Political prisoners

Reorienting the PKK: Rojava and the Political Thought of Abdullah Öcalan

 

OCT 12  by LSE Middle East Centre

Free

In its 1978 manifesto, the PKK declared the establishment of an independent state to be the most important political goal of any national liberation movement. Twenty years on, the party’s leader Abdullah Öcalan changed this when he developed an ideological framework based on the idea of self-governing, stateless societies as the best way of addressing socioeconomic and sociocultural injustices. In this talk, Joost Jongerden explains this paradigm shift, which reoriented the PKK as well as other Kurdish movements in the Middle East.

Joost Jongerden is Assistant Professor at the Rural Sociology Group and the Center for Space, Place and Society at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. He is also a Professor at the Asian Platform for Global Sustainability & Transcultural Studies at Kyoto University in Japan.

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War crimes

KURDS TO DEMONSTRATE AT THE DSEI ARMS FAIR

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

London, 14th September 2015

Kurds are being massacred by the Turkish State and the world is watching…

The ‘International Partner’ of the Arms Fair is the Turkish government’s Defence and Aerospace Industry Exporter’s Association.

Right now London is hosting one of the biggest arms fairs in the world, with tanks, guns, drones and missiles being showcased at the DSEI Arms Fair in the EXCEL Centre. Since Monday, protesters have been successfully blocking the vehicles that are transporting the weapons, and even gate-crashing the set-up inside the EXCEL building.

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Conflict resolution

Memed Aksoy speaks at Assata Shakur event in London

Kurdish activist Memed Aksoy was recently invited by the Tri-Continental Anti-Imperialist Platform to speak on the Rojava revolution and the historic resistance of the Kurdish people in Kobane. The inspiring event was dedicated to the life and works of Assata Shakur and featured contributions from Black Panther activists and spoken word artists. You can watch Memed’s presentation at the event below, and videos of the whole event can be viewed here.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-vq-_H0D58]

Kurdish community

Thousands celebrate Newroz in London

Despite the freezing weather, thousands of members of the Kurdish community came out to celebrate Newroz, Kurdish New Year, in Finsbury Park last Sunday.

‘Free Ocalan and Status for the Kurds’ was the slogan for the day, it was chanted by the crowds and a huge banner at the front of the stage proclaimed the same message.

Jeremy Corbyn MP, Simon Hughes MP, MP for Tottenham David Lammy, and Member of the European Parliament Jean Lambert, as well as Father Joe Ryan of the Westminster Peace and Justice Commission, and representatives of the Basque, Baloch and Tamil community, all took to the stage to express their solidarity with the Kurdish struggle for peace and justice.

Photos courtesy of Fikri Isikli

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