Young Internationalist WomenThe times in which we now find ourselves are characterized by huge confusion. It can be said that the world as it is structured today feeds off this mess. It is even necessary and mutually dependent on the capitalist economy. But when we speak of disorder, chaos and crisis, this cannot remain reduced only to economic conditions. Every single cell, every single organism in this world is also in this state.
In contrast to a well-organized collective of ants, where everyone has his or her task, but no one is in danger of drowning in the supposed chaos, and where everyone works together on the same structure, the chaos in which humanity finds itself is not self-chosen, but deliberately provoked and formed. At the center of this chaos is the young woman. She is given an extra heavy burden with which it is not possible for her to recognize her own goals, to go through life with a clear vision. She is in danger of being crushed by this burden. Instead of discovering the world for herself with her head held high, she is forced into a passive position. She has been made dependent on the system in every area of life. Thus, she sees no strength of her own and builds no desire of her own to break out of this cage.In capitalist modernity, the war of the hegemonic powers threatens women, above all, everywhere.
Every day, they trample the dead bodies of those who resist, who break out of passivity, who either actively revolt or simply exist. That's right, as a woman you only have to exist to be a target of the patriarchy. The system does not shy away from any means. It chooses its weapons carefully. The war it wages against women worldwide is a war for existence or non-existence. Above all, it attacks life. Because where life exists, there is always the potential of renewal. For this reason, capitalist modernity attacks precisely where this potential arises. It keeps people's minds and thoughts occupied, so that they are separated from their ideas of freedom. Through its self-presentation via media, advertising, in fact any influence created by the system around us, it manages to have a lasting impact and influence on society. This is how the system gains control over the individual. It creates needs that are detached from the real needs of the people. The outside world is reduced to satisfying their artificial needs alone, so the system offers up pieces of candy to you, you just have to bite.
Through this extremely high consumerism, life is alienated from a deeper meaning.This is done by killing off her true identity. Growing up as a young woman in this system means rejecting youthfulness, as inexperience makes you more vulnerable. You have to be able to assert yourself in this world as quickly as possible. You want to grow up as early as possible to become older, "more mature" and "more adult". With the realisation of what these classic roles mean, two superficial ways of dealing with them emerge: either to follow them or to bluntly reject them without a view to alternatives. In both cases, one detaches oneself from a search for truth. But what remains? What makes the young woman?
To go on a quest for the meaning of the young woman's true, pure identity means having the courage to become oneself. It also means putting back together the many puzzle pieces of this world that have been separated from each other by patriarchy. Only in this way can the domination of each of those pieces be broken. Therein lies the task of the young woman. Only in this way can she come closer to her self. She must free herself from existing only for the dreams and imagination of others. In order to develop her own dreams, she must free herself from the idea that liberation can be found within this system. She must detach herself from that which keeps her suppressed, only then can she develop free thought and realise the tools with which patriarchy colonises women. Patriarchy occupies so much in this world. Our existence, nature, the land. If we no longer accept domination, we must overcome the separation of humanity and nature. Or rather, the dividing lines between everything that exists, everything that is alive in this world. Only when we feel our connection to everything again are we able to understand the wholeness, the complexity of the world.
Only then will we be able to tear out patriarchy from its roots.
By overcoming the separation of the self from its environment, from atomisation, the young woman is able to develop a natural sense of responsibility for the earth. Through her closeness to ecology and to the land, she can experience such deep feelings of connection that reflexes of protection, and thus also of defense, take root with strength and depth in her consciousness.
The constitution of the identity of the young woman has an enormous potential for change. When she breaks free from the roles imposed on her, she is able to develop revolutionary force. An identity that recognizes its own potential for change and insurrection is extremely threatening to the system. By depriving her of her identity, the system deprives her of her existence. It deprives her of the very meaning of her existence, of life, so that she will keep herself only physically alive, and not even that. Mental illnesses are on the rise, especially among young women. Anorexia is just one expression of systemic ideal conceptions of the body. Through the increase of these illnesses, the woman is distracted only by the symptoms of this societal sickness in herself, not recognizing their true origin, the system behind this illness. That is how it robs the young woman of her mission in life: it imposes goals on her from the outside. But if she can manage to find her own role for herself in this world, she will also go through life with a clear mission; then the system can no longer play with her so easily.
