Rojava benefit concert plays to capacity crowd at St Stephens

On the evening of the 23ed of February, several punk bands with Anti-Flag headlining played a Rojava(Kurdish) benefit show at St Stephens. The show was entirely sold out. At several times, anti-Fascist and pro-YPG/YPJ chants alternated with the music. A film from the war front against Daesh and Turkey was shown, and several speakers were invited to the stage as well as the bands.

The consensus in the room was that the international Left in general, and anarchists and anti-fascists in particular must defend the decentralized locally organized Kurdish communities in Rojava against both ISIS(almost defeated) and Turkish aggression. This is the one place in the world anarchist theories about local, mutual-aid based community organization have been put into practice in a state-sized area. Both the Turkish government and their ex-Nusra front (al Qaeda) allies in the so-called Free Syrian Army seek to stomp it out, and there is also a threat from Assads' regime in Syria. No doubt Trump will also shares the desires of his friend Erdogen to destroy the community model of Rojava, as it is a repudiation of almost everything Trump and and his friend Erdogen(who is much like VP Michael Pence) stand for. Thus, the moment ISIS appears to be all the way gone, Trump intends to throw the Kurdish people under the bus while continuing to provide military aid to Turkey.

An old Kurdish saying as that Kurdish people have "no friends but the mountains" so it is up to the rest of the world to prove this wrong!