ZURICH – A group of internationalist revolutionaries attacked the Swiss Export Risk Insurance (SERV) in solidarity with the commemoration of the ’15th of August Resurrection Day’ and in solidarity to the heroic resistance in Rojava, since the corporation named above is a collaborator to the fascist turkish aggression.
The group shared a statement of their action as it follows:
“Many forces are pushing forward the revolution in Rojava. One of them is celebrating today: 38 years since the first armed action of the PKK, that is 38 years of struggle for freedom, life and emancipation.
Likewise, there are many forces fighting the revolution in Rojava. One of them is the Swiss Export Insurance (SERV), which we attacked tonight in Zurich. SERV is a central hinge in the support of Turkish fascism by Swiss capital. It is therefore a key target in our internationalist struggle to defend the revolutionary project in Rojava.
The Genferstrasse in Zurich’s banking district could be a nice place. A small, clean street with old, stately houses, the lake with its boats is within walking distance. Kurdistan could also be a nice place to live, the vastness of Rojava, the rugged heights of the Zagros Mountains, the sleepy villages and the bustling cities. But in Kurdistan there is war. And because this war has a lot to do with Zurich’s banking district, today we brought a little violence to the peaceful Geneva street and blew up the glassed-in entrance of the Swiss Export Risk Insurance (SERV).
But what does the SERV do? And what does it have to do with Kurdistan?
Capitalism and its apologists are very fond of their talk about competition between free competitors who meet on the free market -survival of the fittest! Which is of course bullshit. Among other things this representation conceals that capitalists have common interests despite competition. They coordinate and organize themselves accordingly to enforce them – against us working people as well as against capital from other regions. A decisive institution for this is the bourgeois state. And as one instrument among many, this state is equipped with an insurance that bears the risk in the export of capital – a state export risk insurance. This insurance is supposed to intervene where the individual interests of the banks as lenders conflict with the collective interests of the bourgeoisie as borrowers in risky investments.
Let’s put this in concrete terms with an example. Let us assume that a large Swiss corporation – such as Rieter – wants to participate in the construction of a new textile factory in Turkey. The wages are low, the expected profits high. But the risks of such a large investment are huge. Who can guarantee Rieter that the corrupt Erdogan will not award the contract to his son-in-law at the last minute? Or that the oppressed population will not finally expel Erdogan and bring the factory under workers’ control? The risks are great, so great that UBS and consortia
would only grant Rieter the credit necessary for the foreign investment if the conditions attached to it made it hardly lucrative for Rieter. But since the Confederation – to be more specific: the Federal Council – as the representative of capitalist interests as a whole has an interest in strengthening the Swiss presence in Turkey – extra profits are tempting, the strengthening of Switzerland as a business location compared to other locations is tempting – the state steps in with its SERV: without further ado, it guarantees the default risk to Rieter and UBS and thus makes the construction of a new textile factory in Turkey possible.
The example is quite representative, in many respects. For just as Rieter is in fact a main buyer of SERV insurance policies in Turkey, where the textile industry is supplied with Rieter machinery, Turkey is in fact a focal country for SERV. For years, SERV has not insured as much Swiss export capital in any other country in the world. In 2021 alone, 650 million Swiss francs were insured in Turkey (out of a total volume this year of 4.5 billion CHF worldwide). SERV is an outstanding guarantor of Swiss capital in Turkey. And subsequently an outstanding financier of Turkish fascism.
It should also be briefly recalled here that it was similar export insurance agencies that 15 years ago wanted to enable a Western consortium of ABB, Alstom and others to build the Turkish Ilisu dam. The attacks on nature and the habitat of the local population, on cultural sites thousands of years old and on the freedom of movement of the guerrillas associated with the damming of the Tigris had led to fierce opposition to this mega-project, so that the export insurers had to withdraw their guarantees and the project was thus postponed for the time being (the AKP regime found other financiers).
Again: All this is not a coincidental product of a regrettable indecency of the ‘free market’, but political positioning of the Swiss bourgeoisie: The SERV is directly subordinated to the Federal Council. Its mandate is officially to support Swiss foreign policy. When this institution makes Turkey its focus, it shows that all the diplomatic statements about respecting the rights of prisoners, reintroducing the Istanbul Convention, protecting opposition journalists, or respecting international border agreements are nothing more than empty lip service, fig leaves in front of capitalist shamelessness, worthless wastepaper. What counts in the end is the deep strategic bond, the expression of which is exemplified by SERV on the Genferstrasse.
Our attack on the Geneva Road is also an expression of a deep strategic bond – a bond with those forces that oppose murderous imperialism and its fascist enforcers in Turkey, Iraq, Syria and worldwide, a bond with the oppressed and exploited of this earth. These forces, especially in the Middle East, prove that it is possible to oppose reaction – against the IS gangs, against Turkish fascism, against deep-rooted patriarchy, against the geopolitical ambitions of various regional and imperialist actors. Against all of this, Rojava – the Democratic Confederation of Northern and Eastern Syria, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year – stands as a symbol of the possibility and efficacy of a real alternative like no other place in the Middle East.
Although the region faces constant existential threats, for 10 years the PKK-led movement has managed to make the revolutionary alternative more and more concrete. Continuing to advance the revolutionary process even in open warfare is also based on trusting first and foremost in one’s own strength. On the fact that in the end it must be and will be the strength of the people itself that will defeat the Turkish army. In these 38 years of armed struggle, the PKK has fought for a method that knows how to translate this confidence in its own strength into an engine. A method that puts military defense and the social process into a relationship, into a unity in which one and the other are closely intertwined.
This method was not developed at a desk. It was developed in bloody battles and paid for with immeasurable sacrifices. We dedicate this action to the thousands of friends and comrades who have fallen. Sehid namirin – the fallen do not die. They are part of the foundation on which the revolutionary project of Rojava stands and will continue to stand despite all attacks. It is in the common interest of all anti-capitalist forces to defend this project actively and to continue the thread of international solidarity, so that this example of alternative possibilities can continue to work – as a place of retreat as well as a starting point of revolutionary processes worldwide.
Long live international solidarity!
Fight for Rojava!”
Received by email/Originally posted to Nûçe Ciwan