Rojava in Focus

The theory, practice, and challenges of the feminist, anticapitalist Rojava revolution.

This collection examines Murray Bookchin's conception of social ecology and how, since 2011, it has been interpreted and put into practice by the revolutionary feminist movement in Rojava, under the theoretical influence of political prisoner and founder of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, Abdullah Öcalan. Cihad Hammy and Thomas Miley provide an overview of social ecology as a framework for building an ecological, nonhierarchical society through the construction of alternative, direct-democratic institutions capable of transcending the capitalist nation-state. The editors analyze the institutional architecture of popular assemblies central to this democratic revolution, emphasizing their potential to contest capitalist social-property relations and the hierarchies intrinsic to the nation-state, while acknowledging the resilience of the existing State system. The book follows the experience of the revolutionary forces in control of the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North East Syria (DAANES), highlighting the DAANES's achievements as well as the significant obstacles it has encountered.

Essays by activists associated with the Kurdish Freedom Movement and sympathetic critics expand our understanding of the vast changes taking place in the region, challenges ahead, connections to other movements around the globe, and point to where the movement may head next. Contributors include Anna Rebrii and Berivan Omar, Kamal Chomani, Matt Broomfield, Azize Aslan, Debbie Bookchin, and Sixtine van Outryve d'Ydewalle, among others.