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.

It’s been 130 days, the heart of Rojava Revolution was beating in Kobanê.

It’s been 130 days, people were resisting for life with their self-organization and will.

It’s been 130 days, women were growing the struggle for freedom.

It’s been 130 days, and it’s not only in Kobanê or Suruç; everyone and everywhere in this region wasrising up. The borders were being demolished and solidarity was uniting everyone.

It’s been 130 days, Kobanê was growing hope, not only against ISIS; but against the states of Asad, EU and Tc, and against the media that pumped despair saying “Kobanê is about to fall!”, against capitalism and the state.

It’s been 130 days, the resisting peoples were becoming free.

Kobanê was resisting for 130 days against borders that divided lives, against murderers that destroyed lives, the gangs created by states. The free lands of Kobanê was growing the resistance, blossoming hope, becoming a new life.

Today, after months of battles, countless lives lost in attacks of the state and gangs, the victory of resistance growing with the rage against the murderers is echoing all around the region. The victory of resistance is rising today from Miştenur Hill and Mekteba Reş and Memite and Kaniya Kurda.

Today, the gangs that the states created for their interests are running away though the ruins they are leaving behind in Kobanê. While the victory of resistance is echoing in the free streets of Kobanê, the conviction of freedom is rising above the same ruins in the streets. Like comrade Durutti says, “We are not in the least afraid of ruins”. Today and tomorrow, in Kobanê and many other places, we know that a new life is being created among the ruins.

Biji Serketina Kobane!

Long Live to Kobane Victory!

DAF- Devrimci Anarşist Faaliyet

Britain, The Anarchist Federation (AFED), Organise! #83 – Interview: Slovenia â uprising in Europe â what happened next?

Date Sat, 22 Nov 2014 11:37:39 +0200

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GOTOVI SO! They are all finished! —- In November 2012 people in Slovenia (an ex-Yugoslavian country bordering Italy, Austria, Croatia and Hungary, EU member since 2004 and in Schengen area since 2007) rose up in a massive and widespread decentralised revolt that marked an intense and largely self-organised resistance to the economic crisis and cronyism. The uprisings started in the industrial city of Maribor against the corrupt mayor and city council, initially sparked by their introduction of a punitive traffic camera system which clocked up 5000 traffic tickets in its first 36 hours, with minimum fines a third of the average workerâs monthly salary for going even slightly above the speed limit. They were in reality born out of more than 20 years of transition politics from the break-up of Yugoslavia with capital accumulations and privatisations that had further increased inequality and powerlessness. Protestors readily torched the new cameras, which were such a visible and real act of municipal corruption during a time of austerity measures and privatisations, and then took to the streets.

The local anti-corruption protests, which had already grown in numbers to tens of thousands by early December 2012, quickly spread from Maribor to other cities, towns and villages throughout the country. During the uprising, state and municipal responses to the protests were harsh, with the use of riot police, and their attacks on demonstrations even included tear-gassing from the air by helicopter. The protests carried on until March 2013. Following the uprisings, the mayor of Maribor, Franc Kangler, the leader of the right-wing government, Janez JanÅa, and the leader of the opposition, Zoran JankoviÄ, were all officially accused by a Commission for the Prevention of Corruption.

A strong feature of the uprisings was the response of anarchists who included the Federation of Anarchist Organising, a sister organisation of the AF in the International of Anarchist Federations. AF members later participated in the 2013 Balkan Anarchist Bookfair, held in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana, and were most inspired by the activities of the anti-capitalist bloc that had been formed to bring together libertarian efforts during and following the uprisings. Organise! asked a member of FAO about developments since the uprisings.

When and how did the uprising end? Were there political concessions/changes?

This is hard to say. For sure, the window of opportunity closed after first three weeks. By this we mean the time when the impossible is possible, when the protests and riots were uncontrollable because they were simultaneously happening in many cities around the country and there were protests in small towns and villages that never saw them before. When the protests became more centralised they were more predictable, less dangerous for the system and therefore started to lose strength even though there were more and more people on the streets. For many it ended in the beginning of 2013 when the right-wing government fell. The anti-capitalist bloc that included many anarchists finished with the uprising in April 2013, after a protest during which an abandoned suburban community cinema was occupied for a few hours. Some structures like neighbourhood assemblies in Maribor have survived until today.

Did police/state repression continue after the end? Was there a support campaign?

Repression hits hardest at the end, when there are no more people on the streets. Hundreds of people were arrested, some already in jail sentenced, some still waiting for the trial. We try to keep in contact with everyone and there are several groups involved with the support campaign for them, demanding the release for all political prisoners and an immediate end of all legal processes around the uprising.

Can you name the organisations and groups involved in the uprising? Which organisations or groups still exist after the uprising? What are they doing now? Do they have continued discussion with FAO?

The uprising was egalitarian, decentralised and spontaneous in the sense there were no political parties or unions involved in it, and not even (mostly) any NGOs. People formed connections on the streets and new groups were emerging every day. Some are still active, others not. We tried to take the opportunity to make connections with as many as possible to find ways to co-operate to this day. The anti-capitalist bloc is one such structure that has survived and has still organises. Some who were not as progressive turned their energy into political party organising (like Syriza in Greece). That is unfortunate of course, but also
expected that people find it easier to trust their faith in the hands of (new) politicians, who will eventually disappoint them again, than in self-organising.

Do you think public attitudes have changed about anarchism since the uprising?

This is always hard to tell. What we know is that during the uprising people were ready to talk to us. Our tactics, ideas, strategies and methods, slogans, banners etc. were widely adopted. So this certainly contributed to the building of a culture of resistance. Whether we managed to transfer this collective experience into the next phase of struggle can only be told in time.

What is the situation like now with respect to political corruption? Has there been any social-democratic response?

New elections brought to power new parties and faces. The official left invented them in order for things to stay the way they are. Even if it was not planned – let’s not spread conspiracy theories! – they are a logical result of a ruling class that is fighting for their privileges. They are promising the rule of law but of course those laws are laws that keep the privileged, privileged and the poor, poor.

What is the economic situation like in Slovenia now?

More and more unemployment, more people in precarious jobs, bad atmosphere, no hope for future, the division among poor and rich is growing… Although the uprising didn’t change that it’s important we learned what we could have done better in order to be prepared for the future.

Have there been any other (smaller) actions from people since the end of the uprising?

Several, there have been strikes, protests, direct actions, debates… the atmosphere is bubbling and people are fighting at the level of everyday life to make their lives better.

What are the most positive things to come out of the uprising? Any negative things?

