Sunday, 1 December 2019
Magic In The Frost.
History And Today.
Back from my daughters wee weekend birthday bash in Auchterarer and had a wonderful time, I did manage to find the farm I was evacuated to during ww2. It brought back some wonderful memories. The place has changed, a lot of the outhouses have been demolished, but some of the outer walls are still standing. The actual farm house where my sisters and I lived is still there, looking all smart and well kept. Couldn't locate the small school that we walked to every morning, it may have been expanded or demolished. The town of Auchterared has massively expanded, and was very busy, it was rather difficult to cross the road. So very different from my time being there during the war, we only stayed in the town for a couple of months, and then back to Glasgow.
During my short absence for my beloved city, there were two march/protests. Friday was the climate change protest held in George Square, from reports from my friends, it was not as well attended as one would have hoped, but a reasonable crowd. Never the less people are becoming more aware of the oncoming disaster unless we sort out our economic system away from capitalism towards a green and sustainable system that sees to the needs of all our people.
Thanks Keith for the photo:
The other event I missed, was on Saturday, a Glasgow annual march and rally, where the citizens of Glasgow and further afield come together to make it quite clear, Glasgow is not a racists city. The last Saturday of ever November, the people of Glasgow gather with friends/acquaintances/comrades from surrounding areas to march from Glasgow Green to a rallying point where they hold a large meeting. The whole idea behind this event is to raise the fact that the people of Glasgow will not tolerate racism in any shape or form.
As always, a great turnout and a multitude of banners and flags proclaiming who they were and what they stand for. Again, well done Glasgow and friends.
Again thanks Keith for photos:
A pop-up IWW stall at anti-racism march.
Friday, 29 November 2019
Memories.
My wee rant will be stilled over the next couple of days. It's my daughter's birthday and she and her family have booked a wee cottage in Auchterader in Perthshire for the weekend and we are invited.
Auchterarder main street, the longest main street in Scotland.
It will be interesting to see what memories it will bring back. During the war, WW2, not WW1 as some people might think when looking at me, I like many other school kids from Glasgow were "evacuated" further north away from the risk of bombing in the cities. I and two of my sisters ended up living on a farm just outside Auchterarder. For a wee Glesca lad it was a wonderful and very pleasant experience. The farmer treated me like a son and I have fond memories of those days.
Will I find the farm I lived in? Will I find the house that was the school? Who knows, what has changed and what has remained, fascinating.
Expropriation.
Housing has become one of the many crises in our money orientated society. Our system has always pushed the illusion that we all should have a safe home to live and bring up our families. However for the ordinary people it is becoming obvious that it is indeed an illusion. We have always struggle to keep a roof over our heads, rents have always increased and sometimes shot up. Now however houses are financial assets to large financial institutions, things to be packaged and traded among the financial Mafia. There is no thought to what a house actually is, a place to have a decent life, a safe place to lay your head.
A housing shortage keeps demand ahead of supply and therefore keeps prices rising, all music to the financier's ears. Rents keep out stripping income, homelessness keeps rising and the financial Mafia keep laughing all the way to the bank, to their luxury yacht, and to their opulent mansion. That's capitalism for you.
It is encouraging to see that in some places people are taking action against this brutal exploitation of what is a human right, a safe place to lay your head. In Germany there is a movement to break this landlord rule over their lives. Others perhaps could take note and follow suit.
Berlin’s spatial dynamics and organized working class show how to secure liveable spaces and combat the financial nature of housing: socialize them.
