Emergency Committee for Rojava
The Emergency Committee for Rojava was founded in 2018 by Meredith Tax, Debbie Bookchin, Anna-Sara Malmgren, Robert Hockett and Harriet Goldberg.
Steering Committee 2021
Emergency Committee for Rojava Steering Committee, October 2021:[1],[2]
Steering Committee 2018
Emergency Committee for Rojava Steering Committee, October 2018:[3]
History
When Raqqa fell in 2017, after a long siege by the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), it was generally thought that ISIS was defeated, save for some mopping up. But in January of this year, Turkey invaded Afrin—one of three cantons in Rojava, also called the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria. This meant that scores of SDF fighters had to leave the battle against ISIS in order to defend their homes, families, and neighbors in Afrin. After extensive air strikes, the city of Afrin fell on March 18—confronting the already troubled region with yet another humanitarian crisis, as thousands fled to escape the Turkish army and its Syrian National Army allies (which include jihadist rebel groups and some fighters who are either openly aligned with al-Qaeda or even recent members of ISIS).
Many of those who fled Afrin are now sleeping in open fields or in tent cities, lacking the most elementary necessities. Those who remain have been subjected to the same kind of ethnic discrimination, looting, and sexual violence that ISIS perpetrated against the Yazidis in Iraq. At least fifteen girls have been reported as having been abducted, and their families fear they are being held as sex slaves.
We, the undersigned, are launching the Emergency Committee for Rojava as part of a global campaign to draw attention to this new crisis and to Afrin’s call for support.
The Turkish attack on Afrin was entirely unprovoked. In fact, Afrin was so peaceful for most of the Syrian war that it became a safe haven for tens of thousands of refugees—some of whom are now refugees for a second time. In the cantons they controlled, the Kurdish-led forces had established an oasis, unique in Syria, of local self-government, women’s rights, and secular rule. Yet the Turkish government cynically claims that it is threatened by Rojava because the people leading it—who have been the US’s leading allies in the fight against ISIS in Syria—are “terrorists.”
While the attack on Afrin is a violation of international law comparable to those of the Assad government, the Trump administration has made only feeble protests against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s depredations. By accepting Turkey’s attack, the US has become complicit in Erdoğan’s ethnic cleansing plan to expel the Kurds once and for all from a part of Syria where they have lived for centuries, and to eradicate the democratic experiment developing in Rojava.
Encouraged by the lack of response from the US, Erdoğan is threatening to take his military campaign deeper into Syria, to Manbij, and even into Iraqi Kurdistan. It is clear that this campaign is already benefiting ISIS in multiple ways. To stop this madness, Turkey must be isolated economically, diplomatically, and militarily until it withdraws its troops and its proxy militias from Kurdish Syria. In the long run, there can be no peace in the region until Turkey is willing to reopen negotiations with its own Kurds and grant all its citizens democratic rights, including freedom of expression and the right to form political parties and win elections without reprisals.[4]
The Emergency Committee for Rojava is calling on the US government to:
• impose economic and political sanctions on Turkey’s leadership; • embargo sales and delivery of weapons from NATO countries to Turkey; • insist upon Rojava’s representation in Syrian peace negotiations; • continue military support for the SDF.
