Women Defend Rojava || Dear friends, comrades, and sisters,
We send you another update from Rojava. Today is Saturday, January 31st. It’s a global day of action as part of the “Women Defend Rojava” campaign.
Most of you were probably at demonstrations or events and actions today. We were also out on the streets with the women here in Rojava. In war, the situation often changes overnight. Nothing can be planned or prepared. But sometimes things fall into place perfectly. Like today. What could have been more fitting than for women to take to the streets on this day—the day after the announcement of the new agreement between the SDF and the Syrian Transitional Government? A day when our certainty comes from our insistence that we as women will defend our revolution.
Since the agreed ceasefire, we can say that the situation on the front lines appears more or less calm. But we know that there is no true peace with the Syrian Transitional Government. Looking at other regions of Syria, we see that attacks and assassinations continue unabated.
This agreement isn’t a change of the STG or its imperialist backing. They still want to destroy the revolution. If they are willing to make concessions today, it is only because they are forced too. We do not trust them to protect the rights of women, but rather have trust in societies ability to defend.
What will happen now relies of the continued resistance, of women everywhere in the world, making a stance that we will continue to defend the gains of this revolution and to ensure that this process is a democratic integration into the state and not an assimilation process. Women’s rights are not mentioned in the agreement, and neither is the releasing of our YPJ fighters. Continued solidarity and resistance is essential, the struggle continues!
An organized society that is self-aware, that has democratic values and defends them with confidence and determination, cannot be suppressed. And with this clarity, it faces the future.
The war is not over. Perhaps the military war is decreasing in intensity, but we have already seen in recent weeks that this war is being waged at least as actively in the media and with all the means of special warfare. It is a war for information, for the power to interpret events, for our minds, hearts, and morals. Even if our bodies are not struck by bullets, we feel the impact of the misinformation designed to make us give up before we even begin to fight. In this sense, it is especially important now and always to pay close attention.the women’s revolution lives, and it will not be eroded by any integration. We must be aware of the Third World War in whose chaos we are living. Capitalism, the nation-state system, and the patriarchal mentality have driven the world into a deep crisis, and the reaction of the ruling powers is ever more violence, more repression, more war. We see this in the Middle East, in Europe, in Abya Yala, in Asia and in the USA. To protect our societies, life on this earth, from this great destructive fury, we need many methods of struggle. We need self-defense in all its forms.
Almost 2 weeks ago, Mazloum Abdi, as commander-in-chief of the SDF, decisively rejected the Syrian Transitional Government’s integration plan. This agreement would have meant letting the revolution die. Instead, the population decided to resist once again. The fact that the agreement now is so drastically different is proof that struggle leads to success. The SDF will remain and will be officially integrated into the Syrian state as divisions of the Syrian military and not as individual people. No HTS forces will enter Kurdish villages and cities. Units of the Syrian Ministry of the Interior’s security forces will be stationed at bases in Haseke and Qamishli to further implement the integration process and will subsequently leave the cities. The agreement covers many points, and more will need to be negotiated in the near future. Furthermore, it remains unclear how long the government will adhere to the agreements. Officially, France and the USA guarantee to monitor implementation. We do not put our faith in imperialist powers, but rather trust in own own strength and the strength of international solidarity.
One thing is clear: the hegemonic powers, whether regional or international, have always, ever since the beginning of the Kurdish freedom movement, since the flourishing of the Rojava Revolution, had an interest in preventing the democratic unity of peoples and their self organisation.
The Syrian transitional government, with the backing of Turkey, US, EU, Israel and Britain, with military support, financial backing and western legitimisation, could not enter the Kurdish cities. HTS, and the alliance of state forces thought they could put an end to the women’s revolution in one massive strike. They were wrong. We forced them back to the negotiating table. We put peace back on the agenda. A united struggle, the people resisting together, is what ensures the women revolution survives, each and every time.
The struggle continues. The coming days and weeks will require our vigilance and sustained pressure. We know that we are facing an Jihadist government and its international partners who are devoid of values and humanity. And at the same time, we know that here in Rojava live thousands of women who will never again accept enslavement. The resistance of women is, especially now, the central red line against any subversion of the revolution. We know that nothing could be further apart than Fascist fantasies and a democratic women’s revolution. That is precisely why there was no better day than today for women to take to the streets together.
Rihan Loqo, from the Kongra Star diplomacy committee, made it clear today in Qamishlo: “The system they want, in which they seek to nullify women’s existence, they cannot impose on us. […] As long as the rights, existence, history, and will of women are not defended in this system, we will not rest, we will not wait, and we will not accept this system. We will be in the streets every day, for our achievements, our existence, our history, our revolution.”
In this spirit, be vigilant, stay active, the war is not over, and a long struggle lies ahead. Our struggle as women has a history spanning millennia and a future at least as long. We will see many more changes, we will need many methods, but one thing is clear: our freedom, our self-determination, our communal organizing are non-negotiable.
Jin, Jiyan, Azadî
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