Rojava offered the hope that a progressive, multiethnic politics might be salvaged from the ashes of Syria’s civil war. Now the Turkish assault on northern Syria looks set to crush the Kurds and a radical experiment in the region. 

We talk to two British volunteers in Rojava about the prospects that the political structures set up there might be saved. 
Dani Ellis (@lapinesque): engineer; civil defence volunteer, International Commune (@communeint) 
Alexander Norton: deputy features editor, Morning Star; revolutionary volunteer, International Freedom Battalion

Running order
(05:27) - Dani interview 
(41:39) - Alexander interview
(01:27:51) - Final discussion

Readings & Links:
Internationalist Commune
Rojava Information Center
America abandons the Kurds, Tom Stevenson, LRB
Russia and Turkey reach deal on Syrian border, Financial Times
European leftists are rejecting the Kurds over their reliance on the US. It is just another disgusting betrayal, Slavoj Zizek, The Independent
"Turkey Is Reviving Islamic State in Rojava", Rosa Burç & Kerem Schamberger, Jacobin

Glossary:
YPG: Yekîneyên Parastina Gel (People's Defence Corps); PYD’s armed wing in Syria 
YPJ: Yekîneyên Parastina Jin (Women's Protection Units); all-female militia
PYD: Partiya Yekîtiya Demokrat (Democratic Union Party); Syrian Kurdish affiliate of the PKK
SDF: Syrian Democratic Forces; alliance composed primarily of Kurdish, Arab and Assyrian/Syriac militias, led by the YPG
PKK: Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan (Kurdistan Workers' Party); Kurdish party in Turkey founded in 1978 by Abdullah Öcalan. Started armed insurgency in 1984, thousands of fighters in northern Iraq and Turkey
IFB: International Freedom Battalion; armed group of foreign leftists fighting for the YPG in support of the Rojava Revolution 
MLKP: Marxist-Leninist Communist Party, Turkey
TEV-DEM: Movement for a Democratic Society; umbrella organisation in northern Syria, aims at organising Syrian society within the democratic confederalist system