In 2014, when David Graeber and others began claiming that a genuine anti-capitalist revolution was occurring in Syrian Kurdistan, the healthy reaction was scepticism. After all, the initiators of this revolution, the PKK, had a long history of Stalinist politics and brutal repression.[1]
Today the evidence is building up that, unfortunately, the sceptics were right. For example this article - apparently by an anarchist living in Rojava - claims both that the PKK ‘seized power’ and that most of the people in the Rojavan government are from outside Syria.[2]
6. The extent to which the Rojava regime relies on its alliance with US imperialism is shown in this map. Even though the US has allowed its main ally in region, Turkey, to bomb the PKK, the Rojavan authorities are still begging for more US support. As the commander of the Rojavan militia says: 
Anarchists are prone to depression, I see.
While I am happy that libcom is linking to the website I maintain, I am deeply unhappy that the whole original message of this article says:
Let me tell you what I see in Rojava. I see a social system in the making. I see a situation that can be changed by contribution, not by detached judgment. I see an opening and a learning situation for everybody who thinks of any social revolution.
I would never expect anarchists, revolutionsts, pretending to be innocent bystanders. Saying "another attempt failed, but let us not be depressed. Let us wait until we somehow know how to run global revolution" -- and saying it from a very comfortable distance. No, folks, you will not go away with that. Rojava is not an anarchist project, and it never meant to be. But what is its future -- it depends on your actions. OR lack thereof.
For those who are ready to leave their comfort zone, there are two small texts I wrote, which may inspire you to quit that grim, depressive attitude and assume a bit proactive position.
https://amargipl.wordpress.com/2015/06/26/rojava-bakur-and-pitfals-of-economic-revolution/
https://amargipl.wordpress.com/2015/05/26/the-guilty-bystanders/
The bottom line is: those people are doing revolution as they can understand it. You either help them do it properly or not. But whatever you chose, you are co-responsible for the outcome.
Have fun.
Hi Petros at Freelab,
Welcome to Libcom.
The user "Anti War" exclusively posts pieces critical of Rojava. They don't usually engage in discussion. Other folks who frequent these forums will engage in discussion. With a variety of opinions on Rojava: from folks who agree with "Anti War" to folks who participate in the movement in Bakur and we're survivors of the Suruc bombing.
I invite you to participate. Check out the "Rojava News" and "Turkey News" threads in particular.
Yeah I also wished to say hi!
Anti-war is engaging in a misinformation campaign by deliberately using misquoted texts, misused quotes and using irrelevant pictures to discredit Rojava in any possible way. Moreover it repeats the same images and misquotations (and his critical remarks) to write "new" articles. So they always look high on recent posts section. This very "honest" attempt of his to inform the public only about "the distrustful and outright evil nature" of Rojava Revolution is interestingly seen as a form of free discussion of communists by libcom moderators (as this was discussed earlier)
Anyway I hope you stick around and contribute to a real discussion on goods and bads of Rojava with us on this website to help formulate a proper position for communists and anarchists towards it.
Anti War
Actually, that's not "the police"--the Asayîşa. The video is of the Yekîneyên Antî Teror (YAT) which is part of the YPG, not the Asayîşa. The Asayîşa do now have an anti-terror force called Hezen Anti Teror (HAT), HAT video
I know the distinction between one group of people in uniform with guns compared to another group of people in uniform with guns is indistinguishable to you--but it means something to the folks involved. The Asayîşa (and HAT) will be in the secured areas like Hasakah, Qamişlo, Kobane, Afrin, while the YPG (and YAT) is usually at the fronts.
Thanks for the correction - details ARE important.
As for the 'misquotes', I've included links, so, as I've said before, please check the original quote sources and decide for yourself.
So why don't you also correct wrong pictures at the top of your other articles? Are they just look so good to be changed? I think you are very amused seeing kurds waving stupid Ocalan flags, so you do not want to change that even if they are totally unrelated to Rojava?
This text also exists in FRENCH and in RUSSIAN.
Here is an even grimmer description of the Rojava regime and its repressive aspects:
‘Between PYD and Daesh - Perspective on the Syrian Kurds after the Arab Spring: the Pressure and the Penalties’ by Jana Muhammed
Unlike the above article, this is by a political opponent of the PKK/PYD; so, like the interesting Kurdwatch.org, it should be read with that health-warning in mind.
Its hard to take this author's opinion seriously: "the PYD has shown itself to be more tyrannical than the Ba’ath regime itself."
