WEBVTT 00:00:06.708 --> 00:00:08.963 This episode of It's the End of the world 00:00:08.963 --> 00:00:10.505 as we know it and I feel fine 00:00:10.505 --> 00:00:12.378 was made possible by contributions 00:00:12.378 --> 00:00:14.083 from slaves like you. 00:00:14.083 --> 00:00:15.139 Spank you very much! 00:00:15.139 --> 00:00:17.937 Ex-commercial TV Pr-man 00:00:17.937 --> 00:00:20.487 old Etonian and occasional pigfucker, 00:00:20.487 --> 00:00:22.909 David Cameron would like to bomb Syria. 00:00:22.909 --> 00:00:24.693 Unfortunately Russia's got there first 00:00:24.693 --> 00:00:26.646 and America's been doing it for ages. 00:00:26.646 --> 00:00:28.678 He wants to bomb Syria to stop the flow 00:00:28.678 --> 00:00:30.705 of refugees fleeing all the bombs. 00:00:30.705 --> 00:00:32.211 He's also hoping it will stop 00:00:32.211 --> 00:00:33.513 the increased influence of 00:00:33.513 --> 00:00:34.771 Islamic extremism. 00:00:34.771 --> 00:00:36.317 Bombing Syria will of course destroy 00:00:36.317 --> 00:00:38.588 the one remaining multicultural society 00:00:38.588 --> 00:00:40.138 in the region, leaving it open to 00:00:40.138 --> 00:00:41.798 the increased influence of 00:00:41.798 --> 00:00:43.237 Islamic extremism. 00:00:43.517 --> 00:00:45.183 To bomb Syria, therefore, 00:00:45.183 --> 00:00:46.568 is clearly mental. 00:00:52.868 --> 00:00:54.794 Goooooooooooooood morning slaves 00:00:54.794 --> 00:00:56.573 and welcome to another sedition of 00:00:56.573 --> 00:00:58.486 It's the End of the World as we Know it 00:00:58.486 --> 00:00:59.906 and I Feel Fine.... 00:00:59.906 --> 00:01:02.183 the show that gets under dictators’ skin. 00:01:02.183 --> 00:01:03.233 Need another car. 00:01:03.233 --> 00:01:04.982 Fraid this last one ended up in the drink. 00:01:06.582 --> 00:01:07.531 Look at you. 00:01:08.211 --> 00:01:08.876 You're a - 00:01:08.876 --> 00:01:09.579 I'm not puppet. 00:01:09.579 --> 00:01:11.084 You're a bloody puppet! 00:01:11.084 --> 00:01:13.363 Every person on earth, whether they 00:01:13.363 --> 00:01:15.598 agree or disagree with President Putin, 00:01:15.598 --> 00:01:16.502 they should respect him. 00:01:16.502 --> 00:01:18.971 ♫ I've got no strings to hold me down 00:01:18.971 --> 00:01:21.393 to make me fret, or make me frown. ♫ 00:01:21.393 --> 00:01:22.175 You're a puppet! 00:01:22.175 --> 00:01:22.822 I'm not puppet. 00:01:22.822 --> 00:01:24.300 I am your host the Stimulator, 00:01:24.300 --> 00:01:26.410 and this December will mark six years 00:01:26.410 --> 00:01:28.480 since 26 year old fruit vendor 00:01:28.480 --> 00:01:31.204 Mohammed Bouazizi lit himself on fire 00:01:31.204 --> 00:01:33.334 in the streets of Sidi Bouzid, 00:01:33.334 --> 00:01:35.499 to protest harassment from the pigs, 00:01:35.499 --> 00:01:36.823 and the crushing weight of 00:01:36.823 --> 00:01:38.326 systemic poverty, 00:01:38.326 --> 00:01:40.124 igniting the righteous fucking wave 00:01:40.124 --> 00:01:42.104 of revolt that came to be known as 00:01:42.104 --> 00:01:43.309 the Arab Spring. 00:01:43.309 --> 00:01:45.920 This historic uprising swept like wildfire 00:01:45.920 --> 00:01:48.115 across the Middle East and North Africa, 00:01:48.115 --> 00:01:50.463 toppling dictators in Tunisia, Egypt, 00:01:50.463 --> 00:01:51.827 Libya and Yemen, 00:01:51.827 --> 00:01:53.150 catching the United Snakes and 00:01:53.150 --> 00:01:55.458 its regional allies in the Gulf states 00:01:55.458 --> 00:01:56.319 off guard, 00:01:56.319 --> 00:01:58.188 and scaring the living shit out of them. 00:01:58.568 --> 00:02:00.101 Riots will start here. 00:02:00.101 --> 00:02:01.967 Iraq will be squeezed. 00:02:01.967 --> 00:02:04.259 Syria, Jordan will fall. 00:02:04.259 --> 00:02:06.739 Who will stand with the United States? 00:02:06.739 --> 00:02:08.524 Who will stand with Israel? 00:02:08.524 --> 00:02:10.640 Tragically, the heady optimism 00:02:10.640 --> 00:02:12.750 seen on the streets of Tahrir Square 00:02:12.750 --> 00:02:14.464 has long since been replaced by 00:02:14.464 --> 00:02:16.617 the jackboot of counter-revolution 00:02:16.617 --> 00:02:18.487 and the grim fucking realities 00:02:18.487 --> 00:02:20.156 of terrorism and civil war. 00:02:22.816 --> 00:02:25.322 In Bahrain, a popular uprising was 00:02:25.322 --> 00:02:27.486 brutally put down by a Saudi-led invasion. 00:02:27.486 --> 00:02:29.835 In Egypt, one pro-Western dictator 00:02:29.835 --> 00:02:31.965 has been replaced by another, 00:02:31.965 --> 00:02:33.701 who has ruthlessly clamped down on 00:02:33.701 --> 00:02:36.462 protests, jailing thousands of dissidents. 00:02:37.192 --> 00:02:38.875 Libya and Yemen have both descended 00:02:38.875 --> 00:02:40.810 into civil wars, each drawing in 00:02:40.810 --> 00:02:42.711 foreign military intervention. 00:02:43.391 --> 00:02:44.994 And then there's Syria. 00:02:51.749 --> 00:02:54.482 Up until now, me and my subMedia slaves 00:02:54.482 --> 00:02:55.818 have avoided putting out an 00:02:55.818 --> 00:02:57.824 in-depth sedition on Syria 00:02:57.824 --> 00:02:59.318 because the situation on the ground 00:02:59.318 --> 00:03:01.513 is incredibly fucking complicated, 00:03:01.513 --> 00:03:04.355 and well… frankly... depressing as fuck. 00:03:04.355 --> 00:03:07.247 Buuuuuuuuut despite being the defining war 00:03:07.247 --> 00:03:10.258 of our epoch, a horrific fucking slaughter 00:03:10.258 --> 00:03:11.761 that has killed upwards of 00:03:11.761 --> 00:03:12.981 half a million people, 00:03:12.981 --> 00:03:15.054 and displaced 12 million more, 00:03:15.054 --> 00:03:17.408 reduced entire cities to rubble, 00:03:17.408 --> 00:03:20.456 and spawned a massive flood of refugees 00:03:20.456 --> 00:03:21.916 that in turn has hastened 00:03:21.916 --> 00:03:23.707 the nationalist-fuelled disintegration of 00:03:23.707 --> 00:03:25.336 the European Union, 00:03:25.336 --> 00:03:27.455 and despite the fact that it has become 00:03:27.455 --> 00:03:28.715 a central battleground for 00:03:28.715 --> 00:03:30.994 the competing geopolitical ambitions 00:03:30.994 --> 00:03:32.593 of so-called great powers 00:03:32.593 --> 00:03:34.771 and regional state actors alike... 