?The principal problem of national liberation struggle for the anti-statist
anarcho-syndicalist form of organisation is that it is inherently statist. Advocating a
more local form of state, the national liberation movement bows to the idea that the state
is a desirable institution ? just not in the current form. As such, it has the fundamental
flaw that, if successful, it will generate a new state ? which may or may not be ?worse?
than the current oppressor, but it will nevertheless be an oppressive mechanism.? ?
Solidarity Federation ---- ?Anarchists refuse to participate in national liberation
fronts; they participate in class fronts which may or may not be involved in national
liberation struggles. The struggle must spread to establish economic, political and social
structures in the liberated territories, based on federalist and libertarian
organisations.? -Alfredo Maria Bonanno
As this is published there come news reports that the Islamic State (ISIS) has been almost
completely pushed out of the city of Kobane, party headquarters of Democratic Union Party
(PYD) the Syrian affiliate party to the Group of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK), their
co-president Saleh Muslim calling such developments the liberation of Kobane.[1] Hopefully
as such progress in the region moves forward anarcho-syndicalists and social
revolutionaries of all tendencies can start to objectively discuss the situation in West
Kurdistan without the emotional reflex to a population under siege, facing a humanitarian
disaster.
Anarcho-syndicalists should should hold no illusions about the Rojava Revolution. Since
the turn of the millenium there have been reports of a libertarian municipalist turn in
the Kurdish national liberation struggle inspired by Murray Bookchin. This change in
politics has been lead by jailed founder and ideological leader Abdullah ?calan of the
Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) who discovered Bookchin while in prison. The PKK a former
Maoist/Stalinist organization had turned to ethnic nationalism after the fall of the
Soviet Union and discreditation of ?really existing socialism? and so such a turn has been
welcomed by many on the revolutionary left. However such processes of political
transformation do not automatically translate to full adoption within a populace nevermind
their official representation in leading parties.
After the start of the Syrian mass uprising and resultant civil war a power vacuum was
created where the forces of Assad, tyrannical head of state in Syria, left Western
Kurdistan, known as Rojava, to the Kurds. At first the Free Syrian Army (FSA) a so called
moderate opposition force tied to Western Imperialism attacked the Kurdish forces but was
soon repelled. In this open situation the PYD and it?s armed militias the People?s
Protection Units (YPG) and Women?s Protection Units (YPJ) decided to implement their now
long held program of democratic autonomy and democratic confederalism on the ground.
As reported by the Kurdish Anarchist Forum (KAF) a group of pacifistic Kurdish anarchists
in exile, as the Arab Spring took hold of Syria there was the development of a directly
democratic grassroots movement created by everyday workers and people in Rojava called the
Movement of the Democratic Society (Tev-Dem). It was this movement that with pushed for
the implementation of ?its plans and programs without further delay before the situation
became worse.? [2] This program was very extensive and it is worth quoting the KAF report
at length:
?The Tev-Dem?s programme was very inclusive and covered every single issue in society.
Many people from the rank and file and from different backgrounds, including Kurdish,
Arab, Muslim, Christian, Assyrian and Yazidis, have been involved. The first task was to
establish a variety of groups, committees and communes on the streets in neighborhoods,
villages, counties and small and big towns everywhere. The role of these groups was to
become involved in all the issues facing society. Groups were set up to look at a number
of issues including: women?s, economic, environmental, education and health and care
issues, support and solidarity, centers for the family martyrs, trade and business,
diplomatic relations with foreign countries and many more. There are even groups
established to reconcile disputes among different people or factions to try to avoid these
disputes going to court unless these groups are incapable of resolving them.
These groups usually have their own meeting every week to talk about the problems people
face where they live. They have their own representative in the main group in the villages
or towns called the ?House of the People?.
They believed that the revolution must start from the bottom of society and not from the
top. It must be a social, cultural and educational as well as political revolution. It
must be against the state, power and authority. It must be people in the communities who
have the final decision-making responsibilities. These are the four principles of the
Movement of the Democracy Society (Tev-Dem).?
In other eras and places such a movement of democratic assemblies and committees at the
base of society open to the people have been known collectively as workers? councils. If
these developments are true the Tev-Dem was quite the achievement.
However such reports have included accounts of the creation of a constituent assembly like
parliamentary legislative body called the Democratic Self-Rule Administration. As New
Compass a Bookchinite publishing collective has reported:
?While in many areas the Kurdish population already has decades of experience with the
Kurdish movement?s concepts of women?s liberation and social freedom, here too there are
of course also divergences. Some wish to organize in classical parties rather than in
councils.
This problem has been solved in Rojava through a dual structure. On one hand a parliament
is chosen, to which free elections under international supervision are to take place as
soon as possible. This parliament forms a parallel structure to the councils; it forms a
transitional government, in which all political and social groups are represented, while
the council system forms a kind of parallel parliament. The structuring and rules of this
collaboration are at the moment under discussion.?[3]
This among other questions lay bare the reality of the political situation in Rojava. It
is unclear if the establishment of such a social democratic apparatus is a push by certain
elements, or if this is part and parcel of Kurdish democratic confederalism. With
anarchists the world over looking towards these developments as some libertarian light in
the region, the question of the State and what form of governance is being established
should continue to be watched closely. Historically the libertarian socialist program
though has been for the development of genuine workers? councils and committees like those
originally set up by the Tev-Dem, and there have been bitter fights against the
establishment of parliamentary democratic state projects, with free votes, where
participation is atomized, and power really held by executive powers above the people.
If there is one great hope for libertarian openings in the region it is the existence of
the women?s movements. Kurdish society like world society as a whole has historically been
a deeply patriarchal society to the point that ?calan from his own admission in 1992 is
probably a rapist, with is especially worrying with the personality cult developed around
him.[4] Though still tied to his teachings Kurdish women out of their own experience
through the last few decades started to organize themselves autonomously. Groups like the
Kurdish Free Women?s Movement (KJB) and the Free Women?s Units Star (YJA Star) call for
world wide solidarity between women?s movements against the patriarchal nation-state. As
Dilar Dirik an activist close to YJA Star describes in her talk on forming a ?Stateless
State? as seen in a widely circulated video, the Kurdish women?s movement through the
experience of patriarchy in the Kurdish national liberation movement and Kurdish society
at large has come to the conclusion that forming a new nation state should no longer be
part of the Kurdish liberation project, as the nation state is an inherently patriarchal
institution. However, though many anarchists would agree with this analysis and are surely
nodding our heads in agreement, Dirik makes clear that the movement is not at the moment
in favor of the general abolition of the State, but organizing democratic autonomy inspite
of the State. As anarcho-syndicalists it is our duty and not a criticism to point out that
the Syrian state, as well as the rest of the nation states encircling Rojava and which in
the rest of Kurdistan exists will not merely disappear with the development of their
project for regional democratic autonomy. The State must be actively fought and smashed,
by the masses within every nation and it is the historical mission for all revolutionary
internationalist liberatory forces.
In conclusion, the development of the social democratic representative democracy, the
patriarchal and ethnic nationalist past of the PKK (PYD Saleh Muslim leader has hinted at
needing a war to expel Arabs down the line[5]), the PYD?s cooperation with and truce with
the FSA and Islamists[6], the draft since July[7], the different elements seeking
US/international community support are reason enough to be hesitant to put too much
emphasis on the official leadership. The bright spots where they exist are with the
resistance and self-activity of the masses and the women?s movement. Social processes of
transformation are complicated and often rife with internal conflicts and dynamics. The
political program put forward might be decentralist with strong potentialities towards
social democracy rather than anti-statist and social revolutionary. There is also still
much research to be done about industrial and agricultural economy and organization. That
shouldn?t hold anarcho-syndicalists back from defending the self defense of the everyday
masses and their own organizations of struggle in Rojava against ISIS, local states and
western imperialism, but we should be careful not to jump to cheerleading for the official
representation of the Kurdish movement through it?s traditionally statist parties like PKK
and PYD.
Long live the struggle of the toiling masses and free women!
With the oppressed against the oppressors, always!
-K.B.
Sources:
[1] ?The air-strikes were very very successful. In a short time, we will report to the
world liberation of Kobane.? -Saleh Muslim
http://www.demokrathaber.net/dunya/salih-muslim-kobanideki-son-durumu-anlatti-h39595.html
[2] The experiment of West Kurdistan (Syrian Kurdistan) has proved that people can make
changes. http://www.anarkismo.net/article/27301
[3] Democratic Autonomy in Rojava http://new-compass.net/articles/revolution-rojava
[4] In a book written by ?calan in 1992 titled Cozumleme, Talimat ve Perspektifler
(Analyses, Orders and Perspectives), he stated: ?These girls mentioned. I don?t know, I
have relations with thousands of them. I don?t care how anyone understands it. If I?ve
gotten close with some of them, how should this have been? (?) On these subjects, they
leave aside all the real measurements and find someone and gossip, say ?this was attempted
to be done to me here? or ?this was done to me there?! These shameless women both want to
give too much and then develop such things. Some of the people mentioned. Good grace! They
say ?we need it so, it would be very good? and then this gossip is developed (?) I?m
saying it openly again. This is the sort of warrior I am. I love girls a lot, I value them
a lot. I love all of them. I try to turn every girl into a lover, in an unbelievable
level, to the point of passion. I try to shape them from their physique to their soul, to
their thoughts. I see it in myself to fulfill this task. I define myself openly. If you
find me dangerous, don?t get close!?
[5] PYD Leader Warns of War with Arab Settlers in Kurdish Areas
http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/24112013
[6] Details about the development of an alliance between the PYD and the FSA and Islamist
forces including a split from Syrian Al Queda.
https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/reportsfeatures/564212-fsa-fighting-alongside-kobane-kurds
http://www.ozgur-gundem.com/index.php?haberID=118383&haberBaslik=YPG+ve+%C3%96SO+%27ortak+eylem+merkezi%27+kurdu&action=haber_detay&module=nuce
[7] Conscription begins in the Kurdish region of Syria, evasion elsewhere
http://www.wri-irg.org/node/23519
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