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Title: Rojava: Fantasies and Realities Author: Zafer Onat Date: November 8th, 2014 Language: en Topics: Rojava, critique Source: Retrieved on 16th August 2020 from https://www.anarkismo.net/article/27575
The Kobane resistance that has passed its 45^(th) day as of now has
caused the attention of revolutionaries all over the world to turn to
Rojava. As a result of the work carried out by Revolutionary Anarchist
Action, anarchist comrades from many parts of the world have sent
messages of solidarity to the Kobane resistance.[1] This
internationalist stance without a doubt carries great importance for the
people resisting in Kobane. However if we do not analyze what is
happening in all its truth and if we romanticize instead, our dreams
will turn to disappointment in short order.
Furthermore, in order to create the worldwide revolutionary alternative
that is urgently needed, we must be cool-headed and realistic, and we
have to make correct assessments. On this point let us mention in
passing that these solidarity messages that have been sent on the
occasion of the Kobane resistance demonstrate the urgency of the task of
creating an international association where revolutionary anarchists and
libertarian communists can discuss local and global issues and be in
solidarity during struggles. We have felt the lack of such an
international during the last four years when many social upheavals took
place in many parts of the world — we at least felt this need during the
uprising that took place in June 2013 in Turkey.
Today however we must discuss Rojava without illusions and base our
analyses on the right axis. It is not very easy for a person to evaluate
the developments that happen within the time frame they live in
according only to what they see in that moment. Evidently, assessments
made with minds clouded with feelings of being cornered and despair make
it even harder for us to produce healthy answers.
Nowhere on the world today exists an effective revolutionary movement in
our sense of the term or a strong class movement that can be a precursor
of such a movement. The struggles that do emerge fade either through
being violently repressed or by being drawn in to the system. It seems
that because of this, just as in the case of an important part of
Marxists and anarchists in Turkey, revolutionary organizations and
individuals in various parts of the world are imbuing a meaning to the
structure that has emerged in Rojava that is beyond its reality. Before
all else, it is unfair for us to load the burden of our failure to
create a revolutionary alternative in places we live and the fact that
social opposition is largely co-opted in to the system on to the
shoulders of the persons struggling in Rojava. That Rojava, where the
economy is to a large extent agricultural, and is surrounded by
imperialist blocs led on the one hand by Russia and on the other hand by
the USA, repressive, reactionary and collaborator regimes in the area
and brutal jihadist organizations like ISIS which have thrived in this
environment. In that sense, it is equally problematic to attribute a
mission to Rojava that is beyond what it is or what it can be or to
blame those people engaged in a life and death struggle for expecting
support from Coalition forces or not carrying out “a revolution to our
liking”.
First of all we must identify that the Rojava process has progressive
features such as an important leap in the direction of women’s
liberation, that a secular, pro-social justice, pluralist democratic
structure is attempted to be constructed and that other ethnic and
religious groups are given a part in the administration. However, the
fact that the newly emerging structure does not aim at the elimination
of private property, that is the abolition of classes, that the tribal
system remains and that tribal leaders partake in the administration
shows that the aim is not the removal of feudal or capitalist relations
of production but is instead in their own words “the construction of a
democratic nation”.
We must also remember that the PYD is a part of the political structure
led by Abdullah Ocalan for 35 years which aims at national liberation
and the political limitations that all nationally oriented movements
have apply to the PYD as well. Furthermore, the influence of elements
that belong to the ruling class inside of the Kurdish movement is
constantly increasing with the “solution process”, especially in Turkey.
On this point, it is helpful to examine the KCK Contract that defines
the democratic confederalism that forms the basis of the political
system in Rojava.[2] A few points in the introduction written by Ocalan
deserve our attention:
“This system is one that takes into account ethnic, religious and class
differences on a social basis.” (..) “Three systems of law will apply in
Kurdistan: EU law, unitary state law, democratic confederal law.”
In summary, it is stated that class society will remain and there will
be a federal political system compatible with the global system and the
nation state. In concert with this, article 8 of the Contract, titled
“Personal, Political Rights and Freedoms” defends private property and
section C of article 10 titled “Basic Responsibilities” defines the
constitutional basis of mandatory military service as it states “In the
case of a war of legitimate defense, as a requirement of patriotism,
there is the responsibility to actively join the defense of the homeland
and basic rights and freedoms.” While the Contract states that the aim
is not political power, we also understand that the destruction of the
state apparatus is also not aimed, meaning the goal is autonomy within
existing nation states. When the Contract is viewed in its entirety, the
goal that is presented is seen not to be beyond a bourgeois democratic
system that is called democratic confederalism. To summarize, while the
photos of two women bearing rifles that are frequently spred on social
media, one taken in the Spanish Civil War, the other taken in Rojava do
correspond to a similarity in the sense of women fighting for their
freedoms, it is clear that the persons fighting ISIS in Rojava do not at
this point have the same goals and ideals as the workers and poor
peasants that fought within the CNT-FAI in order to remove the state and
private property altogether. Furthermore, there are serious differences
between the two processes in terms of conditions of emergence, the class
positions of their subjects, the political lines of those running the
process and the strength of the revolutionary movement worldwide.
In this situation, we must neither be surprised by, nor blame the PYD if
they are forced to abandon even their current position, in order to
found an alliance with regional and global powers to break the ISIS
siege. We cannot expect persons struggling in Kobane to abolish the
world scale hegemony of capitalism or to resist this hegemony for long.
This task can only be realized by a strong worldwide class movement and
revolutionary alternative.
Capitalism is in a crisis at the global level and imperialists who are
trying to transcend this crisis by exporting war to every corner of the
world, together with policies of repressive regimes in the region have
turned Syria and Iraq into a living hell. Under conditions where a
revolutionary alternative is not in existence, the social uprising that
emerged in Ukraine against the pro-Russian and corrupt government
resulted in fascist-backed pro-EU forces coming to power and the war
between two imperialist camps continues. Racism and fascism is rising
fast in European countries. In Turkey, political crises come one after
the other and the ethnic and sectarian division in society is deepening.
While under these circumstances, Rojava may appear as a lifeline to hold
on to, we must consider that beyond the military siege of ISIS, Rojava
is also under the political siege of forces like Turkey, Barzani and the
Free Syrian Army. As long as Rojava is not backed by a worldwide
revolutionary alternative for it to rest upon, it seems that it will not
be easy for Rojava to maintain even its current position in the long
run.
The path not only to defend Rojava physically and politically and to
carry it further lies in creating a class based grounds for organizing
and struggle, and a related strong and globally organized revolutionary
alternative. The same applies for preventing the atmosphere of ethnic,
religious and sectarian conflict that draws the peoples of the region
further in by each passing day, and preventing laborers from sliding
into right-wing radicalism in the face of capitalism’s world level
crisis. Solidarity with Kobane, while important is insufficient. Beyond
this, we need to see that discussing what needs to be done to create a
revolutionary process, and organizing for this at the international
level everywhere we are is imperative not only for those resisting in
Kobane but millions of laborers all over the world.
[1] http://meydangazetesi.org/gundem/2014/10/dunya-anarsistlerinden-kobane-dayanismasi/
[2] http://tr.wikisource.org/wiki/KCK_S%C3%B6zle%C5%9Fmesi