Newsletter #15: In times of war

[raw]



[/raw]

Newsletter #15: In times of war – Internationalist Commune and
Make Rojava Green Again

Dear friends and comrades,

First of all, we want to apologize that we didn’t manage to write anything in the past 10 days, since the beginning of the war. We had known, that this war would come one day, but how can you ever be prepared for war?

Dear friends, we write to you in difficult times; thus, this newsletter won’t be a normal one. But it is still important to share a few things with you, to show you what gives us strength and to inform you what you can do to stop this war.

1. First of all, we want to share with you some thoughts about the current political situation, and about the resistance in Rojava and around the world.

2. Secondly, we would like to share some very important statements from organizations, that are worth reading.

3. And because many people have asked us, what our situation is, what kind of work we are doing, what the situation of our ecological work is, we want to give you a short update about us, the Internationalist Commune and

4. about the campaign Make Rojava Green Again

5. International campaign #RiseUp4Rojava

6. Lastly, but most importantly, we want to invite you to join our struggle – hence we will share with you, what YOU can do!

We hope that all of you are fine. And we want to send our greetings to the friends all around the world that are on the streets every day to defend the revolution in Rojava and therefore, defending the dream of a free life!

1. Current Situation – Heavy attacks and historical resistance of Rojava

For 10 days now, the fascist Turkish army and its Islamist mercenaries are attacking the free land of Rojava. Heavy attacks against the cities of Kobanê, Serêkaniyê, Qamişlo, Dêrik, Tirbespiyê, Dirbêsiyê, Amûde, Girê Spî and Ain Issa and many more villages have taken place. So far, dozens of civilians have been murdered by the attacks and countless more injured are in hospitals. Civilians fell victim to Turkish air strikes as they tried to flee the fighting areas, and fundamental sources of electricity, water and food have been targeted. In Serêkaniyê, Turkish war planes even bombed hospitals and other medical facilities. The Turkish state knows that the civilian population of North Syria will not leave; they will stay, and if they do so Turkey will have no chance. Thus, they try to destroy basic services to force the people to leave.

On October 13th, SDF forces and the Syrian regime agreed to secure the border of Rojava / Syria together. Regime troops were deployed into areas of Minbij, Heseke and Topca. It is important to mention, that this agreement is not affecting the political autonomous structure of the federation. To put this development into a strategic context, the Internationalist Commune has written a statement regarding this agreement between the self-administration and the Syrian state

After nine days of heavy attacks, but an even greater resistance of the SDF and the local population, especially in Serêkaniyê, a ceasefire was agreed between the US and the Turkish state, but this has not been put into practice by the Turkish state until now. Since the very beginning of the announcement by the US, a war to influence the public opinion has begun regarding the interpretation of the ceasefire. With a statement, the international campaign RiseUp4Rojava made it clear, that this ceasefire doesn’t mean that the SDF will retreat from their positions, and it is also not affecting other parts of Rojava. Furthermore, we should increase our resistance, especially due to the fact, that the war still continues in areas covered by the ceasefire agreement.

For more information about the political situation, the resistance in Rojava and around the world, we recommend to follow the social media accounts (twitter and Facebook) as well as the websites of the Rojava Information Center, the campaign RiseUp4Rojava and Women Defend Rojava.

2. Statements from organizations:

Many organizations and initiatives have made statements, condemning the attacks of the Turkish state. We cannot share all of them with you, but the following ones are important examples:

* Internationalist Commune: “Day X – The moment has come”

* Make Rojava Green Again: “Facing the war”

* Fridays for Future Rojava: “We need your support – Open letter by Fridays for Future Rojava”

* Kongra Star: “Call out against Turkish occupation of NE-Syria”

We kindly ask you to share these statements with your friends and comrades.

3. The Internationalist Commune – “Resistance Diaries”

Like many other institutions of the Democratic Federation, we, as the Internationalist Commune, had to leave the Internationalist Academy close to the city of Derik, as well, in order to find safer places for our work. As already done in the case of previous threats of an attack as well as during the initial phase of the war in Afrin, we as internationalists from the Commune, have the responsibility to put all our capacities into media work in order to report firsthand from the ground. Therefore, one of our teams is on the road, trying to cover the resistance of the people and to share feelings and thoughts with the public outside of Rojava. In our regular “Resistance Diaries” we published videos about demonstrations against the war in Derik, about the funerals of the first Martyrs who fell in the resistance against the fascist invasion and about the youth of Rojava, which is committed to defend their land.

