Tonight is an evening to find out more about the situation in Northern Syria and the region that the Kurdish groups and those that support them call Rojava. We are going to show two films and have some speakers discussing and facilitating a discussion about supporting the situation in Rojava and what we can do in Bristol and the wider UK to raise awareness and support the struggle for an autonomous and secular region in Northern Syria. We will try and encourage a space for all those interested to give some historical context to the situation, to discuss the wider Kurdish question and to develop an understanding of what these events mean for wider progressive, autonomous and humanist politics. Please come along and join in the discussion. I link below to some text from an awareness building site called ‘Punks for Rojava’ (punksforrojava.org) as it gives a good account of why we should support this type of initiative: www.punksforrojava.org

The films for the evening are a YPJ self-made film entitled: YPJ and the ARTE film Kurdistan: Women at War.

This event is partly to help develop and continue some work to set up a Bristol Kurdish Solidarity group. Some people have come together to start this process and we hope the discussion will generate ideas and involvement from more people.

Josh Walker, the Bristolian who went to fight with the YPG, will be at the event to talk about his experiences and his view of what the People’s Defence Units are trying to do and how they have set up their democratic structures in Rojava. It is an honour to have Josh with us and we hope that many people will come and hear his story. We will also have a number of Kurdish activists who have been in the UK for some time including Ali Zalme, a PhD Student at the University of the West Of England.

This event is supported by a number of organisations including the Bristol Radical History Group and the Bristol Kurdish Solidarity Network (Bristolkurdishsolidarity[@]riseup.net).



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