The Rojava Revolution in the North of Syria is one of the most prominent: Anti-Patriarchal, Anti-Fascist, Anti-Imperialist movements in modern times. Blossoming out of the Syrian Civil-War in 2012, the revolution has created a society which implements horizontal structures of governing, religious freedom and an all out Womyn’s Revolution.
Rojava’s ideals and practises of direct Anti-Fascist action has attracted Communists, Socialists and Anarchists from around the globe to participate in the militant fight against Daesh (Islamic Slate). Most of these transnational fighters organize into their own groups and brigades, although they ultimately follow the orders of the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG). The YPJ/YPG also leads the military alliance of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighting against Turkish Military aggression, the Assad Regime, Daesh, Al-Nusra Front and other Jihadist militias. The main umbrella organisation for foreign fighters is the International Freedom Battalion (IFB), initially established in June 2015 and inspired by the International Brigades of the Spanish Civil-War. September 2016, in an interview reporting from Manbij — just after liberating the city — a representative from the IFB states, “There are many of us with varying reasons for joining”.
The IBF is composed of many militias, majority being Turkish-Communist/Socialist revolutionary organisations like the Revolutionary Communard Party, Marksist-Leninist Komünist Partisi, Birleşik Özgürlük Güçleri, etc. There is a mass presence of European groups such as: Reconstrucción Comunista (Spanish), Revolutionary Union for Internationalist Solidarity (Greek), Henri Krasucki Brigade (French), Bob Crow Brigade (British/Irish), etc.
The organisations whose origins are purely political and lack ethnic identity are The International Revolutionary People’s Guerrilla Forces, and The Queer Insurrection and Liberation Army . These two militias are armed, militant, self-organized, and horizontal collectives of foreign Anarchist fighters from around the world.
There has been external critique and skepticism of why foreign fighters are mainly of European descent, and how privilege plays a role in people’s accessibility in joining the revolution. The lack of people of color foreign to the “Middle-East” does bring to question the validity of the proclaimed “International Struggle” within the IFB, but their motives are clear.
“Some wanted to help defend the revolution, some wanted military training, some want to understand revolutionary armed struggle in the hopes of aiding their own struggles back home”(IBF Representative).The International Freedom Battalion has been engaged in combat under the guise of the YPJ/YPG since 2015, most recently involved in the Manbij Offensive lead by the SDF in 2016, the liberation of Raqqa from Daesh 2016–2017, and defended Afrin from invading Turkish forces in January 2018. The struggle is real, the fight goes on, and the revolutionaries keep dancing on the corpses of fascists, celebrating their martyrs. And for the foreign fighters, something always to consider is,“The one reason that links everyone in this battalion, is that everyone came here for political reasons, which is to say we all recognize Rojava as one of the most revolutionary struggles of all time”(IBF Representative).
Images and sources : https://howlingpixel.com/wiki/International_Freedom_Battalion
@markito0171 on twitter
