By; Zaher Baher
Feb 2015
Before the uprising of March 1991 in Kurdistan, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) armed forces (Peshmarga) virtually did not exist, except for the ones on the borders with Iran and in very remote areas. This new situation resulted from the Iran/Iraq war and the Anfal campaign run by the former Regime that cost the life of over 180 thousand villagers who were evacuated and disappeared with their villages completely destroyed by way of demolition. When the uprising happened, the government forces were kicked out by the mass movement, and then the PUK and KDP with the help of US and Western countries came back. In the short time, they controlled these towns and cities that liberated by people. In May 1992, they formed and shared Administration through a scenario of the fake election. On 05/10/1992 they started fighting the PKK, this lasted about 3 months. In 1995, PUK and KDP became separated and started fighting one another and divided Kurdistan between them.
During the fighting PUK had defeated KDP almost completely, therefore, the head of KDP, Masoud Barzani, asked the former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein for his support.
On 31/08/96, the former regime’s army had arrived Erbil and rescued the KDP. Afterwards, the KDP launched attacks on PUK and managed to control many areas including towns, cities and villages, which were under the control of the PUK previously. The PUK had no choice but to ask the Iranian regime for support, so with the help of Iran, PUK managed to gain control of those places that been lost to the KDP and set up its own administration. After this fighting, PUK and KDP controlled different regions of Kurdistan. KDP set up its Administration in Erbil and the towns around it. PUK set up its own Authority in Sulaymaniyah and the towns around.
In 2003 the former regime fell after the invasion of Iraq by the US and Western countries, nonetheless an extraordinary opportunity was created for PUK and KDP to form Kurdistan Regional Government, the KRG has formed as the result of the election of 2005. The second election after the invasion was in 2009. From 2005 to 2014 both parties (PUK & KDP) were the major powers in KRG. In the last election of 2014, the balance of power slightly changed. The so-called Movement of Change (Goran) that was formed in 2007, came second in the election, it entered the government shared power with KDP, PUK, Islamic organizations and other small parties. However, the corruption, terrorizing of people, disappearances, killing and assassinating of political activists, writers, journalists and women continued.
In short, no serious reforms took place while ’Goran’ shared power with KDP, PUK and the rest. In fact, the situation has got worse. In October of 2015, the KDP sacked all the MPs, Ministers and the heads of Parliament from ‘Goran’, Movement of Change, and were not allowed to return to Erbil. Since then there has been no effective parliament in Kurdistan.

It is People who are in crisis not the KRG:

Kurdish people in Iraqi Kurdistan (Bashur) under the control of KRG have dramatically suffered economically and politically. KRG has failed to pay its employees of 1.4 Millions since October 2015. From this month the teachers are supposed to receive only half of their wage. The KRG blamed the Iraqi central government for not sending the proportion of its annual budget of 17% when due. The KRG supposed to export 550 thousand barrels of oil daily via central government, then the central government should releases the proportion of the . I, the KRG has been selling the oil directly bypassing the central government and kept the money without showing any official record of the detail income, or how it was sold and to whom.
The KRG stated there are also other reasons contributing to the drying up its budget such as the tumbling of oil prices, war with Isis and the cost of having over 1.5 Millions of refugees from Syria and the south/ middle regions of Iraq.
Since October of 2015 trade, market, construction work has all slowed down and all projects have almost been stopped due to running out of money. In addition, thousands especially young people have left Kurdistan heading to Europe. It is difficult for people in Kurdistan to live in such miserable situation under the KRG. Therefore, people do not have any choice other than protesting and boycotting work, mainly in the towns and cities under the control of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
From the start of this month demos and protests of small scale have started in Erbil, the capital of KRG, that controlled by Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). Many of the offices and schools from primary to secondary have been closed because the teachers and other employees have no money to pay transports fares to reach their workplaces. The prices of everything has risen consequently, many shops and companies have been closed.
Like elsewhere it is the people who are in crisis not the system, not the government. It is people who are lack of confidence, dependant on political parties. It is the people lost faith in themselves and look for a leader to lead them. It is the people who have not learned from previous experiences, they still believe in the notorious and powerful historical lie of Parliamentary election.

We do not need any kind of uprising:

There have been many uprising in different countries in the past. More recently 1979 in Iran, 1991 in Bashur, Iraqi Kurdistan, and in the last five years the “Arab Spring” continues. However, the uprising in all these countries ended up with a terrible civil war or Regime change that in fact was not much better than their former rulers. The reasons for that are simple, either led by political parties or by people with no plan for the post-uprising and eventually tamed by US and Western countries. They mainly wanted to change the power not the society, they wanted the political revolution, not the social revolution, and they wanted to make changes from the top not the bottom of the society. Because of this they easily fell under the influences of the US, and other western countries’ political and neu-liberal economy. In the end, not only have failed to bring real changes, in fact, the post- uprising served the elites, upper class and the interest of the current system much better than previous regimes. The failure also disappointed people and made them not to believe in most of the protest, demos, and even uprising.
At present, there are lots of talks and suggestions among the Iraqi Kurdish especially into the ranks of communists, authoritarian socialists, lefties and the liberals for the uprising. What they want will not bring the better outcome than what has happened in the Arab Countries in my opinion.
In order to avoid that rout and bring the real changes we need to form radical, non-hierarchal local groups that are anti-authority, anti-state and anti-power. We need to organize ourselves in the neighborhoods, factories, work places, schools, universities, on the streets, and the villages. We need to form communes and cooperatives, to set up people’s assembly, citizen assembly, libertarian Municipalism in every village, city, and town. Using direct action and direct democracy in decision making that should be the way of progressing and developing people’s power. We need to do all these independently of the political parties.
Our goals must be to change the society from the bottom to the top, from the political and regime changes to economical, educational, social and cultural changes. We need to work on building people’s power instead of the dictatorship of the proletariat or any other class power.
We do not just need an uprising. We need a kind of uprising that enables us to make real changes in establishing a socialist/anarchist society. This can be done through Democratic Confederalism, Libertarian Communalism.

By Zaher Baher

25/10/2015

The latest Paris attack, killing 130 people and injuring over 350 more, again confirms the dangerous world we live in. There is no doubt that Isis and other terrorist groups, including al-Qaida, Taliban, Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab, can be fatal and brutal forces bringing death to many people anywhere across the World including Europe as long as they have a base inside those countries.

Of course, this makes states, both inside and outside Europe to work together very closely in gathering and exchanging information against the groups mentioned above. They also share the same information against civilians, campaign groups, leftists, socialist and anarchist groups.

A quick look at the recent history of terrorism between Sep 2001 and the Paris attack on 13/11/15, and the one in Nigeria and Egypt soon after 13/11, shows us that all these attacks targeted people rather than the state and the current system. Until now, we know that none of these attacks in Europe targeted senior military officers, police chiefs, corporate directors, high-ranking spies, senior government officials or elected politicians (which, by the way, is something I am not hoping for). This is not just the case in Europe, but applies equally to the US, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Turkey, Nigeria, Kenai, Mali, Bali, Bangkok, Tunis, Libya, Syria, Egypt, Israel and Palestine with but one or two exceptions. The attackers, as always target ordinary people, including women, children and the elderly.

Regardless of what happened or how it happened, the media and politicians, as always, try to distort the reality by deceiving people. They still claim it is a war between “us and them”, and, “a clash of cultures and civilizations”, and that, “they are against our way of our life”, and. “they are jealous of us, hate us” and many more.

The media and politicians never ever tell us the truth as to why this terror happens again and again. They never, ever tell us about the state’s terror against its citizens and the citizens of countries they have invaded, militarily or economically.

