“Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, the ‘Nelson Mandela’ of the Kurds- and political solution to the War.”

“Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, the ‘Nelson Mandela’ of the Kurds- and political solution to the War.”

from thefreeonline on 10th Feb 2024 by Sh-S at Hawar News /ANHA) and Barış Demir at WSWS

Abdullah Öcalan, founder of the PKK [Photo by Halil Uysal – Archive of the International Initiative «Freedom for Abdullah Ocalan – Peace in Kurdistan / CC BY-SA 3.0]

On October 10 of last year, 2023, a global campaign was launched in 74 centers around the world under the slogan “Freedom for Abdullah Ocalan, the political solution to the Kurdish issue.”

In this context, a series of events began in northern Kurdistan and Turkey to support this campaign.

Under the same campaign slogan, a number of activists in Turkish prisons in Turkey and northern Kurdistan began a hunger strike last November 27.

Still jailed Öcalan is the key to peace. His ideas are methods, not dogma and he led 2 peaceful Ceasefires

In the cities of Wan, Amed, Merdin, Mersin, Adana, Istanbul and Izmir, justice sit-ins continue under the slogan “We will break isolation for justice, and we will be the voice of prisons for peace,” which were organized by the families of the hunger strikers.

The political prisoners are carrying out a rotational hunger strike, calling for the liberation of Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and a resolution to the Kurdish predicament.

The hunger strike will end next February 15, according to the strikers. February 15 signifies the day Öcalan was brought to Turkey from Kenya, where he sought refuge after months on the run in 1999.

Öcalan has written a series of works which have directly molded and extended the Kurdish fight against severe repression. He is credited with moving the PKK from Stalinism to a unique horizontally powered communal system called Democratic Confederalism, ending calls for a new state and crucially empowering women at all levels.

Ocalan is lauded as the «Nelson Mandela» of the Kurds, and despite being imprisoned now for 25 years has huge moral support and led the PKK in two long ceasefires and a ‘Kurdish Spring’.

Finally Turkey cracked down on the Kurdish ceasefire, bombing Kurdish cities in Turkey and launching three invasions into Syria, colonizing and ‘ethnic cleansing‘ the Kurdish population of Rojava into internal refugee camps.

The ongoing campaign, mirrored in countries like Germany and France, aims to draw attention to the Kurdish issue, emphasizing the pursuit of a comprehensive solution. (TY/VK)

Rojava is a Beacon of Hope. And so is Abdullah Öcalan

Reyhan Gök presented a report prepared by the Coordination for Monitoring and Follow-up of Hunger Strikes and listed the demands of the hunger strikers as:

‘1) An end to human rights violations in prisons in Turkey; 2) Fixing of the aggravated conditions of execution; 3) An end to the long isolation of Abdullah Öcalan in İmralı High Security Closed Prison, family and lawyer visits; and 4) A democratic solution to the Kurdish question.’

Gaza: Lost child found full of Israeli bullets/ 1 million Palestinians wait to die as Israel/US begin massacre on Rafah border.

Israel hasn’t responded to accusations by the Palestine Red Crescent Society that its forces purposely destroyed the ambulance it sent to rescue Hind Rajab, aged six.

Israeli forces ‘deliberately targeted’ medics sent to rescue little girl

Body of missing Palestinian girl Hind Rajab found in destroyed car

Hind Rajab, one of over 10,000 kids murdered by Israel so far, was a six year old Palestinian girl whose story went viral when she desperately appealed for help on a phone when injured with her dead or dying family after coming under Israeli fire, she was finally found dead after the Israelis pulled back after 12 days, along with two brave medics in an ambulance sent to find her.

watch the video HERE..https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/2/10/israels-war-on-gaza-live-death-toll-nears-28000-as-rafah-assault-looms

The Palestine Red Crescent Society published a video showing the total wreckage of the ambulance that was sent to rescue her.

The girl spent hours on the phone with dispatchers begging for help, with the sound of shooting echoing around.

“The occupation deliberately targeted the Red Crescent crew despite prior coordination to allow the ambulance to arrive at the site to rescue Hind,” the Red Crescent said in a statement.

