jin, jîyan, azadî 🤍💛🩵 @standwithdaanes - Tumblr Blog

intro to DAANES/Rojava & democratic modernity

Whenever we asked activists in Rojava what the best form of solidarity would be, the most common answer we got was “Build a strong revolutionary movement in your own country.” That response caused us to reconsider the very concept of solidarity. In the history of the Western Left, solidarity has often amounted to a subject-object relationship, in which the “object” of solidarity is tied to the metropolises’ longings and needs for strong emancipatory movements. But this form of solidarity reproduces the colonial perspective on southern, traditionally nonindustrialized, and historically exploited countries. [...] This problem arose in most solidarity movements in the last decade. But solidarity, activists in Rojava say, means building solidarity movements together, movements that can learn from and support one another. [...] For leftists, solidarity with Rojava is not a question of benevolence but a necessity.

— Revolution in Rojava: Democratic Autonomy and Women’s Liberation in Syrian Kurdistan by Michael Knapp, Anja Flach, and Ercan Ayboğa (2016)

Donate to Hevya Sor a Kurdistanê (Kurdish Red Crescent, equivalent of the Red Cross) here. Currently they cannot take donations from the UK, so if you are in the UK please see here for how to donate.

everything below the cut is free to read/watch/download online. updated 28/6/26 (now with some videos as well as texts!)

#mine

The People's Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) Women's Assembly has released the final declaration of its Women's Assembly Conference

The People's Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party [in Turkey]) Women's Assembly has released the final declaration of its Women's Assembly Conference, held on 10 July. The declaration argued that the male-dominated capitalist system was deepening its crisis through war, militarism and hostility toward women.

"The world is going through a period in which the struggle for hegemony among imperialist powers is intensifying and policies of war and conflict are once again being reinforced on a global scale. The decisions taken alongside the NATO summit to increase military spending show that militarism is being established as one of the defining political orientations of the coming period. Pursued under the banner of security policies, this course imposes more war, poverty, forced displacement and ecological destruction on peoples. The ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, the threats directed at Iran and interventions aimed at reshaping the region cannot be separated from the competing interests of imperialist powers. War regimes are sustained not only through weapons but also through the exploitation of women's labor, deepening poverty, the plunder of nature, the strengthening of authoritarian rule and the militarization of society. The current period is marked not only by the escalation of wars but also by the reproduction of the social roles assigned to women. The male-dominated capitalist system seeks to create a new model of womanhood that glorifies individualism, competition and consumerism through militarism, market relations and digital culture. By weakening women's solidarity and collective struggle, this approach deepens women's poverty, labor exploitation, precarity and forced displacement while accelerating ecological destruction. Violence along migration routes, the devaluation of women's labor, the destruction of living spaces and the exclusion of women from public life are all different manifestations of the same patriarchal system. [...]

A democratic society, in which women participate equally in political decision-making, violence comes to an end, and peoples and faith communities live together on the basis of equal citizenship, will come to life through the organized will of women. We do not regard peace as separate from women's freedom, democracy and social equality. We believe that a lasting and dignified peace will be built under the leadership of women. The deepening economic crisis, war policies and authoritarian system of governance in Turkey are placing increasing pressure on women's lives. As precarious forms of employment become more widespread, women's labor is rendered invisible while the burden of care is placed entirely on women's shoulders. The government's domestic policies pursued under the banner of the "Year of the Family," which target women and LGBTQ+ people, reject gender equality and seek to reorganize social life around traditional gender roles, together with its approach that simultaneously legitimizes NATO's security-centered war policies, demonstrate that it treats the rights of women and LGBTQ+ people not as universal principles but as instruments shaped by political needs. We, as women, will continue to strengthen our struggle for equality, freedom, peace and a democratic society against this patriarchal system that promotes sexist and heterosexist policies at home while fueling militarism abroad. [...] The women's freedom struggle is not only a struggle to defend women's rights but also a struggle to build an equal, free, democratic and ecological way of life. Today, the strongest response to war policies, militarism, patriarchy, women's poverty, labor exploitation, the plunder of nature and all forms of discrimination is the organized solidarity and collective will of women. In the coming period, we will further strengthen the common struggle of women and expand our constituent role in building a democratic society. We will continue to defend the shared life of peoples, women's equal citizenship, a free future and democratic politics through women's solidarity. We know that a democratic society will come to life through the organized will of women, and that lasting peace will be achieved through women's struggle for equality, freedom and democracy. With this conviction and determination, we will continue to strengthen the common struggle of women, build a democratic society in line with the women's liberation paradigm, and construct a dignified peace under the leadership of women.

