Interview with two international YPJ volunteers (Yekîneyên Parastina Jinê, “Women’s Protection Units”). The interview was made by activists from Rojavakommitteerna Sweden in May 2017.
Q: In what way have you noticed the impact of Democratic Confederalism on society?
A: The goal of this revolution is freedom and equality for all people. To achieve that there has to be a democratization of society. An acceptance of all languages, religions, ethnicity, cultures and genders. People organizing together according to their needs.
We can see the development of Democratic Confederalism in the progression of the struggle for women’s liberation. Abdullah Öcalan says that if women aren’t free the society is not free. The foundation is education and self organizing. We need to analyze society and ourselves, history and present time. To reach the goal of freedom our first fight is within our own minds. If we are unable to change our own way of thinking, the systems of oppression will always resurface. How we are connected to hierarchical structures reflect in all our relationships and in everything that we do. For example if we create separation between animals and humans, and think that we can dominate and kill animals, this approach will be the same toward women, people of color or nature because, everything is connected to our way of thinking. When we read and understand the philosophy of Öcalan we see possibilities and potential truth, but in our lives we see reality. These two clash with each other. We all have shortcomings, and even though we might understand and analyze the systems of oppression, we can’t change ourselves directly. We need time, we need to criticize each other and ourselves, and we need to help each other progress.
In all the villages and in the streets of each neighborhood, there are communes. They are organized in committees in, for example, education, defense, health, and economy. Each commune has a cooperative, which is a communal way of organizing the economy, where everyone makes decisions and work together – and also share in the final product. The cooperatives can be fields of vegetables, seamstresses, pharmacies, or local stores.
It gives the responsibility and control to people to govern their own lives. They don’t have to go through the state to change things, they only need to talk to their neighbors. They don’t have the repression of the state police but protection of people from families that they share lives with.
In Western society people are separated from each other, many don’t even know their neighbors. It creates fear, uncertainty and distrust. We lead our lives according to our own desires and needs without connecting ourselves to the society.
Q: How do you view the possibilities of spreading the revolution to surrounding areas? What is lacking/needed for a fast and broad dissemination?
A: First people need to have a will to learn and to change. We cannot use tools of oppression to reach freedom. We need to be able to criticize ourselves and to change if our ways of organizing have been unsuccessful. The hierarchies in society have existed for thousands of years. We need to accept that change will take time. The question itself is a reflection of our society which is based on instant gratification. We often organize in campaigns or groups for a for a few years and then we get tired of it and change. It took forty years before the revolution in Rojava.
Q: What’s your view on the war that you are a part of in Rojava?
A: We understand that our first fight and our first enemy is within ourselves, in our way of thinking. Abdullah Öcalan says that fighting is not picking up a gun and going to war, but with a pen and with words and speech. We can’t find solutions for peace by using a gun. Capitalism, patriarchy and racism are waging a political war against our minds, they want to spread their ideology. The revolution in Rojava is not just another war. It connects with our common struggle and goal. It connects with the philosophy, the women’s liberation and the meaning of life.
The Kurdish language and culture, even today, are forbidden. People by the thousands have been arrested in Bakûr and Turkey for wanting human rights for Kurds. Kurdish villages and cities have been destroyed, genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Kurdish people is not an historical notion. All people have not only the right but the obligation to defend themselves and each other.
The Islamic State is against freedom for all people, against freedom for women. In fact IS enslave, rape, imprison, torture and kill women. Kill those who won’t conform. IS is the very embodiment of patriarchy. It is the responsibility of all of us who won’t accept a world with all this oppression to stand against them, by increasing our knowledge and belief in ourselves and by taking up arms.
rojavakommittéerna.com