The article on "Rojava Reality" is really awful. But thanks to putting up a link I got to see something even worse, which is this VERY SHADY Polish site. I mean, there is literally an article on it that is entitle "We don't want any refugees" which says stuff like refugees are a problem, they can't assimilate, etc. and says that if you help Rojava they will stay put in Syria. https://amargipl.wordpress.com/2015/05/28/nie-chcemy-zadnych-uchodzcow/
For example (but there is more of this crap): .... Ale to wszystko sprowadza się do jednego: większości z nas, z różnych powodów, zależy na tym, żeby do Europy trafiało jak najmniej uchodźców. A – na razie jeśli chodzi o Syrię – najskuteczniejszym, najbardziej etycznym i najmniej kontrowersyjnym sposobem na to jest, aby znaleźli miejsce u siebie. I tym sposobem jest Rojava. Więc weźmy się za to, po lewej, po prawej i w centrum. Oszczędźmy pieniądze, uchrońmy Polskę i Europę przed najazdem obcych, pomóżmy tysiącom ludzi – wszystko w jednym pakiecie.
Translation:
All comes down to one thing: the majority of us, for different reasons, want that the least amount of refugees as possible come to Europe. And, for now, if we are talking about Syria - the most effective, ethical and least controversial way to do this is that they find a place at home. And this is Rojava. So let's get busy, on the left, the right and the center. Let's save money and protect Poland and Europe against a flood of foreigners, let's help thousands of people - all in one package.
So Petros, you are a fucking piece of shit with your nazi friends with their shady Rojava business.
The introduction of this text on Tridni valka's blog is as follows:
Russian translation of this text is presented and introduced this way by KRAS anarcho-syndicalist militants:
http://aitrus.info/node/4368
Good people on Reddit just pointed me to this comment -- I do not visit libcom frequently.
Here, let me paste my answer originally written there. If you wish to throw some more shit on me, feel free to go to https://www.reddit.com/r/rojava/comments/3jpu87/rojava_window_of_opportunity_support_for/cuvcatb
I think it is clear that you are using right-wing logic to convince right-wing people so you write a text in Polish for right-wingers and in English something else.
This modus operandi is quite typical among certain people in Poland --- to try to convince right-wing people to SUPPORT them, by using their logic instead of really getting to the issue at hand. The only thing that tactic brings is some moves towards a cross-front and involvement of right-wing people in social movements, without really getting them to change their ideas.
Let me just say, the anti-immigration hysteria is awful, but I have seen enough people making some sense to right-wing people without pandering to them. Save Poland? Save Europe? That's fucking AWFUL.
Would be happy to throw shit in real life, not virtually.
Much of the above account has now been confirmed by another resident of Rojava on the ‘Lions of Rojava’ website.
This pro-PKK/PYD eyewitness complains that in Rojava there is ‘not nearly enough’ belief in the revolution and that ‘many look longingly to Turkey, or to Basur [i.e. to Iraqi Kurdistan with its capitalist development].’
This eyewitness also says that ‘the political awakening and transformation that has shaken Bakur (Turkish Kurdistan) … has never really happened [in Rojava].’
In other words, even the ‘Lions of Rojava’ website seems to be saying that the Rojava Revolution is something of a myth!
This eyewitness further confirms that, in Rojava, there is 'a strong personality cult around Abdullah Ocalan' and that non-Kurds are unconvinced by the PKK/PYD regime because ‘the imagery, art and music, as well as the characters driving the revolution, are almost exclusively Kurdish.’
Unsurprisingly, this predominance of Kurdish nationalism has helped create a situation in which Rojava’s Kurdish militia have been ‘attacking civilians’, ‘looting villages’ and inflicting revenge on ISIS captives even though the PKK/PYD officially oppose such abuses. (Significantly, Amnesty International has also recently criticised the PKK/PYD for ‘using a crackdown against terrorism … as a pretext to unlawfully detain and unfairly try peaceful critics and civilians believed to be sympathizers or members of alleged terror groups.’)
Another highly credible source, a German fighter with the PKK/PYD militia, has also complained of ‘looting, destruction and mistreatment of prisoners’ by his fellow militia fighters.
This German eyewitness has further confirmed the extent to which the Rojava regime has depended on US imperialism by saying that ‘without [US air support] the offensives wouldn’t have worked’ and that ‘we never attacked without bombardment before.’
In order, presumably, to encourage Western military forces to move into Rojava, Salih Muslim is even claiming that: ‘America is a superpower that fosters democracy globally, and tries to develop and disseminate it throughout all parts of the world.’
He also says that the Kurdish people ‘are strong defenders of the democratic values that the American people spread throughout the world. For these reasons we must solidify our relationships with the American people and their government.’
In line with this enthusiasm for the US, the PKK is, of course, also willing to embrace capitalism. For example, this Trotskyist article, based on German sources, quotes Ocalan arguing that capitalism is ‘not to be rejected outright’. This same article then points out that the Prime Minister of Cizire canton in Rojava is one of the wealthiest capitalists in Syria!