00:03:34.771 --> 00:03:36.723 the fact is that the Syrian Revolution 00:03:36.723 --> 00:03:38.819 and subsequent civil war 00:03:38.819 --> 00:03:40.628 is still woefully misunderstood. 00:03:40.628 --> 00:03:42.217 On the right side of the spectrum, 00:03:42.217 --> 00:03:43.490 corporate and state-run media 00:03:43.490 --> 00:03:44.901 have depicted Syria solely as 00:03:44.901 --> 00:03:46.025 an external threat; 00:03:46.025 --> 00:03:47.831 a breeding ground for ISIS terrorists 00:03:47.831 --> 00:03:49.327 who are trying to smuggle their way 00:03:49.327 --> 00:03:51.286 into Western population centres 00:03:51.286 --> 00:03:53.919 by pretending to be war-torn refugees. 00:03:53.919 --> 00:03:55.754 Is the United States opening its doors 00:03:55.754 --> 00:03:57.348 to potential terrorists? 00:03:57.348 --> 00:03:58.641 I could never have imagined 00:03:58.641 --> 00:04:00.562 an Islamic radical sleeper cell 00:04:00.562 --> 00:04:01.505 becoming president. 00:04:01.505 --> 00:04:04.288 If they can cross... anybody can cross. 00:04:04.878 --> 00:04:06.681 And I'm here today to ask you: 00:04:06.681 --> 00:04:07.751 do you feel safe? 00:04:07.751 --> 00:04:08.769 We ain't scared of you. 00:04:08.769 --> 00:04:11.003 We're not gonna let you guys use your fear 00:04:11.003 --> 00:04:12.678 to take our rights away. 00:04:12.678 --> 00:04:14.678 They claim to be in America now! 00:04:14.678 --> 00:04:16.728 And as soon as you come into our country 00:04:16.728 --> 00:04:18.560 we're gonna trick your ass out! 00:04:18.560 --> 00:04:20.584 In other news, Muslims are bad. 00:04:20.584 --> 00:04:21.935 What more do you need to know 00:04:21.935 --> 00:04:22.862 about these people?! 00:04:22.862 --> 00:04:25.305 Many Western leftists, on the other hand, 00:04:25.305 --> 00:04:27.184 have adopted a disgustingly 00:04:27.184 --> 00:04:29.422 amoral pragmatism that rationalizes 00:04:29.422 --> 00:04:31.868 their lack of solidarity by pointing to 00:04:31.868 --> 00:04:33.730 the lack of a sufficiently moderate 00:04:33.730 --> 00:04:35.422 armed rebel faction to support. 00:04:35.422 --> 00:04:37.194 Who are the fighters there? 00:04:37.194 --> 00:04:39.958 Well it's not just ISIS, but it's al-Nusra 00:04:39.958 --> 00:04:42.526 as well... the Al Qaeda affiliate. 00:04:42.526 --> 00:04:44.216 There are said to be moderates there, 00:04:44.216 --> 00:04:46.336 but you know... and there probably are, 00:04:46.336 --> 00:04:47.716 but they're not a - 00:04:47.716 --> 00:04:49.686 they're a minority force. 00:04:49.686 --> 00:04:51.418 While others have gone so far as 00:04:51.418 --> 00:04:52.840 to throw their support behind 00:04:52.840 --> 00:04:55.116 the psychopathic regime of that ugly 00:04:55.116 --> 00:04:57.314 teen-stached motherfucker himself, 00:04:57.314 --> 00:04:58.579 Bashar al-Asaad. 00:04:58.579 --> 00:04:59.840 Death to imperialism, 00:04:59.840 --> 00:05:02.433 victory to Bashar Assad. 00:05:02.433 --> 00:05:05.291 Victory to the Syrian Arab Army, 00:05:05.291 --> 00:05:06.672 the National Defense Force, 00:05:06.672 --> 00:05:08.743 The Popular Front for the Liberation 00:05:08.743 --> 00:05:13.752 of Palestine, and everyone who is fighting 00:05:13.752 --> 00:05:15.987 within Syria for the Syrian people. 00:05:18.117 --> 00:05:20.380 This confused and politically bankrupt 00:05:20.380 --> 00:05:22.617 fucking narrative is particularly popular 00:05:22.617 --> 00:05:24.607 with tankies who have a collective hard-on 00:05:24.607 --> 00:05:27.366 for Vladimir Putin, and seemingly base 00:05:27.366 --> 00:05:29.087 their entire fucking worldview on 00:05:29.087 --> 00:05:31.277 a fossilized Cold War narrative that 00:05:31.277 --> 00:05:33.260 supports any state that they deem to be 00:05:33.260 --> 00:05:35.536 an official enemy of the United Snakes. 00:05:35.536 --> 00:05:37.625 Tankie leftists believe that Assad 00:05:37.625 --> 00:05:39.773 has been targeted for regime change by 00:05:39.773 --> 00:05:41.391 the United Snakes and its allies, 00:05:41.391 --> 00:05:43.270 and that Syria is being protected 00:05:43.270 --> 00:05:45.754 by its staunchly anti-imperialist homies, 00:05:45.754 --> 00:05:47.133 Russia and Iran. 00:05:47.133 --> 00:05:49.046 Buuuuuuuuut putting aside the fact that 00:05:49.046 --> 00:05:50.796 Russia and Iran are both gangsta 00:05:50.796 --> 00:05:52.831 imperialist states in their own right 00:05:52.831 --> 00:05:54.128 who oppress the fuck out of 00:05:54.128 --> 00:05:55.525 their own citizens, there's an 00:05:55.525 --> 00:05:57.870 even more obvious flaw in this logic... 00:05:57.870 --> 00:05:59.650 the fact that the United Snakes isn't 00:05:59.650 --> 00:06:02.261 actually trying to overthrow Assad at all. 00:06:06.804 --> 00:06:08.434 The real threat to Assad's fascist 00:06:08.434 --> 00:06:09.947 fucking regime has come from Syrians 00:06:09.947 --> 00:06:12.023 themselves, who after growing sick and 00:06:12.023 --> 00:06:13.894 mothafuckin tired of having their peaceful 00:06:13.894 --> 00:06:16.109 protests bombed and machine-gunned, 00:06:16.109 --> 00:06:18.412 launched a popular fucking armed uprising. 00:06:18.412 --> 00:06:20.030 And it's racist as fuck to ignore 00:06:20.030 --> 00:06:22.637 this fact, and to see all Syrian people 00:06:22.637 --> 00:06:24.751 as either Islamic terrorists or 00:06:24.751 --> 00:06:27.303 helpless victims only worthy of support 00:06:27.303 --> 00:06:29.021 once they become refugees. 00:06:29.021 --> 00:06:30.648 As the Presidential elections in 00:06:30.648 --> 00:06:32.682 the United Snakes draw ever closer, 00:06:32.682 --> 00:06:34.188 members of the Obama administration 00:06:34.188 --> 00:06:37.075 are in a rush to add a victory over ISIS 00:06:37.075 --> 00:06:38.896 to their presidential legacy, 00:06:38.896 --> 00:06:40.846 before the next war-criminal-in-chief gets 00:06:40.846 --> 00:06:41.982 sworn in in January. 