Archive for category General
Antifascist Viktor Filinkov tortured by FSB officers
The following was sent to me by a trusted source and is republished without any changes:
Antifascist Viktor Filinkov, accused of participation in the terrorist
community, was tortured. This follows from the conclusion of the Public
Monitoring Commission of St. Petersburg (body controling observance of
human rights in detention facilities), which visited a young man in
SIZO-3 (detention center) . The conclusion is available at the editors
of OVD-Info.
Commission members recorded numerous traces of burns from a Taser in the
chest area, as well as across the entire surface of the right thigh and
hematoma on the right ankle. According to Filinkov, he had received
these injuries on January 24 in a car (blue Volkswagen), in which he was
put by FSB officers after being detained at the Pulkovo airport. From
there he was taken to the police department of the Krasnogvardeysky
district, and then to hospital No. 26.
From the hospital, Filinkov was taken into the forests, where masked
people beat him for five hours. During the beating, FSB officers
demanded from Filinkov to confess. After he agreed, they forced him to
learn precise formulations. Filinkov was threatened that this beating to
be “an easy version of what will happen next” if he refused. This words
of the activist mentioned in the conclusion of the Public Monitoring
Commission (PMC). Masked people were saying only “Stay quiet!” and
“Don’t yell!”.
Filinkov wrote explanatory notes to the Ministry of Internal Affairs
(police) and the FSB, where he gave the learned “testimonies”. As stated
in the commission’s document, the young man was threatened if he retract
this testimony, he will be placed in a cell with prisoners suffer from
tuberculosis.
Then Filinkov was transferred to another car – Lada Priora – and
delivered to the Regional Office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. As
explained by arrested activist, people in masks were well -oriented in
the building, and discussed that they “need to close their face, because
of video-cameras”.
After all, he was taken to search of apartment where he lived with his
neighbor. The neighbor was also threatened, that “everything will be all
right” if he tell “what he knows”. Filinkov has very noticeable red
handcuff marks on his hands, stated in the conclusion of the PMC members.
Blood was wiped off from the beaten activist with snow and his hat, that
remained with the young man. Members of the PMC printed blood traces
from the hat on the interview notes.
On January 23, Viktor Filinkov disappeared on his way to the Pulkovo
airport. His wife suspected that he could be detained by secret
services. A few months ago, they thought they were being watched.
On January 25, the Dzerzhinsky District Court of St. Petersburg arrested
Filinkov for two months. He is suspected of participation in the
terrorist community (Part 2 of Article 205.4 of the Criminal Code).
According to the investigation, “Filinkov and other unidentified
persons, sharing the anarchist ideology, took part in the division of
the terrorist community in order to carry out terrorist activities,
propaganda, justification and support of terrorism.” The report says
that the left activist made confessions.
The text has been translated to english from https://ovdinfo.org/express-news/2018/01/26/antifashist-arestovannyy-po-delu-o-terrorizme-zayavil-o-pytkah?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=push
Why you should demand microblogs, like Twitter, have open federation as standard
Being on GNU Social is like having e-mail:
You can send an e-mail from any provider to any address on any other provider or on the same provider.
If you have an account on e.g. Riseup.net, you expect to be able to e-mail to and get e-mail from anyone on GMail, ProtonMail, Outlook.com, Inventati, etc, etc.
We take that for granted. Imagine you sign up for AOL Mail, to then get told that they don’t accept e-mail from outside AOL, nor can you send e-mail to anyone outside AOL.
You couldn’t e-mail from AOL to GMail or get an e-mail from anyone on Riseup.net to your AOL account.
You would not accept that.
Yet, that is exactly what over 300 million users on Twitter accept without question, probably without even considering that things could be different.
Things could be different. They could use GNU Social.
There, you can send your @-messages to and follow accounts that signed up to any provider, not just limited to the one you chose.
If you signed up to Quitter.se, you can still send @-messages to, follow or be followed by people on Quitter.no, RainbowDash.net, indy.im, etc, etc.
Twitter, however, refuses to open up for this.
On twitter, you can only talk to people also on twitter and you can only follow accounts on twitter, even though it is entirely possible for them to do better.
They choose not to.