#mine

are you the one behind the synjectivism blog? By the way your post here have been very interesting and helped me understand more about democratic modernity.

yes i am! & i'm glad :)

#mine

kropotkindersurprise

Nelson Mandela speaks about the USA's abhorrent war crime when they dropped two atomic bombs on Japanese civillians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, murdering more than a 100.000 people. [video]

vague-humanoid

Transgender woman faces two felony charges after drawing a firearm during an altercation.

A Wyoming transgender woman is facing two felony charges after drawing a firearm during an altercation she says began with anti-LGBTQ+ and a

Ríhanna Kelver, a bartender and trans rights advocate in Laramie, has been charged with aggravated assault and possession of a deadly weapon with unlawful intent after a 13 September 2025 confrontation outside the Crowbar & Grill, whereshe worked. Kelver could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison if convicted on both charges.

Kelver says one man in a group of men across the street from her started shouting homophobic and transphobic insults at her before the man allegedly shoved her to the ground in a downtown crosswalk, as reported by The Laramie Reporter.

el-shab-hussein

There's more, as it pertains to Black trans people's right to self-defence:

Despite Wyoming’s “Stand Your Ground” statute, which allows people to use reasonable force in moments of self defense, Kelver faces up to 15 years in prison for both charges, as well as up to $11,000 in fines, per Cowboy State Daily. Kelver faces an additional year and $1,000 fine for a charge of interference with a peace officer. [...]

As pointed out by Slate, self-defense laws are often put into question when people from marginalized communities, especially trans people, use them, including Cece McDonald, a Black trans woman who served time in a men’s prison for defending her friends during a racist and transphobic attack. Ky Peterson, a Black trans man from Georgia, was also arrested and imprisoned for killing his rapist in self-defense.

resiliencebeast

I wrote a short explanatory piece on how gun control (in the USA, specifically) has always been a tool of oppressors against marginalized folks. You can find it on Tumblr here. Kelver needs assistance with her legal fees fighting these charges. Her crowdfunding sites keep being removed so here's her Venmo:

Please help her.

featuringbees

When Scott Durham pushed Ríhanna Kelver to the ground, she drew a gun in response. Kelver, a trans woman now facing two felony charges, said

Hope you don't mind me adding to this, i live in laramie and ive known ríhanna personally for several years and this incident has been so difficult for her, and additionally the attack exacerbated health issues for her.

a local reporter posted this article this morning that delves into her attacker's affiliation with the fascist patriot front org and the fact that since he moved to laramie in 2023 there has been a significant uptick in hateful activity and propaganda being spread throughout the town. this man was prevented from walking at his high school graduation by his own admission due to his racist, queerphobic, and antisemetic behavior.

one of the things that has been infuriating to me is that her attacker is not the one pressing charges. not the literal man she pulled a gun on, it is the police who are threatening her with 15 years in prison.

please help ríhanna if you can, she doesn't deserve this and it is depicting the increasing danger for trans women and other queer people in this city and state as a whole.

existennialmemes

Listen, if a Bad President can come in and take away our rights and we're dependent on a Good President replacing them in four years to give us back our rights, then we do not have any rights.

If politicians can take or distribute them, then they're not "inalienable" and they're not "rights."

We don't have inalienable rights we have conditional privileges, divvied out according to the whims of whoever currently holds the reins.

And if we want to have actual rights, then we must build a system in which no one has the power to take them away to begin with.

standwithdaanes

love being peer reviewed

So it is not enough just to think that we need to surpass capitalism, we need to think what we want to put in place of capitalism. That’s why ecosocialism is pushing forward the discussion on what we are going to put in place of the things we don’t want. So instead of just challenge the crisis and getting tired by reactionary politics, we also try to push forward the necessity and need for hope. But not a naive hope; We need to have hope together with the action, and the possibility of building a different world. We have tools to make it possible, we have more possibilities than we know. We just need to mobilize, we need to have more conscience about this crisis. We need to have the conscience that there is a system, a structure, and we need to attack the structure, the root of this crisis. There is the need of being courageous to build something different and create the power, the necessary power to make it happen.

from Eco-Socialism in a Time of Global Crisis – An Interview with Vanessa Dourado

#mine #ecosocialism #climate change #climate crisis #heat waves #canadian wildfires #anarchism #democratic confederalism #compassion fatigue

Ashley Brouillette has identified her ex-husband, David Brouillette, as the officer who fatally shot Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddef

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who allegedly fatally shot a Colombian man in Maine on Monday was prone to violence and held racist beliefs, according to some of the people who were close to him. Ashley Brouillette told NPR her ex-husband, David Brouillette, was the officer who fatally shot Joan Durán Guerrero four times during an attempted traffic stop in Biddeford, Maine, on Monday. She said she found out he was the officer responsible when he called her on Wednesday, asking her to vouch for his character. "He asked me to basically talk good in his character, not to talk bad about him. And if I couldn't not talk bad about him, then just not to talk at all to anybody," she told NPR. "And I told him that I was not going to lie for him. He asked me not to talk about the abuse in our marriage. And I told him again I was not going to lie for him." [...] Scott Collins told NPR that he was best friends with David Brouillette in high school in Maine. Collins testified on behalf of Ashley Brouillette in the divorce proceedings. [...] Collins also said that David Brouillette used anti-Black racial slurs in high school. Ashley Brouillette says she worries racism may have played a part in Durán Guerrero's death. "He has displayed racism. His nickname in high school was 'White Boy David,' if that tells you anything," she said. Ashley Brouillette said she has known David Brouillette since they were preteens. She said there were many moments of violence in their marriage that lasted from 2007 to 2009. "There was an incident where we had been fighting, and I walked away and I got in the shower, and he comes in with a gun and pointed at me and tells me that he's going to blow my brains all over the bathtub," she told NPR. [...] She did, however, keep a profanity-laced voicemail message from November, when she had filed a restraining order against her ex-husband. In the voicemail, which NPR obtained, he slurs his speech and ends by saying that she and the women in her family should have their throats cut. "Am I threatening that I'm gonna do that? No, no. But do I think that you should have your f****** throat cuts? Or should have had them cut. Yep," the voicemail says.

#mine #abuse tw #domestic violence tw #racism #fuck ice

standwithdaanes

“Are we in a world war? Maybe the question should be, in a world system that thrives on environmental destruction and genocide, how can we say that we are not?

The Kurdish Freedom Movement has stated that WWIII started after the fall of the soviet union in the early 1990’s. Today everyone from the Pope to Georgia Meloni are proclaiming the world war. If we are living such a time in history then maybe the time has come to ask “what should we do about it?”

This brochure contains extracts from the books written in prison by the leader of the Kurdish Freedom Movement, Abdullah Öcalan. His theses on peace and democratic society are becoming more and more necessary each day to understand and confront the Leviathan we are facing.”

“It’s true that World War III is taking place in the Middle East in a unique way. However, certain particularities distinguish this war from classic military-political aspects. Although defining it as a clash of civilizations is correct, its content is often incorrectly interpreted. Frequently, not enough attention is paid to its historical and social dimensions—what side particular forces are on and their methods and goals are not clear. Even though there is plenty of talk about various plans and projects, the war in question appears to lack a plan and to almost be running on its own steam. We are, so to speak, faced with a war that aims to create chaos.”

