As we continue to watch federal and state governments fail us on issue after issue — from climate change to voting rights to even the most basic of human rights, such as the right to an abortion — a growing movement of change-makers are beginning to look closer to home for ways to exercise political agency and to reshape their world.
This movement has been referred to as the “municipalist moment,” one which puts the city at the heart of the revolutionary struggle. Broadly speaking, municipalism is a bottom-up political system that puts power in the hands of the people working from blocks to neighborhoods to the city. At its heart is the desire to transform society into one that reflects the values of solidarity, democracy, equity, sustainability and pluralism.
On May Day, residents of the Los Angeles area are taking to the streets to begin a two-year project aimed at taking back their city. Anchored by Los Angeles for All, a network of self-organized social movements, the intention of this place-based project is to craft a municipalist platform that reflects the needs of the residents instead of corporations, opens up space for direct democratic reforms, and puts power back in the hands of the people.
Based in the El Sereno neighborhood of northeast Los Angeles, Yvonne Yen Liu is the coordinator of the Los Angeles for All and the Municipalism Learning Series project, as well as the research director of the Solidarity Research Center, a worker self-directed nonprofit that advances solidarity economies. In this interview, Liu discusses what municipalism entails, the importance of intersectionality in democratizing movements and how others can get involved.
Robert Raymond: I want to start with some basic table-setting. The term “municipalism” conjures a few different images in my mind, but I’m wondering if you could start by just unpacking the term. What is municipalism?
Yvonne Yen Liu: At the heart of it, municipalism is about democratizing the local economy and the state — there are three characteristics to it. First, it’s directly democratic, meaning that people are participating in an authentic way, not just electing a representative to make decisions on their behalf. Second, it’s feminist. It’s important to value the labor that is done in terms of caring labor, in terms of housework, in terms of caregiving — whether that’s for children or for elders. But that’s an important piece to consider and also an important group of people to value in terms of participation in politics. And then the third, [municipalism is] anti-capitalist. We’re not trying to control our economy in order to continue the status quo of the economy.
Capitalism is neither natural nor necessary. And I don’t think it needs to be the order of things. Municipalism is about creating different types of social relationships. That could take the form of a solidarity economy, which is an economy based on principles of cooperation, mutuality and inclusion. Or it could be based on a different form of economic organization where workers aren’t exploited for their labor but instead, own the means of production, as Marx famously wrote over 200 years ago. So we could have worker-owned cooperatives, for example, or worker councils, instead.
I love that. And I think that all of those three different points that you mentioned — direct democracy, feminist and anti-capitalist — they intersect in so many ways. Worker cooperatives, for example, are an example of direct democracy, but within the economic realm, right? So it’s also capitalist. And then one could argue that as workers have control over their own livelihoods and the decisions made in their workplaces, a lot of issues could be brought up that are overlooked. For example, how we dealt — or didn’t deal — with issues of care work during the pandemic. Broadly speaking, those issues are feminist issues that typically go unheard or unaddressed in traditional firms.
The intention of this place-based project is to craft a municipalist platform that reflects the needs of the residents instead of corporations, opens up space for direct democratic reforms, and puts power back in the hands of the people.
Absolutely. I think all of this is intersectional. I would say that the general ethic is to make decisions that impact our lives on a daily basis and to make those openly — not just transparently, because what good is transparency when we can see how decisions are being made but we’re still not participating in them? But instead making them actually participatory so that we’re involved and engaged in the decision-making.
Los Angeles for All is a project with an expiration date — we will expire in 2024. We have a hypothesis that Los Angeles is ripe for a municipalist platform, and so we’re giving ourselves two years to test this hypothesis. Depending on the results, we will recalibrate our assumptions and make decisions about our next steps.
Our hypothesis is that social conditions are such that the City of Los Angeles is ripe for a municipalist movement. We studied the example of Barcelona and saw that they had a confluence of different social movement forces at around 2015. They had their version of the Occupy movement — the Indignados movement. They also had the anti-eviction movement that was created in the aftermath of the Great Recession. All of those different groups came together and created a platform for the people to take their city back from neoliberalism, from capitalists, from privatization — for the people, not the banks.
We think that it’s the same time here in Los Angeles. LA has a rich history, but also a contemporary scene of different types of social movements working in different sectors — but we’re not necessarily connected together. And so we intend to network the different self-organized social movements that exist in our ridiculously ginormous megalopolis. And then starting from the neighborhood level — a smaller, more manageable unit of geography — we intend to do popular assemblies so that folks can talk about what is it that they want to see in our city, what it is that they need in their lives.
One of the assumptions in our hypothesis is the 3.5 percent rule: Based on research that was done by Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan, they found that you only need three and a half percent of a population to move into structural change. So, we’re using that calculation to say that in a city of almost 4 million people, that’s about 400 people that we need to activate in each neighborhood — or about 150,000 people.
And you’re planning the launch of this municipalist project on May Day?
Yeah, we’re going to have a social gathering at a community center here in Los Angeles on May Day. And we’re also going to watch the Municipalism Learning Series opening panel together. And then subsequently, we’re hoping to map out those social movements in Los Angeles for the rest of the year. We’re going to be doing that using relational organizing. It’s a little bit like the six degrees to Kevin Bacon thing. I mean, we all have relationships with folks, so I think if we start from who we know and extend outwards, I believe we can actually cover a good chunk of the different parts of our city.
We’re planning to use relational organizing so that folks are thinking about who their networks are and how those networks overlap with other networks. And then we’re launching our neighborhood assemblies starting next year and we’re hoping to go through a process where the neighborhood assemblies formulate their version of their policy needs and demands, and then that gets elevated to a higher geographic level. And finally, we’ll have a platform that represents the needs of the entire city.
