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Recent articles by José Antonio Gutiérrez D.
Το ΝΑΤΟ εναντ&#... Feb 26 16 NATO against the Kurds: The battle for A’zaz mashriq / arabia / iraq |
imperialism / war |
opinion / analysis
 Wednesday February 24, 2016 03:57 by José Antonio Gutiérrez D.
 http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/article.asp?reference=17333 NATO, represented by the Turkish State, for the last two days has been bombing the Kurdish militias of the YPG that had advanced to the north of Aleppo towards the cities of A'zaz and Such Rifaat. The bombings, which have killed at least 23 civilians, are concentrated around the military airbase of Menagh, conquered in 2013 by a coalition of “rebels”, including Al - Qaeda (Al- Nusra Front) and others that later would end up as the Islamic State. That is a key point to supply the “rebellion,” which serves the petro-theocracy and the interests of the USA and the EU. Ahmet Davutoğlu said that he has informed the vice-president of the USA Joe Biden about the bombings. Although Biden has not publicly approved Turkey’s military intervention, he has neither condemned it nor taken any action to restrain the Turkish State, which would never act without the absolute certainty that the U.S. would end up supporting them. [Castellano] [Català] [Italiano]
As the siege tightens around the armed fundamentalist reactionaries in Syria, the Ankara regime that has generously sponsored them throughout five years of butchery is beginning to get nervous. The forceful eruption of the Kurdish guerrillas of the YPG against the Islamic State, the Russian intervention and the determined participation of Hizbullah militias is winning the battle against that motley alliance of opportunists and armed fundamentalists whose only goal is to overthrow Bashar Al- Assad and smash the Kurdish militias. |
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Leaflet distributed today at a rally and march in Melbourne in solidarity to the Kurdish struggle. For some years now the Kurdish movement has been moving in the direction of libertarian ideas. While not an anarchist movement, this move is a sign that anarchist ideas of freedom and equality through solidarity, our ideas of horizontality and radical direct democracy and our radical critique against the State are not only valid and strong, but are also necessary for movements in order to break away from the authoritarian legacy within the left. It is our duty to express our solidarity with Rojava and the Kurdish movement, because they represent hope in this region and because they are the oppressed fighting the oppressors. Real struggles are never perfect but they carry diverse degrees of potential to being about a free society. Expressing our solidarity with the revolutionary movement in Rojava means we understand our role is to continue developing the core tenets of our ideas in order to inspire revolutions and revolutionaries all over the world. - Anarkismo.net Editorial Group [Italiano] [Ελληνικά] [Castellano] [Français] It’s the 24th day of ISIS attacks on Kobanê. While people’s defending forces in all border villages are on human shield sentry for Kobanê against attacks, everyone, everywhere in the region we live, rised up not to let Kobanê fall. [Français] [Italiano] The Turkish state that is preparing to interfere to avoid the ISIS danger, is at the same time neglecting the offensive made by ISIS supporters within its borders, showing its politics of hypocrisy. [Italiano] Istanbul anarchists along other leftists, feminists, and 'Gezi park types' have managed to cross over into Syria and the northern town of Kobane which is currently threatened by ISIS. [italiano] In Kurdistan, people are fighting against ISIS, “the procreated violence” given birth by capitalism and the states that start wars for their own benefits. ISIS, subcontractor of the states that pursue income strategies on the region, is attacking people while yelling “islamic state!” and “holy war, jihad!”. People are suffering from hunger and thirst, getting ill, getting injured; migrating ad dying. They are still fighting in that struggle for existence. People are fighting not for the schemes and strategies around meeting tables, not for income, but for their freedom.