It was the biggest adventure of our lives (so far). Nevertheless, we don’t fetishise it. Events of such magnitude made us humble in the sense that we know now even better that even such great upheaval is only one dot in a long struggle against capitalism and all forms of domination. We try to change fear, depression and disappointment into strength, our mistakes into lessons for the future and our victories into courage to reach further. The best thing that came out were new connections, new lessons and experiences, the feeling the change is possible and the taste of a revolutionary moment that gives you strength to carry on.

Will there be discussion of the uprisings at the Balkan bookfair (Sept 2014 in Bosnia)?

Comrades from FAO joined forces with the US anarchist collective Crimethinc as part of their ongoing investigation and speaking tour âAfter the Crestâ. Comrades from Slovenia and US will therefore present a talk at the bookfair that addresses questions of lifecycle of movements aimed at sharing, among other things, experiences we got during our uprising in order for all of us to be better prepared when the next one comes along.

More information

Federacija za anarhistiÄno organiziranje/Federation of Anarchist Organising (FAO): http://www.a-federacija.org/english/ (the site includes articles and many excellent photos and videos of the uprisings)
Eighth Balkan Anarchist Bookfair, Mostar Bosnia, 5th-6th September 2014: http://bask2014.wordpress.com/
Crimethinc: http://www.crimethinc.com/blog/2013/09/09/after-the-crest-the-life-cycle-of-movements
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France, Alternative Libertaire AL #243 – Interview with a Ukrainian anarcho-communist “Anarchists have become the main obstacle to anarchy” (fr, pt) [machine translation]

Date Sat, 22 Nov 2014 11:34:16 +0200

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Donetsk, a city in south-eastern Ukraine was the scene of clashes between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian population. A libertarian communist activist who lives there and campaigning gives us some tools to understand what forces and the reasons for the weakness of the libertarian movement. —- What is the situation in Ukraine? —- Life continues with two parallel realities: people continue their daily life, with children around, with the same place of the dead, violence, hatred. The division of society grows stronger every day. It is a political revolution of the national bourgeoisie in the context of civil war and ill-disguised Russian intervention. —- What is the social composition of the protesters Southeast and those of Maidan? —- Maidan and separatist South East does not greatly differ from one another. Both bring together a variety of social classes, intellectuals, employees, contractors, rural, students, lumpenproletariat, former military… All become hostages and puppets economic clans.

Maidan people have the power of new oligarchs, and the people of Southeast ensure the order of the family of deposed President Yanukovych and his master’s in Moscow. All this rhetoric is flavored with nationalism. With the result of bloody wounds and anger for decades. In fact, the enemy is the Kremlin, the Capitol and the Bundestag. Leaders Maidan as the separatist leaders are fractions of the national bourgeoisie and its radical elements.

In the East, they scare people with Pravyi Sektr (“Sector Law”) and the call to fight fascism, as they are inspired by the imperial fascism of the Russian nation. In Donetsk, according to their logic, you have the choice between being Russian or be a fascist. For a Ukrainian word, you are beaten or killed. It happened at Maidan and it happens now in the Southeast.

What about the referendum of May 11 [1]?

This is a referendum marked by its polling without observers and under the watchful eye of masked person. It was a farce is part of a strategy aimed at creating popular independent republics, and then apply for admission in the Russian Federation. But there is a lot of people from Donetsk and its region who favor a united Ukraine. The separatists are better organized, have better administrative resources and support from the neighboring state, that’s all.

Do you think that there are Russian experts in the Southeast?

I do not think, I can confirm. And many of them are in training bases in the Donetsk and Lugansk, where groups of 400 to 500 local volunteers and Russia are coached by military instructors direction. (…) The majority of people who are fighting under the flag of the separatists are local, ordinary workers or military veterans. But a significant number and authoritative is trained volunteers who organize the Russian process. Supplies, weapons and money from Russia. The current head of government of the self-proclaimed “People’s Republic” in Donetsk Boroday strategist appointed by the Kremlin administration.

Will it a possibility that the protests turn into a social revolution?

For now, this is an unlikely scenario. A social revolution is possible only in the presence of two factors: a massive demand for radical change and the political organization of the revolutionary wing anarchists, who will be able to defend the change process.

In reality, there is no demand for a social revolution. The only change is conceived within a political framework. And even those timid shoots anti-autoritaritarisme that may have arisen, as they are not supported by a strong anti-authoritarian revolutionary organization will be destroyed by the political agenda of the bourgeois and nationalist parties.

What are the prospects for anarchists in the current context?

The main problem of the anarchist movement is the lack of an anarchist organization. The anarchists were unable to use the situation because they were captives of anti-organizational illusions.

The organization is an incubator, a school, a mutual aid society and a productive platform for ideas and projects; but most importantly, it is a tool for the realization of ideas, it is an instrument of influence and control instrument. It can not be replaced by peer groups.

Anarchists today as in 1917, missed the opportunity to be influential in the process. The RKAS [2] claiming anarchist Makhno reformist platform has survived many crises, was involved in the miners’ strike, and had several long-term projects, but were not without quarrels and divisions internal.

We can remember the anti-electioneering splitting the RKAS the Mezhdunarodnyj Souz Anarkhistov [3] in Donetsk. The separatists argued the alleged authoritarianism RKAS. Once freed from the “dictatorship of organizational office RKAS” which was to go into the mines and factories, the newspaper spread anarchy, and discuss with the unions and cooperatives, and was building a “black guard” self-disciplined, they showed their strategic and ideological capacity pasting posters made by hand, with the message “Do not go to elections, eat vegetables. “

All attempts to build the organization through the RKAS project resulted in a crusade against “authoritarianism and extremism.” Finally, anarchists have become the main obstacle to anarchy. I used this paradox to bring your attention to this old disease “anti-corporate” destructive and irresponsible (…). Perhaps the RKAS reborn taking into account all the errors and modernizing; we can create something new. (…) We will not give up and we do not disappear.

In what are you involved in now?

Unfortunately, I can not tell you everything. Otherwise, a lot of good people and I have multiple problems, and we have a lot of project in the future. RKAS officially was dissolved, but its core has shifted in illegal actions.

This is a summary, reshaped by Jacques Dubart, interview an activist RKAS – Revolutionary Confederation of anarchist-syndicalists – available on anarkismo.net translated text published in English on August 9

[1] 1. As a reminder, it is the self determination referendum in Donetsk which has “asked” for unification with Russia.

[2] International Confederation anarchist association.

[3] International Union of Anarchists.
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The social revolution will sweep Turkey Kurdistan sooner or later

 

By Zaher Baher from Haringey Solidarity Group and Kurdistan Anarchists Forum

Below is the outcome of my visit to Northern Kurdistan in Turkey between 02/11/14 to 08/11/14 as one of a delegation from United Kingdom, organised by Peace in Kurdistan Campaign (PIK), People’s Democratic Party (HDP) and Democratic Society Congress (DTK).

