Co-ops Riseup for Rojava - 17th October 2019 & beyond

I've personally given money to this group who Rojava solidarity contacts advised to support http://www.heyvasor.com/en/derbare-heyvasor-de/

There is a whatsapp group for anyone interested in working on Coops Rise Up for Rojava, let @colmmassey know if you want to join.

This has just been posted there:
Hi everyone,
We've set up a Just Giving page in the name of Rise Up 4 Rojava to help people donate to Heyva Sor. It might help towards making it easy for people to donate (if they want to do that) in one of two ways:

1) People can donate straight away (immediately) to this event, which we have set up Rise Up 4 Rojava Emergency Appeal: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/riseupforrojava

Or, 2) People who would like to or have already set up their own page can join the Rise Up for Rojava "team," raising money for the same event: https://www.justgiving.com/team/riseup4rojava

I think the first is a very quick way for people to make donations in one easy step.

The second is for more dedicated people who have the time to set up their own page.

We did this because we had reports that people were finding it difficult to donate directly via the Heyva Sor website. But if anyone knows of a better way to help facilitate then do let me know!

Perhaps we can set up a Worker Co-ops page for the team? Anyone want to do that?

Today, 17th October 2019, a statement of solidarity with Rojava will be read out by the chair of CICOPA (global worker coop body) (or possibly by @sionwhellens ) to the International co-op Alliance conference in Kigali.

A new campaign has been launched by @colmmassey and Jo Taylor at the Solidarity Economy Association and others #coopsriseup4rojava https://www.solidarityeconomy.coop/2019/10/coops-rise-up-for-rojava

We want to amplify the impact of the statement read out this afternoon by having UK coops join in a social media storm shortly after it gets read, some time between 3pm & 4pm UK time.

We encourage cooperators to tweet & FB & otherwise publicise #coopsriseup4rojava particularly by posting photos and/or their own messages of support

you may also find it amusing to add the Co-op Group's current marketing tag #ItsWhatWeDo

By coincidence, today is also #worldvaluesday good thing solidarity is a coop value :-)

honestly, I don't know its just a bit shit really...

Can we get anyway in country to post short videos from their phone of the reality on the situation that we can all promise to promote with a call to action, whether to just raise awareness or a crowdfunder or to wright to an MP. I think hard cash is probably more use than writing to Boris....

This is Footprint's Facebook post - use what you like and probably substitute your own co-op's name and photos ;-)

#coopsriseup4rojava
Rojava is an autonomous area of Northern Syria, whose population has, for the last few years, both defended themselves against ISIS and the Turkish State, while simultaneously building a feminist, ecological and co-operative economy, based on direct democratic neighbourhood assemblies.

They have lost 11000 people in the successful defence against and containment of ISIS, on behalf of the rest of the world. They are now being attacked and massacred by the Turkish State.
https://makerojavagreenagain.org/

Today, 17th October 2019, a statement of solidarity with Rojava was presented by CICOPA (the global worker coop body) to the International Co-op Alliance conference in Kigali.

https://www.cicopa.coop/…/cicopa-congress-statement-on-pea…/

This statement is a response to the call from internationalist co-operative and environmental activists in Northern Syria, Make Rojava Green Again:
https://mesopotamia.coop/message-to-the-ica/

As part of the 'Rise Up for Rojava' campaign, the Solidarity Economy Association and others in the UK have set up #coopsriseup4rojava https://www.solidarityeconomy.coop/…/coops-rise-up-for-roja…

Footprint stands in solidarity with our Syrian and internationalist comrades.

We encourage people to:
- campaign so that genuine rejection of any current or future arms deals with Turkey is adopted across the board in each country
- join the call for a No Fly Zone over North East Syria
- donate to the Kurdish Red Crescent for relief work, either via http://www.heyvasor.com/en/derbare-heyvasor-de/
or https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/riseupforrojava
- SIGN this petition: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/276661
- FOLLOW #RiseUp4Rojava (https://riseup4rojava.org/) and #WomenDefendRojava (https://womendefendrojava.net/) on social media and help spread the information on their websites
- JOIN one of the many demonstrations being called: https://www.facebook.com/pg/KurdistanSolNet/events/
- CONTACT your local solidarity group, or start up a new one: https://kurdishsolidaritynetwork.wordpress.com/uk-solidari…/

Thanks Cath that's super useful, we'd shared the statement from Jinwar but great to have some ideas for practical action folk can take, will share with customers and co-op membership too. Hopefully we'll be able to contribute to the fundraiser.

Subject: Re: Input needed! #CoopsRiseUp4Rojava
Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2019 11:42:17 +0000
From: Jo Taylor <[email protected]>

Hi everyone, Hope you are all doing well.
On Friday 22 November at 11 am we will host a second #CoopsRiseUp4Rojava call to discuss the ways co-operatives can take action in solidarity with the people of Rojava. We have a number of proposals, but we need your input to take them forward. Please let us know if you will be able to make the call!

All the best, Jo