00:06:41.982 --> 00:06:43.500 To help accomplish this, 00:06:43.500 --> 00:06:45.770 they've stepped up cooperation with Russia 00:06:45.770 --> 00:06:47.404 and the two sides have recently agreed 00:06:47.404 --> 00:06:49.763 to a so-called Cessation of Hostilities, 00:06:49.763 --> 00:06:51.768 in order to join forces to fight ISIS 00:06:51.768 --> 00:06:53.089 and Al Qaeda. 00:06:53.089 --> 00:06:55.045 Buuuuuuuuuuut few peeps following things 00:06:55.045 --> 00:06:57.311 on the ground actually think this latest 00:06:57.311 --> 00:06:59.622 diplomatic push is gonna work. 00:06:59.622 --> 00:07:01.348 There’s only one person who can end 00:07:01.348 --> 00:07:02.934 the civil war in Syria. 00:07:02.934 --> 00:07:04.422 You would rule in the possibility 00:07:04.422 --> 00:07:05.771 of using nuclear weapons against ISIS? 00:07:05.771 --> 00:07:07.771 Well.... I'm not going rule anything out. 00:07:07.771 --> 00:07:10.535 Oh fuck no... not that fucker. 00:07:10.535 --> 00:07:12.366 I’m talking about Syria’s greasy, 00:07:12.366 --> 00:07:14.643 sunken-eyed, goose-necked dictator 00:07:14.643 --> 00:07:16.835 himself… Bashar Al-Assad. 00:07:16.835 --> 00:07:18.053 So with that in mind, 00:07:18.053 --> 00:07:19.638 I’ve got a simple plea. 00:07:20.778 --> 00:07:23.573 Bashar… you’ve done some pretty fucking 00:07:23.573 --> 00:07:26.094 heinous shit over the past five years. 00:07:26.094 --> 00:07:27.517 But there’s still time for you to do 00:07:27.517 --> 00:07:28.738 the right thing. 00:07:28.738 --> 00:07:30.921 In fact, it’s pretty simple… 00:07:30.921 --> 00:07:32.478 just fucking kill yourself. 00:07:35.458 --> 00:07:36.790 You do realize you’re not getting out 00:07:36.790 --> 00:07:38.498 of this shit alive, right? 00:07:38.498 --> 00:07:40.125 Once Russia and Iran get tired of 00:07:40.125 --> 00:07:41.345 propping up your corrupt, 00:07:41.345 --> 00:07:43.262 hollowed out regime, and decide to reach 00:07:43.262 --> 00:07:45.535 some sorta deal to cover their own asses, 00:07:45.535 --> 00:07:47.576 they’re throw you to the fuckin sharks. 00:07:47.576 --> 00:07:49.038 So how do you wanna go out? 00:07:49.038 --> 00:07:50.704 You wanna die like Ceausescu, 00:07:50.704 --> 00:07:52.828 swarmed by a pissed off mob and lynched? 00:07:52.828 --> 00:07:54.766 Who knows… with all you’ve done, 00:07:54.766 --> 00:07:57.309 you’d probably get the full Mussolini. 00:07:57.309 --> 00:07:58.813 Or maybe, just maybe, you’d prefer to 00:07:58.813 --> 00:08:00.680 take the dignified way out, 00:08:00.680 --> 00:08:01.941 like a fucking samurai, 00:08:01.941 --> 00:08:04.717 or... or viking warrior or some shit… 00:08:04.717 --> 00:08:06.337 or as dignified as a man as hideous and 00:08:06.337 --> 00:08:08.897 awkward as you could possibly hope for. 00:08:08.897 --> 00:08:10.975 Fuck it… you could shoot yourself out of 00:08:10.975 --> 00:08:12.925 a fucking cannon into the Mediterranean 00:08:12.925 --> 00:08:14.416 ....that might be fun. 00:08:14.416 --> 00:08:16.719 And seriously… who’s gonna miss you? 00:08:16.719 --> 00:08:18.131 Aside from these tankies, 00:08:18.131 --> 00:08:19.987 and your ugly fucking cousin Rahmi. 00:08:19.987 --> 00:08:22.074 And on the plus side… just think about 00:08:22.074 --> 00:08:23.466 how much suffering and bloodshed 00:08:23.466 --> 00:08:24.573 you could avoid… 00:08:24.573 --> 00:08:26.528 let alone all the rope peeps would save 00:08:26.528 --> 00:08:28.103 by not having to hang you by your 00:08:28.103 --> 00:08:29.691 freakishly long neck! 00:08:29.691 --> 00:08:32.206 Anyway Bashar… just an idea. 00:08:32.206 --> 00:08:33.181 Ball's in your court, 00:08:33.181 --> 00:08:35.163 you miserable piece of shit. 00:08:35.537 --> 00:08:39.193 ♫ Head high, you made a revolution 00:08:39.193 --> 00:08:40.577 Be proud of yourselves, 00:08:40.577 --> 00:08:42.457 you destroyed a dirty band. 00:08:42.457 --> 00:08:45.507 I know I have lost many things 00:08:45.507 --> 00:08:47.297 But I feel I have gained many things. 00:08:47.297 --> 00:08:49.164 Freedom, dignity, it is not easy. 00:08:49.164 --> 00:08:51.068 It's not easy to do something 00:08:51.068 --> 00:08:52.865 without victims and war machines. 00:08:52.865 --> 00:08:54.980 Destroy the tree and the stone 00:08:54.980 --> 00:08:57.114 Not one wall left standing 00:08:57.964 --> 00:09:01.126 The regime humiliates me, 00:09:01.126 --> 00:09:02.808 fuck him, he will not have me 00:09:02.808 --> 00:09:04.648 Opposition failed on one side, 00:09:04.648 --> 00:09:06.228 the other false media 00:09:06.228 --> 00:09:07.910 Hezbollah, Daesh and others 00:09:07.910 --> 00:09:09.536 countries of a world cursed 00:09:09.536 --> 00:09:12.703 They let the people die & prepared coffins 00:09:12.703 --> 00:09:14.615 I speak for the people, 00:09:14.615 --> 00:09:16.815 gone are the days of silence 00:09:16.815 --> 00:09:20.193 Gone are the days where you not dare express 00:09:20.193 --> 00:09:23.731 If the revolution is here, it's your time 00:09:23.731 --> 00:09:25.239 This is not a civil war 00:09:25.239 --> 00:09:27.082 its the revolt of your people 00:09:27.082 --> 00:09:29.402 The Refugees of RAP, 00:09:29.402 --> 00:09:30.960 the voice of the people came back. 00:09:30.960 --> 00:09:32.867 This is not a civil war 00:09:32.867 --> 00:09:35.075 It is the revolt of a people, began peacefully 00:09:35.075 --> 00:09:42.428 This is a revolution. ♫ 00:09:44.498 --> 00:09:46.441 On August 25th, Turkey’s thin-skinned 00:09:46.441 --> 00:09:48.660 proto-fascist tyrant, Tayyip Erdogan, 00:09:48.660 --> 00:09:50.407 officially joined the geopolitical 00:09:50.407 --> 00:09:52.599 clusterfuck in Syria, when he sent 00:09:52.599 --> 00:09:54.227 Turkey’s armed forces to lead 00:09:54.227 --> 00:09:56.098 a cross-border incursion, ostensibly to 00:09:56.098 --> 00:09:58.831 fight Daesh or the so-called Islamic State 00:09:58.831 --> 00:10:00.243 but transparently as an effort to 00:10:00.243 --> 00:10:01.625 halt the breaks on advances by 00:10:01.625 --> 00:10:03.209 the Syrian Democratic Forces, led by the 00:10:03.209 --> 00:10:06.174 Kurdish People’s Protection Unit, or YPG, 00:10:06.174 --> 00:10:07.937 which has been making territorial gains 00:10:07.937 --> 00:10:09.688 in the region that Syria’s Kurds have 00:10:09.688 --> 00:10:11.154 re-christened as Rojava. 