Rojava Kurdistan, Murray Bookchin and regional Kurdish politics

[Brainaddict]

Launch of a solidarity group this Saturday: https://www.facebook.com/?_rdr#!/events/1043687788993915

 

[Brainaddict]

...and a look at Rojava as part of a year-long Stateless Democracy research project conducted by New World Summit and New World Academy (arty stuff and people really). 2nd half very interesting, first half the normal intro sort of stuff but from a slightly diff perspective:

To Make a World, Part III: Stateless Democracy

That seems interesting in that it suggests that those in the cantons take seriously the task of propagating the de-centralised democratic ideals and so on. In a way what matters more than the leaders' dedication to such ideas is whether the rank and file care about it sufficiently to prevent the leaders doing u-turns at their own convenience.

 

[butchersapron]

That seems interesting in that it suggests that those in the cantons take seriously the task of propagating the de-centralised democratic ideals and so on. In a way what matters more than the leaders' dedication to such ideas is whether the rank and file care about it sufficiently to prevent the leaders doing u-turns at their own convenience.

This is the crux - it's where the the PKK were stalinists who allied with Assad/iran/puk and so anything they are involved with is wrong etc are to be tested, if the dynamic leads beyond PKK leadership if required. I'm not convinced myself but to turn your back to the potential is to turn your back on everything i think.

 

[Spanky Longhorn]

This is the crux - it's where the the PKK were stalinists who allied with Assad/iran/puk and so anything they are involved with is wrong etc are to be tested, if the dynamic leads beyond PKK leadership if required. I'm not convinced myself but to turn your back to the potential is to turn your back on everything i think.

Spot on - this is where all debate on the external (to Kurdistan) libertarian left is negated until the potential is realised or collapses.

 

[butchersapron]

Not read this, please don't take it as a recommendation - i've been less than impressed by what the group has previously chosen to publish. It's the introduction to a book A Small Key Can Open A Large Door: The Rojava Revolution - which seems to be a collection of the sort of texts we've been posting on here. I think so anyway, been unable to get a hold of the contents from anywhere. Anyway, here it is:

A Mountain River Has Many Bends: The History and Context of the Rojava Revolution

(A quick skim - looks very simplistic and naive)

 

[butchersapron]

Another short piece from within the ultra-left tradition (leaving aside quibbles about the term for now) - seems to really just be a condensed version of the Dauve thing previously linked to questioning how far we can call this a revolution if social relations beyond gender etc are not being overturned, external relation to real capital etc but asking the questionat the end that Dauve didn't (but that we have on here):

Starting from the moment of coercion – Cizire Canton, Rojava

What is taking place is not communisation. But it is a real movement against state plunder and cohercion – fighting both militarily on its boarders and inwardly through the diffusion of power within them. The limits of the struggles in Rojava in this sense are those of struggles everywhere where the relation between labour power and capital has become a matter of repression and struggles that take that repression as a starting point. It is another struggle taking place far from the strongholds of capital’s reproduction and not directed at over turning relations of exploitation. What will be interesting in Rojava, for now largely cut off from the force of global capital, is what struggles will emerge over relations of exploitation… over the distribution of land, over assignment to different kinds of work, over prices and wages, over imports and exports. What transformation of property and production relations will women demand as they return from the militias?

SIC, of course being one of the Journals that Woland was associated with (and on checking my files i find i was also involved with a european project with him a decade or so ago - the rotter).

 

[butchersapron]

Oh yeah, went to a talk by one of the Haringey anarchists that went to rojava and a syrian army deserter the other week - didn't really learn anything new but was rather impressed by the deserters determination to continue the anti-assad element of the struggle and the recognition that this is the key to to whole thing right now.

 

[sunnysidedown]

SIC, of course being one of the Journals that Woland was associated with (and on checking my files i find i was also involved with a european project with him a decade or so ago - the rotter).

A bit OT, but can you recommend any other articles that critique the determinism inherent in the communization movement?

 

[butchersapron]

A bit OT, but can you recommend any other articles that critique the determinism inherent in the communization movement?

I can yeah, have a look at the book Communization and Its Discontents: Contestation, Critique, and Contemporary Struggles - the Endnotes chapter esp if i remember right. Issue one of their journal as well.

 

[sunnysidedown]

Thanks, will take a look at those.

 

[Harry Patch]

'The Revolution In Rojava: Strengths and Challenges.' - London talk by eye-witness, Jeff Miley, and discussion.

Tuesday, May 26, 6.45pm

Many socialists and anarchists have been celebrating recent events in Rojava, West Kurdistan, describing what's been happening as a genuine social revolution through which women have gained unprecedented equality and power. Some have even described the result as a 21st century matriarchy. Others, however, are more skeptical.

So what do we know about what is really happening there?

Jeff Miley has visited Rojava and reports on the revolution's strengths and also its challenges.

In the upstairs function room at Cock Tavern, 23 Phoenix Road, London NW1 1HB. (Euston station)

For readings and other eye-witness accounts see: https://libcom.org/library/rojava-revolution-reading-guide

 

[butchersapron]

David Harvey: reclaiming the city from Kobane to Baltimore

Phh. I think his use of Bookchin here is pretty mercenary and lazy - i doubt he ever read a word that Bookchin wrote given his (harvey's) ridiculous and, frankly, juvenile criticisms of anarchism in his 17 contradictions of capital.

 

[J Ed]

AMA from an American volunteer with the Peshmerga

 

[CNT36]

David Harvey: reclaiming the city from Kobane to Baltimore

Phh. I think his use of Bookchin here is pretty mercenary and lazy - i doubt he ever read a word that Bookchin wrote given his (harvey's) ridiculous and, frankly, juvenile criticisms of anarchism in his 17 contradictions of capital.

Is that the nuclear reactor shit?

