The regime has fallen, the war continues.
The revolutionary dreams of millions of Syrians that flooded the streets in 2011 has finally become reality: the regime has fallen. After decades of Assad’s dynasty, today we woke up in a Syria without functional central government. The Syrian State has collapsed.
We, as anarchist and as revolutionaries, can’t do anything else than to celebrate one tyrant less. Cheers for that! But after more than 7 years of living in the revolution, we learned an unpopular lesson: victory is just a first step to the social transformation we need. Because every victory is simply a step to the next fight.
Luckily, the Kurdish Liberation Movement has decades of experience in their pockets, and they are more than happy to share it with us. And not just that, they also have 12 years of hands-on lessons leading a revolutionary society in north-east Syria, with women liberation, social ecology and confederation of local governments as their compass to build libertarian socialism. Not without shortcomings, not without mistakes, but it is already more than many other libertarian revolutions ever achieved.
At the same time, the military successes of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) against the regime, as well as their authoritarian islamist governance in Idlib, opened an opportunity for their leader to influence the headlines of world news agencies. The information society of the 21st century forgets as fast as they scroll down their screen, so we may have to refresh your memory. Today, who remembers the liberation of Manbij from the claws of ISIS? Who talks about the jihadists who kidnapped and trafficked yazidi women from Sengal all over the salafist world? And who remembers the women who declared SDF’s victory over Raqqa, once the capital of the caliphate?
For those who forgot, we remind you that YPJ is still fighting, leading the front of the women’s revolution in Rojava. A front that is once again under attack by proxy forces of the Turkish State, rallied under the ironic name of Syrian National Army (SNA), a Turkish-controlled coalition of criminal gangs. Today they threaten the multicultural city of Manbij, a great example of pluralism and local governance integrated in the system of the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North East Syria (DAANES).
Rojava’s revolution is not only reaching for kurds but for arabs, as well as armenians, assyrians, syriacs, turkmens, circassians, and many other ethnic groups present here. The arab forces of the Deir Ezzor Military Council were cheered on by local population when entering the city of Deir Ezzor, taking over the security vacuum that the fleeing regime soldiers left behind. The confederal system of North East Syria is a tested blue print that can serve as a foundation for a revolutionary Syria. Omar Aziz, a prominent anarchist from Damascus, worked for a confederal alliance of local councils, proposing them as a backbone of the Syrian revolution. He was arrested and died in the prisons of the Assad regime in february 2013. We have not forgotten him, and we treasure his words and experience as anarchist and as a revolutionary here, in Syria.
All revolutionary Syrians in exile, arabs, kurds and many others, bear the responsibility to make sure that their revolution succeeds. Also anarchists, communists, feminists, ecologists and other internationalist revolutionaries must feel responsible to defend it. We have a beautiful opportunity to set an example for revolutionary movements all around the world, from Kurdistan to Myanmar, from Chiapas to Palestine. Nation-States are the cornerstone of capitalist modernity, and only a worldwide confederation of popular revolutionary movements can challenge it. The alternative is a descent to authoritarianism, imperialist occupation and fundamentalist hate. We won’t let that happen.
Towards a new Syrian revolution!
As anarchists, we must also give answers to the question of nation-State. While calling for the end of states and borders, we need to push forward not just our criticisms, but also our proposals and solutions. We have to do this not only in theory, but in practice, organizing with local communities and social movements to build popular power.
Authoritarian forces, like HTS or Erdogan’s turkey, will always use force to impose their control in times of instability. The only way to counter it is popular organization, a strong ethical and political civil society, building people’s self-defense and a revolutionary culture. With international solidarity, to challenge the nationalism and chauvinism that divides us, and that deceivingly serves to legitimize the nation-state system of capitalist modernity. With local governance and confederal models, to challenge the centralized systems and borders of nation-states, that only breed oppression and violence on diversity. With women and queer organizing at the front, to challenge the patriarchal oppression from where all authoritarian models stem.
Since the arab spring of 2011 we have seen many revolutionary attempts in the middle east, but non of them succeed in achieving a libratory solution, sinking again and again in new tyrannical forms of oppression. What do we do after the fall of a tyrant to prevent another one from replacing him? There is a small window of opportunity when a regime collapses. A brief revolutionary time, where the people can take the power back in their hands, preventing a new centralized authority from imposing itself. We have to be ready to seize those opportunities when they come.
Let’s make sure that the Syrian revolution, as well as the kurdish liberation movement that has been spearheading a democratic resistance in the region, become an example for many more revolutions to come! Let’s fight together to build the new world we carry in our hearts!
Têkoşîna Anarşîst media center,
December 7th 2024
What can you do?
– Join your local rojava solidarity organizing.
– Write in the media, draw attention to the IDP crisis, as well as presenting a more accurate picture of all the forces involved in the fighting. This applies especially if you are someone already working in media with access to bigger publications.
– Create art and visuals that can be spread around. Try to connect them to brochures, writings, solidarity campaigns, etc.
– Organize and join demonstrations, hold public speeches.
– Prepare campaigns against turkish airlines and for closing airspace over Syria. In the past attacks from the air have been the biggest problem for SDF, if it comes to that it will be a significant factor again.
– Donate to Heyva Sor.
– The Semalka border is open for journalists. Come to Rojava!
– If possible, gather with your comrades/friends/family and do the points mentioned above together. Form your own groups or join existing ones.