Download the brochure for free here.

standwithdaanes

Why national parks are not as good as you think…

"We must remember that national parks all over the world, as beautiful as they are, they are products of violence. We must remember that people were violently removed from there to create the beauty we see today. [...] Some [indigenous people] are even getting killed and tortured, because of the needs of conservation, an idea that is being created in lands far away and where they did not have any contribution to the discussion." Did you know that the creation of Protected Areas for conservation has led to hundreds of thousands of Indigenous peoples being evicted from their ancestral lands? In this video, ecologist and Survival [International, the Indigenous people's advocacy group] consultant Mordecai Ogada speaks about the problems of national parks for which governments and NGOs have stolen vast areas of land from Indigenous peoples and local communities under the false claim that this is necessary for conservation. However, evidence proves Indigenous peoples manage their environment and its wildlife better than anyone else and when they have secure rights over their land, they achieve at least equal if not better conservation results at a fraction of the cost of conventional conservation programs. This is why we must decolonize conservation!

standwithdaanes

Democracy is not a type of state nor is it correct to say that a state is a form of democracy. It is important to be extremely careful about the characteristics of the relationship between the two. [...] The fact that democracy and state developed within one another denotes the struggle, contention, and wars that occurred during the process. [Öcalan lists a few examples of conflict between democracy and state: early Islamic governance after Muhammad's death, split between Medina's more collective "republican" order and the hereditary sultanate favored by the Quraysh tribe; ancient Persia, whose Median Confederation eventually gave way to the centralized Achaemenid Empire; how Athen's wars with Sparta, Persia, and Macedonia reflected tensions between democratic and imperialist goals; Rome's shift from republic to empire, best demonstrated with the murder of Julius Caesar; and the modern French and Russian revolutions, both seeking democracy (a republic for the French, and the original soviet workers councils) but eventually fell into to mass violence and imperialism ... ] I continuously refer to conflict between democratic society and [state] civilized society. However, the possibility of compromise cannot be excluded. On the contrary, compromise is essential-or rather, should have been essential. The main reason for their continuous existence, in terms of the dialectical understanding that opposites do not destroy one another, is that the one cannot exist without the other. The existence of one is possible only through the existence of the other. As I pointed out before, both democratic and civilizational breakthroughs have come from within the communal mother society. Democracy is based mostly upon the substratum majority and multitudes that have been betrayed, oppressed, and exploited mostly by the hierarchic upper-strata, whereas civilization is based mostly on the section of the upper strata that pursue the oppression, exploitation, and ideological hegemony. No doubt neither are completely isolated from one another and from the communal mother society-although intertwined, they have distinct differences. At this point, there is a need to review our understanding of the concept of society as a whole and we should continuously remind ourselves of it. Societies should be understood to be the integral sum of classes (including hundreds of sub-groups and millions of families within each class), all communities who have not yet been subject to class division or who resist class division, global as well as local units (religions or languages, economies. tribes, nations and transnationals, chaos and order) that have love, calm, conflicting, solidarizing, and various multiple intertwined relationships and contradictions. Societies should not be understood as being unique but as the integral of sum of thousands and thousands of instances of uniqueness. Amidst this huge complexity a societal order that is closest to peace can only be created if democracy and state strike a balance. Absolute peace requires the state of having no state. While theoretically this can be envisaged, practically we are far from it.

from Capitalism: The Age of Unmasked Gods and Naked Kings (Manifesto of the Democratic Civilization, Volume II) by Abdullah Öcalan

More on Öcalan's ideas of the state vs. democracy below the cut.

