https://www.nihilist.li/2019/10/26/the-fall-of-rojava-hard-lessons-learned/
Several weeks ago, Louis sent a link to a new publication by anarchist and anti-authoritarian leftist activists from the former Soviet bloc, 'The Nihlist'. On their English language page, they have a very refreshing article on the Rojava experience - refreshing in that it is both strongly supportive of the genuine achievements in Rojava, while also being strongly critical where criticism is due, principally in the PYD's attitude to the rest of the Syrian revolutionary uprising. It also draws some interesting conclusions, though not all are necessarily realistic in my view. This excerpt the section on the critique of the PYD: "Having laid out these accomplishments, it’s important to study the mistakes made by the PYD and the international left that supported them. *5. *One of the first mistakes of the international left was either ignoring the Syrian revolution, or worse, actively embracing the criminal regime of Bashar al Assad. Those who did the latter entered into a de facto alliance with a literally fascist regime that is the sweetheart of the global far-right, and despite ideological differences both sides repeated the same propaganda often from the same sources. Although the PYD had already started establishing control over territory in 2012, many Western leftists did not take notice until several years after 2014, when the group first became heavily engaged by IS at Kobane. Few seemed to do the necessary work to look back on the start of the revolution in order to get a full understanding of what was happening. This has led to some embarrassing situations, such as leftists calling for a No Fly Zone to protect the Kurds now, while attacking the same idea as «warmongering» or «starting World War III» when it was suggested earlier in the war to protect civilians from the Assad regime and Russia’s indiscriminate bombing. Today innocent civilians in the Kurdish-controlled territory are suffering the results of the world ignoring the same scenes when they were happening for years in Ghouta, Deraa, Aleppo, and Idlib. We must never again allow such hypocrisy. *6.* Early in the war, Assad felt most threatened by the democratic, non-sectarian uprisings, and he and his allies set out to divide the opposition along ethnic and sectarian lines. With respect to Kurds, this was accomplished by pulling out most regime security forces, giving the PYD and its allies *de facto *control over their territory. More crucially, the regime continued payments to the territories which helped alleviate the burdens of maintaining society. This support is one major reason why Rojava cannot be seen as a stateless or autonomous society, as it had significant dependence on the regime. This situation led to political clashes with non-Kurdish opposiiton, especially Sunni Arabs, who saw the PYD as being allied with the regime. Limited military cooperation with the regime and a disdain for taking offensive actions against it also eroded trust and led many to believe it was a regime ally. This perception was also perpetuated by the treatment of some Free Syrian Army units which had allied themselves with the YPG/YPJ but later fell out of favor with the group. In the PYD’s defense, it is very possible that the group’s latter approach to the regime might have had more to do with US policy than its own desires. The US was for the most part adamant about groups receiving military aid fighting only IS and not the regime, as the Obama admin never had much faith in the revolution from the beginning and by 2013 the consensus in DC was that Assad would have to stay. *7. *Unfortunately due to its conflict with some elements of the FSA, and despite its continuing alliance with some FSA or former FSA units, PYD propaganda often cast all other FSA groups as jihadists, allied with jihadists, or few in number and without influence relative to jihadist factions. This narrative blended perfectly with the propaganda of the regime and Russia; even though it was not explicitly pro-Assad as in the case of the latter, it did still implicitly supported the regime’s narrative about its opponents. Moreover, the blanket jihadist label was an Islamophobic, racist trope which was largely responsible for the shameful lack of solidarity between leftists and the revolution at large." https://www.nihilist.li/2019/10/26/the-fall-of-rojava-hard-lessons-learned/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#7768): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/7768 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/81864222/21656 -=-=- 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. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