But we also give political analysis on the situation and to be part of organizing the worldwide resistance of Rojava.

4. Make Rojava Green Again

Due to the current situation, we have not managed to continue with our ecological work. But the campaign Make Rojava Green Again has become an international campaign in the last month and is now taking the important responsibility to connect to other ecological movements and organizations in the defense of the revolution. One day after the war started, we talked to members of the FridaysForFuture group in Rojava, and recorded a statement, which calls for global solidarity. Together with the local FridaysForFuture groups in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Iran and the US, we are discussing the role of the new and young climate movement in this defense. On Thursday, more then 100 local FridaysForFuture groups signed a statement of solidarity with Rojava and went to the streets on Friday to make a global #FridaysForPeace strike. A summary of all the actions that took place can be found on ANF-News.

Even if we don’t have the possibilities to continue with our practical ecological work on the ground, we still appreciate donations, since we need money for our media work, and we believe that the day will come to plant trees again.

5. RiseUp4Rojava – organizing the resistance around the world

The campaign RiseUp4Rojava, which was initiated by the Internationalist Commune together with many groups around the beginning of this year, has become an important part in organizing the resistance against Turkish fascism. Besides local demonstrations, protest events, and donation campaigns, by the Kurdish community and other solidarity structures, we are mobilizing for central demonstrations in almost 20 countries, in more than 40 cities today, 19thof October.

21th till the 26th October – “No Flights to Turkey”

To defend the revolution by all means, we have to take it to the streets to demonstrate. But because the war against Rojava, as it is agreed upon in Europe, supported by weapons and the infrastructure from European companies, we also have to disrupt, block and occupy these companies and financial institutions which support Turkish fascism militarily or financially. Thus, we call to block the counters of Turkish Airlines and Pegasus in your city airports. Economic damage is an important tool against the fascist Erdogan regime.

2nd November – “World Resistance Day for Rojava”

And, we call upon you to make 2nd November a “World Resistance Day for Rojava”. To show the power and the strength of this international movement to defend Rojava, by gathering everyone in nationwide demonstrations. If the world does not act to stop this war, we have to stop this world!

6. What you can do:

* Get organized: join a local solidarity group in your city or town. If there is no such group, gather the people who care about Rojava and want to become a part of its defense and connect to other local activists and community groups (feminist, ecological, refugee solidarity, queer, leftist, anarchist, communist, anti-colonialist, non-violent, religious communities…)

* Take it to the streets: join the demonstrations that are taking place. Show our anger and pain. But also show our hope and will and that those will be unbroken, like the will of the people in Rojava who are resisting every day.

* Mobilize your group, community and neighbors for the “World Resistance Day for Rojava”. You will find the poster and the call for that attached in different languages soon on the website of riseup4rojava.

* Take action against the weapon industry: Countries like Norway decided to stop the arms-trade with Turkey. But most of the European states and the US, are still delivering the weapons, with which our comrades and civilians are being massacred. We have to stop this trade. The weapon industry trading with Turkey, is everywhere in our countries, cities and villages. You can find the information about the biggest traders and a map of their locations on riseup4rojava.org.

* “No Flights to Turkey” between the 21th and 26th October: Take actions against Turkish Airlines and Pegasus. You can use the leaflet to mobilize for an action like that, it can be changed for your city. You can download the editable document here. It is really important to block the counters to reach our goal in these actions, so that the flights cannot take off. That needs coordination with the dates and times of the Turkish Airline and Pegasus flights at your international airport.

* Put pressure on our politicians: Call, write to and visit your local members of parliament and ask for their positions on the war in Rojava. Make clear, that the majority of the people are against this invasion.

* Use all your contacts with media to cover the situation. If media is interested to talk to people in Rojava, contact us.

* Take pictures from any action and send them to [email protected]. By collecting all the pictures from around the world we can show, that the movement defending the Rojava revolution is a global movement.

* Donations are needed: You can send donations to the Kurdish Red Crescent, the Make Rojava Green Again campaign, and to the Internationalist Commune.

Dear friends, we don’t know for how long we will be able to do this work here with electricity and internet. We will try to stay in contact with you as long as we can. And even as we stand against the second largest NATO army including thousands of islamist gang members who want to destroy this revolution, we know that millions of people all over the world are standing behind us, behind the people in Rojava and are ready to defend this revolution.

So, let’s together rise up for Rojava!

Scroll to Top