3 episodes
Panthers and Guerrillas: Black America, Kurdistan, and Their Struggles For Freedom Neighbor Democracy
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- Society & Culture
In the wake of the murder of George Floyd, there has been an outpouring of support for Black resistance in the United States from Kurdish society online. Solidarity between the Black Freedom Movement and the Kurdish Freedom Movement has a history, and has been growing especially since the Battle of Kobanê and the Ferguson Uprisings in 2014.
This podcast explores the similar histories, organizations, ideas and actual material crossover between the Black Freedom Movement and the Kurdish Freedom Movement, focusing heavily on the Black Panther Party and the PKK.
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6: Bridges
In this final episode of “Panthers and Guerrillas”, we look at the real material crossover between the Kurdish Freedom Movement and the Black Freedom Movement, from Kurdish outpourings of solidarity with the George Floyd Rebellions to statements made by organizations like Black Socialists In America standing with the Kurdish people in Başur now as they face a full-scale invasion by the Turkish state. We explore the rich legacy of contact between these two movements, their shared gifts to the world, and call for the existing crossover to deepen.
Songs:
“Hell You Talmbout” by Janelle Monae
“I Love You Kurdistan, Syria” by Unknown
“Felestin” by Ciwan Haco
“Şervano” by Hunergeha Welat -
5: A Change Is Gonna Come
Episode 5 looks at the way the Kurdish Freedom Movement has undergone deep change with the New Paradigm since 1999, and the similar shift that Huey P. Newton envisioned for the Black Panther Party with his Revolutionary Intercommunalism decades earlier. I follow the effects of such changes in ideology and the impacts they have today in both movements through currents and groups like the Kurdistan Communities Union, the Black Lives Matter movement, Cooperation Jackson, and Black Women’s Defense League.
Songs:
“Efrîn Tola Salan” by Mehmûd Berazî
“Ay Dilbere” by Aram Tigran
“Changes” by Phil Ochs
“A Change Is Gonna Come” by Otis Redding (Sam Cooke cover) -
4: Free Women, Free Society
Today we look at the revolutionary Kurdish women in the Middle East and Black women in America and the inspiring gains brought out about by their two-fold struggles: against the state, but also against male domination within their own cultures and movements.
This episode of "Panthers and Guerrillas" is dedicated to #ZehraBerkel, #MizginXelil, #AminaWeysi, Hevrin, Sara, Fidan, and Leyla, and #BreonnaTaylor and #OluwatoyinSalau and all Kurdish and Black women killed by state and patriarchal violence.
Songs:
"Keça Kurdan" by Aynur Doğan
"Four Women" by Nina Simone
"Jin, Jiyan, Azadi" by Rojbîn