Throughout the visit we had a chance to meet many organisations, including political parties, local and regional Trade Unions, co-Mayor of Diyarbakir and Suruc, the Coordination of humanitarian aid to the refugees, Refugees Camps, Villages at the border of Kobane, representatives of Democratic Free Movement of Women, Human Rights Association, representatives of democratic Region’s Party, the Bar Association of Diyarbakir and finally meeting with the Federation of the Families of Detainees.

During our meeting with the people we had total freedom to ask the relevant questions about the situation, their responsibilities, their approach to the problems they are facing, and their current and future tasks.

There is no doubt that each of the above organisations was overloaded with work, shortage of funds, humanitarian aid and lack of support from the central government. These were because of the following  reasons:

a – The war in Kobane had created a big problem in the region due to the overwhelming number of refugees form the city and by the Eyazidis from Shangal (Sinjar Province). This has created a big problem for each of the above departments.

b – The slow pace of the peace process between PKK and the Turkish government, which is nearly halted. This obviously made the people angry, frustrated and disappointed.

c – Continuing the war in Kobane has caused more killing and displacement of people, while there is no clear sign of defeating the Isis. There is evidence that the Turkish government is supporting Isis.  These are reasons for more demonstration and protest and vicious response from the police that destabilises the situation further.

The most important observation in our visit is the fragmentation of organisations, and the formation of a variety of bodies in different places.  A few of these were old but many had developed during the last couple of years. Each of them is working for progress of the society towards stability situation, peace, freedom, social justice, human rights, There was some signs of coordination among them.

Many of these bodies have been formed as a default and forced themselves over the situation and the central government.  This is a reason for seeing some tension between them and the government. It is amazing to notice that while the Municipality of Diyarbakir is elected by the Kurdish people but has no contact with either the head of the police or the governor of Diyarbakir. This is the case with other departments. For instance, when we asked the Human Right Association whether they have written to the police about their behaviour and harassment of local people, they replied saying that “There is no point to write to them as they never answer us.” There are many Kurdish schools but the state does not recognise them. The people however strongly support these and are confident that one day they can force the state to recognise them. It is interesting the people are defying and challenging the power and the state. There is a power within the power. There is ‘’people’s power’’ that people believe in, work with, have forced themselves through the actual state’s power and have made it workable and powerful.  This is the way for them to gradually take back the power form the elite minority. While this is not difficult in the cities that overwhelming majority are Kurdish and believe in changes. This is how the social revolution starts from the bottom of the society, and not from the top.

After 28 years of war, PKK has realised that they must change their direction of their struggles, their aims and their strategy otherwise their future won’t be better than the future of other movements,

In my opinion PKK or at least the dominant faction or group within the PKK, has taken the right decision and the right direction by silencing their weapons and opening their minds, changing from military forces to people’s power and from political revolution to social revolution. The wave of the social revolution is so strong it will be extremely hard for anybody or any political party to change its direction let alone to stop it.  It became a culture, custom especially for the young generation, they have realised that is the only way to defy the power, to challenge the system and make major changes.

Through talking to people, they are so confident that they can make changes.  In meeting Democratic Free Movement of Women, there were 9 women present.  They told us how they deal with women’s problem in the society, like domestic violence, rape and other abuses, how to support individuals in every ways to make them confident to tackle their problem. A few of them were talking about their own experience and told us since they joined the movement, in fact they have nearly became another person. They take part in women’s peace camp, sharing mission, they discuss the books they read and working with Kobane democratic federation women. When we asked them whether there was a gay or lesbian groups in Diyarbakir? In reply they said “ there are a couple of groups  in the town, we  have contacts with them and we  are very supportive to them.”  It is amazing to see in a town like Diyarbakir there are women’s movement with very brave and open minded individuals and are very supportive.

The Federation of the Families of Detainees (Tuhad-FED) is another group we had a couple of hours to meet with.  This group was formed in 1996 under the nose of the government. It has 14 volunteers, half of them are women working tirelessly. Most of the foundation members of the group had very bitter experience of being in prison, as they were tortured or detained for a period of time. Its co-president of the federation is still held in prison. This federation is very active and has regular contact with the families and parents of the detainees.  They support them by keeping in touch, finding a lawyer for the detainees and fund the families of the poor to visit their beloved ones in prison.

This group is in contact with the different groups abroad and locally with the Human Rights Association (IHD).  In our meeting with the IHD, they confirmed that the police have arrested many people in the demonstration of 06/10 and 07/10/2014 against the Turkish authority. This was when many thousands fled from Kobane to Turkey against the wishes of the government. The demonstrations were against the silent policy of the state of Turkey supporting Isis. The head of IHD confirmed that just 5 minutes before our arrival, a couple of people came to their office to inform them that their sons, aged 16 and 17 years, have been taken away by the police. They were informed that during the demonstration 42 people and 2 police officers were killed, some 1128 people were arrested including 53 children, with 221 still in prison.

In a meeting with co-president of one of the Unions who works in a hospital, she confirmed the arrival of 128 injured and some very sick people at their hospital. The police have raided the Union office and the hospital a few times to find out whether anybody who helped the people at Kobane has been treated in the hospital.  When they found the presence of sick and injured people from Kobane they harassed her and other nurses, abusing them verbally and taking their identity documents from them.

In our meeting with the Bar Association of Diyarbakir, we met 5 Lawyers.  They told us that they have about 1000 lawyers in Kurdistan region working in different departments, caring for the rights of women and children or working at legal aid centres funded by the state.  They confirmed that no major changes have taken place since the start of the peace process. They were optimistic and felt that the situation will improve by next year when the constitution changes. They pointed out that there was a bail system but this did not apply to people who were involved in politics and their case had to be settled in court. When we asked them about making complaints about the police behaviour, they replied “We do not think it is worth complaining because the police do not listen and they will not change their attitudes.”

They confirmed that 2000 students were arrested and all over turkey some 3000 to 4000 people are still in prison This is in spite of the constitution which states that people should not be arrested for political activates or opinions. However, if one belongs to a certain political party or found carrying some sort of a banner or placard with slogans inciting hatred, he becomes liable to be arrested.