And to broaden out, I’m wondering if you have any connections to other cities? I’m thinking about the idea of confederated cities — what social theorist, political philosopher and anarchist Murray Bookchin wrote about, and what’s being embodied by the Cooperation Cities movement, organizations like Cooperation Jackson and Cooperation Richmond. Are you thinking bigger than Los Angeles?
Municipalism is about creating different types of social relationships. That could take the form of a solidarity economy.
We also have gatherings in Humboldt County, California, and also a watch party in New York City. We do think that this is the municipal moment and I think that there’s a lot of folks that are interested in doing this connecting work of what Kali Akuno of Cooperation Jackson calls “liberated zones,” of different places that have a measure of local democracy in place at the state level and also in the economy.
Confederating municipalities is a way to achieve scale. We can do deep local work in our place, but the way that we can reach larger numbers of people is if we connect with other places that are doing similar experiments. This is also part of why we are doing this learning series. It’s a desire to connect with other places that are doing similar types of municipalist projects, be they people’s platforms, popular assemblies or other associated decision making.
We’re going to actually feature different cases every quarter. So our second panel after our May Day panel is going to be on the 11th anniversary of Occupy Wall Street on September 17, and it’s going to look at municipalist platforms in Barcelona, Bologna and also Zagreb. And subsequently, we’ll have other panels on Indigenous municipalism, the relationship of organized labor with municipalism, “just transition,” etc. It’s our way of learning from other folks, other municipalities, and it’s just been an incredible opportunity to do some of that networking of the nodes.
So, yeah, for so many reasons, so many people who for many years have been doing national level or international level work that hasn’t really been tied to geographic place — I think there’s a real interest in that now. Maybe it’s a reflection of how we’ve had to stay in place during the pandemic, potentially. But people are really rooting into place and situating their projects in a specific place, which I think is really exciting. And I think municipalism speaks to impulse really well at this moment.
For folks who want to get involved or maybe start something in their own city, do you have any words of advice or ways they can plug into the municipalist moment?
Great question! I’d recommend joining the Municipalism Learning Series. Reach out and connect with us. We’re trying to create a peer space, we’re calling it the Resist and Build school (inspired by my mentor Emily Kawano, the cofounder of the U.S. Solidarity Economy Network, who says that we need to do both: Resist the dominant system while building alternatives, where folks at varying levels can learn from each other. It’s still in the works, and the idea is that folks should have a place-based project, to democratize their local economy and state. Our hope for this school is that it’s a “learn and action” community of practice for municipalism.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
From the forests of the Congo, to the salt flats of Chile, to the hills of central Idaho — the struggle for control of the minerals of the future heats up By Sean Case The mainstream US press does a …
A key spokesperson of the Alexis Vive Patriotic Force talks about the challenges of building an urban commune.
This article is a continuation of a previous one titled “Rethinking Revolution for an Age of Resurgent Fascism.” Ella Baker’s work leading the Young Negroes’ Cooperative League (YNCL) from 1930-1933 is here used to further inform today’s anti-fascism. Overall, this article relates Baker’s work to the dissenting views of German Communist Party (KPD) co-founder Clara Zetkin, specifically her views on fascism and the systemic alternative she referred to as a “Soviet Congress for a Soviet Germany.” This was a federation of autonomous councils formed in neighborhoods and workplaces for mutual aid, self-defense, and as dual power to succeed in revolution through general strikes in the event of a Nazi coup.
Focusing their aims on a single issue of land reform, the MST argues it is legally and constitutionally justified to occupy unproductive lands for poor workers. Through the focus on land reform, they also campaign on other related issues such as unequal distribution, racism, sexism and media monopolies.
Editorial note: The movement is currently regaining momentum after a hiatus during the Covid-19 pandemic and a lower frequency of new occupations at the beginning of Bolsonaro’s presidency. Faced with multiple challenges – driven by long-standing inequalities that have only been exacerbated by President Bolsonaro and the pandemic – the movement has adopted new political lines and more occupations to fight the current crisis are now planned.
At the start of October, three new occupations were carried out by the MST in the states of São Paulo, Bahia and Rio Grande do Norte, in the context of the struggle for popular agrarian reform.
At the start of October, three new occupations were carried out by the MST in the states of São Paulo, Bahia and Rio Grande do Norte, in the context of the struggle for popular agrarian reform. And more occupations are coming, says Alexandre Conceição, member of the MST’s national coordination: this process “could be extremely significant due to the political conditions and the current crisis, but also due to the government’s incompetence in not meeting the needs of the Brazilian people in the economy, employment and income”. Conceição spoke with Nanci Pittelkow about this moment in an interview with De Olho nos Ruralistas.
De Olho nos Ruralistas: In the last few days, we have seen that the MST carried out new occupations. What is the context for these occupations? Are there any plans for new occupations?
Alexandre Conceição: During the pandemic we decided, as an organization, that we would follow the World Health Organization’s (WHO) guidelines and help prevent the spread of the virus. While we were taking care of our health and tried to preserve lives, we also adopted some political lines.
First, resistance and productive isolation. By resistance we mean the need to resist the violent evictions coming from Bolsonaro and his allies – active resistance is resisting in our territories. The “productive” part is to continue producing food despite Bolsonaro dismantling Incra (National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform), implementing regressive public policies and depleting the budget for Agrarian Reform.
The second element of our political orientation is solidarity like producing food as people were starting to go hungry again in Brazil. A year and a half ago, we had already understood that the reality of hunger had returned to Brazil and that the pandemic would aggravate it even further. Therefore, our territories should be spaces for building solidarity, in other words, to produce food.
“Land occupation happens because those who live in that area feel the need and are willing to fight for the land.”
