There are, after all, some things that mix quite well, like salt and pepper, and others that don’t mix at all, like fire and water. As an attempt to mix opposite qualities, is the market more like salt and pepper, or is it more like fire and water? ─Bertell Ollman, Market Socialism: The Debate Among
This Arab family has escaped a war to take refuge in the Kurdish area of Syria. The regional government has given them work. The “Ministry of the Economy” of Jazira Canton [Kantona Cizîrê / Cezîre] tries to ameliorate the agricultural economy in a way that provides work and a stable source of income to farmers, while at
Kobanî [Kobanê / Ayn al-Arab] is a small city in northern Syria, part of the self-declared autonomous region of Rojava since November 2013, which, as part of the wider Syrian Civil War, broke away from the national government in a social revolution. The Rojava revolution seeks to establish a system of democratic confederalism, a system
Because of the closing of the borders, getting to Rojava has become more difficult in the past few months. The Turkish border has been closed for years, while the eastern border to Iraqi Kurdistan has more recently been shut down by petrol-president Masud Barzani, who is hostile to the PKK and the PYD, and acted
In Rojava’s Afrin Canton [Kantona Efrînê / Afrîn], women are bringing to life the economy. On the 1st of November, 2016, Inanna Agricultural Cooperative was founded with the help of Kongreya Star. Onion, garlic, chickpeas and beans were sown in January and February on the 18 dunam [decare] plot that belong to the women’s collective. The women toil
The Agricultural Council in Hasakah [Hesekê / Hesîçe / Al-Hasakah] started a cooperative society for the building of poultry houses and planting of fruit trees. It announced that registration will open on the 18th of February 2017, and their objective is to achieve self-sufficiency and develop the communal economy. The Agricultural Council in Hasakah, which belongs to the Economic Committee
Rojava is an enclave whose inhabitants have fashioned a place of security, gender equality, economic cooperation, and a unique form of localized direct democracy that has no equivalent elsewhere. With images of chaos, conflict, and a seemingly endless parade of horrors dominating the mainstream media, the image of Syria that dominates the popular mind is
Post-revolutionary work is being undertaken to develop a system of social economy against the pre-revolutionary economic embargo of the Baath regime. One of the most active institutions in the economic struggle in Rojava is the Academy of Social Economy founded in the Jazira Canton [Kantona Cizîrê / Cezîre] in 2014 by the TEV-DEM Economic Committee.
Amuda ─ The Council of Families of Martyrs in Amuda [Amûdê / Amouda] is preparing to open a cooperative society for the families of martyrs in the city. The cooperative is a pickle factory, and it involves the participation of 92 families. The communal economy is developing among the institutions and people of Rojava, and leading to
The members of Kongreya Star in Afrin Canton [Kantona Efrînê / Afrîn] have begun weeding and pruning their crops to protect them from damage. Since the start of February, the women’s cooperative society of Tal Salur village in the area of Jandairis [Jindires / Cindarisa / Cindirêsê] in Afrin, which consists of twelve women from Kongreya Star and
Revolution in Rojava: Democratic Autonomy & Women’s Liberation in Syrian Kurdistan By Michael Knapp, Anja Flack & Ercan Ayboga (translated by Janet Biehl) Pluto, 2016 285 pp., $38.95 Rojava, which is Kurdish for the “west”, is to be found in Northern Syria. In the middle of a conflict zone, marked by the war against the
The Centre for Economic Development in Bulbul is working to open the first cooperative society there in a week’s time. The cooperative will be a centre for the sale and exchange of gas cylinders. In a move to develop the communal economy and block the way of monopolisers, the Centre for Economic Development in Afrin held a meeting