Only a long-term democratic life that includes the entire society, even the society of the state, can lead to absolute peace. At this moment in history we can only talk about peace in terms of no-clash periods based on the equilibrium of the forces in question, that is of the state and democracy. If democracy attempts to absorb the state completely, then at this historical moment chaotic features will outweigh-as demonstrated by experiences in many countries. If the state continuously imposes the absence of democracy, then despotic dictatorship systems form and in the present historical moment this again results in chaos. Becoming civilized, also called the historical process, has continued for the past five thousand years. Democracy has had a more restricted opportunity. But society, the overwhelming majority and multitudes, has always awaited, and struggled for, democracy. Maybe thousands of years from now, although it may have a different form, state and democracy will continue to exist intertwiningly as a category. The challenge is, just as much as dissociating state and democracy, to determine systematic rules under which they will live in coexistence without denying each other. It may be necessary to draw new types of constitutions. The present claim that the state and democracy are interwoven is totally deceptive. It cannot be more than efforts to hide one another’s detects. In the absence of overcoming this position there can be no coherent discussion on state and democracy. The two most modern revolutions, the French and the Russian Revolutions, instead of clarifying and improving the debate regarding this topic, have made it more complicated. There is an urgent need for political theory to at least determine and define a state that is open to democracy, that is, a state that does not ban real democracy or consider itself to be the epitome of democracy. Similarly. it must define a democracy that does not deny the state, that is, a democracy that will rapidly turn into state itself and that does not continuously see the state as an obstacle to be destroyed. [...] I am aware that I am presenting a paradigm, a theoretical framework, far different from the traditional liberal and socialist paradigms.

standwithdaanes

Made these little flashcards for my own sake & for others, to simply break down the concepts I've been reading about. Didn't have enough space on this post but here's Öcalan's typology of states as well.

For more on democratic modernity as a framework, see here.

standwithdaanes

Walkouts, marches and other gatherings planned for ‘May Day Strong’ demonstrations across the country

Thousands are expected to join an economic blackout for International Workers’ Day , as part of 3,500 “May Day Strong” events across the country today. Organizers are calling for “no school, no work, no shopping” with walkouts, marches, block parties and other gatherings planned into the evening. On the east coast, protests were already under way by the early morning. In Manhattan, a group of Amazon workers, Teamsters and local politicians marched from the New York public library’s main branch to Amazon’s nearby corporate offices to demand the corporation cut its contracts with ICE and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In the nation’s capital, protesters with the organization Free DC shut down intersections across the city, holding handmade banners reading “Workers over billionaires” and “Healthcare not warfare”. By midday, six protesters with youth-led Sunrise Movement were arrested for blocking a bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In Portland, Oregon, Sunrise protesters occupied a Hilton hotel lobby where DHS officials are allegedly staying. May Day has long been an annual day of protest for the labor movement, and this year, many active movements are converging to demand no ICE, no war, and taxing the rich. The May Day Strong coalition includes labor unions, immigrants rights groups, political organizations such as the Democratic Socialists of America, and the organizers behind the No Kings protests. Friday’s economic disruption builds on a similar coordinated effort out of Minnesota in January, when tens of thousands of Twin Cities residents took off from school and work to flood the streets in protest of federal immigration agents storming the city. Leah Greenberg of Indivisible, one of the main organizations behind No Kings, described the May Day economic blackout as a “structure test” for the movement. “We are asking people to take a step into further exerting their power in all aspects of their lives – as workers, as students, as members of local organizing hubs,” she said. “It’s important as it builds muscles towards greater non-cooperation.” Teachers’ unions and students are an active part of the fight, a continuation of their months of organizing against ICE. At least 15 school districts in North Carolina have given teachers the day off to join a statewide May Day “Kids Over Corporations” rally for public education funding. In Chicago, Illinois, the Chicago Teachers Union fought and won to have May Day made a “day of civic action”. “As educators, we feel a very real accountability to the young people in the families that we serve,” Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union and Illinois Federation of Teachers, said earlier this week. “We want to connect people not just to the affordability crisis but the crisis of our institutions being marginalized in this moment and the impact on our young people.” Sanshray Kukutla, a student at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and organizer with the campus’s Sunrise Movement chapter, is helping coordinate a local walkout for students, teachers, workers and residents. “We’re taking collective action to send a message to the billionaire class: it’s our labor, our spending and our participation that keeps the whole system running, and if we don’t work, they don’t have profits,” said Kukutla. Organizers say the day of action is an effort to build toward a general strike, which was essentially outlawed through the 1946 Taft-Hartley Act and hasn’t happened in the US since. As a workaround, Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers (UAW), has called for unions to work toward a general strike on 1 May 2028, by having existing union contracts expire in unison.

standwithdaanes

from @.motherjonesmag on Instagram.