The plights of the Refugees continue:

 

Since the capture of Mosul, in Iraq, by Isis and the genocide of the Eyzidis and the start of war in Kobane, the Kurdistan region in Turkey is overwhelmed with refugees from both Kobane and Sinjar. More than 100,000 Eyazedis have fled, with many of them ending in Iraqi Kurdistan and some 18000 arriving in Turkey.There are also about 4000 of them staying in one of the camps just at the outskirt of Diyarbakir. The co- Mayor of Diyarbakir confirmed that there has been no support from UN. People in the region donated money towards the tents, food and clothes.  He said ’’ 90% of the donation and help came to Diyarbakir Municipalities from the local people and only 10% from the state.’’  He told us they work very hard to provide basic necessities of life such as tents, food, clothes, hot water, electricity, shower facilities, health clink and schools to their children. He mentioned that they have great difficulties as all the services have to be done by volunteers; they do not have enough people. They also lacked skilled labour, doctors, nurses, beds, ambulances and medicine. The Turkish government does not support them in providing the services and everything has been organised by the Municipalities.

We also met with the Union of the South East Anatolian Region in which Gabb is in charge of the coordination of humanitarian aid to the refugees.  This body consists of 286 members of which 30% are women. They elect 7 people to be part of the active committee. Half of their budget comes from all the Municipalities in the region and they have contacts abroad.  Gabb told us that they have an intensive plan for the next 3 months to coordination between refugee camps, between the refugees from Kobane and Shangal and also with Turkey to obtain information and humanitarian support. They also have to classify the people in the camp in term of their gender, age, health and other problems. They confirmed that they supervise and support 9 camps of refugee in which 4 of them Eyazidis from Shangal.  They confirmed that already around 6000 of them returned to Iraqi Kurdistan but received 96000 more who settled in Suruc, and 2840 in Mardin.

We also visited the refugee camp of Eyazidis where over 4000 people live. These people complained about quality of the food, hot water, doctors and nurses. They told us that due to lack of transport it takes 15 days to be referred to a hospital and moneyless refugees have to pay for their treatment.

In Surus, we visited the Kobane refugee camp which was set up on 15/09/14.  They have the same facilities as the Shangal refugees. It looked they lived in reasonable condition. We were told that they have 15 doctors, 20 nurses and many more on call to look after them. It seems they are happier  than the Shangal  refugees, probably because of the following factors:

a – They are very close to Kobane, where they come from, as this psychologically influence them, compared to the Eyazidis from far away Shangal.

b – The Kobane refugees feel their stay is temporary and will returned home soon. Shanglys have little hope of returning while Isis are in control of their region.

C – The Kobane refugees had time to leave home and some managed to take their valuables with them. The Eyazidis, on the other hand were faced with immediate slaughter. They have left everything behind and many of their relatives were killed. hundreds of their women kidnapped by Isis and sold into sexual slavery following the raids is still unknown.

d – The refugees from Kobane left while there were still people behind fighting the Isis forces. The Eyazidis people are bitter towards Massoud Barzani’s forces (The peshmarga), They informed us that as soon as the Isis arrived the Peshamrga withdrew and let the Eyazidis face slaughter. The withdrawal of the Peshamarga is a mystery and nobody knows whether it was on the order of Massoud Barzani, an agreement among Isis, the Turkish government and Barzani or something else.  When we talked to people in the Eyazidis camp some of them did not hide their anger and frustration against Masoud Barzani’s Peshmarga.

Turkish government has changed its tactic but not its strategy against Kurdish people:

 

Everywhere there people had one thing in common: ‘There has been no major change since the ceasefire of Dec 2012.’ The suppression and the oppression are going on, still the Kurdish community is marginalised, still you can see a major difference between Kurdish and Turkish towns.

There is not much support from the governor of the cities or from the central government to Municipalities that are controlled by the Kurdish people. The Kurdish community suffers greatly from joblessness and from health problems. People still live in big fear either for their own safety or their children’s being harassed, kidnapped or detained without reason.

It is true that the Kurdish people  are now in control of their Municipalities, and setting up many organisations, association, Unions and a variety of groups. However, they receive very little or no help from the government. It is noticed that the Kurds have forced their case and the Turkish government has no choice but to accept it. This may be due to the government hoping to become an EU member. Also the Kurdish have simply rejected the old situation. They are prepared to fight back and do not want to stop their social revolution which is at its beginning.

Things can be happened but should not be happened to derail the social revolution:

The situation is very tense and delicate. The peace process seems to have come to standstill. Kobane is still being seized, Isis is still a big threat to the region and it seems removing Assad from power is not possible for the time being. The US and the rest of the western countries can run out of a clear policy or strategy to defeat Isis and the Turkish government is not serious in the negotiation with PKK. These factors have direct or indirect impact on the situation in Turkey.

However, factors more important than the above which may derail the social revolution are:

a – Ending the ceasefire by PKK and returning to guerrilla war. This will be a disaster for Turkish society and the Kurdish community.  No doubt this may bring more killing, more destruction, more displacement of people, creating the feeling of hatter between Kurds and Turks, increasing the wave of racism and will have a negative impact on the region as whole and the Kurdish region in Iraq, Iran and Syria in particular.

b – The attitude of US and the western countries treating the PKK as a terrorist organisation does not help the situation. Continuing such a policy will bring no benefits either to Kurdish people or to their allies in the region.  These countries need to change their attitudes about PKK, they should understand that it is not the same organisation as it was in the 1990s.  They should consider PKK as a main force in the region and is very popular. It has indeed changed and progressed considerably during the recent years. Therefore the PKK cannot be marginalised.  The US and the western countries should force the Turkish government not to take the ceasefire for granted, they should all grab this opportunity to end this very long dispute.

c – The Turkish government has doubtful relations with Isis and the other terrorist organisations in the region.  For instance it uses them in a proxy war which may become extremely harmful to Turkey. The president of Turkey, Mr Tayyip Erdogan, and its government should leave behind their dream of establishing the old Ottoman Empire in the Twenty first century. Instead they should concentrate on its internal problems, especially the Kurdish issue.

d- There is still a big struggle between the military Generals and politicians in Turkey over power.  The peace process has never been in the interest of the military Generals.  Although currently  the struggle is getting less effective, the intervention from spy networks within the region along with the US and the western countries could revive this struggle and strengthen the Generals to do a military kudeta .  This obviously is not in the interest of the peace process and the social revolution by bringing back the old polices of suppression, oppression and killing innocent people and to return to the first square.

For two years now the foundations of social revolution have been being developed in Rojava, the west of Kurdistan. Bearing this, it’s hard to ignore the fact that the basis of the attacks against Kobanê is the interest politics of Turkish State and global capitalism. Abdülmelik Yalcin and Merve Dilber from Revolutionary Anarchist Action were in the region of Suruc, on the border with Kobanê, since the first day of the resistance against the attempts to obscure the people’s revolution, in solidarity with the people of the region. We interviewed them on the Kobanê Resistance and Rojava Revolution.

