#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #SPAIN #ANARCHISM #LIBRARY #News #Journal #Update - (en) #Spain, CNT #431: The Kurdish Long March. Walking towards the future by José Manuel (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 In early February, the Long March to Strasbourg for the freedom of Ocallan, who

has been imprisoned since 1999 on the prison island of Imrali, took place. It was
attended by Kurds from the diaspora and supporters of their cause, especially
from Germany, France and Switzerland. The origin of this march dates back to
1984, the year in which it was first held as a march for the liberation of the
Kurdish people. There, the nickname Apo was coined, as a diminutive, to refer to
Abdullah Ocallan ---- The Long March, beyond claiming Ocallan's freedom, which is
a symbol of the Kurdish struggle, is a proclamation to the world of that
revolution is possible. ---- Since 2019, his team of lawyers has not been able to
see Ocallan, given the bureaucratic obstacles that the Turkish government
imposes. The isolation to which they have subjected this person gives an idea of
the caliber that the mobilization of the Kurdish population has for the Turkish
state.

Until a few years ago in these parts, the Kurdish movement was considered one
more national liberation movement of the many that emerged in the 70s and 80s. In
fact, that was how it was originally. However, after Ocallan's imprisonment, the
PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) and sponsored by the leader himself from prison,
experienced a shift towards Democratic Confederalism, abandoning the Marxism that
it had used until then. In few and reductionist words, Democratic Confederalism
defends that the liberation of society has to begin with the liberation of women
from patriarchy and that, far from the State being a solution for the people,
this is a problem, for which it is committed by the confederation from below of
communes, organized from popular assemblies.

This, at least, is how Democratic Confederalism has taken practical form in
Rojava, one of the four parts into which historical Kurdistan is divided (Rojava,
in Syria; Bakur in Turkey; Basur in Iraq and Rojhilat in Iran, according to
denomination). geographic West-North-South-East). With the outbreak of the Syrian
civil war and the appearance of ISIS, faced with a power vacuum, the Kurds of
Rojava, organized through the PYD and a constellation of associations of all
kinds, among which Kongra STAR stands out, launched to carry out the practice of
its anti-patriarchal, radical democratic and eco-socialist revolutionary project,
counting on all the ethnic minorities of the area; they formed militias, the
mixed YPG and the female YPJ to confront and, ultimately, corner Daesh, gave
shelter to the massacred Yazidis in northern Iraq or founded a new version of
sociology, Jineology or Women's Science.

The organizational experiment started in Rojava to circumvent the state model is
based on popular councils. It is an organization from the bottom up that begins
with the village or even street councils, the municipality and the canton (in
principle Rojava was configured in three cantons -Afrin, Kobane and Cizire-) to
end in a kind of plenary, since From each council, two mandatory delegates are
elected (one woman and one man) who go to the higher instance. Given the ethnic
configuration of the area and expressly fleeing from the cultural monolithism
congenital to the State form, there is a system of quotas by ethnic group for
participation in council assemblies, thus minority ethnic groups are guaranteed a
minimum participation of 10%. . While the liberation of women is a non-negotiable
principle of the movement, this organizational model is twofold: there are mixed
councils and exclusively female councils at all levels of this democratic
self-administration. And so each level has a male and female co-presidency.
Today, beyond Rojava, the KCK and the KJK (female) bring together all the
democratic confederalist organizations.

The economic model is based on the formation of cooperatives, and aims to recover
a non-commercial, self-managed, local economy that is as self-sufficient as possible.

In those circumstances (2015) the media focus fell on what was happening in
Rojava, also given the tactical collaboration with the US in the fight against
Islamofascism, while the sights of a part of the Western revolutionary militancy
did so, mainly the libertarian , given the coincidences of the approaches and
experiences and the express call of its protagonist to the world "democratic"
movements.

Not only did they receive sympathy and moral support from the so-called West, but
also many people decided to join them by showing up there, despite the
difficulties, either to fight in the militias or to offer them logistical or
training support. One of the initiatives that has stood out the most in this
regard is the creation of the Internationalist Commune, which brings together
people from various countries willing to contribute in practice on the ground.
CNT published in 2019 the book "Make Rojava Green Again", which tells it in more
depth. In this book, it should be underlined because political analysis and
information tends to predominate in what comes from Rojava, notions of the
economic model are presented that, based on the formation of cooperatives, intend
to recover a non-commercial, self-managed economy, of proximity and as
self-sufficient as possible, based on knowledge of the environment in which it
develops and abandoning extractivist approaches. This, even with all the
difficulties and obstacles imaginable and being, as it is, Rojava, the area of
Syria with the most oil wells.

With Daesh cornered, the project is attacked by the Turkish state that conquers,
with the support of Islamist militias, one of the three cantons in which Rojava
had been configured, that of Afrin, in 2018. Since then, constant violations of
human rights have been reported in that area, including the use of chemical
weapons, in particular white phosphorous, for which Rojava is requesting an
international investigation. In addition, the area is under embargo. Meanwhile,
the Rojavís try to maintain control over the Islamist control camps that in
recent times are managing to escape, which may lead to a resurgence of the
never-extinct Daesh. In this area, and despite the fact that the United States
withdrew its troops from the area during Trump's time, there are still American
contingents that help the Kurds in this thankless task.

The organizational experiment started in Rojava to circumvent the state model is
based on popular councils

In other areas of Kurdistan the population is still under the boot of the States;
thus in Iran arrests are reported while in Turkey members of the HDP political
party that unites the Kurdish left and part of the Turkish are imprisoned or
their populations suffer oppression (especially in 2017, the year in which
several municipalities opted to proclaim autonomy democratic). Autonomous Iraqi
Kurdistan is politically dominated by Barzani's party.

There are several attempts by the Kurdish movement to find support, among others
for the EU to remove the PKK from the list of terrorist organizations, for which
there has recently been a signature campaign. Also part of the parliamentary left
both in the European parliament and in national parliaments such as the Swedish
have denounced Turkey's attitude or have requested a review of the status of the
PKK; ERC and Bildu tabled a parliamentary question on HDP MP Aysul Tugluk ill and
imprisoned in Turkey. However, the attitude of the European governments that have
a preferred partner in Turkey is not likely to make Erdogan uncomfortable. Thus,
impediments are found and recently a Spanish activist, María, was even expelled
from Germany, especially linked by economic ties to Turkey, for carrying out
activities in support of Kurdistan. Currently there is a campaign in favor of her.

In fact, the celebration of the long march has not gone smoothly. There were
detentions of activists at the borders of the passing countries and even when
passing through Germany the usual display of Ocallan's image and even the
exclamation of his name was expressly prohibited.

https://www.cnt.es/noticias/la-larga-marcha-kurda-caminando-hacia-el-futuro/
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