00:10:11.154 --> 00:10:12.786 For many outside observers of the 00:10:12.786 --> 00:10:15.185 Syrian civil war, the Rojava Revolution 00:10:15.185 --> 00:10:17.100 has been a lonely beacon of hope 00:10:17.100 --> 00:10:19.299 in an otherwise bleak fucking tragedy, 00:10:19.299 --> 00:10:21.086 and anarchists and other revolutionaries 00:10:21.086 --> 00:10:22.788 around the world have accordingly flocked 00:10:22.788 --> 00:10:24.604 to show solidarity with their cause. 00:10:24.604 --> 00:10:26.363 This has ranged from the establishment 00:10:26.363 --> 00:10:28.445 of Rojava solidarity chapters in cities 00:10:28.445 --> 00:10:29.883 and countries across the world, 00:10:29.891 --> 00:10:31.572 all the way to peeps traveling to join 00:10:31.572 --> 00:10:33.360 international battalions of volunteer 00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:35.836 fighters on the front lines, in an act of 00:10:35.836 --> 00:10:37.836 international solidarity that hearkens 00:10:37.836 --> 00:10:39.586 back to the Spanish Civil War. 00:10:39.586 --> 00:10:40.919 Over the past several years, 00:10:40.919 --> 00:10:42.517 the liberated cantons of Rojava 00:10:42.517 --> 00:10:43.979 have witnessed some of the most 00:10:43.979 --> 00:10:45.766 inspiring revolutionary transformations 00:10:45.766 --> 00:10:47.923 in modern history, most notable being 00:10:47.923 --> 00:10:49.631 its grassroots Tev-Dem system 00:10:49.631 --> 00:10:51.705 of participatory democracy, and the 00:10:51.705 --> 00:10:53.374 accompanying self-organization and 00:10:53.374 --> 00:10:54.831 mass empowerment of women. 00:10:55.241 --> 00:10:57.406 Freedom for Kurdistan starts with 00:10:57.406 --> 00:10:58.750 freedom for women. 00:10:58.750 --> 00:10:59.840 When women are free, 00:10:59.840 --> 00:11:01.504 then Kurdistan will be free. 00:11:01.504 --> 00:11:03.059 These hard-fought gains have been 00:11:03.059 --> 00:11:05.337 all the more impressive given the fact 00:11:05.337 --> 00:11:07.165 that they've taken place while waging 00:11:07.165 --> 00:11:09.165 an existential war against the 00:11:09.165 --> 00:11:11.528 genocidal fucking jihadis of Daesh. 00:11:11.528 --> 00:11:13.521 Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuut while this will no doubt 00:11:13.521 --> 00:11:15.021 piss a lot of peeps off… 00:11:15.021 --> 00:11:16.609 Oh boy, here we go! 00:11:16.609 --> 00:11:18.507 the uncomfortable truth is that many 00:11:18.507 --> 00:11:20.671 supporters of Rojava have adopted a 00:11:20.671 --> 00:11:22.319 dogmatic, uncritical approach to 00:11:22.319 --> 00:11:24.851 the Kurdish struggle in northern Syria, 00:11:24.851 --> 00:11:26.597 particularly its military aspect, 00:11:26.597 --> 00:11:28.148 and in the process have ignored or 00:11:28.148 --> 00:11:29.536 downplayed actions that not only 00:11:29.536 --> 00:11:31.242 contradict fundamental principles of 00:11:31.242 --> 00:11:33.269 the Rojava revolution, but also 00:11:33.269 --> 00:11:34.639 pose serious fucking threats to 00:11:34.639 --> 00:11:36.569 its future viability and the spread of 00:11:36.569 --> 00:11:38.041 values within the region. 00:11:38.041 --> 00:11:39.829 Kurds have long and tragic history of 00:11:39.829 --> 00:11:41.700 betrayal and oppression at the hands of 00:11:41.700 --> 00:11:43.488 the different states and ethnic groups 00:11:43.488 --> 00:11:45.515 that surround them on all sides. 00:11:45.515 --> 00:11:47.385 Under the Assad regime they were 00:11:47.385 --> 00:11:48.816 officially banned from speaking their 00:11:48.816 --> 00:11:50.436 own language, and were targeted by 00:11:50.436 --> 00:11:52.846 so-called Arabization policies aimed at 00:11:52.846 --> 00:11:54.518 controlling natural resources and 00:11:54.518 --> 00:11:56.268 manipulating ethnic demographics 00:11:56.268 --> 00:11:57.288 in the region. 00:11:57.288 --> 00:11:59.204 One of the main tenants of Rojava’s 00:11:59.204 --> 00:12:01.971 Tev-Dem system has been an embrace of 00:12:01.971 --> 00:12:03.923 secular pluralism and cultural 00:12:03.923 --> 00:12:05.550 and political autonomy for different 00:12:05.550 --> 00:12:07.666 ethnic groups and religious minorities. 00:12:07.666 --> 00:12:08.395 At the same time, 00:12:08.395 --> 00:12:11.162 the Democratic Unity Party, or PYD, the 00:12:11.162 --> 00:12:13.480 ruling Kurdish political party in Rojava, 00:12:13.480 --> 00:12:15.638 has pursued a policy of geographically 00:12:15.638 --> 00:12:17.633 linking the three Kurdish cantons of 00:12:17.633 --> 00:12:19.623 Afrin, Kobane and Jazira, which are 00:12:19.623 --> 00:12:21.126 physically separated from one another by 00:12:21.126 --> 00:12:23.039 large swaths of land primarily 00:12:23.039 --> 00:12:24.179 populated by Arabs. 00:12:26.989 --> 00:12:28.985 The YPG militia, from the start of 00:12:28.985 --> 00:12:30.403 the revolution, has been working for 00:12:30.403 --> 00:12:31.986 its own interests. 00:12:31.986 --> 00:12:33.868 It created an autonomous area.... 00:12:33.868 --> 00:12:36.111 it never recognized the Syrian revolution, 00:12:36.111 --> 00:12:38.280 but it used it to create its own state. 00:12:38.280 --> 00:12:40.577 The efforts to link the cantons militarily 00:12:40.577 --> 00:12:42.571 has provoked a great deal of inter-ethnic 00:12:42.571 --> 00:12:45.418 strife in Northern Syria, with YPG forces 00:12:45.418 --> 00:12:47.198 benefiting from both US and Russian 00:12:47.198 --> 00:12:49.440 airstrikes - in the latter case leading to 00:12:49.440 --> 00:12:51.224 ethnic cleansing of rebel-held positions 00:12:51.224 --> 00:12:52.889 in the province of Aleppo. 