NE Syria's delegation meets ILRIG in South Africa

ILRIG is an organization dedicated to research, education, training, and the provision of reflective spaces for working-class movements in South Africa.

The delegation of North and East Syria included the representative of the Autonomous Administration in Lebanon, Abdel Salam Ahmed, the spokeswoman for the Democratic Union Party, Sama Bakdash, the spokesman for the Syrian Initiative for the Freedom of Leader Abdullah Ocalan, Farzanda Munther, and the spokeswoman for Kongra Star, Rehan Loqo.

In addition, the co-chair of the Kurdish Action Group for Human Rights in South Africa, Mahmoud Patel, and the group's member, Fatima Sidat, joined the meeting.

On Thursday, the delegation was received by the Foundation’s management, represented by Mthetu Khali and Shawn Huting, who started the meeting by talking about the Foundation’s work, and said: “ILRIG” was founded in 1983 and since then has been working to promote working-class movements and provides research, publications and educational programs to benefit the movements, community, activists and labor formations.

He pointed out that "their work in the institution is based on helping working-class formations to find different, direct democratic ways of self-organization, and providing analysis tools to help activists deepen and strengthen progressive ideas, values, principles, and practices among working-class organizations that address the influences of neoliberalism and the suppression of class rule, the nation-state, racism, and the parental regime."

He stressed that "the work of the Foundation is based on democratic participation and interaction."

He referred to his participation in the conference, "Freedom for Abdullah Ocalan... peace and stability in the world," and his admiration for the experience of the Autonomous Administration, especially in the field of cooperatives, and said that they "want to get benefit from the experience of cooperatives in NE Syria in light of the availability of vast areas of land in South Africa." And the lack of good practical experiences to overcome the mistakes made by the revolution in South Africa after its victory.

For her part, Sama Bakdash talked about how the community is organized in NE Syria, and focused on the organizational structure in the community and taking the commune as a basis in the community system.

In turn, Abdel Salam Ahmed talked about the revolution in NE Syria, especially the ISIS and Turkish occupation attacks, in addition to Damascus's blockage and prevention UN aid to this geographical area of Syria, in service of the interests of the Damascus government and the Turkish occupation.

The meeting discussed the revolution in South Africa and the mistakes that occurred in it after the victory, and the marginalization of layers of society that still suffer from poverty until now.

As for Farzanda Munther, he talked about the peoples of NE Syria taking the ideas and philosophy of the leader Abdullah Ocalan as a basis for them to organize themselves from various sides, and said: "The ideas of the leader Ocalan are capable of resolving the mistakes of South African revolution ."

He pointed out the importance of the International Labor and Information Research Group in spreading the ideas of leader Ocalan among the working classes in South Africa.

Rehan Loqo also talked about the organization of women in NE Syria, and how, based on the philosophy of leader Ocalan, where she seeks to build a free and democratic society, by achieving equal shared life and building a free family to reach a free democratic society.

She touched on the effective participation of women in the various aspects of the revolution in NE Syria, and their political, military, social and economic role.

During the discussions, Shawn Huting expressed his admiration for the communes that were formed and called for a detailed explanation of their mechanism of action.

He also called for more definition of the cooperative system, because they are also working on forming cooperatives, but they suffer of the mistakes during the practical application, as the delegation explained extensively the system of communes, the community economy, and cooperatives in NE Syria.

At the end of the meeting, Shawn Hating stressed that they will strive to explain this system to labor organizations in South Africa, and he also stressed the importance of communication with NE Syria to get more about the system there and to benefit from it in South Africa as well.

a.k

ANHA