We, as Make Rojava Green Again, want to salute those who are taking part in these global days of action, those who are taking the responsibility to defend life, those who protect our planet from the attacks of capitalist modernity. Here, in Northern Syria, we will continue planting trees and building social ecology, as a direct action to build alternatives and to prove that another world is possible.
To take action means to not delegate our problems to others. It means to analyze the situation and to respond, to find solutions to the problems we are facing, to take the initiative and do what needs to be done. The movement of Fridays For Future, where youth from all around the world organize themselves against the threat of climate change, is a source of hope. Hope in a better future, a future where humanity does not destroy the planet we live on.
We are facing a situation that could lead to a massive extinction of life, and it’s a challenge of global dimensions. We need to organize our resistance on a global scale, but in order to find solutions, we need to act on a local scale. To defend our planet means to defend life, to defend our lives, so every action we do in this direction should be understood as an action of self-defense.
We want a system change, not a climate change. In order to achieve this change, we need to understand the roots and causes of the current system, and then look for alternatives and solutions. The current system of exploitation and destruction of our planet is not sustainable. The abuse of fossil fuels that are needed to run this techno-industrial globalized society, is the main cause of climate change. This creates a threat to human societies, but this threat does not affect everyone in the same way. If we want to find sustainable solutions, we need to have a closer look at these inequalities.
Industrialization has been a very important tool of capitalism, systematizing the processes of accumulation. The metropolises, centers of accumulation, used their power to occupy and exploit bigger areas, colonizing the lands where other people lived. Colonization had a big impact on the development of global capitalism, where European powers colonized the five continents, shaping a worldwide system of domination and exploitation. This colonialist mindset, searching always for maximum profits without caring about the land or life, has been a cornerstone in bringing us to where we are today.
This colonialist mindset is not only present in the way we perceive our relationship with other societies. It’s also present in how we perceive our relationship with nature, seeing the human being as the subject and nature as the object, which can be used and exploited to satisfy our needs. We can also see this approach in the patriarchal system, where women are being oppressed and exploited by male domination. That’s why ecology and feminism are the main struggles that resistance movements must bring together, and youth movements are already doing a good job of this.
We believe that these main building blocks of the revolution in Northern and Eastern Syria are just as important in our common struggle everywhere.
If we understand our societies, if we understand the problems we are facing, we will be able to find solutions. But to find the solutions is not enough, we need to act in order to make these solutions happen. Recently, in the defense of the revolution, our Italian friend and comrade Lorenzo Orsetti (Tekoser Piling) died in the fight against the Islamic State. He used to say “Every storm starts with a single drop. Try to be that drop”.
Let us all be these drops!
System change not climate change!