THE REAL CRIME IS THE MASS CRIMINALIZATION OF COMMUNITIES OF COLOR

For Jails and Cops friday at Scission, let's try something different.  Let's try a video that you should see, use, and spread around.  This is a video produced by the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI).  This video is only four minutes long but it clearly defines mass incarceration, mass criminalization, and the racist immigration detention and deportation agenda in this country.   As Stop Detaining Immigrants writes:

In a day and age where divide and conquer is the norm, and the folks aim to pit citizens against non-citizens, African Americans against migrants, and those with a criminal record against those without, it’s our duty to stand in unity against those who ultimately aim to keep our communities under-resourced and oppressed.

We know that we truly are stronger together, so please help us share the video and build beyond #TheRealCrime!

BAJI defines itself as:

...an education and advocacy group comprised of African Americans and black immigrants from Africa, Latin American and the Caribbean. It was founded in April 2006 in response to the massive outpouring of opposition of immigrants and their supporters to the repressive immigration bills then under consideration by the U.S. Congress.

Black activists in the Oakland/San Francisco Bay Area were called to action by Rev. Kelvin Sauls,a South African immigrant and Rev. Phillip Lawson, a long time Civil Rights leader and co-founder/co-chair of the California Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights.

BAJI also grew out of the efforts of the Priority Africa Network. PAN organizes Africa Diaspora Dialogues which have brought African Americans and black immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America together to dialogue about the myths and stereotypes as well as the cultural, social and political issues that divide our communities.

BAJI provides the African American community with a progressive analysis and framework on immigration that links the interests of African Americans with those of immigrants of color. BAJI’s analysis emphasizes the impact of racism and economic globalization on African American and immigrant communities as a basis for forging alliances across these communities.

Our VisionRacial, social, and economic justice for all.

Principles of  Unity

• All people, regardless of immigration status, country of origin, race, color, creed, gender, sexual orientation or HIV status deserve human rights as well as social and economic justice.

• Historically and currently, U.S. immigration policy has been infused with racism, enforcing unequal and punitive standards for immigrants of color.

• Immigration to the United States is driven by an unjust international economic system that deprives people of the ability to earn a living and raise their families in their home countries. Through international trade, lending, aid and investment policies, the United States government and corporations are the main promoters and beneficiaries of this unjust economic system.

• African Americans, with our history of being economically exploited, marginalized and discriminated against, have much in common with people of color who migrate to the United States, documented and undocumented.

Values Statement: BAJI values the kinship of our humanity by embracing gender equality, diversity of generations, immigration status and experience.

Again, spend a few minutes, check out the video, and then pass it along.

The following is from BAJI.

THE REAL CRIME: MASS CRIMINALIZATION OF OUR COMMUNITIES

	Subscribe to Download Our New Paper “Understanding Mass Incarceration & Migrant Detention”
#TheRealCrime Everyday, people of color in the United States are being criminalized for their economic condition, their race, their migrant status, gender and so much more. There is a pandemic of mass criminalization that is ravaging our neighborhoods and our society. Structural racism and oppression would have us believe that we are inherently flawed, that we are criminals. However, the real crime is demonizing, criminalizing and imprisoning millions of young men and women, relegating them to the margins of society as disenfranchised, unemployable pariahs. African Americans and other communities of color, including immigrants are being profiled, surveilled, locked up and locked out of society.  Watch the video to learn more about how this is happening and what we can do to stop the real crime in our communities. WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU –  1) Will you join us in sharing what you think #therealcrime is on social media? 2) What are your solutions to #therealcrime?

CANADA'S SHAME: MISSING AND MURDERED INDIGENOUS WOMEN

People attend a vigil for Tina Fontaine and Faron Hall in Winnipeg, Manitoba

The murders and disappearances have gone on since 1980.  One thousand, two hundred murdered or missing.  Must be a huge uproar.  Well, not so much.  

The 1,200 missing or murdered people are aboriginal women and girls in Canada, and when relatives, friends and others go to Ottawa for help, they get not much of anything.

As Warren Kinsella writes at First Perspective, 

Now, we don't even have to say out loud that if the 1,200 murdered or missing were, say, debutantes or Rotarians or hockey players, nobody would be looking for something else to read in today's paper. If it had been a bunch of white girls who had been killed or disappeared, there would be no collective societal shrug taking place.

