All living organisms, whether simple or complex, have developed their own ways of self-defense to protect their life and the beauty they offer to the world. The rose protecting itself through its thorns is an example of this. Self-defense is, therefore, as essential to life as water or the sun. For human beings, self-defense is not only a biological need, but above all a social need.
From the beginning, the first human communities had to look for different ways to protect themselves from the attacks and dangers with which they lived in their reality. But this reality was very limited: animal attacks, food shortages, cold or storms, and occasionally a possible attack by another human group. Over the years, the realities in which the different human societies coexisted became more complex, and at the same time they connected with the realities of other human societies. Today, this connection is global, and what happens in the reality of one society can quickly affect a society at the other end of the planet. We can really see this connection as a characteristic of the Universe itself, of which we are all part and consequence. The Chaos Theory also speaks of this through the so-called butterfly effect. Thus, the deforestation of the Amazon or the killing of bees in one part of the planet can lead to real disasters for human societies on a global level, as well as for all other living beings. The COVID-19 example also shows us that, in this globalized and interconnected world, a virus in one particular part of the world can quickly become a worldwide epidemic that affects and alters the lifestyles of millions of people and societies. To give another example, this time a more pleasant one, the revolution in Rojava, a small territory with a few million inhabitants, continues to influence thousands and thousands of people everywhere since its inception and leads them to change their ways of thinking and relating to each other. We see how everything and everyone is connected to each other, both locally and globally, influencing us daily and historically, personally and socially.
We find ourselves in the Third World War, this time with the epicenter in the Middle East, specifically in Kurdistan, where the great international powers are currently carrying out their plans against Life. The nation-state is imposing itself like cancerous cells in every corner of the world through massacres and violations, destroying societies and nature with the fists of the dominant man. Likewise, the Nation-State has so manipulated the mind of society that it has convinced itself that it no longer needs self-defense, because the State, through control and militarization and the false concepts of democracy and freedom, has come to protect us. Is society not a living organism, being composed of hundreds or thousands of living beings? Then, why, if all living organisms have their methods of self-defense, have we, the complex human societies, renounced this vital need by surrendering our lives to a murderous system?
At this point and connecting to history, which is a living spiral full of cumulative events, we must ask ourselves; if the first human communities were aware of the need for self-defense in their concrete realities, shouldn’t we realize a self-defense system according to today’s complex and interconnected reality?
People from all over the world have traveled to Rojava to learn first hand about the revolution that has been going on for some years now, many even gave their lives in its defense; thousands are influenced by the knowledge of the Zapatista communities, which have been a beacon of hope since they rose up in 1994; Thousands of others went to Abya Yala and participated in the different revolutionary processes that took place throughout the 20th century, just as thousands came during the 1936 revolution to take up arms in the Spanish state to defend socialist principles from the clutches of fascism. The struggle against patriarchy, the State, capitalism and colonization must take place in an international and organized manner through the creation of a system of self-defense that responds to current realities, where internationalism is not an objective in itself but a collective view from which we recognize each other from the diversities that enrich us.
We should not understand ourselves as observers in solidarity with the struggle of other territories, but we should feel that we are part of and participate in this struggle, because if the attacks are global, resistance must also be global. In this sense, the best way to be in solidarity and support the revolution in a place is to take steps towards the revolutionary struggle in the territories where we live, steps decided on the basis of love for our history and our land, because connecting with our roots will be the best way to take the struggle to the global level, because what internationalism could we talk about if we do not feel love for the history and the struggle of the land to which we belong? Could we fight for revolution in one part of the world if we were not filled with emotion every time we think of carrying out the revolution within the society of which we are a part? Love for our land, our history, our culture, will allow us to develop love for other lands, histories and cultures, a love that is deep and truly necessary to carry out the struggle successfully.
Rêber Abdullah Öcalan says that the goal of the Universe is freedom, and this can be seen in the song of a nightingale, in the thousands of colors of nature or in the efforts of a captured animal to break free from its cage. The human being, as part of the Universe, is also in search of freedom, and in internationalism he has found a formula to collectively reach free life and at the same time be able to defend it. But the struggle has to be carried out in the spirit of the 21st century. Historically internationalism was founded on class and/or national liberation understandings. But these understandings are insufficient and do not pursue the creation of a common alternative. Everywhere in the world we see how women are becoming aware of their own strength and are taking the lead in the struggle; Kurdistan, Chiapas, Chile, Sudan… The Kurdistan Women’s Movement affirms that the 21st century is the century of women’s liberation. Therefore, developing the struggle in the spirit of this century means putting women’s liberation at the very center of the struggle. In this sense, the ideological, practical and scientific tools developed by the Kurdistan Women’s Movement and offered to women all over the world show us how women must be the vanguard of internationalism in the 21st century. With the science of women, Jineolojî, we will develop a scientific base that connects all the knowledge, experiences, struggles and resistances carried out by women and peoples in rebellion, pushing us to take deep steps on the path of the search for free life and building an international self-defense that will ensure the successes we achieve. The proposal of the Women’s Movement of Kurdistan about the World Confederalism of Women is a concrete alternative that goes beyond the classical understandings of internationalism, and aims to develop a world organization that, through the liberation of women, develops, at the local level, democratic and ecological societies.
In recent years we have seen how the demands of women in one part of the world became campaigns of struggle and international solidarity, such as MeToo or Ni una menos; we also saw how the whole planet was filled with women with green scarves in solidarity with the struggle for abortion of women comrades in Argentina; during the months of October and November 2019, dozens of #WomenDefendRojava (WDR) committees were created all over Europe -committees that continue to this day- to expand the resistance of the Rojava revolution and the North and East of Syria in the face of the attacks of the Turkish army; women from all over the planet have participated in the international meetings of women who fight organized by the Zapatista compañeras…. We could give many more examples that highlight the strength of women in their quest for freedom. It is time to convert this search force into organized force, from the local to the global and vice versa, connected internationally to develop the struggle for free life in a global way, and thus leading women, societies, peoples and nature towards liberation.
