Statement of Our Principles

The social transformation brought by the Kurdish freedom movement in Rojava shows that one group's struggle for freedom can lead to the end of the oppression of all such persecuted and unrepresented groups. It demonstrates that people of different religions and ethnicities can live together in a secular, democratic, and pluralistic system once the oppressive institutions of the old regime are removed. It confirms that, when women are allowed to use their ideas and energies for society, the whole society becomes stronger. And it proves that it is possible to build an ecological and egalitarian society in the Middle East despite the long history of colonial power relations in the region.

The Emergency Committee for Rojava derives its principles from the Kurdish freedom movement and works to apply them to the United States where most of our activities are based. We commit to:

- working for equality between the peoples of the U.S. and supporting the struggles of those who are oppressed;

- basing our work on equality for women and support for women's leadership;

- addressing climate change by striving for a society and economy based on ecological principles;

- functioning in a broad-based, bottom-up democratic way.

Working according to these principles entails addressing fundamental fault lines in U.S. history, such as the contradiction between the ideas of freedom and equality in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and the genocide and expropriation of the indigenous people of the continent; the kidnapping, enslavement, and exploitation of millions of Africans on whose labor the economy was built; the mistreatment and exclusion of various groups of immigrants; and the continued subordination of and violence against women and LGBTQ people. These principles also require us to address the history of colonialism and imperialism and the role the U.S., Europe, and regional powers have played in the ongoing wars of destruction in the Middle East and beyond.

At this turning point, when the old system has failed and the world is teetering between planetary destruction and renewal, we stand in solidarity with global movements that share our principles.