Today's Topics:
1. Britain, solfed: Precarious Mayday marks the start of
dispute with Ephesus restaurant (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. wsm.ie: #JobstownNotGuilty Demo - Tallaght 5/6/17 - March
and Speeches by Ferdia O'Brien (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. anarkismo.net: Greece, Founding Declaration of Quieta Movere
(gr) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. Greece, GENERAL STRIKE MAY 17 | GOOD IN
ATHENS-THESSALONIKI-Patras By A.P.O. (gr) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. anarkismo.net: [Book Review] Revolution in Rojava:
Democratic Autonomy and Women's Liberation in Syrian
Kurdistan by
José Antonio Gutiérrez D. (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. France, Alternative Libertaire AL - logbook, Volunteer
fighter in Rojava # 10: " I've been through a lot of things for
months" (fr, it, pt) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
7. France, Alternative Libertaire AL - Travelogue, A
Libertarian Communist in the YPG # 06: Internationalist
Volunteers, the Ideal and the Reality (fr, it, pt) [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
International Workers Day was celebrated in Brighton with the coming together of different
groups in struggle and to show each other a bit of solidarity. Compared to the previous
years where Brighton Solfed organised Mayday ourselves, this time we worked alongside
Brighton Anti-Fascists, Deliveroo riders in IWGB, members of Plan C, Precarious Workers
Brighton and Brighton University Alternative Students Union. ---- There were over a
hundred people at the demo which marched with banners through the streets of Brighton to a
banging sound system, flares and chants. ---- First stop was Brighton Solfeds dispute with
the Ephesus Restaurant, an establishment that follows poor and unlawful employment
practice, including not paying holiday pay or even the minimum wage, and using tips from
customers to make up the minimum wage for the workers. We are supporting a worker who is
owed over £2000 in these matters and who also commented that some of the workers who are
in a more precarious position are paid even less than this.
On our arrival we were met by police vans and a police line in front of the restaurant.
Once the demo assembled outside, we explained why we were paying them a visit. We tried to
push past the police to talk to the management and demand the unpaid wages and holiday pay
but were refused entry. Eventually the police sergeant went in to facilitate a meeting,
and at first only one person was allowed in but we demanded the worker was allowed in with
a Solfed member. Once we were in, the worker directly confronted management and would not
take any of their excuses. The management complained that it did not "need to come to
this", however they refused to speak to us until we forced them to listen. We left the
restaurant with a promise that they will get in touch with the amount they would pay.
We walked out of the restaurant to cheers and singing of ‘Solidarity Forever'.
The demo then marched through to the clock tower to block the road and listen to words of
thanks from the aggrieved worker, Deliveroo riders, and Palestinian and Kurdish activists.
The main emphasis was that when we come together we have more power, while solidarity goes
a long way for both the individual and the collective!
http://www.solfed.org.uk/brighton/precarious-mayday-marks-the-start-of-dispute-with-ephesus-restaurant
------------------------------
Message: 2
A march was called in Tallaght on May 6th 2017 by the Jobstown Not Guilty campaign to
protest against a severe crackdown on working class resistance and the criminalisation of
protest generally. ---- 7 people face charges of false imprisonment for delaying former
tánaiste and leader of the Labour Party Joan Burton for about 2 hours in a sit-down
protest in November 2014, with more faces other charges. A 17-year-old has already been
convicted of false imprisonment - he was 15 at the time of protest. ---- This shows how
desperate the state and the business interests it serves are to stop people rebelling.
However, it's a bit of a catch-22 situation, as if the state jails the people of Jobstown,
there will surely be a popular uproar against what is widely perceived to be a grossly
unfair and laughable prosecution case, but if the Jobstown protesters are acquitted this
signals to the rest of Ireland that the powerful and their courts can be defeated by
working class organisation and solidarity.
There were chants to end 'political policing'. While the sentiment is correct, it's
important to point out that all policing is political. There is no such thing as
apolitical policing. The very existence of the police is political. They are agents of the
state, whose job it is to enforce the law, written by the elite, regardless of whether it
is moral or immoral. Really the problem isn't 'political policing', it's the police. So
the question is 'how do we move beyond the police?' The message we must make clear though
is that this is nothing out of the ordinary for the state as an institution. The police
exist to keep us in our place so that those at the top can have their way. Whenever the
ruling class have a problem with us their police goons are ready to arrest us, evict us,
stop us protesting, jail us, beat and pepperspray us, censor our press, and even torture
and kill us. This is the story of the state and its police globally since states and
police forces existed. The police were invented to oppress working class people and
slaves, and they've been on hand across the world to do this for hundreds of years.
