29/10/2022
'Seeing the battle of Kobane through the eyes of Azad has forever changed me. I’ve read numerous accounts of people caught in war. Most, question why they are there and who they are really fighting for. This cannot be said for YPJ and YPG. The bloodshed, fatigue, and trauma is somewhat unspeakable. Whilst the reasons for fighting ISIS may be obvious to most people, the society and ideals that Azad Cudi, alongside countless others, fought for is somehow less apparent. Rojava is a region in what is now AANES (Autonomous Administration of North-East Syria). The guiding principles of this diverse, multi-ethnic, multicultural peoples are not dogmatic, and instead celebrate divergent ways of living. The core principles of women’s liberation, ecology and democratic self-governance aim to create cooperative society that free from the whims of capital accumulation, unjustified hierarchies, and the subjugation of women. This is happening right now. This is not a bygone attempt at revolution. This is a revolution that has happened and is still happening. Many have died, and still do, in order protect a set of ideas that can breathe life into the mind of even the most dispirited victims of neoliberalism. I believe that if we fail to recognise the beautiful possibilities that Rojava has opened up for us, then we are at risk of condemning ourselves and the natural world to the horrors of destruction that we witness everyday. We must build the world we need in spite of the current system. We must work our liberation through the cracks like wildflowers through tarmac. We can’t wait for the world we need to be given to us. We need to build it ourselves.'
- Denzil