Especially in this current period, this realization is very important. The supposedly last chapter of the book of civilization's history is being written. That, at least, is how the capitalists express it, as if capitalism was invincible and the foundations on which it was built could never be overthrown. The foundation of this construct is patriarchy. It has been created over thousands of years and has been able to reinforce itself. It is so deep-seated that it has had enough time to prevent people from living and from existing together in balance. It has alienated people from their roots to such an extent that instead of looking for answers to their questions within themselves and the community, they only look for them outside, in the system.In this way, humanity is prevented from being able to even imagine an alternative to this system. However, the people who live such an alternative and put it into practice represent the single greatest danger to the ruling system.
It is above all the women who believe in an alternative.
Because the social class that is most oppressed is also the one that, conversely, feels the greatest urge for freedom within itself. The consciousness of freedom is dialectically related to one's own oppression. It is important not to perceive oppression as an individual affliction. It is an entire identity that is oppressed, because it has an overall social strength. However, this strength can only develop when there is an awareness of the potential of one's own identity. Alienation on the one hand, and the hardening of imposed roles on the other are patriarchal attacks. However, if there is a deeper understanding of the political, social, and revolutionary potential of one's own gender, there is a great power there. Young women who become aware of the complexity of being a woman and develop a self-confidence in it are less vulnerable to attack. The concepts of woman and man are social phenomena that constitute a representation of the dualism of life, and of the preservation of life. Only with this consciousness will people be able to develop a striving for freedom, because that is what constitutes every living being and every organism.
The man's system, which uses him as a tool of oppression, keeps every part of this world enslaved. Yet he himself is a slave. Only when it is recognized that he too is being used can he develop this striving for freedom. For man too is an enslaved identity in this system. In order to be able to break out of his own oppression, he too must build up the responsibility to change these conditions, and participate in the struggle to liberate women. For the freedom of women will also bring about his freedom. He must break out of the position of being a perpetrator, but also of self-blame, in order to be able to overcome his role of passivity.
At present, however, this sincere striving for freedom is being is being played with beyond belief. Instead of a communal struggle to overcome gender-specific oppression, the "realpolitikal" debate is only about a supposed equality of the sexes. By which is meant not the balance, the harmony of the sexes, but deepened enslavement. If Anna Lena Baerbock or Giorgia Meloni make exactly the same anti-human, the same misanthropic demands for increased weapons deliveries or consistent deportations, it is not in the name of libertarian values or a love of one's own sex. This attitude makes them accomplices of patriarchy; they conspire to gain their own power and wealth. Such women are very far from being connected to freedom. Through the spectacle of these women in leadership positions within the system, the patriarchy legitimizes itself. But their propagated gender is no more than an empty shell. Patriarchy tries with precise attacks, mostly on the psychological level, to make women its ally. In such moments it is important to tear off the blindfold of the system and to recognize where these attacks come from.
Patriarchy operates everywhere with different methods. The place where it strikes hardest, with all of its tools of oppression, is also the center of the hegemonic forces' violent demonstration of power. The Middle East, especially Kurdistan, has been under constant attack for a long period of time. The reasons for the intensive attacks, the attempted extermination campaign of Turkish fascism in alliance with all its NATO partners, lie in a historical continuity. Especially in the last 50 years, the resistance against occupation and colonialism has been formed anew. With the emergence and spread of the Kurdish freedom movement, the degree of organization of the Kurdish people rose to a peak. This level of organization was born out of a need to break the conditions of colonialism, and grew out of the experiences of countless revolutionary events and movements. Rêber APO, as a pioneer of new hope for a self-determined and liberated life, laid the foundation for an organization that is currently the biggest thorn in the side of the rulers. For from the very first minute, this revolution set itself the goal of reaching out to and including all oppressed peoples.