Two marches which began at the Square shopping centre and Tallaght Leisure Centre
converged in Jobstown and marched to An Cosán, where the famous sit-down protest took
place in 2014. There was a good turnout of the 'fucking dregs' - a reference to Joan
Burton's assistant Karen O'Connell referring to protesters as dregs in now infamous video
released recently during the trial.
A contingent from Anti Water Meter Task Force Waterford were in attendance as well as
Dublin Says No. United Against Racism were also marching and a shout out was given to
Ibrahim Halawa, whose family were present, an Irish citizen who has been imprisoned for
over 3 years in Egypt for protesting and could face the death penalty if convicted. Also a
shout out was given to Tallaght travellers who were in attendance and were congratulated
for achieving long-awaited state recognition of their ethnicity (having endured decades of
vicious discrimination, to this day). Also for the Bus Éireann workers, whose courage for
striking was praised. Our struggles for justice are different but they are not separate.
Community activist Niamh McDonald speaking at the #JobstownNotGuilty march in Jobstown
earlier today. She has been attending the trial at the Courts of Criminal Justice (CCJ)
and reporting on the cross-examination of Joan Burton. This is very valuable because the
mainstream media coverage has been overwhelmingly selective and in favour of Burton's
cohort (even if they pretend to be neutral).
Excellent speech from Jobstown resident Niamh Mahon* at yesterday's #JobstownNotGuilty
demonstration.
'I've always enjoyed living here and being part of community where everybody knows each
other. We are an area that stands together in times of crisis, as we did in November
2014[time of protest]'.
An Cosán is a community development centre in Tallaght. When former tánaiste and Labour
leader Joan Burton was invited to an awards ceremony, residents organised a demonstration
to protest Burton and the politics of poverty which she represented. Notably many of those
receiving awards on the day objected to Burton's presence and have spoken out about this
since.
*Apologies if this is misspelled.
Subject: Water charge, JobstownNotGuilty
Topics: Community, Repression
Geography: Dublin
Multimedia: Video
Source: Newsroom
Type: News
Author: Ferdia O'Brien
http://www.wsm.ie/c/jobstown-not-guilty-march-may-2017
------------------------------
Message: 3
Oppose libertarian education as a counterweight to the existing educational model that
reflects the dominant imaginary contributing to the perpetuation of sovereignty. The aim
is not the accumulation of an endless stack registered knowledge. The aim is aware of the
social forces acting on humans and the Characterstructure configuration capable of putting
together the mosaic of society with special subjective and their supportive way. An
education mirror emancipated society for which we are fighting. ---- Founding Declaration
---- A founding text is charting a prime necessity. Need born by analyzing the data of the
reality we experience antipalefontas some data, contributing to the building of a new. The
schematic illustration of the operation could be likened to the cycle. In the circle every
point is a beginning and an end and all points equidistant from the center. On this basis
we organize ourselves: Equally, without hierarchies, with respect for diversity, where
each member of the Assembly is the beginning and end of the collective. And this basis is
not simply a contract that we put between us. It seeks to act as a prefiguring, to be a
model of society that is not based on human exploitation and nature to "progress" to
"developed" but irrefutable principle is solidarity, faith in the value and potential of
man. A value that we see crumbling daily, wherever you turn. By internalizing attitudes
social cannibalism, the "blame and we" that leads to initiatives to unblock the mire but
the self-incrimination of the oppressed, until the brutal labor exploitation which afford
us any kind bosses, right and left. The state has continued and this is the subjugation of
many by any means to the intentions and interests of the few.
International and domestic political situation
This Treaty does not escape from the rule of an unsaturated predatory power in political,
social and economic level. The key phrase of the days we live in is that "there is no
alternative" (There Is No Alternative-TINA ). Under the auspices, then, occurring human
management crimes against geopolitical interests, economic bleeding and extreme ftochynsis
populations as well, in all states, including Greece of course, no longer sufficient to
create external enemies, based on ethnic or religious criteria, but constantly constructed
and an enemy within, an immigrant, a lazy worker, a village full of terrorists. So you
lose and constantly lose any sense of unity to our class enemies, making us weak, hitting
the dynamics that can give off the bottom of the social change, the answer that the oppressed.
In this context, the capitalist plundering of the region as well as the intensity of
military operations lead to the destruction of every social aspect of life in Africa and
the Middle East where the war has been declared or undeclared wiped out local populations.
This results in millions of persecuted people to try in every way to escape and entry into
Europe. Europe in which today only as a "fortress" could be called, raising fences,
isolating and excluding people from the social fabric while manufacturing fake internal
enemies with refugee or name of an illegal immigrant at will, creating emergency regimes.
