Urgent call to feminists and women’s organisations for solidarity

The call below was issued by the Free Women’s Assembly. They also put together a factsheet about the blockades, which you will find below:

To Women’s Organizations;

Urgent Call for Action

Women’s Freedom Assembly (KÖM) is calling on your solidarity against the war and massacres that we have been living through for the past eight months. The AKP government and President Tayyip Erdoğan are repressing, through violence, all opposition forces who have been resisting the authoritarian regime that they have been trying to establish in Turkey and destroying all channels of political struggle. They have brought the Parliament to disfunction and suspended the rule of law by taking the judiciary system under their control.

Tommy Sheppard MP attends Scottish solidarity demo

This weekend Scottish Solidarity with Kurdistan held a demonstration in central Edinburgh to protest continuing attacks by the Turkish military on Kurdish cities and civilians.

The group delivered a letter to the Turkish Consul, which expresses concern for the women and children killed since last summer and calls for the Turkish government to end the curfews in Kurdish towns. The letter was signed by several other union members, Scottish Green party members and activists. 

Bristol hosts event on Rojava Revolution

On 14 December, the Rojava Solidarity group in Bristol hosted an event at the Malcolm X Centre on the origins and politics of the Rojava Revolution:

“Caught between the expansionist ISIS and escalating oppression by the Turkish state is one of the largest and most interesting revolutionary struggles of our times. Rojava, comprising three regions of northern Syria, is home to 2 million people while across the border in South-Eastern Turkey an increasing number of villages and neighbourhoods are declaring themselves autonomous and committed to self defence. Within these areas is a social experiment that incorporates feminism, ecology, has survived four years of military assaults. For much of this time they have been the only successful opposition to ISIS.”

Watch the meeting below:

Global Rally for the freedom and reconstruction of Kobane

Thank you to everyone who took part in the Global Rally for Kobane on 1st November – now World Kobane Day. It is the second year in a row that thousands of people in dozens of countries have raised their voices for Kobane, which still suffers the consequences of a brutal 6 month ISIS siege which caught the conscience of many across the world. This time, over 400 separate actions took place in over 25 countries as far apart as India and Brazil, Denmark and Australia, Venezuela and Afghanistan, all calling for people and governments to support the reconstruction of Kobane and the lifting of the blockade. Demonstrations also took place in Rojava. Once again, it was a remarkable demonstration of solidarity and the spirit of internationalism. We send our thanks and solidarity to all those who took part and hope that collective efforts will lead to freedom and a new future for Kobane – and Rojava.

Global call for city of Kobane reaches activists across the world

PRESS RELEASE

29 October 2015

One year since a mass mobilisation of activists across the world created the largest-ever simultaneous action in solidarity with the Kurdish people, another appeal has inspired activists to once again rally for Kobane on 1st November.

PiK Trade Union Officer makes call to UK unions after Ankara bombing

Peace in Kurdistan
Campaign for a political solution of the Kurdish Question
Email: estella24@tiscali.co.uk
http://www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.com
Contacts Estella Schmid 020 7586 5892 & Melanie  Sirinathsingh – Tel: 020 7272 7890

Stephen Smellie – Trade Union Liaison Officer Peace in Kurdistan
(Deputy Convenor UNISON Scotland)

Colleagues

The trade union confederations in Turkey, KESK and DISK, along with the Engineers and Architects Association and the Medical Association organised the demonstration and rally in Ankara on Saturday which was attacked by 2 bomb blasts which have resulted in the death of over 100 people with many hundreds more being injured. The demonstration was called under the slogan of ‘Labour for Peace.’

UK observers to travel to Cizre, Turkey, to report on blockade

PRESS RELEASE

17 September 2015

A UK delegation of international observers will travel to Turkey today to visit Cizre, the majority-Kurdish town that has been under siege by Turkish security forces since 4 September.

The delegation includes human rights barristers Margaret Owen and Melanie Gingell, and Dr. Shatha Besarani, women’s rights activist for the Iraqi Women’s League. It follows a call from the Kurdish Women’s Council (KJB) for international observers in an effort to bring the crisis in Cizre and across Turkey’s southeast to international attention.

Congratulations from friends in Peace in Kurdistan campaign

Jeremy Corbyn MP
Leader of the Labour Party

Dear Jeremy,

Peace in Kurdistan would like to send its warm congratulations to you on the gre
at news of your victory in the Labour leadership contest.

Your election will be greeted with enthusiasm as excellent news by all who believe in a better world. The Kurdish people, who are proud to count you as a friend, certainly share in the celebrations of your election victory.

This successful result is a real tribute to your tireless campaigning for social justice and the rights of peoples at home and abroad.

We take the opportunity to pay tribute to you for your staunch and consistent support in Parliament and your solidarity with the Kurdish community in London.

We wish to thank you for all your support over the years for our campaigns on behalf of the Kurds and in particular for the peace process in Turkey which seeks to resolve the conflict in that country.

We would like to wish you well in your new role as you lead your party onto electoral success in coming months and years.

Peace in Kurdistan  looks forward to working with you in the future as Labour’s new leader.

In solidarity

Peace in Kurdistan

Crowd-funding campaign initiated for reconstruction of Kobane

We would like to draw your attention to an urgent appeal for funds from a project which was developed by the official Kobanê Reconstruction Board.

Obviously, this is deserving cause. But it urgently needs your support to continue and expand its vital work to help the people of Kobane to rebuild their community. Every little helps. Please respond to the appeal, which states:

“Our infrastructure is secure and tested. We are capable of crowdfunding Kobanê. But we are still in beta, and we have much to do before we can offer this tool for movements around the world. Under normal circumstances, we would have waited on the final version.”

STUC conference passes motion supporting Rojava

The motion below was recently passed at the STUC conference in Ayr. Kurdish activists and Peace in Kurdistan Campaign’s Trade Union Liaison Officer Stephen Smellie (UNISON) were at the event for three days, where they met with union activists including Dave Parentis, general secretary of UNISON.

Kurdish activists with Stephen Smellie and UNISON general secretary Dave Parentis

STUC April 2015

104. SUPPORT ROJAVA, DEFEND KOBANE, DEFEAT ISIS

“That this Congress expresses its concern at the events in Syria, resulting in thousands of deaths resulting in thousands of deaths and that conflict and the rise of ISIS has created a humanitarian crisis in the region and that millions of refugees have been displaced and some are now surviving with the assistance of local authorities, trade unions and volunteers, often without international aid.

Congress note:

• the efforts in Rojava to establish an inclusive, non-sectarian and democratic self-rule, which has attracted considerable attention because of their experiment in democratic self-government, which is unique within the region;
• the role that women are playing in the administration, and defence, of Rojava;
• the role of the defence forces of Rojava, the YPG and the women’s YPJ, the Peshmerga of the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq and the PKK, in defending Kobane and the battle against ISIS in Iraq; and
• That assemblies and popular militias have been formed, regime property turned over to worker co-operatives and all despite continual attacks by ISS forces.