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Louis Proyect quotes David Graeber: "While in the early days of the Syrian revolution, Arab communities too created directly democratic councils, many on a model inspired by a Syrian anarchist named Omar Aziz, the militarization of the conflict had very different effects; where in the Kurdish areas, the revolutionaries created their own militias, the Peoples Protection Forces (YPG) and the Women's Protection Forces (YPJ), most of the secular, left revolutionary organizations in the rest of Syria made a conscious decision not to join the armed struggle, leaving that to military defectors who made up the Free Syrian Army, then, increasingly, to Islamist militias armed and supplied by outside powers such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar." Louis comments: "What unmitigated bullshit. The "secular, left revolutionary organizations" in the rest of Syria focused on providing social services to neighborhoods and entire cities under siege. To help keep them from being annihilated, the FSA defended them as best they could. "In fact, if it wasn't for the FSA, these Bookchinite experiments could never have happened since Assad was trying to buy time. He allowed them to take place until his air force was finished exterminating East Aleppo, Homs, Ghouta, et al. Now, he will do the same thing to the Kurds. Divide and conquer..." I will concede that Graeber's statement quoted above does not adequately recognise the difficult conditions facing democracy activists in areas under attack by Assad's forces. Hence he gives the unfortunate impression of blaming the activists for the situation they find themselves in. I don't think that was necessarily his intention, but it could be taken that way. On the other hand, the PYD - conscious of the oppression of Kurds in Turkey - was right to be suspicious of any armed groups backed by Turkey and the Gulf states. Turkish aid to Syrian rebels came with conditions attached, including a requirement to be hostile to the Rojava experiment. For a time, Rojava was less affected by war than some other parts of Syria. But this should not be exaggerated. Rojava was subject to an economic blockade, armed attacks by Turkish-backed rebel groups, bombardments by the Turkish armed forces, and the threat of a full scale Turkish invasion. In this context, Rojava (and later the broader Democratic Federation of Northern Syria) sought to avoid armed conflict with the Assad regime. They did not want to simultaneously fight both the Turkish army (and its proxies) and the Assad regime (and its allies). Chris Slee ________________________________________ From: Marxism <[email protected]> on behalf of Chris Slee via Marxism <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, 20 February 2018 10:58:05 PM To: Chris Slee Subject: [Marxism] David Graeber: manufactured ignorance: the strange case of Juan Cole and the Kurdish freedom movement ******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. ***************************************************************** http://www.focaalblog.com/2018/02/16/david-graeber-manufactured-ignorance/ _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/chris_w_slee%40hotmail.com _________________________________________________________ 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
