(en) US, blackrosefed.org: Los Angeles - DEMONSTRATION IN LOS
ANGELES AGAINST TURKEY'S NEW WAR
Since the ISIS suicide bombing in Suruc, Turkey, of a delegation of Turkish
revolutionaries going to help the reconstruction of Kobane in Kurdish Syria, the Turkish
government has started a new US-supported "war on terror" that perversely targets the same
people and movements that were victims of ISIS terror, while leaving the murderous
right-wing jihadist gangs alone. ---- In opposition to these attacks, last Thursday forty
leftist activists and members of the local Kurdish community organized a picket and
demonstration in front of the Turkish consulate in Los Angeles. ---- Activists from Santa
Ana Copwatch hold banner outside the Turkish Consulate in LA. ---- Our demonstration
responded to the new war by demanding an end to the Turkish bombing campaign against
Kurdish targets, domestic repression of the pro-Kurdish opposition and plans to establish
a so-called "buffer zone" in northern Syria. We demanded that the US stop facilitating
Turkey's war plans, and instead use its diplomatic pressure to lift the embargo on Rojava,
and demanded a halt to the collaboration between the Turkish state with ISIS and other
gangs which are carrying out genocide in Syria and Iraq.
A militant from Black Rose Anarchist Federation who was with the targeted delegation in
Suruc spoke about their experience during the attack and the repressive response of the
Turkish state, and about the need for international solidarity. Members of the Red Guards
LA, International League of Peoples' Struggle, Gabriela LA, Copwatch Santa Ana and a Santa
Monica College student also spoke about their support for the Kurdish freedom movement.
Our request to meet with the Turkish consul general was rejected, but protesters managed
to gain entrance to the consulate office and deliver a letter with our demands. At the end
of the picket, a solidarity collection was taken to help with the hospital bills of some
of the seriously injured Suruc victims in Izmir, Turkey.
Protesters gather outside the Turkish consulate after delivering a letter to the consul
general. Photo: Red Guards
While the Turkish state murders Kurdish people, the US state kills a black person here
every 28 hours. The same globalized systems of racism, colonialism, oppression and
exploitation exist in every part of the world, and our support for liberation struggles in
Kurdistan is part of our fight for liberation struggles in Los Angeles. With the allies we
make in organizing solidarity for Rojava we are also building a stronger movement for
liberation here.
We always recognize the role of US imperialism in exporting the oppression of the US state
in its harshest form all around the world - although its power has weakened in the Middle
East since the Iraq War - and the need for revolutionaries in the belly of the beast to
stand against it. The Kurdish freedom movement, which is being attacked by NATO bombs (in
Turkey and northern Iraq) and supported by NATO bombs (in Syria) at the same time, shows
how complex (and confused) the role of US imperialism has become. We believe that the
tasks of anti-imperialists in supporting this struggle should be to offer alternatives to
the demands for increased US military intervention by promoting options for the survival
of Rojava that build the strength of the people themselves instead of handing control to
foreign imperialism - such as de-criminalizing the Kurdish freedom movement, ending the
embargo on Rojava and ending the foreign support of their enemies in Syria - and building
stronger connections between Rojava and the international left.
Black Rose is committed to building networks of solidarity for Rojava on an international
level. Our initial perspectives and tasks organizing solidarity for the Rojava revolution
can be found here.
- BRRN LA Local
http://www.blackrosefed.org/demonstration-in-la-against-turkeys-new-war/
