CENTRAL NEWS – The Kurdish Youth Assembly in London made a public and general call to take action on the traditional “May Day” International Workers day. The call can be read as it follows:
“The tradition of May Day dates back to the celebrations of the International Social Congress in the 19th century, and those of the Soviet Union in the 20th. May Day has, for years, marked a day of union amongst workers, oppressed peoples, students, and revolutionary groups. The day of mass congregation of Bolshevik communists in Russia during the period of ‘actually existing socialism’ has transformed into a moment of celebration, commemoration, and promise in 21st century revolutionary movements.
As the Kurdish people in Britain, May Day historically signifies the coming together of the various oppressed colours of society, and the unification of their struggles against one system, one enemy: capitalist modernity. The non-state paradigmatic approach of the Kurdish freedom movement, coined as democratic confederalism, bases its principles around the symbiotic relationship between these various anti-system struggles, from Marxist socialism to radical feminism. The way forward, therefore, must be to challenge isolationism and revive intersectionalism and solidarity networks between our struggles.
This year, as the Kurdish freedom movement we devoted the 50th year of Newroz to our leader, Abdullah Öcalan, who continues to be wrongfully imprisoned on a prison island in Turkey for over 23 years. Our youth and community took to the streets with a strong spirit of resistance at the end of March to call for his liberation, as a necessary pre-condition to a peaceful solution in Kurdistan and the Middle East. In light of escalated military operations in South and West Kurdistan, and the pressure and brutality we have faced during our local demonstrations by British police, we will take to the streets on May Day to demand three things: the freedom of Öcalan, the delisting of the PKK, and a mass boycott of the authoritarian Turkish regime.
On this basis, we call on the Kurdish youth, the Kurdish people, internationalists, socialist and leftist organisations, and their friends, to join us on May Day to share our revolutionary love and commemorate the magnificent sacrifices of our martyrs for a freer and better world.
Revolutionary Youth Movement in Britai
28.04.2022”