Please join us as signatories and supporters in our call for the US and its allies to end their tacit acquiescence in Turkey’s military adventure and restore peace and safety to the people of Rojava. And visit our website, DefendRojava.org to see other supporters, sign up for more information, and help organize an ongoing effort to support Rojava by spreading the word on your campus and in your community.A NY Review of Books, Call to Defend Rojava An Open LetterApril 23, 2018, 1:18 pm]</ref>
Emergency Committee for Rojava
Full list of signatories:[5]
- Debbie Bookchin, journalist, co-editor of The Next Revolution: Popular Assemblies and the Promise of Direct Democracy
- Charlotte Bunch, Distinguished Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, Rutgers University
- Judith Butler, Maxine Elliot Professor of Comparative Literature, UC Berkeley
- Noam Chomsky, Institute Professor & Professor of Linguistics Emeritus, MIT
- Bill Fletcher, Jr., writer, former director of Trans-Africa Forum
- Todd Gitlin, Professor of Journalism and Sociology, Columbia University
- David Graeber, Professor of Anthropology, London School of Economics
- Michael Hardt, Professor of Literature, Duke University
- David Harvey, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Geography, CUNY
- Sally Haslanger, Ford Professor of Philosophy and Women’s and Gender Studies, MIT
- Robert Hockett, Edward Cornell Professor of Law, Cornell University
- Chad Kautzer, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Lehigh University
- Anna-Sara Malmgren, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Stanford University
- Edress Othman, physician, Director of Afrin Fund, board member of New England Kurdish Association
- Marina Sitrin, Assistant Professor of Sociology, SUNY Binghamton
- Gloria Steinem, feminist writer, journalist, and activist, co-founder of Ms. Magazine
- Asta Kristjana Sveinsdottir, Associate Professor of Philosophy, San Francisco State University
- Latif Tas, Assistant Professor at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University
- Meredith Tax, writer and activist, author of A Road Unforeseen: Women Fight the Islamic State
- Michael Walzer, Professor Emeritus of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University
- Janet Afary, Mellichamp Chair in Global Religion, UC Santa Barbara
- Cathy Albisa, Executive Director NESRI (National Economic & Social Rights Initiative)
- Kevin Anderson, Professor of Sociology, UC Santa Barbara
- Heather Booth, Founding Director Midwest Academy, initiator of JANE, Democracy Partners
- Ellen Chesler, Senior Fellow, Roosevelt House
- Adam Gaffney, physician, Harvard Medical School
- Andrej Grubacic, Chair of the Anthropology and Social Change Department, California Institute for Integral Studies
- Anissa Helie, Associate Professor of History, John Jay College, CUNY
- Marianne Hirsch, Director, Center for the Study of Social Difference, Columbia University
- Amber Holllibaugh, Senior Activist Fellow Emeritus, Barnard Center for Research on Women (BCRW)
- Shea Howell, steering committee, James and Grace Lee Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership
- Ellen W. Kaplan, Professor of Theatre, Smith College
- Temma Kaplan, Distinguished Professor of History, Emerita, Rutgers University
- Marilyn Katz, Writer, activist and President of MK Communications
- Michael Kazin, Professor of History, Georgetown University, Editor of “Dissent”
- Frances Kissling, President, Center for Health, Ethics and Social Policy
- Rebecca Kukla, Professor of Philosophy, Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University
- Mark Lance, Professor of Philosophy and Justice and Peace, Georgetown University
- Steven Lukes, Professor of Sociology, New York University
- Ruth Milkman, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, CUNY Graduate Center
- Judy Norsigian, Co-founder and chair of the board, Our Bodies Ourselves
- Rosalind Petchesky, Distinguished Professor Emerita of Political Science, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY
- Katha Pollitt, poet, writer, and columnist for “The Nation”
- Michele Pred, conceptual artist and activist
- John Protevi, Phyllis M. Taylor Professor of French Studies, Louisiana State University
- Geoff Pynn, Assocate Professor of Philosophy, Northern Illinois University
- Jesse Ribot, Professor of Geography, University of Illinois
- David Romano, Thomas G. Strong Professor of Middle East Politics, Missouri State University
- Ellen Ross, Professor Emerita of History and Women's Studies, Ramapo College
