John Tully

Across North Africa and the Middle East in 2011, millions of people revolted against dictatorships in the great wave of hope known as the Arab Spring. That year also saw the beginning of the Rojava revolution in northern Syria, now in its tenth year. Elsewhere, the Arab Spring rapidly returned to deepest winter and left the old dictators firmly in control, or saw new ones installed.

The Assad family had ruled Syria for four decades via a brutally efficient secret police and a military well-armed with the proceeds of oil sales. People took to the streets in 2012, defying the regime’s goons and torture chambers, calling for democratic reforms and an end to the pervasive corruption and mismanagement that condemned them to deepening poverty.

The democratic upsurge foundered in large part because the Assad regime deliberately militarised the conflict and plunged the country into a disastrous civil war. The democratic impulse of the opposition was swamped by a tide of religious fundamentalism. Tragically, much of Syria now lies in ruins and the regime looks forward to victory.

Yet in one corner of the country — the northern border regions known to the Kurds as Rojava — hope for a better world lives on. Bordered on all sides by hostile reactionary forces, Rojava stands defiantly as a beacon for human solidarity, cooperation, and progress.

The Kurdish majority populations of Rojava welcomed the democratic upsurge of 2012. Although Syria is home to a bewildering array of non-Arab ethnic groups, including Kurds, the ruling Ba’ath party has long enforced Arab chauvinist policies: a fact evident in the country’s official name, the Syrian Arab Republic. The regime’s policies have aimed to assimilate non-Arab populations, resettle Arabs in non-Arab regions and even deny citizenship to hundreds of thousands of Kurds.

Rojava faced another deadly threat when the Islamic State (ISIS) declared itself a caliphate. The jihadis laid siege to the region, aided and abetted by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s regime in neighbouring Turkey. As is now well-known, the Kurdish fighters of the People’s Protection Units/Women’s Protection Units (YPG/YPJ) and their allies organised in the Syrian Democratic Forces were able to defeat the jihadis and liberate their so-called capital of Raqqa.

What made these people fight so doggedly against a more heavily armed force? They were, of course, fighting for the lives of their families and communities against medievalist barbarians for whom no atrocity was too vile to commit.

But they were also fighting — and still are fighting — for a better world. In a region marked by religious obscurantism, ethnic bigotry, reactionary patriarchy, economic inequality and despotic modes of government, they have unfurled a banner inscribed with the burning words of human liberation for all, irrespective of gender, race or religion.

Ten years later, against all odds, beset by ferocious foes and abandoned by the world powers despite their sacrifice in the struggle against ISIS, the Rojava Revolution lives on. Incredibly, the Rojava Kurds have implemented a program of democratic confederalism — grassroots democracy, gender inclusivity, economic cooperation and ethnic and religious pluralism that is the antithesis of what exists around it.

It is a bold experiment and one that we as western socialists and internationalists must support. They made huge sacrifices and we must not forget them as Turkish despot Erdoğan again prepares his war machine for another invasion of Rojava, armed to the teeth by Western powers and waiting for the green light from his fellow autocrat in the Kremlin.

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Rojava: ‘On 19 July, Our People Chose the Way of a New and Free Life’

Medya News

Mazloum Abdi, the general commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that constitute the armed force of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), expressed determination to extend the social and political achievements in North and East Syria (NES) in a statement he made on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the ‘Rojava Revolution’.

“On 19 July, our people chose the way of a new and free life, and in order to protect and grow it, they made an unprecedented sacrifice with their lives,” he said.

“On the 10th anniversary of the revolution, we commemorate all of the martyrs who, despite the obstacles and enemies, it is thanks to them, this day was celebrated, and we salute the resistance of our people. Protecting the achievements of the revolution and extending the democratic experience is our duty, we will make this day the beginning of a new step.”

July 19 marks the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the profound political and social transformation in north and east Syria, leading to the foundation of an autonomous entity in January 2014, and resulting in changes involving forms of local governance, social and political empowerment of women, recognition of ethnic and cultural identities, and attempts at a more democratic education and health system.

Kurdish self-defence forces — organised under the People’s Protection Units (YPG) — took control the city of Kobane in the midst of the turmoil of the ongoing Syrian civil war, on July 19, 2012. The cities of Amude, Afrin, Ras al-Ayn (Serê Kaniyê) and Al-Darbasiyah (Dirbêsiyê) followed.

This was the beginning of a process led by pro-Kurdish political parties, particularly the Democratic Union Party (PYD), in which local councils and administrative bodies started to emerge mostly in Kurdish-majority parts of the region.

The PYD officially announced regional autonomy on January 9, 2014. Elections were held, popular assemblies established and the Constitution of Rojava — guaranteeing cultural, religious and political freedom of all people, explicitly stating the equal rights and freedom of women, and also “mandating public institutions to work towards the elimination of gender discrimination” — was approved.

As the amended December 2016 constitution used the title, “Democratic Federation of Northern Syria”, to for the autonomous structure, the Syrian Democratic Council adopted the new title of the “Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria” (AANES) on September 6, 2018.

The social transformation accompanying this process has been referred to as the Rojava Revolution (the Kurdish word “Rojava” means “Western”), and the Kurdish-majority parts of the region are called “Rojava”, or “Western Kurdistan”.

(Both articles courtesy: Green Left, an Australian socialist newspaper, written by progressive activists to “present the views excluded by the big business media”.)