States, banks, corporations, churches, mosques, along with the media, are all functioning in different ways to protect the current system. They are the dark forces. The media and the rest of these dark forces try, deliberately, to hide the reality of the climate that is breeding terrorists. To blame terrorism only on religious ideology or medieval mindsets is short-sighted and self-serving. It conveniently obscures the fact that the foreign policies of the US, Canada, Australia, UK, Russia and other European countries, are crucial factors. This also means that a resolution of the Palestine question is not an issue. They do not want to admit that the state encourages Islam, the opening of hundreds of Madrassas without involvement in their activities, or any role in their control and inspection. That said, it is not the duty of the state to involve itself with Sharia law and its courts or modernizing the Qur’an which socialises and radicalises young Muslims. The state and the politicians ignore all these as if they do not play a role in breeding terrorism.

The media gets its facts wrong in at least three important respects. Firstly, in general, the terrors of authoritarian Islamists are not against culture and, to a certain extent, not even against other religions but against themselves whether Sunni or Shia and, additionally, against Eyazidis. Secondly, they call these   murderers fanatical Muslims and not the authoritarians they are. The reason for this is quite clears; to defend the power and authority of the state. Behind these terrorist acts lies the true brutality of the authority and domination of the state, corporation, family or any other cells in society. Thirdly, the Media   ignores the fact that the motive of Islamic authoritarians in killing innocent people in Muslim countries is to gain power. But their motives in killing people in US and Western Countries, in fact, is to exact revenge. The clearest evidence was the recent bringing down of the Russian passenger plane.   People in the US, UK and other countries are, frankly, paying the price of the foreign polices of their governments. For instance in Paris, before they started killing people, the attackers chanted Allahu Akbar as they opened fire and also shouted “What you are doing in Syria? You are going to pay for it now”.

A quick look at the history of terrorism shows that the strength of terrorist groups and the state is demonstrated by using terror actions. They both play the same game; they make the people’s movements weaker and weaker and, at the same time, both get stronger. The terror increases the spirit and feeling of nationalism, racism and fascism. It makes the state and its brutal institutions, including police and spies, more attractive to people. A recent Ifop poll published by Le Figaro and RTL Radio found that 84% of French people were prepared to accept more controls and a certain limitation on their liberties in order to guarantee their security. This is the best example to show how terror action impacts the French people. How they fell into the trap of the terrorists and the state!

Islamic authoritarian groups use their savage terror to deceive ordinary people in their own countries by using the actions of the US and the Western countries against them. Meantime, all states, from democracy to dictatorship, use the terror actions as a good opportunity to create more, so-called, anti terrorism laws for “protecting people and their security”. Many of us know these laws are mainly designed to restrict our rights, civil liberties, migration and closing borders on refugees. And these laws, used against activists, seriously threaten the integrity of the state and the system.

In the countries where the terror happens, citizens are the losers when they are killed and then their rights and liberties are abolished or restricted. When the terror happened in Paris, the state announced a state emergency until Thursday, 19/11. Then Parliament extended it for another three months by 551 votes in favour with only three Socialist and three Green Party MPs abstaining. The state of emergency includes; expanding powers to immediately place any person under house arrest if there are “serious reasons to think their behavior is a threat to security or public order”, more scope to dissolve groups or associations that participate in, facilitate or incite acts that are a threat to public order, extending freedom to carry out searches without warrants and to copy data from any computer system found, increasing the capacity to block websites that “encourage” terrorism, extending detention from 24 to 72 hours and banning demonstrations, marches, and protests including the big march, estimated to attract 200,000 people, ahead of the UN Climate Change talks in Paris on 28/11. And now we can see a state of emergency is in place in Brussels whilst nothing is happening there. This is what terrorism actually wants.

Terrorism does not threaten the integrity of the state. In fact, it makes it stronger. The state is continuously conspiring against its citizens so that, when the terror takes place, then it will be easier for the state to implement its brutal agendas and policies, without much resistance. We must not be deceived by state lies and propaganda. We are, as a people, facing two major threats; one from the state and the other from terrorist groups which is why it is important that any demonstrations, marches or protests against terrorism must be, simultaneously, against the state too.

By Zaher Baher

Oct 2015

Capitalism and its Media have always worked on confusing and deceiving us by introducing reactionary movements, events and experiments as a revolution, that in fact benefit the system rather than us.

For almost a century the Media outlets tried to sell state capitalism to us as socialism. They called Russian bourgeois society a socialist society, for about forty years they tried to tell us what happened in Iran was a revolution. And recently they tried hard to convince us what happened in some of the Arab countries was the “Arab Spring” or “Arab Revolution”. The same applies with regards to an economic crisis. For more than 150 years we have been told that these crisis were capitalism crisis not us. They tell us this to confuse and deceive us as if the capitalists in general have to pay the price, not us. So we should think this crisis is nothing to do with us and we should believe that it is business is as usual.

Many of us cannot form our opinions and analyse things independently and think freely. In other words, we are influenced by the Media. We also think by the brain of somebody else, so that much of our thinking and analysis of issues like economics, politics and social issues are shaped by the Media, famous people and academics that write or talk about them.

During his time, Karl Marx noticed that in the future the duration gap between the crises will get shorter and the crisis time will get longer. However, the whole crisis, whether it remains for a short or a long time has never been the crisis of a capitalist system. It has always remained our crisis. It was us who paid the price by losing our job, consequently becoming homeless as well. We lost many of the achievements that we gained before, and then we became weaker and weaker. It was the capitalism system which escaped the crisis and emerged stronger than before by reorganising itself in a new form and beginning to attack to us.

Although I believe Marx’s entire political theory failed and some parts of his economic theory are questionable, for the problems of his economic theory, he should not be blamed at least for a couple of reasons. First his analysis of the economy in general, especially after the second half of last century onwards, working class and the system, should not be expected. At his time the capitalism system compared to the present one was very weak but the working class movement was more united and stronger than now. Second we should not look to Marx as a God or at least a fortune teller to see his doctrine is correct for now and the future as a medicine for our present sickness. Whoever thinks about Marx this way, is not only unfair to and insulting him, but in fact, him/herself is a parrot just using a brain of somebody who died a long time ago rather than thinking by his/her own brain.

In this article, I am only relying on evidence, statistics on one hand and the current economic, political and social situation under this crisis on the other hand.

I believe it was us that built this system not capitalists; it is us that created money, wealth, capital and everything else. Meanwhile it is us that can live without money, the capitalism system, in a society free of private ownership and power of authority. It is us managing and maintaining every cell in society while capitalists never without using our power, our workforce alone can even make one simple thing, and carry on their normal life and manage maintaining this system even for a minute. It is us actually producing everything, but it is they who benefit. In short it is us all the time holding this system not the capitalists and elites, therefore, whenever and wherever the system became faulty and problematic, it will be us who will be at a disadvantage and pay the price.

What is the economic crisis?      

The Oxford Dictionary definition for the economic crisis is “A situation in which the economy of a country experiences a sudden downturn brought on by a financial crisis. An economy facing an economic crisis will most likely experience a falling GDP, a drying up of liquidity and rising/falling prices due to inflation/deflation. An economic crisis can take the form of a recession or a depression. Also called real economic crisis”

The definition of Google for economic crisis is “   A downturn is part of the economic cycle (sometimes referred to as trade cycle or business cycle) The UK definition of a recession is – negative economic growth for two consecutive quarters. The definition of an economic downturn is less strict than a recession”…..” A situation in which the economy of a country experiences a sudden downturn brought on by a financial crisis. An economy facing … some financial assets suddenly lose a large part of their nominal value”

Many economists believe the current crisis is the worst the world has seen since the great Depression of 1930s.

For Marx “Capitalism IS an economic system that is inherently crisis-prone. It is driven by forces which cause it to be unstable, anarchic and self-destructive”

Marx with Frederic Engels described capitalism in the Communist Manifesto as “a society that has conjured up such gigantic means of production and of exchange, [that it] is like the sorcerer, who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spells.”A few questions here are coming up: Has that really happened? The sorcerer no longer controlled the power? When and where after 170 to 180 years we have seen that?

Elsewhere Marx argues that crises “carry the most frightful devastation in their train, and, like an earthquake, cause bourgeois society to shake to its very foundations.” Have we really seen bourgeois society shake to its very foundation?

Whatever the definitions of the crisis, this crisis happened and continues although the apologetic capitalists repeatedly say there will be no more “bust and slum”.

