Solidarity with Kobane

I was pleased to be able to speak at a Press Conference held in the Stop the War Coalition Office last night, at the invitation of Day-Mer, the Turkish and Kurdish Community organisation. 

The event was called to explain what is happening in Kobane and allowed me to offer my support and solidarity to those struggling bravely to defend the town and, more broadly, to the workers and poor of the whole region in their fight for self-determination, workers' unity  and to defeat poverty, corruption and IS brutality.

In doing so, I made clear my view that trade unionists and socialists must oppose the intervention of the US, UK and other Western powers. As the Turkish Government's actions were confirming, they will only act when it suits their own agenda and to further their own interests.

Whatever happens in the imemdiate battle in Kobane, the heroic resistance being put up by Kurdish fighters shows the determination that people will show when they have a goal worth fighting for.

I spoke alongside other Socialist Party members on the platform and endorse the comments in the article below: 

The plight of ordinary Kurds and others living in Kobane in the Kurdish area of Syria, surrounded and besieged by ISIS, fills everyone who sees the brutal methods of ISIS, including mass executions, beheadings, torture and rape, with horror. 150,000 refugees have fled. The resistance put up by Kurdish fighting forces in Syria, a third of whom are women, is extremely courageous.

Kurds are a stateless nation, divided, since the 1921 post-war agreement between imperialist powers to carve up the Middle East, across Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey. As instability has swept the Middle East as a result of western imperialism’s wars, Kurds have been able to develop autonomous areas in both Iraq and Syria. 

The three Kurdish enclaves in Northern Syria are known as Rojava (West Kurdistan). In a region dominated by repressive regimes including suppression of women, Rojava is something of a beacon to Kurds, with its attempts to involve people of all faiths and nationalities in secular cantons. Its standing has grown further in comparison with the corrupt capitalist regime of Barzani in the Kurdish area of Northern Iraq.

The dominant organisation in Rojava is the PYD (Democratic Union Party), linked to the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party), a guerrilla organisation with mass support based in the Kurdish areas of Turkey. It was the PKK that entered Iraqi Kurdish areas when the Yazidi (Christian) community were under attack and played a large part in repelling ISIS from Sinjar.

The population of Kobane faces the possibility of a massacre. Many Kurdish organisations have, in desperation, called for action by western powers, in particular for heavy armoury to back up the bombings.

But any involvement of the US, UK and other western capitalist powers will only ever be in pursuit of their own interests. Western imperialism has a long record of standing by while populations are slaughtered - including of Kurds themselves - and intervening to inflict their own carnage when it has served their interests.

Western powers want the involvement of Turkey, and the Turkish government has now agreed to join the campaign against ISIS. However it does this for its own reasons. It is suspected of having colluded with ISIS against the Kurds in Syria. They have allowed jihadists to cross their border in big numbers. They now fear they have created a monster – or in fact two: ISIS itself, which now threatens their own borders, but also an armed and roused Kurdish population. 

A ‘peace process’ is meant to be in place between the PKK and Turkish state but depending on how events develop, they will fear the Kurdish population in Turkey could sweep that aside. Appallingly, the Turkish state has mobilised troops and teargas against Kurds and Turks gathering on the border wanting to get through to join the resistance. Turkish aims in Syria include setting up a buffer zone in Rojava and replacing Kurdish fighters with their own forces. 

The Socialist Party has offered our support to a statement by Turkish and Kurdish community organisation Day-Mer, which stands clearly against western imperialist intervention and correctly says: 

“The crocodile tears of Western imperialist countries, led by the USA, in an attempt to appear to be bombing ISIS, should not deceive anybody. The blood bath in the region is their creation. For this reason, the way forward to get rid of ISIS barbarism is not a new imperialist intervention that provokes conflicts between different beliefs and peoples to plunder the region’s natural resources; on the contrary, it is only possible through termination of these countries’ interventions in the region and the realization of regional people’s right to self-determination of their future.” 

The Socialist Party supports the right to armed resistance by people who face the possibility of slaughter. This should be under the control of democratically-elected, non-sectarian defence committees, which would enable the mass of ordinary people to take an active role, including in deciding the course of action. We support the right of Kurdish people to self-determination.

Both ISIS and imperialism can be repelled in the Middle East. Because of the ethnic and national divides in the Middle East this would have to take the form of a non-sectarian workers defence force with democratic controls. It would require an appeal to workers and poor people across the region, including in Turkey, across Iraq and Syria and beyond, with a programme to defend the democratic rights and national aspirations of all peoples. It would mean campaigning for the vast wealth of the region to be owned and controlled democratically in order to provide a secure standard of living for all working and poor people. A voluntary socialist confederation of the Middle East would enable all peoples to freely and democratically decide their own fates.