The Central Line East branch of the RMT union has passed this motion in support of the Kurds. Could your union branch pass it too, or a version of it?
Support the Kurds!
1. We strongly oppose "Islamic State" and its attack on the mainly-Kurdish city of Kobani, Syria.
2. We support the Kurds of Kobani - including the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Women's Brigades - in their valiant fight; we support their right to resist attack and to ask for help in doing so.
3. We are appalled that the Turkish regime - which has a long history of oppressing the Kurdish people - is not helping the Kurds to defend themselves, and is even obstructing their fight to defend themselves by blocking supplies of arms.
4. We resolve to support and publicise demonstrations in support of the Kurds.
5. We have no confidence in the US-led coalition; its intervention is motivated by its own interests, not those of the Kurds or other oppressed peoples; we have seen, for example in Afghanistan, that this self-interested military intervention makes matters worse.
6. We demand an end to the obstruction of the supply of arms to the Kurds; the unconditional acceptance of refugees; and the unbanning of Kurdish organisations such as the PKK.
7. We are disappointed by the Stop The War coalition's lack of support for the Kurds and failure to actively oppose the war against them. We ask the union to make representations to the Stop The War coalition on this matter, and to reconsider the union's support for this group dependent on its response.
Comments
Motion from Beeston North Branch Labour Party, Nottinghamshire
This branch/ CLP calls on the Parliamentary Labour Party to respond to the emergency in the Kurdish Syrian city of Kobane under siege by Islamic State (IS).
The population of Kobane had been swollen by tens of thousands of refugees from outlying areas fleeing the genocidal force of IS (ISIL/ ISIS). During IS’s war on the region, in addition to the beheadings of UK victim Alan Henning, there have been mass beheadings of Kurdish people who opposed IS’s advance.
Air strikes will not defeat ISIS. ‘Boots on the grounds’ are needed but they are already there - they are the Kurdish militias of Kobane in the YPG/ YPJ units of the Peshmerga, a third of whose members are women. They have given IS the only real battle it has ever faced.
We call on the PLP as a matter of emergency to call on the government and act themselves to:
• Support, and discuss with representatives of, the popular and democratic forces in Kobane and the wider region of Rojava where democracy has grown over the last 2 years;
• Openly criticise the Turkish government for its failure to oppose the violently sectarian forces in Syria, including IS, and its refusal to allow arms to the forces defending Kobane from IS;
• Openly criticise the Turkish government for its growing repression of its own Kurdish citizens as well the refugees from Syria;
• Demand from all countries in the region that they allow arms to flow to the democratic Kurdish fighting forces (YPG/ YPJ and others);
• Call for an end to any further military relationship with Turkey unless 1) it allows arms and Kurdish fighters back into Syria to defend their people from IS and 2) takes firm action to combat IS and other opponents of democracy in Syria.
We call also on our MEP, Glenis Wilmott, and other Labour representatives in the European parliament to take similar action.
Motion passed by Scottish Executive Committee of NUS
Roza Salih – NUS Scotland’s international student’s officer
Motion: Supporting Iraqi International Students
The Scottish Executive Committee Notes:
1.The on-going humanitarian crisis and sectarian polarisation in Iraq - which has resulted to thousands of Yazidi Kurds been massacred.
The Scottish Executive Committee Believes:
1.That Iraqi citizens have suffered for years under the sectarian dictatorship of Saddam Hussein and in the US/UK invasion and occupation of Iraq.
2.That rape and other forms of sexual violence are being used as weapons against Women in IS occupied areas against minorities to ethnically cleanse.
The Scottish Executive Committee Resolves:
1.To work with the International Students' Campaign to support Iraqi students in the UK.
2.To campaign in solidarity with the Iraqi people and in particular support the hard-pressed student, workers' and women's organisations against all the competing nationalist and religious-right forces.
3.To support Iraqis trying to bridge the Sunni-Shia divide to fight for equality and democracy, including defence of the rights of the Christian and Yazidi-Kurd minorities.
4.To condemn the "IS" and support the Kurdish forces fighting against it, while expressing no confidence or trust in the US military intervention.
5.Encourage students to boycott anyone found to be funding ISIS or supplying them with goods, training, travel or soldiers.
6.To meet with Iraqi and Kurdish organisations, in Iraq and here in the United Kingdom, in order to build solidarity and to support refugees.
7.To issue a statement on this basis.
Organisations to support
Great motion. It would also be good to include information about the work of leftist organisations among the Kurds, including the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees. More info about this soon!
Sacha Ismail