Lions of Rojava in Kurdistan/Syria – a new international brigade?

[jondwhite]

Are the Lions of Rojava in Kurdistan/Syria – a new international brigade?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/former-british-army-soldiers-form-international-volunteer-force-to-fight-isis-in-syria-10111054.html

http://www.ibtimes.com/least-100-westerners-join-kurdish-fight-against-islamic-state-1837686

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Protection_Units

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Brigades

[alanjjohnstone]

I am curious to know whether they will receive the same sanctions as those volunteering to fight for ISIS.Or are one person's mercenary another person's freedom fighter?i believe when the Spanish Civil War was on a number of Irish Republican Army veterans joined the IB and some others joined Franco's side to fight for Mother Church. 

[jondwhite]

Quote:

UK PM David Cameron, whose government has inked new anti-terrorist laws that would allow the revocation of citizenship from British jihadists returning from Syria, said there was a “fundamental difference” between them and those fighting for the Kurds, and pledged that the British border staff would be able to tell one from the other.

http://rt.com/news/208083-westerners-isis-kurds-syria/

Quote:

David Cameron has insisted that there is a fundamental difference between fighting for the Kurds and joining Isis.Although the Home Office states that taking part in a conflict overseas could be an offence under both criminal and anti-terrorism laws, it clarifies: “UK law makes provisions to deal with different conflicts in different ways – fighting in a foreign war is not automatically an offence but will depend on the nature of the conflict and the individual’s own activities.”When Cameron was asked in September how volunteers with the Kurdish authorities and Isis fighters could be identified when returning to the UK, he said that “highly trained border staff, police and intelligence services” would be able to discern the difference between Islamic extremists and those fighting them.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/22/uk-mercenaries-fighting-islamic-state-terrorist-syria

Quote:

His comments come as BBC News was told British Kurds have travelled from the UK to join Kurdish forces fighting IS.The prime minister said said there was a "fundamental difference" between fighting for the Kurds and joining IS.The Home Office said taking part in a conflict overseas could be an offence under both criminal and terror laws."However, UK law makes provisions to deal with different conflicts in different ways – fighting in a foreign war is not automatically an offence but will depend on the nature of the conflict and the individual's own activities," it added.

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29038981

Quote:

The men had been warned that they would face police interviews if they returned to Britain. Sir Edward Garnier QC, the former solicitor general told BBC Radio 4 in November: “We are in a terrible grey area, not least because we don’t know enough about what they are doing.”“The United Kingdom is trying to defeat ISIL. But freelancers are not acting on behalf of the United Kingdom. They may well be guilty of murder, or other sorts of crimes, or they might not be guilty of anything.“It goes to the general story who go abroad to fight in other people’s wars place themselves not only in physical danger, but in that legal limbo land where they could, if they get on the wrong side of this almost invisible line, into trouble when they get home,” he said.

http://www.newsweek.com/ex-british-soldiers-held-heathrow-after-returning-home-fighting-isis-291056

[alanjjohnstone]

Eight ex-servicemen have formed what they call IVFOR (the International Volunteer Force) and have bought combat fatigues and high-powered assault rifles to prepare for their mission, the Evening Standard reported. One member told the newspaper the unit was open to English-speaking volunteers from any country and will be in Syria “within weeks” .Personally, i have reservations about those volunteers…i just wonder how many of them will subscribe to the EDL and the "Muslim" threat….i think it is not beyond the realm of imagination to think they too will return "radicalised" despite fighting for a supposed "muslim" army…I recall volunteers during the early stages of the civil war rushing to enlist in the Free Syrian Army and will the immigration services differentiate between those who joined fought Assad rather than the ISIS. I simply cannot accept the analogy with the IB … where are the ideals of those ex-squaddiesIn Nigeria, a number of South Africans have enlisted in the battle against Boko Haram…they are in the press more honestly described as paid mercenaries.Sorry forgot the link http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/former-british-army-soldiers-form-international-volunteer-force-to-fight-isis-in-syria-10111054.html

[jondwhite]

If sides are attracting international recruits to an active conflict you can bet the British (far) left will rush to take sides.

[alanjjohnstone]

Former Royal Marine Commando Ben Wright, who served three tours in Afghanistan, immediately recognized the weapon handling error. He told RT: “They are going to be dead in a week.”David Buck, 34, served in the army between 1997 and 2006, and is a veteran of operational tours in Kosovo, Macedonia and Iraq. "a rag tag bunch who will get a very nasty shock when they go to Syria," http://rt.com/uk/241473-isis-army-syria-veterans/

[jondwhite]

Quote:

Belonging to an organisation such as Islamic State, al-Qaida or the IRA should not be a crime in itself because people should be punished for what they do, not what they think, Natalie Bennett, the Green party leader, said on Sunday.  She said legislation that made it an offence merely to belong to certain organisations was outdated and it was important for the government to defend the principle of freedom of speech.  The politician was speaking in an interview on the BBC’s Sunday Politics where she was asked to defend Green party policy – which says that just belonging to a terrorist organisation, or having sympathy with its aims, should not be a crime.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jan/25/terrorist-organisation-membership-no-crime-say-greensDespite Parliament's 2013 decision not to intervene in Syria, any differing treatment of returning militia volunteers may give lie to this.

