(en) Anarkismo.net: Kurdistan and the Paris Commune (ca)

This week we commemorate two notable events. March 18 marks the anniversary of the Paris 
Commune of 1871 and March 21 is the Newroz, the Kurdish New Year. These two seemingly 
unrelated events between them, have certain things in common. ---- The Newroz is a 
celebration that commemorates the arrival of spring or as Kurdish mythology recalls the 
liberation from the yoke of the tyrant Zohak after a revolt led by a blacksmith named 
Kawa. Assumed in a time of restatement Kurdistan national and manifests itself in the many 
mobilizations throughout the country. These days the people take to the streets and demand 
freedom. ---- Like other unrecognized villages and oppressed of the world, the Kurdish 
struggle for recognition of their language, their culture, their identity and their social 
organization.

Faced with this system at whose center is the capital and serving as denier of difference 
and the idiosyncrasies of the people, claimed the right to decide their destiny and 
develop freely. This oppressed people refuse to surrender. From time-honored resists 
against the occupiers and their attempts to make it disappear have been in vain. Today, 
despite the difficulty of the historical situation and the increased pressure of 
capitalism, both through economic blackmail, as with direct military interventions, the 
Kurds still struggling and trying new ways of organization.

Throughout history, this ancient nation has been a crossroads of many civilizations. It is 
located at the intersection of culture Turkish, Persian, Arabic and cultures of the 
peoples of the Caucasus. Forty million people occupy a vast area of ??500,000 square 
kilometers with large water reservoirs and important raw materials for the industrial 
development of the region and of our system.

The last decades have been harsh repression: killings, torture, prisoners, missing or in 
exile, and millions of displaced refugees, and thousands of villages destroyed. So 
contemporary history is written in this cruel system we live.

http://www.anarkismo.net/article/25185

However, after decades of armed struggle within the Kurdish liberation movement have made 
a thorough analysis and today opt for a model that derives its strength from the people 
and not of globalization based on nation states. In part forced by repression and 
occupation, but especially to find ways to develop an alternative system to capitalism, 
proposed a system of social organization in which communities are those who talk, discuss 
and take independent decisions. Neither capitalism nor the pressure of imperialist forces 
will be leading the people to democracy, relate. In this new jump, do not interpret the 
right to self-determination to establish a nation-state, but for the development of 
democracy itself despite political boundaries. The idea is to create a federation of the 
Kurds in Iran, Turkey, Syria and Iraq, regardless of borders and state taxes.

They begin to develop assemblies of the people, of the town and the city and establish a 
general organization supranational character and sometimes lawless or illegal, which 
encompasses the citizens of four states in the Koma Civak?n called Kurdistan (KCK), Union 
Communities of Kurdistan, which began from 2005. It also established various councils and 
special emphasis on women's and youth. The goal is, by his own definition, "to create a 
society based on principles of Kurdistan radical democracy that lives according to social 
democratic confederalism elements and is organized democratically based on gender equality 
and environmental awareness."

It is in these organizational forms that will reflect previous historical experiences such 
as the Paris Commune. In 1871 the people of Paris established what has been called the 
first historical experience of a proletarian government. From 18 March to 28 May, the 
people of Paris seized power and created a communal structure to exercise popular power 
from below: local assemblies neighborhoods, villages, self-management of factories 
abandoned by their owners, etc. It was a way to transition to the abolition of the state 
as such. Through these organizational structures were established strong measures in favor 
of the working class and peasant and women's rights. Also in other cities of France were 
formed communes as in Marseille and Lyon. But the great European capital, seeing their 
status questioned, made a great effort to address the popular uprising. After crushing, 
30,000 Communards were killed by the bourgeois government.

Other historical experiences later retook these practices as the Soviets in Russia in 
1917, or the communities of Aragon in 1937, today or communal councils and communes in 
Bolivarian Venezuela, considered basic organs of popular power development. And the Kurds 
in turn, also wants to show that there are alternatives to this outdated capitalist system.

This attempt has been associated with the so-called Kurdish libertarian municipalism 
developed among others by the anarchist Murray Bookchin and Kurdish organizations 
themselves recognize this. In one way or another, the truth is that this attempt by the 
Kurds novedos received only repression and imprisonment as a response from the states. 
However, this strategy is also bearing fruit and states are forced to negotiate. The 
organization continues and disobedience increases. Like when rebellions have spread style 
of the Intifada, as serhildan (uprising), multiply the resistance today. And the Kurds 
have the force of reason and hope that the wind blows in your favor. It's time to give our 
full support. The exchange and solidarity between peoples is essential. Your experience 
may serve as a model and our struggles can be an example for other nations. As Che said: 
"Solidarity is the tenderness between peoples." Do not lose it.