The most left wing political territory in the world, according to some: the Democratic Administration of North East Syria (DAANES), known colloquially by the Kurdish name Rojava, is under threat of being totally destroyed.
DAANES is a Kurdish-led political experiment which sprung up during the Syrian civil war (2011+), based on direct democracy and inspired by the teachings of the imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan, who was in turn inspired by the American scholar-activist Murray Bookchin, who pioneered a system of thought and action known as social ecology: a synthesis of Marxism, anarchism and deep ecological sensibilities, otherwise definable as a deeply ecologically integrated kind of libertarian socialism or social anarchism.
In this time of global disorder and what seems to be the irrevocable albeit currently slow Collapse of modern civilization, with far right ideologies and groups gaining ground globally, fed, as in the 1930s, by economic crisis and the horrific and increasing gap between the richest and the poorest, but this time exacerbated by an underlying ecological overshoot (including the climate crisis), and lubricated by an internet that knows no sense, so that the far right may pop up in any society, at any time, the Rojava experiment is to many leftists an excruciatingly rare beacon of hope and revolutionary action. The fact that it could soon end, is deeply tragic.
I think I did not realise, until yesterday, that just knowing in the back of my mind that Rojava existed, was an ongoing source of strength to me, and an orientation point for how populations can organise in times of Collapse, for the collapse of Syria from 2011 was in a sense a microcosm and reflection of the broader Collapse that is underway globally. I have not been involved in any Kurdish solidarity activism for many years, but I remember with gratitude how my brief involvement with the Kurdish Solidarity Network in the UK led to a longer-lasting and more profound (online) link with the Institute for Social Ecology based in Vermont in the U.S., cofounded by Murray Bookchin, that autodidactical heavyweight mentioned above.
The Kurdish revolution was not perfect, of course; was an ongoing struggle, and there are of course links, I have it from good sources, between sections of the Kurdish SDF forces (Syrian Democratic Forces: the military arm of DAANES / Rojava) in Syria and the PKK in Turkey and Iraq, despite negations of this on the ground. The PKK, classed as freedom fighters by some, and terrorists by others. After speaking to many Turkish students of English in my teaching job, I now have a less than rosy picture of the PKK, if rosy it ever was. This complicates my support of Rojava and makes it equivocal, even to myself. Moreover, since the anti-Semitism of Ocalan has emerged, reflecting anti-Semitism in Turkish-Kurdish society (and my wife is Jewish) this support has become even more equivocal. Yet a strong kernel of support remains.
I am not extremely well-versed in the politics of the Middle East, but my understanding of the situation, which I think is workable enough, is that the Kurds in NE Syria are currently being betrayed by the HTS-led Syrian government which contains jihadist (by which I mean extreme Islamist) elements. This current Syrian government (still a new government) had promised some kind of peace deal with DAANES in the north, or at least specifically with the SDF. The SDF were to be integrated with the national Syrian army. This is despite some all-female units in the SDF -the famous ISIS-bashing YPJ units- declaring their wish to remain independent from the Syrian army.
Yet, any agreement has now been breached, and any ceasefire broken. Syrian government forces are currently claiming back land from the Kurds in a lightning offensive, with no intention, it seems, of preserving those radically democratic institutions. There have been military clashes and deaths. Moreover, the escape of ISIS prisoners from previously Kurdish-run prisons is being facilitated or at least not stopped, by the national Syrian forces. Those same ISIS members whom the Kurds in Rojava so courageously defeated in the mid 2010s, at which time America and its allies were happy to help -but no more.
One of the most inspiring things about the Rojava experiment has been the incredibly high level of gender equality aspired to, in line with radical direct democracy, including mix-gendered co-chairs of democratic assemblies, from the street level to the regional level, and special womens assemblies and other womens groups to advance feminism in the DAANES region. This level of gender equality is otherwise unheard of, in the Middle East, and surpasses even many Western countries` practices of gender equality. With images circulating on social media of Syrian government-aligned forces mocking the captured female soldiers of the YPJ, and one particularly horrible video of a man mocking a dead woman by holding up a braid cut from her head, the conflict between the patriarchal, Western state-recognised new government of Syria, and the radically left wing, feminist political project led by an ethnic minority in the region, could not be more stark, failures of the revolution notwithstanding.
It is warming to see the calls to international activists coming out from Rojava now, and the response of the so-called Kobane caravan, which is a movement of people from all over the world now travelling to Kobane (a key Kurdish city within DAANES) to help militarily defend Rojava. I have my own life plan to advance libertarian socialist and feminist politics, and although I will not be travelling to Kobane to put my life on the line, the least I can do is raise awareness about what is happening there. It would be pointless for me to exclaim DEFEND ROJAVA! on this little blog, although of course we should defend Rojava, first of all in our minds. But this is just a beginning for me. A trying-to-make-sense of what is happening. I hear that the Kurdish citizens of Rojava are mobilising with weapons like never before, surpassing even the mobilisation of the 2010s, and Kurds from the wider Kurdistan region are trying to get to the DAANES territory to help. Alongside the Kobane caravan, I wish them every success in defending Rojava. Please share this with anyone who may be interested, and for updates visit the Rojava Information Center here: https://rojavainformationcenter.org/
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