In the joint declaration NAV-DEM (Democratic Society Centre of Kurds in Germany) and the Association of Women from Kurdistan in Germany (YJK-E) have set out their priorities for the 1st of May.

The statement reads:  "May Day is traditionally the day when the workers take to the streets against their exploitation by the capitalist system. At the same time this day represents for us a demand for women's liberation, peace and justice as the basis of a free society".

The statement continued: "The wars currently waged all over the world continue to drive the
profits of capitalist war corporations to unimaginable heights, while millions of people in poverty and unemployment are deprived of their dignity. As one of the world's largest arms exporters, Germany plays a major role in this. While on the one hand German weapons are sold to despotic governments, where they are then used against demonstrators critical of the regime, on the other hand a right-wing policy against migrants and refugees has been pursued in Europe for years."

Everywhere reason for hope

Today, continued the statement "capitalism is organised mainly by the nation state - a mechanism which, in the name of nationalism, incites peoples and societies against each other and repeatedly strengthens fascism. We cannot consider the so-called refugee crisis, which is instrumentalized by right-wing movements and currents for fascist purposes, separately from war capitalism.

But despite the seemingly invincible power of the capitalist system, there is reason for hope everywhere. More and more radical democratic, antifascist and feminist alternatives are discussed on an international level in different contexts and forums and fought for on the streets."

From Brazil to France, from Algeria to Kurdistan, from Sudan to India, added the statement, "it is not the states with their political and economic calculations but those parts of society that are most affected by the capitalist order, above all women, who today stand up for values such as democracy, freedom, justice, peace and equality."

Internationally and consistently against climate change

In the demand for a just, sustainable and living world, the statement added: "young people are at the forefront today. While capitalist corporations and states continue to search for markets, areas and resources that they can exploit to make ever higher profits and thereby destroy life on earth forever, it is children and young people who today recognize the consequences of cancerous economic interests and organize themselves internationally and consistently against climate change and ecological catastrophes."

IS defeated by organized hope

The Revolution in Rojava is a centre for the construction of a free, anti-capitalist society. It was the organized hope for a democratic future built in the here and now through grassroots democratic structures that enabled the local population to defeat the territorial rule of the so-called Islamic state. 200 years ago the workers' movement began to organize itself for the ideal of a free society.

While German socialists, feminists and democrats, youth, women and workers, trade unions, associations and left-wing parties have shown solidarity with the struggle of the revolution in Rojava against the fascism of the so-called Islamic state from the very beginning and
fought shoulder to shoulder with the local population against these extremist rapist troops, the capitalist states, including the Federal Government of Germany, are trying to capture these gains for themselves.

The criminalization of the Kurdish freedom movement in Germany is a means of making invisible the liberal upheavals in the global South that today's progressive and revolutionary forces represent internationally."

Bundling battles, defending common values

The statement added: "So we see that the capitalist mentality will take over our achievements
again and again if we do not bundle our common struggles and thus form a front against anti-democratic attacks on our values and communities.

Capitalism is based on exploitation, competition and destruction and pursues a "divide and conquer" logic that sets parts of society against each other to distract from the fundamental problems.

On this 1st of May we, as revolutionary, feminist, ecological, democratic and progressive groups, must unite our forces and lead a common struggle against this murderous system! Long live our common struggle against capitalism! Long live the 1st of May, Bijî 1 ê Gulanê!"