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On 2/24/18 11:32 PM, Chris Slee wrote:
Louis Proyect asks for a reference for my statement that: "Turkish-backed groups, some of which use the label 'FSA', have attacked Rojava on numerous occasions." "Turkish-backed groups" include ISIS, which has obviously attacked Rojava. But Louis is probably asking about FSA groups. Several examples are given in the book "Revolution in Rojava", by Michael Knapp, Anja Flack and Ercan Ayboga (Pluto Press, 2016). Their most detailed account of conflict between the YPG and a section of the Free Syrian Army relates to events in Aleppo. While Aleppo is not part of Rojava, the Kurdish areas of Aleppo followed similar policies to those in Rojava. The attacks on the predominantly Kurdish Aleppo neighborhoods of Sex Maqsud (Sheikh Maqsoud) and Asrafiye by some Turkish-backed FSA groups reflect their hostility towards the Rojava revolution. "Revolution in Rojava" outlines the conflict as follows: "Both belligerents - the regime on one hand, and the FSA and other armed opposition groups on the other - pressured the YPG to take sides. "The FSA, flush with money from the Arab-Sunni Gulf states, began systematically buying up property in the Kurdish neighborhoods....FSA members took to carrying their weapons around outdoors - but the councils [local councils established in the Kurdish neighborhoods] took notice and demanded that they cease doing so.
I am not going to bother finding instances of Kurdish bad behavior toward Arabs since that is a zero-sum game.
At this point, the real question is what Rojava has to do with the tasks Marx outlined in the Communist Manifesto. You apparently have become seduced by Murray Bookchin's ideology that has as much connection to proletarian revolution as Proudhon's.
Read the section "Socialist and Communist Literature" in the Communist Manifesto and remind yourself what Marx thought of Critical-Utopian Socialism and Communism.
Years ago I wrote a commentary on utopian socialism that dealt with Bookchin and his rivals at ZNet and elsewhere. I doubt if it will have much impact on someone as intoxicated with Bookchin's muddled ideas as you but others might find it worth reading:
http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/economics/neo_utopian.htm _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
