received anonymously:
Coming to Rojava I knew one thing for sure, I would learn a lot and much would be asked of me. This learning is of course not limited to certain spaces, but more an every day life philosophy. The last weeks together with other internationalists we organized some space to learn, analyze and share life. For this purpose, we did what’s so rare nowadays, we turned off our phones put them aside and ignored them for a whole three weeks. And then it started, getting up early, doing sports together, eating breakfast together, followed by hour long discussions about the meaning of life, the influence different philosopher’s have had on our understanding of the world and much more.
We invited older friends to come and share their stories with us, never starting with themselves, but always starting from their societies history and a collective standpoint. At times a very frustrating experience! Imagine yourself asking a somewhat simple question, like what do you think about anarchism? And instead of someone starting with Anarchism, this person first explains to you how patriarchy, the state and ideologies came about. Slowly, we understood more the inter connectivity between all topics and the importance to not dissect them into small mouth sized pieces, but always try to keep the broad in mind. These weeks were not always easy, with my mind so busy, I could never get enough hours of sleep- often laying awake until late at night thinking about the meaning of revolution, and just when I had finally closed my eyes, someone would come and wake me up for night watch. Night watch and security in general is something we have to take seriously here, we never rely on outsiders to keep us safe.
At times it’s hard to remember that I am in a war zone, the humming of the drones is almost unnoticeable among the noise of the city, news of friends having fallen normally reach us over the internet, making them feel far away and distant, somehow unreal, and even though everyone is complaining about the economical situation, to me at times that doesn’t sound much different from the daily complaints in the UK. But then- of course it is, there’s the small moments when I am painfully aware just where I am, when my housemate tells me her nightmares about her sister falling sehid, or that she dreamed about one of her many friends who have fallen or when I am sitting in the middle of the night, carrying the (shared!) responsibility of keeping an eye out for my friends and comrades. The low intensity warfare works, not just on the western media, who are turning a blind eye to the atrocities committed here, but also on you and me- those of us, who stand in solidarity with the Kurdish movement, who want to see Rojava thrive. I can ignore the reality of the war, exactly what Turkey is aiming for, so it can slowly, but surely kill the revolution. During our discussions, we reminded ourselves of this situation, opening our eyes, trying to really feel it and give our actions and words meaning- making them a constant response. In one seminar, a friend gave us a lesson on the history of sexism, how it developed, it’s turning points, different philosopher’s impacts and I found myself shaking with anger.
Never before had I felt anger so clearly, so raw, inside me, in response to someone giving a presentation. For me in this moment I knew, we need to take this struggle a hell of a lot more serious and step up our actions, the oppressive systems need a powerful response and we all must be part of it.