In this way and under the pretext of the "war on terror" Member spend in total suppression
of the society by criminalizing all aspects of resistance and solidarity among the oppressed.
At the same time the state and capital intensify war on 'from below', showing their
movement and the then unified despite the political changes of scenery, with their further
impoverishment and enforcement work Middle Ages (wage-pension cuts , 'black' work, long
hours), to give all fascist and neo-Nazi formations, which are the most extreme
manifestation of this exploitative complex. Where they are given the space to breathe,
acting as a long arm of the state, authorized, directed against the world of resistance
and struggle, or presented as something radical removing consciences from underneath the
revolutionary perspective.
University | Knowledge
Society reconfigured. The university reconfigured. A word may be poor to describe the
changes in university actually taking place in recent years. As society has to pay the
bill and to comply with the new requirements of the bosses, so the university is asked to
rationalize. Layoffs administrators, delivery to private basic functions (feeding at the
club, cleanliness), shift the attendance cost in the student body, underfunding, the
forthcoming implementation of tuition fees for undergraduate studies compose a landscape
of a university the market requesting it to adapt to new conditions. Cheap and disciplined
workforce and excludes no one from the university, because the reins were-let.
In recent years we have seen emerge ideologies which talked about eternal students and
presented the university as a den of iniquity and "juvenile" uprising. All this actually
came to fulfill a very specific function. Laspologisoun to the student body and cover
vitality and fighting spirit of the student movement struggles. Games, which always
demanding better conditions of study and living conditions for all / and all
synolikopoioun issue of social transformation. The dominance, orally right and reformist
left (SY.RIZ.A.) chooses to suppress matrix social resistors at each field. The right raw
and violent. The left, and setting a selling hope. A hope, hackneyed, chilioidomeni who
periodically comes to the political scene (see PASOK) as a vehicle for social change in a
progressive sign. In reality, however, there is nothing on the other side of the coin. A
coin, a continuous policy which the rule applies against oppressed. The award of the
management of our lives in messiahs with left / right mantle composes a kinematic bending
landscape today. This condition combined with the already intensified reality to study and
pace of life and the denial of hope for institutional change in favor of the social body
leading to personalization, security of counterfeit microcosm, the disclaimer of
responsibility that everyone bring and each for to break the fear, to build the present
with the conditions that we set and we can synthesize the dignity of our lives.
If we want to talk and function of the university within the existing system, we must
perceive both as an institution authorized to produce new knowledge and technological
means. Investigations are answers to questions posed by the chapter to tapering the tools
used to improve productivity. In this context emerges the question of government
underfunding, the public section gives freedom in private to derive profit both. So
already, we observe, underfunding blocks as the humanities, that is not much of interest
and a flexible relationship with university departments whose products they sell.
Secondly, the university is an organic part of the educational institution. Education,
then, is to sow the next generation of people who will staff the machine. The type of man
who is educated specialist, docile, withdrawn from the burden of the policy, which "bear"
and enlightened few ".
And now let's mention the academicism. An academicism that tends to obscure the social and
political premisses of science, endyontas it with a cloak of neutrality, streamlined, of
fysikopoiimenou. A scientism that puts the teacher in the authority pedestal, concealing
their subjectivism transmitter and creating artificial conditions of a
antikeimenikopoiimenis viewing knowledge. Knowledge, however, in our consideration is far
from an inanimate piece that goes from person to person in terms of ownership. The
process, and the above means for conveying knowledge shown in the end and the result of
the same, ie the way in which knowledge settles the passive receiver. Knowledge
sovereignty to intensify divisions between the holder and the receiver. This process
sterilizes the knowledge of the liberation characteristics as a partial knowledge, totally
focused on specific questions, devoid of the whole picture. The purpose ceases to be a
man, and the answer to questions about their needs, but an insatiable mania for continuous
scientific progress.
Libertarian education
we are talking about a knowledge without awareness. This is refracted and the relations
established in the academic circle, which, although they preach equality and respect, in
fact founded on the basis of competition and arivismou. We are the opposite of all this we
have to preface this: solidarity. Realizing humans and sociability as organically
interrelated, the libertarian education focuses on self-awareness.
