A-Infos (en) France, Union Communiste Libertaire AL #298 - Internationalist Municipality of Rojava "A concrete example of radical change, at the heart of global chaos" (fr, it, pt)[machine translation]

Initiated in 2017, the Internationalist Rojava Commune (CIR) is a self-organized 
collective based at the Sehid Helin Qerecox Internationalist Academy in Derik, Syrian 
Kurdistan. ---- She organizes training courses on society, the history of the revolution, 
political debates and language courses. The international volunteers she welcomes - mostly 
Western, of different political sensitivities - come to concretely help the revolution. 
She notably initiated the environmental project Make Rojava Green Again (read AL of June 
2018) and the solidarity campaign RiseUp4Rojava. The comrades answered the questions of 
Alternative Libertaire . ---- Can you explain how the CIR works ? ---- According to a 
model of democratic confederalism, with a gendered separation and an administration. The 
basic unit is the commune, 5-6 persons, with a coordination assembly of the communes every 
week, and a plenary session every 2 months with all the members of the CIR. It discusses 
developments in EIF, past and future, and the role of internationalism.

And the implantation in Syria ?

In 2017, the idea of having a meeting place and training for internationalists came to 
fruition. It took, with the administration, find a place, build the buildings ... It took 
about a year, with a first training in mid-2018. CIR members are regularly in Europe for 
presentations, but no permanent place or structure is directly connected to the CIR 
outside Rojava.

How did you see the situation evolve in Syria ?

The revolution of Rojava, initiated by the Kurdish liberation movement, brought a 
beginning of solution to the conflicts of the zone, and more generally of the Middle East, 
since the beginning of the interference of the imperialists. The confederalist model 
implemented could very well be appropriate given the multi-ethnic and multi-faith 
character of the Middle East. This solution comes at the right time to undo a situation at 
the heart of global conflicts of interest.

The Syrian civil war is a proxy war, with influences from around the world expressing 
itself through their support for a particular local force. Across Turkey it is NATO that 
is supporting theo-fascist developments in the region, to generate chaos that keeps the 
petro-business, but also to create an enemy on an international scale, and thus maintain 
its own populations under control. The link between Daesh and Turkey is well established, 
and the denunciation of support for Turkish armaments by Western states and capitals is a 
necessity. The al-Assad regime is the puppet of Russian interests and the local bourgeoisie.

Past developments have confirmed this reading of a war of global interferences which, put 
in the context of previous wars in the Middle East, shows that we are here at the heart of 
a Third World War. A US-Iran war is being prepared, with the weakening of Iran's borders 
and the proliferation of NATO bases in the region. And the endless US-Russia conflict. Any 
attempt to bring peace and self-determination to the peoples of the Middle East is 
threatened and the Kurdish revolutionary forces are targeted because they hold a solution 
that would free the region from imperialism.

The development of cooperatives, especially women, is one of the most innovative aspects 
of the economy, allowing people who did not have access to it to be in control of their 
work tool and their income. The process goes as far as a municipalization of the economy, 
with a planned management of resources and production at the level of the local 
municipality. Women's autonomous structures are certainly the most radical change in the 
region.

The establishment of women's homes, the development of jineoloji ("women's science"), are 
important contributions to liberation struggles. The consideration of ecology in a context 
of war and after the destruction of traditional ecological lifestyles is a feat. Above 
all, it is the relationship to the other that is changed, social relations experiencing a 
major revolution where everyone is a heval ("friend and comrade"), with whom one can end 
up living, working, united in the revolution.

And how do you see the current situation ?

If the revolution has gone beyond the liberation of the Kurdish people, it remains 
determined by the "Kurdish question", especially with regard to the conflicts imposed on 
it by the Turkish state that invaded the Canton of Afrin in 2018 and now threatens to 
invade the rest of Rojava. Turkey has entered more widely Bashur (Iraqi Kurdistan) to face 
the guerrilla mountains of Qandil, the heart of the revolution. Most recently, the Turkish 
state has replaced the mayors of Amed (Diyarbakir), Wan and Merdîn, democratically 
elected, by its pawns, from the AKP-MHP fascist alliance in power.