Read the full article HERE:Over the last few decades, housing in cities around the world has undergone unprecedented financialization and artificial speculation. Investors have never been richer. The worldwide value of the current real estate market is $217 trillion, 36 times worth the value of all the gold ever mined.Profits from the commodification of the housing market have skyrocketed in step with the enclosure of spaces and the fixing of financial value to them. Living spaces are now complex financial products that can be packaged up into investment funds and swapped by companies across the world.As Raquel Rolnik, former special rapporteur to the UN on adequate housing, attests, “In the new political economy, centered around housing as a means of access to wealth, the home becomes a fixed capital asset whose value resides in its expectation of generating more value in the future, depending on the oscillations of the (always assumed) rise of real-estate prices.”Berlin has been the epicenter of the emerging struggle against capital, giving birth to a rebellious housing movement. A city-wide referendum is underway to expropriate “mega-landlords” with 3,000 apartments or more. If successful, the campaign could tip the scales away from speculation and essentially decommodify 250,000 apartments. In Berlin, tenants and housing activists are building upon shared struggle to break capital’s control over the home and democratize how and where we live.
Thursday, 28 November 2019
Why Not A Poem.
A Scarred Heart.
I tossed a heart at life
saw it dance in the morning sun
watched it through a field of nettles run
felt it warmed by passion's breath
heard it crack between love's teeth
was proud, as it turned its back on fear
sighed so when it it near' drowned in an anguished tear;
scarred and bleeding it came back, aged like wine,
with a quiet pride I said, "This is mine".
A Dehumanised Human, The Migrant.
Migrants don't get the cover from our media that the used to get, does this mean all is quiet? Have people stopped fleeing poverty, destruction, death, persecution and started to accept their lot midst the storm of deprivation that surrounds them? No, it just means that they are no longer a item to be used to create a sensational article, so the media turns the focus elsewhere.
When ever they do get coverage in the media, it is never the face of ordinary people. We are sometimes shown "camps", "detention centres", filthy living conditions, remember the "jungle". It was "dispersed", that doesn't mean they are all settled and contributing to the community. Most are probably in detention centres or sleeping rough. They are displayed as shadowy figures scurrying about in the dark, trying to get a free ride on a truck, or breaking through fences. No attempt is ever made to show them as ordinary people like you and I. Remember Bulligdon Club Boy Cameron, referring to them as a "swarm"? They are seen as an inconvenience to our business, they cause delays to our travel. Never are they ordinary people fleeing the cauldron of chaos and savagery spawned by the foreign policy of Western imperialism in their home region. Heaven forbid that we should see them as desperate human beings in need of help.
How do people become "migrants". Migrants are never people giving up a decent life to face a long and hazardous journey that often ends in death, just for the hell of it. But as long as we have imperialist power blocks building borders to proclaim "their" territory, and battling to expand their power, we will have people fleeing in desperation. State borders and power blocks are an anathema to freedom and justice, a hindrance to a civilised world, a blight on the face of humanity. States, borders and power blocks have to be destroyed before we can call ourselves a civilised species.
Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk
Wednesday, 27 November 2019
Ethical Capitalism??
There is at the moment a lot of talk about turning our economic system into ethical capitalism. Appealing to our governments and corporate bodies to join the green and ethical revolution. What a naive fantasy, an illusion, a blind alley that will only end in total disillusionment for it followers, and disaster for the rest of us. Capitalism's foundations are exploitation, it is based on making money from somebody else's efforts, how do you make that ethical? Let's hope those pursuing that path wake up in time to see the folly of their ways, go for real change, a real ethical and green society and the total demolition of capitalism. Then perhaps we can start to build that ethical and green society freed from the cancer of profit and exploitation.
As usual, calm words of common sense from one of my favourite sites, Not Buying Anything.
The term Ethical Consumerism is an oxymoron. It is a dream, a fantasy that business as usual types hope will extend current harmful ways of doing things. Don't be fooled by this industrial strength green washing. In order to have ethical consumerism we would have to have an ethical supply chain. First there would have to be ethical resource extraction. Mining companies would no longer be able to hire thugs to murder indigenous activists blocking the mining sites that are destroying their livelihoods. Fomenting violent coups in order to mine resources such as lithium would definitely be out.
Then there would need to be ethical manufacturing. If made ethical, companies would have to put people and the planet before shareholder interests, and the selfish motives of CEOs. Retail interests would also have to act ethically. No more cooking the books, or fleecing workers to pad the bottom line.
At every stage corporations would have to do the ethical thing and take responsibility for any damage done while conducting their business. A study done showed that most, if not all, corporations would go bankrupt if they had to pay for the damage they do.
And what about marketing? Can you imagine ethical advertising? Neither can I. Advertisers wouldn't be able to lie anymore. Or manipulate us with things like "nudging" and neuromarketing manipulation. The entire industry would crumble when they could no longer manufacture desire through the use of nefarious methods of mind control.
The very greenwashing that brings us something as outlandish as ethical consumerism would become illegal. Greenwashing, and ethical consumerism would disappear into a void of lying blackness, never to be seen again.
Let us not forget the ethical banking system that would be needed to support all the other ethical endeavours. What would that even look like? No interest to be paid, or charged, because getting something without working for it is unethical. Also, no more money laundering, or other dirty tricks.
Wouldn't we also need an ethical tax regime? Large corporations and the uber wealthy would actually have to pay their fair share in such a system. And to guide it all, we would need ethical governance at the local, state, and federal levels. How is that going these days? Is propaganda ethical? Is jailing whistleblowers ethical? Is interfering in the business of other countries ethical?
At best, ethical consumerism would lead to the end of consumerism. And along the way it might take down capitalism and the state, too. There is nothing ethical or logical about the greed, waste, corruption, and selfishness of our current system.
Let them fail in a creative destruction the likes of which the world has never seen. That would be a welcome outcome. Anything less is a fantastical dream, because current ways can not go on for much longer.
So, what colour would you like your dragon?
Yes, Yellow Vests Are Still On The Streets.
No, it hasn't gone away, one year on and the Yellow Vests are still on the streets of France in their thousands. Though you would never know this from our mainstream media. Of all the mass protests going on across the world, France is the nearest to us here in the UK. but we hear very little, if anything, about what is going on across the channel on the streets of France, but lots of what is going on in Hong Kong, Why?
The Yellow Vest Movement, is planning a massive protest with strikes across France, on the 5th. December, they deserve our support and solidarity. What they are fighting against is the same problems we have here in the UK. deteriorating living standards, destruction of social services, increase in poverty and homelessness, gross inequality, evaporating working conditions and blatant corruption. All this midst unimaginable wealth, splattered around in the shape of luxury yachts, private jets, opulent mansions, limousines and bank accounts stashed away in tax havens. This is our world, it is only right that we should take to the streets to end this control of our lives by the greedy, wealthy and powerful.
Thousands of protesters stream across the river, November 16th.
“I am not ashamed to feel afraid from time to time. I keep on coming, but I understand those who don’t come any more because they’re too frightened”. So spoke Antoine, a 75-year-old Gilet Jaune marking the first anniversary of the Yellow Vest movement in the southern French city of Montpellier on Saturday November 16.More photos HERE:
This was just one of many protests and occupations across the country (notably in Paris) marking the birthday weekend and paving the way for a big day of strikes and actions on December 5. Antoine explained: “I’ve been here from day one and I’ve escaped police batons by a whisker on several occasions, even though my only weapons are my whistle and my gilet jaune!”
The last of these alarming encounters had come just the previous week in Montpellier, he said, when the “forces of order” had attacked the demo right at the start. He had seen a riot policeman from the CRS bearing down on him, baton raised, but fortunately for the pensioner it was another protester who took the blow.
I had already noticed that the majority of the demonstrators gathering in the Place de la Comédie were not wearing the trademark yellow singlets, in the stark contrast to the last time I reported from Montpellier, and Antoine said this was because of the massive police violence which protesters had been facing over the months. He was sure this was a deliberate strategy on behalf of the French state and felt that the previous week’s brutality was intended to dissuade people from taking part in the anniversary protest we were attending.