Since the beginning of the Kobanê Resistance, you have organized a lot of protests and made leaflets and posters. You also participated in “the human chain border watch” that was organized in the villages at Suruc, near Kobanê border. What was your purpose of going there? Could you tell us about what you lived there?
M. D.: Due to the Rojava Revolution the borders between the parts of Kurdistan that fell within Syrian and Turkish territory started to melt away. The Turkish State even tried to build a wall to destroy this effect of the revolution. In the midst of the war in interest of global capitalism and states in the region, the Kurdish people in Syria took a step along the path that leads to social revolution. Thanks to this step a real front emerged that leads to the freedom of the people, and in Kobanê, a total attack against revolution was started by the hands of ISIS, the violent mob produced by global capitalism. As revolutionary anarchists, when we considered the situation in Kobanê and all of Rojava, it was impossible for us not to become directly involved in it. Whereas the borders between states were abolished, it is vital to be in solidarity with peoples resisting in Kobanê. We are at the 15th month of the Rojava Revolution. In these 15 months, we organized a lot of joint protests and made leafleting and wheatpasting actions. During the latest wave of attacks against the revolution in Kobanê, we similarly made a lot of leafleting and wheatpasting and also organized a lot of street protests. However we had to go to Kobanê border to salute the Kurdish people’ struggle for freedom against the attacks of ISIS mob. In the night of 24 September we departed from Istanbul to the Kobanê border. We met our comrades who arrived a little bit earlier and together started our human chain border guard in Boydê village, in the west of Kobanê. There were hundreds of volunteers like us who came from different parts of Anatolia and Mesopotamia to the border forming a human chain along 25km of the borderline in different villages like Boydê, Bethê, Etmankê and Dewşan. One of the aims of the human chain was to stop man, arms and logistics support to ISIS from the Turkish State, whose support to ISIS is known by everyone. In the border villages the life itself has transformed into a communal life, despite the war conditions. Another aim of our border watch was to interfere in solidarity with the people of Kobanê, who had to escape from the attacks against Kobanê, who were delayed at the border for weeks and who were even attacked by Turkish military police forces (jandarma). In the first days of our border watch actions, we cut the wires and crossed to Kobanê together with people coming from Istanbul.

Could you please tell us what happened after you crossed the border to Kobanê?

A.Y.: The moment we passed the border, we were greeted with huge enthusiasm. In the border villages of Kobanê, everyone, young and old, were on the streets. YPG and YPJ guerrillas saluted our elimination of borders by firing into air. We rallied in the streets of Kobanê. Later, we had conversations with people of Kobanê and the YPG/YPJ guerrillas who defend the revolution. It is very important that the borders between peoples that the states erected were smashed like this. This action which occurred in the conditions of war shows once more that uprisings and revolutions cannot be stopped by the borders of states.

There were a lot of news about people who participated in “the human chain border watch” and the rural population around the border being attacked by military police and regular cops. What does the Turkish State try to achieve with its bullying at the border? What do you think about it?
A.Y.: Yes, it is true that the policy of the Turkish State is to attack everyone who is involved in the border watch and who lives in the border villages, and everyone from Kobanê who tries to cross the border. Sometimes these attacks happen frequently and sometimes they last for days. It is obvious that each attack has its own excuse as well as its own purpose. We observed that during nearly every military (gendarme) attack, trucks transport some stuff to the other side of the border. We are not sure about the exact contents of these shipments to ISIS. However, we could understand by the power of the attacks that sometimes it was to let people cross the border to join ISIS, sometimes to send arms and in other times it was to provide ISIS with its daily needs. These shipments were sometimes carried by vehicles with official plate numbers and sometimes by gangs who make state sponsored “smuggling”. Moreover these state sponsored gangs usurped the properties of the people of Kobanê who wait at the border. Military police on the other hand let people cross the border with a commission fee of 30 percent. The policies of the state against the local population have been the same for years. Due to the conditions of war, this policy has become much more visible now. The attacks at the border are conducted with the purpose of intimidating the people in border watch actions and the people of the border villages.

Although the Turkish State denies this, it was more or less known that it supports ISIS. However you say that now, even people who cross the border to join ISIS can easily be seen. So in this region it is not hidden that the Turkish State supports ISIS. How does this support work at the border?
M. D.: The Turkish State insistently denied its support to ISIS. However, ironically, whenever it declared a denial, a new shipment was being organized at the border. A lot of these shipments were large enough to be easily observed. For example: different vehicles brought “assistance packages” to border. We were witnesses to the fact that tens of “service vehicles” with black windows crossed the border. Nobody really wonders what is inside these vehicles. We all know that the needs of ISIS are satisfied through this channel.

Would you please care to explain the historical and contemporary importance for the revolutionary anarchists of embracing the Kobanê Resistance and Rojava Revolution, especially at a time like this?
A.Y.: The Kobanê Resistance and Rojava Revolution should not be considered as separate from the long history of Kurdish people’s struggle for freedom. In the land we live in, the struggle of Kurdish people for freedom was called the “Kurdish problem”. For years, it was misrepresented as a problem sourced by the people and not of the state. We say it again: this is the struggle of Kurdish people for freedom. The only problem here then is the state. Kurdish people have been fighting a struggle of existence against the destruction and denial politics of Republic of Turkey for years, and against other political powers in these lands for hundreds of years. This fight is given against the state and capitalism with the organized power of people. In the slogan “PKK is people, people are here”, it’s clear who this political agent is, which became distinct in each and every individual and who this organized power is. Ever since we solidified our perception into struggle, in different contexts, our relationship with Kurdish individuals and society and the organization of Kurdish people, have been mutual solidarity. We base this relationship on the perspective of peoples’ struggle for freedom. In people’s struggle for freedom, anarchist movements have always been catalyzers. In an age where Socialism couldn’t get out of Europe, when there were no theories called “Right of Nations Choosing Their Own Destiny”, anarchist movement took different forms in different regions of world as people’s fight for freedom. To understand this, it’s enough see the influence of anarchism on people’s struggles in a wide range from Indonesia to Mexico. Also, neither the revolution in Rojava, nor the struggle of Zapatistas in Chiapas fit into description of classical national freedom struggles. Nation as a political term obviously has the state by definition. Therefore while considering the peoples’ struggle for stateless self-organizations, we need to keep a distance to the concept “nation”. On the other hand our approach does not involve likening or similarizing the Kobanê Resistance to any other historical instances. Nowadays different groups mention different historical periods and liken the Kobanê Resistance to these instances. However, it must be known that the Kobanê Resistance is the Kobanê Resistance itself; and the Rojava Revolution is the Rojava Revolution itself. If one wants to associate the Rojova Revolution, which created the basis for social revolution, one can investigate the social revolution that realized in the Iberian Peninsula.