Thus it formed a new internationalism at an early stage.The importance of internationalism is very closely interwoven with the women's movement. Not only because patriarchy organizes itself globally and the only logical conclusion is to do the same in overcoming it, but also because every woman across the world carries an equal strength, an equal fire that has kept society alive from the beginning. A fire that they want to be extinguished everywhere. The international union of women began very early. As far back as the very early 20th century, Alexandra Kollontai, Rosa Luxembourg and Clara Zetkin called for an international alliance of women. They recognized the need in that historical moment to unite internationally and create a militant socialist identity. If we feel a connection to all women across the world, we are able to overcome the alienation that is so deeply entrenched. Whether it is the classical role of the woman that ties her to the home or the modern lone wolf. We have to overcome all of these roles in order to pave the way for a liberated woman.
It has always been a collective consciousness, the sense of responsibility for each other that has grown from it, that has drawn internationalist women comrades to participate in revolutionary movements. This is also how friend Andrea Wolf (Şehid Ronahî) joined the revolution. She became aware of the Kurdish liberation movement from a very long experience in the German left and took a strong internationalist stance. Now in October, on the 23rd to be precise, is the 25th anniversary of her death. She left her mark on a whole generation of people who had no prospects, who had succumbed to the assumption that capitalism had won. She gave hope that change and anti-capitalist struggle, if conducted internationally, can smash systems of oppression. With great determination, she joined the guerrillas and went to the mountains of Kurdistan. She continues to shape the debate on internationalism and the connections between struggles across national borders. She was the first German woman to give her life to the apoist struggle for freedom. She is a pioneer whose memory continues to shape discussions to this day. Many friends who were on the mountains with her tell very vivid stories about her. She was so inquisitive, she always asked about everything. At the same time, she had a depth and a consolidation in her. In her attitude we can see the possibilities of creating defense strategies to be able to be armed against the daily attacks of the patriarchy. Let us ask ourselves how we can be ready to fight, what kind of personality a young woman should build in order to fight back. Heval Ronahî discussed the line of internationalism in the women's movement very extensively with the women friends. Before Heval Evîn fell Şehid in Paris, she talked about her time together with Heval Ronahî. She said that as internationalist young women we should see ourselves more in their tradition. If we understood Heval Ronahî better and more deeply, and made deeper connections with all the revolutionary women who fought before us, we would be much more likely to connect with their struggles. We would not keep asking ourselves the same questions, and thus find a way out of the lack of solutions.
If we were better able to follow up on the questions of our predecessors, we would also be able to learn from the answers they may have already found. In this way, we would be able to walk the path they prepared for us more uprightly and continue it. However, we do not walk these paths alone. They always run parallel to each other, cross each other, and are filled with similar obstacles. Only when we really set out on this path together and form a strong organization can we overcome these obstacles. After all, who can roll away all the boulders on their own? It can only be done together, but we also need the right technique to do it. So being organized is not just getting together with other people. It needs a common goal, common values and morals, a common consciousness. Only when young women organize themselves are they able to overcome the system within themselves and in the whole world.
Living and building internationalism as women does not mean creating abstract connections to each other, but learning to feel our natural connectedness again.
It also means feeling a connection to one's own history. A connectedness to all the women fighters before us. To not see their struggles as separate from ours, even if they were dealing with supposedly different challenges. Perhaps they were confronted with different symptomatology, but they too attacked patriarchy with their resistance. It has many different masks, which is why it is sometimes difficult for us to really grasp the system behind it. The weaving together of all levels of struggle carries a potential to create a new identity. One that makes the spirit of the international young women's movement blaze. One that lights such a hot fire that patriarchy will inevitably burn its hands, attempting to extinguish it. So let us draw strength and hope from all the struggles waged so far by women, and from those who are also facing and resisting the same enemy at this very second. If we fight together with ties of solidarity, it can never break us. Whether in the capitals of the heart of the beast, in the primeval forests of the Amazon, on the free mountains. Everywhere it is the woman who will not let herself be robbed of the hope of a beautiful and free life. Everywhere it is she who will not bow, and by her shining leadership will pave the way for every generation to come after us. She is the one who will tear the system of domination and oppression from its roots, and is already sowing the seeds of a beautiful future everywhere.
The struggling young woman's spring has long since begun, and new blossoms are blooming every day.