00:12:52.889 --> 00:12:55.043 YPG supporters have tended to justify 00:12:55.043 --> 00:12:56.676 these actions by claiming that the Arab 00:12:56.676 --> 00:12:59.070 forces they have been targeting are all 00:12:59.070 --> 00:13:00.379 head-chopping jihadis, 00:13:00.379 --> 00:13:02.796 or members of Daesh or Al-Nusra. 00:13:02.796 --> 00:13:04.083 Hopefully this doesn’t become a 00:13:04.083 --> 00:13:06.643 self-fulfilling prophecy, and the YPG 00:13:06.643 --> 00:13:08.837 and local militias of the Free Syrian Army 00:13:08.837 --> 00:13:10.424 are able to come to an understanding 00:13:10.424 --> 00:13:12.132 and mutual fucking coexistence. 00:13:12.132 --> 00:13:14.038 This is especially important now that 00:13:14.038 --> 00:13:15.865 Turkey’s military has joined the fray, 00:13:15.865 --> 00:13:18.066 and Erdogan, drunk on the authoritarian 00:13:18.066 --> 00:13:19.941 fucking powers he seized in the wake of 00:13:19.941 --> 00:13:21.221 July’s failed coup, 00:13:21.221 --> 00:13:23.113 has begun further cracking down on Kurds 00:13:23.113 --> 00:13:24.580 in south-eastern Turkey. 00:13:24.580 --> 00:13:25.815 While it’s important that anarchists 00:13:25.815 --> 00:13:27.380 fully support aspirations of Kurdish 00:13:27.380 --> 00:13:29.164 autonomy and self-determination, 00:13:29.164 --> 00:13:31.616 whether in Syria, Turkey, Iraq or Iran… 00:13:31.616 --> 00:13:33.159 it’s also important to support the 00:13:33.159 --> 00:13:34.783 autonomy of Syrians in other parts of 00:13:34.783 --> 00:13:36.612 the country, who are struggling against 00:13:36.612 --> 00:13:38.036 a fucked up combination of 00:13:38.036 --> 00:13:40.471 authoritarian Islamists, the Assad regime, 00:13:40.471 --> 00:13:42.342 and its Iranian and Russian backers. 00:13:42.342 --> 00:13:44.452 They are more powerful with weapons, 00:13:44.452 --> 00:13:47.283 but we are more powerful in our hearts. 00:13:47.283 --> 00:13:49.083 Many of you have your freedom 00:13:49.083 --> 00:13:51.494 because of a revolution. 00:13:51.494 --> 00:13:53.680 The time for our freedom is now. 00:13:53.832 --> 00:13:55.349 So… in an effort to shed some 00:13:55.349 --> 00:13:57.129 well-needed light on this other aspect 00:13:57.129 --> 00:13:58.927 of the Syrian Revolution, I recently 00:13:58.927 --> 00:14:01.081 caught up with Robin Yassin-Kassab, 00:14:01.081 --> 00:14:03.036 a Syrian-British journalist, and co-author 00:14:03.036 --> 00:14:05.476 of Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution 00:14:05.476 --> 00:14:06.094 and War. 00:14:06.094 --> 00:14:08.110 Hey Robin, how the fuck are you? 00:14:08.110 --> 00:14:09.498 I'm very well indeed. 00:14:09.498 --> 00:14:11.619 Back in January, you and your co-author 00:14:11.619 --> 00:14:13.651 Leila al-Shami published Burning Country: 00:14:13.651 --> 00:14:15.720 Syrians in Revolution and War, which is 00:14:15.720 --> 00:14:17.586 widely regarded as one of the best 00:14:17.586 --> 00:14:19.013 English-language accounts of 00:14:19.013 --> 00:14:20.760 the Syrian Revolution. 00:14:20.760 --> 00:14:22.506 What inspired you to write this book? 00:14:22.506 --> 00:14:24.663 I think we wrote the book because 00:14:24.663 --> 00:14:27.599 we felt that the story of the Syrian 00:14:27.599 --> 00:14:29.965 Revolution, and then the various 00:14:29.965 --> 00:14:33.536 counter-revolutions which came back at it 00:14:33.536 --> 00:14:35.405 wasn't being told properly. 00:14:35.405 --> 00:14:37.481 Everybody knows about the jihadists and 00:14:37.481 --> 00:14:39.483 the head-choppers, and everybody knows 00:14:39.483 --> 00:14:42.655 about Putin, and Turkey and Qatar, 00:14:42.655 --> 00:14:43.931 and Saudi Arabia. 00:14:43.931 --> 00:14:46.547 But nobody seems to know about, y'know, 00:14:46.547 --> 00:14:49.686 grassroots Syrian workers and farmers, 00:14:49.686 --> 00:14:52.038 and students who were going out there 00:14:52.038 --> 00:14:54.579 and protesting, and then who began to 00:14:54.579 --> 00:14:56.270 pick up weapons when they were 00:14:56.270 --> 00:14:57.486 so oppressed. 00:14:57.486 --> 00:15:00.205 So we did it because we wanted to give a 00:15:00.205 --> 00:15:02.814 voice to those remarkable Syrian 00:15:02.814 --> 00:15:04.646 revolutionaries, which we thought they 00:15:04.646 --> 00:15:06.550 were lacking in the English language, 00:15:06.550 --> 00:15:07.798 and in the west. 00:15:07.798 --> 00:15:09.319 You have been pretty fucking outspoken 00:15:09.319 --> 00:15:10.501 in your criticism of the international 00:15:10.501 --> 00:15:12.329 response to the conflict in Syria, 00:15:12.329 --> 00:15:13.946 and particularly scathing with regards to 00:15:13.946 --> 00:15:16.229 the posture adopted by western leftists. 00:15:16.229 --> 00:15:18.013 What in particular pisses you off 00:15:18.013 --> 00:15:19.402 about how peeps have approached 00:15:19.402 --> 00:15:20.990 the situation.... and what do you think 00:15:20.990 --> 00:15:22.706 that this says about the current state 00:15:22.706 --> 00:15:24.306 of the left more generally? 00:15:24.306 --> 00:15:25.870 Well I think it's been really depressing, 00:15:25.870 --> 00:15:29.364 really tragic that a lot of Syrians 00:15:29.364 --> 00:15:32.008 expected at the start that they would be 00:15:32.008 --> 00:15:35.464 getting help, or solidarity from the 00:15:35.464 --> 00:15:38.496 leftists, the so-called anti-imperialists 00:15:38.496 --> 00:15:41.523 in the west, and very often it was 00:15:41.523 --> 00:15:43.273 the left, at least the mainstream or 00:15:43.273 --> 00:15:46.037 dominant left, which misrepresented them 00:15:46.037 --> 00:15:48.175 and spread lies about them even before 00:15:48.175 --> 00:15:49.250 the right did. 00:15:49.250 --> 00:15:51.893 So for example, nowadays we have the 00:15:51.893 --> 00:15:53.514 right-wing telling us that all these 00:15:53.514 --> 00:15:55.918 Syrian refugees, they're all Al Qaeda, 00:15:55.918 --> 00:15:57.707 they're all dangerous jihadists 00:15:57.707 --> 00:15:59.311 and we shouldn't let any of them in.... 00:15:59.311 --> 00:16:01.891 this notion that every Syrian, or every 00:16:01.891 --> 00:16:04.328 Syrian revolutionary is Al Qaeda was 00:16:04.328 --> 00:16:05.880 actually spread by lots of people 00:16:05.880 --> 00:16:06.901 on the left. 00:16:06.901 --> 00:16:09.662 I think what the left has done, not just 00:16:09.662 --> 00:16:11.858 in the case of Syria, but in general, 00:16:11.858 --> 00:16:14.785 tragically, the left has given up on 00:16:14.785 --> 00:16:15.725 ordinary people. 