any political support, we unconditionally defend the self-determination of Syria against imperialism and its drive to partition and subjugate the country, imposing double and triple chains on what has remained of the Syrian people. The unconditional support to the right of self-determination of oppressed nations is a non-negotiable core principle for communists, and it is independent from the values and the class content of the governments of these countries.”