THIS IS REVOLUTION>podcast Ep. 143: Stefan and the Rojava Revolution w/ The Saturday Crüe

The Syrian civil war has been one of the bloodiest civil wars of the decade leaving hundreds of thousands dead and millions displaced. The conflict, which originated in a rebellion against Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, has since spiraled into a seemingly endless cycle of violence, drawing in a number of international players in - from Turkey, Iran, Israel, and Saudi Arabia to Russia, Great Britain, and the United States. The war is often portrayed as being between a ruthless secular dictatorship and an opposition that has, over the years, come to be dominated by the most brutal and hardline Islamist groups, most notably ISIS. However, in Syria’s predominantly Kurdish inhabited North East, known locally as “Rojava”, a different political force emerged, the YPG, a libertarian socialist militia that came to prominence in the context of the fight against ISIS. Although heavily criticized by elements of the western left for its military alliance with the United States, the organization also attracted support from many anarchists and socialists who went to fight alongside the Kurds. This week on this is Revolution, we speak to one such individual Stefan Bertram-Lee about what inspired him to join the Kurds and what he found when he arrived in “Rojava”.

 
About Stefan from Jacobin:
https://jacobinmag.com/2019/08/the-online-left-goes-to-war

 
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The Dispatch on Zero Books (video essay series):
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Medium:
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