Statement in Solidarity with Afrin and the Rojava Revolution

- Caucus Statement

Solidarity#HandsOffAfrin #DefendAfrin

The people of Afrin are facing the violence of a Turkish state bent on the ethnic cleansing of the Afrin Canton. Turkey, the second largest army in NATO, has started a ground invasion supported by airstrikes on civilian targets. The people of Afrin, 400,000 in total, are being abandoned by their international partners. We support Rojava and the revolution against Turkey’s fascist, racist, neo-imperial politics against the Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians, Ezidis and other ethnic and religious minorities who are building peace and a radically democratic society from the ground up.

DSA-LSC will:

▶ stand in solidarity with the all of the peoples of Afrin and the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria (Rojava) in their struggle for self-determination and a multiethnic, free, egalitarian society built on secular and libertarian socialist principles;

▶ support the self-organized People’s and Women’s Protection Units (YPG/YPJ) established to defend communities inside the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria (Rojava), including Afrin;

▶ explore opportunities for tangible humanitarian and development aid to communities and representative organizations from the DFNS; and

▶ call on governments, civil society and the global labor movement to support the Kurdish, Arab, Assyrian, Ezidi, and all of the people the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria;

Because the Kurdish, Arab, Assyrian, Ezidi people face repression and violence by governments and non-state forces in Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran, socialists must support this struggle. Following our tradition of international solidarity, like in our support for democracy in Spain during its civil war, we must support the Rojava revolution.