Although the resistance in Kobanê is happening outside of the borders of the Turkish State, solidarity demonstrations were held in every corner of the world. What is your evaluation of the effects of the Kobanê Resistance – well the Rojava Revolution, actually – on particularly Anatolia but also on the Middle East and also on a global level? What are your predictions related to these effects?
M. D.: The calls for serhildan (Kurdish word for uprising) were answered in Anatolia, especially in cities in Kurdistan. Starting from the first night (of the demonstrations) everyone in the streets saluted the Kobanê Resistance and the Rojava Revolution against the ISIS gangs and their supporter the Turkish State. Especially in the cities of Kurdistan, the state attacked the people’s serhildan with its law enforcement and paramilitary associates. The state with its Hizbulkontra (A word play connecting the words Hezbollah and Contra-T.N) associates terrorized Kurdistan and killed 43 of our brothers. These massacres are indicating how much the Turkish State fears the Rojava revolution and the possibility that such a revolution could also generalize in its territory. Attacking with the desperation out of fear, the Turkish State and global capitalism have another fear is of course related to Middle East region. In the Middle East, despite all the plans, depredation and manufactured violence; social revolution still managed to emerge. This messed up all the plans of global capitalism and regional states. This is such an upheaval that despite all the depravations, social revolution could emerge in Rojava. This revolution is the answer to all the doubt of whether revolution can happen in this region and on global level. It strengthened the confidence in revolution specifically for the people of this region but also on the global scale. The purpose of all social revolutions in history was to achieve a globally socialized revolution. In this perspective we called international anarchist groups to act in solidarity with the Kobanê Resistance and the Rojava Revolution. With our call for solidarity, anarchists from different parts of the world from Germany, to Athens, to Brussels, to Amsterdam, to Paris and to New York held demonstrations. We salute once more every anarchist organization that received our call, organized demonstrations related to our call, and those who stayed here with us in the human chain border watch.

Starting from the first days of ISIS’s attack, the Turkish State-sponsored media made a lot of news that claimed Kobanê is about to fall. However, what they understand after more than one month now, is this: Kobanê won’t fall! Yes, Kobanê did not and will not fall. We, as Meydan Newspaper, salute your solidarity with Kobanê. Is there anything else you want to add?
M. D.: We, as revolutionary anarchists, witnessed, lived and are still living the invincibleness of the confidence in revolution, even in the circumstances of war in our region. What is happening in Rojava is a social revolution! This social revolution, where the borders are abolished, states are being rendered powerless, plans of global capitalism are disturbed, will also generalize in our region. We invite every oppressed individual to look from the point of view of the oppressed. With this awareness we also invite them to support the organized struggle for social revolution. This is the only way to fertilize the seeds which were planted in Rojava and live the social revolution in wider regions. Long Live the Kobanê Resistance! Long Live the Rojava Revolution!

This article was published in the 22nd issue of Meydan Newspaper
Source: http://meydangazetesi.org/gundem/2014/10/devrimci-anarsist-faaliyet-ile-kobane-uzerine-roportaj-dehaklara-karsi-kawayiz/

An Interview with (KAF)* about the situation in Iraq/Kurdistan

by: www.alasbarricadas.org **

on 03^rd September 2014

ALB: How are you now ?

We are fine but like many of you extremely concerning about the current situation in Iraq in general, and Iraqi part of Kurdistan in particular. We are very active on social media in respect of writing, making comments and discussing the current crisis that exists with different people and groups.

ALB: Do you fear the attack of ISIS will defeat Peshmerge ?

In fact the attack from Isis is not just attack on Reginald Kurdistan Government (KRG) forces or military, (recognised as Peshmarga), it is attack on everybody. As you know the Isis is the darkest force and far more brutal than any of other terrorist groups. They do not distinguish between an armed people and the ordinary people. Whenever the Isis entered given the residents a very hard time by controlling them, subdue them by implementing the Sharia Law. We are sure you have heard what happened already to Yazidis while they are a peaceful people and did not fight with them at all. The Isis is not less brutal to Christian and Shias than the Yazidis because they believe these people, all are devils or evils.

We are more concerning about the actual war that the people in Iraq and Iraqi Kurdish are facing it now more than defeating Peshmarga on the hands of Isis. KRG forces (Peshmarga) is the corrupted forces of the current political parties who are in power mainly Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) whose leader is Massoud Barzany who is the president of Iraqi Kurdistan as well, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) still leaded by Jalal Talabany, the former Iraqi president. There are also other forces from Islamic organisations and other small political parties. However, we know that these forces (Peshmarga) are a tool in the hand of the political parties and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), but as you know we have nothing in common with them and always consider them they are a suppresser forces. However, while Iraq and Kurdistan at the moment face the darkest forces in the current history, we should be worry about Peshmarga to be defeated.

There is another important point that we would like to bring to your attention. Peshamrga in the beginning not just defeated, in fact, they fled without shooting a single bullet. If it was not because of the People Defence Units (PDU) and Women Defend Units (WDU) (the Syrian Kurdish forces) and later PKK the Isis easily could invade the capital of Kurdistan, Irbil. If they occupied Irbil then the rest of the Kurdistan towns could fall in their hands with no resistance or a very little resistance.

ALB: Are your people working in self-defense against ISIS ?

As we, KAF previously stated that we are only a Virtual Forum not a physical organization that we have no people from the top to the bottom. The majority of us who write in our Forum (Seko) live abroad; we therefore can do nothing physically in self-defense of Kurdistan. If you mean people in Kurdistan who agree with our ideas or close to KAF, of course, they try to organize themselves to fight back. However, because there is no an Anarchists movement in Kurdistan, we are afraid to tell you that: yes there are no self-defense groups or movement like how we can see in Turkey and (Rojava) Syrian Kurdistan. We do believe the only force or power can defeat the Isis is the independent Self-defense from the mass people. Unfortunately this force or movement at the moment does not exist.

ALB: What do you think of the US bombings ?

Before the US decided to bombard and hit the Isis bases, there was a lot of rumors and news that the Isis is made of the US, UK and Israeli. The more reliable evidence that we can refer to was from Edward Snowdn about this. Now when they (UK and US) decide to attack the Isis and selling weapons to KRG is to undermine Edward Snowdn information and the rumors that spread widely.