Julian, an observer with the Ligue des Droits de l’Homme, a human rights organisation, confirmed to me that the previous Saturday’s police behaviour had been particularly bad. “There was kettling and teargassing right from the start, for the first time here and without there having been any violence”, he said. “The state really wanted to stop the demo. It was kettled for an hour and a half”. He said there were some police who did their job properly, but others who certainly didn’t, particularly the plain-clothed BAC (Brigade anti-criminalité) units and the CDI (Compagnie départmentale d’intervention) for the Hérault area.
With this in mind, it was quite a relief when the demo, a couple of thousand strong, was able to form up and leave the elegant main city square without any visible police presence. To the sound of drums, music and singing, we headed away from the narrow medieval city streets where the police would have been expecting us. But as we surged in the bright Mediterranean sunshine across a bridge over the River Lez and into the suburbs, the seagulls circling overhead were accompanied by a police drone tracking our movements. The protest paused for a moment at Place Ernest Granier, blocking cars and trams on this important intersection and then moved off again.
It was now clear that the target was the south coast motorway which runs through the outskirts of the city and, an hour after the march set off, it was met with a line of riot cops blocking the road ahead. Not content with merely blocking the way, they advanced towards us and soon were raining volleys of tear gas cannisters down on the retreating protesters. Quickly, a Plan B was hatched and hundreds of us streamed across a small park surrounded by housing estates to seek out another route to the motorway. “Joyeux anniversaire!” sang the Gilets Jaunes in celebration of a whole year of joyful rebellion across the whole of this country.
Again, police vans turned up to block the way and more tear gas filled the air. Despite successful attempts to create traffic jams to halt the police’s progress, they caught up with us again a mile or so later and this time the protest was cut in two, with hundreds caught in a kettle. The front part of the march ploughed on, still with the idea of blocking the motorway in mind, and came across the Village Jaune, a birthday-weekend occupation of the roundabout at Prés d’Arènes. Here there were tents, a large gazebo, trestle tables, banners, yellow balloons and an astonishing level of honking and waving from passing motorists, confirming once again that this movement enjoys high levels of support from the French public, outside the dominant metropolitan elite.
What to do next? Some wanted to keep going for the motorway, some seemed happy to be on the roundabout and others wanted to head back and help out the part of the march kettled by police. In the end, there was little choice. Police advanced at speed from two directions, the tear gas began coming again and protesters scattered.
The first year of this revolt has been a story of non-stop police repression, combined with the relentless sneering hostility of the corporate media. Can it succeed in the face of all that? “Yes,” one Gilet Jaune, Ingrid, told me. “I am quite sure of that, otherwise we wouldn’t be here. We have to have hope. We want people to have a life, we want nobody to be sleeping on the streets, we want wealth to be shared. “The government will give way. We just don’t know when!” A fellow protester, Manon, said: “We’re still here because we have to keep on fighting. They are destroying everything.
“We have to do this despite the police repression. We are fighting for another world and this is what we find ourselves faced with. It’s totalitarian neoliberalism. “We are fighting for people’s dignity. It is the same struggle everywhere, in Chile for example”. Manon said the strength of the Gilets Jaunes movement was the way it brought together people from all sorts of backgrounds. “We have created something completely different, a new generation of protesters. People have come together who would never have done so before”.
Antoine, who had spoken to me about the way police violence was scaring some people away from protesting, said he didn’t think it would work in the long run. “I consider myself to be here as a representative of ten other people who have told me they are with me. Most people I know support the Gilets Jaunes. “The aspects that motivate me are social justice and human rights, which exist less and less from one Saturday to the next. “The Gilets Jaunes are much more representative of society as a whole than other movements I have been involved in, such as the trade unions”. There were even people involved who considered themselves to be on the political right, he said, although he questioned whether this self-designation was accurate, given the nature of the cause they supported.
