Love and Rage: April 7, 2018

This event will consist of a panel discussion including cofounder of the US Green Party Howie Hawkins, Rochester community organizer and Kurdistan solidarity activist Cresczenzo Scipione, IWW Organizer and Adjunct Professor of History Brendan Dunn, a  veteran of the YPJ militia who volunteered to fight in the revolution, and a Kurdish refugee.

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By Utica IWW

On Wednesday, April 11, 2018 a panel discussion will be held at Mohawk Valley Community College about the Rojava Revolution in Kurdistan and the battle against ISIS. The event will take place from 7:00pm – 8:30pm at MVCC in Utica, NY in the Information Technology Building (IT) in the Excellus Room 225 (it is not in ACC). The event is free and open to the public and is a part of the college’s cultural series.

In the midst of the tragedy of the Syrian civil war, the violent rise of ISIS and the authoritarian rule of the Turkish state arose a major social revolution in a place called Rojava. It is located in Kurdistan, an area populated by the Kurds who for years have been denied a nation to call their own and have been occupied by the Ottomans, British, Americans, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. The Rojava Revolution started in 2011 in a number of Kurdish towns which carved out their own autonomous cantons where they have created a social revolution rooted in concepts of feminism, mutual aid, cooperation and participatory democracy.

It is here where women have taken the lead in the fight against ISIS and have successfully beat them back. It is here where the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, has carved out an alternative to the systems envisioned by Islamic fundamentalists, authoritarian states and the Capitalist West. It is a system that many would call anarchist in nature and in practice.

This event will consist of a panel discussion including cofounder of the US Green Party Howie Hawkins, Rochester community organizer and Kurdistan solidarity activist Cresczenzo Scipione, IWW Organizer and Adjunct Professor of History Brendan Dunn, a  veteran of the YPJ militia who volunteered to fight in the revolution, and a Kurdish refugee.