Statement For Rojava

August 2015

STATEMENT FOR ROJAVA

We in Neither East Nor West-New York City (NENW-NYC) support the struggle of the truly freedom-fighting Kurdish and allied forces in Rojava.
We view this as a continuation of our work in the 1980’s and early '90’s, when we networked for mutual solidarity between anti-nuclear and anti-militarist etc. activists on the East and West sides of the Cold War divide.
That was the main issue in those days.
We also supported Nigerian freedom-fighting anarchists (those who believe in an extreme amount of freedom, equality, economic democracy, and ecological concern for instance), Cuban ecologists, and freedom-fighting people in China and Hong Kong.
We intersected with Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW, '67 until now) who were for the first time in U.S. history, a radical veterans group who opposed the war they fought in, while it was still in progress, and supported the “Enemy”! In the Vietnamese fight for independence from the U.S. during the 1960's to 1970's. VVAW had tens of thousands of members and were very important. They wanted to work with our peace contacts in the East and Soviet veterans. (One of our members is an "Honorary" VVAW member).
We and others across the world have many examples of how we helped each other.
In just one instance we and allied groups from around the world held pickets at Nigerian Embassies or Consulates to demand the release of four members of the Nigerian anarchist Awareness League we had an alliance with. They were political prisoners held under an emergency decree- all were released after our demonstrations.
We had chapters across the US, as well as in Toronto, Canada, and Mexico City, and published the journal On Gogol Boulevard (named after Moscow's radical youth/artists/freedom-fighters avenue) to network like-minded struggles around the world.
Since the end of the Cold War, the group has mostly existed in name, but we have again come together to raise our voice in support of the revolutionary struggle in Rojava.
We reject dogmatism; we are made up of different currents, but we all share an anti-authoritarian/freedom-fighting, humanist spirit, believe in equality for women, lesbians and gays, etc., and always have had a natural consensus on the issues that motivate us. The fight in Rojava has inspired us, and we are ready to assist in what small ways we can from New York City.
To all the humanitarians, democracy-lovers, anarchists, those who fight for equality for women, lesbians, gays, minorities etc., those who seek a third path outside of capitalism and state-Communism, to your militia (we are always against forced conscription) and collectives, we offer our heartfelt wishes for
ALL THE LUCK
AND PEACE AND FREEDOM!

NENW-NYC, August 2015
Signatures so far from our old group (and David Christian who was associated with us) /8-17: Bob McGlynn, Ann Marie Hendrickson, Alexander Rubchenko (an exile from the anti-nuclear Moscow Trust Group), Tom Maurer, Neil Farber (also from the New York/New Jersey Chapter of the Workers Solidarity Alliance [NY/NJ Chapter of WSA]), Mike Harris (also of NY/NJ Chapter of WSA), Bill Weinberg (also of World War 4 Report), Ivo Scoric (exiled from Croatia, also of Balkan Page), David Christian (Atlanta, Georgia, WSA), Lucy C. McAllister,

(We may get more signatures, things are moving fast. Half of us are woman that we haven’t found. All were active in stopping oppression in the West/3rd World/4th World [Indigenious, tribal peoples, nomads etc.] but also against the state-Communist countries too for over 35 years. The many, many, [including exiles or visitors from state-Communist nations] that were in NENW-NYC, [or predecessor groups] are long gone and impossible to find after all this time).

[email protected]
[email protected]

(email [email protected] for the full Statement that is longer and gives examples of how we did concrete things to support each other East, West, and Nigeria)