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<big><big><big>A large problem with Middle East events is getting
reliable information, especially if you live in the U.S.<br>
A friend sent me this article and I would like to hear
opinions about it.<br>
<br>
David Johnson<br>
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<div class="aolReplacedBody" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"
text="#000000"><big><big><big> <a
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href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/08/why-world-ignoring-revolutionary-kurds-syria-isis">http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/08/why-world-ignoring-revolutionary-kurds-syria-isis</a><br>
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<div id="main-article-info"><big><big><big><font
size="4"><big><big><big><i><font>from the
Guardian Oct 8th</font></i>...<br>
Why is the world ignoring the
revolutionary Kurds in Syria?<br>
<br>
</big></big></big></font> </big></big></big>
<div id="stand-first" class=""><big><big><big><font><i><b>Amid
the Syrian warzone a democratic
experiment is being stamped into the
ground by Isis. That the wider world
is unaware is a scandal</b></i></font><span><span><a
moz-do-not-send="true" class=""
rel="author" target="_blank"
href="http://www.theguardian.com/profile/david-graeber">
</a><br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" class=""
rel="author" target="_blank"
href="http://www.theguardian.com/profile/david-graeber">David
Graeber</a></span></span></big></big></big></div>
<big><big><big> </big></big></big></div>
<big><big><big> <br>
</big></big></big>
<div class=""><big><big><big> </big></big></big>
<div><big><big><big>In 1937, my father volunteered
to fight in the International Brigades in
defence of the Spanish Republic. A
would-be fascist coup had been temporarily
halted by a worker’s uprising, spearheaded
by anarchists and socialists, and in much
of Spain a genuine social revolution
ensued, leading to whole cities under
directly democratic management, industries
under worker control, and the radical
empowerment of women.</big></big></big></div>
<big><big><big> </big></big></big>
<div><big><big><big>Spanish revolutionaries hoped
to create a vision of a free society that
the entire world might follow. Instead,
world powers declared a policy of
“non-intervention” and maintained a
rigorous blockade on the republic, even
after Hitler and Mussolini, ostensible
signatories, <a moz-do-not-send="true"
target="_blank"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_involvement_in_the_Spanish_Civil_War"
title="">began pouring in troops and
weapons to reinforce the fascist side</a>.
The result was years of civil war that
ended with the suppression of the
revolution and some of a bloody century’s
bloodiest massacres.<br>
<br>
</big></big></big></div>
<big><big><big> </big></big></big>
<div><big><big><big>I never thought I would, in my
own lifetime, see the same thing happen
again. Obviously, no historical event ever
really happens twice. There are a thousand
differences between what happened in Spain
in 1936 and what is happening in Rojava,
the three largely Kurdish provinces of
northern Syria, today. But some of the
similarities are so striking, and so
distressing, that I feel it’s incumbent on
me, as someone who grew up in a family
whose politics were in many ways defined
by the Spanish revolution, to say: we
cannot let it end the same way again.<br>
<br>
</big></big></big></div>
<big><big><big> </big></big></big>
<div><big><big><big>The autonomous region of
Rojava, as it exists today, is one of few
bright spots – albeit a very bright one –
to emerge from the tragedy of the Syrian
revolution. Having driven out agents of
the Assad regime in 2011, and despite the
hostility of almost all of its neighbours,
Rojava has not only maintained its
independence, but is a remarkable
democratic experiment. Popular assemblies
have been created as the ultimate
decision-making bodies, councils selected
with careful ethnic balance (in each
municipality, for instance, the top three
officers have to include one Kurd, one
Arab and one Assyrian or Armenian
Christian, and at least one of the three
has to be a woman), there are women’s and
youth councils, and, in a remarkable echo
of the armed Mujeres Libres (Free Women)
of Spain, a feminist army, the “YJA Star”
militia (the “Union of Free Women”, the
star here referring to the ancient
Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar), that has
carried out a large proportion of the
combat operations against the forces of
Islamic State.<br>
<br>
</big></big></big></div>
<big><big><big> </big></big></big>
<div><big><big><big>How can something like this
happen and still be almost entirely
ignored by the international community,
even, largely, by the International left?