For Marx the causing of the crises are over-production, under-consumption, luck of purchase power and disproportion.

And the only solution from Marx and Engels for the above was democratic economic planning–socialism: “If the producers as such knew how much the consumers required, if they were to organize production, if they were to share it out amongst themselves, then the fluctuations of competition and its tendency to crisis would be impossible. Carry on production consciously as human beings–not as dispersed atoms without consciousness of your species–and you have overcome all these artificial and untenable antitheses. But as long as you continue to produce in the present unconscious, thoughtless manner, at the mercy of chance…crises will remain; and each successive crisis is bound to become more universal and therefore worse than the preceding one; is bound to impoverish a larger body of small capitalists, and to augment…the numbers of the class who live by labour alone”

There is no doubt that the chaotic form of production of the capitalism system and private ownership contradict with workforce of production. This brings crisis with itself which in the end brings disaster to the vast majority of us on one hand and accumulate the huge amount of capital in the hands of a tiny minority on the other hand.

If the causes of crisis is due to over-production and this causes the stagnation of economic, then at present time this ‘reason’ is questionable for me. At present because of the new technologies this problem to certain extent can be resolved by reorganising, making plans in advance before the stagnation starts in the market. No doubt nowadays any major company can find a huge amount of information within second, by using one click they can work out anywhere in the world where they have a branch how much goods, are sold, the profit and loss, the boom period for that particular branch, the number of customers they have, how many workers they have, their work conditions and their performances, and much more. Obviously things have changed very much since when Marx was alive, so they can gather all the above information in a matter of minutes. This may be a reason nowadays as to why the crisis is financially rather than the crisis of the business and trades, although it always ended up with the economic crisis.

However, here I am not attempting to find the causes of crisis but the influences and the implementation of crisis on the vast majority of us. It is true that from here to there a few capitalists, a few companies, banks will be bankrupted or even collapse but whatever happens, the system in general is intact and safe. It looks like an earthquake that comes and goes damaging some area but the rest of the world will remain undamaged.

We usually do not know much about the crisis or we do not feel it until the governments   impose the austerity policy.

Imposing the austerity policy:  

What has been so far introduced to us as capitalism’s crisis, in fact, was neither the crisis of capitalists nor the crisis of the capitalist system. When there are competitions and struggles between the varieties of the corporations, companies happen to cause bankrupting or collapsing some of them. In this situation capitalism through its nation states via its political representative, the parliamentary system imposes austerity on nation and citizens. Their justification for that, as they say, are the economic, is very bad, that without taking a serious measures the entire economy in the country even in the Continent will collapse then we will lose everything.

With this justification their vicious attack from privatising, selling the state ownerships and assets, reducing wages and pensions, sacking workers, reducing and cutting benefits, increasing working hours, imposing the worse work condition, putting up the prices of everything starts, to increase the rent, closing down the public services, forcing the worker to accept any shit jobs while there are millions unemployed in the market.

Austerity, as all of us know, brings so many more problems, like making the unions and working movement much weaker, decreasing corporation tax, increasing crime, racism and fascism, extending the hospital waiting list, homeless and homelessness list and list of eviction and repossessions usually go up.

The crisis situation for which the austerity is imposed brings us terrible packages which we are the only losers. It stays with us and it will be our crisis until   we will be completely aware and conscious about the situation and understanding fully of its causes. Unless we rise up against it by organising ourselves and work collectively to reject the parliamentary system, using direct action and direct democracy to bring back the power from the corporations and their political representative, the government, our crisis will continue and worsen.

In the absence of the above, this system will remain and the economic crisis will stay with us for a long time as well. History has shown us that after each economic crisis the capitalist system became stronger than before by organising itself better and becoming more efficient. Just looking back after the Great Depression what happened in the end of 1920s we can see instead of revolution, in fact, capitalism emerged so strongly it managed to launch WW2. Once the war was over again it managed to create so many small, big, short and long wars: civil wars, religious wars, nationalist wars in so many countries. No doubt these wars made the movement of people weaker and the system much stronger.

If we look at the current crisis closely on the World level and its impact on us we can start from the Oxfam report of 19/01/2015 that says half of global wealth held by 1%. The report shows that the share of the world’s wealth owned by the best-off 1% has increased from 44% in 2009 to 48% in 2014, while the least well-off 80% currently own just 5.5%.And also the report added that on current trends the richest 1% would own more than 50% of the world’s wealth by 2016. The report mentioned that last year, 2014, the 85 richest people on the planet have the same wealth as the poorest 50% (3.5 billion people).

In separate research the Equality Trust, which campaigns to reduce inequality in the UK, found that the richest 100 families in Britain in 2008 had seen their combined wealth increase by at least £15bn.

In this crisis in Europe the riches, the bankers and the companies are getting richer and making more profits while this crisis for us is getting deeper and making us poorer. We see the rate of unemployment has increased. For instance : In Italy the rate of unemployment rose to 12.4%, in Portugal 13% in France 10.5 % in Greece 25.6%, In Ireland 9.7%, in Germany 4.8%, in Spain 22.7% in UK 5.4% and in US 10.3%. The unemployment rate among the young people is much higher; for example, in Greece it is 56%, in Spain 53.5%, in Italy 43.9% and in Croatia 45.5%. According to Joseph Stieglitz, the former deputy of the World Bank, the rate of unemployment among the young African Americans   between 17 and 20 years old who have graduated from high school but not enrolled in college is over 50%.

Although a few of the Banks and big companies have been bankrupted or collapsed, the vast majority of them have benefited from the current crisis. Their profits have gone up compared to previous years. Here is an example of some of them; the profit of Walmart in 2014 was $16.4Bn –an increased of 2% since 2013. The profit of the first season of JP Morgan for this year that disclosed on 14/07/15 has gone up by 5.2% and the Electronic Arts predicts the profit of each of its share go up by $2.85, twice the profit of last year. Amazon online retailers Luxemburg Unit took £5.3bn sale just from British internet shoppers that rose by 14%. . Apple profit for last year increased by 6% to $39.1bn compared to 2013. Costco profit $20.6bn, IBM profit is $12bn, Microsoft profit $22.1bn increased by 1%, Google $14.4bn, the profit increased by 11%. Coca-Cola $7.1bn and Nike $2.7bn, was increased by 8%. These are only a few examples among 10 more of the world’s top corporations that their profits have gone up on our expenses.

In UK according to a report from Sunday Times of 15/04 that listed down the rich people shows the 1000 wealthiest people in the UK are now worth £547bn, not counting what’s in their bank account. The report says “The figure has more than doubled since a total of just under £250bn was recorded in 2005, despite the world economy being gripped by a punishing recession over much of the last decade”. The list also includes 117 billionaires – up from 104 last year.

What we see here should not actually shock or surprise us because; first the rate of corporation tax when Winston Churchill was in power was 97%. When Margaret Thatcher came to power it reduced to 60% and under the Labor and then Conservative gradually reduced to 20%. It was just recently disclosed that the taxpayers are handing businesses £93bn a year by subsiding them and tax break, a transfer of more than £3,500 from each household in the UK. Second the income of ordinary family has since 2008 gone down by 10% and also more than 900,000 people live on food banks. This figure has since last year gone up by 38%. In the meantime the gender pay gap has not closed after 70 years.

While we look at the actual evidence on day to day life with having more than 1.7 million workers on zero-hour contracts, reducing or cutting the benefits, selling the state properties and its assets including social housing , increasing the gap between the poor and the richer, the standard of people’s life lower than 5 years ago, the home owners rate from 70% reduced to 64% and the number of eviction in a day reaches more than 1000 , only between July and September of last year the number of evicted rent payers arrived to 11,000 and 2805 mortgage borrowers lost their homes during the quarter. And also it is expected if life goes on like now, the average UK household will be in debt by £10,000 by end of 2016, the number of Housing Benefit claimants have gone up by 500,000 and the working family claiming housing benefit more than doubled between 2009-10 and 2014-15 and now stands at more than 1.1 million,   the rate of young unemployment among ethnic minorities   went up by 50%, the cost of bringing up a child compare to years before increased by £2,000 ,   one of five UK earn less than living wage and more….How can you say this crisis is capitalism’s crisis not ours? And how can the crisis be “like an earthquake, cause bourgeois society to shake to its very foundations”?

