International Call for Solidarity with the Revolution in Rojava (Kurdistan, Syria)

With this call out we invite individuals, organizations, collectives to participate in or support our fight for liberation, liberation not only of the Kurds for their land, but first and foremost liberation from the power of the state and capitalism and of patriarchy. We invite you to come to Rojava, Canton Cizire and Kobani.

Rojava (Western Kurdistan) is a piece of land largely freed from the presence of ISIS but under embargo: an embargo implemented against us not only from Turkey but also from Iraqi Kurdistan, whose regime does not appreciate the social changes taking place here. This embargo limits the availability of basic necessities, but also on the shortage of medicines and medical equipment needed to treat the injured. Here there are thousands of martyrs, of people killed by war: many have lost their family and home.

Our region lives since four years in an intensive atmosphere of war and great popular resistance. The attacks of authoritarian forces of modern capitalism backed up by regional reactionary forces which are deployed in the region, and are practically embodied in extremist religious organizations with its different names, which can be summed up in ISIS, is not only an armed attack which is supported by all technical modern means against the forces of resistance, such as women, youth and the forces of protection, but it is an intellectual and ideological attack that represents the peak of authoritarian and monopolistic patriarchal mentality which is anti-women, youth and the whole society. It is an international war, all hegemonic powers are directly or indirectly playing their part, all because they want influence in this region.

As in all wars in the world, it is the woman who bears the greatest weight, because she is losing her children, she is being raped, she is sold as slavery and forced to be a prostitute; in addition, in Syria and in much of the Middle East, until the revolution, women were considered second class people. But here in Rojava, the woman no longer considers this an inevitable fate: since a long time, women have begun to be active in all fields (social, political, military, cultural) and this is managing to change the chauvinist mentality. In the fight against the patriarchal system we fight also against all forms of oppression and abuse: the same way of thinking that places man above the woman also he puts those who have power over the people and the human being above nature, in a hierarchy of violence and abuse. Fighting against the patriarchal system therefore means for us also fighting the authoritarian and reactionary mentality.

With the Syrian Revolution and the clear answer of YPG-YPJ there has been created a situation, which makes a big chance for a rearrangement concerning the patriarchal and hegemonic system of power in the Middle East possible. This historical unique resistance of women against the most brutal level of male violence in the form of the attacks of ISIS has impressed Rojava, Syria, same as the complete Middle East with a new women’s role. There is a moving together of Armenian, Syrian, Arabic and Kurdish peoples and the Christian, Yezidian and Muslim communities to defend the democratic, peaceful and ethical interests.

In all areas (military, political, social, cultural) of the struggle, women are joining as an integral part and here the participation does not stop at the representation of women in those fields as 40% but also taking the pattern of co-presidency and basically the principle of equal sharing (50%) as a free democratic principle. Thus, we can say that the level at which it relates to women in the midst of a revolution Rojava, it can be termed as a “women’s revolution” in every sense of the word. And Kurdish Women’s resistance in the city of Kobanî is only the best proof of what the Kurdish women have reached of high rank in the leadership of the liberation struggle and engaging in the dignified war for existence against ISIS.

We invite everybody, men and women, but especially women, to see and / or participate in this revolution.

Here there is suffering, of course, but here there is also happiness. There is happiness and pride, because a people has raised up against the abuses. We learned again to write in our language, which had been prohibited in all public buildings. We put into practice a model of democratic self-management, in which decisions start and are discussed and made in public meetings in the streets that involve all those who want to be part of it. We organized together with all minorities and ethnic groups which are present in this part of the world, so that everyone can keep their identity, completing each other in a dynamic that enriches everybody.

We fight a legitimate struggle for liberation, this is also a struggle to give power to the people, putting as a priority the liberation of women; this fight looks for a harmonic relationship with nature, an interconnected cycle of which even human beings are a part of; this struggle wants to eliminate authoritarianism, fighting the mentality that generates it. Our struggle is also responsible for its own defense through YPG-YPJ, because the powers that attack it are many and deadly.

What you can do here is much, first of all to come to see, and to tell in your countries what happens here. And then to help those who have suffered psychological trauma, help in reconstruction, aid in natural parks, help in all social and cultural areas, as well as take part in the defense forces of the people and of women (YPG-YPJ). Your solidarity, in our eyes, has the highest value.

We would like to hear your stories, to hear about the struggles that take place in other parts of the world, and we would like to share our revolution with you. We invite you so that you can see with your own eyes that the system which forces the human being to become a part of its machine, and takes away humanity and happiness from the people, makes them into puppets of mechanisms over which they have no control, is not the only possible system, and this is one of the alternatives. In the history and all around of the world there have always been and always will be movements struggling to liberate the human being from the Power that would like to make the people dead and sad, we believe it is important to join these movements because only together we can win against the monster that, in its various forms, we struggle against. The powers who would like to see that this revolution fail and doesn’t spread to the other parts of Kurdistan, the Middle-East or even the world, are many, and the only way to fight, is by fighting together, everybody with its own colour. It’s plurality and different voices which makes us strong.

For information please contact: solidaritywithrojava[at]gmail[dot]com

Tags: International Solidarity, Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Kubani, Kurdistan, Lions of Rojava, People's Defence Units (Y.P.G.), Rojava, Syria, Women's Defense Units (YPJ)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2015 at 1:35 pm and is filed under Autonomy.