00:16:15.725 --> 00:16:18.057 It seems to have lost hope that people at 00:16:18.057 --> 00:16:20.197 the grassroots can actually change things, 00:16:20.197 --> 00:16:22.676 and therefore it's just got itself 00:16:22.676 --> 00:16:24.543 obsessed with states. 00:16:24.543 --> 00:16:26.007 It seems to think that being 00:16:26.007 --> 00:16:27.838 left-wing is about supporting certain 00:16:27.838 --> 00:16:30.157 states against other states, as if there 00:16:30.157 --> 00:16:32.720 are, y'know, goodie states against 00:16:32.720 --> 00:16:33.648 the badie states. 00:16:33.648 --> 00:16:35.647 But that's not classical leftism. 00:16:35.647 --> 00:16:37.756 It's not Marxism... I mean Marxism talked 00:16:37.756 --> 00:16:41.412 about doing a class analysis in which you 00:16:41.412 --> 00:16:44.140 give your support to the working classes 00:16:44.140 --> 00:16:45.841 in their struggle against 00:16:45.841 --> 00:16:48.089 the ruling classes. And I think that's 00:16:48.089 --> 00:16:49.795 what leftists should be doing 00:16:49.795 --> 00:16:51.470 if they want to be in any way relevant 00:16:51.470 --> 00:16:53.834 to real struggles in the world. 00:16:53.834 --> 00:16:55.980 They should be supporting people within 00:16:55.980 --> 00:16:58.018 every state who are trying to fight 00:16:58.018 --> 00:16:59.648 against their oppressors. 00:16:59.648 --> 00:17:01.844 And the left has failed to do that, 00:17:01.844 --> 00:17:04.406 and instead, through this very inaccurate 00:17:04.406 --> 00:17:07.904 state-based analysis, they're just making 00:17:07.904 --> 00:17:09.849 silly assumptions. They seem to think, 00:17:09.849 --> 00:17:11.765 for example, that this is a regime-change 00:17:11.765 --> 00:17:15.101 plot directed by the United States against 00:17:15.101 --> 00:17:18.351 the glorious resistance regime in Syria. 00:17:18.351 --> 00:17:21.161 And, y'know, the facts don't bear 00:17:21.161 --> 00:17:22.082 that out at all. 00:17:22.082 --> 00:17:23.718 You've stated on several occasions 00:17:23.718 --> 00:17:25.146 your belief that the Syrian Revolution 00:17:25.146 --> 00:17:26.848 has been the most significant revolution 00:17:26.848 --> 00:17:28.727 since 1930s Spain. 00:17:28.727 --> 00:17:30.312 Could you elaborate on this? 00:17:30.312 --> 00:17:32.749 In the revolution, and then particularly 00:17:32.749 --> 00:17:35.524 as it became a war, when the regime was 00:17:35.524 --> 00:17:37.884 forced to withdraw from certain parts of 00:17:37.884 --> 00:17:41.541 the country... as the regime withdrew, 00:17:41.541 --> 00:17:43.694 it withdrew the services that if offered, 00:17:43.694 --> 00:17:46.541 of course. The state collapsed. 00:17:46.541 --> 00:17:48.777 And what you had then, was that in many 00:17:48.777 --> 00:17:50.724 different parts of the country, 00:17:50.724 --> 00:17:53.123 people started setting up their own 00:17:53.123 --> 00:17:56.392 self-organized administrations. 00:17:56.392 --> 00:17:59.275 So they set up local councils for example. 00:17:59.275 --> 00:18:01.582 At the moment there are about 400 00:18:01.582 --> 00:18:05.401 local councils operating in the liberated 00:18:05.401 --> 00:18:07.758 areas of Syria. And these are the people 00:18:07.758 --> 00:18:09.605 who are keeping life together in the 00:18:09.605 --> 00:18:11.834 liberated areas, under the bombs, 00:18:11.834 --> 00:18:13.563 in the most difficult circumstances. 00:18:13.563 --> 00:18:15.210 They're keeping the electricity going, 00:18:15.210 --> 00:18:17.077 they're keeping the water supply going, 00:18:17.077 --> 00:18:19.189 they're trying to build makeshift 00:18:19.189 --> 00:18:21.302 hospitals and underground schools 00:18:21.302 --> 00:18:23.215 where people can be educated 00:18:23.215 --> 00:18:24.957 despite the bombs. 00:18:25.357 --> 00:18:26.549 This is remarkable! 00:18:26.549 --> 00:18:29.072 This self-organization, this local 00:18:29.072 --> 00:18:31.105 democracy, and nobody notices it. 00:18:31.105 --> 00:18:33.345 Nobody talks about it. It's much easier 00:18:33.345 --> 00:18:35.295 for us to talk about the Saudis and 00:18:35.295 --> 00:18:38.343 the Russians and the states than it is 00:18:38.343 --> 00:18:39.689 to talk about the remarkable things 00:18:39.689 --> 00:18:40.664 that people are doing. 00:18:40.664 --> 00:18:42.366 Not just councils... women's centers, 00:18:42.366 --> 00:18:43.797 free radio stations, 00:18:43.797 --> 00:18:45.302 free television stations, 00:18:45.302 --> 00:18:48.026 newspapers, an explosion of popular art, 00:18:48.026 --> 00:18:49.893 all of this kind of thing is happening 00:18:49.893 --> 00:18:52.732 in Syria, in the middle of an awful war, 00:18:52.732 --> 00:18:55.910 amidst starvation sieges... it's really 00:18:55.910 --> 00:18:58.393 remarkable and it's inspiring what's 00:18:58.393 --> 00:19:00.508 happening in Syria, as well as tragic, 00:19:00.508 --> 00:19:01.842 and it's our loss that we don't 00:19:01.842 --> 00:19:02.716 pay more attention to it. 00:19:02.716 --> 00:19:04.777 Outside of Rojava, many western anarchists 00:19:04.777 --> 00:19:07.096 are unfamiliar with the influential role 00:19:07.096 --> 00:19:08.267 that anarchists have played in the 00:19:08.267 --> 00:19:10.474 Syrian Revolution - a prime example being 00:19:10.474 --> 00:19:11.533 Omar Aziz. 00:19:11.533 --> 00:19:13.729 Can you tell us a little bit more about 00:19:13.729 --> 00:19:15.387 who he was, and his material and 00:19:15.387 --> 00:19:17.021 theoretical contributions to 00:19:17.021 --> 00:19:18.649 the revolutionary process? 