Holy God Almighty, there'd be a hue and a cry like none this nation had ever seen. You'd have mild-mannered suburbanites storming Parliament Hill with pitchforks and torches if we were talking about 20 Midget "A" teams, or the entire population of Tilt Cove, Newfoundland, or Greenwood, B.C.

But it's aboriginal women. And so nobody's enraged and nobody's storming Parliament Hill.

Some of you may say, well, people get killed and go missing all the time.  Uh huh, well not like this.  As Indigenous Nationhood points out:

Indigenous women suffer a victimization rate three times higher than the Canadian population and are grossly over-represented in the number of women that go murdered and missing. While homicides have declined for Canadian women, the same cannot be said for Indigenous women. Indigenous women make up 4% of the population in Canada but 11% of the missing women and 16% of the murdered women. While these numbers are high, the levels in the western provinces and northern territories are frightening. The number of murdered Indigenous women in Manitoba is 49% and in Saskatchewan its 55%.

Well, surely you say, the RCMP, the other police authorities, the courts are doing all they can.  Uh huh, well, not so much.  Again from Indigenous Nationhood:

 The most disturbing of all reports is the 2013 report entitled Those Who Take Us Away: Abusive Policing and Failures in Protection of Indigenous Women and Girls in Northern British Colombia prepared by Human Rights Watch. This report concluded that Indigenous women and girls are not only “under-protected” by the RCMP but are in fact the objects of RCMP abuse. They highlighted the many allegations of RCMP officers sexually exploiting and abusing young Indigenous girls.. There are reports of confinement, rape, and sexual assault on Indigenous girls and some have led to law suits. They also reported on a class action law suit against the RCMP by its own female officers for sexual harassment and gender discrimination...

...While the government and RCMP have, at times, tried to blame the victims for their own circumstances, it seems very clear that a large part of the problem is government and RCMP’s racist and sexist attitudes towards Indigenous women and girls. In addition to Canada’s discriminatory laws and policies against Indigenous peoples generally, and women specifically, the Human Rights Watch group even reports on an example of the judiciary being involved in the abuse against these girls. David Ramsay, a provincial court judge, was accused of sexually assaulting and violently abusing girls between 12 and 17 and eventually plead guilty. How are Indigenous women and girls supposed to get justice if the Justice system participates in the abuse and rape of these women?

 One of the biggest impediments to moving forward is the continued failure of the federal government to have the RCMP investigated to determine the full extent to which racism against Indigenous people and sexism against women in general hamper their work. Harper’s own discriminatory attitude towards Indigenous peoples is a significant barrier to moving forward. Even the most recent United Nations report from the Rapporteur commented on how poor the relationship is between Canada and Indigenous peoples and has become worse since the last visit to Canada in 2003. The United Nations is not alone in its observation of deteriorating government relations – the Bertelsmann Foundation is the latest to note that Canada’s record on governance has declined under Harper, especially when it comes to Indigenous peoples. The UN further stated that Canada’s negative public comments about Indigenous peoples risks social peace. 

There are indigenous people, even some others, who do care and they are fighting for recognition, fighting to ensure something is done, fighting for the missing and dead.  For example, I take you to Manitoba where  the death of a 15-year-old girl, Tina Fontaine, has prompted dozens of people to camp in the shadow of the Manitoba Legislature for days, calling for an inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women.  The camp was set up two weeks ago  following the discovery of Tina’s body wrapped in a bag in the Red River. The number of tents has continued to grow, as has the resolve and optimism of many protesters who hope this tragedy can be a turning point.  Kylo Prince, speaking for many at the camp, says what is happening is merely a continuation of the genocide of Canada's native people. He says there s always hope.

“If I had no hope, I wouldn’t be standing here. I would be sitting in an alley, slamming some whisky with a needle in my arm and a crack pipe hanging out of my lips. But no, there is hope. We will conquer the darkness, but with light. We can’t fight it with anger or hatred.”

He thinks that maybe the fact that the Conservative federal government has reversed itself and now said it is will to participate in a roundtable discussion about the missing and the killed aboriginal women is one of those hopeful signs.

I don't know.

