Declaration of the European Jineolojî Camp 2024 for women’s self-defense
During our European Jineoloji camp, we came together as the Jineoloji committees from across Europe to discuss our ongoing work and our future struggle. At our camp, named in the memory of Sehid Nagihan Akarsel, we discussed in depth the centrality of self-defence to our lives and our work together. This declaration reflects our discussions specifically on the question of self-defence in this time of intensified attacks on our movements. We remembered the women in struggle we have lost to the violent attacks of the system, and we emphasised the importance of being organised so that we do not face this threat alone. In this reflection, we were guided by the long experience and struggle of the Kurdistan Freedom Movement, always remembering the example of Reber Apo’s struggle on Imrali Island which continues to this day.
In the present moment, we can see in different territories and contexts that femicides and attacks on women are increasing. In only the last month, we have seen how women in India are again rising up against the constant sexual violence and femicide in their context, in memory of Moumita Debnath and the 14-year-old Dalit girl who has not been publicly named. In addition, two women journalists, Gulistan Tara and Hero Abaddin, who worked to defend the revolution in Kurdistan, have been lost to political femicide. We need to understand these attacks on women in the context of the Third World War, which is resulting in a huge crisis and fragmentation in societies across the world where woman are the main target, especially those who take the role of the vanguard. The system and its patriarchal mentality attacks societies through special warfare, both using military physical force and through psychological methods and technology. These attacks show us yet again that we must strengthen our capacity for and commitment to self-defence.
Self-defence depends on knowing and understanding where we come from, what kind of world we want to build, and how to fight the system within ourselves. Every action we take must be rooted in the principle of defending our communities, land, nature, values, languages, cultures, and our lives, against the forces of the system which seek to destroy humanity itself. We go beyond individual and physical defence, and instead we understand self-defence as a holistic ideology of life: we must know the enemy of the freedom of women and society, and know ourselves deeply, in order to create alternatives outside of the system.
Women’s democratic confederalism is the answer not only to our desire for freedom and unity, but also to our need to defend ourselves against ongoing attacks. We build women’s democratic confederalism within ourselves, our communities and our societies, following in the footsteps of the women who have given their lives in the struggle to achieve this goal. This is how we commit ourselves to creating and strengthening free life everywhere. We condemn again all this feminicides and support the struggles from India, Kurdistan and around the world. Our common voice, art and philosophy is from the mountain to the planes, to the villages to the streets are the same Jin, Jiyan, Azadî !
Jineolojî Camp
France
August 2024