The Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) is an umbrella group of left-wing organisations in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran that adhere to the ideology of Kurdish revolutionary leader Abdullah Ocalan (known as 鈥淎po鈥), currently in jail in Turkey. Forces associated with the KCK have helped lead the Rojava Revolution in Syria鈥檚 north, which marked its sixth anniversary on July 19, the day Kurdish-led forces staged an insurrection.
Rojava revolution
Manjib is an ethnically diverse city in northern Syria. In 2014, it was occupied by ISIS (also known as Daesh). In 2016, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF, an alliance of armed groups supporting the model of grassroots democracy associated with the Rojava Revolution) had liberated the city.
Emel Dede is one of the Manbij Turkmen聽women who lived under the Syrian regime first, and then the Free Syrian Army and Daesh. She has been working for two years now for her future and the future of Manbij. She talked to B锚r卯tan Sarya聽and聽Axin Tolhildan about this.
As Ireland prepares for its referendum today, May 25, on repealing the聽constitutional amendment prohibiting free, safe, legal abortion, women and health workers in Rojava, the largely Kurdish area in Syria's north,聽have expressed their solidarity with Irish women鈥檚 right to choose.
With the exception of the Vatican state and Malta, Ireland has the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe. It exceeds Saudi Arabia and Qatar in its restrictions on women鈥檚 rights to basic reproductive health.
Women from the Tirbesipiye-Cizire Canton in northern Syria (known as 鈥淩ojava鈥 in Kurdish)聽held a women-only demonstration through the city centre on February 9.
The marchers expressed their support for the resistance by women and others in the Afrin canton in Rojava against the fascist invasion from Turkey and Islamic gangs, which began last month 鈥 and in support of the feminist, multi-ethnic Rojava Revolution.
On January 20, Turkey launched an invasion of Afrin, one of the three cantons that make up the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria (also known as Rojava), the site of a profound, Kurdish-led social revolution based on multi-ethnic participatory democracy and women鈥檚 liberation.
The invasion has killed dozens of civilians in an area that has welcomed hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria鈥檚 conflict. Turkey鈥檚 actions would be impossible without at least passive acceptance from several great powers active in Syria. Cihad Hammy looks at the motivations for various major players.
The dark clouds of 21st-century fascism are once again hanging over the heads of the people of northern Syria. As if the inhabitants of the region often referred to as Rojava haven鈥檛 suffered enough over the course of the past 7 years of war, the Turkish state has come to the conclusion that the time is ripe to pick up the fallen, bloodied sword from the corpse that is Islamic State.
Together with Salafist mercenaries carrying flags of the Syrian 鈥榬ebels鈥 鈥 one of the many components of what at one historical juncture seemingly all so long ago was a cohesive 鈥楩ree Syrian Army鈥 鈥 Erdogan鈥檚 regime vows a 鈥榮wift operation鈥 to destroy 鈥榯errorism鈥 in Afrin.
Afrin invasion: Turkey attacks northern Syria鈥檚 democratic revolution 鈥 with Russian and US approval
Three years after Kurdish-led forces liberated the northern Syrian city of Kobane from ISIS 鈥 after a months-long siege that captured the world鈥檚 imagination 鈥 the democratic, multi-ethnic and feminist revolution in Syria鈥檚 north is facing a new assault.
A seminar to discuss the challenges, achievements and lessons of the Kurdish-led feminist revolution in northern Syria, in Victoria University on November 4, attracted more than 80 people. It was the second seminar to be organised this year by solidarity activists and the Victorian Kurdish community in Melbourne.
It was in the autumn of 2014, only months after Islamic State (ISIS) achieved huge territorial gains inside Syria and Iraq, committing genocidal and femicidal massacres, that a revolutionary silver lining arose from the little-known town of Kobane in Syria鈥檚 north.
Having overrun聽Mosul, Tel Afar and Sinjar in Iraq, as well as a vast expanse of territory inside Syria, ISIS prepared to launch an attack on the north of Syria, known by Kurds as Rojava.
What ISIS did not anticipate in Kobane was that it would encounter an enemy of a different kind 鈥 an organised, political community that was ready to defend itself courageously by all means necessary, and with a worldview that turns ISIS鈥檚 death ideology on its head.
Raqqa, the de facto ISIS capital in Syria, is on the verge of falling. The rapid advance of the left-wing Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) since they entered the city on June 6 contrasts with the slower advance of forces of the Iraqi and Iraqi Kurdistan governments in Mosul, the ISIS capital in Iraq, which the pro-government forces entered in February.
However, the June 18 downing of a Syrian fighter jet by a US war plane, after the former attacked SDF positions near Raqqa, is just one indication that eliminating ISIS will not end the violent multi-sided war in Syria that spawned it.
鈥淭he Rojava Revolution in Northern Syria: An experiment in radical democracy, feminism and ecology鈥 is the title of a conference to be held here over June 30 and July 1.
A joint project of the Australians for Kurdistan solidarity group and the Kurdish Democratic Community Centre (formerly the Kurdish Association of Victoria), the event aims to spread knowledge about the Rojava Revolution and build support for it.
Among other things, Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal has recently published a wide-ranging interview with Kurdish activist Dilar Dirik on the role of women in the Kurdish struggle, the Rojava revolution unfolding in northern Syria and the rise of the Kurdish-led People鈥檚 Democratic Party in Turkey; and a number of new translations in the 鈥1917: The View from the Streets 鈥 Leaflets of the Russian Revolution鈥 series being co-ordinated by US historian Barbara Allen and Canadian socialist and Links collaborator John Riddell.
- Previous page
- Page 4
- Next page