[News] Oakland - Monday, March 2 - Autonomous Organizing and State Repression From Kurdistan to Philadelphia - Özlem Y and MOVE's Mike Africa

Anti-Imperialist News news at freedomarchives.org
Tue Feb 25 14:13:04 EST 2020



*Autonomous Organizing and State Repression*

*From Kurdistan to Philadelphia*


*Monday, March 2nd 2020 - 7pm *

*OMNI Commons 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland*


*Presentations from Özlem Y., a Kurdish activist, and Mike Africa Jr., 
from MOVE*


/presented by the Bay Area Mesopotamia Solidarity Committee, the Freedom 
Archives and the Anthropology and Social Change Department at CIIS/


The Kurdish freedom movement, currently active across many borders in 
the Middle East, has put forth the revolutionary project of democratic 
confederalism under the principles of localized governance, women’s 
liberation and ecological practices.


On a smaller scale, but within the context of the massive Black 
liberation movement, the MOVE Organization of Philadelphia put its 
revolutionary ideas into practice in the 70s and 80s.


Both initiatives have faced the iron fist of the state for daring to 
organize autonomously.


During the summer of 2015, the Turkish army and mercenaries bombed 
Kurdish cities, killing hundreds of people. These brutal attacks were a 
terrifying re-escalation of Turkey's 40-year civil war, between the 
State and the a left-wing Kurdish movement. The Turkish state justified 
the carnage by calling the political organizing of Kurdish communities 
into question.


Many of us on occupied land here in the US cannot help but consider 
similarities and differences between these attacks and the City of 
Philadelphia's attack on a mostly African-American neighborhood that 
killed 11 members of MOVE and destroyed 61 homes in 1985. Philadelphia 
politicians similarly attempted to reframe the narrative by questioning 
the legitimacy of MOVE, and their integrity as a political organization.


What do the attacks on the Kurdish movement and the MOVE Organization, 
their aftermath, the ongoing struggles of the survivors, and the ongoing 
lack of justice for the dead teach us about the nature of the state, 
autonomous organization and racial and ethnic stratification?


Please join us for a double feature with presentations from Özlem Y., a 
Kurdish activist, and Mike Africa Jr., from MOVE, as we attempt to 
answer these questions, and consider new ones.


/Özlem Y./, currently in exile in the US, was a firsthand witness to the 
Turkish atrocities in autonomous Kurdistan where she was part of the 
Kurdish municipal governance structure.


/Mike Africa Jr.,/ a member of MOVE, is a speaker, writer and artist. He 
was born in prison to Debbie and Mike Africa who were each serving a 30 
year sentence as part of the MOVE 9.



-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/
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