COLOGNE, GERMANY
A commune was founded in Cologne on 21 September, by internationalist young women. The commune was given the name of Martyr Lêgerîn Azadi, or doctor Alina Sanchez.
The young women who founded the commune shared the following letter with the press on their establishment:
Alina is not fire, Alina is magma
“Dear friends, We are the autonomous internationalist commune Şehid Lêgerîn in Cologne, Germany. We are young people who have come together to become part of the Kurdish freedom struggle. We accept the challenge to be one of the first internationalist communes in Europe and thus participate in something completely new.
It all started with a spark of hope, with a new perspective, when we first heard about the freedom movement with its pillars of gender liberation, ecology and democratic confederalism. The more we learned about the movement, came into contact with it and finally worked with it, the more sparks were created in us, which finally flared up into a small flame. When we decided to found the commune within the TEKO-JIN youth organization, our fire for revolution, for the search for a free life beyond the state, power and violence, was finally kindled.
For us, it is clear to take the path into the Kurdish movement. Because of the rise of fascism, the increased patriarchal attacks and the progressive environmental destruction all over the world, we see it as a necessity to organize ourselves internationally in order to give an answer to the current developments. It is not enough for us to express solidarity with existing struggles, we want to be part of the liberation struggle. We want to strengthen it with our youth spirit, our life experience and our radically anti-patriarchal, anti-fascist and ecological views.
We see it as a central challenge to break with our internalized western, eurocentric mentality and to always critically question our personalities and our actions. True to the motto “Diversity in Unity” we want to overcome the isolated mentality of the German left and focus on commonalities in our struggles. On the way to being oneself (Xwebûn) we question the classical role of women, biological gender concepts and the liberal understanding of feminism.
Since we see ourselves as internationalists* who want to connect feminist, ecological and power-critical struggles around the world, we have chosen the name Şehid Lêgerîn for our community. Hevala Lêgerîn (Alina Sanchez) was an activist and doctor from Argentina who brought together struggles in Argentina, Cuba, Kurdistan and Europe. In all these places she fought the “sick” system with her great knowledge of health and with her honest and friendly nature. She believed that diseases cannot be cured with medicine alone, but with Hevaltî.
In her Cinevision it says “Alina is not fire, Alina is magma”. We will resolutely continue the fight of our friend and with heart and mind we will develop to magma, to a wonderful great power, which will set the hearts of many people on fire.
To a common fight, which frees us all! Berxwedan jiyan e! Resistance means life!
We especially greet the brave fighters in Heftanîn, to whom we send a lot of strength, all friends of TEKO-JIN, and Hevala Elefterya Hambi, to whom we feel very close.”