Alexandre Conceição, MST member
The third is precisely to denounce issues such as the ownership of large private estates and denounce all forms of violence: racial violence, violence against women, children and the elderly, which increased during the pandemic. In this sense, throughout our productive isolation and the pandemic, we could not occupy due to our own political decision, and not as a result of all Bolsonaro’s nonsense.
Land occupation happens because those who live in that area feel the need and are willing to fight for the land. The MST helps organize this political act of identifying unproductive large estates. We have never abandoned our fundamental strategy of occupying large estates because as long as this country has a large concentration of land, wealth and income, we will not have true democracy. Therefore, to fight the Bolsonaro government and inflation on food prices, we needed to resist in our territories and, at the same time, follow Covid-19 guidelines while waiting for the best moment to resume our occupations. With the advancement of the vaccination process, that moment is coming.
We are in a huge social crisis: more than 20 million people have nothing to eat; more than 60 million people don’t know if they’re going to wake up tomorrow and have a cup of coffee; and there are millions of people who do not have a home. Agrarian reform and land occupation immediately resolve the housing crisis and immediately resolve the need for food. We believe that the upcoming occupation process could be huge due to the ongoing political conditions and the crisis we are currently facing, It is also due to the government’s incompetence in meeting the needs of the Brazilian people with regard to the economy, and employment and income generation.
De Olho nos Ruralistas: We know that, even with judicial rulings against it, there have been several repossessions. Does the MST foresee a further increase?
Alexandre Conceição: We are seeing an intensification of the struggle in rural areas. On the one hand, the old and outdated large state is trying to steal public lands, with land grabbing and the so-called “Titula Brasil.” This is actually a program created by the government, in an alliance with landlords, to steal public land and allow land grabbing. On the other hand, agribusiness is earning millions of dollars with the production and monoculture of soybeans and meat for export which, moreover, is extremely poisonous. So, the dispute over territory will be intensified by the social crisis and by the mobilisation that the rural movements will have to carry out.
Firstly to resist in the already acquired territories and, secondly, to reconfigure and reacquire territories. We cannot allow public lands that, according to our Constitution are destined for agrarian reform to be handed over to bandit landowners, as Bolsonaro wants. The intensification of the political struggle tends to be greater among the rural poor who have to fight against the large private estates, agribusiness and the Bolsonaro government to gain access to land. On the one hand, there are these three heavyweights and on the other hand, there is the vast majority of society who have already understood that agrarian reform is urgent and necessary to fight inflation, have a process of solidarity, and at the same time, generate jobs and income.
Society understood during the pandemic that the MST’s work, for which we have even won international awards, is not only to dispute the territory but to preserve that territory and, at the same time, place it at the service of Brazilian society by producing food. This is not what the large estates and agribusiness want … I have no doubt that we are going to see a major struggle in the next period of territory disputes because society stands with us.
Alexandre Conceição, MST member
Society understood during the pandemic that the MST’s work, for which we have even won international awards, is not only to dispute the territory but to preserve that territory and, at the same time, place it at the service of Brazilian society by producing food. This is not what the large estates and agribusiness want because they want to speculate and to keep the people enslaved and starving. I have no doubt that we are going to see a major struggle in the next period of territory disputes because society stands with us. The need for agrarian reform focused on healthy, agroecological, food production which protects life and also the health of anyone who consumes these products, is now understood.
De Olho nos Ruralistas: With the end of the pandemic nearing, is it possible to perceive a greater willingness of people in rural areas to get involved in the struggle?
Alexandre Conceição: Without a doubt. The reduction in occupations dates back to Dilma’s government when the creation of settlements decreased. Then there was the economic crisis and President Dilma’s impeachment, or rather, the coup. The coup constituted a bridge to the abyss in rural areas which, duringTemer’s government, consisted of dismantling public policies. First, they closed the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA) and then they closed the National Secretariat for Human Rights and the one for Racial Equality. In doing so they destroyed the social policies that guaranteed the survival and maintenance of income and employment. You see, peasants are also reading the situation and if public policies are being reduced, they will not occupy and wait for a better moment.
The current situation is complicated because the movement has more political weight but at the same time, the situation and the financial, economic and social crisis in the country are getting worse every day. People would prefer to occupy land rather than run after a garbage truck, go to a slaughterhouse to get a piece of bone or buy chicken feet for R$ 8 a kilo because on the land they can produce their own chicken, cattle, cassava or corn. Consequently, we can have a broad debate with Brazilian society about the possibility of taking the fight directly to the large private estates and the Bolsonaro government.
A superb new report from ISE associates Eleanor Finley and Aaron Vansintjan profiles many of the actions and organizations that are shaping the many varied currents of an emerging North American municipalist movement. They examine campaigns for economic democracy, municipal socialism, radical tenant organizing, mutual aid networks and the resurgence of Indigenous land defense, along with projects more explicitly linked to social ecology. A summary article can be found here, and the full report can be downloaded here.
Highlighting the need to understand municipalism in the context of settler colonialism, imperialism, and white supremacy, the authors argue that real democracy and communalism require deep reckoning with Eurocentric assumptions about land, citizenship, and participation. They also argue that, despite many difficulties and obstacles, radical municipalist experiments in the US and Canada have much to teach municipalists abroad.
They describe the unique difficulties that municipalist organizers face in the North American context:
The very institutions of local governance that municipalists rely on were weaponized as tools of segregation and gentrification. Municipal and neighborhood councils had the authority to divide schooling and housing, further excluding families of color from democratic participation and access to citizenship. To this day, neighborhood associations, school boards, and local councils in white-dominated jurisdictions are sites where racist whites viciously defend “their” town’s whiteness. Municipalists seek to empower neighborhood organizations and city councils, yet in the US and Canada, these very organizations were established through collective self-determination among whites as a means to prevent integration.
