The tide has turned: No to religious terror and authoritarian violence. Solidarity with the people of Rojava

When, if not now: Let our solidarity with Rojava and the Kurdish liberation movement in Iraq become practical – against the terror of IS and in favor of the immediate revocation of the ban on PKK, set up and used to criminalize Kurdish people and their organizations in Europe until today.*

During the last few days the fighters of the Kurdish self-defense units YPG from Rojava (western Kurdistan/Syria) and HPG (PKK’s guerilla forces in northern Kurdistan/Turkey) have opened a humanitarian corridor to save the Kurdish Yazidi. They succeeded in saving tens of thousands of people from being murdered and dying of thirst. The women’s units of YPJ and YJA-STAR made a major contribution to this success. During these last few days the named units formed a Kurdish front of unity with peshmerga fighters from southern Kurdistan, and by doing so enabled themselves among other things to defend the refugee camp Maxmur and to liberate several villages and cities from the terror spread by IS.
The struggle of liberation in the Kurdish regions of Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq is an alternative to the reactionary powers in the region and at the same time an alternative to the imperial politics of crisis run by global capitalism. It is an alternative for Kurds and Arabs, for Muslims, Christians, Yazidis, Alevits, Arameans: for everyone whom the fascist “Islamic State” (IS) attacks and tries to annihilate.

But the Kurdish struggle can be a point of reference also to us leftist and social movements in Europe. Staring with wide eyes at the massacres in Syria and Iraq, the situation in Israel and Palestine, we were unable to speak out. We have been silent for too long. It’s time to move, to approach one another, to talk with each other, to act together. Let’s accept the Kurdish challenge, let’s accept the Kurdish invitation, let us meet at their marches and rallies in our cities, let’s move on and break this political deadlock!
This is not (only) about things happening elsewhere. CDU/CSU, FDP, SPD and the Green Party, the German state and German capital: for decades they have been shipping arms to the Turkish army, supplying them with the means of bloody repression of Kurds living on grounds belonging to the Turkish state. They all have supported and are still supporting states that torture, like Saudi-Arabia or Qatar that have empowered IS together with Turkey to use them as watch dogs against the Kurdish autonomous project in Rojava and against the Syrian movement for democracy – without the courage of the Syrian revolutionaries, their bravery in Damascus, Homs and Dara’a, without the power of the revolt for freedom in the Syrian center, Kurdish autonomy in Rojava would not exist. Forced to act and intent on regaining control, western states now are trying to divide “good” from “bad” Kurds by supporting only those connected with the Barzani administration in Erbil.
We cannot leave resistance against all this to the Kurds, just as we cannot abandon them in their fight against the terror spread by IS. This is up to us all. The solidarity, cooperation and commonalities we have practiced in Heiligendamm as a coalition against G8, and that we kept up within the alliance Dresden Nazifrei, in mobilizing against the NATO-summit in Strasbourg, with Castor Schottern and within Blockupy are in demand now. In demand and challenged is everything we are at least trying to exercise in mind as “The Commune of Europe”. 

Yes – we are not strong enough to cope with the terror in Syria and Iraq, just as we are not strong enough to end the Troika-regime in southern Europe or the degradation of democracy and social rights that has been going on for decades all around us. But beginnings are all along: the Kurds are pointing this out to us right now. And: every beginning is specific. This means right now:
Let’s accept the invitation of our Kurdish comrades, let’s hit the streets together, let’s participate in their rallies! Say, at the nationwide anti-war-rallies on September 1st. 
End the ban on PKK! Stop the bullying and criminalization of Kurdish teenagers in Germany! No more shipments of arms: not so Saudi-Arabia, not to Turkey. Let’s get started, now.

Towards a radical societal left! Biji berxwedana Sengale!

(Long live the resistance of Sengal!)

Interventionist Left [IL] August 15th, 2014

Contribute in solidarity:
• to a bloodbank in Kobanê. More information: http://www.medico.de
• to the women’s center SARA fighting violence against women. More information: http://frauenzentrumsara.blogsport.eu
• to the rebuilding of Heyva-Sor-headquartes in Kobanê. More information: http://rojavasolidaritaet.blogsport.de

More news, dates and contacts:
http://www.firatnews.com, http://www.yekkom.com/, http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/isku/, http://tatortkurdistan.blogsport.de/

* After an unparalleled campaign of hate against the Kurdish people in Germany, PKK and her allied organizations were banned in Germany as „terrorist organizations“. This ban was followed by a wave of searches and arrests. Rabble-rousing against Kurds created a climate of repression and fear dominated by a very simple equation: “Kurd = PKK = terrorist”. On July 30, 1994, 16-year-old Kurd Halim Dener was killed by German policemen for putting up posters in favor of PKK. Until this very day Kurdish cultural associations and public structures of the Kurdish movement, but especially Kurdish youth and activist who identify with the movement and engage in politics are being repressed.