“The real right is that infernal couple of Macron and Le Pen”, he added, noting that Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader, had abandoned her early pretence of supporting the Gilets Jaunes and had since reverted to form by allying herself with a fascistic police trade union which defends the use of violence againt protesters. Asked whether the movement could succeed, he insisted: “It has already succeeded, by bringing together people from very different backgrounds, which is something in itself”. This last point was reinforced by my conversation with Damien, a 74-year-old who explained that he was a retired policeman who had once been part of the notorious BAC units which have been in the forefront of the recent repression. He said former colleagues he had spoken to were now more or less just going through the motions, doing the minimum their job required. Damien said he was involved from the very start of the Gilets Jaunes revolt. “I’ve come back for the anniversary,” he added. “I’m still very unhappy about what I’m seeing”. Macron had managed to hold on to power by dividing people, he said, and by buying their collaboration. “Personally, I have nothing to complain about because I have got a good pension. But I can’t stand seeing people working all their lives and having nothing to show from it. “I am doing this for everyone. This is a movement which came from below. It was a little revolution and it needs to keep going, starting with December 5”.
Tuesday, 26 November 2019
Glasgow Workers City, 1988-1993.
Spirit of Revolt Archive hold lots of outreach events, where we try to bring the people to the archive, and bring their history to the people of Glasgow/Clydeside area. Some of these events are held in the Mitchell library, others in various venues across the city. Our most recent event was "Workers City" where we tried to bring to a wider public some of the flourishing activism in Glasgow of the period 1988-1993.
This video is now available for viewing on our Spirit of Revolt website, in the "Audio-Video" section.
you can view it here and perhaps it will encourage you to delve a little deeper into our vast collection historical documents, serials, letters, pamphlets, posters, photos, memorabilia, our audio and video collection and much much more. It is your history, a history you should be very proud of and share.
A display of material from Spirit of Revolt collections and a
discussion, led by Tommy Kayes with James Kelman, Brendan McLaughlin,
Billy Clark, Michael Donnelly, Ruth Gillett, Paul Anderson, Euan
Sutherland and others on the formation and actions of the Workers City
group (1988 - 1993).
From the Blythswood Room, 5th Floor, The Mitchell Library, Glasgow.
Truly A Winter Of Discontent.
There is no doubt that this year is different. Yes, there has always been protests in this unjust economic system, but this year there are many more and they are more intense with greater numbers on the streets, and they go on much longer, months, and still continuing. Have The people of Iran joined this world wide revolutionary movement?
The Anarchist Union of Iran and Afghanistan believes that the Islamic Republic of Iran’s regime will not hesitate to massacre millions of Iranians, like it has done in Syria and Iraq as well as in Iran these these last few days. Therefore, the Anarchist Union of Iran and Afghanistan is prepared to declare that it will cooperate with all Kurdish, Arab and Baloch armed opposition forces. With respect to the widespread repression of defenseless people in Iran, we must be able to provide them with the right tools to defend themselves, before there are more dead and the people’s movement has been permanently suppressed. Therefore the need to form an armed revolutionary front to support and defend the people against the Islamic regime’s executioners is urgent and necessary. If it is possible to transport weapons to people inside Iran, you should not hesitate for a moment to prevent more people from being bled and buried. The duty of the revolutionary and radical opposition outside of Iran is to provide logistical and strategic support to the struggles and resistance of the people inside Iran
I don't agree with everything in the following article but it is an excellent source to see the extent of these prolonged mass protests and gives hope that they will be joined by others rather than morph into some sort of formal agreement with the various states. Our support and solidarity could help immensely in preventing this morphing from happening. From Democracy Without Borders:
Youth celebrating the Lebanese revolution in 2019. Photo by Vicken Vincent Avakian with kind permission (source)
And:This year has seen an extraordinary number of significant mass protests in over twenty countries or territories, many of which in a national context represented the biggest in recent times. They are often spontaneous, with a distinctly revolutionary nature. In many cases protesters would face a serious risk of arrest, injury or death. The ruling class, government or even the whole system of government, are the targets. Corruption, authoritarianism and/or austerity are their key motivators. ------
For the list of mass protests continue reading:-------Obviously protests occur constantly, and we haven’t done a thorough data analysis comparing this year with historical averages. However, it’s generally accepted that the current protests aren’t normal. CNN’s Fareed Zakaria called them “this autumn of protest”, and noted that “the politics of each of these movements seems quite distinct. But they are all occurring against a worrisome backdrop: a collapse of [global] economic growth”, which is now at its lowest point since the 2008 crash.We can take the line of thinking further and note that these various uprisings are in fact different theatres of the same conflict.Protesters may be waving their national flags, and speaking of national rebirth – not global justice, but as the example of Ecuador especially shows, these national transformations can take place, but they must currently do so in spite of the prevailing global system, which is institutionally incompatible with the needs of the world’s population, captured by an undemocratic, ahistorical ideology which fetishises the balancing of national budgets with same year tax revenues which effectively prohibits effective development strategies, such as the provision of basic services or redistribution.
