Anticapitalist Economy in Rojava: The Contradictions of the Revolution in the Struggles of the Kurds

This book looks at the anti-capitalist economy and the organization of social relations in the context of the revolution and autonomy of Rojava (Kurdistan-Syria). It questions both the limitations and the historical problems of the phenomenon of revolution, and the conflicts and contradictions that emerge in this process. It also draws from the conflicts and contradictions the author has consistently felt as a “political subject” who wants to change the world, especially through her experience in the Kurdish struggle and the Kurdish Movement. For this reason, every question she raises and attempts to answer in this book—about the Kurds, Rojava, and the world in general, involves what she says is her own subjectivity. The idea and dreams of revolution have existed since humans created systems of domination. Indeed, revolution, meaning the liberation from systems of domination, has undoubtedly been one of the most discussed subjects in history. There have been moments when the possibility of revolution has been clearer, and there have also been certain agreements on what it is and how to get there, but it has never been something completely definable. This continues to be true today. This book does not intend to define this great phenomenon, rather it looks at the revolutionary practices that create emancipating realities and embraces revolution as an undefined, contradictory and dynamic process. Although the rulers have traditionally written history, the history of social struggles has been and is still being created by many revolutionary and transformational processes. The future is being shaped based on desired revolutions and the struggles that, in turn, transform their actors, the people. Therefore, the desire and quest of the Kurdish people for liberation from the colonial rule of the nation-states of the Middle East—the subject of this book—has always been directly linked to the phenomenon of revolution. The intellectual, self-critical and organizational transformation of the Kurdish Movement toward the adaptation of democratic autonomy as a new horizon of the struggle for social emancipation requires an understanding not only of the historical background that has created the Rojava Revolution but also of what defines it in the present. Autonomy as the process of building revolution, the contradictions and conflicts of this process and how social transformation is created through communes and assemblies are some of the issues posed in this book. Before discussing the autonomy of Rojava, the reader will encounter the history of Rojava's resistance since the division of Kurdistan by several borders, including Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran, to understand the social bases of the revolution itself and the subjectivities of the people who are organizing the revolution and striving for autonomy. Anti-capitalist Economics in Rojava starts with the argument that, in order to create real social emancipation, the revolution must break with the domination of capitalism by creating anti-capitalist and communal spaces and practices; The book focuses on the organization of the social economy, cooperatives and the women's economy to analyze the anti-capitalist capacity of the Rojava experience.