Oppose libertarian education as a counterweight to the existing educational model that
reflects the dominant imaginary contributing to the perpetuation of sovereignty. The aim
is not the accumulation of an endless stack registered knowledge. The aim is aware of the
social forces acting on humans and the Characterstructure configuration capable of putting
together the mosaic of society with special subjective and their supportive way. An
education mirror emancipated society for which we are fighting. An education off hook in
this role as conductor and consolidation mechanism of power and hierarchy, who will
receive the status of assisted self-learning, putting at the forefront the needs,
circumstances and wishes of the person, having eliminates prejudices brought, metaphysical
and not, marching hereafter to search and experiencing anthropinotitas. Accordingly, we
seek to restore knowledge to society, the emergence of liberation character, removing
separations generated by the expertise, approaching the knowledge critically and
dialectically.
Anarchist counter
insist on another world.
I've dreamed so.
So I promenade in him
that anymore,
it is impossible not to exist.
The dominant narrative based on the absence of any other alternative except the
reproducibility of the self, we have no choice but to oppose. Oppose starting from our
self-organization, just as the template for what we want to live an emancipated society of
generalized self-management.
Free agreement, horizontality, solidarity and community spirit will be the indicators for
the fullest possible realization of individual and collective prosperity and harmony. In
an emancipated society, lifting of mental-manual labor division, the overcoming of
alienated labor and sharing may happen that people are free to satisfy their inclinations
and to walk in their holistic self-realization. We need to get rid of authoritarian and
hierarchical relationships are structured by gender, race, age, religion, contrasting
equality, mutual aid and respect for diversity. Still, it is imperative to stop the
looting of nature, showing forth the harmonious coexistence with the ecosystem.
So we choose to syllogikopoiisoume denials and our resistances, investigating an anarchist
counter to revolutionary social transformation, the individual and collective liberation.
For this reason, we participate in social and class struggles, thus bridging the
partial-demand-matches with the overall emancipatory project. Recognizing ourselves as
part of the social base, create self-organized, hierarchically structures and shapes,
which as a mirror of the emancipated society for which we are fighting, flying within the
libertarian practices and procedures, because we want the means we use to be in line with
the purpose . Finally, we believe that the individual and collective empowerment to be
booked and is indeed such, it is the work of our own, the "bottom", and only we can know
our needs and desires, without therefore have illusions messiahs and a "human" capitalism
or paternalistic and vanguards who preach social liberation through a political revolution
and a "workers' state", thus continuing the authoritarian, exploitative and hierarchical
classification society.
Who / s we?
As undergraduate students perceive ourselves as an integral part of the social base and
therefore intervene in the social field we are moving daily. Through their presence and
our action we seek the diffusion of the anarchist struggle amid the universities, that a
consistent motion, direct-democratic and competitive to that podigetei the dignity of our
lives. All decisions are taken by the general meeting, wherein the views of each accounted
and weighted with the same weight. The Assembly is an open process, which can watch each
and each enough to have been in a prior contact with the ground and the action of
collegiate and they find him, if possible, agree. So we organize in the Quieta Movere. So,
to calm troubled waters. Why the chain of social exploitation breaks when the master
apokathilonetai. Nothing, therefore, not divides us as solidarity unites us.
When and where;
Every Saturday at 16:00 in grass philosophical AUTH
email: quieta_movere@espiv.net
http://quieta-movere.espivblogs.net/
May 2017
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/30273
------------------------------
Message: 4
AGAINST STATE AND capitalist barbarity ---- The all-out attack of the state and the bosses
and the continuous introduction of new burdensome conditions of exploitation and
oppression express the overall violent restructuring of the state and the capitalist mode
of social organization. ---- The current political management of power, has taken both the
uninterrupted continuation of political subjugation and impoverishment of society and the
restoration of the regime in crisis conditions. After the illusions fostered, for the
existence of a "human capitalism" that can meet social needs now collapsing and unable to
draw further consent to its designs, increasingly reveals the true anti-social face of
state and capitalist powers. ---- The SYRIZA-ANEL government from driver's position serves
more apochalinomena exploitation plans of big business, the "red lines" are longer comic
stories with tragic results but for the world of work. Pensioners and unemployed come
again under attack, as pensions are reduced, main and auxiliary, while the tax-free limit
is emblematic indicator of progressive impoverishment. In particular the adoption of the
4th Memorandum includes reduction of untaxed EUR 5,681, reducing unemployment allowance,
heating allowance reduction, child benefit, disaster aids, poverty allowance, new layoffs
in the public sector, open shops on Sundays, privatization of public wealth and natural
resources by selling plants and electricity infrastructure and privatization of HEP, the
Athens International Airport, THPA and DEPA.Eisagogi drugs in supermarkets, release
collective redundancies and removing collective bargaining, abolition of the tax credit
for medical expenses, non-transfer of the widow's pension and essentially bulk deletions
from the OAED through bureaucratic tricks, designed, except others in a fictional
impression reduction in unemployment and growth, demonstrating the ease with which made
the numbers and their true value.
