Ter nagedachtenis aan onze gevallen kameraden in Rojava

We willen ons medeleven betuigen aan de nabestaanden van Anna Campbell (nom de guerre Hêlîn Qereçox). Ze stierf op 15 maart op 26 jarige leeftijd door de bommen van een Turkse straaljager die betrokken was bij de invasie van Afrin. Anna zette zich in aan de zijde van de YPJ (de vrouwenverdedigingseenheden van de milities die Rojava beschermen). We plaatsen hieronder een aantal persoonlijke passages van mensen die haar kenden om een haar inzet voor het revolutionaire project in Rojava te eren en haar liefdevolle persoonlijkheid te herdenken.

Van een vriendin:

"Anna was a beautiful shining sunshine of a human being. When people die we have a tendency to look back as though they were all wonderful. But Anna really was. She knew the way she wanted the world to be and she built it, she fought for it. She fought oppression wherever she could. She put everyone else before herself. She forgave without hesitation. Loved with her whole self. She was the kind of friend that would have been there until we were both old and grey, and still making trouble.

The first thing I knew of her being in Syria was receiving a photo from her, in her new YPJ uniform, beaming. I think I laughed. Of course she was there. She saw a future there that she believed in. A revolution that she could help defend. We sent each other updates of our very different lives. She asked me how to fix an ear infection in a puppy without any available medication, if she could feed tomatoes to the kittens she had found.

When the attack on Afrin begun I messaged her frantically. She assured me she was safe. She was far away from the bombing. She distracted me with stories of the soldier who shot at a stray dog and how she gave him an earful until he cowered (the dog was fine). We talked of when we would see each other again and all the fun we would have. How we would both finally be back living in the same country.

But she went to Afrin. To defend the city, to honour her fallen comrades. I can understand that she needed to do this, that she needed to defend the revolution that she loved.

I cannot bear a world without Anna. So we have to keep her alive in our actions. It is not enough to believe in equality and freedom. We have to fight oppression. To build the world we want to live in. To be good and kind and patient with those we love. To appreciate the leaves in the trees, the sun in the sky, the wind in your face. Keep Anna alive by fighting fascism in the streets, by taking the saddest, grumpiest old animal from the sanctuary, forgive friends for stupid mistakes, graffiti the words of the revolution in the street you live, disrupt the businesses responsible for abuse by locking yourself onto their property, go hunt sabbing, destroy the diggers that would rip apart our nature. DO something. Remember her. I will.

Anna I will miss you forever, I will love you forever."

Van 'Internationalist Commune of Rojava':

"The revolution will be the flowering of humanity like love is the flowering of the heart." Louise Michel

"[...] Hêlîn came to Rojava because she deeply believed in the struggle for a free, equal and ethical world, because she was dedicated with all her heart to the struggle for worldwide women liberation. Hêlîn was a very clear person in her heart and everybody who met her could feel this instantly. She was so clear in her convictions and attitude towards her surrounding, always caring about the people around her, always learning, always intervening when she was seeing injustice. She was struggling against hierarchies and domination for all the living beings. She struggled against all the prisons and borders that hold people kidnapped, and against the walls that are built in all of us by the capitalist, patriarchal and state mindset."

"[...]She lived the internationalist character of this revolution. She has been a revolutionary person in her home region and she has been struggling as a revolutionary person here. She called herself an anarchist on the path of Louise Michel and she had the will to fight for the liberation from all structures of power and oppression that hold people down. She always had a rebel spirit that let her stick to her convictions in the most difficult situations.[...]" lees verder: https://internationalistcommune.com/for-our-friend-helin-qaracox/

Onbekende kameraden hebben in Nijmegen schilderingen gemaakt ter nagedachtenis van onze gevallen internationalisten: