(en) Rojava: Fantasies and Realities by Zafer Onat

The Kobane resistance that has passed its 45th day as of now has caused the attention of 
revolutionaries all over the world to turn to Rojava. As a result of the work carried out 
by Revolutionary Anarchist Action, anarchist comrades from many parts of the world have 
sent messages of solidarity to the Kobane resistance.(1) This internationalist stance 
without a doubt carries great importance for the people resisting in Kobane. However if we 
do not analyze what is happening in all its truth and if we romanticize instead, our 
dreams will turn to disappointment in short order. ---- Furthermore, in order to create 
the worldwide revolutionary alternative that is urgently needed, we must be cool-headed 
and realistic, and we have to make correct assessments. On this point let us mention in 
passing that these solidarity messages that have been sent on the occasion of the Kobane 
resistance demonstrate the urgency of the task of creating an international association 
where revolutionary anarchists and libertarian communists can discuss local and global 
issues and be in solidarity during struggles. We have felt the lack of such an 
international during the last four years when many social upheavals took place in many 
parts of the world - we at least felt this need during the uprising that took place in 
June 2013 in Turkey.

Today however we must discuss Rojava without illusions and base our analyses on the right 
axis. It is not very easy for a person to evaluate the developments that happen within the 
time frame they live in according only to what they see in that moment. Evidently, 
assessments made with minds clouded with feelings of being cornered and despair make it 
even harder for us to produce healthy answers.

Nowhere on the world today exists an effective revolutionary movement in our sense of the 
term or a strong class movement that can be a precursor of such a movement. The struggles 
that do emerge fade either through being violently repressed or by being drawn in to the 
system. It seems that because of this, just as in the case of an important part of 
Marxists and anarchists in Turkey, revolutionary organizations and individuals in various 
parts of the world are imbuing a meaning to the structure that has emerged in Rojava that 
is beyond its reality. Before all else, it is unfair for us to load the burden of our 
failure to create a revolutionary alternative in places we live and the fact that social 
opposition is largely co-opted in to the system on to the shoulders of the persons 
struggling in Rojava. That Rojava, where the economy is to a large extent agricultural, 
and is surrounded by imperialist blocs led on the one hand by Russia and on the other hand 
by the USA, repressive, reactionary and collaborator regimes in the area and brutal 
jihadist organizations like ISIS which have thrived in this environment. In that sense, it 
is equally problematic to attribute a mission to Rojava that is beyond what it is or what 
it can be or to blame those people engaged in a life and death struggle for expecting 
support from Coalition forces or not carrying out "a revolution to our liking".

First of all we must identify that the Rojava process has progressive features such as an 
important leap in the direction of women's liberation, that a secular, pro-social justice, 
pluralist democratic structure is attempted to be constructed and that other ethnic and 
religious groups are given a part in the administration. However, the fact that the newly 
emerging structure does not aim at the elimination of private property, that is the 
abolition of classes, that the tribal system remains and that tribal leaders partake in 
the administration shows that the aim is not the removal of feudal or capitalist relations 
of production but is instead in their own words "the construction of a democratic nation".

We must also remember that the PYD is a part of the political structure led by Abdullah 
Ocalan for 35 years which aims at national liberation and the political limitations that 
all nationally oriented movements have apply to the PYD as well. Furthermore, the 
influence of elements that belong to the ruling class inside of the Kurdish movement is 
constantly increasing with the "solution process", especially in Turkey. On this point, it 
is helpful to examine the KCK Contract that defines the democratic confederalism that 
forms the basis of the political system in Rojava.(2) A few points in the introduction 
written by Ocalan deserve our attention:

"This system is one that takes into account ethnic, religious and class differences on a 
social basis." (..) "Three systems of law will apply in Kurdistan: EU law, unitary state 
law, democratic confederal law."
In summary, it is stated that class society will remain and there will be a federal 
political system compatible with the global system and the nation state. In concert with 
this, article 8 of the Contract, titled "Personal, Political Rights and Freedoms" defends 
private property and section C of article 10 titled "Basic Responsibilities" defines the 
constitutional basis of mandatory military service as it states "In the case of a war of 
legitimate defense, as a requirement of patriotism, there is the responsibility to 
actively join the defense of the homeland and basic rights and freedoms." While the 
Contract states that the aim is not political power, we also understand that the 
destruction of the state apparatus is also not aimed, meaning the goal is autonomy within 
existing nation states. When the Contract is viewed in its entirety, the goal that is 
presented is seen not to be beyond a bourgeois democratic system that is called democratic 
confederalism. To summarize, while the photos of two women bearing rifles that are 
frequently spred on social media, one taken in the Spanish Civil War, the other taken in 
Rojava do correspond to a similarity in the sense of women fighting for their freedoms, it 
is clear that the persons fighting ISIS in Rojava do not at this point have the same goals 
and ideals as the workers and poor peasants that fought within the CNT-FAI in order to 
remove the state and private property altogether. Furthermore, there are serious 
differences between the two processes in terms of conditions of emergence, the class 
positions of their subjects, the political lines of those running the process and the 
strength of the revolutionary movement worldwide.
In this situation, we must neither be surprised by, nor blame the PYD if they are forced 
to abandon even their current position, in order to found an alliance with regional and 
global powers to break the ISIS siege. We cannot expect persons struggling in Kobane to 
abolish the world scale hegemony of capitalism or to resist this hegemony for long. This 
task can only be realized by a strong worldwide class movement and revolutionary alternative.

Capitalism is in a crisis at the global level and imperialists who are trying to transcend 
this crisis by exporting war to every corner of the world, together with policies of 
repressive regimes in the region have turned Syria and Iraq into a living hell. Under 
conditions where a revolutionary alternative is not in existence, the social uprising that 
emerged in Ukraine against the pro-Russian and corrupt government resulted in 
fascist-backed pro-EU forces coming to power and the war between two imperialist camps 
continues. Racism and fascism is rising fast in European countries. In Turkey, political 
crises come one after the other and the ethnic and sectarian division in society is 
deepening. While under these circumstances, Rojava may appear as a lifeline to hold on to, 
we must consider that beyond the military siege of ISIS, Rojava is also under the 
political siege of forces like Turkey, Barzani and the Free Syrian Army. As long as Rojava 
is not backed by a worldwide revolutionary alternative for it to rest upon, it seems that 
it will not be easy for Rojava to maintain even its current position in the long run.

The path not only to defend Rojava physically and politically and to carry it further lies 
in creating a class based grounds for organizing and struggle, and a related strong and 
globally organized revolutionary alternative. The same applies for preventing the 
atmosphere of ethnic, religious and sectarian conflict that draws the peoples of the 
region further in by each passing day, and preventing laborers from sliding into 
right-wing radicalism in the face of capitalism's world level crisis. Solidarity with 
Kobane, while important is insufficient. Beyond this, we need to see that discussing what 
needs to be done to create a revolutionary process, and organizing for this at the 
international level everywhere we are is imperative not only for those resisting in Kobane 
but millions of laborers all over the world.

Zafer Onat

(1) http://meydangazetesi.org/gundem/2014/10/dunya-anarsistlerinden-kobane-dayanismasi/
(2) http://tr.wikisource.org/wiki/KCK_S%C3%B6zle%C5%9Fmesi

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