(The following report is from the August 2019 International Bulletin of the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party Turkey/Kurdistan. It explains some of the political and ideological measures taken by the MLKP and the Kurdish Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) to educate Communist male fighters on issues associated with the women’s revolution in Kurdish Syria. Photo shows YPJ women greeting male comrades.)
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) took a decision on its last conference to organize the administration of the whole military forces in North and East Syria through “military assemblies”. Following this decision, which aimed to implement a democratic manner and practice even in the military field, the military assemblies have been founded with several commanderships from cantons, provinces, brigades, regiments and YPJ, as well as with several expertise bureaus.
After shifting to the regiment system, which has merged the forces of YPG and SDF, several committees have been organized for the recruitments. These committees have done a kind of a mass work, going door to door to inform locals about the new military system. As the peoples of North and East Syria adopted this system, the numbers of new recruitments started to increase. One of these regiments, which is composed of 4 brigades and a headquarter, is being organized by the MLKP forces in Serekaniye/Rojava and is named after comrade Alişer Deniz. Alişer Deniz is the nom de guerre of Hüseyin Akçiçek, an MLKP commander whose contributions to the defence and construction of the Rojava revolution remain unforgettable. After finishing his revolutionary duty in Rojava, he passed to the mountains of Northern Kurdistan as the commander of MLKP Rural Guerrilla Units, and on August 2017, he marched to immortality in the struggle against the colonialist Turkish army.
Most of the fighters of the Alişer Deniz Regiment are Arabic youth, who have been taking not only a military but also an ideological-political training. Along with basic courses on socialism and revolutionary struggle, the fighters of the Alişer Deniz Regiment are being educated in “Rojava Revolution”, “The History of the Middle East”, “Kurdish National Revolution”, “Participation of Arab People to the Revolution”, “The United Character of the Revolution”, as well as “Women Revolution”, “Women Liberation Struggle”, “Masculinity”, “Fighting against Masculinity in the War Field” etc. In order to manage the intellectual and practical development of the fighters on the women’s liberation issue, the Alişer Deniz commandership urge each fighter to give a personal report every two months. The questions of the first report the fighters were being asked for have been the following: “How do you define the concept of women’s revolution?” “What would you say about your perspective towards your mother, sister and wife within the family and society?” “What do you think about issues like bride exchange, child marriage, polygamy, bride wealth?”
Here are some outlines from an interview made with 3 Arab fighters of the Alişer Deniz Regiment: Mazlum, Ebu Leyla and Dijvar. All these three Arab fighters have similar answers for the reasons they joined the MLKP Regiment: “Communists are fighting for freedom and equality. They are defending the fraternity of peoples.” What about their opinions on the women’s revolution of Rojava?
Mazlum responds: “The revolution has changed my opinions towards women. Now, also I do believe in the equality. However, we need more time to put this view in practice.” Mazlum is married and has 3 children. When he was asked about how he would feel if his wife becomes a fighter like him, he states: “My wife used to work in various institutions of the revolution. But now we have children. What would our children do if she joins to the regiment as a fighter? But if the revolution would organize a common place for the childcare, then why not?”
How do you as young Arabic fighters feel to be in a revolution led by the Kurdish people.”? Ebu Leyla responds: “It was the Kurdish people who rose up first and became the vanguard of the revolution. The Assad regime was always telling us that the Kurds will oppress us. But afterwards we realized that this was wrong because the YPG was fighting for us. My family had suffered the oppression of both ISIS and the Assad regime as well. However, we took no side with the Assad regime, nor the ISIS. We stood by the revolution.”
Also, Dijvar did point out that Rojava revolution is owned by the peoples of Northern Syria: “YPG has fought for all peoples” he says and adds: “Even though ISIS has lost its dominance in the field, it is still a danger for us because its influence on some parts do still exists.”
Last words come from Mazlum, with a criticism: “We have to fight more against poverty. We cannot continue with the same poverty as we had during the years of the Assad regime. We must find a solution for this.”
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