By thus making their service less good, they presumably hope to keep people from noticing the outside world, as one might put a blanket over a caged bird, to keep it from desiring freedom.
Just as with e-mail, the different providers have different features for different users, so someone that cares about privacy would sign up to Riseup while someone that would rather have flashy things to click would choose GMail.
Most people consider the options compared to their requirements before choosing an e-mail provider.
You should do the same when choosing a microblog provider.
Don’t choose a provider that intentionally blinds you to maximize their own profit, choose any provider within GNU Social instead.
Join GNU Social today!
List of fake antifa accounts
Recently a bunch of very obvious fake antifa-accounts have been created on Twitter.
Below I list those I’ve found that in some way currently claim to be antifa and I consider 100% certain to be both fake and with malicious intent.
Block and/or report them.
Also, please make sure to tell others, so they don’t think the accounts are genuine… as that could cause real problems.
[Revision 2, 2017-04-02, 13:18 UTC]
Update(s), at the bottom of this post.
https://twitter.com/antifa_bc
https://twitter.com/AntifaAnchorage
https://twitter.com/AntifaBoston
https://twitter.com/antifabuffaloNY
https://twitter.com/AntifaCentCom
https://twitter.com/antifaedmonton
https://twitter.com/AntifaKern
https://twitter.com/AntifaMidwest
https://twitter.com/AntifaNorthwest
https://twitter.com/ANTIFAphilly
https://twitter.com/AntiFaPhoenix
https://twitter.com/AntifaTaunus
https://twitter.com/AntifaUtah
https://twitter.com/Aspen_ANTIFA
https://twitter.com/AustinAntifa
https://twitter.com/BevHillsAntifa
https://twitter.com/BuckheadAntifa
https://twitter.com/Cape_Cod_Antifa
https://twitter.com/FifthAveAntiFa
https://twitter.com/GreenwichAntiFa
https://twitter.com/HamptonsAntifa
https://twitter.com/Har_Yard_Antifa
https://twitter.com/hughjarsle
https://twitter.com/Josephs84904576
https://twitter.com/KekistanANTIFA
https://twitter.com/KeyWestAntifa
https://twitter.com/KHapaman
https://twitter.com/LagBeachAntifa
https://twitter.com/MainLineAntifa
https://twitter.com/MalibuAntifa
https://twitter.com/MaplBluffANTIFA
https://twitter.com/MarALagoAntifa
https://twitter.com/PalisadesAntifa
https://twitter.com/pdxantifa1RL
https://twitter.com/PVDAntifa
https://twitter.com/ScarsdaleAntifa
https://twitter.com/VacavilleAntifa
https://twitter.com/VenturaAntifa
https://twitter.com/VineyardAntifa
Revision 2, adds notification:
After those and other fake antifa-accounts were made well known, they and other newly created ones now use extremely obvious sarcasm, whereas many previously even copied the entire content of genuine antifa-accounts to seem legitimate.
In the cases of accounts that clearly to pretended to be legitimate, they seem to now in many cases have deleted the content that was obviously meant to mislead.
Considering this change, the purpose of the original post has been fulfilled… by them.
On those grounds, it does not seem beneficial to post further updates to the previous list here.
If the behavior changes again, that stance might change and this revision’s notification be replaced by other content.
May all your anti-fascist endeavors meet as unexpected success as this did!
Solidarity with the riots in Rinkeby, Stockholm
Today media reports on how several riots occurred in Rinkeby yesterday night. According to media claims several shops have been looted, cars set on fire, a journalist and a shop owner battered and cops attacked with stones. The cops are claimed to have felt so threatened, that they shot live ammo to hit. What really happened, only those that were there know.
What’s clear is that several individuals chose to attack several of the institutions that control and rule our lives. The looting attacked the capitalist property rights and the conditions that drive us to slave to be able to afford survival, instead of taking what we need. The journalist that was battered, was an attack on the ideological cornerstone that the media constitutes, in the maintaining of the existing conditions; against the fact that the journalist wasn’t there to listen to and pass on the revolters’ stories, but to sell its own spectacular story expensively – a story that in no way relates to the reality that life in Rinkeby means. The rock throwing against the police, whose task it is, to using violence maintain the state’s rule over every individual. To ensure that poor remain poor, that those that try anything else are thrown in the slammer, that undocumented live under constant threat against their lives, that subversives remain passive. They protect not only the state’s laws but the morality that holds us back from revolting against society. The morality that gets the neighbor to call the cops, when it hears crushed windows in the street or says shady people “loitering”. Regardless the intentions that existed behind every individual’s acts, those institutions were attacked and the cops tried to protect them (and themselves).
