On the evening of Monday 9 December, members of RCP North London organised an open meeting in solidarity with the Kurds, after their Kurdish Community Centre (KCC) in Harringay was raided by the British state. Yet again, the Kurds have been attacked for the cynical interests of western imperialism.
The Kurdish community makes up a significant part of this part of North London. The unjust arrests made at the Kurdish Community Centre and its subsequent lockdown have enraged the local community. We exposed the reasons behind these arrests in a previous article.
In response, RCP branches in North London quickly organised an open meeting in solidarity with the Kurds, allowing us to explain the cynical imperialist interests behind the crackdown, and more importantly, how we can support the Kurds’ right to self-determination here in Britain.
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Hypocrisy
The meeting venue, around the corner from Finsbury Park station, was packed.
Comrade Laurie from the Wood Green branch introduced the discussion. He highlighted the hypocrisy of European imperial powers who have long denied the Kurdish people a homeland; whose treaties have led to the atomisation of the Kurds; and whose laws continue to enforce their isolation and alienation.
Laurie explained how the proposition of the (rejected) Treaty of Sevres – promising Kurds an autonomous state – and the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne has officially left the Kurds stateless since 1923.
Comrade Dillon from the Holloway branch highlighted the utter hypocrisy of Labour foreign secretary David Lammy.
Lammy once posed himself as a ‘great friend’ of the Kurds in order to win votes, including becoming an honorary board member of the KCC – and now, having reached the halls of power, he is the one ordering the raid on the KCC!
Dillon’s comments received a large round of applause by the room.
@DavidLammy do you remember when you were an honorary member of the Management Committee of the Kurdish Community Centre? You seemed to really sympathise & understand & support the Kurds then, what happened? The Kurds feel betrayed by you. That you used them to gain power then.. pic.twitter.com/HovmJ6EwtA
— @Hevallo #HandsOffKurds (@Hevallo) December 10, 2024
This meeting also coincided with the fall of the Assad regime in Syria.
Over the course of the Syrian civil war, the imperialist powers have constrained Kurds in order to use them as pawns to serve their own narrow interests – whilst pouring seemingly unlimited amounts of money into the most radical Jihadhi groups.
Comrade Ravi pointed to how the British state had deemed the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) a terrorist group to smear the Kurds. Yet at the same time they are now ‘considering’ taking Syria’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham – a group whose roots come from Al-Qaeda – off the terror list!
Persecution
The meeting attracted a number of local Kurds who shared their experiences of life in the UK. For decades, Kurdish people have fled from countries like Turkey as political asylum seekers. They have created communities – a home away from home – in countries like Britain.
One shared how across various local solidarity protests, slogans such as ‘England stop supporting terrorist Turkey’ and ‘stop terrorising Kurds’ were seen and heard.
It was highlighted as well that the Turkish state actively surveils the Kurdsish community inside Britain; the repression they face as a people is not over, despite the fact that they supposedly have ‘refuge’ here.
This made it clear for all in the room that to effectively support the Kurdish people, who are facing attacks from all sides, we have to fight to overthrow imperialism at home. The only friend of the Kurds are the working class and oppressed of all countries.
Fight imperialism
RCP members left this meeting reinvigorated and ready to reach out to the local Kurdish community, to connect the struggle for Kurdish national freedom to the fight against British capitalism.
The targeting of Kurds by the British state is a cold reminder that as long as these imperialist nations exist – who use oppressed peoples for their own contemptuous reasons, who treat us as bargaining chips – they will never attain freedom and the homeland they deserve.
Our duty in Britain is to build a powerful communist party which can help the Kurdish fight – by telling the truth, exposing the establishment’s lies, and fighting to overthrow imperialism at home in Britain.
A message from KCC was sent to everyone that organised the meeting and who was present: “Thank you, we appreciate our comrades who are ready to stand up for our suffering.”