00:19:18.649 --> 00:19:22.224 Yeah well, Omar Aziz was a remarkable man, 00:19:22.224 --> 00:19:23.506 and a very influential man. 00:19:23.506 --> 00:19:25.828 He was an anarchist, I mean, he 00:19:25.828 --> 00:19:29.656 self-identified as an anarchist. 00:19:29.656 --> 00:19:31.447 Of course, many of the people who set up 00:19:31.447 --> 00:19:34.725 the self-organized committees and councils 00:19:34.725 --> 00:19:36.332 that we were talking about, do not 00:19:36.332 --> 00:19:38.406 necessarily use the word anarchist to 00:19:38.406 --> 00:19:40.356 describe themselves. 00:19:40.356 --> 00:19:41.910 They don't necessarily come from that 00:19:41.910 --> 00:19:43.491 theoretical tradition. 00:19:43.491 --> 00:19:45.162 They haven't necessarily read Bakunin 00:19:45.162 --> 00:19:48.088 and so on, but what they're doing 00:19:48.088 --> 00:19:50.570 is anarchist. Omar Aziz actually 00:19:50.570 --> 00:19:52.484 identified as an anarchist, and he'd 00:19:52.484 --> 00:19:54.185 obviously read a lot of anarchism, 00:19:54.185 --> 00:19:55.770 and studied it. He was living outside 00:19:55.770 --> 00:19:57.888 of Syria, he came back to join 00:19:57.888 --> 00:19:59.798 the revolution, and then in the 8th month 00:19:59.798 --> 00:20:01.710 he wrote a paper in which he said 00:20:01.710 --> 00:20:04.027 it's not enough to go out and protest. 00:20:04.027 --> 00:20:06.019 We have to withdraw from the state, 00:20:06.019 --> 00:20:08.657 and stop giving our consent, and we have 00:20:08.657 --> 00:20:11.504 to set up our own alternative bodies 00:20:11.504 --> 00:20:13.578 and organizations, and he recommended 00:20:13.578 --> 00:20:15.568 setting up local councils - the local 00:20:15.568 --> 00:20:17.516 councils I was just talking about. 00:20:17.516 --> 00:20:19.509 He helped to set up three of the first 00:20:19.509 --> 00:20:22.428 local councils in the Damascus suburbs, 00:20:22.428 --> 00:20:23.897 and then he was arrested. 00:20:23.897 --> 00:20:26.492 And he died in prison. Some people say 00:20:26.492 --> 00:20:28.328 he was tortured to death, we don't know. 00:20:28.328 --> 00:20:30.884 He already had weak health when he went 00:20:30.884 --> 00:20:33.537 into prison... he died there a day before 00:20:33.537 --> 00:20:35.076 his 64th birthday. 00:20:35.076 --> 00:20:38.007 But after he died, this model that he had 00:20:38.007 --> 00:20:40.939 helped to build, spread like wildfire... 00:20:40.939 --> 00:20:44.441 particularly in 2012-2013 as the regime 00:20:44.441 --> 00:20:46.760 was withdrawing from key areas of 00:20:46.760 --> 00:20:48.593 the country, people were setting up 00:20:48.593 --> 00:20:50.428 local councils everywhere. 00:20:50.428 --> 00:20:52.821 It's also important to remember, I mean, 00:20:52.821 --> 00:20:56.067 in a way that anarchists in the west can 00:20:56.067 --> 00:20:58.110 identify with Omar Aziz to an extent 00:20:58.110 --> 00:20:59.849 - if they've heard of him - because he 00:20:59.849 --> 00:21:02.823 identified as an anarchist. But then, 00:21:02.823 --> 00:21:04.453 y'know, when we're looking at cultures 00:21:04.453 --> 00:21:06.403 which we as westerners don't immediately 00:21:06.403 --> 00:21:08.070 recognize - Islamic cultures, 00:21:08.070 --> 00:21:09.737 African cultures, y'know, cultures all 00:21:09.737 --> 00:21:13.918 over the world - people there may be using 00:21:13.918 --> 00:21:16.976 their own vocabulary, their own cultural 00:21:16.976 --> 00:21:20.048 vocabulary, but they're sometimes arriving 00:21:20.048 --> 00:21:21.634 at the same conclusions of 00:21:21.634 --> 00:21:23.569 self-organization and cooperation that 00:21:23.569 --> 00:21:25.845 anarchists in the west would hope that 00:21:25.845 --> 00:21:28.015 they arrive to, so that's interesting and 00:21:28.015 --> 00:21:29.487 I think we need to look out for that 00:21:29.487 --> 00:21:30.218 in the future. 00:21:30.218 --> 00:21:31.740 What effects have the revolution 00:21:31.740 --> 00:21:34.299 and subsequent civil war had in terms of 00:21:34.299 --> 00:21:36.331 women's participation in Syrian society? 00:21:36.331 --> 00:21:40.275 As a result of the revolution, women have 00:21:40.275 --> 00:21:42.469 been empowered a great deal, and then as 00:21:42.469 --> 00:21:45.209 a result of the counter-revolutionary war, 00:21:45.209 --> 00:21:47.797 in many ways things have gone backwards. 00:21:47.797 --> 00:21:49.384 In terms of the revolution, I mean, 00:21:49.384 --> 00:21:53.368 Razan Zaitouneh, a woman, was the founder 00:21:53.368 --> 00:21:55.197 of the Local Coordination Committees, 00:21:55.197 --> 00:21:57.597 a grassroots revolutionary unit which was 00:21:57.597 --> 00:21:59.653 set up at the start and spread all over 00:21:59.653 --> 00:22:01.420 the country. There was another group of 00:22:01.420 --> 00:22:03.171 coordination committees set up by 00:22:03.171 --> 00:22:05.493 Sohar Itasi, another woman, 00:22:05.493 --> 00:22:08.777 so those two very important key bodies 00:22:08.777 --> 00:22:11.657 were set up by women. 00:22:11.657 --> 00:22:13.331 Also, what you've had during 00:22:13.331 --> 00:22:16.674 the revolution in liberated areas is a lot 00:22:16.674 --> 00:22:19.250 of women's centers have been set up 00:22:19.250 --> 00:22:23.547 by women themselves in order to encourage 00:22:23.547 --> 00:22:26.111 women's participation in the revolution, 00:22:26.111 --> 00:22:28.263 in society, in the economy, in order to 00:22:28.263 --> 00:22:30.934 teach skills where necessary, and also as 00:22:30.934 --> 00:22:32.933 places where they can go and talk and 00:22:32.933 --> 00:22:36.184 express solidarity to each other, and try 00:22:36.184 --> 00:22:39.583 to find common solutions to their problems 00:22:39.583 --> 00:22:42.119 I think that the fact of revolutionary 00:22:42.119 --> 00:22:44.275 work, as well, has to an extent liberated 00:22:44.275 --> 00:22:47.288 women. Everything has been questioned 00:22:47.288 --> 00:22:49.366 in Syria in the last years, including the 00:22:49.366 --> 00:22:51.397 relations between men and women, between 00:22:51.397 --> 00:22:53.267 husbands and wives, between fathers and 00:22:53.267 --> 00:22:55.626 daughters, parents and children. 