Statement of Internationalist Women in Rojava – 8th of March
Dearest sisters and comrades,
8th of March represents women’s struggle, and the struggle of diverse genders against patriarchy and capitalism. We will come together in the streets, collectively, knowing none of us are free until we all are. And we will stay in the streets, because the struggle against patriarchy goes on all year.
Our differences are a strength, not a division. We will focus on our common values and aims, of destroying fascism and authority and creating and protecting alternatives. Only through our liberation can a free society be created for everyone.
All over the world we are already fighting for this free society every day, and we can see examples of it being built all over the world, in different colours and places but with the same goals. Here in Rojava, the women’s movement is building up liberation every day, despite the threat of direct attacks from fascism. Leyla Guven represents this women’s movement, 121 days showing us how to intensify our struggles. Meanwhile in Jinwar, the women’s village, women work together in the fields, planting trees and vegetables, and educate each other in skills from medicine to self defence. We recently read the communique from the Zapatista women of South East Mexico, showing their militancy in the face of imperialism is also still strong. In the Americas, women of the First Nations and indigenous communities are in the forefront of struggles to protect their land and hold back the destructive force of capitalism.
This battle also goes on all year, not just on days of protest. Part of finding our true freedom must be regaining our relationship to the land, listening to the warning that matriarchal societies have been crying out for years. If we don’t listen, we are headed for nothing less than extinction.
The state, capitalism and patriarchy has long tried to destroy matriarchal societies, and disconnect us from each other, from ourselves, and from the world we live in. We have to rebuild these connections, we have no other choice. The time is now. We must educate ourselves and each other and join forces to defend ourselves: against the psychological warfare that the powers wage against our souls and our societies; against rape culture and the patriarchy that inflict physical attacks on oppressed genders every single day; against the military threats of fascism such as from the Turkish state, and from all nation states who benefit from and support imperialism. We will study this self defence from each other on the 8th and then we will bring it home.
The powers of oppression have tried to divide the world with a system of borders and walls so that we will not reach out to each other, know each other, stand together. An internationalist perspective transcends and trespasses across these borders. We are here in Rojava as internationalists, to learn, share and make connections. And our struggles all over the world should and will reach out to each other, make these connections. To physically travel is only one form of internationalism. It also means to recognise the necessity of linking struggles, of fighting in every corner, no matter how small, for global liberation.
No matter the distance, we will be together in the streets for the 8th of March and we will stay there. We will take back the common space that once belonged to us, and to claim our place at the front of the ongoing struggle for freedom. We will build up alternatives and defend the alternatives that already live and breathe, as well as fight back against oppression.
We will be there in the memory of our internationalist shehids Ronahi, Legerin, Helin and many others, in the names of Rosa Luxembourg, Amalia Robles, Erma Batalla, Berta Carcaras, and in all our names.
Internationalist women in Rojava