PARIS – On March 18th internationalist youth held an action at the Sacre Coeur in Paris. The occasion was the 152nd birthday of the Paris Commune. The young people wanted to draw attention to the connection with the revolution in Kurdistan and its commune system. Flyers were distributed, pyrotechnics ignited, a banner hung up and a text read out. Finally, we danced together to celebrate the ongoing resistance. The young people ended their action by shouting slogans like “Bijî Serok APO” together.
The text read was:
“The commune lives on!
Today is March 18, a date that once again marks the beginning of the Paris Commune 152 years ago. On that very day, March 18, 1871, a democratic, self-governing system was established by the lower and working classes in the city of Paris. Although the Paris Commune was a cornerstone of true community-based democracy, most Parisians today are unaware of this important event in their history.
On the night of March 18, 1871, the French army tried to seize the cannons of the National Guard, a popular militia composed mainly of workers, stored on the heights of Montmartre. This attempt failed because it was prevented by the residents of this popular district. Part of the army fraternizes with the insurgents while the government and regular troops flee to Versailles. The Paris Commune is born. A system based on various councils is introduced, in which society makes decisions for itself and for itself.
The German and French state armies worked together to put down the new revolution that was taking place in Paris and was already beginning to spread to other French cities. This cooperation between these two states led to a massacre in the city of Paris, in which over 20,000 people were murdered in a week by the French and German armies. We stand here at the Sacré Coeur church, built with the blood of the Parisian working class to demonstrate the power of the state after the Paris Commune was brutally crushed. But not only the oppressing states have joined forces, also people from all over the world have come to Paris to defend the Paris Commune.
Even if the line of oppression continues, the line of resistance also stops!
Today the struggle for an equal and democratic system continues in Rojava-Kurdistan and in north-eastern Syria. A system is being built there based on the principles of social ecology, women’s liberation and grassroots democracy. This system is built with the vanguard of Kurdish women and allows all people of all religions, ethnicities and ages to participate in decision-making processes.
Some of you may be familiar with the YPG and YPJ People’s Defense Forces that defeated ISIS in 2018. The YPG and YPJ are not only fighting against ISIS, they are also defending the region against the daily attacks of the fascist Turkish regime. The revolution in Rojava is a light of hope for all people in the Middle East and worldwide and that is why the Turkish regime under Erdogan is waging a brutal war against Kurds and other people across Kurdistan who are defending this revolution.
As the second largest NATO army, Turkey is backed by international states to wage its bloody war in Kurdistan. We demand that any support for the fascist Turkish government, be it in the form of arms deliveries from European countries or silence on the war crimes committed by Turkey, stop immediately!
Right now we are witnessing historical moments again: just as thousands of internationalists defended the Paris Commune in 1871, today 10,000 internationalists are rising up for the revolution in Kurdistan.
That’s why we say, yesterday Paris, today Kurdistan: the Commune never dies!
From Kurdistan to the whole world – woman, life, freedom!”
