Democratic Confederalism in North Syria - Fionn Skiotis - Australians for Kurdistan - 2018-12-14 BTL - a podcast by 2XX Behind the Lines and Align in the Sound teams

The locals in mainly Kurdish Northern Syria, or Rojava (western Kurdistan) have managed, since the Assad regime lost control of the area, to implement a bottom-up "Democratic Confederal" structure - designed largely by Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the kurdish marxist rebel group PKK, who has been imprisoned in a Turkish prison for decades. The system was inspired in part by the writings of Murray Bookchin, founder of the Social Ecology movement.

Democratically run militias from the area have cleared Islamic State forces from the region, with USA air support.

Strong emphasis is placed on the equality of women, and many ethnic groups are now involved in highly localised decision making bodies.

This equality is designed into the democratic confederal system, with co-rule by male and female delegates, and deputy positions reserved for ehtnic groups not holding the top position in an organisation.

A unique feature of this system is that it does NOT seek to form its own state, or accept the rule of any state. The bottom up democracy takes care of things without the need for a structure which only results in centralisation and monopoly of power and the troubles which accompany such centralisation.

Fionn Skiatis from Australians for Kurdistan has been studying the movement for years, and joined Behind the Lines for a yarn about it. We only covered a part of the story and hope to return to it soon.

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