Our comrade from Geneva has to go to court for allegedly defending the revolution in Rojava while armed in 2015 and 2016. The state is criminalizing his internationalism. But we say: more of it!
It is important to highlight the political nature of this trial, even though it may be evident. For one thing, the military justice system is very closely linked to the bourgeois state. The majority of the judges are directly appointed by the Federal Council. The criminal law they apply regulates the law in the military, which, as the armed arm of the state, is a supporting pillar of its monopoly on violence and power. We know that the military is central to any state and is tightly controlled accordingly. In civilian courts, the political character of the trials is often concealed by the supposed neutrality of the judges and the democratic legitimacy of the laws. In military justice, on the other hand, the state acts directly as legislator, prosecutor and judge. The attack on our comrade therefore comes from within the state apparatus.
On the other hand, the charge is aimed at a practice that must be deeply repugnant to the bourgeois state: the practice of armed internationalism, in which comrades provide armed support to the revolutionary process elsewhere. It arises from the consciousness that the working class and oppressed peoples do not know a fatherland, but also understand the revolutionary process worldwide as a question of the balance of power worldwide, so that the victory at one end of the world has an effect on the other end of the world. Rojava, where our comrade is said to have fought, is the best example of this – what a radiance emanates from this place and project, which has been asserting itself for more than a decade under the most adverse conditions and is thus a shining example for all revolutionary forces worldwide.
It is probably no coincidence that after eight long years of investigation, the charges have not simply been dropped, but are being brought before military courts. The crisis tendencies of capitalism are tangible everywhere. This system offers only barbarism and misery as a perspective for the vast majority of people on this earth. Reactionary movements and forces promise relief by forcing a sharpened competitive struggle. National identities and the like promise supposed greatness. It is necessary to take a stand against this fascist breeding ground and not allow it to gain a foothold. Whether it is the Islamist gangs of the Islamic State, against which the comrade is said to have fought, or those of the fascist AKP-MHP palace regime in Turkey.
This international anti-fascism is not only a necessity to avert the greatest evils, but also a prerequisite to support and strengthen revolutionary projects worldwide – such as the one in Rojava. From the most distant corners of the world, internationalists have joined the revolutionary process in Rojava, regardless of whether they fought with weapons in their hands or organized themselves in civilian structures. Despite the diversity of the fields, there must be no division between them – with the head and with the hand. A revolution has many facets and it is necessary to lead and develop the struggle against fascism and barbarism on all levels. Especially in Kurdistan, but also in other parts of the world, this form of internationalism has a long tradition. We have to understand this as a continuity of our side of history.
On the other hand, internationalism also means waging the struggle here. We have to show how the Swiss and European bourgeoisie profits from Turkey’s fascism and war and attack the profiteers here. Despite the numerous inner-imperialist contradictions, which are sometimes carried out with stronger and sometimes with weaker vehemence, they are united in the struggle against a concrete revolutionary perspective that is antagonistic to them. For us, this can only mean that the struggle here in our own country must be waged just as vigorously. For this, we have to take the revolutionary struggle here further, gather the forces and build the revolutionary left.
To support the revolution in Rojava means to advance the revolutionary process in our own country!
For an international anti-fascism!
For communism!
Revolutionärer Aufbau Schweiz, 12 April 2023
Source: Barrikade