by Jenni Keasden and Natalia Szarek
Active Distribution
2023, paperback
SKU: 9781914567216
This is the story of two internationalist volunteers who followed in the footsteps of our friend and comrade Anna Campbell and became part of the Rojava revolution. Anna left her home in England and travelled to northeast Syria – the Rojava region of Kurdistan – to join the women fighters of the YPJ in the battle against the Islamic State. One year later, she was killed in the Turkish invasion of Afrin.
Between us we spent three years there, working alongside Kurdish revolutionaries and other internationalists from around the world, and getting to know the movement that our dear friend decided was worth fighting for.
Witnessing and taking part in a revolution in progress made us all the more determined to bring the lessons of the Kurdistan Freedom Movement home. This book is about some of those lessons, about what it means to struggle for freedom, and to insist on hope even in the darkest of times.
Through stories and reflections , we’ve tried to bring the revolution to life, and translate some of the big ideas of the movement to our context. This is our love letter to revolution, an attempt to build a bridge between worlds, and a call to arms.
About the Authors:
Jenni Keasden lives in the wet bit of Scotland surrounded by amazing people and semi-working vehicles, and supports herself to scheme revolution and write by doing care work. She's eternally grateful for lush woods, mountains, mischief, dogs, families of all kinds, comrades, physical activity, people telling her when she's wrong, good food and good company. Above all, she's grateful for the struggle. The Kurdistan Freedom Movement has already changed her life and she is still figuring out where the journey goes.
Natalia Szarek arrived in England via Poland and the USA and is now happy to call Yorkshire home. She's worked in community food projects and the agroecological movement for many years, which has allowed her to combine her love of spreadsheets, mulch, and meeting facilitation. When she's not doing political organizing she tries to squeeze in time for rollerskating, reading teen fantasy novels, growing flowers, and deep frying things.