The government's overall response to Tina's death is nothing to write home about.  The government is thinking a national DNA database would be good  and maybe some sort of aboriginal justice initiatives (aimed at aboriginal offenders).  Sara Hunt is a member of the Kwagiulth band of the Kwakwaka’wakw First Nation. She is an independent writer, researcher and advocate who has worked for more than 15 years on Indigenous anti-violence and justice initiatives.  She has something to say about this and more:

 I would argue that these efforts serve to distract from root causes by focusing on indigenous people themselves as the problem.

This sentiment was reinforced when Winnipeg police Sgt. John O’Donovan stated that Tina didn’t realize “the danger she was putting herself in.” What danger is this? The danger of living in a society that condones violence against indigenous women, where killers face few deterrents, and where missing women are blamed for putting themselves “at risk.”
Surely tracking indigenous girls’ DNA so they can be identified after they die is not the starting point for justice. Indigenous women want to matter before we go missing. We want our lives to matter as much as our deaths; our stake in the present political struggle for indigenous resurgence is as vital as the future.

So do we need an inquiry?

We need to stop the killing of 15-year-old native girls. We need to put an end to the abduction of indigenous women. We need to overhaul a justice system in which justice is so distorted that it is no longer recognizable. We need no more excuses, no more condolences, no more lists of missing women. We need an end to treating violence as mundane.

An inquiry will only help if it has action attached and if it shifts power into the hands of indigenous women, meaning it is led by indigenous women. Such a process will only be meaningful if it has the scope and power to illuminate the multi-layered systemic failures which contribute to this relentless violence. Working across jurisdictional divisions and levels of governmental responsibility in the child welfare system, the justice system, the education system and the systems of transportation and housing, we need to find some semblance of accountability toward indigenous girls and women.

Accountability means supporting existing anti-violence measures already being initiated by indigenous communities. These include rite-of-passage ceremonies to restore honour for young women, the Moosehide Campaign in which native boys and men take on culturally-relevant responsibilities to end violence toward women, and mentoring between girls and women which fosters the resurgence of women’s cultural roles at a local level. Organizations such as the Native Youth Sexual Health Network must also be supported in their powerful educational work by and for native youth. Accountability means supporting indigenous visions of justice, restoring our humanity and upholding girls’ resistance and leadership.

Treating our deaths as unremarkable is a form of violence that needs to stop along with the murders themselves. Taking steps to end the violence now is the only route to justice.

I have been covering this story for years and it seems to just never change.  Well, here is just an example of one of the reasons why....from  Intercontinental Cry.


HARPER SOLICITS RESEARCH TO BLAME FIRST NATIONS FOR MURDERED, MISSING AND TRADED INDIGENOUS WOMEN

Canada’s shameful colonial history as it relates to Indigenous peoples and women specifically is not well known by the public at large. The most horrific of Canada’s abuses against Indigenous peoples are not taught in schools. Even public discussion around issues like genocide have been censored by successive federal governments, and most notably by Harper’s Conservatives. Recently, the new Canadian Museum for Human Rights refused to use the term “genocide” to describe Canada’s laws, policies and actions towards Indigenous peoples which led to millions of deaths. The reason?: because that term was not acceptable to the federal government and the museum is after all, a Crown corporation.

Aside from the fact that this museum will be used as a propaganda tool for Canada vis-à-vis the international community, Harper’s Conservatives are also paying for targeted research to back up their propaganda as it relates to murdered, missing and traded Indigenous women. This is not the first time that Harper has paid for counter information and propaganda material as it relates to Indigenous peoples, and it likely won’t be the last. However, this instance of soliciting targeted research to help the government blame Indigenous peoples for their own victimization and oppression is particularly reprehensible given the massive loss of life involved over time.

The issue of murdered and missing Indigenous women was made very public by the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) several years ago through their dedicated research, community engagement and advocacy efforts. Even the United Nations took notice and starting commenting on Canada’s obligation to address this serious issue. Yet, in typical Harper-Conservative style, once the issue became a hot topic in the media, they cut critical funding to NWAC’s Sisters in Spirit program which was the heart of their research and advocacy into murdered and missing Indigenous women.

To further complicate the matter, any attempts for a national inquiry into the issue has been thwarted by the federal government, despite support for such an inquiry by the provinces and territories. One need only look at the fiasco of the Pickton Inquiry in British Columbia to understand how little governments in Canada value the lives of Indigenous women, their families and communities. The inquiry was headed by Wally Oppal, the same man who previously denied the claims of Indigenous women who were forcibly sterilized against their knowledge and consent. The inquiry seemed more interested in insulating the RCMP from investigation and prosecution than it was about hearing the stories of Indigenous women.