When we have a spirit of defiance and challenge, we do not have to accept anymore of the above. When we resist orders from elites and their states, when we fight back, not surrendering, and believe that we can make changes. When we have the desire and the tendency of rebellion, the consciousness of being used and exploited and, the mentality of resistance that are extremely important for the job to be done. Then, we can freely and loudly say capitalism is in crisis not us.

Yes for Autonomous Self Administration
Yes for Direct Democracy

Kurdistan Anarchists forum supports creation of people’s self-determination in Bakur (‌North of Kurdistan in Turkey) by all means, but in the meantime we oppose and reject war and arm struggle to achieve this. Simply because in that war, state and its warmongers will win and consequently the people’s struggle and their achievement be defeated which will results in a long-term hopelessness and disappointment?

The announcement of people’s democratic self-administered as an alternative to oppressive Turkey state is a progressive and revolutionary step which deserves solidarity and support from all libertarians (freedom lovers). But using arm struggle and military action to achieve that aim, is a sever mistake. In order to prevent war and military action which empowers dirty plan of State’s Army warmongers, it is essential to rely on People’s social movement to avoid abolition of  the movement and should not  allowed to be a ground of fighting between the army forces to reverse  the self administration of people and its demands and achievements.

Kurdistan Anarchists Forum (KAF)
17/08/2015

By Zaher Baher from Haringey Solidarity Group and Kurdistan Anarchists Forum.
14/07/2015

Like leftists and communists, anarchists and libertarians have been divided over Rojava. Some of them are very supportive and optimistic about the future of this experiment and the others are skeptical and suspicious.

There are many factors contributing to this. Some of these factors apply not just to anarchists, libertarians and others, but to the Kurdish people too. So this article may also be the answer to those Kurdish people who frequently ask why they do not receive support from political groups and ordinary people, not just about Rojava, but about any event in any part of Kurdistan.

The main factors are:

First: the attitude of individuals in Kurdish communities who live in Europe and other countries. Although many of us were born or have lived in these countries for a long time, we have not played a big role in introducing Kurdish issues including Rojava to the ordinary people in the countries where we reside, let alone to the anarchists and libertarians.

Of course, I am not talking about those Kurdish who are already members or supportive of the Kurdish political parties who do not like PKK and PYD, but about the supporters of Rojava. A large number of us (Kurdish) have been spread over all Europe and the US. If we want support for Rojava or any other part of Kurdistan, we need to get closer to the people in these countries and consider ourselves a part of this society.

It is a bitter fact that not many of us (Kurdish) think the country we live in is our country, its society our society. We do not think any changes in its politics, economy, education, housing, welfare rights, law & order and many more, directly affect us. We do not believe we are affected by immigration laws, though we are like many more black people and people from different ethnic minorities facing racism and discrimination from police and employers. Regardless of what happens, the majority of us are still silent and do nothing to get together with others to fight back.

While we share all the above issues with the vast majority of the people in any country we live in – and while some of these problems hit us harder – still we remain ignorant. We therefore do not participate in independent local groups, not going to demos, protests, not supporting the workers while they are on strike and on picket lines. We do not take a part in other campaigns to improve communities, whether the campaigns are local or national. So how can we expect non-Kurdish people to know us and support our causes including Rojava?

Second: The way we do our demos and protests. We do not know how to introduce our cause to passers-by or local people. The actual cause that we organize demos or protests for is usually lost among so many irrelevant placards, banners, Kurdish flags and pictures of leaders. We chant some useless and expired nationalist anthems. Because of this our demos and protests fail to deliver our purpose and just remain attractive to ourselves. While this is our way and our manner to introduce our causes to people, how can we expect them to know the exact situation, let’s say in Rojava?

Third: The historical bitter experiences that the anarchist/libertarian movements have had since the first International Workingmen’s Association in 19th century. They were involved heavily and supported by the Association, but were later kicked out and accused. This was followed in 20th century by bloody experiences with Bolsheviks, and then by the Spanish civil war in 1936/37. This history has repeated itself in different countries throughout the last century. Because of these terrible and bloody experiences many individual anarchists and anarchist groups remain very cautious in approaching Rojava.

In Rojava and Bakur (Northern Kurdistan-Turkey Kurdistan) we see a couple of powerful political parties, PKK and PYD, who have been heavily involved with both movements. This makes some anarchists struggle to understand or see the big steps that both movements are taking towards social revolution. They still look at PKK and its movement through the glasses of the end of the last century and beginning of this century. There is no doubt PKK did terrible things at that time: even Ocalan himself acknowledged that there was involvement in terrorist acts toward its own people and people outside of the party.

However, many anarchists do not see there is an internal struggle inside PKK over ideas and principles of anarchism: between the minority who tend towards anarchism and the majority who would prefer to keep the party’s structure as it has always been. I am sure the outcome of this struggle will be positive. It is not realistic to expect that PKK and PYD as a party will give up hierarchical organization. They cannot be transformed into an anarchist organization as a whole. However, a quick look at PKK’s history shows that it has changed and made many positive steps. For example, they do not believe in a nation state and the notion of United Kurdistan; to a certain extent they, or a proportion of them, are anti power, anti authority. They transferred their weight to the towns to keep the struggles among the workers and poor people; they are in the process of abandoning the guerrilla war and are involved in peace processes. They also believe in freedom: in people living together in peace and harmony regardless of their differences in ethnicity, religion, and gender. They are very serious about the environment and ecology issues and also believe in social revolution. They support forming radical local groups, believing in direct democracy and direct action. Not acknowledging the above comes either from arrogance or from simple ignorance and an inability to read the situation properly.

In my opinion the best attitude towards Rojava is “supportive and being critical” at the same time. Criticizing it alone and keeping distance from it does not benefit our current anarchist movement. This attitude again shows incapability of recognizing the reality of the movement, and would bring the blame of history over us. Meanwhile supporting it without criticizing its negative sides again shows that we do not see this movement realistically. Having this attitude, once the movement fails to meet our demands, we will be very disappointed and keep ourselves a far distance from any movement in the future.

Four: Ideological attitude and looking for purity and perfection in the movement. I believe this approach is at best naivety and at worst irresponsible. It is important to recognize this movement as a mass movement; how do we expect perfection in Rojava and Bakur unless we have perfect people? If we had pure, responsible and conscious people we would not need revolution. We need to look into Rojava with its all positive and negative elements. We should support the positive parts and we should be hard on its negative sides, not just to draw the attention of people to what is wrong, but also to support fixing it.

We have not seen a movement like Rojava since the Zapatista’s movement of 1994. What happened in Rojava with all its faults so far is the best we have, especially when we see the outcome of the Arab Spring, and that Rojava took exactly the opposite direction. Up to this point the movement has been stepping in the right direction although facing numerous attacks and threats: war with Isis and other terrorist organizations; the possibility that Assad’s forces will return and invade the region; the possibility of invasion by the Turkish government; the possibility of war with the Syrian Free Army; the reconciliation of neighbouring countries at Rojava’s expense; and the rebuilding of Kobane and the rest of Rojava by the US, Western Countries and their companies and financial institutions. Rojava faces all these threats and many more, so what is the attitude of anarchists and libertarians here? Solidarity and support to take the right direction or keeping distance and ignoring it until it loses whatever has been achieved so far? Which one is the right approach?

