IV503 - December 2016

The Kurds of Syria, that is of West Kurdistan (Rojava), have now become key actors in the combined process of counter-revolution, civil war and self-determination underway in Syria. The PYD (Democratic Union Party) had already taken de facto control in the enclaves of Kobané first, then of Afrin and Jazira, following the withdrawal of the Assad regime’s forces in July 2012, and it had declared autonomy in this region in January 2014 as a reaction to not being invited to the second Geneva conference. But it was mainly with the siege of Kobané by Islamic State and the audacious resistance of the Popular Protection Units (YPG), and particularly the women fighting in the ranks of the YPJ, that the forces linked to the PYD and the experience of self-determination in Rojava obtained legitimacy and enjoyed support at the international level.

“Comrade”,

For several weeks now I’ve been saying to myself that I’m going to write to you, and the tragic events of Aleppo and your reaction to them, and sometimes your non-reaction, is what eventually persuaded me that the time had come to address you.

Not necessarily with the aim of convincing you; I believe that unfortunately it is already too late. But this way at least you would have been warned and you will not be able to claim that you did not know.

Gilbert Achcar explains in an interview for Jadaliyya what lies behind his most recent book, Morbid Symptoms

Native Americans and their allies won an important battle in their fight to prevent the Dakota Access Pipeline to go through historic tribal lands of the Sioux, and under part of the Missouri River where the Standing Rock Sioux reservation gets its drinking water.

The act of killing Moheine Fikri, and the fact of doing so in Hoceima, is a clear signal: it demonstrates and illustrates the dreadful situation that is imposed on our people. An arrogant dictatorial state which only sees people and individuals as a populace to be broken in with a whip, to be subjected and humiliated, to be forced to obey.

Silvio Berlusconi’s tenure as Italian prime minister shows how not to resist an authoritarian demagogue.

The US stock market continues to jump and has now reached a record high.

On November 25, thousands of activists demonstrated in Dublin calling for the abolition of the 8th amendment to the Irish constitution – a section that asserts equal rights to life between the mother and foetus (the wording refers to the “unborn” which assumes that that life begins at conception). The demonstration was in part was a celebration of the decision by ICTU, the Irish trade union congress, to support the call to repeal the 8th. In tribute to recent mobilisations by Polish women, many wore black – the main symbol for the Polish demonstrations.

JAISAL NOOR: Welcome to The Real News Network. I’m Jaisal Noor in Baltimore. Almost 30,000 people have fled the besieged rebel-held part of Aleppo in the past few days, the UN said on Thursday, December 1st. Taking the total number of displaced people in the Western part of the City to more than 400,000 where they face a coming bitter winter.

Matteo Renzi’s constitutional reform was politically illegitimate in method and antidemocratic in content. We should celebrate its rejection.