While those resistances failed to neutralize through kapilefsi, assimilation and
integration, those struggles failed to stop because of frustration and defeatism climate
brought about in society after the frustration of hopes she nourished, now attempts to
destroy the basis increasingly to repressive mechanisms. Tracks the development of the
wider offensive planning by the state and capital to society are the occupations
discharges the chtypimadomon movement from fascists and mercenaries of capital, arrested
antifascists, criminalization interventions in workplaces, the criminalization base
unions, istochopoiisi struggling workers -as in Mass transport; and entire neighborhoods
struggling against mafias and social cannibalism.
ORGANIZATION AND STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL REVOLUTION AND THE ANARCHY libertarian communism
From our side, the side of the unemployed, the workers, the poor, the plebeians history
of social and class resistance, the strength of fights that break out globally across the
bleak reality imposed on us internationally and our faith for that another world is
possible are those that show us how to break the isolation, how to fight back the fear and
frustration. Away from the institutions, parliaments, elections, bureaucratic trade union
leaderships, their hope traders and intermediaries of the class struggle are preparing our
counterattack against the rulers. Because what we have to gain is a result of the broad,
organized on the basis of radical and militant struggles of the bottom.
Only the total subversion of the state and capitalism, social expropriation of wealth that
we ourselves produce and sucks a caste of rulers, and the social revolution for a new
common ownership society, solidarity and freedom can vindicate their aspirations and
actual social needs oppressed and exploited.
GENERAL STRIKE FOURTH 17 MAY 201 7
ATHENA
Anarchist Gathering and Demonstration with the Convention Anarchist block for Social
Emancipation and Class
11 a.m. Museum (Patission & Tositsa)
anarchist collectives - members A.P.O.- Circle of Fire, Omikron72
THESSALONIKI
Concentration-course: 10 a.m. Arch
collective for social anarchism "Black and Red" / member of A.P.O.
PATRAS
Concentration-course: 10:30 a.m. Annex
anarchist group "restive horse" / member of the AP
http://apo.squathost.com/
------------------------------
Message: 5
Although this is mostly a descriptive book, without much emphasis in theoretical debates,
there is in it a wealth of thought-provoking ideas that have universal value. That this
experience is relevant beyond the borders of Syria is proved by the extraordinary
reception to this book. Pluto Press is already thinking of the second edition and
recently, Ercan Ayboga, one of the co-authors, had a tour in Ireland, North and South, to
launch the book; this brought him from Cork to Belfast, with stops in Dublin, Cavan and
Dungannon. In all places, the people engaged and felt that Rojava had something very
important to tell them. ---- Michael Knapp, Anja Flach and Ercan Ayboga, 2016, Revolution
in Rojava: Democratic Autonomy and Women's Liberation in Syrian Kurdistan. London: Pluto
Press (320 pp., paperback, £15.00)
Pluto Press has done a wonderful service in publishing a "Revolution in Rojava", a
first-hand account of the alternative social project being implemented at this very moment
in the area called, in Kurdish, Rojava, or West -three cantons in the north of Syria with
a sizeable Kurdish population, but which is home also to Arabs, Assyrians, Chaldeans,
Arameans, Turkmen, Armenians and Chechens. As the world has shown images of armed Kurdish
guerrillas, the YPG, and as their female counterparts, the YPJ, have made it to the front
news, while leading the struggle against the Islamic State (IS). As the world looked in
horror at the spread of IS which seemed for some time unstoppable, this group of
determined fighters not only held them back, but inflicted them their first massive defeat
in the defence of the city of Kobane -with it, their aura of invincibility was irreparably
damaged.
But little has been told, beyond comments in passing, about the social vision inspiring
these fighters, who were not just defending their lives, but also the new society they
have been patiently building for years in the northern part of the Syrian state. It is to
this new society that this book has turned its eyes to. This is the first detailed,
comprehensive, first-hand account of the social construction taking place in the area
known as Rojava. While the Kurds have been welcomed as the backbone of the fight against
IS, their political expression has been ignored, dismissed, blocked from participating in
peace negotiations, and their communities have been kept in the cold with an enforced
embargo by all its neighbours: Turkey, the Kurdish Regional Government in Northern Iraq
(or Southern Kurdistan, depending on your point of view), and of course IS to the south.
