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Rojava: An Alternative to Imperialism, Nationalism, and Islamism in the Middle East
This introduction to " An Alternative to Imperialism, Nationalism, and Islamism in the Middle East" looks at how the Rojava Revolution came into being in the largely-Kurdish communities of northern Syria from 2012 onwards. It also gives an overview of the context within which this experience arose. The main purpose of this book, however, is to summarise what has been happening in Rojava, evaluate the ideology behind it, and show why it is a truly inspirational process. In short, it is a must have for anyone wanting to learn more about contemporary Middle Eastern politics and the real-world search for an alternative to oppression, exploitation, and violence.
128 pages, Paperback
Published October 20, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 3, 2016
The role of Kurds in resisting the rise of the Islamist uprising in Iraq and Syria has with occasional exception remained and under reported aspect of the turmoil affecting the region. This excellent little primer by Oso Sabio attempts to put the Kurdish role in the region into context and also shows why the Kurds are a largely ignored actor in the region.
The Kurdish people are the largest "homeless" people. Their homeland of centuries is divided by borders which demark Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria and while a Kurdish cultural identity exists which crosses these borders the borders also have seen Kurdish political development take place within the context of national boundaries. Sabio examines some of this complex history which has seen regular uprisings and repressions of Kurds over recent decades with levels of acceptence and tolerance varying but generally with Kurds looked on with suspicion. Nowhere have Kurds been subject to such constant genocidal assault than in Turkey. Halabja where Saddam Husseins regime massacred Kurds en-mass with chemical weapons was a genocidal attack but it marked more an exception than a rule. In Turkey Kurds have resisted constant assault by the State which saw in the 1970s the birth of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) which has fought Turkey fairly consistently since then and has transformed feudal Kurdish society leading directly to the social of revolution currently gripping Rojava which has in turn made resistence to ISIS/Daesh possible and effective. Key in this process was the transformation of the PKK from a traditional and authoritarian old style Marxist influenced army of national liberation into a post-national, still revolutionary but with instead of the old top down structure a new "self management democracy" structure built from the grassroots of the people up and borrowing strongly from the anti-authoritarian, direct democracy theories of Murray Bookchin.
Sabio shows how the prison writings of Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan (held by Turkey in isolation for over a decade) have been instrumental in inspiring the transformation of Kurdish society in Turkey and Syria while scaring the traditional elite and Turkish allied Kurdish Regional Government regime in Iraq. The self organisation of Kurdish communities in the face of ISIS/Daesh have seen them come together to defend their new found freedom. Elsewhere where people have not been organised and have looked to the state for protection ISIS/Daesh were victorious. Kurdish self help however, with support from the battle hardened Turkish Kurds produced a united front that Daesh couldnot defeat.
The role of women in what was, and in many areas still is, a strongly patriarchal society has been a key factor in effective organisation. Women taking control of their own lives and becoming active and equal members of society holding key positions traditionally only held by men has alos been central to the transformation of society and this is well investigated in this book.
In comparing the success of the Kurdish social revolution with the disappointment of the Arab Spring Sabio notes "most Rojavans were prepared and knew what they wanted when they suddenly found themselves in the position of being able to govern themselves ... In short they wanted a revolution that would start from the bottom of society not from the top and one that would be fundamentally against the state, power and authority". By comparisson the Arab Spring sought leaders at the top who would sort everything out. In fact the Rojava revolution rejects the very concept of the "nation state" and no longer sees the "nation state" as a prerequisite for democracy. It calls for movement away from "representative political structures to those of autonomous and performative practises" and it is with this in mind that society is being organised in self ruling areas.
It is this revolutionary outlook, suggests Sabio (quite rightly in my opinion and with plenty of historical precedent from the Paris Commune to the revolutuinary experiments of Central America in the 1980s) that account for the lack of willingness for neighbouring states, the West and others fighting ISIS/Daesh to fully engage with the Kurds. Rojava challenges not only ISIS/Daesh by offering freedom for all, liberation for women and a new way of organising society, but Rojava challenges the surrounding states and the imperial interests of powerful states like Britain and the USA.
How it will all pan out in the end remains unknown. Will this threat of a good example be a victim of its own success and experience the same subversion and terror inflicted on Central America in the 1980s? Rojavans know the risks but they have leant much in their struggle, they know "politics is a messy situation, based on debate, conflict and compromise" and they are ready to do all those things to keep alive this threat of a good example.
Oso Sabio has provided an excellent compact and readable introduction to Rojava, the Kurdish revolution and the alternative to ISIS/Daesh and the existing authoritarianism of the region. This is a book relevant not only to Rojava but which raises and answers questions about the problems we all face living in societies across the world today.
The Kurdish people are the largest "homeless" people. Their homeland of centuries is divided by borders which demark Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria and while a Kurdish cultural identity exists which crosses these borders the borders also have seen Kurdish political development take place within the context of national boundaries. Sabio examines some of this complex history which has seen regular uprisings and repressions of Kurds over recent decades with levels of acceptence and tolerance varying but generally with Kurds looked on with suspicion. Nowhere have Kurds been subject to such constant genocidal assault than in Turkey. Halabja where Saddam Husseins regime massacred Kurds en-mass with chemical weapons was a genocidal attack but it marked more an exception than a rule. In Turkey Kurds have resisted constant assault by the State which saw in the 1970s the birth of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) which has fought Turkey fairly consistently since then and has transformed feudal Kurdish society leading directly to the social of revolution currently gripping Rojava which has in turn made resistence to ISIS/Daesh possible and effective. Key in this process was the transformation of the PKK from a traditional and authoritarian old style Marxist influenced army of national liberation into a post-national, still revolutionary but with instead of the old top down structure a new "self management democracy" structure built from the grassroots of the people up and borrowing strongly from the anti-authoritarian, direct democracy theories of Murray Bookchin.
