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أوراق التأسيسية لفكرة المجالس المحلية بقلم الشهيد عمر عزيز

Posted on 15/02/2025 - 15/02/2025 by muntjac

Taken from facebook, as there is no other arabic version of the text on a website we’re aware of, if there are any errors please send us an email.

https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=143690742461532

A longer version of this peice is avalible in English here; https://muntjacmag.noblogs.org/post/2025/02/15/omar-aziz-to-live-in-revolutionary-time/

It is also avalible as a zine in both languages on our zine page. You can order it here

 

أوراق التأسيسية لفكرة المجالس المحلية بقلم الشهيد عمر عزيز

آواخر 2011

ورقة نقاش حول المجالس المحلية في سورية / عمر عزيز /

مدخل: زمن السلطة وزمن الثورة

الثورة بحد ذاتها حدث استثنائي يبدل تاريخ المجتمعات كما تتبدل فيه الذاتيات البشرية. هي قطيعة في الزمان والمكان معا، خلالها يعيش البشر بين زمنين، زمن السلطة وزمن الثورة. أما انتصارالثورة فهو رهن بتحقق استقلالية زمنها لينتقل المجتمع الى عهد جديد.

دخلت الثورة في سورية شهرها الثامن ومايزال أمامها أيام من الصراع لاسقاط النظام وفتح مساحات جديدة للحياة. خلال الفترة التي مضت، استطاعت المظاهرات المستمرة أن تكسر هيمنة السلطة المطلقة على المكان. فسيطرة السلطة على الجغرافيا أصبح نسبيا الآن وإن اختلف نطاقها من منطقة الى أخرى ومن يوم الى يوم، ومن ساعة الى ساعة في اليوم ذاته. وكان لاستمرار التظاهر أيضا أن أنتج مجلسا وطنيا ضم طيفا واسعا من الحراك الجماهيري والتنظيمات والاحزاب السياسية، يعول عليه ليمثل شرعية تمثيلية بديلة للسلطة على المستوى العربي والدولي وليفعل الجهود اللازمة لحماية الشعب السوري من قتل النظام ووحشيته.

غير أن الحراك الثوري بقي مستقلا عن الأنشطة الحياتية للبشر ولم يتسطع أن يتداخل مع حياتهم اليومية. فهي مازالت تدار كما في السابق وكأن هناك “تقسيما يوميا للعمل” بين النشاط الحياتي والنشاط الثوري. ما يعني أن التشكيلات الاجتماعية في سورية تعيش تداخل زمنين، زمن السلطة الذي مازالت تدار فيه الانشطة الحياتية وزمن الثورة الذي يعمل الناشطون فيه على اسقاط النظام. لا تكمن الخطورة في ذلك بالتداخل بين الزمنين فهذا من طبيعة الثورات وإنما في غياب التلازم بين الخطين الحياتي والثوري للجمهور. فما يخشاه الحراك خلال الفترة القادمة هو أحد أمرين، ملل البشر من استمرارية الثورة لتأثيرها على أعمالهم وحياة اسرهم أو اللجوء الى استخدام مكثف للسلاح تصبح فيه الثورة رهينة البندقية.

بناء عليه، فبقدر ما تستقل التشكيلات الاجتماعية عن السلطة بفعل جهود البشر للفصل بين زمن السلطة وزمن الثورة، بقدرما تكون الثورة قد هيأت أجواء انتصارها. ولا بد من التذكير أن الاشهر الماضية كانت خصبة بتجارب متعددة تركزت على وجه الخصوص في مجالات الاسعاف الطبي والمساندة القانونية ونحن الآن بحاجة ماسة الى إغناء هذه المبادرات لتشمل المساحات الأوسع للحياة. فمزج الحياة بالثورة هو الشرط الملازم لاستمرارية الثورة وانتصارها. ما يتطلب بدروه تكوينا اجتماعيا مرنا يقوم على تفعيل التعاضد بين الثورة وحياة البشر اليومية. وسنسميه فيما يتبع “بالمجلس المحلي”.

ان هذا المدخل وما يليه ورقة للنقاش غرضها البحث في جدوى تشكيل مجالس محلية من أفراد يحملون ثقافات متنوعة وينتمون الى شرائح اجتماعية مختلفة تعمل على تحقيق التالي:

● مساندة البشر في ادارة حياتهم بشكل مستقل عن مؤسسات وأجهزة الدولة (وان بشكل نسبي)

● تكوين فضاء للتعبير الجمعي يدعم تعاضد الأفراد ويرتقي بأنشطتهم اليومية الى التعامل السياسي

● تفعيل أنشطة الثورة الاجتماعية على مستوى المناطق وتوحيد اطر المساندة

أما المواضيع التي تدخل في صلب اهتمامات المجلس المحلي فهي التالية:

الموضوع السكاني: توطيد الحميمية في العلاقات بين الناس

● توفير الدعم والمساندة للوافدين الى منطقة معينة او الخارجين منها

● المساندة اللوجستية لعائلات المعتقلين

● توفير الدعم المعنوي للعائلات المنكوبة والتكفل باللوازم والنفقات التابعة

وقت طويل مضى اختزل خلاله الزمن الحياتي للبشر الى زمن للبحث عن أماكن أكثر أمنا لهم ولعائلاتهم والانتقال اليها. زمن تحول فيه أيضا عملهم اليومي الى محاولات دؤوبة لمعرفة ما حل بأحبابهم المفقودين او الوصول الى سبل الاستدلال عن مكان اعتقالهم معتمدين في ذلك على أقاربهم او معارف لهم في المناطق التي يلجؤون اليها.

دور المجلس المحلي هو نقل هذه التعاسة التي تنضوي تحت زمن السلطة الى جملة أعمال يتفرد فيها المجتمع بالمبادرة. أي أن يقوم المجلس بالأعمال التالية كحد أدنى:

i. البحث عن السكن الآمن وتوفير المؤونة للأفراد وعائلاتهم الوافدين الى المنطقة التي يتواجد المجلس فيها بالتعاون مع نظيره في المنطقة التي غادروها

ii. تنظيم بيانات المعتقلين ونقلها الى الجهات المعنية في الثورة وترتيب الاتصال مع الجهات القانونية ومساندة الأهل في متابعة أحوال ذويهم في الاعتقال

iii. ادارة بيانات متطلبات العائلات المنكوبة والعمل على تأمين نفقاتها عن طريق الدعم المالي للجمهور و”الصناديق المناطقية للثورة”

أعمال كهذه تحتاج الى تنظيم وترتيب للمعلومات ومعرفة في فنون الادارة الا أنها ليست بالمهام المستحيلة على أي بيئة كانت. فالثورة التي صنعت جيلا من الخبراء في تنظيم التظاهر والاضراب والاعتصام تستطيع ان تدفع باتجاه تكوين خبرات ادارية لأعمال يقوم بها الناس بالفطرة.

ان مسؤولية كهذه لن تكون بديلا عن الأقارب او المعارف (أو على الأقل في مرحلة أولى) كما لا يجب أن تكون ملزمة بأي حال من الأحوال. فالبشر التي بدأت تأنس الخروج عن خدمات الدولة والتي وجدت بديلا مؤقتا لها في علاقات القربى بحاجة لوقت وممارسة كي تدخل في تماس وسلوك اجتماعي جمعي أكثر تطورا وفعالية.

موضوع التبادل بين البشر: تكوين مشتركات جديدة

● توفير ساحة للنقاش يتم فيها تداول أمور البشر والبحث عن حلول لمسائلهم الحياتية

● بناء ترابط أفقي بين المجالس المحلية لمنطقة جغرافية واحدة والتوسع في ذلك ليشمل الترابط بين مناطق جغرافية مختلفة

الثورة حولت ذاتيات البشربفتح آفاق حياتهم بعدما تيقنوا أن الصراع هو سبيلهم لاكتساب تحررهم واستبانوا من استمراريتهم فيه أن غدا آخر ممكن، وبعدما اكتشفوا ان لهم تعريف غير الذي عهدوه وقدرات من الابتكار والاختراع مختلفة عن أحادية قاتلة حاول نصف قرن من الاستبداد قيدهم فيها وكذلك أيضا بعدما اكتشفوا أن تعاضدهم فتح لهم أبوابا جديدة في تعاط اجتماعي غني ومتعدد الألوان.

يكمن دور المجلس المحلي هنا في تفعيل هذا التعاضد ونقله الى المساحات الحياتية التي تختلف بطبيعة نشاطها عن حراك مواجهة السلطة، أي:

i. تشجيع البشرعلى مناقشة أحوالهم اليومية (ما يتعلق منها برزقهم ومتطلباتهم الحياتية) وتداولها ومحاولة حلها جمعيا

ii. النظر في المسائل التي تتطلب حلولا من خارج الجمهور المحلي كالتمويل مثلا أو مساندة من مناطق أخرى

موضوع الأرض: اعادة اكتشاف المشترك

● الدفاع عن أراضي المنطقة التي تسعى الدولة لاستملاكها أو التي هي قيد الاستملاك

ان استملاك الدولة الكيفي للاراضي في المدن والريف السوري وما استتبعه من اعادة انتشار للسكان هو من الركائز الأساس لسياسة الهيمنة والتهميش الاجتماعيين التي اعتمدتهما السلطة. وقدعملت هذه السياسة على تكوين مناطق سكنية “آمنة” لضباط وصف ضباط الجيش أو تنفيذ مخططات تجارية لسكن الأغنياء ومناطق تسوقهم. إن الحراك الثوري الذي نشهده في المناطق الريفية والريفية – الحضرية هو بأحد جوانبه رفض البشر لسياسة الاستملاك والتهميش هذه التي تقطع مجالهم الحيوي.

دور المجلس المحلي هو الدفاع المباشر عن الملكيات التي تقوم السلطة بوضع اليد عليها تحت أي حجة كانت. ومن الضروري أن يقوم بالأعمال التالية:

● حصر سريع للمتلكات موضوع قرارات الاستملاك

● التواصل مع الشبكات القانونية للثورة ورفع القضايا امام المحاكم للاعتراض على قرارات الاستملاك لأجل إلغائها أو على الأقل تأخيرالعمل بها

● جعل الدفاع عن الممتلكات والارض مسألة تخص جموع السكان في مناطقتهم

تكوين المجالس المحلية:

● تكوين المجالس المحلية هو عملية تابعة لمستوى الحراك في كل منطقة، أي ان انه يكون أصعب التحقيق في المناطق التي تخضع لوجود أمني كثيف وأسهل نسبيا في المناطق التي يكون فيها الحراك الثوري أكثر تمكنا

● ان تحقيق أعمال المجلس المحلي هي عملية متدرجة وفق الحاجة والظرف ومدى تفاعل الناس معها

● ان النجاح الذي يحققه كل من المجالس سوف يغني تجارب المجالس الأخرى ويزيد من تصمصيم أفرادها

● لن يكون تكوين المجالس المحلية مهمة سهلة ولكنها أساس لاستمرارية الثورة. والصعوبة فيها ليس فقط الطوق الامني ومحاصرة البشر والمكان وإنما ممارسة حياة وعلاقات جديدة وغير مألوفة. يتطلب الأمر إيجاد صيغة مستقلة تقطع مع السلطة، يكون دورها مساندة وتطوير الأنشطة الاقتصادية والاجتماعية في منطقة تواجدها ويفترض أن تتمتع بخبرة ادارية في ميادين مختلفة.

● يجري تطبيق برنامج المجالس المحلية بدءا من الأمكنة التي يفترض فيها أكبر قدر من الشروط المناسبة. وستكون هذه الأمكنة بمثابة مساحات تجريبية لتكوين المجالس في مناطق أخرى تخضع لظروف أصعب

● نظرا لغياب الممارسة الانتخابية في الظرف الراهن تتشكل المجالس المحلية من العاملين في الحقل الاجتماعي والحائزين على احترام الجمهور وممن تتوفر لديهم خبرات في مجالات اجتماعية وتنظيمية وتقنية وتكون لديهم الامكانية والرغبة في العمل الطوعي

● يتم اطلاق أعمال المجلس المحلي على مراحل وفق أولويات المنطقة ويشترك باطلاقه:

○ أعضاء المجلس المحلي

○ نشطاء المنطقة

○ نشطاء يتطوعون من خارج المنطقة ويكون لهم خبرة في هذه المجالات

دور المجلس الوطني

ان للمجلس دورا مفصليا بالنسبة للأمور التالية:

● شرعية المبادرة: اعتماد المجلس الوطني لفكرة المجلس المحلي يؤمن لها الشرعية اللازمة لاطلاقها ويسهل قبولها من قبل الناشطين في الساحة

● التمويل: قبول المجلس الوطني ادارة “تمويل صنايق الثورة” – وهذه بحد ذاتها من الوظائف التي يتوجب ان يضطلع بها- يسمح بمرونة أكبر لاطلاق المجالس المحلية بتغطية وذلك بتغطية نفقات الاطلاق ومصاريف قد لا يكون بإمكان المنطقة تغطيتها

● تسهيل التنسيق بين المناطق ورفع مستوى التنظيم الى اطار المحافظات إذ أن كل منطقة وكل ناحية فيها مازالت تقوم بمبادراتها وفق تصورها للحراك. هذه الاستقلالية أثبتت دون شك مرونة عالية في الحركة غير انها تأثرت غالبا من غياب مساحات صديقة تحميها. والدور الذي يضطلع به المجلس الوطني هنا أساسي لايجاد أرضية مشتركة ولتوثيق الترابط بين المناطق المختلفة.

………………………….

تشكيل المجالس المحلية في سورية /عمر عزيز /

اقتراحات عملية لاستمرارية الثورة

مدخل: تلازم حماية المجتمع واستمرارية الثورة

أتمت الثورة في سورية عامها الأول ومازال أمامها أيام من الصراع لاسقاط النظام وفتح مساحات جديدة للحياة. خلال الفترة التي مضت، استطاعت المظاهرات المستمرة أن تكسر هيمنة السلطة المطلقة على المكان. فسيطرة السلطة على الجغرافيا أصبح نسبيا الآن وإن اختلف نطاقها من منطقة الى أخرى ومن يوم الى يوم، ومن ساعة الى ساعة في اليوم ذاته.

خلال الفترة الماضية، غيرالسوريون مسار مجتمعهم مثلما غيروا من تكوينهم الذاتي. وهم في ذلك، برهنوا على شجاعة غير مسبوقة وتعاضد مرهف وأكدوا بالتضحيات التي قدموها توقهم الى التحررواصرراهم على تغيير معالم حياتهم.

ولدت روح مقاومة الشعب السوري لوحشية النظام وقتله وتدميره الممنهج للمجتمع حالات فريدة من الحذاقة والابتكار وقبل هذا وذاك فعل محبة اسطورية لتمكين الحياة من الاستمرار. فتأمين المساندة الطبية وتحويل بيوت الى مستشفيات ميدانية وترتيب السلل الغذائية والتفنن المرح في النشرالاعلامي، أنشطة تحدت جميعها بغي السلطة وعبرت عن الغنى الانساني الذي حمله تضافر الناس وتعاونهم.

شكل نشطاء سوريون لجان التنسيق في بداية الثورة لتنظيم التغطية الاعلامية وتأمين نشرها وتوثيق فعاليات الثورة وانتهاكات النظام وما لبثت أن توسعت هذه الأنشطة لتشمل أمورالاغاثة والخدمات الطبية. وقد أصبح واضحا عندها أن التشكيلات الاجتماعية برمتها هي التي تتشارك وتساهم في تمكين الثورة من الاستمرار في مقاومة طويلة المدى. وكان لهذه المشاركة أن تفتحت عن علاقات جديدة قطعت مع سيطرة النظام على المكان والزمان في محاولة دؤوبة لتمكين الناس من ادارة شؤون حياتهم بشكل مستقل حيث أنهم تيقنوا أن هذه الاستقلالية هي عنوان تحررهم.

كانت الاشهر الماضية خصبة بتجارب متعددة وكان للتباين في التشكيل الاجتماعي بين المناطق أن حمل غنى في تنوع المبادرات واختلاف تلون تعبيراتها من منطقة لأخرى. ففي البدء كان الحراك الثوري مستقلا عن الأنشطة الحياتية للبشر ولم يتداخل مع حياتهم اليومية وكأن هناك “تقسيما يوميا للعمل” بين النشاط الحياتي والنشاط الثوري. غير أنه ما لبث أن تتطور التكافل الانساني عندما اقبل الناس طوعيا على المشاركة في المسكن والمأكل وتقديم العون بكافة اشكاله ثم توسعت هذه التجارب في المناطق التي كان فيها الحراك الثوري أكثر حدة ليصبح التلازم واضحا بين شؤون الحياة وشؤون الثورة.

وقد بدا جليا أنه بقدرما تستقل التشكيلات الاجتماعية عن السلطة بقدرما تكون الثورة قد شكلت العمق الاجتماعي لحمايتها وحماية المجتمع من بطش السلطة ومن الانزلاقات الاخلاقية أو استخدام للسلاح تصبح فيه الثورة والمجتمع رهينتا للبندقية. فمزج الحياة بالثورة هو الشرط الملازم لاستمرارية الثورة حتى انفلاش النظام ما يتطلب بدروه تكوينا اجتماعيا مرنا يقوم على تفعيل التعاضد بين الثورة وحياة البشر اليومية. وقد حملت التجارب الماضية مسميات متعددة للتعبيرعن هذا التكوين الاجتماعي الجديد الذي سنسميه فيما يتبع “بالمجلس المحلي”.

ان هذا المدخل وما يليه دعوة لتشكيل مجالس محلية من أفراد يحملون ثقافات متنوعة وينتمون الى شرائح اجتماعية مختلفة تعمل على تحقيق التالي:

● مساندة البشر في ادارة حياتهم بشكل مستقل عن مؤسسات وأجهزة الدولة (وان بشكل نسبي)

● تكوين فضاء للتعبير الجمعي يدعم تعاضد الأفراد ويرتقي بأنشطتهم اليومية الى التعامل السياسي

● تفعيل أنشطة الثورة الاجتماعية على مستوى المناطق وتوحيد اطر المساندة

أما المواضيع التي تدخل في صلب اهتمامات المجلس المحلي فهي التالية:

أولا) التكافل الانساني والتضامن المدني: توطيد الحميمية بين الناس

i. الغايات:

● رفع المعاناة المادية وتخفيف الألم المعنوي للعائلات “المهاجرة” نتيجة همجية السلطة

● التضامن النفسي والمادي مع العائلات المنكوبة بفقيد أو جريح او معتقل أو متوار أو التي تعرضت لخسارة معنوية او مادية

● تحسين الشروط الحياتية للعائلات

● توفير “أفضل الشروط الممكنة” لممارسة الدعم الطبي

● تأمين استمرارية الخدمات التعليمية

ii. دور المجلس المحلي:

تغطي أعمال المجلس المحلي كحد أدنى مايلي:

● توفير الدعم والمساندة للوافدين الى منطقة معينة او الخارجين منها حيث أن دور المجلس المحلي هو تحويل التعاسة التي سببتها السلطة الى جملة أعمال يتفرد فيها المجتمع بالمبادرة:

○ البحث عن السكن الآمن وتوفير المؤونة للأفراد وعائلاتهم الوافدين الى المنطقة التي يتواجد المجلس فيها بالتعاون مع نظيره في المنطقة التي غادروها

○ تنظيم بيانات المعتقلين ونقلها الى الجهات المعنية في الثورة وترتيب الاتصال مع الجهات القانونية ومساندة الأهل في متابعة أحوال ذويهم في الاعتقال

○ ادارة بيانات متطلبات العائلات المنكوبة والعمل على تأمين نفقاتها عن طريق الدعم المالي للجمهور و”الصناديق المناطقية للثورة”

● توفير الدعم المعنوي والمادي واللوجيستي للعائلات المنكوبة والتكفل باللوازم والنفقات التابعة: فحرب السلطة على شعبها ختزل الزمن الحياتي للبشر الى زمن للبحث عن أماكن أكثر أمنا لهم ولعائلاتهم. زمن تحول فيه أيضا عملهم اليومي الى محاولات دؤوبة لمعرفة ما حل بأحبابهم المفقودين او الوصول الى سبل للاستدلال عن مكان الاعتقال معتمدين في ذلك على أقاربهم او معارف لهم في المناطق التي يلجؤون اليها مما يتطلب:

○ التعاون ومساندة الجهات القانونية في الثورة لتوثيق الانتهاكات التي يقوم بها الجيش وقوات الأمن والشبيحة من قتل واغتصاب واعتقال وتدمير للممتلكات وسرقات

○ توفير بيئة محبة توفر الراحة النفسية والمادية للعائلات المهجرة وبشكل خاص للنساء والأطفال والتنسيق مع الجهات المعنية لتوفير معالجة الحالات النفسية والصحية التي تتطلب اهتماما ومتابعة خاصة

● ادارة الأحوال المدنية: تملي الهجمة الشرسة للنظام من المجلس المحلي القيام بتدوين الوقائع المدنية التي تخص النشطاء والمتوارين على وجه الخصوص. أما في المناطق التي حققت فيها الثورة حيزا من الاستقلالية فسيكون بالامكان مسك كافة الوقائع من ولادات ووفيات وزواج وطلاق، الخ.

● التنسيق مع لجان الاغاثة لتوفير الدعم الاغاثي والمالي بما فيه:

○ تحديد متطلبات الغذاء والدواء والمتطلبات الحياتية الأخرى

○ إدارة أنشطة استلام وتوزيع مواد الاغاثة

○ وضع البيانات الاحصائية ونشرها

● التنسيق مع اللجان الطبية

○ تحديد المنازل التي تتوفر فيها الحدود البيئية الدنيا لتحويلها الى مشافي ميدانية وتأمينها من أصحابها

○ تجهيز المشافي الميدانية بالتنسيق مع اللجان الطبية

○ التنسيق مع اللجان الطبية ولجان الاغاثة لتحديد المتطلبات الطبية والاسعافية والعمل على استلامها وتخزينها

○ متابعة طلبات الاسعاف وخاصة تلك الواردة من خارج المنطقة

● دعم وتنسيق الأنشطة التعليمية

○ تحديد المتطلبات التعليمية لكافة المراحل التعليمية

○ التنسيق مع الهيئات التعليمية في المنطقة و|او مع من تتوفر لديه الامكانية والرغبة في التدريس

○ ادارة وتنظيم الانشطة التعليمية

● دعم وتنسيق الأنشطة الاعلامية

ملاحظة: أعمال كهذه تحتاج الى تنظيم وترتيب للمعلومات ومعرفة في فنون الادارة الا أنها ليست بالمهام المستحيلة على أي بيئة كانت. فالثورة التي صنعت ذهنية معرفية في تنظيم التظاهر والاضراب والاعتصام تستطيع ان تدفع باتجاه تكوين خبرات ادارية لأعمال يقوم بها الناس بالفطرة. ومن الضروري التنويه ان مسؤوليات كهذه لن تكون بديلا عن الأقارب او المعارف (أو على الأقل في مرحلة أولى) كما لا يجب أن تكون ملزمة بأي حال من الأحوال. فالبشر التي بدأت تأنس الخروج عن خدمات الدولة والتي وجدت بديلا مؤقتا لها في علاقات القربى بحاجة لوقت وممارسة كي تدخل في تماس وسلوك اجتماعي جمعي أكثر تطورا وفعالية.

ثانيا) موضوع التبادل بين البشر: تكوين مشتركات جديدة

i. الغايات:

● رفع قدرة ذاتيات المجتمع على المبادرة والفعل

● توفير ساحة للنقاش يتم فيها تداول أمور البشر والبحث عن حلول لمسائلهم الحياتية

● بناء ترابط أفقي بين المجالس المحلية لمنطقة جغرافية واحدة والتوسع في ذلك ليشمل الترابط بين مناطق جغرافية مختلفة

ii. دور المجلس المحلي:

تغطي أعمال المجلس المحلي كحد أدنى مايلي:

الثورة حولت ذاتيات البشربفتح آفاق حياتهم بعدما تيقنوا أن الصراع هو سبيلهم لاكتساب تحررهم واستبانوا من استمراريتهم أن غدا آخر ممكن، وبعدما اكتشفوا ان لهم تعريف غير الذي عهدوه وقدرات من الابتكار والاختراع مختلفة عن أحادية قاتلة حاول نصف قرن من الاستبداد قيدهم فيها وكذلك أيضا بعدما اكتشفوا أن تعاضدهم فتح لهم أبوابا جديدة في تعاط اجتماعي غني ومتعدد الألوان.

يتمثل التحدي الذي تواجهه المجالس المحلية في ايجاد بيئة اجتماعية يأنس لها البشر فتكون مساحة مفتوحة لتبادلهم الطوعي وتمكنهم من تحقيق شروط استمراريتهم كأهل بتواز مع تحقق شروط استمرارية الثورة كمشروع ترق جمعي. ومنه، يعمل المجلس المحلي على تحقيق الأمور التالية:

● تكوين “ساحة اجتماعية” تمكن الناس من مناقشة مشاكلهم الحياتية وتداول أحوالهم اليومية وابتكار الحلول المناسبة لتحقيق توازن دقيق يضمن استمرارية الثورة وبنفس الوقت يحمي المجتمع حيث تشمل هذه المواضع كلا من الأمور التالية:.

○ الشؤون المحلية

○ شؤون البنية التحية

○ التوافق الاجتماعي

○ تحصيل ايرادات المنطقة

○ التداول في كل ما يتعلق برزق الناس ومتطلباتهم الحياتية والعمل على حلها جمعيا (قدر الامكان)

● النظر في المسائل التي تتطلب حلولا من خارج الجمهور المحلي كالتمويل أو مساندة المناطق الأخرى

● الدفاع عن أراضي المنطقة قيد الاستملاك حيث ان استملاك الدولة الكيفي للاراضي في المدن والريف السوري وما استتبعه من اعادة انتشار للسكان هو من الركائز الأساس لسياسة الهيمنة والتهميش الاجتماعيين التي اعتمدتهما السلطة. وقدعملت هذه السياسة على تكوين مناطق سكنية لموظفين وضباط وصف ضباط الجيش أو تنفيذ مخططات تجارية لسكن الأغنياء ومناطق تسوقهم. وقد جاء الحراك الثوري الذي نشهده في المناطق الريفية والريفية – الحضرية بأحد جوانبه كرفض لسياسة الاستملاك والتهميش هذه التي تقتطع المجال الحيوي للبشر. ومن أعمال المجلس المحلي هنا:

○ حصر للمتلكات التي خضعت لااستملاك

○ في حال استملاك الأرض لأغراض أمنية: جعل الدفاع عن الممتلكات والارض مسألة تخص جموع السكان في مناطقتهم

○ في حال استملاك الأرض لغرض السكن او لاقامة مشاريع عقارية:عمل ما يمكن لتحسين العلاقات مع الجوار والنظر في امكانية الوصول الى حلول ترضي الاستمرارية الحياتية لجميع الأطراف

ملاحظة: من الواضح أن أعمالا كهذه تنطبق على مواقع آمنة أو شبه ” محررة” من السلطة. ولكن من الممكن تقييم الوضع الخاص لكل منطقة وتحديد ما يمكن تحقيقه فيها.

ثالثا) موضوع العلاقة مع الجيش السوري الحر: تلازم حماية المجتمع والدفاع عنه واستمرارية الثورة

iii. الغايات:

● رفع وتيرة أمن المجتمع والدفاع عن المظاهرات وتوسعة امتدادها

● تأمين خطوط الاتصال بين المناطق وحماية حركة الناس والامداد اللوجيستي

iv. دور المجلس المحلي:

تغطي أعمال المجلس المحلي كحد أدنى مايلي:

● توفير المأمن والمسكن والغذاء لأفراد الجيس السوري الحر

● التفاهم والتنسيق مع الجيش السوري الحرعلى الاستراتيجية الدفاعية في المنطقة

● العمل مع الجيش السوري الحر على تمكين المجتمع من منطقته أمنيا واداريا

رابعا) تكوين المجالس المحلية وبنيتها التنظيمية:

يواجه تشكيل المجالس المحلية اشاكالات متعددة ليس أقلها قتل النظام وتقطيعه أوصال المكان واقتحامه المتكرر للمدن والبلدات مما يشل حركة الناس ويقيدهم في دائرة ضيقة للغاية. حيال ذلك بينت تجارب الثورة في المناطق كافة أن مقاومة آليات القتل ولدت ذهنية مرنة اخترعت باستمرار اساليب جديدة تجاوزت بواسطتها العقبات التي اعترضت رغبة المجتمع في التحرر واستطاعت أن تتفاعل مع ما يتناسب وعلاقات القوة على الأرض. ومنه، يتأثر تكوين المجالس المحلية بالعناصر التالية:

● تشكيل المجلس المحلي عملية مرنة ومتدرجة وفق الحاجة والظرف ومدى تفاعل الناس معها

● ان النجاح الذي يحققه كل من المجالس سوف يغني تجارب المجالس الأخرى ويزيد من تصمصيم أفرادها

● تكوين المجالس المحلية هو عملية تابعة لمستوى الحراك في كل منطقة، أي ان انه يكون أصعب التحقيق في المناطق التي تخضع لوجود أمني كثيف وأسهل نسبيا في المناطق التي يكون فيها الحراك الثوري أكثر تمكنا

● ان النجاح الذي يحققه كل من المجالس سوف يغني تجارب المجالس الأخرى ويزيد من تصمصيم أفرادها

● لن يكون تكوين المجالس المحلية مهمة سهلة ولكنها أساس لاستمرارية الثورة. والصعوبة فيها ليس فقط الطوق الامني ومحاصرة البشر والمكان وإنما ممارسة حياة وعلاقات جديدة وغير مألوفة. مما يتطلب إيجاد صيغة مستقلة تقطع مع السلطة، يكون دورها مساندة وتطوير الأنشطة الاقتصادية والاجتماعية في منطقة تواجدها ويفترض أن تتمتع بخبرة ادارية في ميادين مختلفة.