We are against intervention from US and Western countries and also selling weapons to KRG. We know this is a big business for them that can make a lot of profits through this trade. We also do not want Kurdistan become a battlefield for the entire Jihadist’s groups in the world against US, Western countries and Kurdish in which so many innocent people killed and many places would be destroyed. In addition, the war situation creates more hatters between Kurdish and Arab, between Kurdish and Sunnis. In the meantime causing emerging many racist and fascist groups.

The only winner in the wars is the big companies that sell weapons and war equipments, and the losers always are the poor people.

ALB: Are you working with PYD/PKK/PÇDK ?

No we do not. Because we reject any support or co-operation with any hierarchal, political and authoritarian groups and organizations. We only line up ourselves and interested in any resistance from the mass people and the social movements wherever they are in this world and we are ready to support them by whatever we can.

ALB: As for your answers, in Iraq, there is now a self-defense group called Sinjar’s Protection Units (YPS). I think this is a creation of YPG. Also PÇDK is creating its own militia. I imagine that some rank-and-file peshmerga might now be looking at self-defense militias with simpathy. Do you think it is possible to have in the next months an autonomous canton in Iraq, similar to those in Rojava ? (I mean, autonomous to KRG, US and everything else)

We unfortunately do not think something like what you mentioned can happen easily and quickly because:

First, the nature of parliamentary system and the role of centralism in Iraq like elsewhere do not allow it. Second, thirteen years of sanctions by western countries and US against Iraq including Kurdistan, as well as the invasion and occupation, then imposing free market policy and globalization on Iraq, forcing it to be dependent on the conditions that have been laid down by the big powers in Europe and the financial institutions ( IMF, WB, ECB). Third, there are internal reasons as well. The Kurdistan Regional Government, (KRG) for the last 22 years dominated every aspect of people’s life in Kurdistan. They have worked on changing the mentality of the citizens to be corrupt, to be materialistic, to lose their own self-confidence and independence to be dependent on them mentally and financially. KRG has created such an atmospheres in Kurdistan, majority of the people just think about how to get rich and compete with one another in becoming richer and to be in better positions. In a very rich country like Kurdistan, its people are dependent on everything imported from abroad, there is no independent economy as policies of the parties who are in power have destroyed the independent economy of Kurdistan.

We believe that what happened in Syrian Kurdistan in term of setting up the military Units and also self-rule in its three cantons the PKK and PYD are behind them and the DSAs under their influences. This means that if something like that happens in Sinjar neither the KRG nor the Iraqi central government and the countries in the region and US allow this couple of forces ( PKK & PYD) to stay in Sinjar for a long time in supporting people there to announce their own self-rule.

We recognize setting up people defense units as a people’s army and also democratic self-administration (DSA) on the basis of people cooperatives, communes and emerging federalism, need a very long social process by mass struggle independently to involve in all social, and economic questions that becomes something very urgent and necessary. These are the grounds of setting up a true people defense unit and the direct democratic administration otherwise the units will be a militia like any other militia in the world and the so called DSA will be a real dictator government.

It is a fact that there was a big conspiracy in withdrawing the KRG forces(Peshmarga) and this created a gap or giving an opportunity to emerge a mass resistance and setting up a Protection Units among Ezidis themselves who have been genocide and displaced. However, there is another important point perhaps you are not aware of it which is among the Ezidis themselves there are elites especially the religion’s Prince and the powerful rich people who are always supportive of KRG’s policies having an impact on many people in Ezidis community by using their religion influences . This can be a big threaten to divide the Ezidis community.

In short neither the self-consciousness of people under KRG nor the economical and the social grounds are possible at least at the present, to allow what we see in Syrian Kurdistan happens in Sinjar. In addition when comes to that there are possibility for both , the KRG and the Iraqi central government, unite against the people’s resistance in Sinjar using any meaning in suppressing and oppressing them. We also believe the regional, western countries and US who have been almost for two decades they invest politically and economically there (Iraqi Kurdistan) and making very huge profits they do not sit down just to watch the situation. They, therefore, intervene first by using their network spies, logistical supports then providing anything else to KRG and Iraqi central government that need to protect their interests. It is worth reminding you that at the same time both governments Iran and Turkey for a long time are continuously attempting to eliminate the PKK’s forces and are using this as an excuse to penetrate Kurdistan border by their military forces and bombarding the region and killing so many innocent people.

In addition to what we said, we must admit that there are no anarchist social movement there ( Iraqi Kurdistan) at all. What we have there is more idea and thought of anarchism.

In fact the leftist and the communist parties try to create their own Units under the name of “people’s guards or Units of People resistance “ but they are not in a enough strong position to do so, even if they manage doing to do it in the future, it won’t be something different from the hierarchal units or in the best condition it will be a militias that we have so many of both types (militias and state militias) in Kurdistan. Their real intention is that to make a political capital out of this, and like any other political groups or military Units trying to get wages and salary from the Bourgeois government.

ALB: Some Kurdish women from PKK came to Barcelona last month. One of them recognized her to be anarchist. She was from Germany and she wanted to learn more about the anarchist history here in Spain. Do you think there are anarchists in the ranks of PKK ? Do you have contacts with them ? Would it be possible to have a left libertarian current inside this hierarchical movement ?

Yes inside PKK and PYD there are men and women with anarchist idea and thought. Some of these people have reached that through their own struggles and experiences. The others under influences of Abdullah Ocalan have become anarchist and libertarian. They realized that the anarchism is the most radical answer to capitalist system. We believe that those embraced the anarchist idea under influences of Ocalan may not be solid as the people reached the same idea through their own struggles and experiences. Obviously the reason for that is while Ocalan is still on the top of hierarchal organization like PKK, who has every power if for some reason orders the people inside PKK or PYD to change their direction, we are sure many of them happy to do it. If that happens there is a possibility for this group to change its principles and direction. We think differently about those especially guerilla women who have become anarchist through their own experiences as they are a members of the groups and committees in the villages and towns in the society; we believe they are more stable and solid. We have seen a few interviews that they have given and also seen a few films that show how they live together and how do they manage their work and daily life together like living in communes. All these give us more hope, yet again because we do not live with them, therefore, we do not know how much of these are true. We must also say that among their sister parties in Iran and Iraqi Kurdistan, we unfortunately do not see these positive changes and directions. These people almost look like PKK of the beginning of 90s of last century, they are still nationalist and most of their leaders are very authoritarian. We think they do not embrace the current idea and thought of Ocalan, like, the economic cooperative, the communes in the town and villages, people self-rule, direct democracy, the system of federalism and the free confederation. We believe the parties policies in Iran/Iraq Kurdistan very much in contradiction with the current policies of PKK and PYD, they are still insisting on the political changes rather than the social changes, they are still competing the other Bourgeois Parties in gaining money, power and position.

