Kurdistan

Turkish troops out of Syria!

Since the Turkish invasion of Kurdish-controlled northern Syria started on 9 October, over 160,000 civilians have been displaced, with at least fifty civilian deaths already. The invasion immediately followed the announcement by Donald Trump that US troops would be withdrawn from northern Syria. Trump’s “America First” policy is confused and totally inconsistent. Attempts by the White House to portray Trump’s move as a step in disengaging the US from overseas conflicts were shown to be a scam when Trump also announced sending 2,000 soldiers to Saudi Arabia in a move against Iran. The decision...

Trump’s shift puts Rojava at risk

Donald Trump has announced the withdrawal of American troops from Northern Syria, and given effective consent to President Erdoğan’s plan to invade. This marks a slight shift from Trump’s previous stated position. Back in December he announced that American troops would leave Northern Syria within the medium-term future, but that it was conditional on guarantees from Turkey regarding the safety of the Kurds. Those guarantees have now ceased to be a consideration, and the United States is perfectly content to leave Rojava to the mercy, or lack thereof, of the Turkish army. This new announcement...

Dissident voices of the international left

In Dissidents of the International Left, Andy Heintz’s first book, he interviews 77 figures from across the international left - many of them, especially those from the global South, notable “dissidents” from what is taken in the USA and Europe to be left “orthodoxy”. Many of them have not had much hearing in English language publications, though several have been interviewed by or spoken to Solidarity and Workers’ Liberty: Yanar Mohammed, Maryam Namazie, Houzan Mahmoud, Pragna Patel, Marieme Helie Lucas... Andy Heintz talked with Stephen Wood from Solidarity about his book. Heintz is a...

Israelophobia is Stalinist regression

Barry Finger reviews Paul Kelemen’s book The British Left and Zionism: History of a Divorce (Manchester University Press, 2012) This volume, which joins the herd of independent minds in churning the same old depleted groupthink, purports to challenge the claim that changes over the decades in the left’s appraisal of Zionism and the Palestinian cause stem from antisemitism. Whose claim? Even the people Kelemen whom has a go at would most probably argue the opposite: pro-Palestinian sympathies do not stem from antisemitism. However, antisemitism often finds a greenhouse atmosphere in pro...

Worker-communist Party of Kurdistan May Day speech

Martin Thomas from Workers' Liberty spoke on Saturday 4 May 2019 at a May Day event organised by the Worker-communist Party of Iran (Hekmatist, Official Line) in London. The event also featured speakers from the Worker-communist Party of Kurdistan, Iran Protests Live Information, the Frontline Socialist Party of Sri Lanka, and the Workers' International Network, and a speech from Iranian writer Narvin Parvaz. Below is the text of the speech from Noori Bashir, representing the Worker-communist Party of Kurdistan. That organising the working class for a socialist revolution is the only solution...

Trump’s bluster, Assad’s strength

On 19 December, US president Donald Trump announced a snap decision to withdraw US troops from Syria. At first he said the troops would be out within 30 days, but now it looks like several months at least. The plan is now conditional on assurances from Turkey regarding the safety of the Kurds in Northern Syria. Trump’s move outraged the “common sense” of bourgeois foreign policy. US Defence Secretary James “Mad Dog” Mattis and Trump’s special envoy for anti-Daesh work, Brett McGurk, both resigned. Mattis was angered by Trump criticising American allies and other NATO members regarding their...

Letter to the Worker-communist Party of Kurdistan, November 2017, on the Iraqi Kurdistan independence referendum

Dear comrades: We would like to take the opportunity to tell you what we think about the issues raised in your motion. We recognise the long history of Kurdish oppression and we are for the rights of the Kurds to self-determination. We also accept the right of the Iraqi Kurds to break with Iraq and set up a fully independent state. We accept that the majority of Iraqi Kurds currently want this. We also understand that the founding of an independent state for the Iraqi Kurds would probably give Kurdish people elsewhere in the region more confidence and hope for their own liberation, and bring...

KRG workers need our support

Urgent action to all Trade union & Left organisations Re: Urgent action Against KRG Dear Sir or Madam: The political situation in Iraqi Kurdistan is deteriorating day by day. Kurdistan Regional Government announced in early 2016 that it would cut government employee salaries by 15 to 75 percent, depending on position and salary bracket, as part of austerity measures to deal with the ongoing economic crisis. Kurdish public servants protested across the Kurdistan Region against KRG austerity measures and salary delays. Salaries and wages have not been paid for months. Electricity, clean water...

Afrin cannot be ignored

Kurdish forces retreated from Afrin in northern Syria on 19 March after Turkey seized control of the centre of the city. On 25 March Turkish state media said they had full control of the city and were now “sweeping for landmines and IEDs to allow citizens to return.” The 200,000 Kurds who were in Afrin prior to the assault are likely to be forced into internal exile; many are heading towards Aleppo. And Turkey’s seizure of Aleppo could be catastrophic for the Kurdish cause not just in Syria but across the Middle East. One of the first acts of the encircling armies was the destruction of a...

Turkey out of Afrin!

Lively and disruptive protests took place on Sunday 11 March at Kings Cross and Manchester Piccadilly rail stations, blocking the track in Manchester and closing King’s Cross. They have pushed the Turkish military assault on Kurdish-held Afrin in Syria back into the headlines. While a siege on the enclave of Eastern Ghouta has dominated much press coverage, what has happened in Afrin has been just as brutal. Turkey, a NATO member, is also conducting a siege, surrounding Afrin, “neutralising” almost 4,000 combatants, and shelling positions of the Kurdish militia, the YPG. 35,000 people lived in...

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