● يجري تطبيق برنامج المجالس المحلية بدء من الأمكنة التي يفترض فيها أكبر قدر من الشروط المناسبة. وستكون هذه الأمكنة بمثابة مساحات تجريبية لتكوين المجالس في مناطق أخرى تخضع لظروف أصعب

● نظرا لغياب الممارسة الانتخابية في الظرف الراهن تتشكل المجالس المحلية من العاملين في الحقل الاجتماعي والحائزين على احترام الجمهور وممن تتوفر لديهم خبرات في مجالات اجتماعية وتنظيمية وتقنية وتكون لديهم الامكانية والرغبة في العمل الطوعي ومن الضروري هنا التعامل المرن مع التركيبة العائلية في المنطقة و التكوينات السياسية الموجودة فيها

● يتم اطلاق أعمال المجلس المحلي على مراحل وفق أولويات المنطقة ويشترك باطلاقه:

○ أعضاء المجلس المحلي

○ نشطاء المنطقة

○ نشطاء يتطوعون من خارج المنطقة ويكون لهم خبرة في هذه المجالات

ومنه، من الممكن النظر في هيكل تنظيمي يفعل أدوار ومهام المجلس المحلي على الشكل التالي:

أي أنه من المستحسن أن تكون البنية التنظيمية للمجلس المحلي ذي طبيعة عملية تبدأ من صيغة دنيا وتتطور وفق متطلبات المجتمع وتبعا للتحول الذي تحققه الثورة في موازين القوة مع النظام في منطقة معينة وما يستتبعه من علاقة بالمناطق المجاورة.

خامسا) دور المجلس الوطني

ان للمجلس دورا مفصليا بالنسبة للأمور التالية:

● شرعية المبادرة: اعتماد المجلس الوطني لفكرة المجلس المحلي يؤمن لها الشرعية اللازمة لاطلاقها ويسهل قبولها من قبل الناشطين في الساحة

● التمويل: قبول المجلس الوطني ادارة “تمويل صنايق الثورة” – وهذه بحد ذاتها من الوظائف التي يتوجب ان يضطلع بها- يسمح بمرونة أكبر لاطلاق المجالس المحلية بتغطية وذلك بتغطية نفقات الاطلاق ومصاريف قد لا يكون بإمكان المنطقة تغطيتها

● تسهيل التنسيق بين المناطق ورفع مستوى التنظيم الى اطار المحافظات إذ أن كل منطقة وكل ناحية فيها مازالت تقوم بمبادراتها وفق تصورها للحراك. هذه الاستقلالية أثبتت دون شك مرونة عالية في الحركة غير انها تأثرت غالبا من غياب مساحات صديقة تحميها. والدور الذي يضطلع به المجلس الوطني هنا أساسي لايجاد أرضية مشتركة ولتوثيق الترابط بين المناطق المختلفة.

Omar Aziz – To Live in Revolutionary Time

Posted on 15/02/2025 - 15/02/2025 by muntjac

Also avalible as a zine by North Shore Counter Info check our ‘Zines’ page for the PDF, or our ko-fi if you want a printed copy.

A shorter version of this piece is avalible in Arabic here. Both are avalible as zines.

To Live in Revolutionary Time: Translator’s Introduction to The Formation of Local Councils by Omar Aziz

On 17 February 2013, the Local Coordination Committees of the Syrian revolution reported that Omar Aziz, prominent Syrian intellectual, economist, and long-time anarchist dissident, died of a heart attack in the central Adra prison. Held incommunicado by the air force intelligence since 20 November 2012, the big and warm – albeit ailing – heart of Omar Aziz could not stand almost three months of detention inside the infamous dungeons of the Assad regime. The reports of his passing emerged on the second anniversary of the Hariqa market protest, when 1,500 Syrians vowed for the first time not to be humiliated in the heart of Old Damascus. Aziz leaves behind a rich, significant legacy of ground-breaking intellectual, social and political contributions as well as an unfinished revolution and a country in desperate need for people like him. (Budour Hassan: Rest in Power)

Omar Aziz, revolutionary anarchist born in Damascus, was a friend and comrade to many and is fondly remembered and deeply missed. His text, The Formation of Local Councils, remains one of the core strategic proposals of the social revolution in Syria. He first published it in late 2011, and then released an expanded and revised version in February 2012 with a new introduction. This present translation offers the introductions to both versions and the full text of the second version. It doesn’t seem that Omar’s intention was to produce a static, finished text — with his emphasis on adapting to local context and changing conditions, it’s likely he would have continued to revise and change his proposals. You will notice some repetition between the two introductions, which is simply because the second was written to replace the first, and so they weren’t meant to be displayed side by side.

Although Omar’s name is somewhat well known, there has not been an adequate English translation of his writings. As well, the text was very much an internal document, circulated among people organizing in Syria. There are large sections presented as bulleted lists of proposals, and there is essentially no context given. The Formation of Local Councils was only published publicly online after Omar’s death in 2013; perhaps the lack of translation since then reflects the difficulty of presenting this important text to an English-speaking public in a way that allows it to be understood. However, the text is tremendously rich and offers many concrete ideas and reflections for those in western countries engaged in struggle against the state and reactionaries, and for autonomy and freedom.

This introduction will seek to provide some of the background needed to understand The Formation of Local Councils in context, and for this we will draw on texts written by Leila al-Shami and Budour Hassan. We will also share translated excerpts of the introduction to the French translation of Omar’s text by Éditions Antisociales, published in November 2013 under the title The Revolution of Everyday Life Under Sniper Fire. As well, we believe it’s important to situate this text within the debates and priorities that exist, broadly-speaking, within the anglophone anarchist world; this also speaks to some of the decisions made while translating.

Our hope is that by translating and distributing this text to make more visible the Syrian revolution, which has so often been denied or conflated with the armed groups that share its territories. Often leftists who support the Assad regime or anarchists who support the YPG/PYD will ask things like, “Are there really liberatory groups in these areas? What are their names? What are their ideas?” as if the organization of daily life needed a name, a website, and an English-language spokesperson to exist.

At a time when many activists were forced to flee, [Omar] chose to relinquish his safety in the United States and return to Syria to participate in the popular uprising that has swept through the country.
At a time when most anti-imperialists were wailing over the collapse of the Syrian state and the ‘hijacking’ of a revolution they never supported in the first place, Aziz and his comrades were tirelessly striving for unconditional freedom from all forms of despotism and state hegemony.
While most secular and modernist intellectuals sat on the fence and even denounced protesters for marching from mosques, Aziz and his comrades created the first local council in Barzeh, Damascus. The local councils, an idea proposed and crystallised by Aziz at the end of 2011, are voluntary, horizontal associations inspired by the writings of Rosa Luxemburg. This idea was later adopted in most liberated areas in Syria.” (Budour)

Without ever intending to, Omar’s life and writings can serve as an example of what we mean when we say “the Syrian revolution” — definitely not the official opposition in exile or the foreign-funded militias profiting off the war economy, as the above detractors try to claim. The Syrian revolution is in the formal and informal organizing that goes on in hundreds of places every day. As Leila al-Shami points out, in March 2016 there were at least 395 local councils operating throughout the Syrian territory, with practices and projects as varied as the people who compose them, but largely sharing a vision of self-organizing local tasks in what Omar calls revolutionary time — creating their lives outside of the time of authority.

According to Muhammed Sami Al Kayyal, one of Aziz’s comrades, “Omar Aziz stood for the complete break-up [of] the state in order to achieve collective liberation without waiting for regime change or for one ruling power to replace another. He believed that communities are capable of producing their own freedoms regardless of political vicissitudes.” Aziz recognized that the time of revolution was the moment the people themselves should claim autonomy and put in place as much of an alternative programme as possible. He again called for the establishment of local councils [in the second version of the text from Feb 2013], this time highlighting more roles such as coordinating with relief activities, medical committees and educational initiatives. Building autonomous, self-governing communes throughout Syria, linked through a network of cooperation and mutual aid, organizing independently of the state, he believed a social revolution could be initiated. (Leila al-Shami: The Legacy of Omar Aziz)

The Formation of Local Councils is fundamentally a strategic proposal. As Omar writes in both introductions, massive combative demonstrations had created spaces and times outside the control of the state. These demonstrations were often pushed forward by small affinity-based groups of revolutionaries called coordinating committees that operated clandestinely to avoid repression. In the space created, many forms of autonomous self-organizing began to emerge as the state withdrew or was driven back. The Local Council would serve to deepen and expand these practices of self-organization as well as share more broadly the organizing skills and experience of coordinating committees and other groups. Omar and his friends believed that the human energy freed up by creating these spaces outside of authoritarian control would allow for the creation of new social forms, which would in turn further erode the state.

Omar Aziz wrote about the importance of establishing non-hierarchical grassroots local councils that are independent from state control, and he did so long before there were liberated areas in Syria. When Aziz prepared the outline for the local councils, the uprising was still overwhelmingly peaceful, and most of the country was under the military control of the regime. At the time, he was mocked and ignored by the very people who would later adopt his idea and take credit for it.

Omar Aziz’s vision of the local council was founded on the premise that revolutions are exceptional events in which human beings live in two parallel time zones: the time of authority and the time of revolution. For the revolution to emerge victorious, it must break free from the domination of the authorities and become involved in every aspect of people’s lives, not just in demonstrations and political activism. (Budour)

Here, Budour translates Omar’s phrase as “the time of authority”, and our translations renders it the same way. Omar uses an Arabic word that could be translated as “power” to refer to both the power built up by people organizing their own lives, as well as to the coercive power that limits their autonomy. For this translation, we thought it was important to make the distinction clear: Omar and his comrades were not against power (they wanted to build grassroots horizontal power), they were against authority.

This emphasis on anti-authoritarian practice entered the text in subtle, linguistic ways too. Budour notes: “Omar Aziz avoided using the term ‘The people’ and instead referred to people as ‘humans’. His comrade Mohammad Sami al-Kayal writes: “He did not believe in ‘The people,’ that jargon coined by authority to maintain its power. He saw human beings who live, thrive, and spout their potential.” In the translation, in effect, the phrase “the people” does not occur — we translated Omar’s phrasing as “humans”, “human beings”, “people” (as in the plural of ‘person’), and “individuals”. Sometimes this leads to sentences sounding a little strange, but perhaps it’s necessary to break with common phrasing to break with common ideas.

We could make a similar argument about the word “society”. Omar is focused on specific projects that are adapted to local context – if he had a vision for all of “Syrian society”, it was of local, autonomous self-organizing. The word “society”, by lumping everyone together, is generally used to erase the diversity and possibility that would grow from the multiplication of these initiatives.

This quote from Leila is illustrative:

Aziz saw positive examples all around him. He was encouraged by the multiple initiatives springing up throughout the country including voluntary provision of emergency medical and legal support, turning houses into field hospitals and arranging food baskets for distribution. He saw in such acts ‘the spirit of the Syrian people’s resistance to the brutality of the system, the systematic killing and destruction of community’. (Leila al-Shami: The Life and Work of Omar Aziz)

Though we translated this sentence a little differently, we agree with Leila’s choice to use “community” here, whereas other translations have used “society”. It would be possible to translate this text in such a way that “society” was one of the most common words. However, we translated the Arabic word in question several different ways throughout the text to avoid what would be, to our ears, an excessive insistence on society. Because what is society? It is how the state sees the collected individuals, milieus, communities, families, political structures, classes, and so on that inhabit the territory it controls. An anarchic break with the state will also be a break with society, this non-free association of individuals held together by the shared experience of being ruled. As with “the people”, we believe avoiding the word “society” is consistent with Omar’s emphasis on “human beings” and decentralization, and so we’ve translated the Arabic word more often as “group”, “community”, or “collective”.

Omar insists repeatedly that what he is describing will vary based on local situations. He is not seeking to impose a model on all of “society”, but he does believe there is space for everyone to build a life for themselves and the people around them outside the control of the state on a non-hierarchical basis: groups of people adapting to local conditions with a shared commitment to collaboration and to not being ruled.

Omar Aziz’s work has had a huge impact on revolutionary organization in Syria. Whilst the mainstream political opposition failed to achieve anything of note in the past two years, the grassroots opposition movement, in the face of violent repression, has remained dynamic and innovative and has embodied the anarchist spirit. The core of the grassroots opposition is the youth, mainly from the poor and middle-classes, in which women and diverse religious and ethnic groups play active roles. Many of these activists remain non-affiliated to traditional political ideologies but are motivated by concerns for freedom, dignity and basic human rights. Their primary objective has remained the overthrow of the regime, rather than developing grand proposals for a future Syria. […]

There is no one model for the Local Councils, but they mainly follow some form of representative democratic model. Some have established different administrative departments to take over functions previously held by the state. Some have been more successful and inclusive than others which have struggled to displace the bureaucracy of the old regime or have been plagued by infighting. (Leila: Life and Work)

One of the biggest critiques to be made of The Formation of Local Councils and of the local councils themselves is that there is a current that seemingly favours bureaucratic, representative democracy. In a moment where many western anarchists are describing their projects as distinct from or hostile to democracy, it can be difficult to understand what moves anarchists elsewhere to push for local-level representative democracy as a form of governance. The local councils have not yet produced a cast of professional politicians, and in the ones we’ve heard most about in Aleppo and Daraya, the roles rotated often, had little or no coercive power, and the people holding them continued doing other kinds of work. But that doesn’t mean they would be able to avoid the pitfalls of representation in years to come.

Omar writes about the need to build administrative capacity to resume service provision, which can, among other more pressing concerns, include things like issuing birth certificates and recording marriages. We’ve read accounts of career bureaucrats joining the local councils in Daraya and busying themselves producing license plates with the revolutionary flag on them. The tension in the local council project that Leila describes above, and that Omar didn’t live to see arise, is the tension between social revolution and governing. Again, in practice, the local councils have been minimally bureaucratic, but not everyone involved sees them as a fundamental transformation of how people live, but rather as little democratic states-in-waiting. Obviously we still support these projects and think they’re beautiful and worthwhile, but we can’t ignore these kinds of tensions that arise in every mass movement when lots of people find themselves in the same spaces, opposing the same forces, but without necessarily sharing common goals.

And yet, there are fundamental differences between government and the local councils. The local councils as described in this text form by inviting people already doing important work, then slowly expanding to include more people in a wider geographic area as their capacity increases, while encouraging and making links with similar projects elsewhere. Their territories are defined by who participates, not by borders. And, unlike what some militias affiliated with the Rojava project have done, they spread by encouraging self-organizing elsewhere, not by conquering.

Omar helped found several local councils, including one in Daraya, which was one of the capitals of the revolution. Leila’s description of the revolution in Daraya can be found on her blog and is well worth reading, but here she describes its story as exemplary of the potential of local councils as well as the threats they face (written, of course, before the fall of Aleppo in late 2016, early 2017):

Omar Aziz didn’t live to see Daraya’s remarkable achievements. Nor was he able to witness other experiments in local self-organization, with varying degrees of success, across the country.
These local councils are not ideological but practical. Their first concern is to keep communities functioning in areas where the state has collapsed. They remain independent of political or religious directives, focusing instead on issues of immediate relevance such as service provision and food assistance. They work through the prism of their own culture and experience. As alternatives to state authoritarianism, their libertarian tendencies are undeniable.

By March 2016, it was estimated that there were 395 active councils in cities, towns and neighbourhoods, half of them concentrated in Aleppo and Idlib provinces. This estimate was made a few months following Russia’s military intervention to prop up the failing regime, which saw the loss of great swathes of liberated territory, placing these autonomous communities under threat. At the time of writing, other revolutionary suburbs around the capital are at risk of falling to the regime as a result of its “kneel or starve policy.” So too is Al-Waer, the last remaining revolutionary stronghold in Homs. And the 300,000 residents of liberated eastern Aleppo are under siege once more. (Leila: Legacy)

Omar wrote in the early days of the revolution, when areas completely free of Assadist control were only just emerging. As Editions Antisociales points out, “from the macabre perspective of the victim count of this massacre, which is almost the only “objective information” on Syria transmitted to a wider public, the first version [of the text] was written when there were ‘only’ about three thousand dead, and the second when the count suddenly swelled due to the shelling with heavy weapons of the first ‘liberated’ areas, such as the martyr neighbourhood of Bab Amr in Homs”. Omar only lived to see a taste of the overwhelming, one-sided violence that has all but swallowed up the Syrian revolution.

Perhaps the emphasis on democracy, administration, and society criticized above are pitfalls of organizing in a war zone against an authoritarian state that uses sectarianism as a key weapon. There was, and continues to be, an urgent need to create resilient social structures that can position themselves as an alternative to the Assadist state in meeting people’s needs. At the time, Omar didn’t see this as a burden, but rather as a revolutionary strategy. He, along with many other Syrian revolutionaries, had tremendous faith in the human potential that is unlocked when time and energy are freed from authoritarian structures. This is exemplified by the immense creativity and joy of the revolution’s early days, as it emerged from the smothering dictatorship. However, Omar writes that very quickly, time opened up by the revolution was filled up by a desperate struggle for survival — the regime’s ability to impose misery meant that this enormous human potential wasn’t able to manifest. In providing services and organizing people around them in non-hierarchical ways, the local councils hope to unlock this immense energy once again to defeat the regime and to rebuild new models of community (or even “society”). However, without outside support, the liberated areas have all too often been cut off and crushed through siege.

The main Assadist counter-insurgency strategy has been to transform a popular uprising into a civil war, forcing the opposition to militarize and favouring its most reactionary elements. Drawing on the analysis of Yassin al-Haj Saleh, we can talk about three tendencies within the Syrian conflict: revolution, civil war, and proxy war. All three tendencies have been present throughout and continue to be factors, but generally there was a chronological progression from revolution to civil war to proxy war, each of which also has forms of social organizing attached to them. The revolution is characterized by the local councils and their associated local self-defense groups that are more or less answerable to popular structures. As the conflict territorialized and large coalitions of rebel groups that were not accountable to grassroots formations emerged, the conflict increasingly became a civil war. The push towards civil war is strongly characterized by the power of counter-revolutionary islamist groups, especially ISIS and al-Nusra/Fatah al-Sham. Those groups then, in turn, became more and more dependent on their outside sponsors, and the political concerns of external states came to dominate; thus, the situation became the proxy war that currently confronts us.

However, just because the dynamics of civil war overtook the revolution, it doesn’t mean that revolutionary organizing stopped or that the revolution disappeared; in the same way, just because the proxy war dimension only came to dominate later on, it doesn’t mean that there wasn’t important meddling by other states in 2011.

A major threat facing these diverse initiatives has not only been the persecution of activists by the regime, lack of resources, the onslaught of the state’s attack of civilian areas and increasingly deteriorating security and humanitarian conditions. Some local councils have been hijacked by reactionary and counter-revolutionary forces. For example, in Al Raqqa non-local rebel groups with salafi/takfiri leanings took much of the power away from the local council. As they have tried to impose an Islamic vision which is alien to almost everyone, the people of Raqqa have been holding continuous protests against them. In [a video linked to on her blog] from June 2013 people are demonstrating against arrests of family members by Jabhat Al Nusra. The women are shouting “shame on you! You betrayed us in the name of Islam”. Throughout August 2013 the people of Al Raqqa have been protesting almost daily against the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) demanding the release of hundreds of detainees, abductees and missing persons. (Leila: Life and Work)

Omar’s text only touches in an indirect way on the threat of reactionary counter-revolution, but the multi-polar nature of the revolutionary struggle became clearer around the time of his death. Though Omar was killed by the state, many of his comrades in developing the local councils were killed by reactionary conservative armed groups, notably the Douma 4 — Razan Zeitouneh, Wael Hamada, Samira Khalil, and Nazem Hammadi. They were kidnapped in a liberated area near Damascus by Jaish al-Islam, where they had tried to ensure that the local councils remained in control of the revolution and could act as a check on the armed groups. In the additions made in the second version of the text, we can see Omar’s increasing concern with this.

So we see, among other additions, a call to cooperate with the deserters who make up the Free Syrian Army, who had, in the meantime, rallied to the National Council which had “taken up the idea of local councils as its own”, as well as a dramatic call to establish more field hospitals. It was only five months later, in mid-July 2012, that the regime bombarded a rebel neighbourhood of Damascus for the first time. Abu Kamel’s (Omar Aziz’s pseudonym) project can only be understood in this frightening context […] (Editions Antisociales)

Omar’s position on the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and on the National Council is presented discretely but unambiguously in his text. He wants to collaborate with the FSA in order to ensure that the armed elements of the revolution answer to local, popular formations, rather than to defecting officers (and later, we could imagine, to foreign sponsors). The areas where this was most successful are also the areas that most successfully resisted the counter-revolutionary islamist forces — spectacularly, free Aleppo drove out first the Islamic State and, later, Jabhat al-Nusra. Similarly, Omar isn’t fully comfortable with the National Council, the official opposition in exile supported by western states; his vision is that power comes from the bottom up, so the only useful purpose of this higher structure is to co-ordinate fundraising, distribute resources to local councils (according to needs they define), and to promote and support the formation of councils. But if there was still hope in 2012 that the National Council would be at all worthwhile, that hope is now long gone.

The Formation of Local Councils should make it clear that the revolution cannot be resumed by the militarized formations, in spite of what every mainstream news source would say. Although not a pacifist movement as we would usually understand the term, much of the grassroots Syrian revolution does not believe that armed struggle is what will bring about a better life. Rather, it is the dual approach described in this text: destroying the state while producing new forms of life. Neither of those actions particularly require violence, but they must be determined and willing to defend themselves.

The revolution of “local co-ordinating committees” as it has been sketched out in Syria, doesn’t require any terror to reach its goals, it hates and abhors murder. It doesn’t seek vengeance, but rather justice. It is not a desperate attempt by a minority trying to squeeze all of reality into the mould of its ideals. It is the product of the actions of hundreds of thousands or millions of individuals who resolved to take their lives in their own hands and to go as far as possible towards their dream of freedom and dignity. And it is precisely this experience of universal importance that the Holy Alliance of its enemies tries at all costs to bury under ruins and lies. Bashar and Putin, the Iranian mollahs and the American congress, the pseudo-resistance of Hezbollah and the very christian Venezuelan police, the United Nations and al-Qaeda, the Communist Party of China and French know-how… The profiteers of the globalized system would rather transform Syria into a mass grave than willingly surrender their place at the table of those who divide up the world and ‘negotiate’ the future. (Editions Antisociales)

As this quote makes clear, none of the actors in the proxy war want to see a revolution based on local autonomy succeed in Syria, and ensuring continuing violence is the best way to suppress it. Revolutions are exceptional moments in time though, and even if they don’t last forever, they fundamentally transform the people who participate in them and open up possibilities for everyone around the world. Think of how much inspiration we still draw from struggles like the Paris Commune or the Spanish Revolution — the Syrian revolution is no less rich. As Omar said, “We are no less than Paris Commune workers: they resisted for 70 days and we are still going on for a year and a half.”

This brings up one last note on the translation. we have avoided referring to Omar, his comrades, or all the Syrian revolutionaries as “activists”, an identity that’s defined relative to a supposedly passive majority. As one friend pointed out, “You’d never refer to Durruti as an activist, or Louise Michel, so why would you talk about the coordinating committees that way?” It’s true, they have certain skills and experiences that are useful to the broader mobilization, but they are not distinct from it, nor are they leading it. Omar and those engaged in similar work created something vast and far-reaching, even if ultimately limited in time. Their commitment to radically doing away with the old world and dreaming a new one in its place is deeply inspiring, as Budour shows in this final quote:

Omar Aziz told his friends: ‘If the revolution fails, my life and that of my whole generation would be devoid of meaning… all that we have dreamt of and believed in would have been mere illusion.’ He passed away before seeing the triumph of the revolution and reaping the fruits of his majestic work. Syrians who are still alive owe Omar Aziz and the tens of thousands of Syrian martyrs a massive debt. It is a debt that cannot be paid with tears and moving tributes. Nothing less than fighting like hell for a free Syria would suffice. (Budour)

Cited texts

Omar Aziz: Rest in Power, by Budour Hassan, February 2013
budourhassan.wordpress.com

The life and work of anarchist Omar Aziz and his impact on self-organization in the Syrian revolution, by Leila al-Shami, published on Tahrir-ICN in August 2013
tahriricn.wordpress.com

The Legacy of Omar Aziz: Building autonomous, self-governing communes in Syria, by Leila al-Shami, published in November 2016 on Leila’s blog
leilashami.wordpress.com

Sous le feu des snipers, la révolution de la vie quotidienne (The Revolution of Everyday Life Under Sniper Fire), published by Éditions Antisociales in November 2013
www.editionsantisociales.com

Introduction from October 2011: Authority’s time and revolutionary time

A revolution is an exceptional event that alters the history of a society while also transforming each human being. It is a rupture in time and space, during which humans live two experiences of time simultaneously: authority’s time and revolutionary time. For a revolution to succeed, revolutionary time must become independent, so that people can collectively move into a new period. The Syrian Revolution has entered its eighth month and still has days of struggle ahead to topple the regime and open up new spaces for life.

Throughout the preceding phase, continuous demonstrations were able to break the absolute control of authority over space. Its control over the territory now varies, shifting from place to place, day to day, or even hour by hour. The continuous demonstrations also produced a National Council, which included participation from the popular movements, formal organizations, and political parties. It was tasked with being a legitimate alternative authority among Arab states and internationally that could incite the necessary action to protect the Syrian people from the brutality of this murderous regime.

However, the revolutionary movement has remained separate from day-to-day activities and so has been unable to enter into everyday life, which continues as it had in the past. It’s as though there exists a “daily division of work” between the tasks necessary to live in this world and revolutionary activities. This means that self-organizing in Syria is happening in two overlapping times: authority’s time, which continues to structure everyday activities, and revolutionary time, in which people take action to overthrow the regime. The danger doesn’t lie in the overlap of these two times, which is part of the nature of revolution, but rather in the separation between the progress of daily life and that of the revolution, for everyone involved. In the coming period, the movement will face two different threats : that human beings will get tired of the revolution and its impact on their material needs and family life, or that an increasing use of weapons will make the revolution a hostage of the gun.

Accordingly, the more self-organizing is able to spread as a force through the efforts of human beings to live in revolutionary time rather than in authority’s, the more the revolution will have laid the groundwork for victory. Let’s not forget that these past months were rich in all sorts of initiatives, especially ones focused on emergency medical care and legal support, and now we must urgently deepen these projects in order to take in broader spheres of life. Merging life and revolution is the key element for continuing the revolution and winning. This involves organizing for flexibility within social groupings by developing processes to co-ordinate revolution and everyday human life, which we will call here “local councils”.

Introduction from February 2012: Linking collective self-defense and continuing the revolution

The revolution has made it through its first year and still has many days of struggle ahead to bring down the regime and open up new spaces for life. During this past phase, continuous demonstrations succeeded in breaking the absolute control of power over space. Its control of the territory now varies, changing from place to place, day to day, and even hour by hour.

During this period, Syrians changed the course of their society while also transforming themselves. Drawing on an unprecedented courage and close cooperation, the sacrifices they have made show their desire for freedom and their commitment to collectively restructuring their lives.

Against the murder and atrocities of the regime and against its systematic destruction of community, the Syrian people’s spirit of resistance rises up with incredible skill and creativity, in an epic act of love that allows life to continue. Providing emergency medicine, turning houses into field hospitals, preparing food baskets, and finding creative ways to spread information : these are all actions that oppose tyrannical power and contribute to rich human relations based on cooperation and mutual aid.

Engaged people in Syria started forming coordinating committees in the early days of the revolution to organize media coverage, ensure the spread of information, and document both the accomplishments of the revolution, as well as the regime’s reprisals. These revolutionaries then broadened their activities to include relief work and medical care. It’s clear that these self-organized formations are collaborating and are contributing to a revolutionary strategy that would allow for resistance over the long term. This collaboration made new relationships possible that could break with the regime’s control over time and space, as part of the ceaseless effort to allow people to take autonomous control over their own lives, as they know this autonomy is what freedom is made of.

The past months have been rich with many projects to develop self-organizing, in a colourful diversity of initiatives and expressions that spans different regions and social groups. In the beginning, the revolutionary movement was separate from basic human activity and didn’t enter into daily life, as though there was a “daily division of labour” between the tasks necessary to live in this world and revolutionary activity. But popular solidarity developed, as people began choosing to share food and housing and to help one another in whatever way was needed. These practices spread throughout the areas where revolutionary activity was most intense, which made the link between revolution and life evident.

It’s clear then that the more self-organizing grows in power, the more able these deep social bonds will be to defend themselves and others against the repressive violence of the authorities, against moral slippage, and against the risk that the use of arms will slowly make the revolution and society as a whole hostages of the gun. Blending life and revolution is the necessary condition for the revolution to continue until the regime is destroyed. This in turn requires adaptable forms of social organization that enable a co-ordination between the revolution and daily human life. These efforts have been referred to in different ways, but here we will call these new social formations “local councils”.

The Formation of Local Councils: Main text from February 2012

This introduction and what follows are an invitation to form local councils composed of people from different cultures and from different segments of society that will work to achieve the following goals:

  • To support human beings in managing their lives autonomously, without state institutions or structures (even if this autonomy is not complete)

  • To create space for collective expression that can reinforce cooperation among individuals and that can encompass more necessary tasks as political engagement grows.