Now, the Canadian public has to deal with a new chapter to this story – the sale of Indigenous women into the sex trades. The CBC recently reported that current research shows that Indigenous women, girls and babies in Canada were taken onto US ships to be sold into the sex trade. While this is not new information for Indigenous peoples, it is something that Canada has refused to recognize in the past. The research also shows that Indigenous women are brought onto these boats never to be seen from again.

The issue of murdered and missing Indigenous women has now expanded to murdered, missing and traded women. One might have expected a reaction from both the Canadian government and the Assembly of First Nations (AFN). Yet, the day after the story hit the news, the AFN was tweeting about local competitions and the federal government was essentially silent. I say essentially, because while all of this was taking place, the federal government put together a Request for Proposals on MERX (#275751) to solicit research to blame the families and communities of Indigenous women for being sold into the sex trade.

Instead of making a call for true academic research into the actual causes and conditions around Indigenous women, girls and babies being sold into the sex trade, the federal government solicited research to prove:

(1) the involvement of family members in their victimization;

(2) the level to which domestic violence is linked to the sale of Indigenous women into the sex trade; and

(3) even where they are investigating gang involvement, it is within the context of family involvement of the trade of Indigenous women.

The parameters of the research excludes looking into federal and/or provincial laws and policies towards Indigenous peoples; funding mechanisms which prejudice them and maintain them in the very poverty the research identifies; and negative societal attitudes formed due to government positions vis-à-vis Indigenous women like:

• rapes and abuse in residential schools;
• forced sterilizations;
• the theft of thousands of Indigenous children into foster care;
• the over-representation of Indigenous women in jails;
• and the many generations of Indigenous women losing their Indian status and membership and being kicked off reserves by federal law.

The research also leaves out a critical aspect of this research which is federal and provincial enforcement laws, policies and actions or lack thereof in regards to the reports of murdered, missing and traded Indigenous women, girls and babies. The epic failure of police to follow up on reports and do proper investigations related to these issues have led some experts to conclude that this could have prevented and addressed murdered, missing and traded Indigenous women. Of even greater concern are the allegations that have surfaced in the media in relation to RCMP members sexually assaulting Indigenous women and girls.

This MERX Request for Proposals is offensive and should be retracted and re-issued in a more academically-sound manner which looks to get at the full truth, versus a federally-approved pre-determined outcome.

It’s time Canada opened up the books, and shed light on the real atrocities in this country so that we can all move forward and address them.

Originally published at Indigenous Nationhood

FIGHT ISIS, ARM THE PKK NOW

PKK FIGHTERS

I have seen my share of evil in the world, but not much that I can think of approaches the evil known as ISIS or The Islamic State.  These people are more than fascists, more than nazis, more than extreme theocratic fundamentalist medieval bastards.  These people are psychotic.  What is the most amazing thing someways to me is their ability to attract vicious killers from all over the world to what they call a cause?

This is not cause.

This is brutality run amuck.

This is absolute power corrupting absolutely.

These guys make Hitler and Pol Pot look good.

These jackals make Rwanda look like a birthday party.

These pigs make George Bush look like just a good ole boy.

Before you come back and tell me how the USA is responsible for them, let me say, I get that. Washington’s brutal interventions wrecked Iraq and created the present crisis. However, that was then and this is now.  

As is so often the case at times like these the world stands by wringing its hands, mouthing off, dropping a bomb here or there, but doing nothing all that much.  Wasn't that the case with Hitler, Pol Pot, and George Armstrong Custer?  Didn't the world stand by during the genocide in Armenia and Rwanda?  Hasn't most everyone looked the other way for the last five hundred plus years while the indigenous population in North America was the victim of genocide, too?

What is the freaking deal?

So what to do?

Well, here is a thought.  How about arming the Kurds?  I mean really arming the Kurds.  They seem to be the one group of human beings willing, ready, and eager to confront ISIS face to face.  Hell, they're doing it.  It is clear that delivering weapons to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) would strike a blow at ISIS.  Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) Executive committee co-President Cemil Bayık  said recently that resisting ISIS and helping in cooperating against it was a humanitarian duty.  He is absolutely correct.  DIHA writes:

Bayık went on to add that if Germany was considering arming the Kurds it needs to consider the effectiveness of the PKK in stopping ISIS. 