Though Israel failed in its last open assault on the Gaza Strip, it still succeed in its transfer efforts. The drowning of a refugee ship with 450 mainly Gaza people reflect the partial success of Israel transfer efforts that for the never ended efforts since 1948. The siege on Gaza join the pressure on both Palestinians within the 1948 borders and that of the 1967. The big masses were driven out during the 1948 and 1967 wars, but efforts continued with all means possible. Some expelled by force some were moved within the border as pressure to "voluntary transfer". Within the 1967 borders, the Israeli efforts are targeted on the villages and Bedouins living in area C where the joint struggle to resist it is mainly focused in the South of Hebron Hills. And the joint struggle in Arkib, Dahamsh (1948 borders), and Bil'in, Ma'asara, Nabi Saleh, Ni'ilin, Qaddum, Sheikh Jarah (East Jerusalem) continue "as usual". [Italiano] The Iraq crisis has been continued for decades while it has been under the power of Saddam Hussein or under the “current democratic Regime” since the invasion of 2003. There were no freedom, no social justice; no equality and also little opportunity for those who were independent from the political parties who were in power. In addition to existing brutality and discrimination against women and the ordinary people a very big gap was created between the rich and poor, making the poor even poorer and the rich richer. [Italiano]
The turmoil in our region expresses the melting of world history as we knew it. It accelerates before it reaches its end as the axes of the old order cannot hold it any more. The Zionist settler colonialist bridgehead of the developed imperial countries in the cradle of human culture at the east of the Mediterranean Sea is being eroded by the resistance of the indigenous inhabitants who are recruiting supporters from all over the world. The cracks in neoliberal global capitalism, which seemed to have reached its ultimate victory just a few years ago when the end of history was declared, are pointing to the real end of the history of egoistic and alienated class society. In the day-to-day struggle here, it is still hard to discern the cracks in the structure of the system, but you can already smell it in the clouds of tear gas at the weekly demos and feel the ground tremor under your feet. [Italiano]
There are four main areas of struggles the AAtW activists are involved with: Joint struggle with communities that invite us to join, like Bil'in and other struggles against the separation fence. Other joint struggles against occupation and settler colonialists like Nabi Salih. Joint struggles with wider coalitions like the Sheikh Jarrah coalition and South Hebron. The fourth is within Israel, like prison and jail solidarity, Al Araqeeb and Lod. It seems that our confrontational and direct-action mode of struggle is being adopted by more and more Israeli radicals. more >>
After 134 days of fierce resisting and defending. The women, men and their combatants with the support and solidarity from millions of people around the world had finally defeated the vicious attack from ISIS and liberated their town Kobane. This was not just a defeat for ISIS and it’s dream to establish an Islamic Kelifat. But it had also destroyed the ISIS’s ally the current Turkish government’s dream to resurrect a Neu-othman empire.
Amid the Syrian warzone a democratic experiment is being stamped into the ground by ISIS. That the wider world is unaware is a scandal. [Castellano] [Français] [Italiano]
The most recent pictures of thousands of refugees fleeing from heavy attacks of ISIS and making their way from Syria across the border to Turkey, come from the area of Kobani – one of three cantons of the self- proclaimed Autonomy Region Rojava in Northern Syria.
It's official, extremist firebrand Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of ISIS, will play the new bearded bogeyman. It's official, he didn’t loot the banks for gold but is in fact being paid by our friends, the good ol’ Gulf petro-monarchs. It's official, we are being frogmarched back into the 'kill the bogeyman' script. It's official, none of this is happening… "officially".
To keep Hamas on its legs again after the Egyptian closure forced it to its knees and to compromise with the West Bank Palestinian Authority, Netanyahu started a war that was supposed to set Hamas back on its feet, though much weaker than before the closure. more >>
Leaflet distributed today at a rally and march in Melbourne in solidarity to the Kurdish struggle.
For some years now the Kurdish movement has been moving in the direction of libertarian ideas. While not an anarchist movement, this move is a sign that anarchist ideas of freedom and equality through solidarity, our ideas of horizontality and radical direct democracy and our radical critique against the State are not only valid and strong, but are also necessary for movements in order to break away from the authoritarian legacy within the left. It is our duty to express our solidarity with Rojava and the Kurdish movement, because they represent hope in this region and because they are the oppressed fighting the oppressors. Real struggles are never perfect but they carry diverse degrees of potential to being about a free society. Expressing our solidarity with the revolutionary movement in Rojava means we understand our role is to continue developing the core tenets of our ideas in order to inspire revolutions and revolutionaries all over the world. - Anarkismo.net Editorial Group [Italiano] [Ελληνικά] [Castellano] [Français]
In Kurdistan, people are fighting against ISIS, “the procreated violence” given birth by capitalism and the states that start wars for their own benefits. ISIS, subcontractor of the states that pursue income strategies on the region, is attacking people while yelling “islamic state!” and “holy war, jihad!”. People are suffering from hunger and thirst, getting ill, getting injured; migrating ad dying. They are still fighting in that struggle for existence. People are fighting not for the schemes and strategies around meeting tables, not for income, but for their freedom.