In Syria, if Daesh is officially defeated, its ideology is still present, cells are 
constantly being discovered, and attacks continue to occur. The al-Assad regime is losing 
ground and leaving areas whose legitimacy is in fact the responsibility of the autonomous 
administration, but it is not an ally, the two systems coexist in permanent tension. 
Assad, Erdogan and Putin are still struggling to gain control of the Idlib township 
without reaching an agreement and without consideration for the local people.

The revolution needs to secure its support. In the context of internationalism, this means 
strengthening and concretizing solidarity. Inform the international community about the 
actions of their states and the collaboration of their companies in relation to what is 
happening here. As the revolutionary Sehid Andrea Wolff, a German militant fighter in 
Kurdistan, who was executed in 1998 by the Turkish army, said: " I wish there were 
movements in the cities that attack this war, make it impossible. Who just cut the supply.

So we can say that the revolution in Rojava is a hope for the future ?

It carries a libertarian socialist ideal, which detonates with the rise of fascism in the 
world. It is an example of a society that deals with the issue of men's oppression of 
women, at a time when sex scandals are being revealed at the highest level of 
international geopolitics and where ordinary sexism is killing silently.

Faced with ecological destruction, Rojava proposes to solve the problem at its source: to 
abolish the domination of humans by humans. A long-term, societal approach, which 
corresponds to the extent of the damage, and which makes sense when we see the lack of 
will in the face of climate change on the part of the state system. The society of Rojava 
is full of contradictions, which it assumes, like any revolution, but it is nonetheless a 
concrete example of radical change, in the heart of world chaos.

Tell us about the Rise Up For Rojava campaign ...

RiseUp4Rojava is an international campaign to support the Rojava revolution that calls for 
action against Turkey and its international collaborators, states and capitals. Launched 
by the CIR at the time of the threats of invasion of Rojava in December 2018 it developed 
and gained in depth by publishing the names of the collaborating companies with the 
Turkish army. The weapons used here are made in France, Germany. It is the NATO countries 
that validate or invalidate the actions of the Turkish state, so Western revolutionaries 
have a role to play in this revolution.

One can also hope that a major uprising in Bakur, Northern Kurdistan (in Turkey) will 
change the game, but people need to feel supported by the international community. We are 
continuing the RiseUp4Rojava and Make Rojava Green Again campaigns to organize an 
international anti-fascist front and ecologist solidarity actions. We will develop our 
academy and the link with other structures, diversifying and actualizing the actions 
achievable here by internationalists.

It is a real international coordination of political organizations, which carry out both 
information actions and punches against the Turkish state and its support: demonstrations 
in the face of threats of invasion by the Turkish state, poster campaigns. The networks 
also prepared for major actions on the day of the invasion, which was called Day X. This 
call is still active. Dozens of actions and demonstrations took place during the first 
international days of action (6 and 7 September).

And Make Rojava Green Again, where is this campaign ?

A book was written, sharing the ideological reflections of the revolution around ecology 
and exposing the ecological situation in Rojava. Various ecological projects are carried, 
one, major, is a nursery for the Hayaka nature reserve. For many of our projects, Turkish 
threats interrupted our work cycles, damaging project sites. We can see the difficulty of 
carrying out ecological projects in a context of war.

The campaign is working with the Kurdish Red Crescent to provide support to farmers who 
lost their crops in June-July following the arson attacks of the Turkish state and its 
jihadist auxiliaries. How can we support

the CIR beyond these campaigns ?

It is possible to support the Commune by joining us in Rojava, by making a donation or 
simply by starting to organize politically at your place. Any help, here or from Europe, 
is welcome, we still need translators, media / press contacts, activists ready to post, 
and more.

Interviewed by Ed (UCL Hautes-Alpes)

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Commune-internationaliste-du-Rojava-Un-exemple-concret-de-changement-radical-au
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://ainfos.ca/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en