For context:

Tennessee has enacted a new U.S. House map that carves up a majority-Black district in Memphis. The new voting districts signed into law Thu

Tennessee is the first state to pass new congressional districts since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week significantly weakened federal Voting Rights Act protections for minorities. But more Southern states could follow. Republicans in Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina also have taken steps toward redistricting.

Also need to share this image of Rep. Justin Jones, from this article:

Protests began before any legislative meetings, with hundreds packed in the hallways between the chambers and booing Republican lawmakers, continuing three days of pushback over the sudden redistricting. House Speaker Cameron Sexton was quick to chastise members of the public, threatening to clear the entire gallery over brief clapping in agreement with a lawmaker. Less than an hour into the meeting, Sexton ordered troopers to remove the public over a hissing sound. [...] State troopers arrested three people for refusing to leave. The West balcony was cleared about an hour later. When the Senate gallery was cleared later, activists left alarms under the seats, and troopers had to scrounge to find and disable them. One of the protesters arrested was KeShaun Pearson, the brother of Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis), who was previously expelled from the House in 2023 for protesting on the floor for gun control. Justin Pearson is currently running for Congress in the 9th Congressional District, which would be most disrupted by the redistricting. Tensions were also clear between lawmakers from the outset of the meeting. Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) at one point handed a printout of a Confederate flag to House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland) and repeatedly accused the Republican supermajority of resembling the Ku Klux Klan, calling them the “white sheet caucus.” When Jones said the House was operating under Jim Crow rules, the speaker giggled in the well. [...] In the hallway, surrounded by protesters, Jones burned another printout of a Confederate flag, marking a distinct flare in protester volume. [...] Senate Democratic Caucus Chair London Lamar (D-Memphis) was visibly tearing up on the floor before she admonished her Republican colleagues for bending to the whims of Blackburn and Trump, rather than defending voting rights. “This is how democracy dies in our face. It’s not always with violence in the street. It is those secret meetings you have in the back of your rooms,” Lamar said of the lack of transparency and process around the redistricting. “You may have the votes to pass this map, but you don’t have the moral authority to do what’s right,” Lamar continued.

Öcalan sees it as “the most important weakness of all the anti-fascists, but especially that of socialists, was their inability to notice the systematic bond between nation-state, monopolies (state and private monopolies), and fascism. Moreover, the ontological bond between capitalist modernity in general and fascism had not been determined.” Central to his understanding of capitalist modernity is the trio of nation state, industrialisation and capitalism. Modernity, which is based upon this intertwined trio, is in a position to wage both internal (fascism) and inter-state national, regional and world wars. Democratic modernity as an alternative system, on the other hand, “responds to the homogenization (uniformization), herd-like, and mass-like society that the modern nation-state strives to achieve by adopting a universalist, linear-progressive, and deterministic (methods closed off to probabilities and alternatives) method with pluralistic, probabilistic methods that are open to alternatives and make democratic society visible. It develops its alternative through its ecological and feminist characteristics that are open to diverse multicultural, non-monopolistic political structures, as well as with an economic structure that meets basic social needs and is controlled by the community. Democratic modernity’s political alternative to capitalist modernity’s nation-state is democratic confederalism.”

from "The understanding of fascism in Öcalan’s concept of democratic modernity" by Ali Cicek

#mine #democratic confederalism #democratic modernity #abdullah öcalan #anarchism #socialism #communalism #democratic socialism #fascism #antifa #democracy

