Dear Cheerleaders, we need to have a chat about imperialism

People are quick to point out that Dauve isn't an anarchist (nor does he claim to be) but forget that the ROAR article, while predominantly featuring quotes from Dauve's article, also makes reference to the critique by the Anarchist Federation (of Great Britain) and a general attitude amongst anarchists.

This whole article reeks of the dogmatic idealism that Stanchev critiqued in his original article. The only arguments that they can put forward is that "Rojava isn't 100% anarchist" and why that is wrong. Stanchev stressed that the situation in Rojava isn't ideal and that we should approach it as such, that we shouldn't dismiss the struggle in Rojava (and Chiapas by extension) for this reason, and should not attempt to analyise according to our version of anarchism - one that relies on the privilege of living in a western state, and not a warzone.

The author goes to lengths to point out that he is not criticizing the PYD, but their cheerleaders, but then explains with great detail how the PYD is working with the US-led coalition against IS. How this coalition means that the social revolution in Rojava is just a sham and that they only exist because they US allows them to (a common critique of social movements by conspiracy theorists and a regular attempt to remove the agency of independent actors in geopolitics).

If nothing, the author has done well to prove Stanchev's point, that western anarchists are willing to condone a movement that is making considerable advances (even under direct fire from enemies) because it is not "anarchist" enough for them. There are genuine criticisms of the PYD in this article but the author makes no effort to understand the context those decisions are made in. When you are fighting an enemy that has you heavily outgunned and outnumbered sometimes you have to make tenuous alliances with people you rather wouldn't have to (like the US or Pershmerga). The alternative is to be killed, which is what western anarchists seem to be suggesting the Kurdish people do, keel over and surrender until an ideological pure solution can be found to IS.

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