Five: Many anarchists and Libertarians come from Marxist or Marxist-Leninist backgrounds. Although these comrades have adopted some anarchist principles, some of their views, approaches and analyses remain Marxist. Therefore, they find it extremely difficult to believe the social revolution can happen in developing countries, especially somewhere like Rojava. This approach is ideological and borderline religious: they believe that if anything is not written in the old books it will not happen. Many of us know the Marxists’ books have confused people and distorted historical struggles about achieving socialism/anarchism. These comrades still use the same Marxist, Marxist-Leninist definition for the working class and the history of development in reaching socialism/anarchism. For this, they have posited five stages societies must go through before our aims are achieved. The five stages are the Primitive society, Slavery, Feudalism, Capitalism then Socialism; and, after these stages, Communism (they even separate socialism from communism). In somewhere like Rojava companies and factories are seldom found; therefore, in the view of the Marxist, there is no working class or proletariat. Rojava has not reached capitalism; how could the revolution start from there? How can dictatorship of the proletariat be set up while there is no proletariat? So any thought or any talk about starting a revolution in Rojava for these comrades is unacceptable.

It is a great pity our comrades cannot consider the exploitation of people throughout history has been the main issue. There have always been class divisions, a tiny minority of elites and the vast majority of people beneath them. So regardless of the many stages mentioned above, one question has always existed, one struggle raised; and this will remain the same until we achieve a classless society.

There has always been an alternative, there have always been grounds of replacing society as we have known it by forming and building a socialist/anarchist society. There is no doubt that societies have developed and progressed throughout history, but the social revolution has nothing to do with this division or to do with the condition that societies should reach capitalism before socialism. The need for revolution lies in exploitation, having people on the top of society with all the privileges and the rest on the bottom with nothing or very little. The basis of revolution lies in people’s consciousness, and their readiness to rise up. In other words, the social revolution can happen in any society, anywhere, regardless of the stage the society is in; but the total victory of any social revolution depends on many factors, whether this revolution happens in Rojava or in any advanced country like the UK or US.

History shows that human beings so far have only seen a couple of stages: societies which are Primitive, and the class society which continues until the present. There is no doubt that the division of human history to reach socialist/anarchist society damaged the social revolution badly. How the leftists and communists throughout the last century and earlier damaged the class struggles and principle of socialism as much as the right wing politicians and their parties is a separate subject. I will write about this soon.

OUR SADNESS WILL BE OUR ANGER, KOBANÊ WILL RECONSTRUCTURE

Yesterday, nearly three hundred people set off from different cities, with
the call of Federation of Socialist Youth Associations; in order to rebuilt
Kobanê, which was tried to be looted by the ISIS. Today, arriving Suruç
(Pîrsus), just before leaving for Kobane, these young people made a press
release in front of the Amara Culture Center in Suruç (Pîrsus). At the end
of the press release, a bomb exploding in the middle of the crowd, silenced
many hearts which had been beating with the hope of reconstruction.

According to the information for now, 31 people died and hundreds are
wounded in the explosion.

After this explosion today, we hear the names of the fallen ones, from the
hospitals of Suruç (Pîrsus). The ones who set off from many different
cities, the ones with great hopes in their hearts, are now the fallen ones,
on the target of the murderers. The people who are going out to the streets
in order to call them to account fort he fallen ones, who are waiting in
front of the hospitals; are threatened with TOMA and the police who arrived
Amara Cultural Center, sooner than the ambulance. In Mersin, in Sert, in
İstanbul… The people who go out to the streets are wanted to be massacred
by murderer state,by the collaborators of the murderers.

The ones who has massacred numerous lives, starting from the first day of
the Kobanê Resistance, are now trying to discourage us by murdering our
siblings.

We are trying to reconstruct a new life against the ISIS, against the state
collaborating with ISIS, against the war politics of the state which never
end. Whatever it costs, we are going to put on our sorrow, as our rage, we
are going to reconstruct Kobanê and recreate a life on this looted
geography!

(Today, two of our anarchist friends named Alper Sapan from Anarchy
Initiative Eskişehir and Evrim Deniz Erol from Urfa were murdered in the
attack.)

Bijî Berxwedana Kobanê! / Long Live Kobanê Resistance!
Bıjî Şoreşa Rojava! / Long Live Rovaja Revolution!

We should not let Kobane and the rest of Rojava to be defeated by the big corporations and the international financial institutions.

 

By Zaher Baher from Haringey Solidarity Group and Kurdistan Anarchists Forum

03/06/2015

 

 

First of all, I should mention a couple of issues in Kurdistan of Turkey (Bakur) that are strongly connected to the subject.  Between 08/05 and 22/05/15 I visited a number of big towns in Bakur, including: Amed (Diyarbakir), Van, Colemerge (Hakari) and Gavar.   Later I returned to Suruc and was hoping to cross the border to Kobane.

My main purpose for visiting there were three important points: first: understanding the similarity and differences between the Democratic Self Administration (DSA) in Bakur and Rojava.  Second: Reconstruction of Kobane, and third the type of economy that Rojava can have in the future. Although the friends in Peoples ‘ Democratic Party  (HDP) , other organisation and the Working  Committees  of Rojava  in Amed and Suruc tried hard to arrange  my trip to Kobane but it did not happen.

There are two important issues to talk about. These are:

First: The 07^th June general election in Turkey:

 

Turkey is facing an important election. It is historical, not just for the Kurds but the rest of Turkey. If president Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) win, they will be able implement their hidden Islamic Democratic agenda. The human rights will suffer, the police oppression will increase, the prisons will be full of activists, the rights of individuals, women, ethnic minorities, and other religious almost will be disappeared and also will be a big setback for the peace process. . On the other hand If Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) passes the 10 % election threshold then AKP could be stopped from implementing its inhuman agenda. The HDP manifesto is very radical; even if only 50% of it is implemented Turkey’s Constitution could be reformed unless the military Generals take over.

I met many people in Amed, Van, Colemerg and Gaver.  Everybody was busy with election campaign for HDP.  Everybody from candidates, the campaigners and the ordinary people who I asked believe that the election of this time is a major event and anxiously look forward to seeing the result of 07/06. Their reasons for that are the following which is very difficult not to agree with them:

• This is the first time that the Kurdish people enter the election having a political party, HDP.  Previously individual Kurdish allowed taking a part in election as independent it is also the first time many non-Kurds are united with Kurds inside HDP and share its radical manifesto that reflecting and protecting the same interest of whole parties.
• It is quite clear that the AKP is not interested in a serious peace process with the Kurdish people. Erdogan has not taken a big practical step towards this goal. In fact AKP has been forced to agree to the peace process. Erdogan and his party are calculating that HDP does not get through the 10% threshold and does not become a major force in the Parliament to push the peace process seriously. So that wining this election will be a major achievement almost for everybody in Turkey.
• The HDP manifesto is strongly connected to the life of Kurdish and non-Kurdish people.  It is a political, economical, educational, cultural as well as social manifesto. It aims at the equality between men and women, at reducing poverty, unemployment, homelessness and the power of the corporations. It deals with recognising Rojava’s Cantons, the Cyprus issue, tackling discrimination, recognising the right of the individuals, different cultures and different religions.

 

• To rebuild Kobane, humanitarian aid and materials have to enter through Syria or Turkey. So that reconstruction of Kobane whether thorough the big corporations or through the international solidarity, has to be through Turkey.At present Turkey only allows humanitarian aid and winning the election is extremely important for rebuilding Kobane.

Because of the above reasons there is no doubt that the Turkey election of 07^th of June has got its own speciality that very much different from any other election in many countries.

 

 

Second: the DSA in Bakur and their differences with Rojava:  

 

 

There are many similarities of the DSA in Bakur and that of Rojava. What both experiments share are self-reliance and belief that things can be changed and done differently. Creating different radical local groups, committees, people assemblies and the House of People in the villages, on streets, neighborhoods and towns. In both experiments there are working voluntaries; making decisions collectively through the people assembly or the House of People. This resulted in bringing back decision making into the hands of communities. This also leads to decentralization and weakening the authority of the state.

 

In both experiments, the environment is a major issue and become an important part of people’s agenda.

Making revolution from the bottom of the society is a core belief in both experiments. There is no promotion for religions or for nation state.

