Portside

Turkey’s incursion into Syria has roiled the Middle East and NATO countries, demonstrating one key polarizing divide on both sides of the Mediterranean. As far as I can tell, that divide is between supporters of political Islam and its opponents.

Reader Comments: Impeachment; Turkey, Kurds, Rojava; Climate Change and Militarism; Red Meat Safe - readers take issue; Abolish Columbus Day; Vietnam War; Knights of Labor resource; Announcements - Chicago, Berkeley, New York, Washington, DC; more...

Sudan: Women Lead, Turks Attack in Rojava, China's New Left, Win in Honduras, Nepal's Future, RCMP vs a First Nation, Ireland: Murder of a Journalist, Italy: CGIL Leader Interviewed, Israel's Desolate Left

EU for the many, Fixing Brexit, Venezuela stands firm, Brazil's unions, Canadian students on climate strike, Cuba to the rescue, Kerala elections, Fury in Costa Rica

Rovaja and US Troops, New South Africa Party, Brexit Blues, Albanian Students, Sudan Insurgency, Repression in Colombia and Brazil

Reader Comments: 2018 elections-New Generation of Activists Take Center Stage; Impact of Teacher Strikes; Impeachment; California Burns; Rabbis Defend Migrants; Attack on Linda Sarsour; Amazon; Puerto Rico; Rojava; Greece; Resources; Announcements...

Google Walkout, Revolutionary Rojava, Brazil Left Unites, Italy's Dilemma, Left Populist Path in Canada, Africa's Marxist Era, Latin Pink Tide Aftermath

In the middle of a war zone, despite constant attack and a Turkish and Iraqi-Kurdish economic blockade which has cut off access to sufficient food, medical supplies, and electricity, the four million people of Rojava are trying to build a new kind of feminist democratic politics.

According to the back of Meredith Tax's A Road Unforeseen: Women Fight the Islamic State, a 'democratic society' with 'women on the front lines as fierce warriors and leaders' is growing in the midst of Syria's destruction. This new society - Rojava - was founded by the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the Syrian-Kurdish offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). How does the PKK function internally, how will it deal with class divisions or regional differences?

The Turks don't want a Kurdish mini-state on their frontier any more than the Syrians want to lose territory to the Kurds (and neither do the Iranians, nor do the Russians want a Kurdish state on their border). And, Turkey is warming up to Russia and Iran in a bid to exit before a total rout of its proxies in Syria. Here Robert Fisk and Vijay Prashad present two nuanced perspectives.