ACTIVISTS SPEAK OUT– Abdullah Öcalan is still jailed because he is the Key to peace. He is uniquely trusted for his practical revolutionary ideas and for leading 2 long ceasefires with the endless Turkish repression.-

from thefreeonline https://wp.me/pIJl9-EpX on 12 October 2023 By Gemma Parera at El Salto via Rebelion.Org Translation. thefreeonline/ Tgram: t.me/thefreeonline

Abdullah Öcalan is the political leader of the Kurdistan liberation movement and the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party), and launched the proposal of Democratic Confederalism that inspired the 2012 revolution in Rojava (western Kurdistan located in Syria) and the political model that has since been built with the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.

For many international activists, the ideas of Abdullah Öcalan and the Kurdistan liberation movement are a source of inspiration.

“It is the most alive revolutionary movement in the world at the moment, the most confrontational and the one with the most real power of change,” says Maddi.

Maddi came into contact with the Kurdistan liberation movement ten years ago in what she defines as “a change of political cycle” in Euskal Herria.

“It was not only the end of the armed struggle, but also the dismantling of an entire political movement that was articulated in society,” explains this young activist who, in search of new horizons, participated in a brigade that went from Euskal Herria to Rojava. Ana and Sílvia also share the experience of having been in Rojava where they went to learn about the role of women in the resistance against the Islamic State and the political paradigm and social model that made it possible.

Ona, who was also able to see it first hand, highlights how she was marked by learning about a “democracy that is not representative, but based on people taking responsibility for resolving their own basic needs and in which it is understood that without the liberation of women we cannot liberate the whole of society.”

For them, learning about this thought and this practice has meant a new way of understanding militancy as “a life choice, with more initiative and its own strength,” says Maddi.

“If you are looking for a path of determination in the struggle, without giving up, the Kurdish movement is an example,” adds Sílvia.