 

Naturally, there are many differences between the two experiments. This is due to a different socio-political climate; which gave the both experiments their separate characters. These differences might find themselves in:

• The DSAs in Rojava emerged through the current situation in Syria, withdrawing Assad’s forces and the will and the determination of people in Rojava to do what they wanted to do. The one in Bakur have been the outcome of the long historical struggles of people under the PKK’s influences.

 

• The DSAs in Rojava have been settled and are the main administration that people trust and use. These are independent establishments and have no opponents except in Aljazeera; where there is still some regime administration exist. So the DSAs in Rojava are free and have open hands. On the other hand the DSAs in Bakur and in many towns and villages have not settled completely yet. In the main towns, like, Amed, Van and Colemerg; people are in confrontation with the regime establishments. For example, in the town of Amed; there are no contacts between Municipalities and the governor, the head of police and the military forces. The same situation or even worse can be found in the town of Van. While I was there, I was told by people I had a meeting with that they turned into problems with the official authorities; when they wanted to change the names of their streets to Kurdish names.

 

• The DSAs in Rojava have been recognized to great extend in the world. They have received a good attention, solidarity and support from leftist, communists, trade unionists, socialists, anarchists and     In contrast the DSAs in Bakur have been recognized as a work of PKK and PKK, which for the US, Turkey and the Western countries is a terrorist organisation.  Their poisoning propaganda has even affected the value and importance of the DSAs there.

 

• The continuation of ISIS war in Rojave is costing many lives, the stability of the region. This war also affects very badly the financial position of this area. The situation is paralyzing most of the economics, politics and social future planning. Furthermore, there is a continues threats from other terror forces, like Syrian free army and the Assad’s forces as well. Whereas, in Bakur and until now, there has not been any war.
• Rojava is an agricultural region and it is very rich in oil, gas and phosphates. Equally, Bakur is a very fertile land and ample source of water. The river Tigris is going through this region along with some other rivers. In addition the Van Lake is in the heart of Kurdistan. The area with it’s high and snow covered mountains can be a tourist attraction too. With all these resources the area can be self-sufficient, without a need from the central government.

 

 

• Capitalism has not been developed in Rojava yet. There are no big corporations, companies or factories. Therefore, the ugly face of capitalism cannot be seen here. In contrast in Bakur there is some form of undeveloped capitalism. This is   as a result of a deliberate racist policy from the regime, to exclude Kurdistan from major developments.

 

 

• The trade unions in Bakur are very strong and play a big role in Municipalities, the radical groups, people assembly, House of People and also in the work places as well. They have good relations with the three main Turkey trade unions. Obviously emerging the unions there relate to the industrialization of Bakur although not as advance as in the rest of Turkey.   On the other hand the number of the trade unionists and unions in Rojava are very small; therefore, they have a very little role to play.

 

 

In one of my meeting with people in Van they talked in details about the situation there. They talked about the heavy present of police and military forces in their area. These forces put a lot of pressure on people; harassing, humiliating and the threat of arrest. Despite of all these, the activists there continue to further their course to progress there DSA. They work in variety of groups; such as political, language, health services, women, environment and agriculture. It is estimated that DSAs can manage to 80% of Van. In 1056 villages there are people assemblies and in 40% of the area there has been some form of self managements. What is worth mentioning here is women’s 50% participations in these self management organizations.

 

 

In addition of the agricultural nature of Van; the region has a great potential to become a great tourist attraction. The House of people in Van has future plans to make it more attractive for tourists and have Eco-tourist projects to protect people and the environment.

One of the other problems facing people is the poor production up to 50% less than expected. This is due to the distraction activities of the regime’s forces. There is also the culture of lack of confidence among people and unwillingness of sharing, lack of freedom and political problems.

 

However, I was told by people there; that they face a mammoth task. It is not easy to overturn 500 years influence of the Turkish authority. Throughout of these years people have been marginalised, isolated and treated with utter disrespect. To change all these require a lot of work on the ground and on the individual level as well. But what is promising is the zeal and determination of the activists in the area.

 

In my meeting with co-president of HDP, another party chief and co-leader of Colemerg Municipalities, it became apparent that DSAs in the region are facing major problems. The situation gets worse more you get closer to the boarder. In fact there are areas are restricted by the military and people are not allowed to enter.

Despite all this; the Municipalities in Colemerg are determined to implement their main Ecology plan. They have agreed that Colemerg to be the Ecology Pilot. It has also been decided to work on this project as soon as the election is over.

 

 

Kobane and its Reconstruction:

 

After defeating Isis and Turkey’s regime in the war, Kobane could manage to pass the first test successfully. The USA and its allies took part in the war because they realised that either Kobane cannot be defeated or if it goes down it will take everything else with it. The first possibility would deprive the big corporations from rebuilding Kobane.  The second would add another black spot to the history of so-called “international community”.

 

The war and the sanction indeed made life in Kobane and the rest of Rojave miserable for  a long time but in my opinion both factors played a major role in surviving the  whole of Rojava.

The war there introduced Rojava to the world and particularly the leftists, communists, socialists, trade unionist, anarchists and libertarians. . It brought love, support and solidarity to Rojava and its people. Hundreds of people from different countries   travelled there to be in the front line against Isis and a few of them lost their lives. Hundreds more went there as journalist and aid and community workers to show their support and solidarity.

Using sanction against Rojava by Turkey, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the regional countries all also played a role in surviving Rojava.  It prevented corruption, entering money, capital and hindered exploitation by businessmen and landowners. The simple life of the region managed to go on. People had to rely on themselves, work voluntarily and collectively. The true natural relation between the people continued.

 

Now Kobane and the whole of Rojava enter the economic test which is difficult indeed.  Many countries can resist militarily occupation but cannot survive an economic one.  Launching an economic war by the big corporations and the international financial institutions can be devastating.

This may start with the reconstruction of Kobane.  Rebuilding it could bring death or the survival of Rojava as a whole by initiating its social revolution.

In my opinion rebuilding Kobane may take one of the following roots:

• Either through the work of big corporations and financial institution, like IMF, WB and ECB. This will no doubt benefit the big corporation in particular and the capitalist system in general as happened, by imposing so many dramatic conditions, in Africa and South America.
• Or through international support and solidarity of the leftists, communists, trade unionists, socialists, anarchists and libertarians. This of course is a slow process but it is the only way that Kabana can be rebuild solidly and avoiding the influence of the big corporations.
• It could also be done by contracting out some of the projects to some companies to supply materials and expertise but the actual work to be done collectively by the people. This is provided a close watch and scrutiny of the DSAs and the Tev-Dem. Could be imposed.

 

There is currently a big discussion among the politicians, academics and economists about the rebuilding Kobane and the future economy of Rojava.  In fact a big conference was held in Amed in early May regarding rebuilding Kobane but so far no decision has been taken.  While I was in Bakur I spoke to many people in important position. They all rejected the big corporations and explained that this is their own official and firm view.

Making no decision in rebuilding kobane through the big corporations and the international financial institutions is excellent decision against the interests of   US and the Western countries and keeps their powers out. In the meantime it is our duty all to help and support whatever we can to participate in reconstruction of Kobane in order to protect this shiny experiment. We should not let the blood of thousands of people who scarified themselves to liberate Kobane and protecting the social revolution in Rojava to go in vain.

My name is (Yousif Mohaamed Ali), born in 1997. From my childhood beside my normal school studying, I started an Islamic study course with one of our religious neighbour until year 2002.

After my father’s death, I was in year 10 and I decided to leave my school and join full time Islamic Studying school (Hujra / Madrasa) until 2009.

After few months I realized that Islam nothing can provide to human and human being except destruction, killing, division, deterring, suppressing, and trouble making. For that, I left my religious study and came back to my father’s route, who was non-believer (atheist) and he never asked or punished me why I chose and practice Islam. When neighbour and family friends asked him about our different views on religion & Islam, he always replied with freedom in choice & thinking. At the same time I understood Islam never taught me about freedom of thinking except the principle of (with me or my enemy), which Islam and religion are based on.