  • Incite social revolutionary activities on a regional level while unifying supporting structures

As well, the following issues are important and need to be addressed by the local councils:

1) Human interdependence and civil solidarity

Objectives

  • Relieve the physical and emotional suffering of families displaced by the barbarous violence of the authorities

  • Provide emotional and practical solidarity to families impacted by death, injuries, arrests, or disappearances or who have suffered other physical or psychological harm

  • Improve living conditions for families

  • Create the best possible conditions for medical practitioners

  • Ensure that educational services continue

Role of the local councils

At a minimum, local councils should :

  • Provide support and assistance to those arriving in a specific area or departing from it: the role of the local council here is to step in to alleviate the misery created by the authorities through actions arising solely from popular initiatives

  • Find safe housing and supplies for displaced individuals and their families in the area where the council operates and in co-ordination with its counterpart in the area they left

  • Organize the collection of information about arrestees and ensure its distribution to the appropriate groups involved in the revolution. Set up lines of communication with people with legal expertise and support families in following-up about the situation of arrestees

  • Keep track of the needs of affected families and work to meet those needs by creating solidarity funds and through regional revolutionary funds

  • Provide physical, emotional, and logistical support to affected families, make sure they have the supplies and funds they need. This war by the authorities against people has transformed the time they would have spent living into time spent looking for safer shelter for themselves and their families. It has transformed their daily work into an endless search for information about their loved ones who have dissapeared, to figure out where they are being held, with only the support of their families or the people they happen to know in the area where they took refuge. It is therefore necessary to:

    • Support and collaborate with revolutionary individuals and groups with legal expertise to document abuses carried out by the army, by the intelligence agencies, and by the shabbiha [informal enforcers], such as murder, rape, arrest, property destruction, and theft.

    • Provide a caring environment that allows for less psychological and material stress for displaced families, especially for women and children. Coordinate with skilled providers to ensure support for physical and psychological health, especially for those who need the most attention.

  • Civil administration: Because of the ferocious regime attacks, it falls to the local councils to create administrative records for those who struggle against the regime, especially those who have gone underground. And in those areas where the revolution has gained some independence, they could even begin registering births, deaths, marriages, divorces, and so on.

  • Co-ordinate with relief organizations to provide humanitarian and financial aid, in particular:

    • Identify food and medical needs, as well as any other necessities of life

    • Organize to receive and distribute aid

    • Compile and spread statistical data

  • Co-ordinate with medical committees

    • Identify homes suitable to be turned into field hospitals and organize their defense alongside their owners

    • Prepare the field hospitals in coordination with the medical committees

    • With medical and aid groups, identify the needed medical supplies and training, and work to receive and store those supplies

    • Follow-up on responses to emergencies, especially those coming from outside the area

  • Support and help coordinate educational initiatives

    • Identify the educational requirements at all levels

    • Co-ordinate with educational institutions in the area and with anyone who is able and willing to teach

    • Organize and administrate educational activities

  • Support and co-ordinate outreach initiatives

Note: Such work requires organization and knowledge of the arts of administration, but these above tasks are not impossible, whatever the environment may be. This revolution has produced many people skilled at the organization of demonstrations, strikes, and sit-ins, and so it can also push to create experts in the fields in which people have already engaged spontaneously. But let’s also remember that projects like these are not meant to replace family and friendship bonds (at least not at first) and under no circumstances should there be any coercion to participate. Humans who have begun learning to live without services provided by the state and who have found temporary replacements for them through family relationships will need time and practice to integrate themselves into a broader social sphere that’s more effective and elaborate.

2) On relationships between individuals: Creating new common interests

Objectives

  • Increase the capacity for action and initiative by individuals in the social body

  • Create spaces for discussion of human concerns and of solutions to problems of daily life

  • Build horizontal relationships of interdependence between local councils in a given region and broaden these to include other geographic areas

Role of the local councils: What should be, at a minimum, the local council’s work

The revolution has transformed individual humans by opening up new horizons in their lives, particularly once they were sure that confrontation was the way to gain their freedom and that by continuing on this path they would find new possibilities for tomorrow. By developing new ways of defining themselves rich with innovative, inventive power, they were able to overcome the smothering individualism of a half-century of authoritarian rule. They discovered that mutual aid pushes open the doors to exciting and colourful social richness.

The challenge facing the local councils consists of making people comfortable with this social environment, by creating open space for free dialogue. This is necessary for achieving ongoing, friendly relations while also securing the future of the revolution as a collective project. Towards this end, the local councils will pursue these goals:

  • Form “social spaces” that allow people to discuss the difficulties in their daily lives, debate what is needed, and develop appropriate solutions. To keep the delicate balance between the continuation of the revolution and the protection of those around them, these solutions will have to consider the following points:

    • Local concerns

    • Infrastructural concerns

    • Social harmony

    • Regional fundraising

    • Delve into all issues relating to people’s livelihoods and their expectations for life and work and find collective solutions wherever possible

  • Analyze questions that demand solutions beyond the local context, such as funding or support for other regions

  • Defend the land in the region from being expropriated by the state, because such expropriations of land in Syria’s cities and countryside and the consequent displacement of their inhabitants are one of the core pillars of the politic of domination and social exclusion on which the regime relies. This policy was adopted to create residential areas for government employees and soldiers and officers of the army, or in the name of business, to create shopping centres for the rich. In rural and suburban areas, the revolutionary movement formed partly as a rejection of this policy of expropriation and exclusion that cuts human beings off from their subsistence base. The work of the local committees is then’:

    • Inventory the lands affected by expropriation

    • In the event of expropriation of land for security purposes: support the local residents in defending the land and property in their region

    • In the event of expropriations of land for residential purposes or other development projects: do what you can to preserve good relationships with the local residents and seek a solution that meets the needs of all parties

Note: Clearly, these kinds of actions are only possible in areas that are secure or nearly “liberated” from the authorities. But its possible to carry out plans specific to an area that take into account what’s possible there.

3) On the relationship with the Free Syrian Army: The need to protect communities while continuing the revolution

Objectives

  • Make the people around us safer and protect demonstration so that they can expand to new areas

  • Ensure lines of communication between regions by protecting the movement of people and providing logistical support

Role of the local councils: What should be, at a minimum, the local council’s work

  • Provide safe housing and supplies to members of the Free Syrian Army

  • Coordinate and build consensus with the Free Syrian Army on strategies for the defence of the region

  • Work with the Free Syrian Army to empower people in the area to take charge of security and administration

4) On the formation of local councils and their organizational structure

The process of forming local councils faces many obstacles, not the least of which are the deadly violence of the regime, how areas are cut off from each other, the frequent raids cities and villages. Each of these factors greatly limit the ability of people to move around and shut them into closed circles. Confronted with this, the revolution has demonstrated in every region that mechanisms to resist these killings give rise to adaptability and creativity. They also contribute to new practices aimed at overcoming the limits put on peoples collective dreams for freedom and that are able to react appropriately to the shifting balance of power on the ground. Therefore, the formation of local councils is influenced by the following factors:

  • The formation of local councils is a dynamic process that responds to the needs of the situation and how people engage with it

  • Every success achieved by one council will contribute to the efforts of the others and will increase the determination of all their members

  • The formation of local councils will vary based on the intensity of the movement in a given region, meaning it will be more difficult in those areas subjected to a heavy presence of security forces and easier in areas where the revolutionary movement has more capacity

  • This important process of creating local councils will not be easy, but it’s critical if the revolution is to continue. It’s hard not only because of the security deployment and the sieges targeting communities and areas, but also because it involves trying new and unconventional ways of living and relating to one another. This requires becoming independent while breaking with authority, so the role of the councils is to support and develop economic and social activities in their area, based on administrative experience in different domains.

  • In light of the difficulties involved in organizing elections under current circumstances, the local councils will consist of those whose social engagement has earned them wide respect, on the basis of their social and technical skills and their organizing experience. They should have the capacity and desire to work as volunteers, as well as the adaptability necessary to engage with the family structures or political groupings present in an area

  • The activities of the local councils develop in stages according to local priorities. From the beginning, the following people will be involved:

    • Members of the local council

    • Engaged people from the region

    • Willing people participating outside the region with expertise in the questions at hand

Taken together, this all lets us imagine an organizational structure that could take on the tasks of the local council. Ideally, the council should organize on a practical basis, starting small and developing further according to the needs of the community. This organizing will also change in accordance with the transformations brought about by the revolution to the balance of power with the regime in specific areas and what this entails for relationships with neighbouring areas.

5) The role of the National Council

The Council plays a pivotal role in the following matters:

  • The legitimacy of the initiative: By adopting the idea of local councils, the National Council helps give them the legitimacy they need to develop and it contributes to their acceptance by other people engaged on the ground

  • Funding: The National Council has agreed to take on the administration of “the revolutionary funds”, a necessary role that allows for greater flexibility in launching local councils by covering initial costs as well as later expenses that could not be covered locally

  • The National Council can facilitate organizing between areas and increase the level of organization on the provincial level, while each region and locality continues to engage in projects in line with their idea of the movement. This independence has clearly given the movement its tremendous adaptability, even though it was often affected by the lack of supportive spaces to protect it. The role of the National Council here is important for finding common ground and strengthening collaboration between different areas

A Note on the Text

The above translation includes the introduction to the version of Omar’s text published in October 2011 and the full text of the version he released in February 2012. These works were not published online until after his death at the hands of the regime in February 2013. It is based on the Arabic text found here: https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=143690742461532

This translation drew on a rough English translation of the first version of Omar’s text by Yasmeen Mobayed found on muqawameh.wordpress.com and on the French translation published by Éditions Antisociales in 2013: http://editionsantisociales.com/AbouKamel.php

To Live in Revolutionary Time: Translator’s Introduction to The Formation of Local Councils by Omar Aziz

On 17 February 2013, the Local Coordination Committees of the Syrian revolution reported that Omar Aziz, prominent Syrian intellectual, economist, and long-time anarchist dissident, died of a heart attack in the central Adra prison. Held incommunicado by the air force intelligence since 20 November 2012, the big and warm – albeit ailing – heart of Omar Aziz could not stand almost three months of detention inside the infamous dungeons of the Assad regime. The reports of his passing emerged on the second anniversary of the Hariqa market protest, when 1,500 Syrians vowed for the first time not to be humiliated in the heart of Old Damascus. Aziz leaves behind a rich, significant legacy of ground-breaking intellectual, social and political contributions as well as an unfinished revolution and a country in desperate need for people like him. (Budour Hassan: Rest in Power)

Omar Aziz, revolutionary anarchist born in Damascus, was a friend and comrade to many and is fondly remembered and deeply missed. His text, The Formation of Local Councils, remains one of the core strategic proposals of the social revolution in Syria. He first published it in late 2011, and then released an expanded and revised version in February 2012 with a new introduction. This present translation offers the introductions to both versions and the full text of the second version. It doesn’t seem that Omar’s intention was to produce a static, finished text — with his emphasis on adapting to local context and changing conditions, it’s likely he would have continued to revise and change his proposals. You will notice some repetition between the two introductions, which is simply because the second was written to replace the first, and so they weren’t meant to be displayed side by side.

Although Omar’s name is somewhat well known, there has not been an adequate English translation of his writings. As well, the text was very much an internal document, circulated among people organizing in Syria. There are large sections presented as bulleted lists of proposals, and there is essentially no context given. The Formation of Local Councils was only published publicly online after Omar’s death in 2013; perhaps the lack of translation since then reflects the difficulty of presenting this important text to an English-speaking public in a way that allows it to be understood. However, the text is tremendously rich and offers many concrete ideas and reflections for those in western countries engaged in struggle against the state and reactionaries, and for autonomy and freedom.

This introduction will seek to provide some of the background needed to understand The Formation of Local Councils in context, and for this we will draw on texts written by Leila al-Shami and Budour Hassan. We will also share translated excerpts of the introduction to the French translation of Omar’s text by Éditions Antisociales, published in November 2013 under the title The Revolution of Everyday Life Under Sniper Fire. As well, we believe it’s important to situate this text within the debates and priorities that exist, broadly-speaking, within the anglophone anarchist world; this also speaks to some of the decisions made while translating.

Our hope is that by translating and distributing this text to make more visible the Syrian revolution, which has so often been denied or conflated with the armed groups that share its territories. Often leftists who support the Assad regime or anarchists who support the YPG/PYD will ask things like, “Are there really liberatory groups in these areas? What are their names? What are their ideas?” as if the organization of daily life needed a name, a website, and an English-language spokesperson to exist.

At a time when many activists were forced to flee, [Omar] chose to relinquish his safety in the United States and return to Syria to participate in the popular uprising that has swept through the country.
At a time when most anti-imperialists were wailing over the collapse of the Syrian state and the ‘hijacking’ of a revolution they never supported in the first place, Aziz and his comrades were tirelessly striving for unconditional freedom from all forms of despotism and state hegemony.
While most secular and modernist intellectuals sat on the fence and even denounced protesters for marching from mosques, Aziz and his comrades created the first local council in Barzeh, Damascus. The local councils, an idea proposed and crystallised by Aziz at the end of 2011, are voluntary, horizontal associations inspired by the writings of Rosa Luxemburg. This idea was later adopted in most liberated areas in Syria.” (Budour)

Without ever intending to, Omar’s life and writings can serve as an example of what we mean when we say “the Syrian revolution” — definitely not the official opposition in exile or the foreign-funded militias profiting off the war economy, as the above detractors try to claim. The Syrian revolution is in the formal and informal organizing that goes on in hundreds of places every day. As Leila al-Shami points out, in March 2016 there were at least 395 local councils operating throughout the Syrian territory, with practices and projects as varied as the people who compose them, but largely sharing a vision of self-organizing local tasks in what Omar calls revolutionary time — creating their lives outside of the time of authority.

According to Muhammed Sami Al Kayyal, one of Aziz’s comrades, “Omar Aziz stood for the complete break-up [of] the state in order to achieve collective liberation without waiting for regime change or for one ruling power to replace another. He believed that communities are capable of producing their own freedoms regardless of political vicissitudes.” Aziz recognized that the time of revolution was the moment the people themselves should claim autonomy and put in place as much of an alternative programme as possible. He again called for the establishment of local councils [in the second version of the text from Feb 2013], this time highlighting more roles such as coordinating with relief activities, medical committees and educational initiatives. Building autonomous, self-governing communes throughout Syria, linked through a network of cooperation and mutual aid, organizing independently of the state, he believed a social revolution could be initiated. (Leila al-Shami: The Legacy of Omar Aziz)

The Formation of Local Councils is fundamentally a strategic proposal. As Omar writes in both introductions, massive combative demonstrations had created spaces and times outside the control of the state. These demonstrations were often pushed forward by small affinity-based groups of revolutionaries called coordinating committees that operated clandestinely to avoid repression. In the space created, many forms of autonomous self-organizing began to emerge as the state withdrew or was driven back. The Local Council would serve to deepen and expand these practices of self-organization as well as share more broadly the organizing skills and experience of coordinating committees and other groups. Omar and his friends believed that the human energy freed up by creating these spaces outside of authoritarian control would allow for the creation of new social forms, which would in turn further erode the state.

Omar Aziz wrote about the importance of establishing non-hierarchical grassroots local councils that are independent from state control, and he did so long before there were liberated areas in Syria. When Aziz prepared the outline for the local councils, the uprising was still overwhelmingly peaceful, and most of the country was under the military control of the regime. At the time, he was mocked and ignored by the very people who would later adopt his idea and take credit for it.

Omar Aziz’s vision of the local council was founded on the premise that revolutions are exceptional events in which human beings live in two parallel time zones: the time of authority and the time of revolution. For the revolution to emerge victorious, it must break free from the domination of the authorities and become involved in every aspect of people’s lives, not just in demonstrations and political activism. (Budour)

Here, Budour translates Omar’s phrase as “the time of authority”, and our translations renders it the same way. Omar uses an Arabic word that could be translated as “power” to refer to both the power built up by people organizing their own lives, as well as to the coercive power that limits their autonomy. For this translation, we thought it was important to make the distinction clear: Omar and his comrades were not against power (they wanted to build grassroots horizontal power), they were against authority.

This emphasis on anti-authoritarian practice entered the text in subtle, linguistic ways too. Budour notes: “Omar Aziz avoided using the term ‘The people’ and instead referred to people as ‘humans’. His comrade Mohammad Sami al-Kayal writes: “He did not believe in ‘The people,’ that jargon coined by authority to maintain its power. He saw human beings who live, thrive, and spout their potential.” In the translation, in effect, the phrase “the people” does not occur — we translated Omar’s phrasing as “humans”, “human beings”, “people” (as in the plural of ‘person’), and “individuals”. Sometimes this leads to sentences sounding a little strange, but perhaps it’s necessary to break with common phrasing to break with common ideas.

We could make a similar argument about the word “society”. Omar is focused on specific projects that are adapted to local context – if he had a vision for all of “Syrian society”, it was of local, autonomous self-organizing. The word “society”, by lumping everyone together, is generally used to erase the diversity and possibility that would grow from the multiplication of these initiatives.

This quote from Leila is illustrative:

Aziz saw positive examples all around him. He was encouraged by the multiple initiatives springing up throughout the country including voluntary provision of emergency medical and legal support, turning houses into field hospitals and arranging food baskets for distribution. He saw in such acts ‘the spirit of the Syrian people’s resistance to the brutality of the system, the systematic killing and destruction of community’. (Leila al-Shami: The Life and Work of Omar Aziz)

Though we translated this sentence a little differently, we agree with Leila’s choice to use “community” here, whereas other translations have used “society”. It would be possible to translate this text in such a way that “society” was one of the most common words. However, we translated the Arabic word in question several different ways throughout the text to avoid what would be, to our ears, an excessive insistence on society. Because what is society? It is how the state sees the collected individuals, milieus, communities, families, political structures, classes, and so on that inhabit the territory it controls. An anarchic break with the state will also be a break with society, this non-free association of individuals held together by the shared experience of being ruled. As with “the people”, we believe avoiding the word “society” is consistent with Omar’s emphasis on “human beings” and decentralization, and so we’ve translated the Arabic word more often as “group”, “community”, or “collective”.

Omar insists repeatedly that what he is describing will vary based on local situations. He is not seeking to impose a model on all of “society”, but he does believe there is space for everyone to build a life for themselves and the people around them outside the control of the state on a non-hierarchical basis: groups of people adapting to local conditions with a shared commitment to collaboration and to not being ruled.

Omar Aziz’s work has had a huge impact on revolutionary organization in Syria. Whilst the mainstream political opposition failed to achieve anything of note in the past two years, the grassroots opposition movement, in the face of violent repression, has remained dynamic and innovative and has embodied the anarchist spirit. The core of the grassroots opposition is the youth, mainly from the poor and middle-classes, in which women and diverse religious and ethnic groups play active roles. Many of these activists remain non-affiliated to traditional political ideologies but are motivated by concerns for freedom, dignity and basic human rights. Their primary objective has remained the overthrow of the regime, rather than developing grand proposals for a future Syria. […]

There is no one model for the Local Councils, but they mainly follow some form of representative democratic model. Some have established different administrative departments to take over functions previously held by the state. Some have been more successful and inclusive than others which have struggled to displace the bureaucracy of the old regime or have been plagued by infighting. (Leila: Life and Work)

One of the biggest critiques to be made of The Formation of Local Councils and of the local councils themselves is that there is a current that seemingly favours bureaucratic, representative democracy. In a moment where many western anarchists are describing their projects as distinct from or hostile to democracy, it can be difficult to understand what moves anarchists elsewhere to push for local-level representative democracy as a form of governance. The local councils have not yet produced a cast of professional politicians, and in the ones we’ve heard most about in Aleppo and Daraya, the roles rotated often, had little or no coercive power, and the people holding them continued doing other kinds of work. But that doesn’t mean they would be able to avoid the pitfalls of representation in years to come.

Omar writes about the need to build administrative capacity to resume service provision, which can, among other more pressing concerns, include things like issuing birth certificates and recording marriages. We’ve read accounts of career bureaucrats joining the local councils in Daraya and busying themselves producing license plates with the revolutionary flag on them. The tension in the local council project that Leila describes above, and that Omar didn’t live to see arise, is the tension between social revolution and governing. Again, in practice, the local councils have been minimally bureaucratic, but not everyone involved sees them as a fundamental transformation of how people live, but rather as little democratic states-in-waiting. Obviously we still support these projects and think they’re beautiful and worthwhile, but we can’t ignore these kinds of tensions that arise in every mass movement when lots of people find themselves in the same spaces, opposing the same forces, but without necessarily sharing common goals.

And yet, there are fundamental differences between government and the local councils. The local councils as described in this text form by inviting people already doing important work, then slowly expanding to include more people in a wider geographic area as their capacity increases, while encouraging and making links with similar projects elsewhere. Their territories are defined by who participates, not by borders. And, unlike what some militias affiliated with the Rojava project have done, they spread by encouraging self-organizing elsewhere, not by conquering.

Omar helped found several local councils, including one in Daraya, which was one of the capitals of the revolution. Leila’s description of the revolution in Daraya can be found on her blog and is well worth reading, but here she describes its story as exemplary of the potential of local councils as well as the threats they face (written, of course, before the fall of Aleppo in late 2016, early 2017):

Omar Aziz didn’t live to see Daraya’s remarkable achievements. Nor was he able to witness other experiments in local self-organization, with varying degrees of success, across the country.
These local councils are not ideological but practical. Their first concern is to keep communities functioning in areas where the state has collapsed. They remain independent of political or religious directives, focusing instead on issues of immediate relevance such as service provision and food assistance. They work through the prism of their own culture and experience. As alternatives to state authoritarianism, their libertarian tendencies are undeniable.

By March 2016, it was estimated that there were 395 active councils in cities, towns and neighbourhoods, half of them concentrated in Aleppo and Idlib provinces. This estimate was made a few months following Russia’s military intervention to prop up the failing regime, which saw the loss of great swathes of liberated territory, placing these autonomous communities under threat. At the time of writing, other revolutionary suburbs around the capital are at risk of falling to the regime as a result of its “kneel or starve policy.” So too is Al-Waer, the last remaining revolutionary stronghold in Homs. And the 300,000 residents of liberated eastern Aleppo are under siege once more. (Leila: Legacy)

Omar wrote in the early days of the revolution, when areas completely free of Assadist control were only just emerging. As Editions Antisociales points out, “from the macabre perspective of the victim count of this massacre, which is almost the only “objective information” on Syria transmitted to a wider public, the first version [of the text] was written when there were ‘only’ about three thousand dead, and the second when the count suddenly swelled due to the shelling with heavy weapons of the first ‘liberated’ areas, such as the martyr neighbourhood of Bab Amr in Homs”. Omar only lived to see a taste of the overwhelming, one-sided violence that has all but swallowed up the Syrian revolution.

Perhaps the emphasis on democracy, administration, and society criticized above are pitfalls of organizing in a war zone against an authoritarian state that uses sectarianism as a key weapon. There was, and continues to be, an urgent need to create resilient social structures that can position themselves as an alternative to the Assadist state in meeting people’s needs. At the time, Omar didn’t see this as a burden, but rather as a revolutionary strategy. He, along with many other Syrian revolutionaries, had tremendous faith in the human potential that is unlocked when time and energy are freed from authoritarian structures. This is exemplified by the immense creativity and joy of the revolution’s early days, as it emerged from the smothering dictatorship. However, Omar writes that very quickly, time opened up by the revolution was filled up by a desperate struggle for survival — the regime’s ability to impose misery meant that this enormous human potential wasn’t able to manifest. In providing services and organizing people around them in non-hierarchical ways, the local councils hope to unlock this immense energy once again to defeat the regime and to rebuild new models of community (or even “society”). However, without outside support, the liberated areas have all too often been cut off and crushed through siege.

The main Assadist counter-insurgency strategy has been to transform a popular uprising into a civil war, forcing the opposition to militarize and favouring its most reactionary elements. Drawing on the analysis of Yassin al-Haj Saleh, we can talk about three tendencies within the Syrian conflict: revolution, civil war, and proxy war. All three tendencies have been present throughout and continue to be factors, but generally there was a chronological progression from revolution to civil war to proxy war, each of which also has forms of social organizing attached to them. The revolution is characterized by the local councils and their associated local self-defense groups that are more or less answerable to popular structures. As the conflict territorialized and large coalitions of rebel groups that were not accountable to grassroots formations emerged, the conflict increasingly became a civil war. The push towards civil war is strongly characterized by the power of counter-revolutionary islamist groups, especially ISIS and al-Nusra/Fatah al-Sham. Those groups then, in turn, became more and more dependent on their outside sponsors, and the political concerns of external states came to dominate; thus, the situation became the proxy war that currently confronts us.

However, just because the dynamics of civil war overtook the revolution, it doesn’t mean that revolutionary organizing stopped or that the revolution disappeared; in the same way, just because the proxy war dimension only came to dominate later on, it doesn’t mean that there wasn’t important meddling by other states in 2011.

A major threat facing these diverse initiatives has not only been the persecution of activists by the regime, lack of resources, the onslaught of the state’s attack of civilian areas and increasingly deteriorating security and humanitarian conditions. Some local councils have been hijacked by reactionary and counter-revolutionary forces. For example, in Al Raqqa non-local rebel groups with salafi/takfiri leanings took much of the power away from the local council. As they have tried to impose an Islamic vision which is alien to almost everyone, the people of Raqqa have been holding continuous protests against them. In [a video linked to on her blog] from June 2013 people are demonstrating against arrests of family members by Jabhat Al Nusra. The women are shouting “shame on you! You betrayed us in the name of Islam”. Throughout August 2013 the people of Al Raqqa have been protesting almost daily against the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) demanding the release of hundreds of detainees, abductees and missing persons. (Leila: Life and Work)

Omar’s text only touches in an indirect way on the threat of reactionary counter-revolution, but the multi-polar nature of the revolutionary struggle became clearer around the time of his death. Though Omar was killed by the state, many of his comrades in developing the local councils were killed by reactionary conservative armed groups, notably the Douma 4 — Razan Zeitouneh, Wael Hamada, Samira Khalil, and Nazem Hammadi. They were kidnapped in a liberated area near Damascus by Jaish al-Islam, where they had tried to ensure that the local councils remained in control of the revolution and could act as a check on the armed groups. In the additions made in the second version of the text, we can see Omar’s increasing concern with this.

So we see, among other additions, a call to cooperate with the deserters who make up the Free Syrian Army, who had, in the meantime, rallied to the National Council which had “taken up the idea of local councils as its own”, as well as a dramatic call to establish more field hospitals. It was only five months later, in mid-July 2012, that the regime bombarded a rebel neighbourhood of Damascus for the first time. Abu Kamel’s (Omar Aziz’s pseudonym) project can only be understood in this frightening context […] (Editions Antisociales)

Omar’s position on the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and on the National Council is presented discretely but unambiguously in his text. He wants to collaborate with the FSA in order to ensure that the armed elements of the revolution answer to local, popular formations, rather than to defecting officers (and later, we could imagine, to foreign sponsors). The areas where this was most successful are also the areas that most successfully resisted the counter-revolutionary islamist forces — spectacularly, free Aleppo drove out first the Islamic State and, later, Jabhat al-Nusra. Similarly, Omar isn’t fully comfortable with the National Council, the official opposition in exile supported by western states; his vision is that power comes from the bottom up, so the only useful purpose of this higher structure is to co-ordinate fundraising, distribute resources to local councils (according to needs they define), and to promote and support the formation of councils. But if there was still hope in 2012 that the National Council would be at all worthwhile, that hope is now long gone.

The Formation of Local Councils should make it clear that the revolution cannot be resumed by the militarized formations, in spite of what every mainstream news source would say. Although not a pacifist movement as we would usually understand the term, much of the grassroots Syrian revolution does not believe that armed struggle is what will bring about a better life. Rather, it is the dual approach described in this text: destroying the state while producing new forms of life. Neither of those actions particularly require violence, but they must be determined and willing to defend themselves.

The revolution of “local co-ordinating committees” as it has been sketched out in Syria, doesn’t require any terror to reach its goals, it hates and abhors murder. It doesn’t seek vengeance, but rather justice. It is not a desperate attempt by a minority trying to squeeze all of reality into the mould of its ideals. It is the product of the actions of hundreds of thousands or millions of individuals who resolved to take their lives in their own hands and to go as far as possible towards their dream of freedom and dignity. And it is precisely this experience of universal importance that the Holy Alliance of its enemies tries at all costs to bury under ruins and lies. Bashar and Putin, the Iranian mollahs and the American congress, the pseudo-resistance of Hezbollah and the very christian Venezuelan police, the United Nations and al-Qaeda, the Communist Party of China and French know-how… The profiteers of the globalized system would rather transform Syria into a mass grave than willingly surrender their place at the table of those who divide up the world and ‘negotiate’ the future. (Editions Antisociales)

As this quote makes clear, none of the actors in the proxy war want to see a revolution based on local autonomy succeed in Syria, and ensuring continuing violence is the best way to suppress it. Revolutions are exceptional moments in time though, and even if they don’t last forever, they fundamentally transform the people who participate in them and open up possibilities for everyone around the world. Think of how much inspiration we still draw from struggles like the Paris Commune or the Spanish Revolution — the Syrian revolution is no less rich. As Omar said, “We are no less than Paris Commune workers: they resisted for 70 days and we are still going on for a year and a half.”