After deciding it was safe to approach the area, dispatchers sent an ambulance with two crew, Youssef Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoon.Contact was soon lost with both the ambulance team and Hind 12 days ago. The bodies of the young girl and five other relatives were located in their bullet-ridden car hours ago.

Israel’s war on Gaza live: Gaza death toll passes 28,000

EDITORS NOTE: Graphic content / Palestinians mourn after identifying the bodies of relatives killed in overnight Israeli bombardment on the southern Gaza Strip, at Al-Najjar hospital in Rafah, on February 10, 2024. (Photo by SAID KHATIB / AFP)

By Linah Alsaafin Published On 10 Feb 202410 Feb 2024 Gaza’s health ministry says 117 Palestinians have been killed and 152 wound during the past 24 hours. As Israel intensifies its attacks on Rafah, people are now escaping to the central part of the Gaza Strip about 20km (eight miles) away.

INTERACTIVE_HOSPITALS_FUEL_GAZA_NOV7_2023

Israeli forces continue their siege of Nasser Hospital

Al Jazeera correspondent has reported that Israeli occupation forces continue their siege of the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis for the 20th day and have reached its northern gate.

The occupation forces have been besieging us for 20 days and we are suffering from a shortage of food and drink,” Nahidh Abu Tamiyya, the head of the surgical department, told Al Jazeera.

According to Wafa news agency, medical sources reported that two Palestinians have been killed by an Israeli sniper – one in front of the reception gate, and the other in the emergency department.

The same sources added that medical teams could not move between the complex’s buildings due to the snipers, and stressed that the lives of 300 health personnel, 450 patients and wounded, and 10,000 displaced people inside the complex were threatened….

NOTE.. 2nd half of this post disappeared due to an internet cut !

included details of start of great Rafah massacre and Israeli/US plot to drive survivors of over 1 million fleeing refugees across the border into Egypt

“Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, the ‘Nelson Mandela’ of the Kurds- and political solution to the War.”

from thefreeonline on 9th Feb 2024 by Sh-S at Hawar News /ANHA) and Barış Demir at WSWS

On October 10 of last year, 2023, a global campaign was launched in 74 centers around the world under the slogan “Freedom for Abdullah Ocalan, the political solution to the Kurdish issue.”

In this context, a series of events began in northern Kurdistan and Turkey to support this campaign.

Under the same campaign slogan, a number of activists in Turkish prisons in Turkey and northern Kurdistan began a hunger strike last November 27.

Still jailed Öcalan is the key to peace. His ideas are methods, not dogma and he led 2 peaceful Ceasefires

The hunger strike will end next February 15, according to the strikers. February 15 signifies the day Öcalan was brought to Turkey from Kenya, where he sought refuge after months on the run in 1999.

Ocalan is lauded as the “Nelson Mandela” of the Kurds, and despite being imprisoned now for 25 years has huge moral support and led the PKK in two long ceasefires and a ‘Kurdish Spring’.

The ongoing campaign, mirrored in countries like Germany and France, aims to draw attention to the Kurdish issue, emphasizing the pursuit of a comprehensive solution. (TY/VK)

Rojava is a Beacon of Hope. And so is Abdullah Öcalan

The working class strikes – and wins!

From thefreeonline on Feb 9th 24 by Class War

Last week, Ian Bone asked me if I could get him a poster printed of a 1985 Class War front cover, The Working Class Strikes Back. He wanted to put it up in his room at his Nursing Home alongside his anarchist flag.

These Bridgeman wankers had only gone and pilfered the image and were charging for its usage.

The working class strikes – and wins!

Fair enough, I thought. The image has always been one of CW’s favourites, taken during the Handsworth Riots of the same year and numerous copies over the decades have been printed out to strike fear in the hearts of quivering posh twats and annoy the fuck out of them.

During the search for a suitable copy of the image to print, one of our eagle eyed Class Warriors came across a rich bastard Bayswater based company called Bridgeman Images – “Oi Jane, you fucking seen this?!”.

These Bridgeman wankers had only gone and pilfered the image and were charging for its usage – £140, no less for the larger image. Fucking cheek – not even a printed poster for that amount, just the right to use the image.

“Oh blimey,” we thought, “just a little bit rude that innit and one thing we don’t like is yer Tarquins and Lucindas taking the mick”.