When the cops say that it felt so threatened, that it fires live ammunition, it is often just a half truth. The other half of the truth is that they usually have been in an area or a context, where they more easily can get away with it. Thanks to media’s work over many years to establish a narrative for the rest of Sweden of the suburbs and a deeply rooted racism (and classism) in society, they can more easily talk themselves out of the situation. The trust for the police, as a neutral state body, of course plays a role for a large part of the population but if the cops would fire live ammunition on youth in Danderyd or a middle class area in Karlskoga, they would not as easily get away with it. As long as a white cop, or a PoC-cop with white ambitions, shoot a person of color, poor, subversive or lifestyle criminal, everything is as it should be, according to society’s unspoken norms.
If they indeed felt threatened, and didn’t just see an opportunity to extinguish an, in their eyes undesired, life, it is also a sign that the insurrectionists really challenged the existing conditions.
When the cops choose to use firearms to intervene in the social warfare in general (which they do constantly) but against insurrectional acts in particular, then it is important to see what it means for us, that are in solidarity with insurrectional acts and revolt. Two things it should not lead to, but usually does, is to either ramp up the violence and answer with the same, that is, with firearms or more severe violence, or to let oneself be frightened and pacified, when facing the risk of being shot. When cops shoot, we should instead look at the acts that “provoked” the shots, and be in solidarity with the acts. Distribute and develop them, make them uncontrollable and unpredictable. Without either walking into the trap of armed struggle against the state, which is doomed from the start considering the distribution of resources, or to let the cops get a stronger grip around our will to revolt, so we can use the exposed weakness of the monster that we are constantly guarded by.
Looting, car fires, attacks against journalists and cops/the state; attacks against the democracy that is “the best of ways to be oppressed”.
In deep solidarity with all insurrectionary acts in Rinkeby,
there are no better circumstances to wait for, there never was.
Barbar
Translated from Gatorna by @b9AcE.
All translation errors are to be blamed on me.
As always, tried to keep as close to the original in phrasing, punctuation, etc.
PJAK on the attack in Fittja [Stockholm, Sweden]
PJAK’s statement regarding the attack against one of its party comrades.
To the public,
Saturday February 13 2016 there was a peaceful demo with police permit for peace in Kurdistan and release of the Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan. One of the escort cars of the demo that was held on Saturday was subjected to an armed attack in Fittja, upon which our comrade Ghafor Mohammadi got gunshot wounds and had to be taken to hospital urgently with life threatening injuries.
We consider this terror attack a part of the Erdogan-regime’s violence-promoting politics, and a direct attack on the Kurdish liberation struggle. The Turkish State and Erdogan’s regime have recent months intensified their attacks on the Kurdish people. In northern Kurdistan Turkish military and police have besieged cities, killed and burnt hundreds of civilians as well as apprehended parliamentarians and human rights activists.
From that political background, we interpret this assault as a planned and coordinated attack, specifically targeted at the Kurdish liberation movement lead by the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK). Last week one of our political leaders and two other comrades were killed in a Turkish airstrike in southern Kurdistan, by all accounts coordinated with the Islamic regime in Iran.
Therefore this attack is extremely alarming for Kurdish liberation activists. It is also a mockery against the Swedish civil society, when Turkish terrorists commit heinous attacks on Swedish ground. Therefore we strongly condemn the terrorist activity that is practiced daily by Fascists in Turkey, and that now also have manifested in Sweden.
We call upon the Swedish justice system to speedily investigate the event. As Kurdish peace activists in Sweden our safety and security now to the highest degree depends on the Swedish State’s protection. We continue our struggle and will never let threats or harassment stop our struggle for freedom and democracy.
Swedish Committee of Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK)
[Translated by me from this source]
Schedule for Stockholm Anarchist Bookfair
Posted by b9AcE in Anarchism, Anarchist Bookfair, General, Stockholm, Sweden, Translations on 2015-08-13
This is the schedule for Stockholm Anarchist Bookfair 2015, held 22 August at Solidaritetshuset.
Translated to English by b9AcE
THE LIBRARY
10:30 – 11:30: Data-protection and the right to self-determination
Tracking and gathering of information about you happens all the time – often without you being aware, and often by companies that you don’t even know about. Learn about how you are tracked, how your life is mapped and what you can do to avoid it – or why it can be impossible to avoid without political change. We talk about data-protection and why it can be both a common responsibility and for the public good.
SPEAKER: Amelia Andersdotter (Dataskydd.net) and Anders Jensen-Urstad (Dataskydd.net, The World Library)
13:00 – 14:00: Commons from a feminist perspective
Within Allt åt Alla (All for All) Stockholm’s feminist struggle group we have started working with commons as a feminist strategy. In our work we have started largely from the autonomous feminist Silvia Federici’s thoughts and it is also on these our talk will be based. A commons is a resource, any, that is managed by a collective based on rules made together. How commons and feminism belongs together you will hear in the seminar.
14:40 – 15:30: How can the women that are exposed to religious oppression be supported – at the same time as racism is fought?
A fundamentalist religious oppression of women is growing in some suburbs. At the same time SD (the “Sweden Democrat” party” is baiting against Muslims as a part of their racist agenda. How can we fight the religious fundamentalism, at the same time as we are implacable against the racists?
Participants: Leila Qaraee, Kvinnors nätverk (Women’s network) and Helin Gül, Varken hora eller kuvad (Neither whore nor subdued). Discussion leader Jens-Hugo Nyberg, Arbetarmakt (Workers Power)
16:00 – 17:30: Realm of Freedom – wikipedians about their practice, their production methods and Capitalism
Is “peer production” a complement or an alternative to Capitalism? Arwid Lund will try to answer the question ny studying swedish wikipedians’ view on it.
SPEAKER: Arwid Lund postgraduate at the ABM institution, University of Uppsala)
18:00 – 19:00: The Swedish State’s violence against women, LGBTQ-persons and the working class
The Swedish State performed forcible sterilizations, lobotomies, castrations and institutionalizations against women, LGBTQ-persons and the lower stratas of the working class during the years 1934-1974. A seminar about the mentality and the broad political support that these laws had and how the Swedish State and our politicians try to silence and sweep all this under the rug.
OUTDOORS SEMINARS IN THE PAVILION
10:00 – 11:00: About anti-fascist strategies to a broader public with foundation in how anti-fascism was seen and handled by the nationalist right-wing of the 2000s.
Kim Fredriksson will speak about his own time in the radical right movement and give examples on how the radical right has developed through the years. He will also give his view on how future activism can be carried out while the right wing swing of society becomes more and more substantial.
Lecturer: Kim Fredriksson, former organizer and strategist within the radical right movement. Today he is an outspoken anti-fascist and sees himself as a democratic socialist
13:30 – 14:30: Presentation of Firefund
Firefund is a newly established crowdfunding site that targets protests and social movements around the world. The site has recently launched with the Kobane reconstruction board’s project for rebuilding Kobane. Through a presentation of Firefund, the ideas behind and thoughts on the Kobane campaign, the presentation will include a debate of international solidarity anno 2015 and a discussion on the tools and methods we, as activists, use to support each others protests around the world.
15:00 – 16:30: Antifenix – ‘Operation Fénix’ Police Repressions in Czech Republic
A presentation about the police repressions against Czech anarchists that broke out on 28th April this year and continues since then. The police used infiltrators to provoke consent to a fabricated plan and they forged evidence that lead to the arrest of several people. The police raided flats and a social center and confiscated personal material as well as a server that hosted several important Czech anarchist websites, among them ABC and Green Action.
Four anarchists are now imprisoned and awaiting their trials for crimes that actually never even happened. They are accused of “terrorist activity”. The surveillance and targeting of anti-authoritarians is not unique in Czech Republic, we have seen it recently in Spain, US and through history. It is important that we realize this so that the police can’t frighten us with these tactics!
From the presentation you will learn some about the anarchist movement and situation in Czech Republic, information about the police operation ‘Fénix’ and what is going on currently. We would also like to open for a discussion and questions about security culture, surveillance and how to react on such events described, for example building stronger and safer networks. Solidarity is our weapon so if people are interested we would also like to talk about some ideas on how to help the victims of the state.
17:00 – 18:00: To be announced.
18:30 – 19:30: To be announced.
THE SMALL COURTYARD
10:45 – 11:45: Arbetarmakt: Anarchism during the Spanish Civil War – a critical review
The stalinists and and reformists intentionally stabbed the Spanish Revolution in the back and thereby contributed to fascism’s victory. How could this have been prevented? Did the anarchists show a path that could have led to victory, and in that case: which anarchists? The difference between CNT’s ministers and Durutti’s friends was big. What can we learn from the experience?
14:45 – 13:45: Activist law with focus on evidence
How do you that is prosecuted for crimes in connection with political actions to get the prosecutor’s evidence to be considered of low value as well as bring your own counter-evidence? Workshop-like seminar based in practical experiences from both the lecturer and the participants.
Organizer: A member of Vänsterjuristerna (Leftist Lawyers) Stockholm
14:15 – 15:15: International Solidarity Movement Sweden – Palestine
Have you ever thought about going to Palestine? International Solidarity Movement Sweden will have review of history and tell about the situation on the West Bank and in Gaza. How do they work on location with non-violence and direct action? What is their goal? How will they ensure that Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian areas ceases? Welcome to the seminar!
WORKSHOPS IN THE OTHER INNER COURTYARD
11:30: RASA: Anti-sexist internal work and consent (3 hours. Limited participants: 15)
We live in a society that says it is up to us to not get subjected to abuse, forces us to fight for out corporal integrity and puts no responsibility with the assailant. The workshop wants to change this. We want the rape culture to get changed into a consent culture, where all except a continuing yes means no. During the workshop we will discuss and write about consent, what it means for us as participants and how we can practice it in our every day lives. We want to have a safer room for everyone. After the workshop the room will be open for continued talk or discussion. We also want to be clear with that we lack knowledge in how to handle traumas. The workshop has its focus on how we together can build a consent culture.
Note! If the workshop feels troublesome, or a part of it, there is the a possibility to abstain from some exercises or leave the workshop. We also ask you to respect if someone is uncomfortable with your presence, which means that you must find other places to work with consent.
17:00 – 18:00: Sober Coven: Temperance
The alcohol norm is constant present in our lives and is something often overlooked, even though it can not be avoided. Meanwhile the many negative sides are affecting “Our Movement” and exposed people to a very large degree. We want to highlight yhis, we want to go other directions, see other possibilities to find each other in the every day instead of drowning our sorrows. We want to give us tools and weapons to create something else, without fuzzy edges. Come to our workshop to participate in a discussion about how we can struggle and find alternative paths.
ANARCHIST MOVIE SCREENING IN THE PROJECTOR ROOM
11:00 – 12:00: Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years 1954 – 1965 (60 min)
A documentary about the American Civil Rights Movement in the United States. The first season, Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years 1954–1964, chronicles the time period between the United States Supreme Court ruling on Brown v. Board of Education (1954) to the Selma to Montgomery marches of 1965.
14:00 – 16:00: Joe Hill (114 min)
Joe Hill is a 1971 biopic about Swedish-American labor activist Joe Hill, born Joel Emanuel Hägglund in Gävle, Sweden. The film depicts Hill’s involvement with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) union, and his trial for murder during which he defends himself. It won the Jury Prize at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival.
18:00 – 20:30: Reds (195 min)
A radical American journalist becomes involved with the Communist revolution in Russia and hopes to bring its spirit and idealism to the United States. The film covers the life of John Reed and Louise Bryant from their first meeting to Reed’s final days in 1920 Russia. Interspersed throughout the narrative, several surviving witnesses from the time period give their recollections of Reed, Bryant, their colleagues and friends, and the era itself.
