Author: admunisty

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Explainer: Kongra Star, the Women’s Congress

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Kongra Star, which means “Star Congress” (in reference to the ancient Mesopotamian goddess, Ishtar), is the congress of the women’s movement in North and East Syria. It was first established in 2004 as Yêkitiya Star (Star Union), an underground organization that sought to organize women at a time of Ba’ath regime dominance over the area. Kongra Star operates on the basis of confederalism, with organizations, committees, and unions participating. Its vision is “to develop a free Rojava, a democratic Syria, and a democratic Middle East by promoting women’s freedom and the concept of the democratic nation.” In many ways it acts as the corresponding autonomous women’s body to TEV-DEM (Movement for a Democratic Society, the umbrella body for civil society).

Water Shortage a Years-Long Problem in Manbij

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Residents of Syria’s northern city of Manbij suffer from frequent drinking water cuts, which often leads them to fill their containers via special tanks, which increases their expenses and burdens of living. Officials in the Water Directorate affiliated with the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (AANES) said that the current water line was

Building Peace

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Thanks to the primarily-Kurdish female fighters in the YPJ militia, many people now know that a women’s revolution is underway in North and East Syria (NES), the autonomous region more commonly known as Rojava. Women are organizing autonomously in civil society, and participating as co-chairs with guaranteed 50% representation from the highest levels of the new

Co-operatives as a Revolutionary Strategy – Facing Capitalist Modernity

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The idea to start building up socialist elements within capitalism through cooperatives, often accompanied by some kind of (con-)federal unionism, is not new. This strategy may indeed sound tempting in theory. However, estimates suggest that today there exist already up to 3 million cooperatives with nearly one billion members worldwide, therefore 12% of humanity is

Revolution and Co-operatives: thoughts about my time with the Economic Committee in Rojava

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In the following I will give a short insight about my experiences during the time with the economic committee of the cantons of Qamişlo and Hasakah in Rojava, North-East Syria. I will especially focus on the cooperative economy that is being built up in Rojava. As a second step, I will discuss to what extend