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Last night I went to a great talk by Malek Rasamny and Matt Peterson on their trip to Rojava: http://interferencearchive.org/rojava-building-democratic-autonomy-in-syria/ Lots of inspiring and fascinating info (I also have to mention their great video work on Palestinian and Native American refugees). During the discussion several of us asked about the PYD and YPG collaboration with Assad and Russian forces in the current offensive in northern Syria. The response focused mostly on what were deemed to be unavoidable geostrategic circumstances. Lord knows the Kurds have too often been caught between pillar and post - in this case in part because of the refusal of the more bourgeois wings of the Syrian opposition to acknowledge Kurdish self-determination. But my question right now is how decisions like the one to fight alongside Assad/Putin/Nasrallah et al. are made. The PYD's proposal for peace in Syria has lots of fine words about "democratic" and "autonomous" procedures: http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/resources/rojava/the-project-of-a-democratic-syria/ (Although it totally ignores the existence of grassroots forces in the Syrian opposition who would have to be part of such a process.) I wonder though, at what level - if any - of the finely articulated Rojavan political structure, from neighborhood councils on up to a Rojava-wide body, are such discussions about war and alliances made? See, for an example of how it CAN be done, discussions among the Bolsheviks over Brest-Litovsk; in the excerpt below and the chapter as a whole, note the raging debate in city and regional Soviets throughout Russia - debates which often put Lenin in a small minority. Is there something akin to this in Rojava? "Opposition to Lenin’s peace policy now spread widely among the masses. In February a referendum of the views of 200 Soviets was held. Of these a majority – 105 – voted for war against Germany. In the industrial city Soviets the majority in favour of war was overwhelming. Only two large Soviets – Petrograd and Sebastopol – went on record as being in favour of peace. On the other hand several of the big centres (such as Moscow, Krondstadt, Ekaterinburg, Kharkov, Ekaterinoslav, Ivanovo-Voznessensk), voted against Lenin’s policy with overwhelming majorities. Of the Soviets of 42 provincial cities that were consulted, 6 opted for peace, 20 for war; 88 county towns and villages opted for peace, 85 for war." <https://www.marxists.org/archive/cliff/works/1978/lenin3/ch04.html#n26> https://www.marxists.org/archive/cliff/works/1978/lenin3/ch04.html _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