And they also point out some of the most important strategies that help point toward a promising way forward:
Photo c/o Los Angeles Tenants Union
The framework of decolonization is appearing in a growing number of diverse contexts, such as in colonial territories like Puerto Rico, Indigenous-led anti-pipeline resistance, and Southern Black movements and cooperatives. Decolonial perspectives on municipalism are being developed in organizations like the ARIDDSE and Black Socialists in America. Social ecologist Modibo Kadalie addresses these themes in his essay collection Pan-African Social Ecology, exploring how self-emancipated Black communities along the Gullah-Geechee coasts of Georgia and South Carolina allied with Indigenous peoples in their rebellion against the fledgling United States and practiced similar forms of direct democracy—drawing not only from North American Indigenous traditions but also African traditions as well. Projects like Cooperation Jackson, the People’s Movement Assembly, and Project South are as a living inheritance of the centuries-old Southern tradition of anti-colonial resistance and self-governance. Direct democracy is thus hardly a white, European or even ancient “Greek” invention, but rather a vast realm of political practices that colonization has tried—but ultimately failed—to destroy.
Some of the lowest-paid workers at UPMC, Pennsylvania’s largest private-sector employer, are on a one-day strike. Their demands — a living wage, safe staffing — are shocking only in how incredibly reasonable they are.
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Mercy hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Many of UPMC’s 92,000 workers are on strike today. (Crazypaco / Wikimedia Commons)
Some of the 92,000 people employed by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) are on a one-day strike today, demanding a starting wage of $20 an hour, safe staffing, affordable health care without medical debt, and the right to form a union without interference.
It poses a dilemma for the health care giant that once claimed to have no employees. That argument was made when the City of Pittsburgh challenged the hospital system’s tax-exempt status nearly a decade ago; in response, UPMC insisted that its workers are actually employed by subsidiaries. (It didn’t take long for the city to find federal 990 tax forms filed under the name “UPMC Group” that listed more than 50,000 employees.) The legal maneuver faded from memory when Pittsburgh mayor and inveterate squish on workers’ rights Bill Peduto dropped the challenge, though with mayor-elect Ed Gainey vowing to take up the fight to revoke UPMC’s nonsensical nonprofit status, it may soon be back in the news.
In reality, UPMC is Pennsylvania’s largest private sector employer, and the people who are on strike are some of its lowest-paid workers. They are part of a years-long organizing effort with Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare Pennsylvania, which also represents nurses at several facilities in the Allegheny Health Network (AHN), the area’s other hospital system.
The strikers include transporters, dietary workers, housekeepers, nurses, patient care technicians, medical assistants, pharmacy techs, surgical techs, valets, therapists, health unit coordinators, and administrative assistants. Despite working for a medical facility, they speak of drowning under medical debt and failing to make ends meet on UPMC’s low wages.
At a November 5 press conference outside of UPMC’s downtown headquarters, Julia Centofani, a pharmacy assistant at UPMC Children’s Hospital who is paid $15.45 an hour, recounted being hit with a $2,000 medical bill last year after her daughter was hospitalized. When she admitted to her daughter’s pediatrician that she was having trouble paying her bills, the doctor referred her to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, which now sends her food on a regular basis.
“The fact that my employer would rather send me dry food . . . than pay me a livable wage is atrocious,” said Centofani.
“$20 an hour would be life-changing for me,” said CJ Patterson, a patient care technician at UPMC Presbyterian who still makes less than $18 an hour despite having been employed by UPMC for twenty-two years:
With a living wage, I could finally get out of debt for the medical care I’ve needed along the way. I could send my granddaughter to a great school and save up for her college. I could help my grandson, who’s a football player, afford the gear and programs he needs to succeed. I’m going on strike for them.
As University of Pittsburgh professor Jeffrey Shook explained at the press conference, $15 an hour is not a living wage. A wage study conducted by Shook found that 64 percent of UPMC employees have had trouble paying their rent, mortgage, or utility bills, and nearly 60 percent had outstanding medical debt or struggled to buy food or medicine.
“Our research shows people need $20 an hour to reduce the material and financial hardships experienced by many workers — which include poor health, undue stress, lack of mobility, and diminished chances for their children,” said Shook.
“We’ve spent day and night seeing the community through this pandemic, only to see signs on our way to work advertising jobs at Amazon or the coffee shop offering better wages when we’re putting our lives on the line every day to take care of our community members when they’re sick,” said Zarah Livingston, a patient care technician at UPMC Mercy hospital.
Not Enough
UPMC’s response to the pervasive anger and frustration among its workers was to announce that it will give them one-time bonuses of $500 ($500 pre-tax, that is, so more like $350) at the end of the month and raise starting wages to $15.75 beginning on January 1, 2022. As UPMC’s new CEO, Leslie C. Davis, wrote in a letter to workers, the increases are meant to show “appreciation of your commitment to our organization and the vital work you do.”
It’s not nearly enough. As Centofani said at the press conference, “Paying us a living wage of $20 an hour would mean $400 more in every single paycheck.” Indeed, friends who work at UPMC told me of coworkers laughing in their bosses’ faces upon receiving the news of the $500 bonus. One UPMC employee called the bonus “a slap in the face to all workers.”
As employers scramble to retain workers and hire new ones, many are turning to one-time bonuses rather than permanent raises, a means of keeping workers from locking in gains. But for health care workers especially, the bonuses are laughably, insultingly inadequate. UPMC workers, like their counterparts at health care facilities across the country, have been stressed to the breaking point since the pandemic began. Nurses at UPMC hospitals openly speak of walking out, and early retirement is on many workers’ minds. Nationwide, one in five health care workers have left the field of medicine during the pandemic.
The least that UPMC can do for the workers who enabled it to generate a record-high $1 billion in earnings last year is pay a living wage, address its short-staffing problem, and stop sending its own employees medical bills that it knows they cannot pay.
There is also the matter of UPMC’s union busting. SEIU has been organizing with these workers for years, but it has never filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for a formal union election. One reason for that is UPMC’s anti-union tactics.
The campaign to organize some 3,500 workers at two of UPMC’s biggest hospitals began in 2012, and before long, SEIU filed twenty-one unfair labor practice (ULP) complaints with the NLRB. The board has issued orders to UPMC regarding workers’ claims of unlawful intimidation, threats, and the removal of union literature from a break room at UPMC’s Presbyterian, Shadyside, Children’s, and Mercy hospitals. UPMC denies these allegations.
Today’s work stoppage is the fifth strike by these UPMC workers in as many years. The majority of workers are not yet publicly engaged in the organizing effort — some 700 of them signed a petition supporting the strike’s demands, which means that likely fewer than that number are on strike (lacking a formal union only multiplies the many challenges of organizing a work stoppage). But the demands are more than reasonable and can be easily met by UPMC. Gainey, the incoming mayor, was backed by SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania and is supporting the workers; he’s expected to speak at their rally today outside of UPMC headquarters. Siding with workers against the city’s largest private employer is a promising sign that the new mayor may take a more aggressive stance toward UPMC than his predecessor; the health care giant should take notice.
Workers across the country are fed up with risking their health and that of their families for employers who treat them as disposable. The public is on their side, too: One recent survey found that 74 percent of respondents approved of workers “going on strike in support of better wages, benefits, and working conditions.” That is certainly the case in Pittsburgh, a city that even now retains a memory of its heyday as a union town. If UPMC occupies a similar role in the city that the steel mills once did, it is time for more of its workers to have a union, and wages and benefits that don’t condemn them to poverty.
Traverse City Real Estate Co-Op Breaks Several Different Molds Josh Davis November 2, 2021, 5:38 pm
Slated to finish construction and open its doors in early 2022 (there’s even a live webcam feed of the construction site), Commongrounds Cooperative will have space for an independent coffee roaster, a local craft distillery, a food hall with a shared commercial kitchen for hourly rental, a childcare facility, a performing arts space and 24 apartments — 18 of them below-market rate, serving various income levels.
But what really makes Commongrounds Cooperative such an atypical project is who owns it and how it was financed. The co-op is owned by a combination of the commercial tenants that will occupy it once it opens and members of their community — their customers, employees and other supporters as well as the residents once they move in.
“The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House.”
Audre Lorde
The past centuries have witnessed many anti-colonial and revolutionary struggles launched and fought with the aim of liberating people and their land from exploitation. They have aspired to gain peoples’ self-determination and self-empowerment, and a life of freedom, welfare and justice for everyone. In that pursuit, many liberation movements in Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East were able to force colonial powers to retreat physically from their territories, but not all of them were as successful in realizing all their declared aims. In fact, quite often, it was a group of new national elites who managed to secure political power and establish another rule without introducing any compelling changes in the structures of state and power. That was disheartening for the freedom fighters who had strived for genuine change, and, often, that feeling of disenchantment permeated down to the following generations. It seemed, as if, Margret Thatcher’s cynical declaration that, “There is no alternative to capitalism!” was tacitly accepted as destiny by people.
But, the human spirit continues to hope and strive for a better future. If we look at the first formations of communal life in which women played a leading and uniting role; if we listen to the pluriversal cosmovisions all around the world; and if we continue the search for giving meaning to our own lives on this planet, we realize that ecological, political and ethical societies based on the values of democracy, solidarity and justice have always existed, and still endure. We can learn from the resistance of the Zapatista, and the indigenous communities in Latin America who continue to defend their lives in the proximity of the Mother Earth; we can reach out to the village assembly of Mendha Lekha in India, which decided to collectively own and cultivate its land. And, we can draw inspiration from the democratic confederal organizing of communes in Kurdistan, as well as from the solidarity of neighborhoods resisting evictions in Palestine or Catalonia.
Need for a Paradigm Beyond State, Power and Violence
These efforts inspire us to face up to the challenges of the contemporary world: how can we forge a mindset, which is democratic, and establish a way of life that does not reproduce hierarchical power structures? And, how can we defend democratic, egalitarian social structures against the chokehold of the capitalist hydra? These questions have also been key to the reflections of Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the Kurdish people’s freedom struggle launched in the vanguard of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). His analysis of the contemporary society proposes that the liberation of life and society can become possible only beyond the construct of state, power and violence. He laid the foundation of a paradigm change in the Kurdistan Freedom Movement. Despite having been arrested extra-judicially in 1999, and subsequently incarcerated in isolation on the Imrali Island in Turkey, Öcalan’s thoughts continue to inspire comprehensive discussions in the movement as well as in the Kurdish society, in all four parts of Kurdistan and the diaspora. He rejected the Machiavellian precept of “the ends justifying the means”, and asserted that “the revolutionary means have to be as clean as the revolutionary aims”, echoing Audre Lorde’s assertion that “it is impossible to dismantle the house of the master with the tools of the master.” Öcalan further affirms that state, power and violence cannot become the instruments of liberation, as they themselves have been the means of societal oppression. These key points have paved the way for a strategic reorientation and reorganization of the Kurdish freedom struggle firmly based on the pillars of women’s liberation, ecology and radical democracy. This process has opened out into the establishment of Democratic Autonomy, Democratic Confederalism and Democratic Nation as alternatives to oppressive, patriarchal and nationalist state structures.
