The Week in News (10/5 – 10/11)
I. Hong Kong & the Umbrella Revolution
http://www.ultra-com.org/project/black-versus-yellow/
Key Points/Developments:
* class tensions within this broad based movement but temporarily subsumed under pan-democratic slogans;
* there appears to be a moderate pole (Occupy Central leadership) and a rightwing pole (Civic Passion) which has strong anti-chinese sentiments;
* debate over tactics (confrontation with police vs “peaceful” appeasement of public opinion);
* debate over meaning of democracy (what does it mean to demand democracy in HK but not in mainland China?)
Questions:
* some on the left seem to be saying this protest mvmt is being controlled from the outside. By who? (TRN is one example)
* some on the left support China as progressive force against U.S. imperialism and thus oppose the mvmt as bourgeois.
II. ISIS & Syria
http://www.middleeasteye.net/in-depth/features/analysis-fall-kobane-and-its-consequences-1602878359
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/07/isis-kurds-syria-kobani-turkey
http://roarmag.org/2014/10/kurdish-protests-kobani-turkey-europe/
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/08/why-world-ignoring-revolutionary-kurds-syria-isis
and older links for more background:
http://roarmag.org/2014/07/rojava-autonomy-syrian-kurds/
http://roarmag.org/2014/08/pkk-kurdish-struggle-autonomy/
Key Points/Developments:
* syrian civil war may spill over into turkey
* turkey refuses to take military action to defend Kurds in Kobani, unless Kurds willing to give up their self-governing cantons, join the Free Syrian Army, and allow Turkey to establish a buffer zone in Northern Syria. So far Kurds have refused. Further the Turkish military has closed the border to Kobani and is refusing to allow mutual aid from below from Kurds in Turkey.
* Kurds in Turkey and Europe rioted and protested over inaction of govts to intervene against ISIS
Questions:
* what would solidarity look like? political/military support to the Kurds fighting in Kobani?
Nothing but a Human 