 

[gawkrodger]

I see that various leninsts and trots have set up an 'international brigade'

http://kurdishquestion.com/index.ph...st-freedom-brigade-established-in-rojava.html

 

[butchersapron]

Maoist martyrs

 

[gawkrodger]

I suppose the most relevant thread - a complete aside, verging on the irrelevant, but interesting to note that the Kurdish fighters on Saturdays UFC card were referred to as from Kurdistan/Kurdish, not Irag/Iran/Turkey/Syria

 

[IC3D]

A detailed report on the battle for and rebuilding of Kobani, might be of interest so posting.

It's been one year since the YPG/YPJ and allied forces fought off advancing ISIS fighters and liberated the city of Kobane.
In this Kurdish report with English subtitles, we take a look back at to what led to the great resistance and the current situation of the city.

 

[butchersapron]

With the YPG welcoming russian airstrikes it now means the populations of the cantons either swallowing that or fighting the PKK.

Worst of all worlds.

 

[LDC]

There's a few Kurdistan related discusssions at the Anarchist Bookfair in London on Saturday 24th October.

12 noon – 2pm, Janet Biehl: the Politics of Social Ecology
The defeat of ISIS by Kurdish forces in Syria has generated much news recently. For activists this is especially true in respect of the link between the organisational experiment in Kobane/Rojava and Murray Bookchin. Bookckin developed a way of organising called Libertarian Municipalism which looks at ways to wrestle power from the state. Janet Biehl worked alongside Bookchin for many years and concisely pulls together his theories in her book “The politics of Social Ecology”. Janet will talk about the theory and how it can be put into practice. We may not all agree with everything Boochin said, but this is a chance to start the debate on how we organise and move from a small unknown theory (anarchism) to seriously looking how we overthrow the present system

2pm – 3pm, Solidarity with Kurdistan
Kurdish people are currently being attacked by ISIS in Rojava and by the Turkish military in North Kurdistan. This workshop will be a chance to discuss how to build effective solidarity with Kurdistan and will focus on calls to action from Kurdish people. It will be a chance for existing solidarity groups and activists to build connections with each other and for new people to get involved.

4pm – 6pm, The Rojava Revolution: what is really happening in Western Kurdistan
Many anarchists have been celebrating political changes in the Kurdish areas of Syria as a genuine social revolution despite appalling conditions of war. Others have been more skeptical. So what is really happening there? Jeff Miley and Evrim Yilmaz have both been there and will talk about the revolution's achievements as well as its challenges. There will be plenty of time for debate and discussion.

 

[Jeremiah18.17]

The interview with leader of PYD here appears a bit more nuanced than what Butchers is saying, a bit more "hedging all bets"....,
PYD leader: Russia will stop Turkey from intervening in Syria - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

 

[J Ed]

HDP peace rally in Ankara bombed, 30 dead

Ankara explosion: 30 dead at rally in Turkish capital - BBC News

 

[butchersapron]

Democratic autonomy declared in Girê Spî

Opinion leaders and representatives of all communities and faith groups in Girê Spî (Tal Abyad) region have come together at a meeting today to determine a joint administration.

The meeting was attended by Kobanê Executive Council President Xalid Berkel, Defense Council President Ismet Şêx Hesen, Foreign Minister Îbrahîm Kurdo, Interior Minister Bozan Xelîl, Council of Martyrs President Mihemed Xan, Tev-Dem Co-presidents Ayşe Efendi and Ehmed Şexo, commanders from YPG and Burkan Al-Fırat, representatives of Siwar Al-Raqqa Brigade, civil society organizations and members of Peace and Fraternity Council.

The meeting ended up with the establishment of Girê Spî Democratic Autonomous Administration affiliated to Kobanê Canton, election of co-presidents -Mensur Selum and Leyla Mustafa- and formation of 9 committees to deal with the works.

The autonomous administration will involve representatives from all the peoples and social circles living in the region.

 

[butchersapron]

Important that i think due to large non-kurdish populations.

 

[butchersapron]

Review/intro piece of Out of Nowhere: The Kurds of Syria in Peace and War by Michael M. Gunter in the latest NYRB

The Syrian Kurds Are Winning! - Jonathan Steele

Whatever Erdoǧan decides, there appears to be no chance that Rojava will ever go back under Arab control as fully as it was before 2011. Before the Geneva talks in 2014, the last occasion when the UN brokered negotiations between the Syrian government and its opponents, the Syrian Kurds insisted on coming as a separate delegation and refused to join the opposition coalition when they were told they had to join with others. After almost five years of war Syria is fragmented, and it is unclear whether Damascus will ever be restored as a powerful seat of central government. The best that can be expected is a devolved federal system, either by a formal constitutional change or merely de facto.

Rule from Damascus may be replaced by competing rulers or warlords in different cities. Whoever they are, whether Islamist or secular, no set of Arab rulers will easily be accepted again by Syria’s Kurds. Their language is being revived. They run their own education system and have an authentic local media. They have tasted the benefits of autonomy and will resist any attempt to have all this extinguished.

 

[gawkrodger]

BA, have you come across a pdf of the book yet. My uni. library is noticeably reducing the amount of new books it's getting in and hasn't got it/on order

 

[butchersapron]

BA, have you come across a pdf of the book yet. My uni. library is noticeably reducing the amount of new books it's getting in and hasn't got it/on order

Not as of yet mate, will shout when do.

 

[J Ed]

Very moving pictures of tributes paid by ordinary Canadians on the return of the body of a Canadian soldier who was killed while fighting with the YPG

Pride, sadness greet fallen hero

 

[gawkrodger]

Macer Gifford speaking at SOAS on Thursday

 

[LDC]

Macer Gifford speaking at SOAS on Thursday

Anyone on here going to this?