'It was the PKK who most deserved armed support'

Bayık made it clear that while they were not against the arming of South Kurdistan by the USA, Germany and other European States that they were in a position to say it was the PKK who most deserved such support. To arm the PKK would be a blow to ISIS, Bayık said. It would also mean protecting Kurds, Christians, Turkmen and all other faith and cultural groups. “For this reason” he concluded “we see it as the responsibility of the USA and European States, above all Germany, to aid the PKK and are people who are resisting with weapons without delay.”

The PKK reportedly has currently  approximately 20,000 fighters in Syria with up to another 40,000 fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Turkey.  One of those fighters Kawar Singali, is quoted at Systemic Capital:

The Iraqi army collapsed and the Peshmerga failed. We are the only force who has repeatedly defeated jihadist. They fear us, and although no one is helping us, we are getting bigger and more experienced.

Fighting to date without heavy weaponry, forced to buy their arms on the black market, the PKK have utilized guerrilla tactics to show some serious capabilities in defeating ISIS. 

The PKK Syrian units, for example, got through Islamic States lines to assist tens of thousands of Yazidis escape from Mount Sinjar where the Christian based groups escaped as the IS (Islamic State) overran their homes in Mosul. The Yazidis were threatened with extermination by the IS, which regards them as “devil worshippers”.  Although many thousands perished and thousands of women were kidnapped, an escape corridor was established through which 200,000 refugees were evacuated to Rojava. Since then they have worked to train Yazhidi youth, male and female, to fight with them.  Other Kurdish forces from the Federal Kurdistan Region have also been fighting ISIS with some success.  However, as McClatchy News reported three weeks ago those forces were stalled until the arrival of the PKK forces:

Visits to frontline positions...made it clear that an influx of fighters with links to the Kurdish Workers Party, known by its Kurdish initials PKK, had played a major role in driving the Islamic State from key areas within a 30-minute drive of Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government. It was Erbil’s possible fall last week that ended weeks of Obama administration inaction on Iraq.

“The PKK took Makhmour” a peshmerga fighter at a checkpoint outside Makhmour acknowledged, shaking his head in admiration. Then, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State, he offered an explanation: “They’re very experienced from fighting Daash in Syria and are true guerrilla fighters from their time in Turkey. They have more experience and training than we do.”

KRG president Massoud Barzani came to Maxmur on August 13 to publicly acknowledge the contribution of the PKK fighters.


The USA and other Western States considers the PKK a terror organization and therefore will not “officially work with them.”  So what the hell, work with them unofficially if you want.  I don't care much about your motive at the moment just help the PKK do what the world should be doing.

CDN writes in this vein:

Iraqi terror expert Nasser Kataw said: “There has been a re-drawing of battlefield alliances as people who were once enemies have joined together to try and defeat the scourge that is the Islamic State.”

Well, they should anyway...can't say that I agree that they have. 

Turkey which has long waged a campaign of repression aimed at the PKK and the Kurds in general has negotiated with the PKK recently, though lately their have been setbacks.  However as Links Journal explains:

In July 2013, for the first time in modern Kurdish history, tentative steps were taken to convene a Kurdish National Congress. An organizing committee made up of representatives from all four parts of historic Kurdistan met in Erbil and projected a three-day planning conference for late August with 500-600 delegates. But the project foundered on the political differences between the major forces.

In July this year PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, held in a Turkish prison since 1999, called for the urgent convocation of a national congress in view of the threat posed by the IS, particularly in Rojava.

And in August, in an atmosphere dominated by the terrible events unfolding in Shengal, 400 Kurdish NGOs in Turkey also issued a call for a Kurdish National Congress that would be able to effectively organize the Kurdish people to deal with the tremendous challenges they face.

Writes the Daily News in Turkey:

 Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş has said Turkey should consider sending arms to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in its fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

“The PKK is fighting [against ISIL]. Turkey should consider what to do if the PKK asks for arms. Why not [send arms] when we consider the current peace process? It might sound strange, but why not send arms to the PKK if peace comes and the PKK stops using arms against Turkey and fights against ISIL?” said Demirtaş. 