As the book aptly puts it: ‘[e]ven as the US-led coalition supports the YPG/YPJ in its
fight against IS, the economic embargo against Rojava remains in place (...) The troops of
Rojava may be used to counter IS, it seems, but their social and political model is to be
starved to death' (p.207). Why does the Rojava social project causes so much opposition
among varied sources such as the US, Turkey, IS, the KRG and the Syrian state? Because of
its transformative potential in a region where everyone is intending to direct limited
change in their own particular benefit.
Since the emergence of the nation-states in the Middle East after the collapse of the
Ottoman Empire in the post-WWI context, the Kurdish have been discriminated against in a
systematic and structural fashion. Divided in four countries (Iraq, Syria, Turkey and
Iran) across the Cold War divide, they did not raise much sympathy neither East nor West.
One Kurdish man once joked saying that supressing the Kurds was the only agreement between
these four states. For the most part, the Kurdish have been supressed as an identity and
their very right to existence has been questioned. Yet the generalised chaos reigning upon
the Middle East after the project of creating a New Middle East failed miserably, after
the military adventures turned into a nightmare for millions, and after the Arab Spring
turned into a reactionary winter, has created a space for them to step forward and attempt
to create a new social order. This experience challenges widely held notions of intrinsic
Middle Eastern authoritarianism, patriarchy and religious fanaticism. The fact that in the
midst of this chaos, without any of the objective or subjective circumstances in their
favour, and adversity surrounding them, they have a managed to create a system based on
direct democracy, gender liberation and secular coexistence is a remarkable achievement in
its own right.
Many of Rojava's achievements go well beyond what has been achieved in terms of social and
gender rights by the Western democracies. While the Syrian state has been fighting a
mostly Islamist opposition in a terrible war of mutual extermination -with the kind
sponsorship of Russia and Iran, on the one hand, and of the US, Turkey and the Gulf
monarchies on the other- the Kurdish have managed to create a system they call democratic
autonomy, in which gender liberation is more than young women holding Kalashnikovs -as
trivialised by some mainstream media- but where not only quotas for women exist in every
institution, but where the system of co-chairing means that all positions of
responsibility are shared between a man and a woman, as well as providing their own
independent, all-female, organisations where necessary. The system of council and
‘democratic autonomous administrations', based in direct and participatory democracy, is,
in the face of the deep crisis experienced by representative democracy all over the world
-from Argentina, to Egypt, to Spain, to the US-, a most valuable contribution to start
thinking of methods to create an active and engaged citizenship.
It is on this deeply democratic foundation that a remarkable secular coexistence has been
made possible in the Middle Eastern mosaic, where unspeakable passions have led one group,
ethnic of confessional, to strive towards the extermination of others. This diversity is
at odds with the attempts to force artificial homogeneity intrinsic to every single
nation-state, and the fact that the Kurdish think of their own political project as beyond
the realms of state-making allows them to think anew of creative ways in which to create a
Middle East where there is room for everyone. This is what they call ‘Democratic
Confederalism' which they view base on federalist principles and in their understanding of
autonomy as the basis of social contract between these widely diverse groups. Inspired by
this larger project, they have been increasingly successful in attracting Arabs, Syriacs
and others into this shared vision -the creation of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the
Democratic Council of Syria and the project of creating a Federation of Rojava/Northern
Syria (which received a surprising wink from Russia) are witnesses to that.
But eventually this system based in direct democracy needs to confront the dominant
capitalist system, because political democracy is nothing but incomplete without a
thorough democracy in the economic system, that gives communities control and a say over
it. The democratic deficit of our society is entrenched in deep social inequalities and
the widening gap between those with power and wealth and those with none. A participatory
system requires time to engage as an active citizen on a regular basis and a fair element
of control over society. It is mainly on this point that the project of Rojava is still
looking for a third path of its own, and in one way or another the flourishing of
cooperatives is creating the foundation for a new economy based in the needs of society
and whose spirit is based on solidarity.
This is a contradictory process, of course, and nothing is set in stone. Inasmuch as power
has been devolved to communities through a tightly-knitted fabric of bottom-up
institutions, the direction the process takes depends on them. But, even if guided by
democratic and egalitarian principles, they are operating under enormous constraints and
some of their solutions are bound to upset followers of various orthodoxies. For instance,
in order to make concessions to more conservative elements in society, to include other
groups that were underrepresented in direct-democratic institutions, a social contract was
created at the start of 2014 which led to the establishment of democratic autonomous
administrations. This is a compromise resembling more traditional representative
administration, with its parliament, parties and ministers. This was also important to be
able to have a dialogue from the three cantons with the outside world, which is (still)
organised along the lines of conventional nation-states. This system, which has been
described as "transitional", runs in parallel to council network which has been the living
expression of this direct democratic system. What way does the transition goes, if towards
the restitution of the central state authority in one way or another, or to the creation
of a bottom up social order, is yet to be seen.
