Rojava’s Struggle Against the System

Self-determination in the context of global capital

A top story in the news this week has been the withdrawal of US forces from Syria. The withdrawal is being presented by many as a ‘betrayal’ of the US towards their allies the Kurds who have been one of the most effective fighting forces against ISIS in both Syria and Iraq.

The withdrawal has cleared the way for a Turkish invasion. Turkey seeks to establish a ‘buffer zone’ in the north of Syria claiming that this is necessary for the security of its border in a still unstable Syria. The truth, however, is that Turkey is looking to suppress and limit the influence of the Kurds who have been able to establish a de facto autonomous zone in the north of Syria called Rojava. For Turkey, a strong Rojava in Syria will embolden the Kurdish population — which has been seeking autonomous rule for decades — within Turkey. This invasion can be seen as nothing but an extension of Turkeys oppression of domestic Kurds.

The invasion, which only started a few days ago has already had a devastating effect on a region that has already been devastated by ISIS. In the first place, it has revived ISIS operations. Second, it has already resulted in the death of hundreds of Kurdish fighters trying to hold back the Turkish invasion. Third, it has created an intensification of the refugee crisis as 160,000 people have reportedly fled their homes in northeast Syria.

Most of the coverage on this has been to blame the US for the betrayal. Many have pointed out how this is not the first time the US has betrayed the Kurds, but is, in fact, the Eighth. This has prompted another Medium writer to quip that “Betraying the Kurds is Trump’s most ‘presidential’ move yet”. But there is something inherently absurd with being upset about the withdrawal of an invading army from sovereign territory. This may be a harsh point to make as the Kurds in Rojava see this as a betrayal as well. yet, even if the reality of the layer cake that is Syria at the moment makes the presence of the US in Syria a requirement for the survival of Rojava, there just seems something wrong with encouraging the presence of an imperialist force — no less a force that has caused this entire situation — to remain engaged. This is why some have pointed out the inevitability of this tragedy.

Of course the US, as an imperialist force, has never based its policy on benevolence. As soon as Trump announced the withdrawal of troops from Syria his business ties in Turkey came back into the spotlight with many claiming it as a motivating force for giving the withdrawal orders. But Trump is not the only one who has no issue with climbing into bed with a genocidal dictator. In 2016, the EU signed a multibillion-dollar agreement with Turkey to settle refugees in the country in a bid to slow their flow into Europe, even though Turkey was being accused of abusing and exploiting Syrian refugees.

About Rojava

Lost in a discourse dominated by foreign policy has been the agency and aspirations of the Kurds in Rojava. Beyond being a bulwark in the fight against ISIS, Rojava was also a radical experiment in “Libertarian Municipalism” based on the ideas of imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan who was inspired by American Anarchist theorist Muray Bookchin.

Libertarian Municipalism seeks to create self-governing communities based on principles of direct democracy that would come together across national borders. In this way, the establishment of Rojava as an autonomous zone is not part of a national liberation campaign, but a campaign for the abolishment of the concept of the nation-state altogether. These principles of direct democracy also account for the ethnic makeup of the population creating a balance of representation while also reinforcing the role of women as women hold 40 per cent of leadership positions at all level.

It’s a sad fact that the agency of the Kurds in establishing such a radical mode of governance is being overshadowed by either typical anti-imperialist denunciations from the left instead of acts of solidarity (although whether or not the ‘global left’ can make any meaningful difference is debatable) or calls for increased interventionism from imperialist powers. Perhaps Rosa Luxemburg was right in saying that all movements of self-determination are doomed to become subsumed into the movements of larger and competing imperialist forces. This is hard to argue against since, under the immense pressure of invasion, Kurdish forces have made a deal with the Syrian government to allow, and work alongside, Syrian troops into the territory with the objective to stave off the Turkish advance. It is still unclear as to what this means to the democratic experiment of Rojava, but it is more than likely the start of the end.

If anything, though, the experience of Rojava teaches us that the only way a radical revolutionary can be sustained is through solidarity from the region itself. That is, through the development of other radical movements in the region that may fare better outside of an international proxy war. Those are the only conditions under which a radical experiment such as Rojava could have survived without needing the support of a world power.

Self-determination

There is another lesson to draw from all of this. The struggles of Rojava and their quest for autonomy can easily be located as an episode in the Syrian civil war — as a unique and distance event. But it's important to not dismiss the topic of self-determination, and its suppression, as one that only arises in ‘backwards’ parts of the world. Self-determination and its suppression is and always has been a hot topic in the developed ‘west’.

It’s worth remembering that it was only in 2017 that an Independence referendum that took place in Catalonia was rejected by Spain and the EU and was met with harsh suppression from the Spanish government when police attacked peaceful demonstrators and jailed the political leaders of the independence movement who have just received 13-year jail sentences. Scotland has also sought to gain independence, and although its 2014 referendum results came back against independence, Scotland is now paying the price as its wishes to remain within the EU is being ignored by a larger power.

Although not a case of independence, one can also look at Greece’s acquiescence to an EU diet of austerity measures which were passed by the government against a referendum that rejected them. Here too we see the general will of a people and their right to self-determination being subsumed to maintain a system that goes against their interests.

All of this to say that the concept of self-determination remains a pertinent one in domestic politics as well as that of international relations. Yet, it continuously seems to be suppressed for the benefit of larger powers who seek to maintain their hegemony be it in the form of personal business interests, archaic notions of nationalism, or trade competitiveness in a globalized economy.

We would all gain by taking a page out of the Rojava playbook to reconsider the role of radical direct democracy in our immediate lives and understand that our cause interests are more aligned with that of Kurds in Rojava than with any of the other institutions of power that rob us of our voices.