The Iraq crisis has been continued for decades while it has been under the power of Saddam Hussein or under the “current democratic Regime” since the invasion of 2003. There were no freedom, no social justice; no equality and also little opportunity for those who were independent from the political parties who were in power. In addition to existing brutality and discrimination against women and the ordinary people a very big gap was created between the rich and poor, making the poor even poorer and the rich richer. [Italiano]
For six days, June 5 to 10 - corresponding to the days of the 1967 War - a wide spectrum of events will take place, including exhibitions, demonstrations, theatre plays, academic conferences etc., in order to place a the occupation and the millions suffering under its yoke on the public agenda. June 9 and 10 had been declared as International Days of Protest Against the Israeli Occupation, and we will hold The main march and rally on Saturday, June 9. more >> |
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Comments (4 of 4)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4Why would you assume Turkey would not act without US support? Of course the US will eventually throw the Kurdish groups it now supports under the bus, like so many imperialist powers have before, but this represents a split within NATO nations about what represents the best short term military objective.
As well, not that I would support Turkey shelling anyone really, but let's look at what the SDF (it's not just the YPG participating in the battles) are doing north of Aleppo. They've been opportunistically attacking other rebel groups, including many revolutionary formations, who have been suffering under Russian and Assadist bombs. Russia isn't striking them, likely because they're allied with the US and it would escalate the war. However, there is some reason to believe they are co-ordinating directly with Russia and maybe even with Assad, like the hand-off of power Assad negotiated in the north-east.
This article is still stuck in the tired binaries of the cold war. The actions of the YPG and other SDF groups north of Aleppo shows the nationalist character of their project and a lack of solidarity with other people in struggle, not some sort of anti-imperialist project against NATO.
Thanks for your comments, as a quick reply:
1. "Why would you assume Turkey would not act without US support?" Turkey's calculation in all of this, is that NATO will stand by them. Therefore the constant calls to call the YPG terrorist. Turkey knows, after the Russian airfighter incident, that NATO will stand by them, as Jens Stoltenberg aptly put it back in November when he expressed absolute and unqualified solidarity with Turkey. They are too precious an ally (geopolitically and militarily speaking) and they know it. That's why Erdogan gets away with everything. How much will he get away with? It is up to anyone's guess. But as long as NATO doesn't condemn their actions openly, Turkey is operating as a NATO member.
2. "this represents a split within NATO nations". Not quite. You need more than Turkey to talk about a split and the only NATO member bent o bombing the Kurdish is Turkey (others are standing idle by the side, or calling for dialogue without putting much teeth into the business). I've been to many protests where local authorities and national government calls to dialogue while repressive forces are bludgeoning the people. Do you call this a split in government? That would be, at best, naive. The same applies to the current situation. They may call for restraint, but the local cop's bludgeoning of the people will keep going -and they'll get away with it.
3. "As well, not that I would support Turkey shelling anyone really". I'm glad. You seemed to be going in that direction.
4. "They've been opportunistically attacking other rebel groups, including many revolutionary formations". Which? Please name them. Yeish Al Islam? Yeish al Fatah? Harakat Ahrar ash-Sham al-Islamiyya? Al Nusra? The Muhajirin? Yabat Ansar a-Din? Is this the same "rebels" that are saying that Al Nusra (that is Al Qaeda) should be part of the ceasefire too? There is a misconception (fed by mass media) among some as to the nature of these "rebels" handsomely funded by so radical, democratic and progressive regimes as Saudi Arabia. Syria was not Egypt or Tunisia. The protests that started in 2011 were localised and this all spiralled out of control, because quite soon any legitimate social movement and social protest was took over by armed fundamentalist groups funded by foreign powers (including NATO) that completely crushed any libertarian potential among the incipient, weak and localised rbellion. If your idea of a revolution is sharia law and the Mad Max scenario of Lybia then that's fine. But we understand completely different things for revolution then. The only properly revolutionary force today on the ground in Syria is the YPG, in spite of all of its human short-comings.