Monday, 25 November 2019
Disobedience.
Two pieces of information I recently read, to me highlight the dreadful state of our world today. The first is the human savagery that results in the fact that every ten minutes a Yemeni child under 5 years of age dies of hunger. The other is the state to which we have driven the planet, the recent Australian fires have more or less wiped out the Koalas, having destroyed 80% of their habitat.
There is much more, millions of people across the globe are on the streets fighting to end inequality, injustice, corruption and state brutality. We have devised a system that perpetuates wide spread poverty, injustice and corruption. A system that spawns wars and all the misery, death and destruction that goes with those wars. A system that has driven life on our planet to the edge of extinction. None of this was an unforeseen accident, nor was it inevitable, it was driven by blind greed and deliberate exploitation. If we continue down this road, sadly those driving this human tragedy will not be the only ones to suffer as the inevitable collapse unfolds.
It may already be too late, even so, humanity that desires that decent world for all, must continue and re-double every effort, and find new imaginative ways to destroy this economic disastrous system and halt this man made disaster. We just can't throw our hands in the air, continue as we are, and watch our grandchildren's future disappear in a brutal man made extinction.
The following quote is one answer to our problem:
"You want sanity, democracy, community, an intact Earth? We can't get there obeying Constitutional theory and law crafted by slave masters, imperialists, corporate masters, and Nature destroyers. We can't get there kneeling before robed lawyers stockpiling class plunder precedent up their venerable sleeves. So isn't disobedience the challenge of our age? Principled, inventive, escalating disobedience to liberate our souls, to transfigure our work as humans on this Earth." Richard Grossman
Sunday, 24 November 2019
The Freedom To Think Kurdistan.
An event to mark in you diary, Thursday, 5th., December. One of Glasgow's literary sons and life time activist James Kelman has a new book being launched on that date. Obviously an event not to be missed.
Details: 
thi wurd presents the launch of James Kelman’s new book ‘The Freedom to Think Kurdistan’ at The Admiral Bar, Glasgow, Thur, 5th December 7-10pm. With James Kelman. Music from Eugene Kelly, The Dirt Roadsters. Fiction from thi wurd. £5 on the door.
https://twitter.com/thiwurd/status/1195756406428913664
The Chilean People's Struggle Comes To London.
To raise awareness of the struggle of the people of Chile, a piece of Chile came to London, I'm sure they would be welcome in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool and any other city in this country. The people of Chile's Struggle is our struggle, the poverty, deprivation and corruption that blights their life is alive and thriving here in our patch of the planet, it is all a matter of degree.
Chileans and friends stage a flashmob performance of the folk protest song 'El Pueblo Unido jamás será Vencido' (The People United will never be Defeated) at St Pancras Station in London, Monday 4 November 2019. The song, which originates in leftwing political movements of the 1960s and 1970s and was made famous by the Chilean folk bands Inti-illimani and Quilapuyún, has become an anthem for the current protests against inequality and state brutality that have engulfed Chile in recent weeks. Several singers wore white gauzes over their eyes to symbolise state violence against protestors, many of whom have lost eyes to police aggression. At least 20 people have died in the protests.
