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Correction: That should read YPG/YPJ. Begin forwarded message: > From: Marv Gandall <marvga...@gmail.com> > Subject: Re: [Marxism] The PYD, the regime, the FSA and the ICG report > Date: October 12, 2014 at 12:27:43 PM EDT > To: Michael Karadjis <mkarad...@gmail.com>, Activists and scholars in Marxist > tradition <marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> > > Superb capsule analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the PYD and PYG/Y > and why they warrant unconditional support. Karadjis alone gives this list > its value. > > >> -----Original Message----- From: Andrew Pollack via Marxism >> >>> The ICG earlier this year issued a report which basically called the >> Kurdish PYD collaborators with the Syrian regime who are only able to >> govern the "autonomous areas" thanks to physical regime withdrawal but >> continued funding. ICG also claims that the self-governance structures >> everyone is raving about are PYD-appointed fronts; and that PYD repression >> against opponents continues. >> >>> I put Arbour in the subject line because she was head of ICG at time of >> this report (May 2014) >> http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/Middle%20East%20North%20Africa/Iraq%20Syria%20Lebanon/Syria/151-flight-of-icarus-the-pyd-s-precarious-rise-in-syria.pdf >> >> I don't think the issue is Louise Arbour. The report is by the ICG, which is >> a relatively level-headed group of pro-imperialist analysts. They produce >> well-researched analysis which, however, is obviously written from a >> particular point of view. I don't think they go out of their way to doctor >> facts but of course their spin is there. >> >> The fact that the PYD is "only able to govern the "autonomous areas" thanks >> to physical regime withdrawal" is simply a statement of fact, but whether it >> is also due to "continued funding" by the regime, let alone low-level >> collaboration or even alliance, with the regime, as the report suggests, >> enters seriously into the area of interpretation and spin. >> >> As the report shows, it was the PYD that led the uprising in 2004, and >> suffered fierce repression from the regime. When the uprising began in 2011, >> naturally they again tried to take over Kurdish regions. When the regime >> withdrew in mid-2012, was this because the regime loved the PYD or vice >> versa and they were entering into an alliance with each other? >> >> No, the regime withdrew because it looked at a map, saw the Kurdish regions >> were the furthest thing away, the jihadist-controlled regions were the next >> furthest away, the FSA and other rebel controlled regions were much closer, >> including right under their noses in the major cities. By leaving the Kurds >> be, the regime could focus on the more immediate dangers. >> >> Was the PYD complicit with the regime by accepting the withdrawal and trying >> to build its society, rather than sending its fighters to aid the resistance >> elsewhere? I don't that criticism is valid, though part of the bad blood >> between the FSA and PYD is due to that feeling. From the point of view of >> self-determination, you can't blame the Kurds for getting what they could in >> the circumstances. I guess you don't actively invite barrel bombs when you >> can avoid them for a while. The PYD knew very well they would come >> eventually, if Assad finished off everyone else. >> >> The report also says the regime continued to pay salaries in the PYD >> controlled region. I know nothing about this, but I assume it is based on >> research. In some instances where the FSA has signed truces with the regime, >> the regime has agreed to pay salaries. What can we say about this? It is >> desperation. It is a question of tactics. >> >> The report also makes a number of concrete accusations against the PYD for >> instances of collaboration with the regime, a more serious thing. Some of >> this seems anecdotal, some more solidly based. It does not appear to be of a >> systematic nature, but here and there, opportunistic. >> >> Question: Is the PYD a perfect organisation that has NEVER DONE ANYTHING >> WRONG? Were the Bolsheviks? Is there such a thing? >> >> In a recent discussion on the GL list, I warned against the tendency to >> suggest that the FSA were a huge (or tiny, whatever your fancy) morass of >> smugglers, warlords, swindlers, jihadist, US puppets, bandits, thieves etc, >> on account of the fact that the sheer anarchy of revolutionary situations, >> combined with the extraordinary level of counterrevolutionary regime >> violence, means that a significant number of violations absolutely do >> happen. If you make those kinds of sweeping generalisations then there has >> never been anyone worth supporting, ever. >> >> I also made the opposite point: while we rightly look at the model of the >> Rojava revolution (above and beyond the fact that we should defend Kurdish >> self-determination even if they were run by Kurdish Black Hundreds), we need >> to avoid romanticisation, the complete opposite attitude to demonisation. >> The PYD has any number of skeletons in its closet as do most organisations >> which consist of human beings. >> >> It is thus possible that some of what is in the report is right; but >> organisations in a revolutionary situation evolve based on realities on the >> ground. It seems to me the current active collaboration between the PYD/YPG >> and the FSA in Aleppo and Rojava represents a