So we had words with them, and a firm and politely written email was sent with the underlying tone of “don’t mess with us, you posh wankers”.

It was pointed out that CW, being anarchist, has never been bothered with copyright as we always wanted our images to be freely available to the working class – “you know, the ones who clean your galleries and sweep your streets” the Bayswater rich scum were reminded – but that we did find it just a tiny bit impolite to take it without asking and charge for its usage, and also we would imagine the last thing they really wanted in their privileged lives was the working class actually fighting back.

Anyway, a few more digs at their wealthy arrogance and the email was sent.

For the rest of the day, comrades niggled away on Bridgeman’s FB and Twitter pages.

Then, by tea time, they could’ve knocked us down with a feather. The creative luvvies had only gone and taken the poster off their website.

Yesssss! It worked! We won! A small victory in the grand scheme of things, but still that smug sense of self satisfaction that when the working class strikes back, we can still fucking do it!

Please use the image freely just to remind posh twats we ain’t to be messed with. Innit.

~ Jane
London CW

Vetoing Justice in Gaza: The Collapse of the UN Security Council

Posted by Internationalist 360° on February 8, 2024

Mohamad Hasan Sweidan

The rise in civilian deaths and global conflict shatters all illusions that the UN has any ability to maintain the peace. A US veto at the UNSC to protect genocide in Gaza is the very last straw.

Article 1 of the founding charter of the UN boldly proclaims the organization’s primary aim:

To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace.

Despite this noble aspiration, the UN has systematically, fiduciarily, and overwhelmingly failed to prevent war and uphold peace. From 1946 – a year after the UN was established – to 2022, the world witnessed 285 distinct armed conflicts, alongside numerous smaller-scale skirmishes.

The current genocide in Gaza launched in October 2023 is the latest grim reminder of the UN’s failure to fulfill its foundational mission, transforming it from a beacon of hope for peace into a mere provider of aid to mitigate the fallout of its shortcomings.

Since its inception, dozens of expensive UN agencies have sprung into existence because of the international organization’s inability to thwart conflict. These include the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), dedicated solely to the care of Palestinian refugees in West Asia, many of whom still live in tents from a conflict the UN has not resolved in 77 years.

And matters are worsening, globally. According to data from Uppsala University in Sweden, armed conflicts of all varieties – be they interstate wars, externally-fueled civil wars, or clashes between various groups and states – have been on the rise since the establishment of the United Nations. In fact, “more state-based conflict battle-related deaths took place in 2022 than any year since 1994.”

Global conflict imbalance

Troublingly, this trend shows no sign of abating, particularly in Africa and Asia – especially West Asia. It is notable that the only areas with a decline in conflict incidence are Europe and the Americas. Unsurprisingly, the populations of these continents, who bear the brunt of armed conflicts, harbor doubts about the efficacy of the UN and its Security Council.

These are statistics that validate the main grievance of the Global South: that in the post-WW2 period, the west has focused on reducing tensions in its own sphere while playing a prominent role in fueling conflicts in other parts of the world. And it explains the outraged European reaction to the west’s proxy war with Russia in Ukraine, which brought war back to Europe’s shores.

A closer examination reveals a shift in the nature of conflicts, with “direct wars” constituting only a fraction of the total. In 2022, direct wars accounted for 17 percent of all conflicts, marking a significant increase from the previous year’s 9 percent. This change underscores the proliferation of proxy wars, externally-supported internal conflicts, and clashes between non-state actors and sovereign states.

The year 2022 saw a disturbing 142 percent increase in battle-related deaths compared to the previous year, with over 204,000 lives lost.

The human cost of these conflicts are harrowing. Since 1946, countless lives have been lost and communities shattered, under the watch of a UN unable – or unwilling – to curtail the bloodshed. The statistics are sobering, with millions of fatalities attributed to conflicts that have slipped through the UN’s grasp.

How the US protects Israel at the Security Council

In theory, the UN Security Council is entrusted with maintaining global peace and security, yet finds itself shackled by the recurring exercise of the veto power, particularly when it comes to matters concerning Israel.

As a permanent member state, the US has wielded its veto authority with unabashed frequency to shield the occupation state from accountability over its numerous atrocities against the Palestinian people and its repeated acts of aggression against its West Asian neighbors.