Unity of Democratic Spirit and Body
During the last two decades, the Kurdish people together with the people of other cultures and ethnicities in the region have started to build structures of self-organizing in all four parts of Kurdistan on the basis of these concepts.
The authoritarian regimes in Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria have had disparate colonial policies, and even though the conditions under their respective rules have also differed, oppression has been a common phenomenon in all the countries. Yet, the Kurdish people have negotiated these difficult circumstances using a common spirit, which is described by the term, Democratic Nation. This underscores the attainment of a nation as a democratic society through voluntary participation of individuals and communities, guided solely by their free will. Contrary to a nation-state, it is not based on the hegemony of one language, ethnicity, religion, culture or an enclosed territory. The term, Democratic Nation, further highlights a shared existence of different cultural, social or religious communities built on the foundation of a common life, a shared economy and a set of ethical principles. This novel spirit has found its body in the structure of peoples’ self-administration, namely Democratic Autonomy and Democratic Confederalism.
A women’s workshop in Rojava. Pic. Jineoloji Research Center
Democratic Autonomy denotes the creation of a substantial societal framework consisting of local and regional people’s councils, cooperatives, academies and self-defense forces outside of the existing nation state operating through the oppressive apparatus of its bureaucracy, police, army and other government institutions. With and through these structures of grass-roots democracy, the society can develop its own socio-economic policies, educational system etc. and fulfill the needs of its people without being dependent on the state. This framework is also known as State + Democracy, which simply means that it’s not necessary to overthrow the state in order to build grassroots democracy. On the other hand, by building people’s democratic, autonomous structures within an existing state structure, it’s possible to make the state diminish in its relevance. As a result, the ability of the state to exert power – including structural and militarist violence – over the lives of individuals and society reduces considerably under this new framework. Such a confederal system of organizing, which unites communities based on peoples’ congresses and assemblies across arbitrarily drawn borders, has already been established under the umbrella of the Union of Democratic Communities in Kurdistan (KCK) and the Kurdistan Women’s Communities (KJK). Importantly, for the Kurdish society, the principle of Democratic Confederalism is an essential mechanism by which it can reunite and bring into an integrated system the soul and limbs that had been chopped off by the physical presence of nation-state borders and their corresponding mentality.
The earliest and most resolute steps towards building Democratic Confederalism were taken in North Kurdistan in 2005. This is where majority of the Kurdish people live, and also have a long history of resisting and organizing against the Turkish autocratic regime. Subsequently, when various popular uprisings against authoritarian regimes and dictators took place in North Africa and the Middle East in the spring of 2011, the Kurdish people in Syria also took the initiative to claim their socio-economic and cultural rights and assert their political will. In Rojava (West Kurdistan), despite the repression and nationalist chauvinism they had suffered under the Syrian Arab Republic, the women and peoples had established a solid organizational foundation for taking control of their lives through clandestine political work and community organizing spread over a period of thirty years. In the last ten years, the society in West Kurdistan has continued to build this alternative system of Democratic Autonomy based on peoples’ communes, councils and assemblies in order to meet its vital needs. But, this has not been an easy process, and in the following sections I will address the challenges that have emerged, with the focus on the relations, and the contradictions, between power and democracy.
Women Challenge Power
In the Kurdish language there are two different expressions that we can use for translating the English term ‘power’: Hêz or Desthilatî.
Hêz connotes strength, and could be identified with a natural or democratic ‘authority’ that resists injustice, cares for the well being of society and affirms everyone’s dignity. In Rojava, we can experience this essence of hêz in the personality of the women – especially mothers – who went out on the streets to force the Syrian army forces to withdraw from the Kurdish regions in 2012. We observe this hêz in the eyes of the women who have taken up arms to defend their homeland against the attacks by ISIS and the Turkish army. And we can feel the hêz of women who are rejecting patriarchal norms that perceive them as the honor and property of the family, and who are insisting on speaking for themselves and taking their own decisions. This hêz is present in the women who have celebrated their liberation from ISIS by burning the black niqab, and wearing their colorful clothes again. It is the hêz of women who became teachers although they were refused school education either by the state because they were undocumented Kurds, or by their parents simply because they were girls. The hêz of women is manifested in the active and leading role they play today in politics as equally responsible co-chairs in all structures of Democratic Autonomy, and at all levels – from the communes to international relations. This hêz of wisdom and creativity allowed women to establish an autonomous women’s system including self-organization in the fields of economy, education, health, justice, self-defense, arts and culture. It also motivated them to insist upon the implementation of the general principles on women’s rights and freedom, know as the ‘women’s law’.
The women of Rojava have taken up arms to defend their revolution.
The Strength of Communal Resistance, Self-Defense and Organizing
Furthermore, we continue to experience the society’s hêz in the ongoing widespread discussions and actions to build up a democratic education system, which ensures that learning is imparted to all the communities in their own mother tongue. The hêz is instrumental in solving problems like insufficient water supplies, poverty due to the embargo, and the rising value of the dollar. It also inspires the community to fight a perpetual war, as well as defend the harvest under the scorching summer sun and against the fires caused by the acts of sabotage conducted by ISIS, and the Turkish and Syrian regimes. Last but not the least the hêz of society became obvious, when thousands of people from all generations and all parts of Kurdistan joined the resistance in Kobanê, when thousands of people from all the regions of Rojava joined the convoys headed to Shengal to rescue the Ezidis from the genocide committed by ISIS, and repeated that act when Efrîn, Giresipi and Serekaniye were bombarded and invaded by the Turkish army.
