Since the ISIS suicide bombing in Suruc, Turkey, of a delegation of Turkish revolutionaries going to help the reconstruction of Kobane in Kurdish Syria, the Turkish government has started a new US-supported “war on terror” that perversely targets the same people and movements that were victims of ISIS terror, while leaving the murderous right-wing jihadist gangs alone.
In opposition to these attacks, last Thursday forty leftist activists and members of the local Kurdish community organized a picket and demonstration in front of the Turkish consulate in Los Angeles.
Our demonstration responded to the new war by demanding an end to the Turkish bombing campaign against Kurdish targets, domestic repression of the pro-Kurdish opposition and plans to establish a so-called “buffer zone” in northern Syria. We demanded that the US stop facilitating Turkey’s war plans, and instead use its diplomatic pressure to lift the embargo on Rojava, and demanded a halt to the collaboration between the Turkish state with ISIS and other gangs which are carrying out genocide in Syria and Iraq.
Chris remembers Suruc Attack
Chris, a member of Industrial Workers of the World and the Black Rose Anarchist Federation, was at Suruc during the ISIS terrorist attack that killed 32 pro-Kurdish socialists.
A militant from Black Rose Anarchist Federation who was with the targeted delegation in Suruc spoke about their experience during the attack and the repressive response of the Turkish state, and about the need for international solidarity. Members of the Red Guards LA, International League of Peoples’ Struggle, Gabriela LA, Copwatch Santa Ana and a Santa Monica College student also spoke about their support for the Kurdish freedom movement. Our request to meet with the Turkish consul general was rejected, but protesters managed to gain entrance to the consulate office and deliver a letter with our demands. At the end of the picket, a solidarity collection was taken to help with the hospital bills of some of the seriously injured Suruc victims in Izmir, Turkey.
While the Turkish state murders Kurdish people, the US state kills a black person here every 28 hours. The same globalized systems of racism, colonialism, oppression and exploitation exist in every part of the world, and our support for liberation struggles in Kurdistan is part of our fight for liberation struggles in Los Angeles. With the allies we make in organizing solidarity for Rojava we are also building a stronger movement for liberation here.
We always recognize the role of US imperialism in exporting the oppression of the US state in its harshest form all around the world – although its power has weakened in the Middle East since the Iraq War – and the need for revolutionaries in the belly of the beast to stand against it. The Kurdish freedom movement, which is being attacked by NATO bombs (in Turkey and northern Iraq) and supported by NATO bombs (in Syria) at the same time, shows how complex (and confused) the role of US imperialism has become. We believe that the tasks of anti-imperialists in supporting this struggle should be to offer alternatives to the demands for increased US military intervention by promoting options for the survival of Rojava that build the strength of the people themselves instead of handing control to foreign imperialism – such as de-criminalizing the Kurdish freedom movement, ending the embargo on Rojava and ending the foreign support of their enemies in Syria – and building stronger connections between Rojava and the international left.
Black Rose is committed to building networks of solidarity for Rojava on an international level. Our initial perspectives and tasks organizing solidarity for the Rojava revolution can be found here.
– BRRN LA Local