Meanwhile, in Turkey, the PKK’s turn to parliamentary democracy has totally failed to prevent the Turkish state from reviving its long-standing war with the PKK.
Of course, none of this means that people in Rojava should be abandoned to the depredations of ISIS. We still need to oppose Turkey’s terrorist policies and to open all borders to all refugees.
But, clearly, the peoples of the Middle East need something much more radical than the PKK - much more radical than either democracy or nationalism - to inspire them to end the seemingly endless wars in the region. Tragically, such a genuinely revolutionary anti-capitalist and internationalist communist movement has yet to arise.
A personal account of Rojava (http://thelionsofrojava.com/index.php/a-personal-account-of-rojava/)
The ultimate level of "anarchist" confusion about capital...
This video talk includes interesting stuff on Kurdistan from someone who knows the Middle East:
'The US and wars in the Middle East' by Yassamine Mather.
Here is a very interesting text in Spanish about Rojava, written and published by comrades in Argentina of the BIBLIOTECA Y ARCHIVO HISTORICO-SOCIAL "ALBERTO GHIRALDO".
I am translating this text in ENGLISH (and in FRENCH) and hope to upload it here into some days...
http://libcom.org/library/%C2%BFrevoluci%C3%B3n-en-rojava
http://boletinlaovejanegra.blogspot.nl/2015/09/revolucion-en-rojava.html
LOL! You're in your own vortex now.
It is possible that the US, Russia, Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia will all now join together and agree to impose a stable peace on the Middle East. But this seems somewhat unlikely considering that, as Patrick Cockburn says,
'Shia states across the Middle East, notably Iran, Iraq and Lebanon, have never had much doubt that they are in a fight to the finish with the Sunni states, led by Saudi Arabia, and their local allies in Syria and Iraq.’
Sipan Hemo, the commander of the PYD militia, the YPG, also accepts that the whole situation is extremely dangerous. He even claims that the present conflict is ‘like a Third World War … [that] may take dozens of years. … The war will not stop in Syria but will extend to all the Middle East and may extend more than that’.
It would, of course, be a tragic error for any revolutionary to support this descent into a potential ‘Third World War’ in the deluded hope that this war will, somehow, spread the Rojava revolution across the Middle East.
This is especially the case as, according to Cockburn, the YPG’s ‘effectiveness is limited outside Kurdish majority areas’. Indeed, as one Western anarchist fighter admits, ‘Really it's the US airstrikes that are doing the major damage and YPG is just rolling into villages planting flags.'
This anarchist eyewitness also challenges other myths about the Rojava regime, including the idea that the militia is highly democratic. As he says, he ‘never saw any voting in the militias,’ only Maoist 'self criticism in every unit’. And, as a pro-market anarchist, he also points out that: ‘There's a good dose of market-oriented thinking, which is great.’
Another commentator who challenges myths about Rojava - and who has personal experience of the Kurdish struggle - is Yassamine Mather.
Mather points out that, historically, Kurdish Stalinists have often set up popular assemblies and that what is happening today in Rojava is not that different from what such Stalinists have done in the past. Significantly, she also says: ‘I can assure you that carrying a gun does not necessarily mean that the organisation you belong to has given up sexist attitudes!’ (14m)
Unfortunately, the recruitment of women into the YPG has also not eradicated human rights abuses. As one Arab eyewitness said in a recent Amnesty International report:
This Amnesty report concludes that 'by deliberately demolishing civilian homes, in some cases razing and burning entire villages … [the YPG is] brazenly flouting international humanitarian law, in attacks that amount to war crimes.'
ISIS are still a deadly threat in many areas and these shocking accusations are contested both by the YPG and by some Arab leaders in Rojava who say it is ISIS who ‘blow up houses’, not the YPG. However, another very critical report has also been published by anti-PYD Kurds in Rojava. The most shocking - if true - quote from the report is the following:
Another group critical of the YPG is the Syrian Network for Human Rights. They claim that the YPG have burned crops, have expelled people from over 70 villages and have killed 47 civilians.
Furthermore, other oppositionist Kurds, the Kurdish National Council, have accused the Rojava regime of ‘causing hunger, restrictions in all areas of life, conscription at gunpoint, persecution, arrests, the confiscation of homes and property as well as the forced implementation of an ideological curriculum.’
Even if some of these allegations are untrue, the evidence is building up that the Rojava regime is far from what it claims to be.
Indeed, it is hard to disagree with Yasmine Mather’s conclusion that nationalist struggles, like that in Rojava, can achieve very little and that the only solution is for there to be a revolution in the major working-class centres of the Middle East, especially Iran.
Just an clarification for those who don't know; Lions of Rojava has been taken out of the air because it was run by a bunch of macho's who were spreading dangerous ideas and in a dangerous sense motivated people to travel to Rojava. It is not a reliable source for anarchist views...