Of course the whole experience on Rojava depends not only on their capacity to resist and
create a bottom-up order in the induced chaos reigning in the Middle East. There is also
enormous pressures coming from the civil war as such and the calculations of outside
powers, both global and regional, in the resolution of this carnage. What order will
emerge for the whole of Syria out of this civil war is crucial for the survival of Rojava,
and hence their effort to reach out to others and explain that their alternative requires
the emergence of a more democratic framework for mutual coexistence for all. While the
YPG/YPJ emerged as a self-defence organisation to protect the Kurdish, together with their
allies in the SDF, they have not attempted to topple the Assad government, nor look for
independence. They have never denied though the importance of democratising the country
and to this effect, they have been leading with example. This is why solidarity -the
tenderness of the people, as Che Guevara famously said once- is so vital, because it is
the only hope that whatever order emerges out of this chaos may negotiate with the people
of Rojava a new relationship.
Although this is mostly a descriptive book, without much emphasis in theoretical debates,
there is in it a wealth of thought-provoking ideas that have universal value. That this
experience is relevant beyond the borders of Syria is proved by the extraordinary
reception to this book. Pluto Press is already thinking of the second edition and
recently, Ercan Ayboga, one of the co-authors, had a tour in Ireland, North and South, to
launch the book; this brought him from Cork to Belfast, with stops in Dublin, Cavan and
Dungannon. In all places, the people engaged and felt that Rojava had something very
important to tell them. With the political crisis and increased alienation from politics
at both sides of the border, to hear about the social experiment in Rojava seems like a
breath of fresh air. Also, the increasingly successful -but daunting nonetheless- attempts
to cross sectarian boundaries in a land fragmented in multiple religious and ethnical
identities certainly stroke a chord with Irish participants, particularly north of the
border. What ultimately Rojava seems to be shouting at the world is that it is possible
for all of us to share the world together, but that this coexistence depends on the
ability to respect and value one another, to live as equals. With a world submerged into
multiple conflicts, wars and mounting social, political, environmental, economic crises
that seem never ending, it may not be exaggerated to state that our future depends on our
capacity to heed this message.
José Antonio Gutiérrez D.
Related Link:
https://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2017/05/05/revolution-in-rojava-democratic-autonomy-and-womens-liberation-in-syrian-kurdistan-review/
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/30250
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Message: 6
"We have a lot of projects with the BÖG and especially with the IRPGF, and we need you,
your support and your presence to wear them." ---- We report below the journal, published
on Facebook , of a Francophone revolutionary militant within the YPG. He shares his
analyzes, his criticisms, and recounts the highlights of his career. An indispensable
human and political testimony. ---- The headings and footnotes are from the AL web team.
---- Read the other episodes here . ---- Raqqa Front, Syria, 9 May 2017 ---- Being in
operation since early April, I am unable to give regular news. I convey this message to
you through my anarchist friends of the IRPGF who came to visit us on the front line (many
of whom are members of the International Liberation Battalion (IFB), contrary to what has
been published on the Battalion page Following a misunderstanding).
I have lived through many things for months, and as often I do not have time to tell you.
For the most part, know that the IFB is doing quite well, despite repeated attacks by the
enemy. I have not been far from staying there on several occasions, between snipers,
rockets, mortars, assaults, drones, etc., but I am still there in the heart of the caliphate.
We have a lot of projects with the BÖG and especially with the IRPGF, and we need your
support and your presence to wear them. What are you waiting for to join us ? More and
more we can easily guess a dark future for revolutionaries in France and more widely in
Europe. The time has come to increase the intensity.
Here you will be trained in guerrilla warfare, you will be given the means to contribute
to the ongoing war, and we are not just talking about the war against Daech but more
broadly about the conflict between us and the bourgeois states. The Turkish revolutionary
parties and especially the PKK have much to share. We can say what we want from the PKK,
but it provides us with the necessary support and necessary protection for us anarchist
and communist revolutionaries without asking for anything in return.
Join us. In Rojava, in Bakur, in Syria, there are friendships that are created, knowledge
that is shared, groups that form and training camps waiting for your coming. The rest
depends entirely on you.