Mainly, it seems, because the Rojavan
revolutionary party, the PYD, works in
alliance with Turkey’s Kurdish Worker’s
Party (PKK), a Marxist guerilla movement
that has since the 1970s been engaged in a
long war against the Turkish state. Nato,
the US and EU officially classify them as
a “terrorist” organisation. Meanwhile,
leftists largely write them off as
Stalinists. <br>
<br>
</big></big></big></div>
<big><big><big> </big></big></big>
<div><big><big><big>But, in fact, the PKK itself
is no longer anything remotely like the
old, top-down Leninist party it once was.
Its own internal evolution, and the
intellectual conversion of its own
founder, <a moz-do-not-send="true"
target="_blank"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_%C3%96calan"
title="">Abdullah Ocalan</a>, held in a
Turkish island prison since 1999, have led
it to entirely change its aims and
tactics.</big></big></big></div>
<big><big><big> </big></big></big>
<div><big><big><big>The PKK has declared that it
no longer even seeks to create a Kurdish
state. Instead, inspired in part by the
vision of social ecologist and anarchist
Murray Bookchin, it has adopted the vision
of “libertarian municipalism”, calling for
Kurds to create free, self-governing
communities, based on principles of direct
democracy, that would then come together
across national borders – that it is hoped
would over time become increasingly
meaningless. In this way, they proposed,
the Kurdish struggle could become a model
for a wordwide movement towards genuine
democracy, co-operative economy, and the
gradual dissolution of the bureaucratic
nation-state.<br>
<br>
</big></big></big></div>
<big><big><big> </big></big></big>
<div><big><big><big>Since 2005 the PKK, inspired
by the strategy of the <a
moz-do-not-send="true" target="_blank"
href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/01/02/mexicos-zapatista-rebel-movement-marks-20-years/4284461/"
title="">Zapatista rebels in Chiapas</a>,
declared a unilateral ceasefire with the
Turkish state and began concentrating
their efforts in developing democratic
structures in the territories they already
controlled. Some have questioned how
serious all this really is. Clearly,
authoritarian elements remain. But what
has happened in Rojava, where the Syrian
revolution gave Kurdish radicals the
chance to carry out such experiments in a
large, contiguous territory, suggests this
is anything but window dressing. Councils,
assemblies and popular militias have been
formed, regime property has been turned
over to worker-managed co-operatives – and
all despite continual attacks by the
extreme rightwing forces of Isis. The
results meet any definition of a social
revolution. In the Middle East, at least,
these efforts have been noticed:
particularly after PKK and Rojava forces
intervened to successfully fight their way
through Isis territory in Iraq to rescue
thousands of Yezidi refugees trapped on
Mount Sinjar after the local peshmerga
fled the field. These actions were widely
celebrated in the region, but remarkably
received almost no notice in the European
or North American press.<br>
<br>
</big></big></big></div>
<big><big><big> </big></big></big>
<div><big><big><big>Now, Isis has returned, with
scores of US-made tanks and heavy
artillery taken from Iraqi forces, to take
revenge against many of those same
revolutionary militias in Kobane,
declaring their intention to massacre and
enslave – yes, literally enslave – the
entire civilian population. Meanwhile, the
Turkish army stands at the border
preventing reinforcements or ammunition
from reaching the defenders, and US planes
buzz overhead making occasional, symbolic,
pinprick strikes – apparently, just to be
able to say that it did not do nothing as
a group it claims to be at war with
crushes defenders of one of the world’s
great democratic experiments.</big></big></big></div>
<big><big><big> </big></big></big>
<div><big><big><big>If there is a parallel today
to Franco’s superficially devout,
murderous Falangists, who would it be but
Isis? If there is a parallel to the
Mujeres Libres of Spain, who could it be
but the courageous women defending the
barricades in Kobane? Is the world – and
this time most scandalously of all, the
international left – really going to be
complicit in letting history repeat
itself?</big></big></big></div>
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