All these examples underscore the point that hêz – namely the courage, the democratic will, the dignity and the integrity – of women and the society, is constantly in conflict with, and under attack, by another form of power which we translate in the Kurdish language as desthilatî. The literal meaning of this term is ‘the raised hand’. It is the opposite of ‘bindestî’, which means ‘being under the hand’, and is translated into English as ‘subjugation’. The dichotomy of desthilatî (power) and bindestî (subjugation) is fundamentally antithetical to the perception of hêz, the ethical distinction and the political sensibility of democracy. Here, it is important to stress that democracy does not imply a capitalist state that simply allows its citizens the right to vote in a representative government every 4 – 5 year. Democracy, in fact, is an alternative to the state. It is the hêz of the communities to resist against any oppressive desthilatî-power, and to govern themselves without the state and without becoming a state.
Democracy is fundamental to an open and free society, where individuals and groups are political subjects and govern themselves on the basis of collective consensus. This concept as well as the construct of Democratic Autonomy spread quickly to other places, too. When the Kurdish defense forces, YPG-YPJ and SDF, liberated broad areas in Northern and Eastern Syria from the tyranny of ISIS, they also adopted it for their own administrative purposes. The model is evolving continually. Kurdish representatives are participating in the regional peace process using the precepts of Democratic Autonomy, and are also striving for its recognition by the international community. But, all through these positive developments, the Kurdish representatives continue to maintain their spiritual and physical autonomy and freedom.
The experiences of building Democratic Autonomy in the Rojava region for the last ten years, has strengthened the conviction that this model can help resolve the protracted conflicts and other issues in Syria, the Middle East and even other parts of the world.
Participants at a protest march in Rojava. Pic. Jineoloji Research Center
Building our own houses with our own tools
The most important challenge of democracy is: How do we overcome the mentality, habits and structures of power that have conquered and colonized the hearts and minds of individuals as well as the society for so long?
In relation to this question we have to be aware that our society’s existence has always been communal and democratic. Social development has been made possible by creativity, solidarity and cooperation, and not by power and violence. This is the democratic hêz of the mother-clan society that has continued to resist domination since Neolithic times. On the other hand, the 5000 years-old history of patriarchy, state civilization, wars and colonization in the Middle East have burnt deep scars of alienation into people’s thoughts, feelings and behaviors. Whether it was the myths of the ancient societies, organized religion itself, or the positivist sciences, they all have been designed to persuade women and other exploited sections of the society that it was their destiny to be subservient to men and the ruling classes. Power hierarchies between men and women, and between rulers and the people were codified by utilizing soft and hard measures, and also by structural as well as physical violence. The fear of punishment for disobedience was complemented by inducements and rewards for collaboration and servitude. The matrix of patriarchal state power and hierarchies alienated and divided social relations, and diluted the democratic norms and beliefs of the tribes that once had their origins in mother clan societies. This is the reason why it has been so difficult to break and overcome the preeminence of power, both as a concept as well as practice.
Since the beginning of the revolution in Rojava, our daily life has been full of examples, which demonstrate the advancements as well as the challenges on the way of overcoming the impact of destructive power structures just by practicing democracy. I have chosen the example of the colloquial called ‘women’s law’ to illustrate some of the processes and discussions in the communities of Rojava, as well as North and East Syria, which challenge patriarchal power. These have been effective in addressing the relevant issues but sometimes they’ve also been controvercial.
Even before people’s power could force the Syrian regime to withdraw from Rojava, women started to build up their own organizational structures to dismantle patriarchal power. They also started constructing their own houses using their own tools. Emîne Omer describes this process:
“In the beginning there were only a few women who were willing to take on the burden of responsibility. We didn’t even have our own rooms, but we really enjoyed our work. To stop the violence against women, we built up our first women’s center, which we called ‘Mala Jinê’ (Women’s House).”
Women’s Law and Justice
Xeliya, a young member of the Women‘s Justice Council shares the difficulties they faced in building an alternative system of justice:
“Until I started this work, I had hardly ever got out of home. And then suddenly I was confronted with the very serious problems of women and society. In the beginning, we mostly listened to our male colleagues because that was what we had learned to do. But, then we got together with the other women who had started this work. At first we cried together as we listened to women’s pain and despair. But, increasingly, we began to exchange ideas and figure out solutions. The discussions, as well as the constant self-reflection and questioning that women participated in became the source of strength for us in finding the right solutions. By asking ourselves, “what does justice for women mean?” we also gained the self-confidence to contradict our male colleagues and express our own opinions. We built our own foundations. Because of our socialization as women we have different approaches to social problems, perceive the same event in different ways, and come to different conclusions.”
The rigorous process of discussion with the women in the communes led to the drafting of “the basic principles and general regulations regarding the situation and the rights of women”. This was done to ensure gender equality in all spheres of private and public life. Women of all national and religious communities like Kurds, Arabs, Armenians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Turkmens, Chechen, Ezidis, Muslims and Christians participated in this exercise. In 2014, the “General Council of Democratic Autonomy” formally adopted the draft. It comprises of 30 principles to ensure, “that women can develop on all levels, achieve a beautiful life, and defend themselves and their legitimate rights against all forms of oppression and violence.“
Since the enactment of the “Women’s Law”, the women’s movement in Rojava has campaigned in all the neighborhoods and villages of the region to create awareness and acceptance of these principles. In the beginning, the general male reaction was quite negative. But slowly, with educational programs at schools and with the assistance of other popular education academies, the laws are gaining widespread acceptance. Many women have revealed that their husband’s attitudes towards them, as well as the relations within the family have improved after they had participated in popular education programs on the principles of a democratic family, women’s history or Jineolojî.
