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Title: Anarchism in Rojava Author: Rev Dia Date: 21 March 2019 Language: en Topics: Rojava, Syrian civil war Source: Retrieved on 26th January 2022 from a translation of https://revdia.org/2019/03/21/anarhisty-v-rozhavi/
At a time when the far right is shooting civilians in mosques, anarchist
forces are at the forefront and are truly at war with ISIS. Detachments
of anarchist internationalists are taking an active part in the Syrian
conflict, fighting Islamic State, dictator Assad, Turkish imperialism,
and, most importantly, automatically promoting ideas of self-government
and direct popular control.
The Syrian civil war is a long-standing, multilateral, multi-level armed
conflict that began in the spring of 2011 as a local civil confrontation
and gradually escalated into an uprising against the regime of Bashar
al-Assad, which eventually involved not only major countries but also
international organizations. , military-political groups and world
powers. Initially, hostilities took place between the government army
and the Free Syrian Army (ISA). The main organization of the Syrian
opposition was the Syrian National Council (SNA), which at that time
included all anti-government factions. However, the opposition later
split, with Kurdish organizations being the first to form their own
government (the Supreme Kurdish Council), and in 2013 the most radical
Islamist groups forming the Islamic Front. Due to the split in the ranks
of the rebels, the position of the ICA has significantly weakened, and
its role has receded into the background. A leading role in the
confrontation between government forces has been played by various
Islamist groups, the most capable of which are the terrorist
organizations Front al-Nusra (a local branch of al-Qaeda) and the
Islamic State.
The first units of ISIS militants appeared in Syria in January 2014 in
the provinces of Idlib and Aleppo. At the same time, they captured
Manbij (in 2013 the population was about 80 thousand people) in the
province of Aleppo. The city became one of the first Syrian settlements
conquered by terrorists. In the summer of 2014, terrorists advanced into
the province of Raqqa and seized its administrative center by July.
Raqqa became the capital of the so-called “Islamic State”. At the same
time, terrorists were operating in Iraq. ISIL’s rapid offensive and
terrorist seizures of large areas of Syria and Iraq in the summer of
2014 prompted military intervention by the United States and its allies,
which since September 2014 have carried out air strikes on Islamist
positions in Syria . On September 30, 2015, in agreement with President
Bashar al-Assad, the military operation in Syria was launched by the Air
Force of the Russian Federation, acting in close coordination with
government troops.
According to the UN, by 2015, about 220,000 people had died in the
conflict. The war was one of the main causes of the European migration
crisis, causing a mass exodus of refugees from Syria. The conflict is
characterized by fierce fighting, indiscriminate shelling of
settlements, mass killings and numerous war crimes against civilians,
and the country’s economy and infrastructure have suffered enormous
damage. And in this bloody meat grinder there was a place for
anarchists.
The International Freedom Battalion, usually abbreviated IFB or EĂ–T, is
an armed group of left-wing foreign volunteers fighting on the side of
Kurdish People’s Self-Defense Forces in the Syrian civil war in support
of the Rosary Revolution and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
The formation of the International Freedom Battalion was announced on
June 10, 2015. The International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War
became an inspiration for the fighters. Although the participants
represent different political views, most are anarchists.
The Rojava Autonomous Region, as it exists today, is one of the few
bright spots between the dictatorial regime of Assad and ISIS. By
ousting supporters of the Assad regime in 2011 and despite the hostility
of virtually all of its neighbors, Rozawa not only retains its
independence but is the most democratic country in terms of dictatorial
neighbors. Although Rozawa itself is a full-fledged state with a police
force, where the Kurdistan Workers’ Party is the main decision-making
body, people’s assemblies are developing on the ground. Councils and the
people’s militia were also formed, and part of the means of production
came under the control of self-governing workers’ cooperatives, despite
constant attacks by the far-right forces of the Islamic State. Although
the Kurds are not without flaws, they are extremely progressive,
especially against the background of the surrounding cannibalistic
dictatorships. For example, there is a quota for women. Their number in
the councils should be at least 40 percent, but sometimes more. The
economic situation is very difficult due to the general crisis related
to the war and the fact that much of Kurdistan is in a resource-poor
desert.
The council, for example, may oblige the store owner not to overcharge
if there is a complaint from residents. About 20% of the economy is in
the hands of self-government. And because of the general economic and
military crisis in the region, the issue of unemployment is very acute,
workers in cooperatives from time to time alternate to give others the
opportunity to earn and at the same time learn to bake or sew in a
sewing cooperative and cafeteria. Employees divide wages equally. Part
of the earnings is left to the development of the enterprise (purchase
of fabrics or products, payment for electricity). All issues related to
production and its development, as well as the team, are decided by a
vote of workers. The activities of cooperatives are coordinated by
councils. The main economic activity in Rozava is agriculture. In the
1990s, the regime’s current policies denied the Kurds as part of the
Syrians. The Kurds were “banned” from citizenship, losing their right to
their own home or land. After that, the Arabs were sent to colonize the
lands taken from the Kurds. So these people got big chunks of land. When
the Syrian civil war broke out, they sided with the regime or fled Syria
altogether. Thus, their former large plots of land were distributed
among cooperatives and began to be managed directly by collectives.
Refugees who need work usually go to these cooperatives and work there.
Agricultural goods are used directly by the commune as a kind of social
assistance, so that all poor people can come to the community and say:
“I have no food” and get it, which is why no one dies of starvation in
Rozava.
It should be noted that the principle of decision-making together and on
the basis of mutual assistance is one of the keys to survival in
difficult conditions.
All this has attracted the attention of anarchists from around the
world. International groups of anarchists are not only fighting the
Kurds, but are also actively promoting their ideas among the population.
However, as many foreign Kurdish volunteers say and have a high level of
political education, many have freely quoted Proudhon, Bakunin and
Murray Bukchin. As one social activist who visited Kurdistan mentioned:
“We were invited to the young apologists, very zealous young girls and
boys. Anarchists from different countries were also guests: Germans,
Spaniards, Americans. And due to the fact that the guy, who knew Kurdish
and English well, did not come immediately, but everyone wanted to
communicate, drawings, diagrams, visual aids from the material at hand
were in progress. We talked about the ways to build a better future.
Argued, argued. But it was a friendly dispute and a very warm
atmosphere. One of the young apologists began to show on a box of
cookies the superiority of mutual aid over individualism. The capitalist
will try to take the whole box, at best, will leave some crumbs to
others. And the anarchist will share so that everyone has enough, and
everyone will be satisfied. And as the cookies were real and edible, the
advantage of this approach was obvious. When the anarchist, who could
translate well into English, came, the discussion intensified. I caught
myself thinking that this is a kind of fantasy: the Middle East, the war
of all against all, and here are people from different countries sitting
and discussing how to change the world together, share their ideas. And
everyone is trying to understand each other. ”
One of the anarchists fighting in the ranks of internationalists
described the role and prospects of anarchists’ participation in the
conflict as follows:
“From an anarchist’s point of view, this is not an anarchist revolution.
There are elements of the ideology of anarchism, at least that’s very
good. But this does not mean that we should not support a revolutionary
process in which the participants are not 100% anarchists. But also we
should not be fools and think: “Oh, this is the new Spain of the
36^(th), the new Spanish Revolution”, No, this is not the case. The
Kurdish movement is not the CNT or the FAI. It has many specific
features similar to anarchism, but they do not come from the ideology of
anarchism, but from local, old traditions. You know, we have to work on
this and not be fools. When you blindly support something and then
something goes wrong, you are very disappointed. In such cases,
excessive optimism leads to disappointment, so you need to be a little
pragmatic and see the whole picture. But I think this is still the only
place in the world where we see a real revolution happening, and it is
really interesting for every revolutionary to see and study this
revolution, its experience, to learn what works and what doesn’t. The
last time anarchists took part in the revolution was about 60 or 70
years ago. Since then, everything has changed: the world, the way it
works, the economy, the people, etc. We have an idea only from our
previous experience of what works and what does not, but much has
changed. For example, economics. Now it’s all over the world, if you’re
starting a revolution in a region, you have to think about how to
provide people with everything they need, and it’s not like in the past.
Or look at the war. Example: a plane changed the face of war. Now it is
not enough to have a rifle to defend the revolution in your territory,
as it was during the revolution in Spain. On the other hand, the
revolution in Spain was shattered by the onslaught of large numbers of
troops: a tactic that is unlikely to work in the current environment.
The accuracy of aircraft today is insane. Drones can use dynamite
instead of guerrillas, etc. It is very important for us to study this
experience in order to draw the right conclusion: the way of
organization, the way of protection, the process of spreading our
ideals, what we will offer to people. As I can tell from my experience,
there is something to think about in order to be able to create your own
organization in the future to carry out a revolution. ”
Through active participation in this armed conflict, anarchists gain
valuable experience in modern warfare. We must also mention the tragic
aspect of the return of anarchists to arms. Since 2012, at least a dozen
of our like-minded people, and possibly several dozen, have died on the
fields of the Syrian war. Such necessary experience is given by
anarchists at a high price. On the other hand, the success of our
comrades cannot fail to inspire. The war continues, and we want to hope
that in the end the ideas of direct democracy will win.