Thanks Loam for the video link.
Saturday, 23 November 2019
Syndicalists in the Russian Revolution.
This month Spirit of Revolt's choice for "Read of the Month" is a pamphlet taken from our KM Collection. It is one of a group of 11 Direct Action pamphlets produced by Syndicalist Workers Federation. It is called Syndicalists in the Russian Revolution, by G. P. Maximoff, written around the 1950's. We are sure it will be of interest to all syndicalists/libertarian-socialists/anarchists, and those associated with that grouping and many more outside that grouping. We hope this little taster will encourage you to delve deeper into the wonderful collections held in our archive. Enjoy and learn.
Silence Is Complicity.
Not much in the news just now about the Turkish invasion into Syria aided and abetted by their jihadi friends, and given the nod by America. No mention of the destruction of an area democratically organised by the people, the area of Rojava. A small area being brutally and savagely destroyed by NATO's second largest army. No pictures of the suffering of those people at the mercy of a messianic dictator armed to the teeth with the latest and most powerful weapons. Silence in the presence of brutality is complicity. Since 2011 the people of Syria have seen their country obliterated, hundreds of thousands killed or maimed, and millions of the people displaced, and now Turkey wants to carve a slice of the country off for as its own, and still the silence. A people brought to deprivation, desperation and their infrastructure destroyed, all as part of the power game between the various power-blocks vying for control of the resources in that area. Let's stop electing leaders and playing their games to their rules, and make that decision, that for the peace of the world and the benefit all the people of this world, the entire system has to be destroyed, root and branch.
Continue reading the article HERE:via barrikade:Comrades,I think it is important now that our voices of Rojava, out of the heart of that battle, are being heard. A fight for the life, for an existence in dignity, for real democracy and for the freedom of all women. I want to tell how the resistance of Serekaniye went on, how the beginning was, how the end was and also what happened in between. Serekaniye right now is in the hands of jihadist groups that are being supported by Turkey, upon approval by the United States. At a time they said there would be a five-day firearm rest…. we didn’t believe it for one second. And that’s how it was – the attacks didn’t stop, maybe they’ve been reduced, but they continued attacking us with heavy artillery, bombings and airplanes. When there are bombings, there is not much that can be done; hide behind a tree and hope, that they didn’t see you running or that they found your place.Those five days of supposed firearm rest actually have been decisive for the United States and Turkey, to redefine the conflict, to realign the situation of war, confrontation and resistance against our forced withdrawal that no one expected. No one could believe it, after 11 days of resistance, beautiful and very hard at the same time. Leaving the city. The Turkish invasion of Serekaniye did start some days before, 8th of October, with a bombing of our military post that hasn’t been answered, for not to unleash what happened later anyway. It was an attempt of the friends to protect the people and the society. But the next day, about 3 to 4 pm, another bombing of a post of the YPG took place, where 5 friends have fallen, and since then they bombed the whole border.The first days have been very chaotic. We tried to keep calm and to prepare for the invasion. Yes, the last months of the preparation made sense, it became reality. To realise despite all fear, what war actually means, the bravery to assure oneself of a made decision, and at the same time, there are the doubts, that everything will be silenced, that no one in this world will hear about that barbarism. When war arrives, it is a distant war, with a lot of unexpected bombings, that you’ll only hear at the very last moment. When the bombs fall, they fall, when it happens, it happens. After days you learn to acknowledge them, and at the same time when the wounded friends start to arrive, along with the feelings they awake in us; sadness at one hand, because the war machinery is monstrous, and at the other hand the strength to also fight for them. All the defending units, those that already have been here and those that arrived when the Turkish aggression intensified, kept the city safe despite movements of the jihadist groups and enabled the transfer of the wounded to the city Til Temir. Until Turkey cut that road and it wasn’t possible anymore to bring them there.
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