In September 2009 I decided to go back to high school and continue on my study in my town (Darbandikhan). During this year in our school we had a scientific event and I participated with a lecture on (Big Bang theory). During my lecture few from my religious class mates were within audience. When they found from my views on nature that I am not anymore believe in religion, later they started with threatening and raised (Fatwa ) to kill me, but due to my reaction with reporting the group to local security and (whistle blowing) their secrets to local authority, they stopped chasing and hassling me.

During 2009/2010 I started to publish my comments, experience, and rejection of Islam in Face Book, some of my friends and followers were encouraged, supported and credited me, and some of my previous religious class mates started to attack me and categorised me as an (Infidel).

On night 3^rd of December 2014 a member of the Islamic group, his name is (Halo Hakeem) threatened me with death, and he tried to implement my assassination plan during same night, because they know I will continue on my anti-religion activities.

To stop their plan, I called one of my friends who was working with local government security organisation in our town. I was advised by my friend to do not get out from my house when the terrorist knock my door, and keep in touch with him & local security if they approach my house. All these communications were happened between (1 to 4 am) at the same night.

For the following date I received another threatening message from same person, and I went to local police station, and reported to the police. During reporting my case, same terrorist attended to police station and he tried to attack me, but the police officers stopped him.

Day after we went to court, but the judge was a member of one of the Islamic groups, and he did not take the case seriously in purpose. At the same day at 6 PM they managed to find my non-published scientific articles under the title (Is science fit with Quran?), they printed and handed them in high court in (Darbadikhan). Later high court decided to prison me. Same day in two hours time, three police cars came and surrounded our house. They took me to the main prison and later to the court again, and the judge humiliated me by attacking me with his non-professional & non-legal words & phrases. The outcome of the court was 15 months prison.

Police took me to an individual cell for 6 days and they isolated me from my family and other contacts until they transferred me to main prison in (Sulaimani). We tried with Darbadikhan court to release me on bail, the judge did not agree and he extended my prison time from 15 to 22 months.

Responding to the courts outcomes, activist and intellectual campaigned under the name (No for ISIL rule/law in Kurdistan), they managed to collect 500 signatures for my release. Under public pressure they released me on bail after finishing 17 months of my prison time.

After my release in prison, the activist directed my case to (Kurdistan Human Right) to engage with high court in Darbanikhan to close the case, but the judge was insisted on his previous judgement and (KHR) was told that I am infidel and should be punished further.

Following this, we approached (Kurdistan Parliament) in Erbil, we handed the case, unfortunately they did not respond for 50 days. Later we approached (UN) in Kurdistan to protect me. They sent somebody, and interviewed me. After one month they replied and I was advised that they can not help me. After UN’s feedback, on 22^nd of Feb 2015 I started with strike in front of (Sulaimani Parliament) for one week, also they did not do anything for me.

Now, depending on court’s schedule, I must attend the court on July 13^th 2015. Depending on my layer’s information, the assigned judge for my case is religious person and affiliated with one of the Islamic Groups in Kurdistan. Depending on my layers experience & information per article 372 in our local law which mostly Islamic based law, I will face 2 years and 9 months prison.

Currently I am in a small village far from family and friends, waiting for worst outcome and fate. I hope you have few minutes time to read this message and put yourself in my position. I NEED your help please, before religious & their barbaric law can distroy me. I tried to see the head of (UN) in Kurdistan few times since, but they did not facilitate to see him, and they responded with different reasons/excuses.

Please help me and lend me because non of Kurdish parties are up to do anything for me.

With best regards

Yusuf Mohammad Ali 2-4-2105.

Kobane’s Second Phase: Resistance and Necessities

After 134 days of fierce resisting and defending. The women, men and their combatants with the support and solidarity from millions of people around the world had finally defeated the vicious attack from ISIS and liberated their town Kobane.

This was not just a defeat for ISIS and it’s dream to establish an Islamic Kelifat. But it had also destroyed the ISIS’s ally the current Turkish government’s dream to resurrect a Neu-othman empire.

The attack on Kobane was a proxy war launched by ISIS on behalf of the regional regimes and others against the bravery people in Kobane and the Democratic Self administration (DSA).

This war has left a great impact on people of Kobane socially and psychologically and including the people who left the town and sought refuge in the neighboring regions.

The war is not over yet. The ISIS is still intimidating and threatening the villages around Kobane with their frightening missions and propaganda. Obviously, this threat will remain until their total eradication from the region.

We are now in the second stage of resistance and that is to deal with the aftermath of the war. Clearing the land mines, unexploded bombs and explosives. Clearly, this operation cannot be achieved by the people of Kobane. This needs technical support and expertise.

To rebuild Kobane: the people of this town need the international solidarity from the vast majority of people in the world in order to save the Democratic Self Administration. This is the only way to protect the revolution there. Asking the international finance bodies and big corporations to help with the rebuilding of the town is not the best option. In fact this approach as the history tells us might well results in destroying the revolution altogether.

Some suggestions for the international solidarity and support in reconstruction of Rojava:

– Forming committees and associations to collect money, reconstruction materials and cleaning the environment especially in Kobane .

– Opening bank accounts for donation and making contribution under the control of the Rojava Solidarity groups in towns and countries.

– Forming different groups and committees in the towns of any countries where is possible to collect anything, any materials that Rojave needs for reconstruction. Ensuring that whatever has been collected will be transferring quickly and safely to Rojava. Setting up storages on the borders of Kurdistan region of Iraq, Iran and Turkey before transferring them to Rojava through opening of humanitarian corridor.

– Collecting medicine and hospital equipments to all three Cantons of Rojava: Jazeera, Kobane and Efrin

– Building schools, hospitals, play fields and special places for rehabilitation and psychological supports of war’s victims and refugees.

– Providing independent telephone lines and Internet connection to all three Cantons : Efrin, Jazerra and Kobane, not relying on neighbouring countries lines any more, the lines and Internet connection should be outside of their control.

– Allowing the volunteers who can help physically and mentally to go there in order to participate directly to support people and also helping in reconstruction of Kobane and the rest of Rojava.

– Allowing the volunteers who are expert in energy fields, agriculture, industries and building construction to participate and offer whatever they can.

– Any steps that will be done must be in consultation with the local people in Rojava who involved in Communes and the rest of the other local groups with coordination with people of DSA and they should be the decision makers.

– We see the participating and solidarity to Rojava as an anarchist natural practical duty. We hope the above suggestions and some more from other comrades be put in practice. We believe this practical work should not be just related to Rojava , but can be considered to anywhere in this world especially those places that has been destroyed by war. This can be an evident that anarchists work in rebuilding the society in every aspects of life.

We believe that nothing is perfect and immune from criticism, so do these suggestions. We hope our suggestion create debates and discussion among all the anarchist comrades . We also like to stress that our suggestions are not just about Kobane / Rojava because there is possibility that we face the same duty in elsewhere in this world in nearest future .

Kurdistan Anarchist Forum (KAF)

4^th Feb 2015

The Experiments of Rojava and Northern Kurdistan (Turkey) for launching the social revolution left no doubt it has to start from building the local groups

Zaher Baher from Haringey Solidarity Group and Kurdistan Anarchist Forum.

Jan 2015

The history of movements and human struggles wanting to launch a social revolution, rather than just a political revolution are scarce, and social revolutions have happened in very few countries.  In spite of these facts those revolutions, or attempted revolutions, are still shining examples for us all. They remind us that either a revolution must be social or it does not exist as a revolution. In other words, it must be inclusive and must apply to all aspects of a human being’s life including their culture, education, economics, ecological & environment, health and care as well as the political.  This means we must have a social, as well as a political, revolution while at the same time taking the revolution out of the hands of the politicians, political parties and elites and putting it in the hands of ordinary people.  In a few words, starting it from the bottom of society and not the top, from the demands of ordinary people who have been for a long long time marginalised, deprived and exploited.  This is the only way we will achieve and maintain major changes.