Viscount of Valnoir
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Combattant-volontaire-au-Rojava-10-J-ai-vecu-bien-des-choses-depuis-des-mois
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Message: 7
"They do not treat us like cannon-flesh, nor as precious little trinkets, which we must
absolutely safeguard." ---- Alternative libertarian reproduces the blog posts
Kurdistan-Autogestion-Revolution , travel diary of a fellow committed to the YPG. ----
Over the course of the weeks, he will testify to the life of the fighting militias, the
debates that take place there and the experience of democratic confederalism in the
liberated zones. ---- YPG Training Academy for Foreign Volunteers, Canton of Cizérre, May
10, 2017 ---- Before coming here to Rojava, I sometimes wondered who might be those
courageous people who, leaving their daily routine, chose to come to defend the social
revolution with their weapons in their hands, with the risk of staying there.
I assumed, in view of the various stories and " martyrs " of which I was aware, that the
majority were revolutionaries who, carried by their ideals, had resolved to do so. The
reality is as always much more complex than the calculations made far from the ground.
So, that's what I've seen so far.
We can distinguish two main categories of motivation among internationalist volunteers: on
the one hand, on the one hand, people animated by their revolutionary convictions ; On the
other hand, those who came to fight Daech (often former soldiers) to defend " their
country " or simply add a few lines to their resume to join private military companies.
Of course, there are two main categories that do not summarize the complexity of the
individual paths: some who came mainly to fight against Daech may very well discover
revolutionary sympathies by seeing and living what happens here. It is the hope expressed
by comrades YPG: that by contact with revolutionary ideals and militants we can convince
them or, at least, gain them a certain respect for the project of democratic confederalism.
Some may be quite responsive
The presence of this kind of foreign volunteers is, in any case, a great subject of debate
among the revolutionaries. While most of them show respect, others display, at best, a
clear contempt for the revolution and, at worst, can be profound reactionaries ...
When one is a convinced leftist like myself, it is surely the kind of stuff that comes to
disrupt our need for revolutionary purity ... And especially when we made several thousand
kilometers to reconnect with the deep sense of the word "revolutionary".
A hall of the Academy: some portraits of comrades who fell at the front.
So what do we think of this type of compromise ?
First of all there is a pragmatic observation: foreign volunteers (especially ex-soldiers
and especially Americans) represent a certain assurance (limited of course) that the
imperialist powers will not abandon us too quickly. Indeed, if one or two leftists died in
an attack of Turkey for example, it would be one thing. But it would be quite another,
with a much higher political cost if several dozen ex-navies were killed in bombardments.
We are all heval
I am not suggesting at all that the Kurdish comrades are using us as legitimate insurance
policies. On the contrary, there is a true confidence placed in us. Whether we are
revolutionary or not, we are all heval (in French, it would give a word between " friend
" and " comrade "). They do not treat us like cannon-flesh, nor as precious little
trinkets that must be preserved. We can ask for an assignment a little as we want, in
accordance with our skills, obviously. These are some of the conclusions we have drawn
from our discussions among revolutionaries.
And to say that we will not take a 500 kilos bomb on the face by a Turkish F-16 with our
apprentices Chuck Norris, it makes the ex-marines directly more bearable !
At the Academy: some unexpected stickers here !
One can also remember the case of Spain of 1936, where thousands of volunteers joined the
revolution and / or the international brigades. It is customary to believe that they were
all people driven by a revolutionary ideal. Yet, from my own family history or from
studies on the profiles of the engaged, I realized that reality was once again much more
contrasted. The great depression of 1933 and the endemic chrome-plating also explain the
departure of many young workers to Spain.
Concrete acts of solidarity
In short, I digress a bit, but this little historical detour allows me to highlight two
things.
First, the weakness of the revolutionary left's support for a broad social movement, among
the most progressive that has been seen for decades. I am not talking, of course, of
statements of opinion or of articles or gatherings, but of the concrete establishment of
effective solidarity.
Secondly, what I am going to say may be shocking, but here the revolution is not going to
defend itself nor to deepen itself with some beautiful turns of phrases but with concrete
acts of solidarity.
You want another bitter truth ? The first to come to fight in Rojava were not
revolutionaries but ex-soldiers ... Their convictions could certainly be the exact
opposite of mine, but here is an act of support remains a concrete act.
Yes, I would of course prefer that all be revolutionaries convinced but, ultimately, who
helps the social revolution the most ? The ex-navy that is fighting with us or the
militants who are debating the reality of our revolution from their computers thousands of
miles away from us and who in fifteen years may have decided whether it was worth
defending What's going on here ? And then, the fact that people who are a priori not
politicized find themselves on our side, does that not mean that something important is
happening ?
Arthur Aberlin
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Un-communiste-libertaire-dans-les-YPG-06-Les-volontaires-internationalistes-l
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