5. "The actions of the YPG and other SDF groups north of Aleppo shows the nationalist character of their project and a lack of solidarity with other people in struggle". For a start, I'd rather have nationalism than theocratic fundamentalism any time. Secondly, talk about lack of solidarity? When ISIS was bombing the Kurdish and slaughtering them in 2014, all these "rebels" stood idle by the side, and let them being maimed. All of them turned against the Kurdish when Turkey requested them to do so. And all of them were in favour of excluding the Kurdish in the frustrated Geneve talks earlier on this month. You can't abuse that much the word solidarity.
The most important thing is to call today for the hypocrisy of NATO that, on the one hands, arms fundamentalists, and then calls the Kurdish their friends, that call for dialogue and then do not take any steps to curb the Turkish bombings. We have to try to pressure for a real position against the Turkish butchery in Syria. Now that there's talk of a ceasefire, guess what? Turkey has just said that they will keep attacking the YPG! I doubt the "rebels" will come out to defend their Kurdish neighbours as they have failed to do so for years. That's why solidarity is imperative with the Kurdish revolutionary forces who, in the midst of all this chaos and tragedy, are the only forces trying to implement a more democratic, progressive and libertarian order from the bottom up, bot trying to topple Assad to replace him for a cabinet of theocrats and technocrats Lybia-style.
Jose , you made some generalizations that might not be fully correct , like Kurds = PKK , NATO = Turkish state , etc .. . unfortunately , without NATO airstrikes , PKK couldn't keep Kobane or advance toward Azaz .. I don't think that we can advice Pentagon officials or Putin 's generals to keep the bombs and drones flying to pave the way for PKK fighters on the ground .. They won't listen to anarchists , and if they do that means we have to search for another thing but anarchism .. I thought that anarchists closed the old ill chapter of national liberation .. Once our parents were told that all their problems were there because they were enslaved by foreign masters , they revolted to substitute their foreign masters with local ones .. Now we are trying to get rid of those masters .. Do you really think that a Kurdish master will be better than a foreign one ? And I doubt that Ocalan needs Bokchin to prove himself as a national leader of Kurdish people ... Does he really need the image of an anarchist Mao , as some of our comrades present him , will that help him to recruit more young kurds in his ranks or to make everyone in Rojava bow in front of his huge pictures or even burst in tears , or force revolutionary discipline there ? Not that we are not the best people for the job , I honestly don't think he needs us , Jose , he has enough
Hi Mazen, long time no see. Good to hear from you.
1. NATO's role in Syria has been contradictory to say the least, but by an large, has been detrimental to the ordinary Syrian and Kurdish people. Some bombardments of the US helped Kobane, it is true. But that's it. At the same time, another member (Turkey) was repressing and bombing the Kurds (it is curious that you bring up the PKK to the debate -which is the argument of the Turkish State to bomb all Kurdish people- saying that I do a generalisation, when in fact, I do not even mention the PKK in the debate), and while they were arming the Emirates and Saudi Arabia in the knowledge that those weapons would eventually reach the Islamic State. Which is the real NATO? The real game-changer in Syria was Russian intervention. And as the Turkish State increases their aggression against the Kurdish -with all the resemblance of the situation previous to the Armenian genocide a century ago- NATO stands idle and fails to condemn it or take actions against one of its members. You may blame it on my Catholic upbringing if you want, but sins of ommission are in my opinion as bad as any other. NATO needs to be hold to account, they cannot get away with it and we need to remember it and shame them.
2. This article is not a call to support the US or Russia, at all. This article is to call for solidarity and active mobilisation in favour of the Kurdish and to denounce the Turkish State bloody intervention in order to supress the Kurdish and to give life support to their fundamentalist cronies.
3. National Liberation is a much broader debate. Do I think that many new flags in the world will really change the situation of the oppressed? No. But as an anarchist I do believe that people have a right to self-government and to be sovereign collectively of their own decisions, to master and to own everything they have. This is very easy to deny when you leave in an imperialistic country or when you belong to a dominant group. It is more difficult to reject when you belong to a suppressed group. I think that an individualistic conception of anarchism on the one hand, and the influence of dogmatic ultra-left Marxism on the other, have led some anarchists to belittle the importance of federalism, a distinctive and most important feature of early anarchism. And at that point is where we could have been the most relevant i the 20th century and big opportunities were lost. The Kurdish are relevant precisely because of that: they recover federalism without getting lost in the chimaera of State building, while they are carrying a social transformation which has many positive developments. Should anarchists support that? Unequivocally yes, in my opinion.