Challenging Patriarchal Mentality and Violence
At present, the bans on underage and polygamous marriages are the most controversial and undermined points of the “women’s law”. Not just men, but sometimes women, too, claim that these provisions do not correspond to “social reality“, or have been introduced “too early”. Xelîya describes some discrepancies between the intention and the effects of the ban on polygamous marriages:
“Before the revolution, it was common for men to ‘get’ several wives. It was usually a very bad situation for women. They were used and played off against each other. But now, some men are pushing their wives to divorce so that they can marry a new woman. This is often perceived as much more humiliating by the ex-wife. Women’s laws alone are not enough; the mentality and morality of society have to change. ”
Women in the communes are raising awareness against patriarchy as part of their work to solve family and tribal conflicts. Pic. Media Team, Jinwar.
Consequently, women in the communes, in the [re]conciliation committees of the people’s councils and the Mala Jinê (Women’s House) raise awareness about the negative consequences of the patriarchal traditions and emphasize the need for discarding that mentality. In the beginning, they were often ridiculed and sometimes even physically threatened. However, with their tireless commitment, they have increasingly won respect from the society. Older women, in particular, are taken seriously as authority figures, as they have the experience to find and mediate just solutions. They have even been able to solve a large number of family and tribal conflicts that had persisted for decades and could not be solved by the Syrian legal system. Members of Mala Jinê explain:
“Our work is based on social interactions and that creates mutual understanding within family settings. We lay emphasis on the harm created by male dominance and the advantages of respectful family relations for everyone. On average, each Mala Jinê [in each town and surrounding area of Rojava] deals with 50 problem cases a month, of which we can solve around 20 simply through mutual understanding.”
However, if it becomes difficult to find a solution to a problem, then the case is passed on to the Women’s Justice Council. In those cases, where physical violence or death threats against women arise, the Asayişa Jin (Women’s Security Force) gets involved. Thereupon, women can seek refuge in safe houses, whereas the aggressors are taken to justice.
Although, the laws and sanctions are not sufficient to challenge the patriarchal order and the perpetrators of violence, the “Women’s Laws” have functioned as an effective means of uncovering and condemning violence against women. Many women emphasize that the principles set in the law have given them strength and courage to take up the fight against sexist violence and discrimination in public as well as in their own private lives. These laws have advanced a collective understanding of social ethics, and also helped establish democratic principles within partnerships and family relations.
The confederal network of the women’s movement, Kongra Star has facilitated the implementation of the women’s law and also propelled social change towards strengthening women’s self-awareness, empowerment and economic wellbeing. By working, organizing and learning collectively, women have secured the possibility of more options in life. Up until very recently, it was difficult to imagine a mother living on her own with her children after a divorce or the death of her husband. Today, projects like women’s cooperatives or the women‘s village called Jinwar have enabled single mothers to determine the course of their lives and ensure care for their children within a community of women. The co-chair system in which women and men collectively represent the will of the group, and coordinate the works of all communes, people’s councils, and in all fields of life has empowered women’s role in society, as well as in many families. Today, women who once were seekers of help are themselves working actively at Mala Jin and in the women’s councils, or have joined the women’s defense forces to protect the lives and rights of other women.
Women celebrating Naoroz, the Kurdish New Year in Rojava. Pic. Jineoloji Research Center
Generating Alternatives
The discussions, and the consequent changes in the lives of women, families and the larger society as a consequence of the women’s laws are one example of the many attempts that have been made to establish a democratic system, mentality and a way of life. We can conclude that the common values and principles of Democratic Autonomy have laid the corner stones of a democratic society and freedom for everyone.
In a time of deep despair, human and ecological crisis, the example of Democratic Autonomy in Rojava has created hope, and given new inspiration to people in Syria and the Middle East. In fact, a lot of people in other parts of the world have become a part of this process and are connecting it to the struggles in their own regions. Despite all the shortcomings and numerous obstacles during the last decade, we have learned that the democratic confederal organization of society can fulfill many spiritual and material needs of society. We have learned that democratic transformation is a continuing process, which requires constant societal and self-reflection. Our achievements are not assured forever, if we do not protect and advance them.
We’ve learned about our shared pains and aspirations by listening to each other, and by sharing our experiences of life and struggle; while singing songs and telling stories of our ancestors in our own languages, as women from different communities. We have learned that we can find solutions to the problems in our lives when we blend wisdom with spirituality, and our analytical and emotional intelligence. These are our tools for dismantling the houses of the masters. At the same time, we’ve also created new tools for building our own houses and gardens – we’ve constructed a democratic society, by uniting our political thoughts and beliefs with our way of life. By transforming our needs and hopes into communal organizing and actions, we now experience democracy as an alternative to state and power.
The Rojava Revolution is alive, and spreading its wings.
Şervîn Nûdem has been working at the Jineolojî Academy in Rojava (West-Kurdistan) in the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, since 2016. She works with the women from Kurdistan, Syria and other countries. Şervîn grew up in Germany and was active in the anti-fascist youth and autonomous women’s movement. Her interest in connecting political theory with practice, and communal life with the struggle for a free society led Şervîn to join the women’s liberation struggle in Kurdistan, and to participate in the work of the Jineolojî Academy. The main focus of her work is on popular education programs and collective, communal researches on the historical and social foundations of the women’s revolution and the system of Democratic Autonomy in Rojava / North and East Syria. Şervîn has also been active in the establishment of the Andrea-Wolf-Institute / Jineolojî Academy with the aim of connecting the struggle for democracy, justice and freedom worldwide with women’s wisdom.
A women’s workshop in Rojava. Pic. Jineoloji Research Center
The women of Rojava have taken up arms to defend their revolution.
Participants at a protest march in Rojava. Pic. Jineoloji Research Center
Women in the communes are raising awareness against patriarchy as part of their work to solve family and tribal conflicts. Pic. Media Team, Jinwar.
Women celebrating Naoroz, the Kurdish New Year in Rojava. Pic. Jineoloji Research Center