He also touched on the progress of the peace process, saying President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would "continue to monitor it."

“Erdoğan wants to have control over the issue. I think he sees himself as being responsible for the issue. So far, there is no time frame written on the table regarding the issue, but they say they want to work with haste,” said Demirtaş.

The HDP co-head said several laws will be enacted by Parliament in October or November concerning the peace process, adding that government officials made clear they do not want to delay their work, including on reforms regarding freedom of speech. He said the government could work on plans for the return of PKK militants to Turkey, rather than an amnesty, in the coming months. 

Demirtaş also said his party would support an independent Kurdish state in Iraq if it was announced. “We also want Turkey to be the first state to recognize such a state,” he added.

In a region where almost everyone oppresses women the Kurds and the KPP are different and that difference is telling.    In the YPG-YPJ (People’s Defense Units-Women’s Defense Units — the military arm of Rojava, the Kurdish liberated area in northern Syria) women make up around 30% of its forces. A similar situation exists with the PKK. Recently a leader of the organization said in an interview that a third of their fighters are women.

A recent report carried by the Firat News Agency, “YPJ fighters demolishing taboos," makes clear the appeal of the liberation armed forces for women in a very patriarchal society.

Women have played a key role in the defense of Kobanê [Ayn Al-Arab] after the revolution, and have created a revolutionary transformation in social attitudes. YPJ (Women's Protection Units) fighters in the forefront of the defense of Kobanê are inflicting heavy blows on ISIS gangs and also demolishing taboos based on male domination …

Destan explained that before she joined the ranks of the YPG two years ago: “my life was between four walls. I had no social or economic life” …

Destan replied to our question as to what had changed after she had joined the YPG-YPJ, saying: “I never used to believe a woman could be the equal of a man before. For instance, in our family the man was always deemed the dominant one and I always considered that normal and legitimate. Here there is a genuine understanding of equality and freedom. I understood in the ranks of the YPJ that male domination was not a normal part of life but was, on the contrary, against the natural order. This created a great feeling of freedom in me.” …

A woman fighter named Roza, who joined the ranks of the YPJ six months ago, sums up the last two months of women's resistance thus: “The most important gain of this conflict has been, in my opinion, the breaking of feudal value judgments in Kobanê. In the last month women have been fighting on the frontline. It may be said that women have inflicted the most crushing blows on the ISIS gangs. Many women have died after putting up heroic resistance. It is now up to us to carry on the struggle in the path of all those who have fallen, first and foremost the women.”

Remarkable?  It shouldn't be, but it is. 

Links Journal concludes:

The Kurds have every right to acquire the weapons they need to defend themselves, even from the US. But the historical record makes it absolutely clear that Washington is no friend of the Kurdish people and any confusion on this score is only going to lead to a lot of grief.

Two key conditions for defeating the IS would seem to be: first, the creation of a genuinely democratic, non-sectarian Iraq which -- among other things -- would address the grievances of the Sunni population and undercut its support for the IS; second, NATO member Turkey must stop supporting the IS gangs and reach a genuine “internal peace” with its own Kurdish population.

Obviously the answer to the mess America and the West has created does not lie in the USA or in NATO...or with the governments of the Gulf States, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, etc.  It lies with the people of the region, with the multitude.

Saying that does not mean that it wouldn't be nice for Obama to quit wrinkling his brow, babbling about air strikes and boots on the ground, about coalitions, and Congress.  Dude, just approve sending arms to the PKK, privately, publicly, whatever, and who cares.  Just do it.  Maybe for one brief, strange moment in time, USA weaponry could be put in the hands of some good people, fighting a good fight, and for a good reason.

This seems unlikely for the reasons expressed below in the article  from CounterPunch.  Global Capital doesn't really want to see what Kevin Carson describes as the

..."democratic confederalism — also influenced by horizontalist struggles like Mexico’s EZLN — as an alternative to both Western corporate capitalism and the Soviet command economy...

Global Capital is not excited about this type of thing appearing in the region as an obvious alternative to itself or USA hegemony.  Oooooh, that sort of idea infesting the heads of the multitude is not at all what the Global Bosses have in mind, not at all.

Still, maybe, those Bosses will "goof up" in the face of their fear of ISIS and do the right thing for whatever reason.  After all, sometimes the world is a strange place and some times the best laid plans of the Global Rats can go astray....