In the last century the people’s history, in general, has been a very dark history, although in a few countries for a short time there has been some positives.  But, generally, it has been a history of slaughter, big and small wars, starvation, unemployment, poverty and displacement of millions of people.  Furthermore it has been the history of exploitation, child labor, and an increase in nationalism, racism, fanatical religion and much more. The main causes of this have been capitalism, free markets and globalization who have tricked us under the guises of prosperity, improving humanity, equality and social justice.

And the situation is the same whether a country has a so called democracy, dictatorship, coup d’état or Monarchy. These things have been very effective tools and instruments that remained in the hands of very rich people, aristocrats, the bankers, elites and the big corporations to serve and maintain the system for their benefit.

There is no doubt that politician and political parties have their own agenda and they use these agendas to climb to power. To gain this power they will not hesitate to do whatever they feel needs doing especially in the Middle East, Far East, central Asia, some of the African and Latin America’s countries, Russia, Spain and Portugal.

History has shown that all the political parties (from left to right, conservative to liberal, communist to authoritarian socialist, from religion to nationalist) have very similar economic and political interests and have very little differences between them.  In attempting to reach that final goal which is overall power, they are all happy to exploit and deceive the working class. At the same time although politics play a big part amongst the working class, poor and ordinary people they don’t see that they have a common interest. Therefore the working class is divided and don’t struggle together for their common interests. In other words they don’t manage to break the circle of their marginalization; they stay un-united and remain slaves to both bosses and land owners.

Through the present system all political parties aim to divide and separating working/ordinary people by creating feuds between them. This could be by wars, high levels of unemployment, starvation, homelessness, displacement to religious divides, racism or nationalism. All these negative attempts work well to maintain the present system and amazingly the people still trust the politicians and put them back in power.  Of course, there are other powers supporting them.  I call these powers the “Dark Forces” and mean things like, the media, banks, big corporations, churches and mosques. (I have written a long article in Kurdish on 14/11/12 about them and their roles in society).

There are now many people who have reached the conclusion that they have no trust or confident in any of the political parties but are also confused and have no confident in themselves and along with having their own personal difficulties, just sit back and do nothing to change things.  There are also people in society who believe that changing the government is the only political change we can make, rather than looking at changing the whole system. These changes are nothing more than small and non essential changes – its major changes like changing the whole system that we need. Wrongly many people seem to doubt that these major changes, and the social revolution, can be achieved through the local groups structure.

I do not want to talk about the local groups and their role here in detail as I have mentioned these in both my reports about Rojava and Northern Kurdistan- http://libcom.org/news/experiment-west-kurdistan-syrian-kurdistan-has-proved-people-can-make-changes-zaher-baher-2, http://www.anarkismo.net/article/27623- and also I wrote a very long article in Kurdish on 16/01/2012 under the title of “Why building the local groups are necessary?” I want to draw the reader’s attention to the experiment of Rojava and Northern Kurdistan and the influential role local groups played in launching the social revolution, and limited the role of the political parties. This was by forming and developing radical local groups, committees and communes.

Although the two examples below are similar in term of their aims, the structures of their local groups and having a couple of similar parties behind them, they have emerged in two different lands, with different political climates. Hopefully we can all see one, if not both, of these experiments as having a beneficial impact.

The first one is the experiment of Rojava. After the Syrian government’s army was forced to withdraw, The Movement of the Democracy Society (The Teve-Dem) emerged by building a variety of different local groups which then led to “The House of People”. Although this experiment is facing threats from a number of places it is still progressing, improving, developing and achieving more and more. Therefore, it has been very attractive to, and receives much needed support and solidarity from, many of the left, socialists, anarchists and libertarians from around the world.

The second experiment is that of Northern Kurdistan in Turkey. As I said above, Rojava is almost free of Assad’s forces and the people there regardless of their ethnicity, race, religion or nationality were free to do what they wanted.  There, people launched the social revolution from the bottom of society, which in some ways was not a difficult task. Obviously there are many obstacles and barriers as they face the threat of a return of Assad’s Regime, a terrorist war against them, civil war, and a potential war between the different Kurdish political parties. There are also economic and educational sanctions and other problems as well.  But, the experiment in northern Kurdistan is different.

In northern Kurdistan the Turkish government is still there and continues to use terror against political and community activists, trade unionists, and their families. After visiting there at the beginning of November 2014, I wrote a report (dated 14/11/2014) stating that the people there no longer  wanted to be suppressed/oppressed by the government; do not want to be humiliated; do not  want to be deprived of their natural rights; and do not want to be eliminated.  So while there is a fascist power there which tries to subdue the people to its wishes, there is also unbelievable resistance. A resistance which is using new tactics of struggles and developing new strategies in an attempt to defeat the government and force it to accept the people’s demands and wishes.  The people in Northern Kurdistan have become a major force who are managing to resist, defy and reject the system. It has become a new power outside the established power – a people’s power against the government’s power. This is the power of the people and this power, day by day, develops and going forward is getting stronger. This is a social movement that is the start of a revolution from the bottom of society, which will reduce the power of the state and eventually will replace it.

What’s happening in Northern Kurdistan is down to the essential and tireless work carried out by the local groups.  We can see its beauty, and the influence of these struggles weakens the power of the state and government.  These groups reduce the power of the elites and return decision making and responsibilities to the hands of local communities. We can all benefit from these struggles and experiences and the tactics used. The fact that local communities on both sides of the border achieved these remarkable social revolutions should be an inspiration to all communities throughout the world.

Using the knowledge and experiences from both experiments either of these examples can be applied to any country in the world. People can establish their own democratic power and administration in the absence of the central government as is the case in Rojava, or they can set up their own local community base even though a centralized power structure is in place, as has happened in northern Kurdistan.

I acknowledge that in both experiments political parties are still involved, be it the PKK or the PYD, and they still carry some influence over the people and the movements. There is also no doubt that inside these political parties there are those who support the social revolution.  Politicians in both parties know very well every crucial step in the development and progress of the Movement of the Democracy Society (Tev-Dem) reduces the influence of their power. We all know that whenever social movements are strong, the power of political parties is weaker and the opposite is also correct.

The social movements in both regions (Syrian Kurdistan and Turkish Kurdistan) neither now, nor in the future, will be tamed, controlled nor completely defeated easily.  At the moment a new culture has been adopted. A new experiment from being a toddler to walking and stepping forward is a fact. A new generation lives in harmony and freedom, accustomed to achieving victories. A women’s movement is also playing a major role throughout the local groups, different committees and communes.  These women are tough, educated, brave and very confident and a major force which is contributing to building a new society by changing themselves, but by changing society as whole as well.  In addition there is also the huge support and solidarity they are receiving from around the world.

So there is an existing culture, a new generation and a collective women’s rebellious voice that defies and fights back against the reactionary culture, political ideology and Stalinist discipline.  While these are in place they challenge the present political movement and fight the authoritarian power, like a non-people’s power, non-democratic administration.  While these are the grounds, the movement goes forward rather than backward.  This movement, even though political parties are trying to control or tame it, and even though there are unexpected internal & external events and intervening, all will be temporary and not permanent.

I do not hide my concerns. I am not totally optimistic about the future direction of Rojava. But I am extremely optimistic and confident about what I said in the a few lines above about the mood, feeling and courage of the people.  However, to achieve a complete victory a couple of essential bits supports are important.

First, there needs to be emerging the same or similar movements to The Movement of the Democracy Society in other areas of the region or at least in neighboring countries. Second the people of Rojava need solidarity, help and expertise with their economy, educational and financial systems. They need human forces, healthcare and all the daily necessities from socialist, anarchists and the libertarian around the world.

I believe there is still a strong resistance movement and a resentment of the system in both regions and neither will surrender the gains they have made. Furthermore people are now aware they are living under brutal systems with a vast majority of them deprived of their basic rights. I am hopeful that this raising of consciousness can be increased and this will push people to further stand up for their rights and fight back against the present system – to change it to a better world. A world of socialism / anarchism.

This consciousness raising is the keys to opening the gate which could take us to that society (Socialism/Anarchism) where we achieve all our demands.  I am very optimistic and hopeful that this can happen.