This brings up one last note on the translation. we have avoided referring to Omar, his comrades, or all the Syrian revolutionaries as “activists”, an identity that’s defined relative to a supposedly passive majority. As one friend pointed out, “You’d never refer to Durruti as an activist, or Louise Michel, so why would you talk about the coordinating committees that way?” It’s true, they have certain skills and experiences that are useful to the broader mobilization, but they are not distinct from it, nor are they leading it. Omar and those engaged in similar work created something vast and far-reaching, even if ultimately limited in time. Their commitment to radically doing away with the old world and dreaming a new one in its place is deeply inspiring, as Budour shows in this final quote:

Omar Aziz told his friends: ‘If the revolution fails, my life and that of my whole generation would be devoid of meaning… all that we have dreamt of and believed in would have been mere illusion.’ He passed away before seeing the triumph of the revolution and reaping the fruits of his majestic work. Syrians who are still alive owe Omar Aziz and the tens of thousands of Syrian martyrs a massive debt. It is a debt that cannot be paid with tears and moving tributes. Nothing less than fighting like hell for a free Syria would suffice. (Budour)

Cited texts

Omar Aziz: Rest in Power, by Budour Hassan, February 2013
budourhassan.wordpress.com

The life and work of anarchist Omar Aziz and his impact on self-organization in the Syrian revolution, by Leila al-Shami, published on Tahrir-ICN in August 2013
tahriricn.wordpress.com

The Legacy of Omar Aziz: Building autonomous, self-governing communes in Syria, by Leila al-Shami, published in November 2016 on Leila’s blog
leilashami.wordpress.com

Sous le feu des snipers, la révolution de la vie quotidienne (The Revolution of Everyday Life Under Sniper Fire), published by Éditions Antisociales in November 2013
www.editionsantisociales.com

Introduction from October 2011: Authority’s time and revolutionary time

A revolution is an exceptional event that alters the history of a society while also transforming each human being. It is a rupture in time and space, during which humans live two experiences of time simultaneously: authority’s time and revolutionary time. For a revolution to succeed, revolutionary time must become independent, so that people can collectively move into a new period. The Syrian Revolution has entered its eighth month and still has days of struggle ahead to topple the regime and open up new spaces for life.

Throughout the preceding phase, continuous demonstrations were able to break the absolute control of authority over space. Its control over the territory now varies, shifting from place to place, day to day, or even hour by hour. The continuous demonstrations also produced a National Council, which included participation from the popular movements, formal organizations, and political parties. It was tasked with being a legitimate alternative authority among Arab states and internationally that could incite the necessary action to protect the Syrian people from the brutality of this murderous regime.

However, the revolutionary movement has remained separate from day-to-day activities and so has been unable to enter into everyday life, which continues as it had in the past. It’s as though there exists a “daily division of work” between the tasks necessary to live in this world and revolutionary activities. This means that self-organizing in Syria is happening in two overlapping times: authority’s time, which continues to structure everyday activities, and revolutionary time, in which people take action to overthrow the regime. The danger doesn’t lie in the overlap of these two times, which is part of the nature of revolution, but rather in the separation between the progress of daily life and that of the revolution, for everyone involved. In the coming period, the movement will face two different threats : that human beings will get tired of the revolution and its impact on their material needs and family life, or that an increasing use of weapons will make the revolution a hostage of the gun.

Accordingly, the more self-organizing is able to spread as a force through the efforts of human beings to live in revolutionary time rather than in authority’s, the more the revolution will have laid the groundwork for victory. Let’s not forget that these past months were rich in all sorts of initiatives, especially ones focused on emergency medical care and legal support, and now we must urgently deepen these projects in order to take in broader spheres of life. Merging life and revolution is the key element for continuing the revolution and winning. This involves organizing for flexibility within social groupings by developing processes to co-ordinate revolution and everyday human life, which we will call here “local councils”.

Introduction from February 2012: Linking collective self-defense and continuing the revolution

The revolution has made it through its first year and still has many days of struggle ahead to bring down the regime and open up new spaces for life. During this past phase, continuous demonstrations succeeded in breaking the absolute control of power over space. Its control of the territory now varies, changing from place to place, day to day, and even hour by hour.

During this period, Syrians changed the course of their society while also transforming themselves. Drawing on an unprecedented courage and close cooperation, the sacrifices they have made show their desire for freedom and their commitment to collectively restructuring their lives.

Against the murder and atrocities of the regime and against its systematic destruction of community, the Syrian people’s spirit of resistance rises up with incredible skill and creativity, in an epic act of love that allows life to continue. Providing emergency medicine, turning houses into field hospitals, preparing food baskets, and finding creative ways to spread information : these are all actions that oppose tyrannical power and contribute to rich human relations based on cooperation and mutual aid.

Engaged people in Syria started forming coordinating committees in the early days of the revolution to organize media coverage, ensure the spread of information, and document both the accomplishments of the revolution, as well as the regime’s reprisals. These revolutionaries then broadened their activities to include relief work and medical care. It’s clear that these self-organized formations are collaborating and are contributing to a revolutionary strategy that would allow for resistance over the long term. This collaboration made new relationships possible that could break with the regime’s control over time and space, as part of the ceaseless effort to allow people to take autonomous control over their own lives, as they know this autonomy is what freedom is made of.

The past months have been rich with many projects to develop self-organizing, in a colourful diversity of initiatives and expressions that spans different regions and social groups. In the beginning, the revolutionary movement was separate from basic human activity and didn’t enter into daily life, as though there was a “daily division of labour” between the tasks necessary to live in this world and revolutionary activity. But popular solidarity developed, as people began choosing to share food and housing and to help one another in whatever way was needed. These practices spread throughout the areas where revolutionary activity was most intense, which made the link between revolution and life evident.

It’s clear then that the more self-organizing grows in power, the more able these deep social bonds will be to defend themselves and others against the repressive violence of the authorities, against moral slippage, and against the risk that the use of arms will slowly make the revolution and society as a whole hostages of the gun. Blending life and revolution is the necessary condition for the revolution to continue until the regime is destroyed. This in turn requires adaptable forms of social organization that enable a co-ordination between the revolution and daily human life. These efforts have been referred to in different ways, but here we will call these new social formations “local councils”.

The Formation of Local Councils: Main text from February 2012

This introduction and what follows are an invitation to form local councils composed of people from different cultures and from different segments of society that will work to achieve the following goals:

  • To support human beings in managing their lives autonomously, without state institutions or structures (even if this autonomy is not complete)

  • To create space for collective expression that can reinforce cooperation among individuals and that can encompass more necessary tasks as political engagement grows.

  • Incite social revolutionary activities on a regional level while unifying supporting structures

As well, the following issues are important and need to be addressed by the local councils:

1) Human interdependence and civil solidarity

Objectives

  • Relieve the physical and emotional suffering of families displaced by the barbarous violence of the authorities

  • Provide emotional and practical solidarity to families impacted by death, injuries, arrests, or disappearances or who have suffered other physical or psychological harm

  • Improve living conditions for families

  • Create the best possible conditions for medical practitioners

  • Ensure that educational services continue

Role of the local councils

At a minimum, local councils should :

  • Provide support and assistance to those arriving in a specific area or departing from it: the role of the local council here is to step in to alleviate the misery created by the authorities through actions arising solely from popular initiatives

  • Find safe housing and supplies for displaced individuals and their families in the area where the council operates and in co-ordination with its counterpart in the area they left

  • Organize the collection of information about arrestees and ensure its distribution to the appropriate groups involved in the revolution. Set up lines of communication with people with legal expertise and support families in following-up about the situation of arrestees

  • Keep track of the needs of affected families and work to meet those needs by creating solidarity funds and through regional revolutionary funds

  • Provide physical, emotional, and logistical support to affected families, make sure they have the supplies and funds they need. This war by the authorities against people has transformed the time they would have spent living into time spent looking for safer shelter for themselves and their families. It has transformed their daily work into an endless search for information about their loved ones who have dissapeared, to figure out where they are being held, with only the support of their families or the people they happen to know in the area where they took refuge. It is therefore necessary to:

    • Support and collaborate with revolutionary individuals and groups with legal expertise to document abuses carried out by the army, by the intelligence agencies, and by the shabbiha [informal enforcers], such as murder, rape, arrest, property destruction, and theft.

    • Provide a caring environment that allows for less psychological and material stress for displaced families, especially for women and children. Coordinate with skilled providers to ensure support for physical and psychological health, especially for those who need the most attention.

  • Civil administration: Because of the ferocious regime attacks, it falls to the local councils to create administrative records for those who struggle against the regime, especially those who have gone underground. And in those areas where the revolution has gained some independence, they could even begin registering births, deaths, marriages, divorces, and so on.

  • Co-ordinate with relief organizations to provide humanitarian and financial aid, in particular:

    • Identify food and medical needs, as well as any other necessities of life

    • Organize to receive and distribute aid

    • Compile and spread statistical data

  • Co-ordinate with medical committees

    • Identify homes suitable to be turned into field hospitals and organize their defense alongside their owners

    • Prepare the field hospitals in coordination with the medical committees

    • With medical and aid groups, identify the needed medical supplies and training, and work to receive and store those supplies

    • Follow-up on responses to emergencies, especially those coming from outside the area

  • Support and help coordinate educational initiatives

    • Identify the educational requirements at all levels

    • Co-ordinate with educational institutions in the area and with anyone who is able and willing to teach

    • Organize and administrate educational activities

  • Support and co-ordinate outreach initiatives

Note: Such work requires organization and knowledge of the arts of administration, but these above tasks are not impossible, whatever the environment may be. This revolution has produced many people skilled at the organization of demonstrations, strikes, and sit-ins, and so it can also push to create experts in the fields in which people have already engaged spontaneously. But let’s also remember that projects like these are not meant to replace family and friendship bonds (at least not at first) and under no circumstances should there be any coercion to participate. Humans who have begun learning to live without services provided by the state and who have found temporary replacements for them through family relationships will need time and practice to integrate themselves into a broader social sphere that’s more effective and elaborate.

2) On relationships between individuals: Creating new common interests

Objectives

  • Increase the capacity for action and initiative by individuals in the social body

  • Create spaces for discussion of human concerns and of solutions to problems of daily life

  • Build horizontal relationships of interdependence between local councils in a given region and broaden these to include other geographic areas

Role of the local councils: What should be, at a minimum, the local council’s work

The revolution has transformed individual humans by opening up new horizons in their lives, particularly once they were sure that confrontation was the way to gain their freedom and that by continuing on this path they would find new possibilities for tomorrow. By developing new ways of defining themselves rich with innovative, inventive power, they were able to overcome the smothering individualism of a half-century of authoritarian rule. They discovered that mutual aid pushes open the doors to exciting and colourful social richness.

The challenge facing the local councils consists of making people comfortable with this social environment, by creating open space for free dialogue. This is necessary for achieving ongoing, friendly relations while also securing the future of the revolution as a collective project. Towards this end, the local councils will pursue these goals:

  • Form “social spaces” that allow people to discuss the difficulties in their daily lives, debate what is needed, and develop appropriate solutions. To keep the delicate balance between the continuation of the revolution and the protection of those around them, these solutions will have to consider the following points:

    • Local concerns

    • Infrastructural concerns

    • Social harmony

    • Regional fundraising

    • Delve into all issues relating to people’s livelihoods and their expectations for life and work and find collective solutions wherever possible

  • Analyze questions that demand solutions beyond the local context, such as funding or support for other regions

  • Defend the land in the region from being expropriated by the state, because such expropriations of land in Syria’s cities and countryside and the consequent displacement of their inhabitants are one of the core pillars of the politic of domination and social exclusion on which the regime relies. This policy was adopted to create residential areas for government employees and soldiers and officers of the army, or in the name of business, to create shopping centres for the rich. In rural and suburban areas, the revolutionary movement formed partly as a rejection of this policy of expropriation and exclusion that cuts human beings off from their subsistence base. The work of the local committees is then’:

    • Inventory the lands affected by expropriation

    • In the event of expropriation of land for security purposes: support the local residents in defending the land and property in their region

    • In the event of expropriations of land for residential purposes or other development projects: do what you can to preserve good relationships with the local residents and seek a solution that meets the needs of all parties

Note: Clearly, these kinds of actions are only possible in areas that are secure or nearly “liberated” from the authorities. But its possible to carry out plans specific to an area that take into account what’s possible there.

3) On the relationship with the Free Syrian Army: The need to protect communities while continuing the revolution

Objectives

  • Make the people around us safer and protect demonstration so that they can expand to new areas

  • Ensure lines of communication between regions by protecting the movement of people and providing logistical support

Role of the local councils: What should be, at a minimum, the local council’s work

  • Provide safe housing and supplies to members of the Free Syrian Army

  • Coordinate and build consensus with the Free Syrian Army on strategies for the defence of the region

  • Work with the Free Syrian Army to empower people in the area to take charge of security and administration

4) On the formation of local councils and their organizational structure

The process of forming local councils faces many obstacles, not the least of which are the deadly violence of the regime, how areas are cut off from each other, the frequent raids cities and villages. Each of these factors greatly limit the ability of people to move around and shut them into closed circles. Confronted with this, the revolution has demonstrated in every region that mechanisms to resist these killings give rise to adaptability and creativity. They also contribute to new practices aimed at overcoming the limits put on peoples collective dreams for freedom and that are able to react appropriately to the shifting balance of power on the ground. Therefore, the formation of local councils is influenced by the following factors:

  • The formation of local councils is a dynamic process that responds to the needs of the situation and how people engage with it

  • Every success achieved by one council will contribute to the efforts of the others and will increase the determination of all their members

  • The formation of local councils will vary based on the intensity of the movement in a given region, meaning it will be more difficult in those areas subjected to a heavy presence of security forces and easier in areas where the revolutionary movement has more capacity

  • This important process of creating local councils will not be easy, but it’s critical if the revolution is to continue. It’s hard not only because of the security deployment and the sieges targeting communities and areas, but also because it involves trying new and unconventional ways of living and relating to one another. This requires becoming independent while breaking with authority, so the role of the councils is to support and develop economic and social activities in their area, based on administrative experience in different domains.

  • In light of the difficulties involved in organizing elections under current circumstances, the local councils will consist of those whose social engagement has earned them wide respect, on the basis of their social and technical skills and their organizing experience. They should have the capacity and desire to work as volunteers, as well as the adaptability necessary to engage with the family structures or political groupings present in an area

  • The activities of the local councils develop in stages according to local priorities. From the beginning, the following people will be involved:

    • Members of the local council

    • Engaged people from the region

    • Willing people participating outside the region with expertise in the questions at hand

Taken together, this all lets us imagine an organizational structure that could take on the tasks of the local council. Ideally, the council should organize on a practical basis, starting small and developing further according to the needs of the community. This organizing will also change in accordance with the transformations brought about by the revolution to the balance of power with the regime in specific areas and what this entails for relationships with neighbouring areas.

5) The role of the National Council

The Council plays a pivotal role in the following matters:

  • The legitimacy of the initiative: By adopting the idea of local councils, the National Council helps give them the legitimacy they need to develop and it contributes to their acceptance by other people engaged on the ground

  • Funding: The National Council has agreed to take on the administration of “the revolutionary funds”, a necessary role that allows for greater flexibility in launching local councils by covering initial costs as well as later expenses that could not be covered locally

  • The National Council can facilitate organizing between areas and increase the level of organization on the provincial level, while each region and locality continues to engage in projects in line with their idea of the movement. This independence has clearly given the movement its tremendous adaptability, even though it was often affected by the lack of supportive spaces to protect it. The role of the National Council here is important for finding common ground and strengthening collaboration between different areas

A Note on the Text

The above translation includes the introduction to the version of Omar’s text published in October 2011 and the full text of the version he released in February 2012. These works were not published online until after his death at the hands of the regime in February 2013. It is based on the Arabic text found here: https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=143690742461532

This translation drew on a rough English translation of the first version of Omar’s text by Yasmeen Mobayed found on muqawameh.wordpress.com and on the French translation published by Éditions Antisociales in 2013: http://editionsantisociales.com/AbouKamel.php

Your anarchist comrades in NES – Diaries of the new dawn of a new Syria: A collection of analyses

Posted on 15/02/2025 - 15/02/2025 by muntjac

Taken from this post by ‘Anarchists In NES’ https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/a-in-nes-diaries-of-the-new-dawn-of-a-new-syria

You can follow them here; https://mastodon.social/@a_in_nes@kolektiva.social

Also avalible as a zine, which can be found on our zines page, it’s also on our Ko-fi

Introduction

The dictatorship of the Assad regime collapsed after more than 50 years. Although its downfall appears to be an overnight event, it is a complex result of many contradictions, balance of forces, geopolitical shifts and Syrian people’s struggle for freedom.

There is much to be said about what happened before, during and after the collapse of the Assad regime. This is a vast field of research and many narratives that should be covered by larger amount of literature. In this brochure we will focus on analysing the events which transpired during and after the demise of the regime. You are reading a result of summarizing the updates and analysis produced by Anarchist comrades on the ground in Northeastern Syria. We have taken our place in defense of the revolution and manage to regularly share our perspectives on what we see happening.

As we are writing this, the February 8th comes close and marks two months since the fall of dictatorship. We take this opportunity to summarize our work into a more coherent analytical overview.

The near future in front of us is uncertain. Many possibilities exist, covered with fog of uncertainty. Many people in Syria want peace, but the air if full with tension and anticipation of war. There are doubts whether another option exists, other than standing to defend the revolutionary gains against all odds and against all authoritarian powers around. Peaceful agreements and diplomatic solutions are hard to believe when it comes to states. Everyone pursues their interests. And peoples of Northeast Syria will pursue their interests, too — revolution must be defended. Otherwise — no justice, no peace, no free life. We will continue our struggle here, and we are ready to take our humble place in whatever is about to come.

Revolutionary greetings from your Anarchist comrades in NES, February 2025

01/12/24 What is going on on Syria?

This is a fast update on the situation on Syria to share with comrades, since things are really getting wild. We share mostly facts, political analysis not in this message.

These notes can be confusing for those not familiar with the situation here, feel free to ask!

  • Few days ago the ‘rebels’ of Idlib and surroundings, under military leadership of HTS (a new name of what once was al-Qaeda in Syria) started a big offensive, breaking the siege of the SAA (Syrian Arab Army). The offensive broke throw their lines and started to advance to Aleppo (second biggest city of Syria). They are advancing fast and in multiple directions.

    • Today the offensive goes on, taking control of big part of Aleppo city, with exception of some pockets under regime control and the northern Kurdish neighborhood of Sheik Makhsud.

    • SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces) made a big deployment in reaction to the threats, taking control of the road connecting Aleppo to Raqqa, also connecting with the region of Tal Rifat, where refugee camps for Afrin IDP where at risk of invasion by SNA.

    • SNA (Syrian National Army, proxy of Turkey in Syria) also started an offensive, probably in coordination with HTS, and there are now clashes between SDF and SNA in the Raqqa-Aleppo road. For now those clashes are small, not comparable with the massive offensive of HTS against SAA.

    • HTS is already attacking Sheik Mahksud in Aleppo, after most of the city fell under their control with SAA being overrun and withdrawing in mass. Kurdish forces are fighting back, ready to defend their ground.

    • As for now, the ‘rebels’ also reached the city center of Hama and some northern areas of Homs. Seems there are also clashes in Damascus. There are rumors of a coup taking place, seem that some national television went off air after some (still confusing) clashes.

    • Other ‘rebel’ forces that were trained by US in al-Tanf (South Syria) are also moving, not clear where or why.

    • Iranian forces (very present together with SAA) are being captured or expelled. Iran says this is a coup of Israel-Turkey-US. Diplomatic envoy of Iran will go to Turkey on Monday to discuss situation

    • Since the beginning of the offensive Russia has been moving troops, leaving their ground positions in Tal Rifat (Kurdish areas)

  • As for now, seems clear that the SAA collapsed, ‘rebels’ are taking positions in several big cities and rumors that entire brigades are deserting defecting to the “rebels”. The situation is confusing and shifting.

    • Iraq decided to close down borders with Syria, a lot of diplomatic talks and speculative journalism ongoing. Besides Iran there is a surprising radio silence. – Turkey is not saying much for now, neither Russia who just fired their general command of Syria.

  • NES (North East Syria, aka Rojava) is in the middle of all this, trying to defend the advances of the revolution and specially the Kurdish people of Afrin and Sheik Mehksud. SDF reacted very fast to the threats, seizing the road and avoiding the surrounding of Kurdish areas on this offensive. Is not clear how much HTS and SNA working together or they just started coordinated offensive, also not clear the role of ‘southern rebels’ trained by US. SDF have a defensive position, but taking control of some territories as SAA withdraw.

It’s messy, it’s confusing, it’s not clear what is going on. We will see how things develop. There are more things we could say but this message is already to long so I’ll stop here.

Revolutionary greetings!

02/12/24 What does it mean? Some bullet-points analyizing the situation

  • In the first days of HTS offensive and SNA push against Şehba, as well as siege of Sheikh Maqsood, it is clear that Assad regime is in very difficult situation and it’s collapse seems possible. However, potential HTS rule will not be stable and will not resolve crucial issues of Syria that were created and fueled by the dictatorship of Bashar Al-Assad. Nevertheless, the fall of Assad might open a glimpse of chance for changes in the region, if Syrians – those in the country and those who will decide to come back after exile – will manage to claim original ideas of Syrian revolution.

  • Major geopolitical forces such as Turkey, U.S. and Israel will benefit from offensive of HTS. HTS fits everyone as a force that is opposed to Iran, Assad and Russia. Given a chance to take up state-making in case of success and follow Taliban model, it is possible that main actors will exercise their influence in a possible future new government. It is possible that these states might give support to HTS, but are not interested in Syrian peoples independently deciding for themselves.

  • Fall of Assad regime will be good for DAANES in various aspects, but poses major questions: A) Threat of ISIS taking up the opportunity and growing again while not having to fight Russia and Assad, although they will fight with HTS, B) Growing interference by U.S. in case of increased dependence on their protection against potential Turkish invasion, C) Finding new balance of forces in the region, D)Turkey expanding its direct control far deeper into Syria, and E) Religious fundamentalists of HTS taking over will bring sharp conflict with development and revolutionary achievements of society in NE Syria, first and foremost of women.

  • Situation for Lebanon will be very difficult, as the country will be sandwiched between Israel and HTS-run part of Syria, and might create ground for escalation of internal conflicts. Hezbollah will be left without support from Iran.

  • DAANES is offering a non-state solution based on self-governance, cultural, religious, gender and ethnical autonomy. Still, it gets the least recognition and international support.

Revolutionary greetings!

06/12/24 The regime is collapsing

It is clear that no one have any faith in Assad government anymore. We feel confident to announce that this is the end of the regime. For many Syrians today will be a day of celebration. After almost 13 years of war, misery and exile, their dreams of a Syria without Bashar are coming true. In that sense, it is a day of celebration for us too.

But the end of the regime will probably be just the beginning of a new phase of conflict and instability, a very difficult one. Syria have become a ground for many military forces (state forces and non-state forces) to use violence and war to pursue their objectives without fear for the consequences. From the brutality of the Syrian regime and Russian mass bombings of civilian population, the inhumane and horrific massacres of the Islamic State or the genocidal and imperialist occupations of the Turkish Army and it’s proxies against the Kurdish people and the Rojava Revolution.

More than a decade of war and suffering left wounds that won’t heal with the end of the Assad dynasty, and the following day will probably witness more bloodshed and atrocities. The declarations of SNA operation against Manbij will probably be the beginning of a brutal war of occupation as we already saw in 2018 in Afrin and 2019 in Serekaniye and Gire Spi. The future of Damascus still unclear, and the authoritarian Islamism of HTS will soon start to show it’s dark faces to the Syrian people, the faces that are not screened in CNN but that the people of Idlib, who had been protesting against their authoritarian rule for months, has been suffering and protesting against.

Western powers will tacitly accept (and maybe even support) this mediatic and apparently diluted version of salafism, as they already did in Afghanistan. And those big moves will partly silence the massacres of Turkey in Manbij, letting the rouge NATO partner of middle east a bit lose in exchange for their loyalty in other affairs that are of higher priority for western agenda.

Anyway, this is already too long. If you made it here probably you have opinion on your own about the situation. And maybe now is not a time for words, but a time for action. The revolution in Rojava is, as always, under threat. Let’s celebrate the fall of the regime, but let’s keep building the new world we carry in our hearts.

Revolutionary greetings!

09/12/24 Attacks on Manbij, but SDF is not SAA.

There are too many things ongoing in Syria, the developments are extraordinarily fast – and probably confusing for those not familiar with the situation. Every part of the conflict is racing to position themselves and get advantage from the political transition that will follow in Syria.

Regarding the situation in NES, the resistance in Manbij is critical. A collapse of the SDF in Manbij would had been followed by further attack of SNA, but the military proficiency displayed has been the best deterrence for further movements of SNA. It showed that SDF is not the SAA, and that blietzkrieg tactics of rushing with armored vehicles under artillery fire cover can send regime soldiers running away, but SDF is ready to hold positions and fight back.

For Turkey, Manbij is also very important, and it will be a decisive battle for the future of the SDF and the DAANES. This battle is proving that a well trained and prepared force, even if lightly equipped, can inflict massive losses to a much more numerous and well equipped force, even when they have total air supremacy. Every day that SDF holds any ground in Manbij is one more day that Turkey is being defeated, making SNA looking weaker. HTS took several big cities in days, SNA can’t take one middle sized city even when having full support of Turkish airforce. But of course, as we said at the beginning, SDF is not SAA.

The attacks of Israel can also open new cans of worms, igniting old hates and legitimizing more extreme and fundamentalist positions inside HTS, overwhelming the moderate face that they had been working to present.

Many more things could be say, but this is already getting long so we stop here for today.

Revolutionary greetings!

10/12/24 Turkey on the north, Israel on the south

The withdraw of SDF from Manbij is a painful concession. Many comrades lost their lives in the liberation of Manbij from the hands of ISIS, including the brave arab commander of YPG Abu Leila, also 8 internationalist fighters. As Erdogan stated many times, their next target is now Kobane, the proud city that became the turning point on the war against ISIS through and historic resistance. Kobane was also a key element for the internationalization of the Rojava revolution and the Kurdish question, becoming a symbol of resistance known to the whole world.

The dimension of Israel attack all over Syria is not just a deterrence action against the possibility of a hostile Syria, it is also a show of force a military capabilities to neighboring countries. It is also the perfect scenario for IDF to test their response capacity and air force at such a big scale, without fear of any repercussions since there is no one in Syria able to answer to such brutal attacks.

Turkey’s propaganda campaigns, with miss information and fabricated videos, aims to weaken SDF and destabilize the DAANES. Now they also try to spark intra-Kurdish conflict, harvesting the investments they made for decades in the Barzani-led KRG, using all tools at their hands in this war. Even HTS is calling attention to that, publishing a press statement denouncing SNA’s fabrication of fake videos. But exposing their dirty methods is not enough to stop them, we need to take action in all fronts possible to put an end to their atrocities.

Syria is moving from the joy and celebrations after the fall of the regime, to the darkest hours it lived since the worst times of the war. Israel and Turkey are committing massacres and abusing their power to impose their agendas, taking advantage of the situation to feed their greed and expansionist ambitions. The revolution is under existential threat, and it is our duty, as internationalists and as revolutionaries, to make sure they can’t break this revolution. The world is descending into really dark paths, with war and oppression gaining ground all around. But there is also hope and revolutionary opportunities in those situations. It is partly in our hands to decide where we go from this point.

Revolutionary greetings!

11/12/24 The rush for influence on a new Syria

HTS is now busy making itself more presentable to western audiences, hoping to gain official legitimacy throw capturing the Syrian state structure. Western powers are going along with that, and no one is putting much attention to the small scale attacks that their rogue islamist groups are doing. The DAANES is holding talks with them, accepting them as provisional government for now, hoping to halt Turkish offensive and work towards a federal Syria that respects regional autonomy.

Turkey is moving further in their attacks, striking as far as Raqqa, making a bold statement that they are ready to defy US red lines in order to achieve their aims. The SNA soldiers are recording and spreading videos of the horrendous crimes they are committing as part of their psychological warfare, evoking the behavior of ISIS. This is not a coincidence, several ISIS fighters have been reported to be now holding command positions inside different factions of SNA.

Israel is moving further into Syria, defying even the UN that called to not push forward. With Russia and Iran losing all their influence on Syria, Israel and Turkey (strategic NATO allies, Turkey being formal member of the military alliance) are taking advantage of the situation to advance their imperialist agendas, indirectly supporting each other in their occupations.

DAANES is struggling to sustain the developments of past years, with Turkey attacks on Euphrates region and inter-tribal tensions in Deir-Ezzor, where some tribes pleading alliances with HTS while others reaffirm their support to SDF. This is nothing new, is the continuation of the tribal conflicts that had been ongoing in the region for some time.

One important topic to put attention is the situation of women. Women played very important roles all along Syria since the first uprisings of 2011, but in HTS protests and events, the absence of women is very noticeable, specially when compared with the role of women in DAANES. Rojava is a women revolution, and this is becoming even more obvious now, when all other forces are overwhelmingly male.

Enough for today, keep struggling and support the revolution!

Revolutionary greetings!

12/12/24 Disinformation and ethnic conflicts

The situation is getting very confusing on the ground, with disinformation spreading on social networks and political talks behind closed doors. Verifying information is becoming a critical step to understand what is happening, since Turkish propaganda strategy relays on a very strong disinformation apparatus.

This specially affect a lot of Syrian returnees, since many of them had been living in Turkey and being exposed to the Turkish narrative of criminalization of SDF. This will feed ethnical tensions between Kurds an Arabs, risking more conflicts and even violence.

This comes together with the inter-Kurdish conflicts we discussed two days ago, and indicates a general plan of turkish state intelligence to divide and isolate the leading forces of the revolution. Other forces like US or HTS will not oppose to such a plan, since a weakened revolutionary force will make it easier to dilute and manipulate the political project of the DAANES. This puts the achievements of the revolution in serious danger, and is more important than ever to expose and denounce such strategies, building a common revolutionary front to face enemy attacks.

Revolutionary greetings!

14/12/24 Context on the ceasefire disagreements about a tomb

Short explanation Written by YPG/YPJ International:

The tomb of Suleyman Shah

Part of the negotiated ceasefire between #SDF and #Turkey was connected to the location of the tomb of Suleyman Shah and its military implications. Let’s dive into this a little deeper to understand what this is all about:

Suleyman Shah lived in 13th century and, according to Ottoman legacy, is the grandfather of Osman I, who founded the Ottoman Empire. Because todays #Turkey likes to see itself as successor of the Ottoman Empire, the tomb and remains are important for them.