The capitalist nation state is using various instruments and methods to create the profile of a citizen that has never existed before in history, explains Öcalan: “This citizen’s real aim in life is to have a car, a family (to find a husband or a wife, to have one or two children), and to own a house; in other words, to become a daily standard consumer. The meaning of sociality can be easily brushed aside for menial selfish ambitions. The citizen’s memory is wiped out and consequently it is detached from history as well. History is thought to be nothing but all about chauvinistic national clichés. The citizen has no philosophy and does not believe in the existence of any other philosophy of happiness than narrow pragmatism. In appearance, the citizen looks modern. However, at issue is the individual of the “herd of citizens,” “mass society,” or, indeed, lack of individuality that has been created and prepared to work for the most obscure aspirations (such as fascism) which are hollow and devoid of substance.” According to Öcalan, this type of citizen played a central role on the road to fascism and is the subject of many famous novels. One example in this context is the novel “The Conformist” by Alberto Moravia, which tells the story of a man who becomes a compliant civil servant under the new fascist government in Italy. Öcalan considers nation states and societies that produce this type of citizen to be among the greatest obstacles to democratic modernity. Therefore, a central task of democratisation and anti-fascist practice is “to analyze the nation-state and the society that produces such a lack of individuality (where the individual is considered non-existent) and to raise egalitarian, free, and democratic individuals (free citizens) who can construct the democratic civilization.” In his remarks, Öcalan also rejects the dominant understanding that the middle class is the basis of a republican and democratic regime. Rather, this depiction is a “narrative of liberal propaganda”. The “middle class has played the key role in the negation of the republic and democracy.” For Öcalan, the middle class is the reservoir from which fascism, not democracy, draws: “Just as the relationship between fascism and the nation-state is structural, the relationship between fascism and middle class is also structural.” In this context, liberal democracy essentially relied on the middle class, and he describes the nation state as the “modern god of the middle class”: “It lives in its own mentality and passion with the dream of reuniting (through attainment of task and benefit) with this God. A position within its bureaucracy or monopolies means salvation.” Capitalism uses the liberal bourgeoisie and the middle class in its fight against democratisation and social justice by making concessions and creating illusions, pointing to the lower strata of society and keeping the middle class in constant fear.

from "The understanding of fascism in Öcalan’s concept of democratic modernity" by Ali Cicek

#mine #democratic confederalism #democratic modernity #abdullah öcalan #anarchism #socialism #communalism #democratic socialism #fascism #antifa #democracy

Öcalan assumes that the first attempt at a “society of the spectacle”, fascism, was not actually defeated. Its protagonists were indeed liquidated. But the system enforced the society of the spectacle everywhere during the Cold War and afterwards through the nation state and global finance companies. The term “society of the spectacle” comes from the major work of the French philosopher Guy Debord, in which he denounces modern labour society, capitalism, the world of commodities and the alienation of labour. The current “society of the spectacle” in the West is a society that celebrates the superficial, wants to find fulfilment in consumption, looks at and admires itself in the media, considers everything to be measurable and purchasable and “in which the commodity looks at itself in a world it has created,” Öcalan also speaks of a mental conquest of societies. The hegemony of the capitalist system is thus maintained not only by political and military force, but also by controlling and paralysing the cultural industry. Öcalan therefore emphasises that the struggle against the cultural hegemony requires the most arduous “intellectual struggle”: “Until we are able to develop and organize the essence and form of a counter-struggle against the cultural war waged by the system through invasion, assimilation, and industrialization, not a single struggle for freedom, equality, and democracy has a chance to succeed.” It is therefore particularly important to take a closer look at the society of the financial age: “Societies that have gone through the filter of nation-state nationalism are societies that are constantly ready to produce fascism.”

from "The understanding of fascism in Öcalan’s concept of democratic modernity" by Ali Cicek

#mine #democratic confederalism #democratic modernity #abdullah öcalan #anarchism #socialism #communalism #democratic socialism #fascism #antifa #democracy

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