Global Call for Solidarity: Days of Action in Defense of Rojava

Rojava - its people, its radical democratic project - are under assault and the global call for solidarity and action has been made.

For more background on this from a Scotttish solidarity perspective, Sarah Glynn has a recent piece in Bella Caledonia HERE, and you can rewatch Matt Bloomfield's event from last summer here:

***

We at Lighthouse join 182 organizations and 72 individuals across 39 different countries in the following declaration from RiseUp4Rojava:

Since January 6th, Kurdish and Arab regions in Syria have been subjected to sustained attacks, posing the most serious existential threat to Kurdish society and the autonomous system of self-governance that has been developed there for over 14 years.

This military offensive is being coordinated by al-Sharaa’s islamist regime, the so called “transitional government” in Damascus, in collaboration with the Turkish Defense Minister, Yaşar Güler, and the Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan. It is being carried out in direct collaboration with jihadist militias. This war of extermination has been greenlighted by western governments.

Rojava is under immediate threat from HTS and ISIS. These attacks endanger the hard-won achievements of the Women’s Revolution in Rojava, including the principles of local democracy and equal rights for ethnic and religious communities. They are trying to force the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria to choose between total surrender and complete physical annihilation. The attack on Rojava is not solely aimed at destroying the achievements of Kurdish society. Rather, the goal of this international plan is to destroy the idea and project of a democratic Syria and a democratic Middle East.

Through these attacks, we are witnessing a new resurgence of ISIS. Thousands of ISIS-fighters have been freed by the government-militias of al-Sharaa, who himself shares a common history with the terrorist organization. Once again, ISIS is committing massacres against civil society all over Syria. Kobanê, the site of historic resistance against ISIS, is once again under attack and total siege by the same forces operating under different banners. Emboldened by these attacks ISIS once again poses a threat to societies worldwide.

Across all over Kurdistan, and all over the world, people are rising up to defend the Rojava Revolution and the hope it offers humanity. The Kurdish people, particularly women and young people, have responded to the call for a general mobilization by holding mass demonstrations and traveling to Rojava in thousands, to defend the territory. Social movements, trade unions, civil society organizations and academic communities on all continents have organized solidarity actions with the peoples of Rojava.

In 2014, millions of people took to the streets worldwide and together we liberated Kobanê. The defeat of ISIS at that time was made possible not only by the YPG and YPJ, but also by broad international solidarity, including political, social and moral support from democratic forces worldwide.

Today, we once again call for global solidarity to defend the revolution and human dignity.

In an era of increasing global fragmentation driven by profit rather than the needs of people, we must unite to demand the freedom of Rojava and stand up for humanity. In the face of coordinated military and political pressure, democratic forces must strengthen their solidarity.

We therefore make a call to:

• Organize actions in solidarity with Rojava, condemning the attacks and underlining the imminent threat of ethnic cleansing by the Syrian transitional government, Turkey and its allied jihadist militias.
• Create a counter-public sphere in the media and civil society about the situation in Rojava and expose blatant Western support for the attacks.
• Hold national governments and international institutions responsable for their complicity in the war crimes in Rojava.
• Demand political and legal recognition and status for the DAANES in order to force Damascus to accept a decentralized solution that guarantees the existence and rights of Alawites, Druze, Yazidis, Assyrians, Armenians and all ethnic and religious communities in a future democratic Syria.