The tomb of Suleyman Shah was Turkey’s only foreign enclave, located more or less 30km from the Turkish border close to Qere Qozaq, on the river banks of Euphrates. In 2014 the tomb and its 38 Turkish guards, were completely surrounded by #ISIS.

So the tomb was brought to Ashme village, between #Kobane and Euphrates river, a site closer to the Turkish border, where it was easier and less risky to protect, but still on Syrian (and #SDF) territory. Turkey stressed that the relocation would only be temporarily.

While now negotiating the ceasefire, it was offered to help transfer the tomb again, but #Turkey instead requested that it will be given 1km of land in this area, where they intend to deploy heavy weapons and build a military base. Thus no agreement could be reached.

Revolutionary greetings!

16/12/24 10 points of NES diplomacy

The Autonomous Administration of NES has proposed 10 points to start a political dialogue with the provisional government:

10 point proposal of NES

“Cooperation between the governments of NES and Damascus would be to the advantage of everyone in Syria and could help overcome the current difficulties.”

  1. First of all, it is important to maintain the unity and sovereignty of the Syrian state and to protect the country from attacks by the Turkish state and its supporters.

  2. Military operations on the entire Syrian territory should be ended to start a comprehensive and constructive national dialogue.

  3. We appeal to all sides, to refrain from rhetoric of hatred and betrayal to pave the way for a constructive dialogue. Syria is a country that is rich in many ways. This wealth must be preserved, based on justice and democracy.

  4. We suggest an early meeting of the Syrian political actor: inside in Damascus to standardize the visions for the transition phase.

  5. We would like to work for women to participate even more in the political process than before.

  6. We emphasize that resources and economic wealth should be distributed fairly between all Syrian regions, since they belong to all citizens of the Syria.

  7. We would like to work to ensure that the original and violently displaced population can return to their areas. It is important to us to preserve their cultural heritage and to end the policies of demographic change.

  8. In view of the developments in Syria, we reaffirm our commitment in the fight against terrorism to prevent the return of IS terrorists, through the joint cooperation between SDF and the international anti-IS coalition.

  9. We are of the firm believe that the occupation must be ended. The Syrian people must be given the opportunity to determine their future and use the principle of the good neighborhood.

  10. We welcome the constructive role of the Arab states, the United Nations, the International Anti-IS coalition and all active international actors and ask everyone to take on a positive and effective role in the advice and support of the Syrian people. And to facilitate the communication between the different population groups in order to ensure stability and security and stop foreign interventions.”

16/12/24 HTS and international fascism

We can see how EU and US are not concerned with the past of HTS as a branch of Al- Qaeda, accepting their provisional government very fast. At the same time very little support or recognition has been given to NES, even when has been the main force on the ground fighting ISIS. Clearly the deciding factors for western powers are not human rights, ethical values and democracy as they like to claim, their decisions are being guided by anti-refugee sentiments and economical interests on oil and gas.

As right-wing parties take more power in governments, their electoral promises of harder migration laws guide their political programs. Those governments end up supporting authoritarian regimes that promise order and stability, hoping they will keep refugees away from their borders, when its exactly those regimes that force people to flee. There is a long history of western powers, especially US, supporting religious fundamentalist groups over socialist revolutionary forces. This goes against ethnic and religious minorities and especially against women and queers, since religious fundamentalism and patriarchy always go hand in hand.

A German organisation called GfbV (society for threatened peoples) warned: “The new rulers of Syria are presenting themselves in the media as moderate, but there are already many signs that they are not keeping their promises. (…) Turkish ruler Erdoğan has already sent his foreign minister to Damascus to torpedo a peaceful solution between HTS and DANNES. Erdoğan’s policy is extremely dangerous. The German government, especially the Federal Foreign Office, must not rely on Erdoğan and the Syrian Islamists if it really wants to create stability and a long-term peace order”

We see that the liberal left seems more aware of the situation, but they are not gonna risk anything to stop it. As it already happened with ISIS, there are threats that won’t be stopped with political diplomacy and economic sanctions. Fascism can have many colors, and it is always in deeply militarized and patriarchal environments where it thrives the best. Religious fundamentalism is therefore a perfect ground for fascism in the Middle East, as islamophobia and racist nationalism is in western territories.

Fascism needs to be stopped before it’s to late. Even if having different colors, authoritarian forces will eventually cooperate to eradicate autonomy and diversity. The mentality of dominant male, imposing their hegemony and dreaming of bigger and bigger nation-states under their rule, is the main threat for any expression of free life. But denouncing it is not enough, we have to take action to make sure their ambitions are prevented. And if not you, who? If not now, when?

One solution. Revolution. Revolutionary greetings!

18/12/24 Rojhilat Efrin on attacks against women

The General Commander of YPJ Rojhilat Efrîn highlighted the ongoing resistance against foreign occupation and stressed the significance of safeguarding the region’s autonomy and women’s rights. She noted that the Middle East is being redesigned, with paramilitary groups and factions contributing to insecurity. The attacks against women symbolize the broader destabilization of society. The importance of international backing for the region’s self-management system is seen as vital for the Kurdish, Arab, and broader regional populations.

Revolutionary greetings!

20/12/24 The dark sides of a new government

The assassination of two Kurdish journalists is a painful reminder of how news and information is a weapon of war.

We are seeing elaborate schemes in social networks, where fake information and fabricated war headlines are propagated, distorting reality and creating confusion about the situation on the ground. This is part of psychological warfare, another form of waging war employed by our enemies. This broadcast channel is partly an answer to it. We know that war has many sides, and that we need to give collective answers to all of them, building mechanisms of self-defense against all kinds of attacks. We also see attacks against health workers, with an ambulance that was transporting injured recently being targeted in the Kobane region. These kinds of attacks are not just attacks against civilians, are attacks against basic ethical standards.

Western powers like to claim a moral high ground, talking about democracy and human rights. Turkey is a NATO member that has been spitting on any basic ethical standards, and still got a new bribe of 1 billion E in the form of aid to control refugees. HTS was on the terrorist lists for its links with Al-Qaeda. But now, climbing the ladder to the top of a Nation-State, that is not relevant for the other heads of State anymore. As it already happened with the Taliban.

It deeply reflects how States are born, with brutal and murderous gangs fighting and killing, until one big man manages to establish himself as president, as king, or even as god. And then the other big men around him applause and congratulate his ascend. After that, maybe they put some make-up and rewrite the history here and there, to make sure it suits whatever is the current trend in present literature. And, voila! A new government is born.

It is also pathetic to see Turkey and Israel building tensions, accusing each other of the same crimes they are committing themselves. Especially when their military intelligence agencies collaborate and negotiate the occupation and partition of Syria behind the cameras.

“The Truth will not remain captive in the darkness”

  • Nazim Dashtan

Comrade Nazim, comrade Cihan, all the brave fighters defending this revolution: Rest in Power!

Revolutionary greetings!

22/12/24 Diplomacy and the 4D chess

Very fast, al-Julani traded his military-style green shirt for a business-style black suit and a tie, hosting several official meetings this Sunday in the Syrian presidential palace. A new technocrat is born, paving his way to the presidency of Syria and to the corridors of the international Realpolitik.

This creates a very challenging situation for the DAANES, since it is the game that Kurdish politicians had been trying to play for the last years. Diplomatic institutions had become an important work for the bodies of the self-administration, moderating the revolutionary narrative to look formal and acceptable to western audiences, aiming to achieve recognition and status for North-East Syria. It worked for a while, creating an illusion that office politics and diplomacy was the right path to follow. But now this illusion is vanishing.

The negotiations of Mazlum Abdi for a ceasefire in Kobane, proposing a demilitarized zone, rightly addressed the concerns that Turkey was putting on the table about the tomb of Suleiman Shah. This exposed the hypocrisy of AKP, that was just using those conditions as an excuse for their attacks. But with US entering the game, and especially with the fierce resistance of SDF in Tishreen and Qereqozah, the invasion got halted for now. SDF is crushing wave after wave of the mercenaries that Erdogan is sending.

Erdogan has hopes that Trump will side with him when he takes office, but the pro- Kurdish positions from some senators of the republican party -with a the bipartisan bill against Erdogan proposed in the US senate- are now bringing doubts about that. Kurdish diplomacy has been playing a pivotal role in the last years, and the revolutionary process also paid a price for it, having to play the role that western powers (mainly US) wanted to see “the Kurdish partners” playing.

But the Kurdish liberation movement is more than the diplomacy of Rojava, and the resistance in Kobane is proof of that. We made it that far because the people of Rojava have always been ready to fight and defend their land. If we want to push for revolutionary transformations, we need to take initiative and go on the offensive.

Revolutionary greetings!

23/12/24 Pushing back in Manbij countryside

The SDF seized the opportunity and are making an advance towards Manbij. Since SDF kicked out ISIS in 2016, Manbij had years of democracy and stability. Now we see how the local population refuse to accept the Turkish occupation and the violent fundamentalists groups of SNA. We can see how the self administrations managed to get the vast majority of the people behind the idea of this revolution.

This is a very important victory, not just for the military aspect but also on the political side. Pushing back against the occupation is also a psychological blow for the Turkish proxy groups, that find themselves in disarray in front of the advance of SDF. Phones and other devices captured in the advance of SDF are now showing their communications, where desperate calls for help and scared communications of fighters running away are being circulated in whatsapp groups. Their dependency on Turkish military power makes them vulnerable to SDF counter attacks, because they don’t have contingency plans for those situations.

Still, Turkish air superiority is a massive challenge for SDF advance. Advances towards Manbij are a big achievement, and we should celebrate it. But the war is not over, Turkish planes can become a nightmare not just for SDF but for all peoples of northern Syria. It is still not clear how much Erdogan will try to play political in his alliance with HTS, or how much he will go full on with military attacks.

But this will be something we will need to evaluate in the future, today let’s ceebrate this amazing victory of SDF!

Revolutionary greetings!

24/12/24 The dark side of a new government II

HTS is consolidating their power, announcing the disarmament of different factions and their integration into a new national army, under control of the provisional ministry of defense. The provisional government is also making concessions with Christian communities, that organized big protests in Damascus after the arson attack on a Christmas tree in Hama. It looks a bit weird for us to see their demonstrations, marching and holding crosses above their heads, playing with the hegemony of Christianity of western powers as a tool of deterrence.

Anyway, it worked. Ahmed al-Sharaa announced that those who burned the tree were not Syrians, and that there is no place in the new Syria for them. He learned fast to speak the language on western nation-states, using racism and xenophobia to blame the other, to pin any crimes and problems on some external threat, closing ranks under one flag, one nation, one state. But it really seems that those who burned the tree where not Syrians, but Chechens, Islamist veterans that were counted among the elite fighters of the now dispersed al-Nusra front. As Mussolini did one century ago, when he dumped his loyal ‘fascio di combatimento’ paramilitaries once he got to the Italian parliament, al-Sharaa is now purging the ranks of HTS to consolidate his power.

But let’s not get lost in history. The important news for us are happening here, next to the Eufrates river. The counter-offensive on Manbij yesterday night had been an important victory, redefining the dynamics of the SNA-SDF ongoing conflict. It proved that SNA stands no chance against SDF without Turkish drones in the sky. It also means that, from now on, every time it rains, SNA mercenaries will be exposed to new SDF counter- offensives.

For those who had been in Rojava for some time, we remember how the Turkish offensives of 2018 and 2019 advanced ruthlessly to fulfil their aims (first Afrin, later Serekaniye and Gire Spi). Back then, they had green light of Russia and US to do as they wanted. Now, with Russia absent and US waiting for Trump to return to the white house, there is a window of opportunity where SDF can use the rainy days to push back. The first counter- offensive in Manbij has been a success, not just on a military level but also on a psychological level, showing that the revolutionary forces are ready to defend their land. This has sent a clear message: Kobane is a red line. If anyone mess with it, the spirit of the resistance that broke the advance of ISIS will once again burst free!

Revolutionary greetings!

25/12/24 Alawite tensions and SNA defections

There are now big protests in the main cities of Tartus and Latakia, reacting to the desecration of the tomb of an important Alawite scholar. This adds to videos that had been circulating on social networks, where HTS fighters are threatening and insulting Alawites in rural areas. Also in Hama and Homs big protests are ongoing, with rumors spreading of HTS opening fire against protesters. This can become a big challenge for the provisional government, since the stronghold of the old regime minority (the Alawites) can easily spark clashes and old hates, with HTS acting on old grudges and spite against them. Seems that SNA is now being deployed on Latakia too, and they will just add gasoline to the fire. This adds difficulties to HTS, that more or less managed to calm down the protests of Christians in Damascus for now, knowing that those are closely watched by western christian powers, even more on Christmas days.

Today there was also big confusion with a statement attributed to SDF, that was announced by Kurdish media but not visible on any SDF channels. The alleged statement called for armed groups in Serekaniye and Gire Spi to surrender their weapons, to abandon their positions and leave occupied territories, offering safe passage to other areas if they withdraw before the end of the year. Most Kurdish media removed the statement, but still the news circulated. On the ground no one knows anything about such plans. Still, after the success of the Manbij counter-attack, liberating Serekaniye is something that everyone is talking about.

Revolutionary greetings!

28/12/24 On minorities unrest and the need of a ‘democratic nation’ project

After a month since the offensive of HTS started, we have now better ground to evaluate what is going on in Syria. The unexpected collapse of al-Assad regime was followed by celebrations and hopeful dreams of an easy and bloodless transition in Syria. But this is something we only see in movies and history books. In real life most revolutions are followed by periods of instability and warlordism, where different factions struggle to impose their hegemony.

The recent protests of Christians, as well as the uprisings of Alawites, are complex events that are getting polarized in social networks. These two social groups had certain privileges during the regime of al-Assad, privileges that were partly established with the old French colonial rule, favoring them over Sunni Arabs or Kurds. But those privileges are also limited to some higher classes, and not all members of those groups were aligned with the regime.

Those uprisings are not simply “uncontrolled regime/Iran/Israel elements/agents” as HTS like to claim, it is also a reaction to the attacks of “uncontrolled HTS elements”, like the fire on the Christmas tree in Hama and the desecration of the grave of an important Alawite scholar. Those attacks are manifestations of ethnic grudges that many Sunni Arabs may share, but when ethnic simplifications like this are used to call for ethnic cleansing, things can very easily spiral out of control.

Many Alawites and Christians had power positions in the regime, but many Sunni Arabs too. Kurds know very well what it means to be part of a secondary class, to be at the bottom of the social pyramid. That’s why it has been so important for the DAANES to develop respectful and inclusive methods for everyone, allowing autonomy and self- organization to all different social groups. HTS sectarian visions, with Islamic fundamentalism as a ground to build a fake national unity, pose serious threats to the diversity of Syria.

The DAANES is already making calls to stop the attacks against Alawite people, to put an end to the sectarian violence, to build the nation under a base of diversity and respect for the other. The call for a “democratic nation project” should be understood in that sense, as part of a wider project for democratic confederalism, questioning old patterns of tribalism, patriarchy and nation-state. It is a call to continue the revolution all around Syria and beyond.

Revolutionary greetings!

29/12/24 Diplomacy and the 4D chess II

Any hopes of a tolerant and progressive government under HTS are rapidly dying. The military repression against Alawites has been just a glimpse of what is coming. After yesterdays call of the UN envoy for elections in 3 months, al-Sharaa responded today that no elections will take place in Syria in the next 4 years. He also announced his plans for the dissolution of HTS during the National Dialog Conference. That probably means to dissolve it inside the structures of a new centralized government, attempting to wash off the terrorist label that still hangs on HTS, while institutionalizing and taking control of a new Syrian state. In short, achieving a transition from Party to State, as any authoritarian force attempts to do.

We also include some words from Hawzhin Azeez, a Kurdish political academic who shared her reflections about the rumors of dissolution of SDF and the importance of YPJ:

It’s a mistake to see the YPJ as solely a response to end ISIS terrorism or an integral aspect of Kurdish national liberation. The YPJ are a permanent military force that will only dissolve itself when capitalist, statist and patriarchal oppression ends. They are ideologically committed to protecting women and themselves so long as these hierarchies of oppression and violence against women exist. They are a permanent women’s self protection unit here to stay. Even if the HTS/Jolani government manoeuvres the disarming of the SDF somehow, the YPJ is ideologically committed to permanent self protection even against the men/forces in their own communities. They cannot be dissolved! The YPJ is one of the most radical and groundbreaking aspects of Rojava’s Revolution.

Revolutionary greetings!

30/12/24 War is politics with effusion of blood

Today a pentagon official declared that the ceasefire between SDF and Turkey is holding. It’s surreal to read those declarations when heavy clashes are happening everyday around Manbij. Ahmed Al-Sharaa keeps receiving visits of foreign diplomats to gain legitimacy as negotiations are still ongoing. Mazlum Abdi affirms the will of SDF to become part of the new Syrian army if an acceptable agreement can be reached. And ISIS continues attacking security checkpoints in several areas of Syria.

The attacks yesterday of the Military Council of Serekaniye in the Turkish occupied areas were a good reminder of two things: 1) Many parts of Syria are still under occupation, and people are ready to fight to liberate their homes 2) SDF is probably the strongest military force on the ground. It is important to remember those things when we look at the negotiations between SDF and HTS. Any call for a new Syrian army needs to include SDF, and SDF will not accept to simply “give up the weapons”. SDF is currently protecting about a third of the Syrian territory, with a well grounded and coordinated force. Together with many local military councils, SDF also counts with special elite units, veterans of the war against ISIS. HTS surprised the world with their production and proficiency with kamikaze drones, and counts in their ranks with some veteran Islamist fighters. Still, HTS can’t defeat SDF on the ground, at least not without the Turkish support that is allowing the SNA to attack the SDF.

Another thing to keep in mind is that, after many years of silence, Syrians are now free to discuss politics openly in the street. Years of fear and repression from the regime secret services are now behind. Damascus, Aleppo, Homs… those are historical cities with vibrant new dynamics, that also carry important lessons from the years of resistance against the regime. Many politically organized Syrians are now in exile, but still many voices are already challenging the authoritarian moves of al-Sharaa. We also saw how Damascus was not liberated by HTS, in fact they arrived to the capital when Assad was already gone. The first military barracks stormed in the capital where the southern ones, with Druze flags and FSA brigades emblems. Those were welcomed by the people of the capital, that celebrated their arrival because they also wanted the regime out. So when tomorrow HTS starts to claim that they are the ones that saved Syria, remember that they are lying. It was the people who toppled down the regime.

Revolutionary greetings!

02/01/25 Politics is war without effusion of blood

We start 2025 with many things going on. January will be a challenging month, with a race of different actors to strengthen their positions, both in the military field as well as in diplomatic influence. Al-Sharaa is putting his HTS trusted circles in key positions in the government. You can read some of their (newly collected) biographies on Wikipedia, partly documenting their past activities as “brave jihadist fighters” of al-Nusra. How much they are just playing a theater for western audiences, or how much they really moderated themselves in exchange for power in a Nation-State, is something that will be more clear in the next months.

The statements of an insurgent “popular resistance movement”, with a certain Iranian flavor and with Russian fringe media echoing it, can contribute to new waves of instability if they come backed up with actions. The Druze community in the south also seems unwilling to cooperate with HTS transitional government, contributing to a mosaic of actors that question HTS’ proclaimed power. Meanwhile, many people in Syria’s western cities are going out to the streets, fixing roads and painting murals, reinforcing bonds of solidarity and mutual aid among neighbors. This networks of civic organizing can easily flourish in local committees and popular councils, as they already did in the early years of the Syrian revolution. How much HTS government will give space to these local initiatives, and how much these grassroots movements will confront the authoritarian steps of HTS, is something that will be a determinant for the future of Syria.

The press statement of the ‘joint forces’ leaving the SNA coalition is an important step, moving towards a generalized meltdown of the Turkish proxy forces. It is not clear how much it is an open defection or maybe a ‘cover’ operation of Turkish intelligence, aiming to ‘infiltrate’ some of their trusted agents in the new Syrian Army. Still, together with many local reports of groups and fighters defecting to go back home, plus the big amount of losses that the resistance of SDF is inflicting against their attacks, all this is making SNA more an more unable to hold their ground. How much Turkey will try to keep SNA together or will try to invade directly if things don’t play as they want remains still to be seen.

On the other side, the ongoing talks to integrate SDF in that same new Syrian Army are an uncomfortable but necessary step, in order to build relations with the transitional government and avoid being outmaneuvered by Turkey. For now, they seem similar of nature to the negotiations with the Assad regime that were held in the past. SDF never reached any agreement with the regime that wouldn’t compromise their integrity and values, and the same is true for the new negotiations with HTS. Negotiations of this kind are diplomatic games, a projection of power of the different actors. If the balance of power changes, negotiations can be pushed in a new direction, with the stronger imposing their will and the other having to accept a compromise. Therefore the most plausible scenario is that those negotiations will get stalled, waiting to solve the differences on the battle field.

Revolutionary greetings!

04/01/25 Negotiations and delegations

The recent handover of strategical border-crossing points in Afrin to HTS is a very relevant development, it shows the will of Turkey to sacrifice SNA militias in exchange for better relations with HTS. Those border crossing points are a big source of tax revenue for the militias that control it, cutting down their access to funds and giving them to HTS will not just improve their economical situation but also reinforce the centralized control that the HTS transitional government is attempting. And of course, Turkey is expecting HTS to not forget that they are helping them with that, gaining a better diplomatic position in future negotiations.

The visit of the French and German foreign ministers to Damascus indicates that Europe is willing to accept the transitional government as legitimate representation of Syria. The video with the awkward moment when Baerbock offers her hand and the reception delegation and they refuse to shake her hand, has been circulating a lot. It is a clear indication of the misogynist approach that this transitional government has. At the same time, they orchestrated a press conference with an unveiled women talking on behalf of the White Helmets, a rescue organization with close ties with HTS and Turkey. This is clearly a move for media spectacle, since any pictures ever seen of women working with White helmets has been always with veil and gloves, and always as having an auxiliary role. This adds to other examples of HTS tokenizing women to appear moderate and aligned with inclusive values, but it is clearly nothing else than a facade.

Revolutionary greetings!

06/01/25 Slowing down the roller coaster

The extreme instability of the last month seems to be slowing down. This is a dangerous time, where the international media attention starts to withdraw, forgetting once again what is happening in Syria. The heavy clashes of Manbij countryside are the new normality, as well as the intensified artillery attacks of Turkish army, as well as the constant drone strikes all over north east Syria. In the big cities of Western Syria the transitional government is tightening their control, with security operations targeting mainly old regime loyalists for now.

The unstable situation of the Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheik Mekhsud and Ashrafia in Aleppo is slowly (but silently) escalating tensions. SNA fighters dropped some explosive devices days ago before being shot by local defense forces. Today, a crowd chanting slogans aligned with the transitional government marched towards the Kurdish neighborhoods. YPG forces fired warning shots in the sky to disperse the march, and for now it stopped there.

The local militias from Suwayda “Men of dignity” and “Mountain brigade” made statements rejecting sectarian factional armies and condemning the deadly clashes that took place recently in the south of Syria. It is not clear to us if the clashes where with HTS supporters (as we reported recently) or with old regime loyalist groups. Or maybe with both, reports seem confusing and our lack of trusted sources from southern Syria makes it difficult to get a good grasp of the situation.

The fatigue and exhaustion after more than a month of frantic activity are also weighing on everyone. In these times we can see the dynamics of war switching from sprint to marathon, where endurance and resilience become critical. Those who can’t withstand the pressure, those who break, will open small windows of opportunity for their enemies. SDF has repeatedly proven its strength in this long term race, so now is time to wait for enemy mistakes. As Sun Tzu wrote 15 centuries ago: “To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.”

Revolutionary greetings!

08/01/25 Turkey increase efforts

As SNA weakens, the Turkish army is increasing their role in the Tishreen front lines. Drone strikes are targeting not just military positions, but also SDF supply lines and even the civilian convoy that traveled there. More and more armored vehicles are being supplied to the Turkish proxies, combined with increasing air support from drones and war planes. The resistance of the Tishreen dam is at the moment the warmest front line of all Syria, a decisive battle for the resistance of the DAANES is being fought there.

The reiterated threats of Turkey about a total invasion in Northern Syria are now coming with claims to control ISIS prisons. This could be extremely dangerous, considering how many foreign ISIS fighters could reorganize their cells with Turkish help. Many of them were aided by Turkish state to cross the border to Syria to join ISIS 10 years ago, and Turkey could now use them as leverage to create instability and chaos in many countries.

The Israel “Committee for the Evaluation of the Defense Establishment Budget and the Balance of Power”, led by former National Security Council head Yaakov Nagel, is highlighting the tensions between Israel and Turkey. These two states are competing for hegemony in middle east, and their tensions can become more and more central as both states expand their influence in Syria. How the transitional government balances their occupations (Turkey in the north, Israel in the South) will affect also what role the DAANES and the Kurdish liberation movement will play in Syria.

Revolutionary greetings!

10/01/25 Solving contradictions, creating opportunities

The civilian vigil on Tishreen dam is an example of the readiness of the people in north- east Syria to defend their land, using a wide diversity of tactics. For several years, militants of northern Syria have been discussing the importance of a resistance inspired on the ideas of “revolutionary people’s war”. The ongoing protest in Tishreen, together with the other vigils taking place in the Syrian-Turkish border next to the cities of Qamishlo and Kobane, are an example of civil resistance against occupation. Those actions don’t go in contradiction with the military defense of SDF, instead they complement each other, combining diverse forms of resistance towards a common aim.

The International Coalition is also making some interesting steps, with French army starting to deploy alongside US forces in the border with Turkey and other locations. France has been an important partner of the International Coalition since the beginning, and this is probably related to the fears of French State to foreign ISIS fighters, many of them with French nationality. If HTS or Turkey take control of the prisons currently under control of SDF, that hold thousands of ISIS fighters captive, those prisoners could find their way back to France and endanger the security of many European countries. This is also a preventive move of France, taking precautions before Donald Trump, who declared his intentions to withdraw US soldiers from Syria, takes over the white house.

The Turkish appointed governor of Afrin refused the call of HTS to transfer the management over the local council to an HTS delegation. This reflects how, even if Turkey and HTS are cooperating in many areas, they still have conflicts an power struggles. Those kind of contradictions can evolve to more bitter relations if Turkey refuse to give up control of the regions they occupied in Syria. Contradictions in the relations between Iran and Russia are also surfacing, with declarations of an Iranian commander blaming Russia for not really fighting against the rebel offensive that sparked the collapse of the Regime.

All authoritarian powers, all centralized governments, have always one aim: to accumulate more power. This brings them to cooperate with each other when they can benefit from it, but also to constantly compete and clash against each other. Exploiting these contradictions is necessary to undermine their hegemony. Pushing them to clash on each other can create opportunities for revolutionary forces, but only when those forces are well organized in strong revolutionary movements can really seize those opportunities and develop alternative models against capitalism modernity.

Revolutionary greetings!

13/01/25 Dialog and reconciliations

The preparation for a “national conference” for Syria had been ongoing for some time, but now the announcements are getting more concrete. It is still not clear how this conference will be organized and who will be allowed to take part in it. As details are being clarified, it will become more clear if it is an inclusive and democratic process to engage in a national transition, or if it will be a performative process to legitimize power grab of HTS after the collapse of the Regime.

SDF meetings with HTS continue, and some agreements are being reached as the recently announced joint administrative committees indicate. The diplomatic relations with KRG also continue, suggesting agreements towards Kurdish unity for the future. These diplomatic negotiations are very difficult and fragile, and nothing is concluded yet. Talks about peace and dialog may not sound very radical, but defending the revolutionary achievements of NES is clearly a priority in those talks. Let’s hope for the best, but also let’s get ready for the worst.

Revolutionary greetings!

15/01/25 Moving forward

Now it’s one month and a half since we started to elaborate these reports of curated news, summarizing the ongoing situation in Syria. It has been a very intense and we are very grateful for all support and interest from comrades following this updates. We put a lot of efforts to make sure comrades have access to reliable information about what is happening. As the situation slows down, we also need to catch up with other works we put on hold due to the situation of emergency.

The war stills roaring in Tishreen, and Turkish planes and drones continue their brutal attacks against the people of NES. The bombings on civilian convoys are an extreme example of how far they are willing to go to achieve their aims. The diplomatic talks and other forms of soft power is now the main element, we know the politics are just a continuation of war without blood spilling (as war is a continuation of politics with blood spilling).

For us, this is also a time of action. Not only in the front lines but also on the streets, with popular resistance and grassroots organizing. We want to call you once again to organize commemorations for the Syrian anarchist Omar Aziz, who died in the prison of the al- Assad regime. Wherever you are, you can organize events in solidarity and support the revolution. We hope this can become a ground to build networks of comradeship and mutual aid among anarchist comrades, to support the revolutionary movements in Syria and to question the authoritarian forces that try to impose themselves as new centralized government. Power to the people! power to the local councils and peoples federations! Remember Omar Aziz and all revolutionaries who gave their life for this revolution!

https://rememberomaraziz.net/

Revolutionary greetings!

17/01/25 Dialog and reconciliations II

The meeting between Mazlum Abdi and Masoud Barzani has been celebrated by kurds in cities like Qamishlo. Others look at it with mistrust. Some hope it is the beginning of negotiations towards a process for Kurdish national unity. Together with the meetings of KNK (Kurdish National Council) that recently took place in Qamishlo, we see big efforts from Kurdish political bodies to build national unity and cooperation with the new Damascus administration. This can also bee seen in relation to the recent delegation that visited Abdullah Ocalan in Imrali, that shared a message of dialogue towards peace and stability.

It is the first time that PDK, the ruling party of KRG (Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq), hosts an official delegation from SDF. Besides a brief cooperation in 2012–2013, the relations with PDK and PYD, the main Kurdish political party of north East Syria, had been difficult. PDKs cooperation with Turkey has been a deep contradiction that made any agreements impossible. PDK expanded their activities and influence in some areas of Afrin, under occupation of Turkish proxies. After serious disagreements, the self administration forbid ENKS, a party affiliated with PDK, to continue working in northern Syria. This blockade was lifted some months ago, but the relations still difficult. There are also decades of conflict, even war, between PDK and PKK that will make those negotiations very difficult.

National unity is an important element for any process of national liberation. The promises of a free Kurdistan had been the engine of many Kurdish political parties for several generations, but how this free Kurdistan looks like (and who is ruling it) has been always a point of conflict. The occupation of other nation states of Kurdish land made the creation of a Kurdish state impossible. The proposal of Democratic confederalism moved away from attempts to build a Kurdish state, and instead developed the proposal of democratic nation to build a stateless society. How much this is compatible with current negotiations is something that only time will tell.

Revolutionary greetings!

26/01/25 10 years of the liberation of Kobane and Shibani in Davos

As HTS government consolidates it’s position, asserting their diplomatic influence and expanding their military presence over Syria, their position on the autonomous self- administration starts to be more aggressive. Recent military deployments on the gas and oil fields south of Raqqa were used by some media to claim military advances over SDF, exploiting also ethnic tensions and resentments that may arab nationalists still hold against Kurds. It is not clear how much it was a mistake or disinformation of some media, or how much it was an intentional move to portray the transitional government as strong and decisive against separatism. Assad al-Shibani, FM of the HTS government who recently got his PhD from an Istanbul private university, is calling to disband SDF in the (in)famous World Economic Forum of Davos, while announcing a full embracement of neoliberal economical agenda for Syria.

Al-Sharaa, ‘de facto’ president of Syria, is also making declarations like “The Kurdish People’s Protection Units alone did not respond to our call to restrict weapons to the authorities”. Those statements dismiss not just the ongoing negotiations with SDF, but also how other armed groups also rejected his calls to reorganize the monopoly of violence under direct control of a centralized state. As SDF makes diplomatic moves to consolidate it’s position and strength in the negotiation table, HTS seems to be more inclined to accelerate tensions towards confrontation, knowing they will have full support of Turkey for any military action against SDF. Turkish state media have a long history of fabricated news, and now already twice they spread false information of alleged car bombs going to Aleppo from SDF areas, indicating their readiness to create excuses to justify attacks on SDF.

Let’s not lie, the situation in NES looks difficult. Still, the resistance in Tishreen is an example of the determination to resist against the invasion, to defend the advances of the revolution. We also remember how 10 years ago, 26th of January of 2015, YPG and YPJ announced the liberation of Kobane from the attacks of ISIS. We should not forget that, because at that time it looked much darker than today. And here we are, the revolution did not just defeat the caliphate, but have been also a key element to the collapse of the regime of Bashar al-Assad. It is also making impossible for Turkey to consolidate it’s imperial aspirations in Syria and in Kurdistan. Revolutions are not the easy way, we know that, but difficulties won’t deter us to pursue our dreams of freedom and liberation.

Revolutionary greetings!

26.01.25–01.02.25 On the New Syrian Government’s “Victory Congress”

The Military Operations Administration in Syria announced some dramatic shifts in the country’s governance as results of the so called ‘Victory Congress’. This congress was organized with a high degree of secrecy and was held among military leaders of different factions, including SNA. SDF or DAANES delegates were no invited. The next day Ahmed al-Sharaa gave a public speech on Syria national tv as new president.

Announcements of the “victory congress”:

  • Ahmed al-Sharaa is now the official president of Syria’s transitional phase. The 2012 Syrian constitution is abolished.

  • A temporary legislative council will be established to govern the country until a new constitution is drafted and implemented.

  • All military and security institutions previously loyal to the old regime are officially disbanded

  • All armed factions and political-revolutionary bodies will be dissolved and integrated into state institutions

  • The Ba’ath Party, which had ruled Syria for decades, is officially dissolved

Key priorities for the transitional phase announced in the “president speech”:

  1. Establishing a functioning authority to fill the political vacuum.

  2. Ensuring civil peace and preventing further internal conflicts.

  3. Building state institutions that can serve the Syrian people.

  4. Developing a strong economic foundation to drive recovery.

  5. Restoring Syria’s international and regional standing.

Major challenges for the new administration:

  • Security threats from remaining militant factions and external actors.

  • Economic hardship, exacerbated by years of war and sanctions.

  • Political divisions within Syrian opposition groups and international stakeholders.

Declaration of the DAANES about the “Victory congress”

As the DAANES, we emphasize that these decisions should have been taken at a ‘National Congress’ with the participation of everyone. In particular, we do not accept the presence of some terrorists who have the blood of the Syrian people on their hands. Ehmed Ihsan Fayad al-Hayis, who brutally murdered Hevrin Xelef, Secretary General of the Future Syria Party and Mohammad al-Jasim, the head of the Abu Amsha group, complicit in many crimes committed in Afrin, were present at this meeting. We emphasize once again that this meeting is not legitimate and does not represent the Syrian people. Any decision to be taken in Syria without a National Congress including all political circles will be incomplete. The most appropriate solution to end the instability in Syria is a national congress. The exclusion or suspension of any party in Syria from the congress will be no different from the practices of the former regime. On this basis, we once again call on the government in Damascus to refrain from such mistakes. Everyone must take part in the making of the new constitution in Syria. As the DAANES, we once again call for the unity of Syria as part of our national liberation perspective. We emphasize once again that everyone in Syria must have their say about the future of Syria.”

 

Fuck Hope – Not Your Mascot

Posted on 15/02/2025 - 15/02/2025 by muntjac

Taken from;  fuckhope.noblogs.org follow them on insta @fuckh0pe

There are several other versions of this zine / poster avalible on the website. It deliberatly shakes to force you to download the file rather than reading it online, which is always fun.

Not-Your-Mascot-READ

Not-Your-Mascot-PRINT

NYM-Poster-QR

The zine version is also on our ko-fi

Hope / الأمل (Al Amal) #1, 2025

Posted on 11/02/2025 - 11/02/2025 by muntjac

Originally posted on: https://cnt-ait.info/2025/02/09/hope-al-amal-1-2025/ edited slightly for ease of reading

—

الأمل (Al Amal) / Hope is a bilingual (Arabic / English) bimonthly issued jointly by the Sudan Anarchist Gathering, CNT-AIT France and their friends.

It aims to build bridges between anarchists from different continents, in continuation of the campaign of solidarity with the anarchists of Sudan.

If you want to receive the next issues, please contact us : contact@cnt-ait.info

If you want to support financialy the Sudan Anarchist Gathering, you can use our paypal  https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/cntait1

(please validate “Sending ‘money to an individual’ to pay less bank charges)

Send an email to contact@cnt-ait.info to inform us of the donation and also so that we can keep you informed of its use.

—

Download(s)

Espoir-AL-Amal-2025-English  / Arabic

Espoir-Al-Amal-2025-Spanish / Arabic

Espoir-AL-Amal-2025-French / Arabic

 

Hope / الأمل (Al Amal) #1, 2025

 

Why Would You Become an Anarchist in Sudan?

Original in arabic : لماذا تصبح أناركيًا في السودان؟

This question has always haunted me at many moments in a country of ideological, cultural, ethnic, tribal, and political diversity—where countless choices exist, yet none can be freely made. The moment you are born, your identity in Sudan is determined by religion, while your tribe plays a crucial role in shaping your culture and even your fate.

To become an anarchist in Sudan, you must have already escaped all these imposed identities and the suffocating constraints that push us into the furnace of the state.

Sudan is a country where war, crises, and disease have never ceased. Its people, saturated with military, religious, and tribal ideologies, serve as perfect fuel to ignite conflicts.

In such a country, I have always looked at my life with amazement. Our struggles often resemble action films—perhaps bizarre or unbelievable to outsiders—where survival means constantly fleeing from warring factions, dodging a hail of bullets fired directly at you. Bullets of the state, religion, tribe, sect, and armed factions.

Choosing to be an anarchist is an expression of true awareness of the failures of these systems. It is a consciousness that pushes you to the limits of both practical struggle and the deeply complex human experience. And this path leads to only two possible outcomes: you either survive as a true revolutionary resister, or you are consumed by the spiral of power.

Just as authority in Sudan takes many forms, so does opposition. There are political resistance movements, parties, mercenary armed groups, so-called revolutionary and liberal militias built on tribal structures, and cultural factions engaged in deep propaganda-driven authoritarianism.

These intertwined hierarchies form the crises of Sudanese peoples. Sudan is, in reality, a collection of small peoples trapped within a state that wields brutal power, recognizing no human rights beyond its own interests.

Furthermore, the ideology of extremist Islamists has been another tool for deepening ignorance and backwardness in Sudan.

Striving to confront all of this as a lone anarchist is like fighting as a wolf among packs of hyenas. If they find a single weakness in you, it will mean your inevitable destruction.

The path forward begins with seeking out those who share your ideas, developing them, and offering them knowledge and education. As an anarchist, you carry the feeling that wherever you are, and whatever your capacity, your mission is to spread freedom. The price of that freedom may be high—it may even cost you your life. Yet, all of this is just a small contribution to the scale of liberation that people need to live a dignified human life.

Freedom is the highest state of being, and anarchism shows us how to achieve and practice it.

Freedom is not just a poetic word to express aspirations—it is an effort, a commitment to being free with yourself and others, and a struggle to make freedom a reality. To be an anarchist is a blessing that cannot be monopolized or hidden. To be free is to be an anarchist, and to be an anarchist is to be free.

— Fawaz Murtada

Sudan: they are not satisfied with this blood !

After nearly two years of war, the truths and objectives of this war are becoming increasingly clear: the aim is simply to crush the revolution. Bashir’s recent speech, in which he referred to the revolutionaries as « scoundrels, » reflects the typical rhetoric of Islamists when describing young revolutionaries. He further accused them of wanting to return with violence and bloodshed, referring to the beginning of retaliatory operations—something the cadres of the Islamist terrorist movement have threatened since the war began.

They do not see the Janjaweed as their enemy; in fact, they have convinced themselves that this war has already been decided in their favor. But how can they claim victory when the Sudanese people are dead, wounded, displaced, or missing? I wonder how such individuals can even be human like us. These are the same people who killed the people from the start, divided them, sold off the nation’s resources, and then murdered them in cold blood.

I do not know the extent of the destruction they wish to achieve, but I now realize that if new campaigns of oppression emerge, we must rise up, renew our commitment to our martyrs, and resist them until our very last breath.

#TheRevolutionLivesOn, you scoundrels.

 

— Fawaz Murtada

Standing against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) does not imply siding with the state

Standing against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) does not imply siding with the state, especially for forces that foresaw the trajectory of this war from the outset. However, today, propaganda directed against revolutionary forces seeks to distort and dilute their longstanding opposition to the existence of this mafia since its inception. The divisive policies for Sudan, which the RSF has been accelerating more aggressively than the state itself, reveal the true intentions this institution has tried to impose through force and coups.

I want to highlight the nature of the discourse by leaders of the armed forces, such as the rhetoric we’ve witnessed regarding the newly formed militias under the pretext of fighting the RSF. These narratives have paved the way for the establishment of a peculiar belief in the military weakness of the state’s armed forces. This, in turn, opens the door wide for the emergence of more armies and armed groups. This is the policy of the state’s mafia, characterized by revoltingly sentimental speeches that in no way reflect the sacrifices of the Sudanese people.

Reconciliation with, and the honoring of, those who have killed the people—effectively giving them a platform—does not fall short of the crimes they committed. Instead, it reinforces these crimes and motivates further genocides. The popular forces must begin to build a counterforce to combat the propaganda of both the RSF mafia and the Islamist mafia, through direct confrontation of the lies that accumulate and exacerbate crises, the consequences of which fall solely on the people.

The struggle in Sudan transcends the conventional historical forms of resistance, such as armed struggle in military policies or civil activism through union-building, protests, and political advocacy.

Sudan’s unique context has given rise to diverse forms of struggle, shaped by the multifaceted nature of oppression. This diversity reflects the country’s complexity, even in its injustices. However, anarchists stand out in their deep examination of a critical issue rooted in the fabric of Sudanese society: tribalism—a force more regressive and extreme than nationalism itself.

For decades, Sudanese anarchists have critically analyzed the role of tribalism and its dominance, tracing its impact from the early days of small warring tribal states, through the colonial era’s reliance on tribal alliances, to its current status as a driving force behind Sudan’s persistent conflicts.

While tribalism remains central to the ongoing war and its continuation, Sudanese political forces often address this issue with hesitance, constrained by either political ties to tribes or fear of confronting tribal authority.

To shed light on this neglected issue, comrade Fawaz Murtada will explore the anarchist perspective on the history and impact of tribalism in Sudan through a series of articles.

The Tribe and the State : An Attempt to Analyze Authoritarian Conflict in Sudan from an Anarchist Perspective

This is an attempt from my humble self to explain the authoritarian conflict in Sudan from my point of view as an anarchist born in Sudan, drawing from my knowledge of its conflicts.

Before British colonialism, Sudan did not know a unified state but rather consisted of small states and kingdoms governed by tribal, ethnic, or clan systems, such as the Kingdom of Wadai, the Nubians, the Nuba Mountains’ kingdoms, and many others.

Sudan itself is divided into regions that bear significant cultural and social differences, making it difficult to compare with any other state.

The north of Sudan, for example, is inhabited by the remnants of Nubian kingdoms whose people share cultural ties across the border with Egypt, extending to Aswan.

In eastern Sudan, you will find the Beja tribes, Beni Amer, and Hadendowa, who have deep connections with Eritrea and Ethiopia.

Darfur, too, is divided into north and south regions, with significant cultural and ethnic differences. These areas also have connections with Chad and the Central African Republic.

The large kingdoms that the colonial powers tried to unite in pursuit of wealth, given Sudan’s riches in gold and fertile lands suitable for cotton cultivation at the time, remain at the heart of international disputes over Sudanese resources today. Colonial powers were unable to assimilate these communities into a single entity; instead, they applied policies that resulted in the separation of the north and south, as is still evident today.

All of this shows that, despite the revolutions that sought to expel the colonizers and unify the Sudanese kingdoms and communities, the tribal control system has remained dominant and in control to this day. This is one of the anarchist perspectives we will try to apply to our reality, aiming to deconstruct it through this lens.

Tribe and State

The tribe is a miniature form of social authority that possesses its own authoritarian culture and is governed by the authority of a tribal leader or chief, characterized by a hereditary transfer of leadership in most cases. It has been and continues to be the main obstacle in transforming the Sudanese people from a center of tribal conflict, violence, and immersion in ignorance and backwardness to a better stage.

Colonialism contributed to shaping hostilities between tribes by distinguishing some from others and arming them, granting them state authority, which formed complex coalitions of diverse human groups in even the simplest communal matters.

The transition from tribe to nationhood has not occurred in Sudan, leaving us at a late stage of self-organizational advancement. Even in the form of the modern state post-independence in Sudan, tribal systems and local administrations still control the state in one way or another, paving the way for the spread of racism, tribal conflicts, and civil wars.

The contemporary problem of Sudan, which is exploited by imperialist forces to control its strategic location and vast resources, is the formation of armed movements and militias based on ethnic and racial grounds in an attempt to divide and fragment the country for easier control.

Today, we find that Sudan has seven armed armies that have started fighting among themselves, and it is only a matter of time before chaos engulfs the entire country or it disintegrates. It is essential to combat the tribal mindset within the people, just as it is important to fight against nationalist ideas that lead to ongoing civil wars.

 

To be continued …

 

An anarchist from Sudan

A Poem By Kuwasi Balagoon

Posted on 01/02/2025 by muntjac
A poem by Kuwasi Balagoon 

The Leaves Are Changing
To Shades Of Fire 
Rust N Indigo 
In Waves 
And All At Once 
And One By One 
Different In Their Deaths
Like All Times
An Love Ones
An Memories Of Places 
Faded From Lack Of Presence
And Fallen From The Attention Of Today 
To Lie Like A Quilt On The Earth 
And Winter
And Change To The Rich Pungent Ground
That Feeds Realities To Come
With No Questions 

--Kuwasi Balagoon

Kaneko Fumiko – Becuase I Wanted To

Posted on 31/01/2025 - 31/01/2025 by muntjac

Kaneko Fumiko – Becuase I Wanted To

A zine version of this is avalible on our zines page.

Introduction

Kaneko Fumiko (1903–1926) was a Japanese anarchist living at the early part of the 20th century. Born out of wedlock into grinding poverty, she lived her life as an outsider within Japanese society including a stint with unloving and cruel relatives in then-occupied Korea, her experiences inspiring both her rebellion against authority and feelings of solidarity with others on the receiving end of society’s boot. Together with her friend, partner and, before her death, husband Pak Yol, she started underground anarchist societies, published articles against the Japanese state and society, and, perhaps, planned to kill the Emperor Taisho and then-Crown Prince Hirohito with explosives at Hirohito’s wedding.

She and Pak were some of of many who’d be swept up in the mass arrests and killings of enemies of the state both real and perceived after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. Placed into “protective custody,” she and Pak were tried and sentenced to death for high treason on charges related to a plot to kill the Emperor and Crown Prince. While these sentences was later commuted to life in prison by the Emperor, an honor she promptly rejected by tearing the decree up in front of her jailers, she was found hanging in her cell in 1926 and is supposed to have committed suicide.

These interrogation transcripts provide a valuable look into the thoughts and deeds of Fumiko beyond the time of her youth detailed in The Prison Memoirs of a Japanese Woman, a memoir written during her trial. At points we see her discussing her philosophies of nihilism and individualism, and Stirner peeks through in her protest against the “phantasm” of Confucian altruism and insistence that we should be the center of all things. Her denunciation of the Emperor and the Japanese state is stirring as well, though the substance of the assassination plot which features heavily in the second interrogation included here is rather unclear because, as Helene Bowen Raddeker observes, during her interrogations she’d inflated her role in the matter to make herself appear more guilty and thus be sentenced as harshly as Pak. Though she talks about Pak’s failed attempt to procure explosives in Korea for her in the first interview featured here from 1925, she later admitted in 1926 to finding out about Pak’s attempt only after he returned[1]. Nevertheless, she treated her interrogators to a riposte of the Emperor system fierce enough to keep her in prison even after this admission.

This pamphlet includes three interrogations: the first is excerpted from Hane Mikiso’s Reflections on the Way to the Gallows and includes her narrative about how she arrived at her nihilist philosophy as well as a denunciation of the emperor system; the second and third pieces, an original translation by myself, take place two years later than the first and were excerpted by Kurihara Yasushi in his compilation of Japanese anarchist writings, Kurizake, Freedom. These include more robust denunciations of the Emperor and Japanese society. Beyond these there exists a comprehensive transcript of Fumiko and Pak’s trials, correspondences and interrogations in court records which have also been published but are currently out of my reach. Some of their pre-trial writings are also extant, though in limited number, and virtually all of this with the exception of Fumiko’s Prison Memoirs of a Japanese Woman remains as-yet untranslated.

In addition to Memoirs, English-language resources for further information about Fumiko include the aforementioned Reflections on the Way to the Gallows, which has a short profile as well as a translation of her essay Nani ga watashi wo kou saseta ka? (What made me do what I did). Radikker’s Treacherous Women of Imperial Japan relates and analyzes the stories of both Fumiko and Kanno Suga, a Japanese anarchist executed for treason 15 years before, and includes a much more robust profile of Fumiko’s life. Raddeker’s familiarity with anarchism, Stirner and Nietzsche and access to a wide variety of source material make for a very engaging read. The tanka on at the end of this work is also taken from there (Raddeker 232).

— Max Res

New Year’s Day, 2020

Max is a part of Viscera Print Goods & Ephemera, and can be reached at viscerapvd@gmail.com.

November 22, 1923

[The following are excerpts from Kaneko’s interrogation on November 22, 1923]

Question: Why did you embrace nihilism?

Answer: Because of the circumstances of my family and ensuing social oppressions.

Q: What about your family?

A: I have no family in the true sense… I was abandoned by my parents and separated from my brothers and sisters. I had no family life. My birth was not recorded, so I was oppressed by the society. It is the fault of the social system… [After coming to Tokyo] I read the writings of Toshihiko Sakai and socialist magazines. Observing this, my parents seemed to be concerned I was inclining towards socialism. In about 1922 I became acquainted with a Korean, Pak Yeol, who was unknown and propertyless. I decided to live with him and informed my parents about this… After I started living with him my father wrote me a letter, in May of that year, contending that I was a descendant of a Chancellor of the Realm, Fujiwara-no-Fusame, [681–737] who lived over a hundred generations ago. I was besmirching this illustrious Saeki family line by living with a lowly Korean. He was disowning me and henceforth I was not to think of him as my father, he wrote. So I was disowned by my father, who had already abandoned me. Mother too had abandoned me… She even considered selling me to a whore-house… My parents bestowed no love on me and yet sought to get whatever benefit they could out of me. Theirs is a truly selfish love, a form of greed. So I, an object of greed, fail to understand the meaning of filial piety. The so-called morality is based on the relationship between the strong and the weak. That morality is always manipulated to serve the convenience of the strong. That is, the strong insists on preserving his freedom of action while demanding the submission of the weak. From the standpoint of the weak, morality means an agreement that calls for one’s submission to the strong. This moral principle is common through all ages and all societies. The primary aim of those in power is to preserve this moral principle as long as possible. The relationship between parents and children is also based on this principle. It is only coated over the with attractive-sounding term “filial piety.”

Q: How did you come to associate with socialists and eventually arrive at nihilism?

A: Three intellectual groups influenced me while I was peddling newspapers… One was a Buddhist salvation group, the second was the Christian Salvation Army group who beat their tambourines, and the third, the long-haired socialists who cried out in desperate voices… I first approached the Salvation Army.

[She then relates her experiences with Saitō – identified in her memoirs as Itō. She explains she grew disillusioned with Christianity when he said he had to end his friendship with her because he had fallen in love with her.]

What an extraordinary contradiction for a Christian to preach love on the street corner then fail to follow through on a pure, unblemished love. Christians have become fettered to the concept of God which they created. Theirs is a cowardly faith of slaves. The virtue and beauty of human beings is to live naturally, ungoverned by external forces. I decided that I could not embrace Christianity, which preaches the doctrine of life that conflicts with the ideals of beauty and virtue. So I abandoned Christianity…

[She was then befriended by a socialist, Hori Kiyotoshi, but she became disillusioned with him also because Hori, she claimed, was a hypocrite. He concealed his relationship with his geisha wife, fearing it would hinder his chances of getting ahead in the world. He also made all of those under him do all the work in his printing business while he idled his time away.]

I was also introduced to another socialist, Kutsumi Fusako. Her family life and principles were no different than Hori’s. Kutsumi took care of her own personal needs but paid no heed to her children’s needs. She would find some excuse to go out with a young man and stay out all day long. I heard her remark that all she had to do was to get on the platform and make a speech about socialism and say “The present society must be destroyed” to get the police to intervene. The next day the papers would report that Kutsumi Fusako made an extremist speech, and so the police prevented her from speaking. I got disgusted with the widespread desire among socialists to get their names in the paper. At this time Kutsumi had no money even to buy food, so she pawned my clothes. She then let the redemption period expire and allowed the pawnshop to sell them without my permission. I am not complaining about losing my clothes, though she knew that I needed them because winter had come. She showed no sense of responsibility. I detested her attitude, a socialist who gives no thought to other people’s needs and thinks only of feeding herself.

I had imagined that socialists were people that rose above the meaningless customs and morality of the society. I imagined them to be courageous fighters with no interest in so-called fame and honor and social reputation. I thought they were warriors fighting to destroy the perverted society of today and striving to create an ideal society. However, even though they denounce the irrational and hypocritical aspects of the society, and pretend that they are indifferent to social criticisms and to fame and reputation, they in fact are governed by and are concerned about the standards of the mundane society. They seek to adorn themselves with conventional ornaments, and take upon themselves conventional values. Just as generals take pride in the medals on their chests, socialists covet records of arrests in order to earn their bread. They take pride in this. When I realized this fact I gave up on them.

I also came to be appalled at the somnolence of the peasants, who are mired in pain but feel no pain, and the ignorance of the workers, who work diligently while they are being devoured to their bones. If the chains that bind them are removed, they are likely to go to the wielders of political and economic power with their chains and beg them to chain them up again. Perhaps they will be happier if they are allowed just to sleep in ignorance. So I got disgusted at all the currents of thought and from the spring of 1922 tightly embraced the nihilistic beliefs I hold today.

As for the significance of my nihilism… in a word, it is the foundation of my thoughts. The goal of my activities is the destruction of all living things. I feel boundless anger against parental authority, which crushed me under the high-sounding name of parental love, and against state and social authority, which abused me in the name of universal love.

Having observed the social reality that all living things on earth are incessantly engaged in a struggle for survival, that they kill each other to survive, I concluded that if there is an absolute, universal law on earth, it is the reality that the strong eat the weak. This, I believe, is the law and truth of the universe. Now that I have seen the truth about the struggle for survival and the fact that the strong win and the weak lose, I cannot join the ranks of the idealists and adopt an optimistic mode of thinking which dreams of the construction of a society that is without authority and control. As long as all living things do not disappear from the earth, the power relations based on this principle [of the strong crushing the weak] will persist. Because the wielders of power continue to defend their authority in the usual manner and oppress the weak—and because my past experience has been a story of oppression by all sources of authority—I decided to deny the rights of all authority, rebel against them, and stake not only my own life but that of all humanity on this endeavor.

For this reason I planned eventually to throw a bomb and accept the termination of my life. I did not care whether this act would touch off a revolution or not. I am perfectly content to satisfy my own desires. I do not wish to help create a new society based on a new authority in a different form.

Q: What is your opinion concerning the Japanese state and social system?

A: I divide the Japanese state-social system into three levels:

The first class is the royal-clan members.

The second class is the government ministers and other wielders of political power.

The third class is the masses in general.

I regard the first class, the royal clan, as pitiful victims who live like prison inmates whose comings and goings are strictly regulated, just as they are for the imperial regent. I think they are pitiful puppets and wooden dolls who are being manipulated by the second class, the real wielders of power, in order to pull the wool over the eyes of the masses. The third class, the masses, as I mentioned earlier, are ignorant beyond salvation. The second class, the wielders of political power, are the ones who have the real power to persecute the weak, like myself. For that reason I feel nothing but bitter hatred toward this class. Whereas in reality the second class is the actual wielder of power, the first class is the formal wielder of power. So these two classes go hand in hand. Consequently I place the second class on the secondary level and direct my rebellious sentiments against the first class. I also contemplated throwing bombs at both classes. Pak Yeol and I talked about this.

I am keeping a journal of my days in prison. On November 6 I wrote: “The rights of the people are being tossed about by the wielders of power as easily as if they were handballs. The government officials have finally thrown me in prison. But let me give you some sound advice. If you wish to prevent the current incident from bearing fruit, you must kill me. You may keep me in prison for years but as soon as I am released I will try the same thing. I will destroy my own body and save you the trouble. You may take this body of mine anywhere you please, to the guillotine if you wish or to the Hachiōji prison. We all have to die eventually. So you may do as you please. You will only be proving that I lived true to myself. I am perfectly happy with that.” You expect me to compromise with you people, changing my way of thinking, and live in conformity with the ways of the society? If I could compromise with you now, I would have compromised with you when I was out in society. You don’t have to preach to me about that. I have enough sense to understand that. I am prepared for whatever you may do to me. So do as you please. Don’t hesitate. To tell you the truth, I would like to go out into the world once more. I know that all I have to do is make my bid by saying “I have undergone a change of heart,” and bow my head. But I cannot destroy my current self so that my future self can survive.

Officers, let me proclaim courageously to you once more: “Rather than prostrate myself before the wielders of power, I prefer to die and be true to myself. If this displeases you, you may take me anywhere you wish. I am not afraid of anything you may do to me.” This is the way I have felt in the past and it is the way I feel now.

Q: Did you become acquainted with Pak Yeol after you developed this manner of thinking?

A: That’s right. After I met Pak we talked about our ideas and found that our views were similar. So in order to work together we began to live together.[2]

[During the course of the interrogation Kaneko revealed her opinion about the emperor system candidly.]

Even before I met Pak Yeol I believed that the emperor was a useless entity. Pak and I got together because we agreed about this. We joined hands as comrades to overthrow the emperor system. By nature human beings should be equal. And yet human beings who are equal by nature have been made unequal because of the presence of the entity called the emperor. The emperor is supposed to be august and exalted. Yet his photograph shows that he is just like us commoners. He has two eyes, one mouth, legs to walk with and hands to work with. But he doesn’t use his hands to work and his legs to walk. That the only difference. The reason I deny the necessity of the emperor rises from my belief that human beings are equal.

We have been taught that the emperor is a descendant of the gods, and that his right to rule has been bestowed upon him by the gods. But I am convinced that the story of the three sacred treasures [the sword, the mirror, and the jewel, which come down from the age of the gods as emblems of imperial authority] is simply a myth plucked out of thin air. If the emperor were a god, then his soldiers would not die. Why were tens of thousands of royal subjects killed by the Great Earthquake in his immediate presence? We have in our midst someone who is supposed to be a living god, one who is omnipotent and omniscient, an emperor who is supposed to realize the will of the gods. Yet his children are crying because of hunger, suffocating to death in the coal mines, and being crushed to death in factory machines. Why is this so? Because, in truth, the emperor is a mere human being. We wanted to show the people that the emperor is an ordinary human being just like us. So we thought of throwing a bomb at him to show that he too will die just like any other human being.

We have been taught that the Japanese national polity consists of an unbroken lineage of the imperial family throughout the ages. But the imperial genealogy is really fuzzy. And even if the genealogy is unbroken through the ages, it signifies nothing. It is nothing to be proud of. Rather, it is shameful that the Japanese people have been so ignorant as to acquiesce in having babies foisted upon them as emperors.