00:22:55.626 --> 00:22:57.859 On the other hand, y'know... of course 00:22:57.859 --> 00:23:00.950 the fact of war, in many ways has made 00:23:00.950 --> 00:23:03.063 things terrible for women. I mean, women 00:23:03.063 --> 00:23:07.019 have been subject to a mass rape campaign 00:23:07.019 --> 00:23:09.397 which the regime organized. 00:23:09.397 --> 00:23:12.490 ISIS also, of course, has raped women and 00:23:12.490 --> 00:23:15.872 made Yazidi women into sex slaves, all of 00:23:15.872 --> 00:23:17.863 this kind of barbarism has gone on. 00:23:17.863 --> 00:23:20.791 The fact of war has victimized women 00:23:20.791 --> 00:23:24.128 in particular... but the revolutionary 00:23:24.128 --> 00:23:26.150 impulses are there, and I think they will 00:23:26.150 --> 00:23:28.101 continue, and I think that women who've 00:23:28.101 --> 00:23:31.197 had a taste of activism and freedom, 00:23:31.197 --> 00:23:32.985 if only for a moment, during 00:23:32.985 --> 00:23:35.365 the revolution are not going to give 00:23:35.365 --> 00:23:36.763 that up, and they're going to pass 00:23:36.763 --> 00:23:38.181 that on to their daughters. 00:23:38.181 --> 00:23:39.239 Anything else you wanna add? 00:23:39.239 --> 00:23:40.941 I think that we should really be paying 00:23:40.941 --> 00:23:43.219 much more attention because, as I said, 00:23:43.219 --> 00:23:45.869 it's remarkable what Syrians are doing, 00:23:45.869 --> 00:23:48.796 socially, politically and culturally. 00:23:48.796 --> 00:23:50.790 As well as all of the terrible things, 00:23:50.790 --> 00:23:53.111 the torture, the jihadism, the bombing, 00:23:53.111 --> 00:23:54.822 the rest of it, there's all of this 00:23:54.822 --> 00:23:57.501 cultural explosion, the free newspapers, 00:23:57.501 --> 00:24:00.427 the community cooperation that's happening 00:24:00.427 --> 00:24:02.296 which we could learn from. 00:24:02.296 --> 00:24:03.964 This kind of thing doesn't happen 00:24:03.964 --> 00:24:06.888 very often in history, and certainly 00:24:06.888 --> 00:24:09.646 people who claim to be revolutionaries, 00:24:09.646 --> 00:24:11.590 anarchists and leftists they really should 00:24:11.590 --> 00:24:13.538 be the first people who are without 00:24:13.538 --> 00:24:16.362 prejudice, without silly binaries, without 00:24:16.362 --> 00:24:18.234 worshiping different lines set out 00:24:18.234 --> 00:24:20.142 by states - they should be attending 00:24:20.142 --> 00:24:21.610 to what's happening on the ground at the 00:24:21.610 --> 00:24:24.413 grassroots, and showing some solidarity. 00:24:24.413 --> 00:24:26.043 Thanks Robin… and that about 00:24:26.043 --> 00:24:27.538 does it for this sedition of it's the end 00:24:27.538 --> 00:24:29.819 of the world as we know it and I feel fine 00:24:29.819 --> 00:24:31.688 To listen to the entire interview 00:24:31.688 --> 00:24:33.716 with Robin, for a playlist of the music 00:24:33.716 --> 00:24:36.180 we used, or to subscribe to our podcast 00:24:36.180 --> 00:24:38.648 or email list just visit my fuckin website 00:24:40.238 --> 00:24:41.824 I wanted send a massive shoutout to the 00:24:41.824 --> 00:24:44.542 folks of newday.host for saving our ass 00:24:44.542 --> 00:24:45.925 when our webhost banned us, 00:24:45.925 --> 00:24:49.295 essentially leaving sub.media offline. 00:24:49.295 --> 00:24:51.713 Check them out at newday.host. 00:24:51.713 --> 00:24:53.939 Also big ups to Louis, Antoine and Micah 00:24:53.939 --> 00:24:55.406 for giving us tips on how to deal with 00:24:55.406 --> 00:24:56.914 a hacking crisis this summer. 00:24:56.914 --> 00:24:59.360 And of course, mega big ups to the slaves 00:24:59.360 --> 00:25:02.371 who help us keep the lights on. So big ups 00:25:02.371 --> 00:25:05.264 to: Harjap Jessica, Jay, Jim, Alexandra, 00:25:05.264 --> 00:25:07.842 Blade, Karlis, Steve, Gavin, Eradour, Jan, 00:25:07.842 --> 00:25:10.336 Jane, Jamie, Per, Laura, Flyn, Bear, 00:25:10.336 --> 00:25:13.084 Michael, Gabriel, Brett, Saganites, Juliano, 00:25:13.084 --> 00:25:14.879 Christopher, Stephen, Sebastien, Coby, 00:25:14.879 --> 00:25:17.078 Sakura, Aaron, Hanging Around Hammocks, 00:25:17.078 --> 00:25:20.539 William, Adam, Bogrestov, Salissen, Jordan 00:25:20.539 --> 00:25:23.263 Robert, Dan, Michelle, Andrew, Tyler, 00:25:23.263 --> 00:25:25.383 Aris, Justin, Michael, Joseph, Sawyer, 00:25:25.383 --> 00:25:27.493 Marisol, Corbin, Marten, Kirk, Elizabeth, 00:25:27.493 --> 00:25:30.255 Jens, Alyssa, Jakub, Justyna, Jose, David, 00:25:30.255 --> 00:25:32.778 Joni, Jeffrey, Christopher, Wolfgang, 00:25:32.778 --> 00:25:34.854 Andy, Danny, Paul, Gavin, Jeremy, 00:25:34.854 --> 00:25:37.537 Moresca, Christopher, John, Renzo, Yifan, 00:25:37.537 --> 00:25:41.323 Sebastian, Ken, Alexandra, Erin, Bogrestov 00:25:41.323 --> 00:25:44.451 Max, Skyler, Luigi, Paul, Maciej, Nigel, 00:25:44.451 --> 00:25:47.095 Heinrigh, Gregory, Liam, Adrian, Derrick, 00:25:47.095 --> 00:25:50.919 Marten, Margaret and Meghsha... Antojitos! 00:25:50.919 --> 00:25:53.565 I also want to welcome the newest members 00:25:53.565 --> 00:25:55.885 of the taconspiracy: Anonymous, Alberto, 00:25:55.885 --> 00:25:58.745 Sam, Liam, Corbo, Tunic and Talisman. 00:25:58.745 --> 00:25:59.709 Bolijos! 00:25:59.709 --> 00:26:01.892 That's all for now, stay tuned to 00:26:01.892 --> 00:26:04.090 sub.media for more news from 00:26:04.090 --> 00:26:06.042 the global muthafuckin resistance. 00:26:06.042 --> 00:26:07.427 Hasta la pasta compañeras!