Category: Mutual Aid
Mutual Aid is a volunteer-led initiative / project where groups of people in a particular area, or from a particular community join together to support one another, meeting vital community needs without the help of state institutions or NGOs. It is, by definition, a horizontal mode of organising, in which all individuals are equally powerful. Mutual Aid, in simpler words, is co-operation for the common good.
Mutual Aid – in all of its forms and varieties – is a universal practice, rather than a catch-all term, or definition. It is an evolutionary factor as old as life on Earth.
Read more about the history and current practices of Mutual Aid around the world today at our sister project: www.mutualaid.coop
The articles below are about Mutual Aid practices in both North and East Syria (Rojava / West Kurdistan) and southeastern Turkey / North Kurdistan (Bakur). You can also search for article on Mutual Aid according to region.
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COVID and the Solidarity Ethos in North and East Syria
Crisis and suffering have always had the power to bring clarity. When lives are at stake, competing values are inevitably brought into the sharpest relief. Coronavirus has been no different in this basic sense, but even among crises it is remarkable for the sheer scope of its impact and its truly global reach.
“Letting society solve its own problems”: Developing a New Justice System in Northern Syria
The Syrian regime under the Ba’ath Party of Bashar al-Assad is not only infamous for its war crimes and human rights abuses during the war in Syria, but also held a thick record of systematic violence prior to the uprisings in 2011. Apart from its extensive intelligence apparatus, its law and justice system enshrined authoritarianism and state power in the legal realm. The population of Syria, and minorities in particular, were taught to fear the law as the representative will of the oppressive state. In northern Syria, since the beginning of the revolution in Rojava in 2012, manifold initiatives have been systematically launched to undo the state and its domination not only in the realm of politics and society, but also in the psychology of people, who experienced not only Assad’s regime, but more recently the fascist rule of ISIS. Efforts are led not only in the sphere of law and justice, but also in the realm of grassroots-organizing, education and political, economic and social action. There are many difficulties however. What could an alternative, non-statist justice system look like? Let us take a look at Anja Hoffmann’s observations from an Arabic language justice academy in Tel Marouf…
Harvest time for Firik: women collect Firik in Qamishlo
Firik is planted in the fall and grows over winter to be harvested in early summer. Some researchers say that Firik is a type of wheat and grows especially in the Euphrates basin. These days, Firik has been harvested and it will be one of the basic foods such as bulgur and rice. People serve Firik when they have special guests.
North East Syria: Displaced women from Afrin work together with women from Shahba during the harvest
With the arrival of the harvest season, displaced women from Afrin and women from Shahba in North East Syria have begun working in the fields together in a communal spirit.
Women in Sheikh Maqsoud challenge economic crisis through production
Women in Sheikh Maqsoud, Aleppo turned the roofs of their houses into vegetable gardens. The women are trying to resist the embargo their own way.
Women in Kobane Work Communally to Overcome Drought Conditions
The women in Kobane are coming together to work on the fields and try to give life to the lands suffering from this Turkish-made drought.
Alternative ways to resist the embargo in Tell Tamer: Home gardens
As the Syrian lira continues to lose value, Syrians who have been badly affected by increasing prices of basic food products have faced food insecurity. People in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES, also known as Rojava) have increasingly been adopting alternative projects – home gardening – to support local agriculture.
The Only Female Baker in Hani
Adalet Narin lives in the Hani district of Amed and she is the only female baker in the district. She makes bread and creates a social space for women in the district. She makes bread by giving shape the dough kneaded by women living in the district.
Organized Society is the Guarantee of Communal Society
The Democratic Society Movement (TEV-DEM) has continued its organizational activities with different professional associations in Aleppo's Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyah neighborhoods in 2020.
Rojava: statelessness in a time of pandemic
Lack of international recognition as a state has disastrous consequences on an area already suffering from war and displacement.
How North and East Syria’s Co-operatives and Autonomous Structures Handle a Pandemic
North and East Syria faces serious challenges in the fight against COVID-19. 600,000 IDPs and refugees live in camps across the region, their situation already precarious without a pandemic. Ongoing attacks by Turkish forces, Turkey-backed militias, and ISIS complicate the security situation and threaten essential civilian infrastructure like water lines. According to the Rojava Information Center,