- Michael Rothberg, 1939 Society Samuel Goetz Chair in Holocaust Studies, UCLA
- Bruce Shapiro, Executive Director, Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, Columbia University
- Jason Stanley, Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy, Yale University
- Stephanie Urdang, Writer and activist, Montclair, NJ
- Janet Biehl, Author & Translator, Burlington VT
- Edward Countryman, Distinguished Professor of History, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX
- Nalan Erbil, PhD candidate, University of Wisconsin Madison, WI
- Nurettin Erkan, Artist, Madison, WI
- Rosalyn Feldberg, Associate, Center for Women & Work, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, Boston, MA
- Marlene Gerber-Fried, Director, Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA
- Mark Fuller, Professor of Mathematics, University of Wisconsin, Rock County, WI
- Jennifer Gammage, Instructor, Philosophy, DePaul University, Chicago, IL
- Tom Goff, Instructional Assistant, Folsom Lake College, Folsom, CA
- Erika Goldman, Publisher & Editor, Bellevue Lit Press, New York, NY
- Seth Harp, Freelance Journalist, New York, NY
- Ruken Isik, PhD candidate, University of Maryland, Baltimore MD
- Youssef Ismael, Director of Policy and Media, Washington Kurdish Institute, Washington, DC
- Irena Klepfisz, Poet and Associate Professor of Womens' Studies, Barnard College, New York, NY
- Cristina LaFont, Professor & Chair of Philosophy, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
- Geoffrey Lee, Associate Professor of Philosophy, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
- Bruce Levy, Senior Lecturer, Southern Methodist University, Dallas , Texas
- Halcyon Liu, Writer and Translator, Washington, DC
- Julia Livingston, Attorney, Goulston & Storrs PC, Boston, MA
- Derek Minoo-Bloom, Director, Food and Social Justice Program, Trinity Episcopal Church, Asbury Park, NJ
- Axel Mueller, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
- Beth Newman, Associate Professor of English, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX
- Kyra Norsigian, Academic Tutor, Boston, MA
- Gail Pellett, Journalist and Filmmaker, New York, NY
- Jay Reid, Teacher, Medford, OR
- Jeff Sebo, Clincial Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, New York University, New York, NY
- Tamsin Shaw, Associate Professor of European & Medieval Studies & Philosophy, New York University, New York, NY
- Georgeann Trebst, Jungian psychologist, Kent, CT
- Reed Underwood, graduate student teaching assistant, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NB
- Howard Winant, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA
- Sirleade DeFreitas, Attorney, San Francisco, CA
- Martin Flaherty, Leitner Professor of Human Rights, Fordham Law School, New York, NY
- Ynestra King, Associate, Five Colleges Women's Studies Research Center, Amherst, MA
- Saladdin Ahmed, O’Donnell Visiting Assistant Professor, Whitman College
- Sara Protasi, Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Puget Sound
- Alison Jaggar, Arts & Sciences Professor of Distinction, Professor of Philosophy & Woman & Gender Studies, University of Colorado at Boulder
- Julie Fraad, Adjunct Professor of English, New York City College of Technology; Activist
- Judith Grossman, Writer & Teacher, Cambridge, MA
- Steven de Castro, Filmmaker
- Amy Kesselman, Professor Emerita, Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, SUNY New Paltz
- Adrian Ivakhiv, Steven Rubenstein Prof. for Environment & Natural Resources, University of Vermont
- Daniel Wolk, Academic & Freelance Journalist
- Frances Fox Piven, Distinguished Professor of Political Science & Sociology, Graduate School and University Center, City University of New York
- Taylor Genovese, Doctoral Student, Arizona State University
- Stephen Shelby, Engineer
- Matthew Conover, Nurse's Aid & Nursing Student, University of Virginia
- Libertarian Socialist Caucus, Democratic Socialists of America
- Ashley Dawson, Professor, City University of New York
- Ait Fetterolf, Writer
- Aurora Levins Morales, Writer
- Jerry Harris, National Secretary, Global Studies Association of North America
- Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Director, The Shalom Center
- Mark Patterson, Member, Palm Beach chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America
- Abigail Grafton, Psychotherapist
- Bruce Trigg, MD
- Ken Baumann, Writer, Publisher of Sator Press
- Paul Mojaver, Student
- Milwaukee Democratic Socialists of America
- Curtis Eckman, Argent Fabrication