Under the emperor system, education, laws, moral principles were all devised to protect the imperial authority. The notion that the emperor is sacred and august is a fantasy. The people have been led to believe that the emperor and the crown prince represent authorities that are sacred and inviolate. But they are simply vacuous puppets. The concepts of loyalty to the emperor and love of nation are simply rhetorical notions that are being manipulated by the tiny group of privileged classes to fulfill their own greed and interests.[3]

This translation, including paraphrasing and footnotes, can be found in Mikiso Hane’s Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Rebel Women in Prewar Japan.

May 14th 1925

52nd Interrogation Record May 14th 1925 Ichigaya Prison

(Opening omitted)

Question 1: Is your statement from last time correct that the idea of asking Kim Han for explosives in order to use them during the Crown Prince’s wedding emerged from your discussions with Pak?

Answer: That’s correct.

Q2: Is it also correct that your asking Kim Han for explosives was also in preparation for the Crown Prince’s wedding?

A: I learned they’d be holding a wedding ceremony for the little prince in the near future around the time Pak went to Gyeongseong to make contact with Kim Han.

I recall that at the time the date for the little prince’s wedding hadn’t been firmly decided. In any case, I’d anticipated the wedding procession being held in the near future. I remember it was due to this that Pak went to Gyeongseong so I’d have a bomb in time for this incredible opportunity of a procession.

Q3: Was there a discussion between you and Pak when he left for Gyeongseong about being on time for the wedding ceremony?

A: I talked continuously with Pak about presenting a bomb to the young prince during the Imperial wedding ceremony. Whether that was something that happened before he left for Gyeongseong, or whether it was after, I can’t clearly remember right now. In any case, because from the time Pak left for Gyeongseong I thought using a bomb at the wedding ceremony was best, I think Pak probably told Kim Han to give us a bomb in time for it.

Q4: After returning from Gyeongseong, did Pak tell you that he’d discussed with Kim Han about having bombs in time for the wedding?

A: I didn’t hear from Pak that he’d had that kind of conversation. The only thing he told me after coming back from Gyeongseong was that Kim Han would finally be sharing bombs with us.

Q5: In that case, from the time Pak returned from Gyeongseong at the end of 1922, did you discuss how you wouldn’t be able to get bombs from Kim Han due to the Kim Sang-ok incident[4], and about using them at the ceremony once you got the bombs from him at the end of 1923?

A: There were many conversations between myself and Pak about using the bombs at the ceremony, but I don’t have any certain memories left of whether they happened at that time or what.

Q6: What about at the time of your involvement with Kim Jun-han?[5]

A: I remember clearly at that time there was a conversation between Pak and I about using the bombs at the procession.

Q7: Who were you going to throw the bombs at?

A: Ultimately, we’ll be happy as long as we bag the little prince.

It’d be good to kill the Emperor too, but the procession was a rare opportunity and the Emperor’s a sick man, so the value of the statement we’d make killing him instead of the little prince would be different and not worth it. So we targeted the little prince.

Q8: Once you got the bombs, who was supposed to throw them?

A: Of course myself and Pak were, but I also had the thought of asking other comrades like Nīyama, Choi Gyujong, and Yamamoto Katsuyuki to do it.

The idea I had in mind was, because Nīyama and Yamamoto had been worried about chest troubles for a while and were prepared to die, and Choi’s the kind of person who, once fired up, will do any kind of direct action, Pak and I could have these three divide up and throw bombs into places like the Diet, Mitsukoshi[6], the police headquarters and the Imperial Palace at the same time we were throwing ours.

But then, with regards to Nīyama, after she’d fallen into a romantic relationship with Kim Jun-han we felt her character wasn’t fit for this kind of direct action and we dropped the plan to use our comrades.

Q9: Was throwing a bomb at His Majesty the Crown Prince your only objective?

A: Ultimately we’d have been happy just killing the little prince, but if able we’d have liked to kill him along with the Prime Minister and other true political power holders. But as we’d been slow to take the opportunity once we’d gotten our hands on the bombs, and if we’d been caught by the officials we’d have really looked stupid as I myself do sitting here, we considered that if we really didn’t have the chance we’d set our eyes on the sending a message route, and considered throwing the bombs during events like the May Day celebrations or the opening of the Diet.

Q10: Did Pak have the same main intent as you of throwing a bomb at His Majesty?

A: He did.

Q11: Why did you attempt to cause to such harm to His Majesty the Crown Prince?

A: For a long time I’ve thought deeply that all humans are equal. Everyone being human, they must all be equal. In that there’s no difference between stupid and smart or strong and weak. As humans that exist naturally on earth, I believe that all humans are completely equal in value, and following from the sole qualification of being human they should enjoy completely and equally their right to human activity.

To put it concretely, all actions that have been done, are being done and can be done by humans are built on the foundation of their being human. Thus I think all of these actions, built on a natural foundation and performed by humans on the earth, should be recognized as equal human activities by the sole qualification of their being done by humans. And yet, how very much these natural actions, this natural existence itself, are being denied and controlled in the name of laws made by humans. Humans who should be by nature equal, how unequal their situation is in this society. I curse this inequality. Only two or three years ago, I thought of the so-called nobility[7] of the upper class like a peculiar race, endowed with a shape and substance in every way different from the so-called commoners. As a matter of fact, even looking at pictures in the newspaper you can see that the so-called nobility aren’t in any way different from the commoners. With two eyes, one mouth, two legs for walking and hands to work with, it seems they’re not lacking in the least.

Actually, I didn’t think a deformed child [sic] lacking those things could ever be a part of such a class.

This understanding of, in short, the class of the Imperial household, the understanding that when you speak of them you instinctually feel like you’re speaking of noble, inviolate people, is something that’s likely been entrenched in the hearts of the people. To put it differently, things like Japan’s states and rulers have tapped a bit into this vein of popular understanding.

From the start, things like countries, societies, peoples and rulers are nothing but ideas. Nevertheless, in order to bestow the rulers of these ideas with majesty, political power and holiness, there exists in this very Japan something that represents what I just wrenched out—the divine right of kings. Just as anyone born on Japanese soil is instilled with this idea, even grade school students, in order to impress upon the guileless people notions like the Emperor himself being descended from the gods, or his right to rule being something bestowed by decree of the gods, or else the Emperor being someone who controls the power of the State in order to realize the will of the gods, and thus the law is the will of the gods, they base these things in fantastic legends, vaunting and solemnly offering praise to things like a mirror, a sword and a jewel[8] like they were given by the gods, completely deceiving them. The poor deceived people, engulfed in these absurd legends, consider things like the government and Emperor to be incredible gods beyond compare, but if the Emperor was a god himself or descended from the gods, if the people were under the protection of these gods, existing under the spirits of successive generations of these god-emperors, no Japanese soldiers should have to die in times of war, not one Japanese airplane should fall from the sky, and some tens of thousands of loyal subjects shouldn’t die in the gods’ own backyard due to a natural disaster like the one last year[9].

But this unbelievable thing that became an unwavering truth, that is the divine right of kings which is nothing more than a supposition, isn’t it proven all too clearly that the legends in which it’s grounded are empty? And regardless of whether an Emperor who’s the almighty omnipotent manifestation of the gods and implementing the will of the gods truly exists on earth or not, don’t some of this society’s children that exist under him cry from hunger, suffocate in coal mines, and die miserable deaths crushed by machines? And isn’t this enough evidence of the truth, namely that the Emperor is just a lump of meat, someone in every way the same as the so-called public, and that everyone should be equal to him? Wasn’t it the same for you, officer? I was taught in elementary school that because our sole glory as human beings was having the fortune to be born into the nation without compare that is this country, where we live under an Emperor who’s part of a continuous, unbroken line, we had to put our effort into enhancing this glory. And while I don’t know whether their being of one bloodline is true or not, in any case is it such a great honor to be ruled by a single lineage? I’ve heard before of an Emperor who drowned and became fish food, Antoku[10] or something, that bore the responsibility of ruler of Japan at a mere two years old. Is vaunting such an incapable human being as their ruler really the glory of the ruled? Rather, granting some ten thousand year imperial line the power to govern even as a formality is the deepest shame of people born on Japanese soil, and proof of the ignorance of the Japanese people.

Last year’s tragedy, where many people burned to death by the side of the currently breathing Emperor, was something that proved he’s actually just a foolish lump of meat and at the same time scorns the foolishness and naivete of people in the past.

Schooling endeavors first to teach humans who exist naturally on earth the word for “flag” and instill in them the spirit of nationalism. And the wide variety of activities that are all equally founded in their being done by humans, all of these are divided into right and wrong under the single standard of whether they support authority or not. And that standard is human-made law and morality.

The police, who administer the law which teaches only the path to a better life for society’s victors and submission to authority, lower their sabers and menace human actions, taking everyone who they fear might shake the pillars of power and bam, bind them up one and all. And the judges, those respectable officials, flip through law books and hand down arbitrary judgments on human actions, alienating themselves from human lives, denying even their humanity as they undertake their duty as protectors of authority.

Like when Christianity was at its height and, in order to protect its sanctity, they banned scientific research for fear of shaking the pillars of the superstitious miracles of God and long-held traditions they preached, things like the sanctity of the State or the holiness of the Emperor are also ephemeral, and force is used to oppress those ideas and arguments that would expose them as nothing more than illusions.

Thus the earth is currently occupied and being trampled upon by a devil called power, because the lives which should by their nature be enjoyed by humans who are natural existences on the earth are only permitted if they fulfill the mission of serving it.

And the representatives of the devil called power that’s trampling upon the lives of the humans on the earth who should all be equal are the Emperor and the Crown Prince. All the reasons for targeting the little prince I’ve given up to now proceed from this idea.

And for those representatives of power who trample upon the lives of the naturally equal humans on the earth, those lumps of meat equal to lumps of dirt called the Emperor and Crown Prince, the poor people they’ve deceived give them an exaggerated holiness and provide them superior, inviolate positions while they’re being exploited. And it’s there that I wanted to show the people clearly that those being impressed upon them then as sacred inviolate power, the Emperor and Crown Prince, are in truth empty lumps of meat among lumps of meat, nothing but puppets, to show those being exploited that they’re nothing more than marionettes and foolish dummies used by the privileged few to enrich themselves by deceiving the people who serve as their source of wealth, and through this to show that the mountain of long-held traditions that bestow the Emperor with divinity are purely empty superstitions. To show, because the empty substance of this Japanese nation that’s considered the land of the gods is nothing more than a provisional system for increasing the personal gains of the privileged few, the ideology of self-sacrifice for the nation called “loyalty and patriotism” that’s glorified and propagandized and even considered a national slogan being in truth nothing more than a cruel desire to sacrifice the lives of others for their own benefit wrapped up in pretty adjectives as a means of indulging their self-interest. I targeted the little prince to warn the people that consenting to this uncritically means consenting to being a slave to the privileged few, to let people know that the fundamental altruistic morality demanded by the Confucianism that Japanese people up to now have held as their life’s creed, that slave morality that subdues the people’s hearts today and even in that action inclines them to being ruled, is in truth an illusion emerging from sheer conjecture, just an empty phantasm, and in letting them know that, opening their eyes to see that people should act entirely for themselves, that the ones who make the universe are they themselves, and thus every “thing” exists for them and everything should be done for them.

I thought in any case that by throwing that bomb, I’d soon be putting an end to my life on this earth. The reason I’ve just told you for targeting the little prince, with the idea being to make a declaration to the outside world, that is, an explanation for the people, this scheme was in fact something consisting of my reflections made to hold a faint color of hope and nothing more, in other words it was me extending outwards thoughts that had been directed towards myself, which is all to say that thoughts which had myself as their object were at the root of this plan.

Regarding thoughts which have myself as their object, what’s referred to as my nihilistic ideology, I already talked about this in detail last time. To follow my plan to its logical conclusion, the negative goal was to negate my own life, and the positive, ultimate goal, the heart of the plan itself, was the destruction of all power on this earth.

This is why I targeted the little prince.

Q12: How is your physical health?

A: My health? That was resolved a long time ago.

Q13: Have you reformed yourself?

A: I’ve done absolutely nothing I need to repent for. Indeed you could say that my ideas and actions, my plan are all bad because they’d cause trouble for other people, but at the same time they’re things that I myself benefit from.

Judging things according to your interest certainly isn’t bad; rather, it’s human nature, a condition for living. If judging things according to your interest was bad, the blame would be on the fact that humans themselves are alive. To me, things that are to your benefit are good, and things to your disadvantage are bad.

But I didn’t carry out this plan because I believed it was good. I only did it because I wanted to. Just as no matter how I’m criticized as being bad by other people, I don’t stray from my path, no matter how you might flatter me for being good, if I don’t want to do something, I’m not doing it.

I’ll keep doing things because I want to. I can’t predict what those things will be, but what’s certain is as long I exist above ground I’ll be living in the moment, pursuing the things I most want to do from one to the next.

July 18th 1925

1st Interrogation Record[11] July 18th 1925 Ichigaya Prison Kaneko Fumiko (interrogation document)

Regarding the case of the aforementioned defendant being charged under Article 73[12] as well as with violating the Explosives Control Act, the following interrogation took place in Ichigaya Prison on July 18th 1925, being carried out with Judge Tatematsu Kaisei of the Tokyo Appeals Court, charged with the preliminary hearing under the special power belonging to the Supreme Court, and Secretary Okuyama Gunji of the same court in attendance.

Question 1: Your name?

Answer: Kaneko Fumiko.

Q2: Age?

A: Officially I’m 24, though I’m 22 by my recollection. But to tell you the truth, I don’t believe in either. And what’s more, I don’t need to believe. No matter how old I am, it has nothing to do with me living my own life right now.

Q3: Your class?

A: A divine[13] commoner.

Q4: How are you employed?

A: My job is tearing down everything that currently exists.

Q5: Place of residence?

A: Tokyo Prison.

Q6: Permanent address?

A: Yamanashi Prefecture, Higashi-Yamanashi District, Suwa Village, 1236 Somaguchi.

Q7: Place of birth?

A: Yokohama City.

Q8: Do you hold any rank, decoration, insignia for military service, retirement, pension, or public office?

A: You can’t give me any of that stuff, and even if you could I wouldn’t take them.

Q9: Have you ever been sentenced for anything?

A: I’ll be receiving one soon, won’t I?

Q10: Have you read the official change of jurisdiction document for you and the other defendants?

A: I have.

Q11: Are there any discrepancies in the facts recorded in that document?

A: There aren’t.

Q12: On that point, do you have any comments on the Attorney General prosecuting you and Pak Jun-sik[14] in this way and requesting the preliminary hearing from the Supreme Court?

At this time the judge has begun reading the section entitled “Indictments of the Preliminary Hearing Request.”

A: No comment.

Q13: And on the intent to have me carry out the preliminary hearing by order of the Head of the Supreme Court?

A: No objection.

Q14: Are there any errors in what you’ve said at the preliminary hearing of your case in Tokyo District Court for violating the Security Police Law and Explosives Control Act?

A: There aren’t.

Works Cited

Hane, Mikiso. Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Rebel Women in Prewar Japan. University of California Press, 1988.

Kurihara, Yasushi. Kuruizake, Freedom: Anarchism Anthology. Chikuma Shobou, 2018.

Raddeker, Helene Bowen. Treacherous Women of Imperial Japan: Patriarchal Fictions, Patricidal Fantasies. Routledge, 1997.

Bent over,
watching others from beneath
my thighs —
the state of the world I
need to look at, upside-down.Kaneko Fumiko

[1] Raddeker 70.

[2] Tokyo District Court Interrogation Records for November 22, 1923.

[3] Setouchi Harumi, ed., Onna no Isshō, Jimbutsu Kindai Joseishi, Hangyaku no Onna no Roman, 8 vols. (Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1980), VI: 168–69.

[4] Sang-ok, a member of the resistance to the Japanese occupation of Korea, threw a bomb into the Jongno police station in Seoul in January 1923, dying in a shootout with the police a few days later.

[5] An associate of Fumiko and Pak’s, they belonged to a number of radical groups together and likely parted ways due to arguments between he and Pak in August of 1923.

[6] A Japanese department store chain.

[7] Meiji society was divided into formal class positions of nobility, those descended from samurai households, and commoners.

[8] Items known as the Three Sacred Treasures (sanshu no jingi). According to legend they were brought to earth by the ancestor of the Japanese imperial line.

[9] The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, in which more than 140,000 are estimated to have died, many engulfed in fires which broke out as a result.

[10] Antoku (1178–1185) was drowned by his grandmother when she jumped overboard during a navel battle rather than risk him being captured.

[11] This is the first interrogation since she was indicted on additional charges.

[12] The crime of high treason under the Meiji criminal code.

[13] Radikker sees this as a provocation towards the Emperor’s divine status (234).

[14] Pak Yol’s birth name.

Further reading

Her biography; https://ia800503.us.archive.org/8/items/KanekoFumikoThePrisonMemoirsOfAJapaneseWoman/Fumiko-ThePrisonMemoirsOfAJapaneseWoman1.pdf

A poster by Haters Cafe of one of her poems. https://haters.noblogs.org/files/2021/02/Fumiko.pdf

Athena – Addicted to Losing + A Response

Posted on 31/01/2025 - 31/01/2025 by muntjac

We have chosen to make a zine of this text + a poinient critique of it posted shortly after its release. You can download it on our zines page.

Athena – Addicted to Losing

illwill.com/addicted-to-losing

To restart the revolution is not to rebegin it, it is to cease to see the world alienated, men to be saved or helped, or even to be served, it is to abandon the masculine position, to listen to femininity, stupidity, and madness without regarding them as evils. —J.F. Lyotard

Can you be immortalized without your life being expired? —Kendrick Lamar

In the summer of 2020, we saw the largest uprising in America’s history. Its racial character was undeniable: in a landscape of unfrozen civil war, the negro question once again took center stage. Among those most eager for destruction was the black working class, which made short work of police cars, cops, and storefronts. Looking back on these events, part of the reason the uprising died down was that it hit upon both technical and social limits. As has been pointed out by others, the “memetic” quality of the movement — i.e., the way it ramped itself up through the iteration of destructive gestures — reached its limit with the burning of the Third Precinct in Minneapolis, an attack that, while awe-inspiring, set a high bar to clear. On the other hand, in terms of its social limits, the imaginary of the rebellion, its revolutionary potentials, were shamelessly repressed by the Black counter-insurgency. The Black counter-insurgency consists of a network of middle class black folks, black academics, rich niggas and their cohorts who, in cooperation with the police, helped to put down the wave of property destruction by recuperating its energy towards the construction of a social movement. Managers are endemic to such movements, a role that the black counter-insurgency was all too eager to assume. In their hands, questions of revolution and how to make one evaporate into liberal talk of “abolition,” a slick cover for more police reform. Since this distinct brand of repression within movements is not isolated to 2020, but saturates both our past and present, it is decisive that we grasp its meaning and purpose.

In what follows, we wish to clarify the ground upon which the standpoint of Black counter-insurgency rests, the set of beliefs and assumptions that allow it to reproduce itself. Why is the notion that racialized people need masters so easily swallowed, even by so-called radicals? How do we injure the stupidity that is spread by this idea, this ongoing perception of people of color as unsuited to the task of ending the world? In today’s movements and organizing spaces, the reign of white supremacy is nourished by the paternal concern for the welfare of people of color, an insidious apparatus that works to attenuate our militancy by instilling in us feelings of inferiority and dependency. Our task therefore is twofold: not only must we confront racist repression at the hands of police in our streets, but also the fluid web of social control that extends beyond that terrain into our own social and political circles. In seeking answers to these questions, our aim is to make way for more unruly and ungrateful black and brown insurgents, a specter feared by both whites and non-whites alike.

Gimme danger, not safety

The politics of the black counter-insurgency is what Jackie Wang has called a “politics of safety.” For Wang, the politics of safety is based on the racializing requirement that, unlike their white counterparts, in order to warrant political consideration, oppressed people of color must be innocent. As she shows, the difference in treatment between the case of Trayvon Martin, a Black teen the regarded by the public as “a kid like any other,” and that of Isaiah Simmons, who was choked to death by multiple counselors in a juvenile facility, can be attributed to the former’s appearance of innocence. Trayvon sees ample news coverage and protests, while Isaiah’s criminal status exempts him from public empathy, relegating him to obscurity. This prerequisite of innocence serves a hidden assimilating function: empathy with the oppressed is possible precisely in proportion to how relatable they are to the public. Those who are racialized must appear as morally pure, or not at all. To have one’s oppression verified or authenticated, one is obligated to be innocent, in the way a child supposedly is — and therefore inferior, in the same way the child is thought to be. The politics of safety is a whitewashing operation. The boundaries of whiteness — what it permits and what it forbids — are established by reference to this distorted view of the dominated.

This infantilizing construction of the marginalized is used to justify a politics in which violent and conflictual ways of being are disqualified in the name of “keeping the less privileged safe.” When they police a demo that is beginning to get out of hand, those professing a politics of safety can then claim that they are doing so in the name of protecting the vulnerable in their flock. This is easier than confronting their real fear, namely, that non-white people and other marginalized groups might truly slip out of anyone’s control. In the case of people of color, the common articulation of struggle against white supremacy is one entirely without teeth. The savage, the negro, the person of color can only be thought of as fragile, to the point of ineptness. Confused non-whites believe it to be the duty of “radicals” to convince other non-whites to relate to themselves as if they lacked the kind of political agency that only white people can hold. Wang expresses this point succinctly:

People of color who use privilege theory to argue that white people have the privilege to engage in risky actions while POC cannot because they are the most vulnerable (most likely to be targeted by the police, not have the resources to get out of jail, etc.) make a correct assessment of power differentials between white and non-white political actors, but ultimately erase POC from the history of militant struggle by falsely associating militancy with whiteness and privilege. When an analysis of privilege is turned into a political program that asserts that the most vulnerable should not take risks, the only politically correct politics becomes a politics of reformism and retreat.

Today, calls for “white bodies to the front” are met not with ridicule but unflinching obedience. Even in anarchist circles, which one foolishly hopes would be immunized from such behavior, comrades fall victim to it. For instance, why do people of color so often find themselves exempted from the practices of folk justice applied to everyone else in radical milieus, prompting jokes about people of color being “uncancellable”? Why is it that, after all these years, it has been so hard for radicals to shake the politics of safety?

Wang wrote “Against Innocence” in 2012, but it feels as if it could’ve been written yesterday. Feeble attempts have been made to combat it, usually in the form of a lukewarm critique of vulgar identity politics, but these attempts are neither satisfactory nor novel. Is it enough to blame the issue on the Combahee River Collective’s concept of identity politics, which sought to clarify interlocking modes of oppression? Such critiques are all too eager to dismiss race and gender as central modes by which governmental power operates. These forms of power cannot simply be avoided, but must be moved through in order to be overcome. An indifference to the question of race only preserves one’s sense of comfort, whether it be through self-serving emphasis on supposedly common elements of domination like class or through the naked denial of social difference. Moving through these structures requires that we confront what Idris Robinson calls the “morbid libidinal core of white supremacy, identity politics, intersectionality, and social privilege discourse.” For us, this means giving form to a sentimental analysis, one inseparable from an actual practice of civil war. By sentimental, I mean that we root through the innards of that space improperly marked as “personal,” going beneath the veneer of intellectual pretension to confront what hurts, frightens, and disorients us. The politics of safety, I propose, has flourished by preying upon the moral values dominant among radicals. An examination of such values then, may aid in plotting an escape route.

The politics of sacrifice

Where do our concepts of good, bad, and evil come from? In his landmark history of morality, the Genealogy of Morals, Nietzsche illustrates the difference between two types of morality by recourse to a myth. Once upon a time, there were “masters” who were strong, and affirmed their strength and vitality as “good.” The concept of “bad” was an afterthought, associated only secondarily with traits proper to “slaves” who they considered beneath them. This set of values Nietzsche calls “master morality.” The slaves, oppressed by the masters, respond by transforming the meaning of good and bad, calling the strength of their masters evil, and (by extension) their own weakness good. According to Nietzsche, this reversal was a way of exacting a moral or spiritual revenge on the masters, since they lack the material strength to overthrow them. This cunning maneuver succeeded, at least for a time. However, Nietzsche argues that this tactic has overstayed its welcome, leaving in its wake a reigning slave morality that valorizes dispossession and weakness. Slave morality recognizes the good only where there is bondage, while regarding all attempts to escape from this bondage as evil. Nietzsche’s prime example of slave morality is Christianity, which he sees as a denial of life and its pleasures, which holds the material world in contempt.

Nietzsche’s analysis of slave morality is useful. Even among anarchists/anti-state radicals, slave morality survives in the form of a politics of safety, an illness similar to Christianity. This should not be surprising, considering radical politics and Christianity have long had a love affair. As communist philosopher Walter Benjamin noted, many radical concepts are, after all, secularized theological concepts. To observe that the ruling moral values among radicals exhibit the traits of a slave morality need not amount to an endorsement of master morality. Slave morality doesn’t always arrive in the stiff posture of the priest. In the radical milieus it can also assume the disarming language of zines and hair dye, which only makes it all the more difficult to pin down. This new look of slave morality, which allows for the continued worship of weakness, is based on an illusion among radicals that they have already conquered asceticism. We laugh at the Christians and socialists, ignoring the beam in our own eye. If the politics of safety is an effective strategy of counter-insurgency, this is because it exploits the underlying slave morality of radicalism.

According to the slavish values of radicals, experiences of oppression — racial and otherwise — are assigned the quality of “goodness.” In other words, a diminished capacity for action is treated as a virtue in and of itself. Those vital, rebellious fragments that exist among the oppressed are swept aside in favor of a moral fetishization of wretchedness. This fetishization is reflected plainly in the ragged dress code of the radical circles, a cultural signification of one’s aversion to decadence. More generally, efforts of radicals to increase their power of acting, whether through acquiring spaces like houses and social centers, money for bail funds and projects, or even forming larger strategies about how to defeat the police in the streets are treated as a violation of an implicit set of values that venerates the experience of being trapped. These tactics are seen by some radicals as a dangerous ploy for power, which risk being reigned back into domination.

Skepticism surrounding what it means to build consistency as a revolutionary force is important, and we should be cautious about the recuperation of projects designed to give us more material power. But when the concern clearly bubbles up from a sensation that such tactics betray the holy, servile image of the revolutionary as someone with barely enough will to throw a brick, our sympathy should cease. To struggle against one’s subjugation is too often framed as a simple shift from the position of the slave to that of the master, every other path being met with disdain. The romanticization of revolutionaries as “beautiful losers” only ensures that the medicine goes down smoother. Such myths beg for disenchantment in reality, like Christianity before it, radicalist slave morality is ultimately premised on a rejection of life.

Like the megachurch preacher who scolds the taste for revenge and filth of queerness, the radical experiences shame in the face of every expression of strength, seeing in it nothing but a conspicuous consumption of privilege. In the name of liberation, the radical paradoxically calls for a political modesty: are you really going out dressed like that? We are at a point where even declaring that we want to be stronger raises a certain kind of alarm. Why should it?

Revolutions take strength. Deactivating that which governs us takes strength. We should want that power and should shamelessly seek it, rather than smothering it beneath the specious garb of asceticism. This shame that blocks us is rooted in what Nietzsche calls ressentiment, an envy felt toward another whom we believe to be the sole cause of our lack of power. Ressentiment is what leads radicals to police attempts at freedom that lie outside of their preferred grammar of conflict, which they wrongly interpret as the reason the enemy keeps winning.

Shame in the face of power surfaces as the primary driving passion of would-be revolutionaries. Rather than dreaming of the excesses this world holds back, and spitting on the poverty of its justice, its love, its pleasure, and what it passes off as “sociality,” radical culture responds punitively with the stick of shame, a reactive passion. The real exploitation of the oppressed is treated as a pretense to deny any and all ecstasy to radicals. Shame seeps into our bodies, to the point where we learn to see ourselves as little else than instruments of domination, until our own self-destruction becomes a moral duty. In this way, the suicidal despair that this world proliferates is thereby transmuted into a radical consciousness. The miserable and dejected preach their “good news”: the true revolutionary is unworthy of life. Living is for someone else, not for them. Nowhere is this groveling attitude more apparent than in that Maoist slogan, “serve the people.”


So much for the radlibs and protest managers. But what of the militants in our movements? With them, slave morality emerges as a politics of sacrifice. Their neglect of the question, “how are we to live?”, leads them to reproduce the same nightmare over and over. Whereas the liberal politics of safety embodies the condescension of Christian charity, the more “anarchistic” politics of sacrifice draws instead upon the legacy of Christian martyrdom. Rather than a playful mode of affirmation, its style is that of pleasureless service. The politics of sacrifice is ruthlessly utilitarian, but like all utilitarianism, its understanding of the good is completely detached from the world it actually inhabits. The tendency towards martyrdom among the advocates of violent direct action attests less to revolutionary piety than to a complete exhaustion of the imagination, a death drive thriving in an absent sense of the possible. Fighting against this world is reduced to the gesture of giving one’s life over to a complete destruction. Political effectiveness is measured by the degree of suffering one endures in their efforts at resistance. This sickening resignation to oblivion lives as much in the sad militant who prays to be arrested in the black bloc as it does in the anarchist organizer who stretches themselves thin to the point of breaking, because others have it worse. Outside of these attempts to chip away at Empire through sharp masochistic bursts, we live our lives otherwise unchanged. At bottom, the politics of sacrifice doesn’t really desire autonomy; such acts reflect instead a need to gratify that voice inside of us that tells us we don’t deserve any other world than this.

By giving our souls over to a flattened image of the oppressed, we fail to earn our own trust. In our reflection of the long, disastrous history of counterrevolution, we deny ourselves permission to attempt once more to transform our lives, reverting instead to a political sterility that excuses itself from the task of transformation entirely — after all, is this not the safer option?

