Co-operative Economy in Rojava | Co-operative Economy in Rojava and Bakur

Ownership and equality in northern Syria

By Rebecca Harvey. This article appeared on Co-operative News on 9 March 2016

Ownership in a warzone is complicated idea. This is especially true in northern Syria, where internal conflict has escalated to mass movement of people, border disputes and international military involvement. But…

Rojava – the formation of an economic alternative: Private property in the service of all

Co-operative Economy in Rojava

Afrin Economy Minister Amaad Yusef and a co-operative in Afrin

by Michael Knapp, Historian; Translated from German original by Richard Braude. Originally published on Peace In Kurdistan on 6 February 2015

The revolution in Rojava (West Kurdistan/ North Syria), which started in Kobanî (Ain al-Arab) and spread like wildfire through Afrîn, Dêrik (Al-Malikiya), Qamişlo (Al-Qamishli), Amûdê and Serê Kaniyê (Ras al-Ayn) –…

Personal Account of Rojava

Co-operative Economy in Rojava

This article originally appeared on Rojava Plan

In light of what has happened and what is going to be it seems to me that the time has come for an assessment of the state of affairs in Rojava….

The Experience of Co-operative Societies in Rojava

Co-operative Economy in Rojava

By TEV-DEM. Originally published on 10 February 2016 on pasewan.com

Economy in Western Kurdistan (Rojava) has been exposed to plunder and exploitation on a large scale by the Syrian state, which controlled the country’s entire resources, rendering the community powerless. This…

The co-ops rebuilding war-torn Syria

Co-operative Economy in Rojava

By James Sullivan. Published on 22 January 2016 on Co-operative News

As well as looking at the UK’s co-operative movement, the January 2016 Ways Forward conference in Manchester broadened its scope to the Middle East. An afternoon workshop chaired by journalist and…

Bookchin, Öcalan, and the Dialectics of Democracy

Co-operative Economy in Bakur

A speech by Janet Biehl, given in February 2012. Published on New Compass

February 3-5, 2012, a a conference was organized in Hamburg, Germany. The theme was “Challenging Capitalist Modernity: Alternative concepts and the Kurdish Question.” The following text was delivered as a speech…

Democratic Autonomy in Rojava

Co-operative Economy in Rojava

By Michael Knapp, member of the Rojava delegation of Campaign TATORT Kurdistan. Translated by Janet Biehl. Originally published on 10 October 2014 on New Compass

In the past 33 years, the Kurdish freedom struggle, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), and its leader, Abdullah Öcalan, have not only reacted to social changes but shaped them and proposed…

Rebuilding Kobanê

Co-operative Economy in Rojava

By Tom Anderson and Eliza Egret. Originally published in January 2016 on Red Pepper

‘We have cleared 1.5 million tonnes of rubble,’ Abdo Rrahman Hemo (known as Heval Dostar), head of the Kobanê Reconstruction Board, tells us humbly as we sit in his office in…

6 Notes on the Economics of the Rojava Revolution

Co-operative Economy in Rojava

By Nic Beuret. Originally published on Novara Wire on 16 March 2016

Much has already been written on the revolution in Rojava, a territory comprising three largely Kurdish cantons in Northern Syria made famous by the defence of the town Kobane against the…

Starting from the Moment of Coercion

Co-operative Economy in Rojava

By Rebecca Coles. Originally published in December 2014 on SIC Journal

The relation of exploitation contains, in an immanent way, a direct relation of domination, of subjection, and of social and police control. But when one takes the relation of domination, of…

The experiment of West Kurdistan has proved that people can make changes

Co-operative Economy in Rojava

By Zaher Baher. Originally published on 26 August 2014 on libcom.org

An interesting report by Zaher Baher of Haringey Solidarity Group and Kurdistan Anarchists Forum who spent two weeks in Syrian Kurdistan, looking at the experiences of self-government in the region against…

Impressions of Rojava: a report from the revolution

Co-operative Economy in Rojava

By Janet Biehl. Originally published on 16 December 2014 on ROAR Mag.

In early December an international delegation visited Rojava’s Cezire canton where they learned about the ongoing revolution, cooperation and tolerance. From December 1 to 9, I had the privilege of visiting…