Stay tuned...

Keep your fingers crossed...

Try and figure out what we might be able to do to make something good happen as a result of something awful. 

Obama Wants to Defeat ISIS–But Not That Badly

by KEVIN CARSON

The Obama administration recently announced a policy of limited intervention in Iraq, using drone strikes to stave off conquest of Kurdish autonomous areas by ISIS. The main US ally on the ground is Massoud Barzani’s Kurdistan Regional Government, and US support against ISIS is limited to Kurdish areas inside Iraq.

Barzani’s main competitor for the loyalty of the Kurdish people is Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), which is active in all four nations with substantial Kurdish minorities.

While leading the originally Marxist-Leninist PKK from inside a Turkish prison, Ocalan studied the work of anarchist Murray Bookchin and adopted a form of his “libertarian municipalist” philosophy (which he renamed “democratic confederalism”). Bookchin’s philosophy came to Ocalan’s attention as part of a larger wave of interest in libertarian socialist thought among Kurdish nationalists after the fall of the USSR. Ocalan saw democratic confederalism — also influenced by horizontalist struggles like Mexico’s EZLN — as an alternative to both Western corporate capitalism and the Soviet command economy.

Democratic confederalism became the basis for the Group of Communities in Kurdistan, a PKK attempt at territorial administration in Kurdish areas.  It adheres closely to Bookchin’s model of federated direct democracies on the model of the Paris Commune, the soviets that emerged in Russia after the February Revolution, and local anarchist bodies in the Spanish Revolution. The economy is governed by a mixture of worker self-management and participatory planning. Women figure prominently in its municipalities and militia units, and have fought valiantly — for understandable reasons — against ISIS.

PKK is still listed as a terrorist organization because of its violent insurrection against the Turkish government, although it has maintained a truce with Turkey for the past year and gained significant regional autonomy for Kurdish areas in eastern Turkey. Since the truce the PKK moved the bulk of its fighting forces into Iraqi Kurdistan this April.

Supporting the PKK would arguably be far more effective if Obama really wants to stop ISIS penetration of Iraqi Kurdistan, especially given the party’s peace with Turkey and de facto independence of Kurdish areas in northeastern Syria. The PKK and allied militia in Syria have been more successful militarily against ISIS forces than the Western-backed Free Syrian army. PKK defended the Yazidi areas of Iraqi Kurdistan and relocated endangered civilians, when Barzani’s Peshmerga forces melted away. PKK fighters from Turkey have prevented the fall of Kobane in Syrian Kurdistan, which sits across lines of communication between ISIS areas in Syria and Iraq. Ocalan and the PKK, unlike Barzani, have popular support throughout Kurdistan — not just the Iraqi part.

But that’s unlikely to happen. The one thing worse than an ISIS victory, from the American state’s perspective, would be the demonstration effect of an alternative to both corporate capitalism and state socialism, based on decentralism, direct democracy and self-management.

Kurdistan has much in common with postwar Korea. In the power vacuum left by the retreat of Japanese forces from the Korean peninsula, as William Gillis writes (“Mass Graves,” reproduced at Austro-Athenian Empire, May 25, 2008), “something amazing happened. The Korean Anarchists, long the champions of the resistance struggle, came out of the woodwork and formed a nationwide federation of village and workers councils to oversee a massive project of land reform.” Soviet occupation authorities in the north quickly put a stop to this, liquidating the anarchist project and installing the Kim regime. American forces were considerably slower to arrive, giving southern Korea a respite of peace and freedom. When they did arrive, though, American military commanders “had no protocol for dealing with regional federations and anarchist communes.” Accordingly they restored land to the dispossessed aristocracy and helped the landlords set up a military government. With the start of the Korean War the military regime’s murder of anarchists and other leftists, already underway, kicked into high gear. At least 100,000 suspected anarchists, socialists and communists or sympathizers were buried in mass graves.

The American state would rather ISIS not win. But as with the farmers in Orwell’s Animal Farm, the men have one interest in common with the pigs that trumps all others: they don’t want the “animals” — ordinary people — to rule themselves.

Kevin Carson is a senior fellow of the Center for a Stateless Society (c4ss.org) and holds the Center’s Karl Hess Chair in Social Theory.