“If we don’t give this to the society then we’re going to be just like a company. Then we’re not working for Rojava, we’re working for ourselves.” We visited Bîstanên Rojava (Farmers of Rojava, also referred to as “the greenhouse project”) on 12th March, 2016. Our aim was to understand how the project is run,
The following article is based on my trip to Rojava in March 2016 where I interviewed Delal Afrin, Head of the Women’s Economic Committee of Kongira Star [Kongreya Star] (a women’s umbrella organisation, previously known as Yekitiya Star) and Hediye Yusuf, Co-President of Cizire Canton (now co-president of the Democratic Federation in Rojava and North
Opposed to the economy controlled by the state and corporations, the number of cooperatives where relations of production and consumption are formed without intermediaries is on the rise. Recently, these cooperatives have begun to emerge in Kurdistan, as a reflection of the operation of an economy independent from the state and corporations. Below we share the interview we carried out with one of these co-operatives, the Medya Consumers’ Cooperative (Medya Tüketim Kooperatifi), at their market in Wan.
QAMIŞLO – The economic activities of the Cizire canton continue with the opening of the largest cooperative. The United People’s Cooperative (Birleşik Halk Kooperatifi), for which 3 thousand people have registered so far, will oversee the distribution of all kinds of basic necessities from food to clothing, homeware to vegetables and fruits. The cooperative, based
Xalıd Şêxo, a manager of the Center for the Economy of Social Development in Dirbêsiyê, says “The aim of our co-operatives is to prevent internal and external powers from sowing seeds of division between the peoples.” Following the 19 July revolution in Rojava, there has not only been developments of a military nature. There are
Within our current predicament it is possible to resist and fight back against monopolies with the cooperatives. In their absence, it is not possible for producers to maintain their existence, or cope with their ongoing problems. We should evaluate the producers’ cooperatives as the sole, tested method to defend small landowners and landless peasants against
A struggle is being organized against the robbers, or the capitalist firms, that are between the producers and the consumers, in a world where industrialized production in agriculture has become commonplace, access to healthy foods is made impossible, and the producer is alienated from their products. As farmers face higher prices for fuel, seeds and
