democratic autonomy in kurdistan press release · tatort kurdistan (“crime scene kurdistan”) is...
TRANSCRIPT
“This outstanding book by TATORT Kurdistan will be indispensable for all further work on democratic confederalism,
an emerging utopia in the Kurdish regions of Anatolia.” — Janet Biehl
FORTHCOMING: OCTOBER 2013
NEW PUBLICATION FROM NEW COMPASS PRESS:Democratic Autonomy in North Kurdistan
The Council Movement, Gender LIberation, and Ecology—in Practice
ISBN: 978-82-93064-26-8Paperback, ca. 250 pages.Price: 19.95 USD; 12.95 GBP; 14.95 EURBy TATORT Kurdistan, translated by Janet Biehl
As its own contribution to a peaceful solution of the Kurdish question, the Kurdish Freedom Movement in Turkey has developed an alternative social model: Democratic Autonomy.
In the fall of 2011, a group of TATORT activists journeyed into the Kurdish areas to discover how the theory of Democratic Autonomy was being put into practice. Their interviewees discovered a remarkable experiment in face-to-face democracy—all the more notable for being carried out in wartime.
Since 2005, under the most difficult conditions, the movement in North Kurdistan has created structures for building a democratic, ecological and gender-liberated society. Its core consists of a system of councils in villages, cities, and neighborhoods. These structures do not yet offer a way of life that is fully independent of the nation-state and the market economy, but they nonetheless reveal a potent civil counter-power.
The interviews and documentation in this book provide stimulating first glimpses into the practical implementation of a left utopia. The radical democratic awakening of Kurds may also serve as an inspiration for social change in the Middle East—and elsewhere.
TATORT Kurdistan (“Crime scene Kurdistan”) is a German network of peace and human rights activists who focus attention on the Kurdish question. They can be contacted through: [email protected]
New Compass presents ideas on participatory democracy, social ecology, and movement building—for a free, secular, and ecological society.
new-compass.net2013
Grenmarsvegen 12N-3912 Porsgrunn, Norway
www.new-compass.net
NEW COMPASS PRESS