The experiences of many of us proved or at least showed that it is very very hard for a libertarian/anarchist idea and direction to grow and develop inside a hierarchal organization . Not only this, it is impossible for such ideas and directions to remain or stay and continues in ideological nationalist organization. We can always separate or distinguish between the social movement and the leftist political movement whatever form they have, because the leftist and the politicians are always authoritarian and corrupted. We can see in reality the leftist are always try to tame and control the struggles and the movement of the mass people and using them to achieve its own political aims and making a political capital out of it. We are the witness of all the attempts that have been made by leftist during the uprising which happened in Iraqi Kurdistan in 1991 and up to present how they have tried to change the direction of the mass movements, deceiving them, disappointing them, compromising with the state and trying to plant the seeds of naivety among people to believe in political parties, centralism “the workers state”, “communist state” and “socialism state”. These are all the propagandas that they have produced since then.

Unfortunately, we so far, could not make a direct link or connection with the anarchist people in PKK and PYD. We have tried before to do so but we were not successful, however, we are hoping to make that connection in the nearest future.

ALB: and the last question, what do you think about Democratic Confederalism ? Is it true that PKK is pro this, or is it propaganda held by the Western countries ? (If they pass as, for example, similar to Zapatista, they might be seen as ‘cool’ in the leftist millieu)

In fact answering this question is difficult because first PKK controls a region and is completely different from what Zapatista in their country controlled and also PKK is a hierarchal force as a party and as a military force. We cannot be sure of the details of their daily life and their actions as we do not have evidence to prove whether it is true or falls. The only things that we can talk about are the Democratic Self Administration, (DSA) of Syrian Kurdistan and Tev-Dem that a while ago one of our comrades visited there for a couple of weeks. Surely there is no comparison between there and the KRG in Iraqi- Kurdistan. At the moment there is a power sharing between whole political parties within DSA so there is a good balance. PYD as a main party in there took advantage of being in a very strong position, because on one side KRG cannot use his proxy party (Alparty) to control the DSA and the situation, on the other side the Islamist organization cannot have any influences in Syrian Kurdistan. However, while the PYD is the main party and in the next DSA election no doubt will win the majority of votes there, we do not know PYD will control the DSA or simply using another method to balance the power sharing. This is worrying us obviously and we have to wait and see. What we can say is, PYD is also a hierarchal party and the authoritarian people leading it, because of this there is a possibility of changes in either ways. We certainly cannot compare DSA with the KRG as KRG is an excellent protector of the free market of capitalism. The experiment of DSA and Tev-Dem are very attractive more hopeful by transferring the position of women in the religion and patriarchal society in Middle East that improved and developed. It has created the feeling of libration and tendency of self-liberation among women. The dignity, personality, self confidence and freedom of the women all have back. All these cannot be achieved by every force or party. This has created an atmosphere for the anarchist movement especially while the women already have a major role in the communes and the rest of the local groups and committees. They can shoulder to shoulder with men lead them in the future to a social revolution. In the meantime we are hoping this experiment is setting a good example for the women in Iraqi Kurdistan who are currently under the large influences of the capitalism’s free market, consuming culture and political parties including the religious parties to leave this stage and involve in a social revolution.

The women in Syrian Kurdistan do not just play a big role in the areas/ fields we mentioned above, in fact by setting up the Women Defense Units (WDU) changed the position of women as a weak creature and having only certain duties which are inside the house in Middle Eastern society. It raised the question that they cannot be dominated by men, clans and religions. They can change the society and proved again any movement in the society without them cannot get anywhere. They reaffirmed that the desire and feeling of librating from slavery or being a second class citizen in a patriarchat society only comes from their own effort and struggles. That being said, a long time ago there was no force who could liberate a slave unless that slave has a self-conscious of liberation and this has become a strong demand and desire to do so.

Finally we thank you very much and recognize your concerns about other anarchists in different parts of the world. In this interview you have given us a good opportunity to talk briefly about the Iraq, Kurdistan and Middle East Societies. This opportunity perhaps opens a small window to English speaker and that anarchist can speak English to see the situation that explained above from our view. We think not many anarchists in the world are aware or know a lot about the situation in this part of the world. This may encourage them to make effort to know a bit about the Middle East and the anarchist movement there. We noted that the self-centrist views of the European comrades in general is one of the diseases in the anarchist movement after the Second World War because we think many of the anarchists comrades, they normally focus on Europe, US and Latin America and do not have much interest in the same movement in elsewhere.

www.anarchistan.tk

www.facebook.com/Kurdistan.anarchists.Forum

www.twitter.com/anarkistan

anarkistan@activist.com

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* KAF : Kurdistan Anarchists Forum

** ALB : www.alasbarricadas.org/noticias/node/13165

Fédération anarchiste (FA)
relations-internationales@federation-anarchiste.org
http://federation-anarchiste.org
Internationale des Fédérations anarchistes (IFA-IAF) –
secretariat@i-f-a.org
http://i-f-a.org

In Rojava, the west Kurdistan, in Syrian territory, the Islamic State (Isis) attacked the city of Kobane, close to borders of Turkey, and the population is now facing the brutality of this authoritarian / obscurantist force.

Kurdistan, and other regions, is affected by violence the Islamic State (ISIS). The resistance of the people is admirable. These are the real forces of progress. There is, indeed, nothing to expect from military games in the United States, the European Union and regional powers. The various States involved are using the area as a battleground for their own strategy and to sell their weapons.

The role of the religious government of Turkey is crucial in the region. It prevents with violence the flow of refugee families then it leaves the Islamist fighters to Syria. So it is clear that Turkish government is effectively in war with the Kurdish people.
In the Kurdish regions, despite the war, a proclaimed “democratic” revolution appears to be taken with a form of “democratic confederalism”. All this encourages us to continue our work and our support to the people of Kurdistan, and elsewhere, fighting against religious barbarism and against state oppression. From that position, we are against any military intervention by world or regional powers. We know that any statist intervention will act against social transformations.

Women are heavily invested in all aspects of society and resistance groups. This is a revolution of women against machismo and feudal society. This is probably one of the most important aspects of these events.

Anarchists in Turkey provide assistance to refugees and those who fight the advance of Islamic State. We call on all anarchist organizations to organize demonstrations in support outside embassies in the street, in every possible place ; to disseminate information and build direct support with anarchist organizations in Turkey, Kurdistan and elsewhere who are fighting against the religious barbarism and state oppression.

For the emancipation of the people.
International solidarity.

CRIFA – International of Anarchist federations. Roma, 4-5 October 2014