The politics of sacrifice confers a predictable shape upon our struggles. We see this in the refusal to engage with the mass intelligence of crowds, the suspicion of any openness to cross contamination. The militant embodies a knight-like position with respect to the crowd: rather positioning themselves within it, they act like a kind distant protector, ever anxious to ensure that the membrane between savior and saved is never breached. Either they make themselves so small as to avoid influencing anyone, or they assume a paternalistic vanguard posture that tries to safely, but separately, guide the little lambs. The impurity proper to all genuinely strategic thinking, which invites us to explore the contours of a situation rather than defer to an ideology or tribe, is denied in favor of a puritanical mode of critical thinking. Rather than being a tool to challenge one’s base assumptions, “critique” assumes the form of a neurotic scanning of oneself and others in search of some hidden authoritarian germ. Milieus devour themselves through the endless production of holographic enemies, allowing the resentful to cloud our sight with confused battles whose only purpose is to satiate a drive for “salvation”, a nakedly desperate need to be needed. All of which is simply a smokescreen for the actual conflicts: a widespread rape culture, racial segregation among revolutionaries, and the unutterable fear of our own freedom. Nietzsche spoke of the “anarchist dogs” that roamed Europe; today we can speak of hyenas.

By giving in to the nihilistic politics of sacrifice and its disgust with the sweetly overflowing quality of existence, we excuse ourselves from creating new ways to increase our power of acting. In my experience, it is the radicals who issue from more privileged positions in the world that are most readily trapped in the politics of sacrifice, using increasingly finer points of marginalization rhetoric to assert their essential goodness and moral authority. Who among us hasn’t been at the business end of the middle class or white comrade, who transforms their soul-wrenching guilt into everyone else’s punishment? While rebellious segments of “the meek” are busy figuring out how to live in spite of it all, others scheme only about how to die. Certainly, all kinds of passions can motivate beautiful acts of sabotage. But what must be challenged is this abnegation that asserts itself as the only mode in which we wage war. We are blocked from the full spectrum of what makes us disobey when, in reality, there is plenty of room for the self-negating agony to break bread with contagious shared joy. The devil lies in an art of distances.

Learned helplessness

Let’s return to the question of race. Radicals of color become central objects in this politics of sacrifice. We are things that represent the stakes, either directly or symbolically. A black person cannot just be herself. Her fungibility makes her interchangeable with the gangbanger, the prisoner, or the factory worker in the global south, even if her own social and economic conditions have nothing in common with them. When white radicals coddle people of color, it is often out of a misguided effort to place themselves in contact with the “most wretched.” The concrete person of color is always already a stand-in, devoid of any being. The white’s desperation to be a savior and to spread the dichotomy between savior and saved reflects an unspoken sense of superiority, a racist narcissism. If I don’t act, who will? Certainly not those poor folks. The politics of sacrifice discourages militants from taking responsibility for their desire to rebel, as if rebelling for one’s own sake, or for one’s own reasons, were merely a gratuitous pleasure. It is forbidden to acknowledge that smashing cop cars is fun. The erotic dimensions of rebellion, the euphoria that comes from breaking this world apart, must be conjured away. To avoid the bludgeon of shame, a scapegoat will be needed; to this end, the pitiful racial other offers a perfect alibi. In this way, flattened categories of whiteness and blackness are enlisted as aids in the disavowal of anarchic desire. When whiteness is constructed as all-powerful and non-whiteness as helpless, the basis is created for a politics that is only for, rather than with others. Anarchic desire must be kept on a leash, corralled by a duty to serve the good of the racial Other exclusively. Non-white radicals are not immune to this racist logic, which survives even when we break off into our own milieus, in sad spirals of competitive fragility. In one way or another, the black and brown person — but especially the black person — can never be seen on her own terms. The relation of savior/saved that is perpetuated by the politics of sacrifice demands that for every nigger an overseer must be found. The perceived need for the overseer manifests itself even in non-white separatist circles, where it appears either as a desire for “BIPOC leadership,” or else in the suggestion that one is taking orders from a fictitious racialized proletariat that is always conveniently somewhere else.

What unites all radical milieus today is their structural need for people of color to be unfree, or at the very least, to feign unfreedom. Wherever radical milieus bind themselves to people of color through the duty of self-sacrifice, the racist burial of non-white militancy becomes an essential cohering force. This danger can be partially averted through the autonomous self-organization of racialized people, which can negate this, since, by saving ourselves, we render attempts to “save us” wrongheaded. However, as can be observed in today’s radical BIPOC circles, this becomes pointless if the aim is not to become stronger. The dull commiseration afforded by these spaces is no substitute for attack. The politics of sacrifice would have us believe that black and brown revolution is not something we make with each other, among friends, but the pursuit of an abstract and reductive idea of the good to which we must submit our lives, to the point of death. It is hard to avoid the impression that the Black Liberation Army was swayed by a similar spirit, despite how inspiring its efforts to spread anarchy often were. Its failure to build a popular guerilla front against the United States was at least in part due to its tendency to separate the task of struggle from the task of living, a problem intertwined with its insular vanguardism. The challenge of today’s struggle for black and brown autonomy is therefore twofold: on the one hand, to stay militant, without detaching ourselves from the question of how to live; on the other, to combat the gluttonous appetite of whiteness for non-white inferiority — in other words, its dependency complex. It is through the attachment to living that we remain pliable like a young tree, capable of feeling the free lives that we are fighting for, instead of just deferring this gift to those who come after us.

If black counter-insurgency continues to capture us, this is because we have failed to make worlds that seduce. Why do people of color become merely activists, rather than insurgents? Confusion plays its part, to be sure. But it may more so be that we have failed to find each other, to link up and partake in an open conspiracy against the racial nightmare. Too much emphasis has been placed on the banal contemplation of past victories and defeats, at the expense of the pulsating reality that lies before us. Militants of color speak endlessly of the sixties; but how do we elaborate black liberation in the present age, now that the subject of our revolts is really no one at all? How long can one lean on the rapidly deteriorating New Afrikan hypothesis, or huff the fumes emitted by bored academics spinning poetics out of the fossilized intensities of dead guerillas?

The politics of sacrifice must be broken. In the end, there is no one left to serve, and no one worthy of service. To break with it requires that we unchain all that is living in blackness, indigeneity, and all other evasions of whiteness. This affirmation is threatened by those profiting off the lucrative spectacle of our demolished culture. Watch BIPOC content online, talk about how proud you are of your skin, while ignoring that this civilization has eaten your traditions alive. Become educated, stay informed, and sit like a good negro until white people fix everything; they have the power now, just wait your turn until you get yours. Representation is a putrid balm — anyone who permits themselves even the slightest sense of touch can feel that our madness, a black madness, cannot be projected onto any screen. What those screens want us to believe is clear: there is nothing living to affirm in not being white. In those rare moments with other people of color where my spirit moves, attaching to something older than me, I have felt the opposite. These experiences have emboldened me. The aggressive campaigns of the spectacle to re-present the lives of the racialized in total submission, the millions of dollars spent on BIPOC non-profits and pointless activism, testify to the dangerous potential that exists in the genuine refusal of whiteness.

A fanged, boundless blackness

Whiteness wins if we let it. Its victory means the spread of a colonial shame that blocks our ability to enjoy unmaking this world. The voices of our ancestors become more muted and we, children of “savages and cannibals”, resign ourselves to becoming radlib gurus of our own suffering. For racialized people, the politics of safety and the politics of sacrifice are merely tools of white supremacy. Stop saying that niggas cannot riot for their own sake, that they are either confused or misled by whites. We owe our dead more than submission. Let us have the courage to say this: if decolonization still has any meaning, it is found in the uncompromising, violent upheaval of this world. The mediocre poetry and papers of BIPOC academics are not decolonial violence, liberal workshops about resiliency or black trauma are not decolonial violence. The strange, criminal gestures that send the cops scattering and the cybernetics of the metropolis into a panic are decolonial violence. How we live in tandem with this sedition, caring and loving one another, is intimately bound up in that violence. This ferocity is a fruit I wish to eat while I’m alive. To speak of whiteness without understanding what is required to destroy it is to let the leviathan speak through you. Years ago, Fanon saw the writing on the walls: we either become more white (that “we” is the most royal I can deploy, as it includes white people), pulled by the assimilating gravity of the present regime, or we revel in our corruption by blackness. We can understand this process as traced through an elaboration of black insurgency, which is always more perverse than its white counterpart, since the end-times are always already bound up within it.

Despite it all, we still glimpse ways to escape the racial order and authority. Why not turn to our fugitivity, an irreducibly black mode of sociality which affirms blackness as a force that escapes control? Fugitivity is being with and for one another as we are on the run, dashing towards the Outside of the law, whiteness, and order. Its perversity is absolute, a porous conspiracy that is promiscuous with its blackness, refusing to check one at the door. Fugitivity says: when our play entails the destruction of the enemy world, then the more the merrier. Perhaps it can help us escape our addiction to defeat, and the chokehold it exerts over people of color and whites alike. Cutting through the despair spread by the politics of sacrifice, a fugitive blackness beckons us toward the exit door of the present. To have done with shame, with the idea that the practice of ending this world should be sad work, demands that we embrace a militancy that is joyful. We must not give in to our new overseers, even if they speak the tongue of the old radicals and have brown or black skin. Through affirming the life that escapes whiteness, we discover our strengths, an act which is loathed by that which governs. We embrace the excesses of our own rebellion, how we dance, hold on to each other, and don’t take any shit. We revel in our obscenity, our lucidity, the living memory of when the miserable settlers hadn’t yet enclosed the world. To live in the black is to evade the traps of politics, of representation, of diversity and inclusion. It is to improvise ties between fragments of marronage. We want everything. Nothing less.

March 2024

Words and History Mean Things: A Response to “Addicted to Losing”

bbnews.noblogs.org/post/2024/05/02/words-and-history-mean-things-a-response-to-addicted-to-losing/

Most of what comes out in the text “Addicted to Losing” is not new. Black anarchists and anti-authoritarians have been critiquing black non-profits, Black academics, Black activists and black authoritarians for years before the 2020 uprising. Black anarchists who have been active PRIOR to 2020 have been deeply aware of these critiques, mainly based on their experiences. We are unsure how connected the author is to Black anti-authoritarians but, best believe Black anarchists been having these conversations. There has been so much talk over the past four years about Black counter insurgency. It is important to recognize that Black revolutionaries have been theorizing about these formations long before it became popular or deemed important to do in the anarchist scene. We think it’s also important to recognize that most Black anarchists have been too busy doing anarchy to write articles on the cracker anarchist-baiting websites. We’ve included two critiques of the Black Counter-Insurgency written by Black revolutionaries prior to 2020. We don’t agree with everything in the texts; however, we think it is important to acknowledge that there is a history of Black radicals making our own critiques separate from the white, ill will editions and crimethinc milieus who continue to trail us politically.

https://archive.iww.org/content/4th-precinct-black-anarchist%E2%80%99s-perspective-struggle-minneapolis%E2%80%99-northside-streets/

https://libcom.org/article/why-black-lives-matter-cincinnati-changing-its-name

While there are actually parts of “Addicted to Losing” that we agree with, we struggle with a variety of parts within it as anarchists. We imagine the author(s) would consider us and our comrades as the people who hold “ressentiment” because we are critical of “efforts of radicals to increase their power of acting.” But what exactly does this mean?

For us, as anarchists, we have a certain set of political values that we operate from. That doesn’t mean we are “addicted to losing”, it means we have standards when it comes to our ethics. For instance, many Black male revolutionaries within the 60s and 70s engaged in misogynistic behavior towards Black women while simultaneously facing serious political repression. But because these men were engaged in revolutionary activity and faced repression, misogynistic violence was often covered up or excused. Assata Shakur talks about this in her autobiography and how detrimental the culture of protecting abuse was to the struggle. Were Black revolutionaries who critiqued misogynistic violence “addicted to losing” or “violating security culture” or “engaging in horizontal repression?” As Kuwasi Balagoon said, those unwilling to critique racism, authoritarianism and misogyny when it rears it’s head are ROBOTS.

The argument on the necessity of revolutionary strength and castigating those who are critical as “nihilists enemies” or “resentful” is essentially the same as those who ignored the gender based violence back in the 60s/70s. This is a serious backpedal from the 60s and 70s in terms of gender politics in particular. But this can be applied to anything that is viewed as a revolutionary “strategy.” It is politically convenient to call anyone who is critical of a tactic, strategy or behavior as “ressentiment.” We think it is strange that the text focuses upon “ressentiment politics” as “police attempts at freedom that lie outside of their preferred grammar of conflict.” It is extremely valid and necessary for political formations/groups to reflect and critique themselves and others. We were again confused on how buying property, which the text mentions is a very standard and correct thing to do in racial capitalist society, is somehow an attempt at freedom not a continuation and investment in white, western, and bourgeois lifestylism. Perhaps in the text, there is an underlying right wing association of property with freedom (unsurprisingly considering the appelist flirtation with right wing politics). However, we desire property to be destroyed.

“Efforts of radicals to increase their power of acting, whether through acquiring spaces like houses and social centers, money for bail funds and projects, or even forming larger strategies about how to defeat the police in the streets are treated as a violation of an implicit set of values that venerates the experience of being trapped.”

This part of the text is so convenient as it speaks of radicals as if we do not exist within a racial and gendered society. “Increasing our power to act” is not something that happens outside of racial, class and gender confines. As the author suggests, these contradictions have to be moved through and addressed rather than derided as “ressentiment”. But again, it’s easier to defame your critics as do nothing nihilists who are “addicted to losing” while you gentrify Black neighborhoods to build your isolated “community.”

The whole text becomes even more strange and contradictory when the author references widespread rape culture and segregation of revolutionary formations. The question is why the author chooses to acknowledge these problems while contributing to them by writing what essentially reads as an upset screed conflating anarchists who critique with the black counter-insurgency. This is why it is hard to take the text seriously especially since it’s been published on ill will (a well known appelist project). To read a deeper critique of the appelist tendency and why they love property (whitey loves property), go check out Against the Party of Insurrection.

https://www.anarchistfederation.net/against-the-party-of-insurrection-a-look-at-appelism-in-the-u-s/

And finally, maybe the authors should consider that Black anarchists and revolutionaries are having strategic conversations and building projects that they have just not been invited to participate in? As participants at Bash Back 2023 discussed the problem is not just resentment of whites but, also tokenization and Black radicals safety in that tokenization.

“One of our comrades back home who didn’t attend remarked that he felt anarchist convergences are often disappointing because very often the Black people who attend them don’t really fuck with Black people. Anarchism, unfortunately, can exist as a subculture for Black people who are uncomfortable being around other Black folks, which opens up the space for tokenism.” – From Black Anarchist Reflections from Bash Back and Beyond

Unfortunately, the politics of “Addicted to Losing” seem to lose the plot when it comes to actually moving through Black liberation alongside Black people. Generally, there are parts of this text that read like someone airing out their personal problems and we think it maybe speaks to the author(s) lack of presence within the “autonomous organization of racialized people” that they speak of. As an aside, white people are racialized too but, we understand they meant organizations of racially oppressed people. But again, a lot of the problems described in this text just seem like the result of spending too much time in a white milieu. And by white, we mean politically white as well as phenotypically.

For instance, “the militant embodies a knight-like position with respect to the crowd: rather positioning themselves within it, they act like a kind distant protector, ever anxious to ensure that the membrane between savior and saved is never breached.”

This sounds like a personal problem. No Black militants we know be doing this shit, it sounds uninteresting and boring. It gives the vibe of white militants being scared to do something because they don’t want to deal with social repercussions of their racism.

“Either they make themselves so small as to avoid influencing anyone, or they assume a paternalistic vanguard posture that tries to safely, but separately, guide the little lambs.”

Like who are you spending your time around? This sounds like a horrible time and lacks centering people’s autonomy.

Finally, “for instance, why do people of color so often find themselves exempted from the practices of folk justice applied to everyone else in radical milieus, prompting jokes about people of color being “uncancellable?”

We’ve seen multiple examples to contrary to this. It just sounds like the author spends a lot of time in mostly white milieus so, they don’t ever see folks handle business cause we don’t know any “uncancellable” Black or Brown folks. We suppose that’s a reality that some white liberals and their tokens live in. We’ll definitely will put hands on someone regardless of what they look like. But we suppose if you exist in a scene, like the appelist scene, with mostly tokenized Black and Brown individuals, who are comfortable and happy in that tokenization, this “cancellableness” probably only occurs with Black or Brown people who are critical and deemed useless. Luckily for those of us who organize, live, and fight alongside Black people, we don’t deal with those sorta problems. If you don’t like whites….you can just not spend time around them.

The author also clearly has little command or knowledge of Black liberation history. Unsurprisingly, this is quite common if you are a member of a mostly white milieu as the engagement with Black revolutionary history among the appelists is largely surface level and for show. Their reference to a “rapidly deteriorating New Afrikan hypothesis” is quite strange when the Five Southern States remain where the largest concentration of New Afrikans live not to mention that Black people are returning to the South in record numbers (https://www.brookings.edu/articles/a-new-great-migration-is-bringing-black-americans-back-to-the-south/).While New Afrikan thesis is still hotly debated in Black anarchist circles, we would invite the author to study a bit more instead of repeating tired ass lines about Black liberation that they learned from whites.

Their engagement with the Black Liberation Army is also dull and uninspired. Understanding the Black Liberation Army as a formation that “failed to build a popular guerilla movement” rather than a formation that was forced underground due to mounting repression is an important historical consideration. While as anarchists we share critiques of authoritarianism, it is strange considering when the most recent text from ill will (“states of siege”) advocated for a specialized formation-a vanguard-and against the power of spontaneity. Rather than appelist understanding the importance of interplay between mass movements and guerrilla formations, they are simply pushing for anarchist to abandon a belief in mass struggle. We highly encourage the author to study some documents from the Black Liberation Army as well as reading Akinyele Umoja’s text Repression Breeds Resistance.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232940302_Repression_breeds_resistance_The_black_liberation_army_and_the_radical_legacy_of_the_black_panther_party

Little in “Addicted to Losing” is new. Resentment of whites is not a stand in for real Black liberation based politics but, tokenism within and for white milieus isn’t revolutionary either. Or at least not revolutionary in a way that is interesting to us. The variety of essays on the Bash Back website after the Black anarchist convergence that happened in Chicago in 2023 addressed many of the questions internal to Black revolutionary spaces that the author discussed. Though without the apologism for the white gentrifier clique in Atlanta. We hope the author(s) finds some Black revolutionaries to build alongside.

 

poet of da soil – nu year nu me(?)

Posted on 30/01/2025 - 30/01/2025 by muntjac

https://poetofdasoil.substack.com/p/nu-year-nu-me?

for as long as eye can remember i’ve had dreams of my own funeral

of tha tears ppl wept for me – idk what it meant 2 wish for your own death so regularly

but eye do remember leading bible study groups at 16

and being bothered by cults who wanted control over what their yutes were hearing

and eye do remember church events where i’m called 2 tha front and prophecies come out that i’m going 2 be a leader (they want me 2 inherit my grandpas church sooo bad)

faith/spirituality/(G)god have been apart of my life 4 Eva. eye breathe theological musings like eye breathe oxygen. i’ve seen faith carry my family through the most absurd and ridiculous challenges and tha most mundane of moments.

my relationship with tha Divine has always been one of hatred, disgust, desire and hope(?) yeah it’s complicated


 

bap bap bap

 

eye am riddled with contradictions and they make it hard 2 walk

and eye have tried 2 alleviate it

be it thru tha loud or scriptures

thru quetiapine or my headphones

nostalgia and grief are twins

so eye whisper “never again” thinking back 2 tha times i’ve harmed loved ones

eye whisper apologies 2 an inner child that neva got 2 fly

nostalgia and grief are twins who eye cherish dearly

but right now im tryna figure out a politik of despair

because hope makes me nauseous and feels like a fool’s gambit

tryna figure out how 2 transform these immobilising feelings about life on dis dunya

into action

how 2 move in tha now – relying on how my ancestors moved tomorrow

they say we borrow tha earth from our children eye ask why all our proverbs leave us with debt(?)

is that all we will ever be(?) black bodies swimming with a loan shark called history

maybe death, like pain is not out 2 harm us

maybe, like pain it simply wants acknowledgement and recognition

what does it mean 2 acknowledge eye am dead and dying each day

maybe that in itself is life that lasts forever


 

 

anyways i’m thinking back 2 prophecies and bible passages

and how we give everything 2 god without appreciating it is our hands that bring forth creation and destruction

eye am here cold, and in love with so much while feeling pregnant with rage.

thinking about everything eye am

all my flaws and glories,

tha kindness and passion my ppl say they see in me

and tha ways in which eye am quick 2 anger and destructively impulsive

everything eye am is mine 2 have, 2 hold and 2 be

eye am not owned by dis dunya and its ways of rendering blackness as death

not redeemed by tha blood of another

not under tha lordship of some higher power

everything eye am is mine 2 have, hold and be

and there’s power in realising that

so yeah eye commune w yeshua, chat 2 him about his ppl and how much they hate waywardness

sometimes he grimaces and shrugs when eye cuss him out

sometimes he smiles

and eye pour one out 4 my ancestors when eye can

they greet me with necklaces made from flowers and fire

in tha night they come as shadows 2 remind me everything is alive and must be fought for

that everything that is dis world must die 4 tha earth 2 be

and when i’m praying salat im not praying 2 a god in tha sky or outside of myself

im praying 2 a god that can only be known as praxis

as mau mau

as breaking thru hmp walls and freeing em all

as tha burning of money

and communion with tha land

im praying 2 a god that is wholly within me and moves through me, a god wholly within you, and tha air we breathe, tha trees and tha rocks

a god who looks a lot like self-determination + self-sovereignty

a lot like truth and justice

a lot like negation and nihilism and death and freedom and whatever these words mean

so that submission, that bowing of my head in prayer is not 2 some higher being

but 2 place myself in a space, in communion with something eye cannot adequately name, that eye know in some form

that eye experience as divinity, as islam, as ori mi, as crucifixion and resurrection and lust and ugliness and whatever there is, and whatever there isn’t

whenever eye war against babylon be it in my spirit, body or tha world we live in

eye am scared no one will war with me

but eye guess

that’s where faith comes in.

Alvette E Jeffers – Barbudans Will Write Their Own History

Posted on 26/01/2025 by muntjac

Taken from; https://medium.com/clash-voices-for-a-caribbean-federation-from-below/barbudans-will-write-their-own-history-2cd5557f000b

Our ancestors were conquered people. We, the descendants of those who were conquered, enslaved, dehumanized and exploited, celebrate our ancestors’ struggles to regain control over their lives. We continue to learn from them the important lesson that laws which justify the conquest and control of economic resources and the domination and organization of people and labor for the benefit of Empire, foreign capital or State, are not immutable.

We Honor Our Ancestors by Confronting All Hierarchy and Domination

We best honor our ancestors by confronting and eliminating all hierarchical structures that reinforce forms of socioeconomic domination that hinder us from creating the condition that allows for our total mastery over our spaces and existence.

Our ancestors were up against a formidable enemy. It has been estimated that by 1913, according to Wikipedia, the British empire had sway over 458 million people, 25% of the world’s population. And by 1925, it covered 13,700 000 square miles.

Wherever they went, the British colonizers compelled the colonized to submit to their authority at the point of a bayonet. Violence, death and forced displacement were the results of conquest. Despite its formidability, there was always resistance to British colonial rule, for it constructed a socioeconomic system which delayed and undermined the social and economic development of the colonized people while, manufacturing at the same time, the white myth of African inferiority. Colonialism represented a real threat to the development of Africans everywhere. Urged by a compelling desire to end their continuing debasement, Africans had to resist because it was in the process of revolutionary struggle that human beings discover both their capabilities and limitations.

Every 9th December, Antigua celebrates heroes’ day. Antigua’s heroes get noticed because they refused to accept the social limitations that British colonialism imposed on the African Antiguan working class and estate workers. Those leaders we now venerate were up against a legal system that codified oppression and repression. All this was occurring when Africans in Antigua and Barbuda were being denied political representation.

Do Our Heroes’ Day Celebrations Downplay Working Class Struggle?

It seems to me, though, that in our celebration of the past, we totally ignore or downplay working class struggles against colonial rule that preceded the arrival of VC Bird et al, in 1939. It is my humble opinion that these struggles are not made significant on Heroes’ day because they were led by ordinary working-class leaders whose emergence undermined the idea that everyday people are incapable of self-mobilization.

An important historical uprising which took place in 1918 is of great significance for us. It had the capacity to undo the colonial system, and it was more incendiary than any single event that took place in the 30s and 40s. Those who are interested in the story of this insurrection are advised to read Professor Glenn Richards ‘Race, Class and Moral Economy In The 1918 Antigua Labour Riots.’

These insurgents were sugarcane workers who initiated a general strike to control how sugarcane was weighed. They brought their protest to the streets where they faced the armed might of the colonial state. Two persons were killed by the armed forces of the state. One was John Furlong. The other was James Brown. Fifteen were wounded, and twenty-two were indicted for participating in the 1918 insurrection, according to Professor Richards. They challenged the plantocracy and colonial state. They caused the ruling classes to shudder, to the point where colonial rulers sought military help outside of Antigua to prop up their rule.

Insurrections That Cause Aspiring Rulers to Shudder

The attempted slave rebellion in 1736, the insurrection of 1918, and the labor struggles between 1939 and 1950s, are all significant moments because they influenced political developments in Antigua and Barbuda. Though not the most important conclusion, what we can draw from those past struggles is that they all contested the authority of the political and economic classes who wrapped around themselves a fragile, legal shield to ward of any complaint about the illegality of their domination over land and people.

I do not know any African existing today who, in looking back at the past, would assert that laws the slave masters and colonizers made to legalize the ownership of captured black bodies and land were laws that the enslaved, dispossessed and displaced had to honor. I certainly would be flabbergasted if I were told that was the case.

Why? Not even the European countries that competed with each for possessions in the Caribbean accepted each other’s claim to land as a fait accompli. After the battles, treaties were signed and then, occasionally, honored in the breach.

Those who have been uprooted, dispossessed, displaced, exploited, degraded, and disregarded are placed in a position where the only alternative they are offered to end the process of their dehumanization is to attempt to end the conditions that deny them their humanity. Their liberation is the sole justification for their struggle.

Rulers Never Sanction Liberating Actions Aimed at Their Demise

Ruling classes never sanction liberatory actions that are aimed at their own demise. Every obsolete, ruling class tries to hold on to power until the moment that it is left with no other alternative but to give up and adjust to the new order or perish. Any student of the French, American, Haitian, Russian, Cuban and Grenadian revolutions would quickly recognize this fact. In opposition to a ruling class and in the process of struggle, the revolution establishes its own rules as it overturns all hitherto existing political and economic relations while building its own. The revolution justifies itself. The 1804 Haitian revolution ended French rule in Haiti, and it established itself as the only successful slave uprising in history. Africans all overlook admiringly at what the Haitians achieved in 1804 in much the same way Antiguans look back at their own efforts to end colonial legal, political, and economic arrangements that impeded their forward movement.

I write all that to bring me to Barbuda, some may say in a very circuitous way. Barbudans say that the land on which they were enslaved and have continued to live from the 17th century up to the present moment belongs to them. That is more than three hundred years in the same place. A respected Antiguan who occasionally advertises his opposition to all things colonial has written that Barbuda’s claim to the land is invalid because their enslavers and colonizers whom he claims to despise, did not pass title to them. His position converges with those of the Antiguan and Barbuda Labour Party (A&BLP). Others have pointed out that the Barbudans lost command over their lives the moment Barbuda was linked to Antigua in 1860. They say, metaphorically, that this one hundred and sixty years old, long, iron chain with each of its rusty links stained with the dried blood of our ancestors eternally binds Barbuda to Antigua, even if Barbudans’ lives remain an ignoble one.

Britain and the island’s white administration made a decision about the future of two people on two separate islands and never asked them what they thought about the decision. At that time, blacks were unable to vote, and trade unions were illegal. Those who oppose Barbuda’s land claim and their efforts to be self-determined have summoned the ghost of the colonizers to their side. Their pronouncements on Barbuda express and endorse colonial notions and practices of property rights; the same rights and practices that Antigua sugar workers contested and lost their lives or were imprisoned for doing so.

Celebrating Anti-Colonialism but Repressing Self-Directed Barbudans

Yet they celebrate Antigua’s anticolonial struggles while overlooking or devaluing Barbudans’ efforts to redirect their lives, which cannot succeed if they are not free to organize their resources to support and manage their own development. They also support black self- determination and self-reliance in Africa but encourage foreign control in Barbuda.

When in the 19th century, an Overseer observed that Barbudans “acknowledged no Master and believe the island belongs to them,” it was a confirmation that Barbudans had a vision of living that was in opposition to the life the colonialist had designed for them in 1860. It is a life of self-determining, which the Overseer, like Gaston Brown today, would have been hostile to. (See Justin Simon, in Observer Newspaper, September 01, 2020)

This is the starting point of all great revolutions. It is where the Haitian and American revolutions began. The rejection of “masters” puts on the agenda, the overthrow of the old order. Scholars who have written to defend the authenticity of the 1736 planned rebellion against Antigua’s slave masters to make themselves “masters” of the land, do not admit to a similar value in Barbudans’ expression to be “masters” of their land.

They equivocate about it or fight it, either out of prejudice or deference to the wishes of the government that they represent and willingly serve. Barbudans will, nevertheless, write their own history, and the Antiguan working class and everyday people will help them when they too fulfill the dreams of their ancestors by becoming the true masters of their own land.

[First published in the online journal of the National Workers Union of Trinidad, September 15, 2020]

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"Anarchists know that a long period of education must precede any great fundamental change in society, hence they do not believe in vote-begging, nor political campaigns, but rather in the development of self-thinking individuals."

Lucy Parsons - The Principles Of Anarchism, 1905

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