We want to memorialize a great comrade in the struggle and a great friend to us all: Florent Sadiku.
Everyone who had the pleasure of knowing Flo will attest to his kindness and bravery, but his passion and the size of his heart is what stood out more than anything. His actions were driven by a genuine respect for those around him and a desire to see everyone treated well. He would drop everything to help a friend or comrade. At the same time, he had the sharpest wit in NY: he could hold a room in the palm of his hand with his humor, and his composure and seriousness left a deep, and meaningful impression on those who met him.
We crossed paths doing Rojava solidarity work and he quickly became one of our closest, dearest comrades. As a co-founder of the North American Kurdish Alliance (NAKA), he worked hard to ensure an alliance developed. He sincerely believed in building bridges between the Kurdish Freedom Movement and revolutionaries in the US. In addition to his years of experience with the Kurdish revolutionary movement he embraced the RAM project with open arms, helped our group grow, and respected our anarchist politics, believing that we are all together in this quest for human dignity.
As a testament to his character, he took great care in commemorating fallen martyrs. The energy he put into organizing the beautiful memorial service for New York City anarchist Shehid Robert Grodt, is just one of many examples.
It is impossible to separate his life and the way he treated people from his politics. He couldn’t help but approach people with kindness and solidarity with those who deeply need it. This meant that no matter where he was in the world, he participated in liberatory struggle. While we salute the revolutionary in him, and mourn the loss of our comrade, we will always remember him for his humor, wittiness, heartfelt emotions, sincerity, firm principles yet understanding towards individuals, and powerful commitment to friendship.
From now on we will walk with Florent forever in our hearts. Though the world lost an irreplaceable person, we will carry the wonderful qualities he embodied into the struggle so that the example he was for us will help make the world he wanted to see a reality.
RAM-NYC
October 2018