[Darren redstar]

There is  a difference, the three teenagers stopped by Turkish police on the way to join ISIS were released on bail after return to Britain. Silhan Ozcelik, is charged under the terror acts and remanded in custody for trying to join the Kurdish resistance to ISIS

[jondwhite]

Darren redstar wrote:

There is  a difference, the three teenagers stopped by Turkish police on the way to join ISIS were released on bail after return to Britain. Silhan Ozcelik, is charged under the terror acts and remanded in custody for trying to join the Kurdish resistance to ISIS

I stand corrected.

[ALB]

Darren redstar wrote:

Silhan Ozcelik, is charged under the terror acts and remanded in custody for trying to join the Kurdish resistance to ISIS

I can't see a jury convicting her, though. The defence would just need to show videos of the Islamists beheading hostages and prisoners of war and throwing gay men off buildings and the jury would reach a "not guilty" verdict in a couple of minutes. More on her case here:http://islingtonnow.co.uk/2015/03/18/holloway-teenagers-terrorism-charge-prompts-fury-from-supporters/Mind you, it could be the price the Turkish government has asked for to co-operate in trying to stop Islamists from the UK joining ISIS. Wheels within wheels.

[jondwhite]

jondwhite wrote:

If sides are attracting international recruits to an active conflict you can bet the British (far) left will rush to take sides.

Coatesy reportshttps://tendancecoatesy.wordpress.com/2015/03/19/swp-isis-and-the-kurdish-struggle-two-weights-two-measures/and the other side of the same coinhttp://www.counterfire.org/news/17449-day-mer-statement-support-the-resistance-of-kobane-against-isis-attacksstrange considering John Rees working with CAGEhttps://tendancecoatesy.wordpress.com/2015/03/01/stop-the-war-coalitions-john-rees-links-charlie-hebdo-slaughter-to-security-service-behaviour/ 

[robbo203]

Interesting article thishttp://www.truth-out.org/news/item/29059-the-no-state-solution-institutionalizing-libertarian-socialism-in-kurdistan#As the article itself says there is a lot about the Rojavan  Revolution for Libertarian Socialists to feel encouraged about.  However, without knowing a great deal about the subject I wonder to what extent this revolution ticks all the boxes as far as institutionalizing "Libertarian Socialism" is concerned.  Like the fetishisation of the Soviets in earlier era, might "Democratic Confederalism" not just be a form of words that camouflages the existence of a state it has supposedly replaced.That of course throws up the question of what constitutes a state. The state in Marxian terms is an instrument of class rule. Does, then, the supposed institutionalisation of a stateless society in Kurdistan signify also the institutionalisation of a classless society?  Not much light is shed on the social structure and political economy of Kurdistan though we are told thatAccording to a member of a women's cooperative in Baglar, anarchists in twenty-two communes in Gewer have gone as far as to abolish money as a means of exchangeThe Rojavan Revolution is presented  as being anti capitalist in its thrust but we must be wary of such talk.  For the most part the anti capitalist movement  is not actually opposed to capitalism per se but rather to specific forms of capitalism or to particular symptoms of the system itselfI dont want to come across as a wet blanket and, as I say, there are certainly a number of ostensibly positive developments associated with the Rojavan revolution  but we have seen too many examples of situations which seemed initially to hold promise but which have turned out to be deeply disappointing in the long run.  Capitalism has an  uncanny ability to co-opt movements that claim to be working towards its demise

[ALB]

Came across this curiosity when searching for something else:http://another-green-world.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/green-party-candidate-endorsed-by.html

[Anonymous]

Off-topic but nevertheless interesting that Derek Wall is still endorsing 'green politics' despite reservations he appeared to hold some years back about the extent to which capitalism could be tamed.

Quote:

‘A Green government will be controlled by the economy rather than being in control. On coming to office through coalition or more absolute electoral success, it would be met by an instant collapse of sterling as 'hot money' and entrepreneurial capital went elsewhere. The exchange rate would fall and industrialists would move their factories to countries with more relaxed environmental controls and workplace regulation. Sources of finance would dry up as unemployment rocketed, slashing the revenue from taxation and pushing up the social security bills. The money for ecological reconstruction – the building of railways, the closing of motorways and construction of a proper sewage system – would run out’ (Getting There, 1990, p. 78).

[ALB]

Derek Wall describes himself as a "Green Marxist". Without agreeing with us (obviously) he quite likes us and spoke at one of our summer schools. At the moment, besides being a Green Party official and candidate, he is one of the advisory editors" of "Socialist Resistance", the official UK affiliate of one of the Trotskyist Fourth Internationals (descendants of the old IMG). I don't suppose he's a Trotskyist himself. I think he just likes their "ecosocialism" (as they know officially call themselves). He also writes regularly for the Morning Star. So he's a bit eclectic.

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