Sabio shows how the prison writings of Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan (held by Turkey in isolation for over a decade) have been instrumental in inspiring the transformation of Kurdish society in Turkey and Syria while scaring the traditional elite and Turkish allied Kurdish Regional Government regime in Iraq. The self organisation of Kurdish communities in the face of ISIS/Daesh have seen them come together to defend their new found freedom. Elsewhere where people have not been organised and have looked to the state for protection ISIS/Daesh were victorious. Kurdish self help however, with support from the battle hardened Turkish Kurds produced a united front that Daesh couldnot defeat.
The role of women in what was, and in many areas still is, a strongly patriarchal society has been a key factor in effective organisation. Women taking control of their own lives and becoming active and equal members of society holding key positions traditionally only held by men has alos been central to the transformation of society and this is well investigated in this book.
In comparing the success of the Kurdish social revolution with the disappointment of the Arab Spring Sabio notes "most Rojavans were prepared and knew what they wanted when they suddenly found themselves in the position of being able to govern themselves ... In short they wanted a revolution that would start from the bottom of society not from the top and one that would be fundamentally against the state, power and authority". By comparisson the Arab Spring sought leaders at the top who would sort everything out. In fact the Rojava revolution rejects the very concept of the "nation state" and no longer sees the "nation state" as a prerequisite for democracy. It calls for movement away from "representative political structures to those of autonomous and performative practises" and it is with this in mind that society is being organised in self ruling areas.
It is this revolutionary outlook, suggests Sabio (quite rightly in my opinion and with plenty of historical precedent from the Paris Commune to the revolutuinary experiments of Central America in the 1980s) that account for the lack of willingness for neighbouring states, the West and others fighting ISIS/Daesh to fully engage with the Kurds. Rojava challenges not only ISIS/Daesh by offering freedom for all, liberation for women and a new way of organising society, but Rojava challenges the surrounding states and the imperial interests of powerful states like Britain and the USA.
How it will all pan out in the end remains unknown. Will this threat of a good example be a victim of its own success and experience the same subversion and terror inflicted on Central America in the 1980s? Rojavans know the risks but they have leant much in their struggle, they know "politics is a messy situation, based on debate, conflict and compromise" and they are ready to do all those things to keep alive this threat of a good example.
Oso Sabio has provided an excellent compact and readable introduction to Rojava, the Kurdish revolution and the alternative to ISIS/Daesh and the existing authoritarianism of the region. This is a book relevant not only to Rojava but which raises and answers questions about the problems we all face living in societies across the world today.
December 8, 2023
Dá pena ler, a finais de 2023, o que escribiu o autor en 2015 sobre a revolución autoorganizativa que xurdiu no Kurdistán sirio, sabendo o que lle viña por diante despois a toda esra xente…
É un libriño curto, autoeditado, e que, logo duns antecedentes históricos sobre a xeopolítica da zona, conta de forma rápida e resumida as ideas básicas do sistema asambleario e cantonal que estaba xurdindo en Rojava entre 2012 e 2015 (mentres se loitaba contra os do ISIS, lembremos).
Tamén explica as experiencias reais, cómo se foi aplicando na práctica, e critica puntos débiles do sistema e das ideas.
Todo dende unha visión anticapitalista, libertaria, claramente anarquista. O autor en ningún momento presume de obxectividade, deixa ver o seu prisma político pero eso non lle resta valor ao seu texto.
Na miña opinión, pódese ser escrupuloso co relato de feitos e logo dar opinións sobre eles, sen impostar equidistancia ou asepticismo.
En fin, que vos gustará o libro se botades de menos que conten cousas no parte sobre milicias femininas kurdas en Kobane, ou se léstedes hai pouco algún dos libros de Zerocalcare sobre a zona e queredes familiarizarvos máis co que el chama confederalismo democrático.
É un libriño curto, autoeditado, e que, logo duns antecedentes históricos sobre a xeopolítica da zona, conta de forma rápida e resumida as ideas básicas do sistema asambleario e cantonal que estaba xurdindo en Rojava entre 2012 e 2015 (mentres se loitaba contra os do ISIS, lembremos).
Tamén explica as experiencias reais, cómo se foi aplicando na práctica, e critica puntos débiles do sistema e das ideas.
Todo dende unha visión anticapitalista, libertaria, claramente anarquista. O autor en ningún momento presume de obxectividade, deixa ver o seu prisma político pero eso non lle resta valor ao seu texto.
Na miña opinión, pódese ser escrupuloso co relato de feitos e logo dar opinións sobre eles, sen impostar equidistancia ou asepticismo.
En fin, que vos gustará o libro se botades de menos que conten cousas no parte sobre milicias femininas kurdas en Kobane, ou se léstedes hai pouco algún dos libros de Zerocalcare sobre a zona e queredes familiarizarvos máis co que el chama confederalismo democrático.
January 13, 2025
An excellent introduction to the politics of Rojava. It’s given me a brief but good understanding of the issues and makes me want to read more.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews