A-Infos (en) wsm.ie: Revolution in Rojava reading group

A very significant book on the Rojava revolution has just been published. It's called 
Revolution in 'Rojava: Democratic Autonomy and Women's Liberation in Syrian Kurdistan' and 
provides a detailed account of the structures of the revolution, social, economic, legal 
and military. We've found it so useful that we are not only encouraging others to read it 
but are going to hold a series of three reading groups so we can talk about what is 
happening and what relevancy it has as an example to those of us in Ireland. ---- The book 
is summarised as "A new kind of society is being built in Syria, but it's not one you 
would expect. Surrounded by deadly bands of ISIS and hostile Turkish forces, the people 
living in Syria's Rojava cantons are carving out one of the most radically progressive 
societies on the planet today. Western visitors have been astounded by the success of 
their project, a communally organised democracy which considers women's equality 
indispensable and rejects reactionary nationalist ideology whilst being fiercely 
anti-capitalist. The people of Rojava call their new system democratic confederalism. An 
implementation of the recent ideology of the imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan, it 
boasts gender quotas of 40 percent, bottom-up democratic structures, deep-reaching 
ecological policies and a militancy which is keeping ISIS from the gates. Revolution in 
Rojava is the first full-length study of this ongoing social and political transformation 
in Syrian Kurdistan. It is the first authentic insight into the complex dimensions of the 
revolution. Its authors use their own experiences of working and fighting in the region to 
construct a picture of hope for Middle-Eastern politics and society, and reveal an 
extraordinary story of a battle against the odds."

Dilar Dirik, journalist and activist of the Kurdish Women's Movement
''Written by long-time activists of the Kurdish freedom movement, this book is the first 
authentic insight into the complex dimensions of Rojava's radical revolution. From 
autonomous women's communes to ecological cooperatives to multiethnic peoples' 
self-defense, the authors let us enter a world of freedom cries - a deeply human 
grassroots revolution with the potential to change the course of Middle Eastern 
civilization. Recommended for all believers in humanity.''

John Holloway, Autonomous University of Puebla and author of Crack Capitalism
''The Kurdish revolution of Democratic Autonomy is of enormous importance for the future 
of the world. It points a possible way forward out of the tragedy of the Middle East, and 
more than that: a possible way forward out of the catastrophe that is capitalism. This 
book is of great help...A careful and detailed account that is filled with personal 
narrative, it is both easily accessible and very informative.''

Interview with Ercan Ayboga (who spoke at this years Dublin anarchist bookfair)
Q. Tell us, in a nutshell, which ones do you think are the most important lessons from 
Rojava to progressive people elsewhere?

There are several lessons in our opinion. The first lesson is overcoming the nation-state 
in practice while building an alternative, not only at a theoretical level. All cultural, 
ethnic and religious identities can find themselves in the new political structures and 
political dynamics developed after the revolution of Rojava. Here an important progress 
could be made in reality. This aspect is crucial for any basic democratic development in 
the Middle East, but also in other parts of the world. If this approach becomes stronger 
in our world, we will have less conflicts and wars.

The second lesson is rejecting the state and strengthening society by building up direct 
democratic and self-governing structures from the lowest levels of society. The challenge 
is to give power to the communities which coordinate themselves on a voluntary basis. They 
will build up a new political system, but from the bottom up. The difference to 
parliamentarian systems is that the local communities - in Rojava they are called communes 
in the residential streets, and people's councils on the neighborhood level - are the main 
power holders and cannot be dominated by the upper structures. Here the revolution has 
done some progress, but needs much more to be done. There are challenges and limitations 
since other actors are not in favor of direct democracy. These the revolution must handle 
too. Nevertheless the revolution does not give up and insists in its ideology.

The third and very crucial lesson is the liberation of women. Without the ongoing women's 
liberation, the revolution never would have been successful. The liberation of women, 
which is also the liberation of men and all other genders in the end- has started to be 
taken seriously by all political, economic, social and cultural structures in Rojava. 
People have started to criticize relentlessly the patriarchal ways of acting and thinking 
in their lives. Social and cultural liberation has the pre-condition of the liberation of 
women - this now we understand better thanks to the Rojava revolution.

Finally the revolution has given practical experience on how to develop an economy which 
is as self-reliant as possible, which has been also a necessity because of the embargo. 
Thus the embargo could have the opposite effect to that intended by Turkey, the KDP, the 
Syrian state and the jihadists-salafists. In developing such an economy, the ecological, 
solidarity and anticapitalist components are fundamental. Each of them presuppose one 
another. From this experience, progressive people and movements can learn too.

A continued successful revolution in Rojava will change and probably end in the middle 
term the war in Syria and have a strong impact on Northern Kurdistan and Turkey. It will 
affect directly the whole of the Middle East which is at the centre of the global 
conflicts of our times.
Extracted from http://www.anarkismo.net/article/29680

Ercan Ayboga at this years Dublin anarchist bookfair

The discussions will take place in the WSM space in Jigsaw, 10 Belvedere Court in Dublin. 
Jigsaw is the old Seomra Spraoi building see the map at the Facebook event for the 
location of Seomra is also valid for Jigsaw.

The first discussion will take place Thursday November 17th at 19.30. Everyone is welcome 
to take part. We will be covering the first six sections of the book in this session.

If there is a high level of interest we may split the session into two or more discussion 
groups to allow everyone to participate.

You'll find the book at

Pluto Press (publisher) http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745336596
Book Depository https://www.bookdepository.com/Revolution-Rojava-Michael-Knapp/9780745336596
Amazon.UK at 
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Revolution-Rojava-Democratic-Liberation-Kurdistan/dp/0745336647

http://www.wsm.ie/c/revolution-rojava-reading-group-dublin-nov2016
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