positive evolution for both >> forces. The real fraternisation on the ground occurring may hopefully break >> down some of the issues they previously had, including the problem of the >> Syrian opposition leadership having a view on Kurdish self-determination >> that is only barely better than that of the regime. >> >> There is little doubt that at a political level the PYD is in advance of >> other sections of the Syrian resistance. Our support for the Syrian >> revolution has never depended on trying to find a perfect leftist >> leadership. We are well aware of the political problems of much of the >> leadership. >> >> But that should not in any way affect solidarity with the people on the >> ground. Kobane is in immediate danger of genocide and is thus the key issue >> of this moment. However, Syrians are being barrel bombed into oblivion, >> massacred with ballistic missiles, MiG fighters, napalm, chlorine gas, >> besieged and starved, tortured to death in enormous numbers, all at the same >> time, still, right now. >> >> In such circumstances, the tendency to be overly critical, in some leftist >> circles, of the FSA for various infringements on revolutionary morality (and >> here I am not just talking about the red-brown outright apologists for >> Assad), while overly romanticising the PYD/YPG, has the obvious problem that >> until the latest ISIS siege, Rojava was largely left alone and thus the >> levels of fascist violence imposed on it were not remotely at the level of >> those imposed on the rest of Syria by the regime; they thus had the space to >> build a new society and reduce violations to a minimum. >> >> We had countless examples of revolutionary councils around Syria, with a >> great range of creative revolutionary activities and sometimes quite >> transformative structures; but when you're bombed, rocketed, besieged, >> starved, burnt, tortured every day and your entire society and town is >> reduced to rubble, there's not much to build a society with, and plenty of >> room for banditry etc. >> >> Yet the decision of the FSA to join forces with the YPG to resist ISIS shows >> a revolutionary spirit that we have no right o be critical of from our >> comfort zones. Indeed, according to a couple of reports, a group of FSA >> fighters from Aleppo - where they are jointly besieged by the regime and >> ISIS while their allies are bombed by the US - managed to break through to >> Kobane to to further aid the YPG (ie, on top of the local FSA forces already >> on their side): >> https://www.facebook.com/groups/revolutionarysyria/permalink/712281322184901/ >> >> If the PYD has had to play some games with the regime to survive over time >> this is little different to the games the FSA has had to play with Turkey, >> Qatar, KSA etc. If sometimes they went beyond what is justifiable, then that >> is similar to various issues with the FSA etc. >> >> For years the FSA has called for decent arms to help it defend its people >> from massive regime violence, especially manpads (shoulder-held >> anti-aircraft weapons) to prevent the regime's daily aerial massacre. >> Nothing of much use was ever forthcoming, mainly regular arms from local >> states and nothing at all from the US (until mid-2014, when it began to >> distribute a handful of anti-tank weapons to a handful of groups in the >> context of wanting to sue them against the jihadists). >> >> For years the imperialist powers said they couldn't provide arms, using the >> BS excuse that such arms might get to the jihadists; and for years, a >> significant number of leftists parroted the same thing, except worse: the >> fact that any arms at all were getting through to help people fighting a >> genocidal tyranny was declared as evidence that the FSA were US puppets and >> sell-outs to imperialism and other such filth-talk. Brave western leftists >> love to try to "expose" that the FSA might have got a few more guns than >> they were supposed to have (according to these leftists' standards, >> presumably?). Meanwhile the FSA never called for imperialist troops and very >> rarely did some unit or individual even call for air-strikes; apart from >> weapons so they could fight themselves, the only thing they sometimes called >> for was a no-fly zone to defend some population centres against aerial >> slaughter. How safe and secure leftists would howl about that. >> >> Now the PYD/YPG, quite rightly, demands advanced weapons so they can defend >> themselves against a heavily armed ISIS. Moreover, they completely >> understandably call for US air strikes against the advancing ISIS siege. Not >> that actual strikes have been of much help, though probably they have been >> better than nothing. >> >> Who could argue with them? Who could stand up and denounce them as >> pro-imperialists or other such garbage as they fight to defend their very >> lives? Very few, and rightly so. But how many have a double standard as the >> FSA made similar calls for aid against 3 years of massacre? For those who >> don't have this double standard, you understand solidarity. For those who do >> - I simply can't imagine a greater degree of hypocrisy. >> >> FOR MASSIVE SUPPLIES OF ADVANCED WEAPONRY TO THE FSA AND THE PYD/YPG! >> >> ________________________________________________ >> Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu >> Set your options at: >> http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/marvgand2%40gmail.com > ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