Anti Fascist Action Stockholm: Travel Report From Rojava
Posted by b9AcE in General, Kurds, Rojava, Translations on 2015-02-13
Anti Fascist Action Stockholm [translation: b9AcE] | 2015-02-10
When we write this it is a little over a week since the Kobanê Canton’s defense forces, YPG and YPJ, declared victory in Kobanê.
The victory means a lot for the Kurds. The city’s resistance has become a symbol in the resistance against ISIS, whom the Kurds call Daesh. Daesh is an abbreviation of ISIS but is similar to the Arabic ”daes” which means to trample or crush. It is used in this context derogatorily of ISIS and removes ISIS’ right to name themselves. The fascists of ISIS have banned the word in the areas they control and they take it so seriously that those that use it are threatened with having their tongues cut out.
Many have asked themselves how the Kurds have been able to beat back Daesh. The fight against Daesh has been undertaken with substandard military equipment. Many quickly point out that YPG/YPJ have had assistance from an international coalition that has been performing airstrikes against Daesh. That is in itself not a reasonable explanation to how the victory was achieved in Kobanê as the bombing did not live up to the expectations. When the bombing began in October many thought the victory was close but it took another near four months before victory could be declared. The answer for the question how the Kurds could beat Daesh in Kobanê must be sought elsewhere.
Anti Fascist Action Stockholm (AFA Stockholm) sent a delegation before New Year to Suruç that lies on the border to Kobanê. Partly to show our solidarity by being able to on location help with practical work and partly to also tie contacts for the future. Then Cantons’ struggle is a part of the same anti-capitalist struggle that is undertaken all over the world that now has been forced into a defensive war against the fascist Daesh. We also tried to understand the key to the resistance’s success. On location we met one of the Kobanê Canton’s female leaders. We undertook solidarity work and talked with the people that had been forced to flee from Daesh. One of those we met is Ape Nemir. An old man that has become a symbol of the resistance in Kobanê. He told of how three of his four sons are in Kobanê and fight in YPG. Ape Nemir had a month earlier been sent to the hospital in Suruç when the for the fourth time had been shot. He and his wife as well as his fourth son lived in a refugee camp outside Suruç when we met him. Ape Nemir’s wife was deeply involved in the Canton’s work before the war. When we meet Ape Nemir he stands in a little village four kilometers from Kobanê and stares towards the city. “I just want to go back and fight. What am I doing here? I am of not useful here. Kobanê is ours and we refuse to move!”
Ape Nemir stands in the middle of the picture.
Three years ago a power vacuum was created in Northern Syria when al-Assad’s regime, due to the civil war, no longer could control the areas. The Kurds in the region with PKK’s sister party in Syria, PYD, at the forefront could replace the regime with their own structures and take over the power. This lead to that the Kurds three years ago, at a large conference, proclaimed three autonomous regions. The regions are called Cantons. The Cantons have mutually agreed to signing a new social contract. It is an ideologically conscious designation as they reject traditional state building and do not call it a common constitution. At the same conference the need for the Cantons to be able to defend themselves was also seen. PYD that has a strong tie to the revolutionary PKK, has embraced PKK’s view on shared leadership between the genders, this also lead to the creation of two branches within the defense forces. One female, YPJ, and one male, YPG. An internal security organ was also created for the Cantons that is named Asayish. It is not a police service as the police is formed to protect the state and Asayish exists to protect the people. What is unusual is the force’s training that consists of both military and police training but to a large part is a gender equality education that aims to uplift the women’s role in the work. People we talk to in Suruç that have interviewed people in the Jazira Canton tell us that the long term goal within Asayish is to on the long term disband itself through broader education of the population. Also within Asayish there is an equally divided strength of women and men.
A boy shows victory signs in support of Rojava. He lives in one of the many refugee camps that are outside Suruç.
The organizing of society has also been done differently. The Cantons are characterized by a system called ”Democratic Confederalism” with strong Anarchist influences and rejects state building. The idea comes from PKK’s leader Abdullah Öcalan. Instead of, as in Capitalist countries, have the market that dictates the conditions for society, the society in the Cantons is based on grass-roots participation and self-determination. The power in the Cantons derive from councils that are organized from street-, block-, town- and canton-level. The work in the Cantons are partially organized in cooperatives where the bosses are replaced with chosen representatives. The Rojava Cantons work daily to bring the power down to the people and give humans back the power over their own lives.
The Rojava experiment that has been working for three years must be seen as one of the root causes of the victory. The people are not fighting against Daesh only because of fear and survival instinct but they are fighting for something. Something they see as their own. The Rojava Cantons have in a very short amount of time let the people feel their own power. They are involved in the decisions, they are part of shaping their own conditions, they have taken back the power over their own lives. It is one of the keys of the resistance, they have created a society that they view as their own and it is this that they fight for. When it comes to the women that also are a key of the resistance. In Rojava they have fought to gain freedoms and rights that women in the rest of the world lack. Women’s position in Rojava is unique and one of the driving forces of the revolution. Their fight is double, they fight for gender equality in Rojava at the same time as they fight the fascists in Daesh that want to enslave them. The women in Rojava perform the work efficiently and very successfully. In the civil society they have shared leadership on all posts. In the military struggle they also work efficiently. The military struggle strengthens the civilian struggle. The stereotypical arguments such as that some works are women’s work or that the male is the natural warrior becomes empty phrases when one studies the Rojava experiment. Daesh is not the greatest threat to the Cantons. The Capitalist interests threaten Rojava and so far the Cantons have not given influence to the advocates of neo-liberalism. The rebuilding of Kobanê will be an incitement for neo-liberal actors to gain influence over the Cantons. One of the greatest challenges face the Cantons after the war.
In a village outside Suruç lies the warriors that have fallen in defense of Kobanê
The rebuilding of Kobanê needs concrete and the only manufacturer of cement in the region is Turkey. The country with Erdoğan’s reactionary party, AKP, at the forefront views the Kurds as the greatest threat to the Turkish national-state. Erdoğan has recently said that Turkey will help with the rebuilding. The question is on which conditions? Rojava is today subject to an embargo that is maintained by Turkey. The embargo means that no goods are allowed into the Cantons but must be smuggled across the Turkish border. Turkey’s resistance towards Rojava has been shown in several ways, but the country has also played a dangerous game as there is information that Turkish military has been assisting Daesh around Kobanê. Either by being permissive towards them or in other cases by more directly assisting them by giving them weapons or letting Daesh-fighters over the Turkish border. They have also sought out wounded YPG/YPJ-warriors in Suruç when they were receiving medical care and put them in jail.
When we talk to a representative from Kobanê she underlines how important the solidarity from the whole world is. “-We welcome all people that support our project, because it is not really just ours. The struggle that takes place here takes place all over the world in various forms. We are grateful for all solidarity that people from all over the world show through supporting us both in various ways here on location and at home. We especially welcome female activists as it is especially important that women exchange experiences and support each other in the struggle. It is also important that female activists come here because in Rojava we have made such progress that has not been made anywhere else in the world.”
More and more progressive forces in the world have seen what happens in Rojava and many have in solidarity sent activists to support the struggle in Rojava. Now there has also been a callout to create an international brigade in Rojava. There is room for the brigade to assist in combat as well as in the rebuilding of Kobanê. The fight in Rojava has many faces and there is a lot to help out with, not the least of which to bring forth the revolution.
We in AFA Stockholm see that the struggle in Rojava is part of a global struggle. It is just one of several front lines in the Capitalist world but it is important as in Rojava a space has been created that actually has created the foundations to build a society liberated from Capitalism. Rojava is an example of how people can take the power over their own lives through autonomous zones that are characterized by Real Democracy.
We in AFA Stockholm call on all progressive forces to support the struggle of Rojava. Rojava shows that freedom from the state and capital’s conditions gives possibilities to create a new society that is characterized by equality. This society is not possible to create within the framework of Capitalism. Therefore we see the necessity in creating the new society where were stand today. Wherever you are we call on you to get organized and join the struggle!
BIJI BIJI ROJAVA! THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES!
/AFA Stockholm
Translated from Swedish to English by b9AcE on 2015-02-12.
While translating highest priority was given to preserving the original phrasing and punctuation as far as possible.
The original publication was at the official website of Anti Fascist Action Sweden (AFA Sverige).
I am not affiliated, but considered the information important and therefore decided to translate it to enable global reach.
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