They are being left to die, and what’s worse is that the right is laughing about it. Blood won’t be on our hands. It will be on theirs.

Crimethinc

On October 6, the Trump administration announced it was pulling US troops out of northern Syria, essentially giving Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan a green light to invade Rojava, carry out ethnic cleansing, and forcibly resettle the area. We are calling for people around the world to engage in protest and/or disruption at Turkish consulates, US government offices, arms manufacturers, and businesses connected with the Turkish government, such as Turkish Airlines.

Since 2012, the autonomous region of Rojava has hosted an inspiring multi-ethnic experiment in self-determination and women’s autonomy, all while fighting the Islamic State (ISIS). After years of struggle, despite sustaining massive casualties, fighters from Rojava participated in liberating all of the territory that ISIS had occupied and freeing those who had been held captive in ISIS strongholds.

In an attempt to justify permitting Turkey to invade Syria, Trump has tweeted that US taxpayers should not have to pay to keep ISIS fighters detained. In fact, the US has not paid a cent to detain captured ISIS fighters; that has been completely organized by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The reality is that the Turkish invasion of Kurdish territory will create the conditions for ISIS to reemerge and resume operations in Syria and around the world. For years, Turkey has permitted weapons, recruits, and resources to reach ISIS through its borders.

Both ISIS and the Turkish invasion pose an existential threat to all the ethnic and religious groups indigenous to the region, including Arabs, Christians (Armenians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Syriacs), Turkmens, Chechens, Alevites, and Yazidis. Many of these groups have gained a voice in their own lives for the first time, yet now face massacre at the hands of the Turkish military and the jihadists.

Turkey’s invasion of Rojava sets a new precedent for military aggression, ethnic cleansing, and the destruction of egalitarian and feminist experiments like the one in Rojava. It sets the stage for more bloodshed and oppression everywhere around the world, paving the way for ethno-nationalist autocrats like Trump, Erdoğan, Bashar al-Assad, Jair Bolsonaro, and Vladimir Putin to dominate world politics for generations to come.

For months, people in Rojava have called for international solidarity in the event of an invasion. We must bring attention to the plight of the people in Rojava and make it known that there will be consequences for this.

To keep silent is to be complicit.

We call on all people of good conscience to engage in protest and disruption at Turkish consulates, US government offices, arms manufacturers, and businesses connected with the Turkish government, such as Turkish Airlines. The Rojava Solidarity Committee Europe has joined organizers in Rojava in calling for a day of action on October 12 against the Turkish invasion; we endorse this call, and call for further actions before and after October 12.

We need to build a context for broad-based direct action as a step towards building a global movement that can make such atrocities impossible. Together, we can stop the invasion.

See you in the streets.

Tools

• Some upcoming actions
• List of complicit corporations

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Endorsements

If your organization endorses this call, please circulate this text and contact us at [email protected] to sign on. This list will be updated regularly at crimethinc.com and itsgoingdown.org.

• Coordination for the Defense of Rojava
• Acid Communist League of Atlanta
• Agency (www.anarchistagency.com/)
• Anon Anarchist Action
• Antifascists of the Seven Hills
• Antifascistas Belo Horizonte – Brazil
• Atlanta Antifascists
• The Autonomous University of Political Education
• The Base
• Bay Area Mesopotamia Solidarity Committee
• Black Rose Anarchist Federation – Los Angeles Local
• Breakaway Social Center
• Cooperation Jackson
• CrimethInc. Workers’ Collective
• The Dandelion Network
• Demand Utopia Seattle
• Democratic Socialists of America – Communist Caucus
• Ricardo Dominguez, Associate Professor, UCSD
• Extinction Rebellion Seattle
• The Fayer Collective
• The Final Straw
• Frontline Organization Working to End Racism (FLOWER)
• Flyover Social Center
• David Graeber
• Hispagatos
• The Holler Network
• Industrial Workers of the World – Atlanta
• Inhabit
• Kali Akuno
• Kasa Invisível Belo Horizonte – Brazil
• It’s Going Down
• Pacific NorthWest Antifascist Workers Collective
• Pacific Northwest Youth Liberation Front (@PNWYLF)
• Dr. Ian Alan Paul, Assistant Professor of Emerging Media at Stony Brook University
• People’s Defense League – South Louisiana
• PM Press (www.pmpress.org/)
• rek2 (as individual)
• Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement- Elm City
• Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement – NYC
• Revolutionary Organizing Against Racism (ROAR Collective)
• The Right to the City — Timisoara, Romania
• Rojava Montréal
• Rojava Solidarity Colorado (@RojavaSoliCO)
• Rojava Solidarity Portland (facebook.com/rojavasolidarityportland/)
• Rojava Solidarity Seattle
• Scuffletown Anti-Repression Committee
• Seattle Rising Tide
• Soflaexit (Soflaexit.com)
• Tar Sands Blockade
• The Teardown Community
• Voices in Movement
• A World Without Police
• One People’s Project

Upcoming Solidarity Events

Wednesday, October 9

• New York City, NY, 2 pm—details
• Boston, MA, 1 pm—details
• Vancouver, BC, Canada, 12:30 pm—details
• Washington, DC, 5:30 pm—details

Thursday, October 10

• Montréal, Canada, 6 pm—details

Saturday, October 12

• Norfolk, VA, 12 pm—details
• Washington, DC, 1 pm—details
• New York, NY, 2 pm—details
• Rochester, NY, 6 pm—details

Sunday, October 13

• Los Angeles, CA, 12 pm—details
• Seattle, WA, 3 pm—details

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Timeline of Solidarity Actions Since Trump’s Announcement

Monday, October 7

• Toronto, ON, Canada: Solidarity protest outside the US consulate.
• Anarchist solidarity banners in Appalachia.

From the #BlueRidge in the so-called US, our hearts go out to those living and fighting in the cantons of Rojava

Love and Solidarity in the fight against the fascist State of Turkey!

Berwexdan Jiyan! Resistance is Life!

🔥🖤🔥#WomenDefendRojava #riseup4rojava #DeathToErdogan pic.twitter.com/wdwdMIB0iS

— Ayyyy its Z! (@zerofuckingcool) October 8, 2019

Tuesday, October 8

• Solidarity banners dropped in Lincoln, Nebraska. Report and photos here.
• Ottawa, ON: Protest outside US embassy.
• Washington, DC: Rally outside the White House by Kurdish groups and antifascists.

DEFEND ROJAVA.

Today US antifascists and activists joined Kurdish-Americans to rally at the @WhiteHouse in support of Rojava.

Many who rallied are from Rojava.

The people of Northeast Syria will oppose Turkey. But they are not alone.#DefendRojava #TurkeyIsNotOurFriend pic.twitter.com/HGpuzIBpwI

— Lacy MacAuley (@lacymacauley) October 8, 2019