Dr Thomas Jeffrey Miley talks on Rojava and the Left
20 April 2020|Thomas Jeffrey Miley
The Rojava revolution faces great challenges going forward. But the revolutionary forces have already made history. Their democratic confederal project – with its emphasis on direct democracy against the state, multicultural accommodation, gender emancipation, and social ecology – has inspired people across the globe. In a time when the very future of humanity, and of life on the planet, are under unprecedented threat, the revolutionary experiment in Rojava stands out as a valiant attempt, in the midst of a still-unfolding catastrophe, to construct a radical democratic alternative to spiralling violence and tyranny.
Thomas Jeffrey Miley is a Lecturer of Political Sociology at the University of Cambridge, and a member of the executive committee of the European Union Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC). He is co-editor, with Federico Venturini, of Your Freedom and Mine: Abdullah Ocalan and the Kurdish Question in Erdogan’s Turkey (Montreal: Black Rose Books, 2018).
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The Kurdish Women’s Movement: On Revolution, Militarism and Body Politics
https://podtail.com/en/podcast/lse-middle-east-centre-podcasts/the-kurdish-women-s-movement-on-revolution-militar
· LSE MIDDLE EAST CENTRE PODCASTS
- 01:20:20
Women have been at the forefront of many of the political and military struggles in the Kurdish Middle East, most visibly so since the outbreak of the ‘Rojava Revolution’ in 2012. But women have in fact since the foundation of the PKK in 1978 played an integral role in the ideological and political development of the Liberation Movement as a whole; as guerrillas, activists, politicians, mothers and prisoners. Isabel Käser will trace the complex history of the Kurdish Women’s Liberation Movement, discuss how women’s autonomous organisational structures have emerged and how they operate today between the mountains and the cities of the four different parts of Kurdistan. Her talk analyses the emancipatory power this movement holds but also unpacks some of the tensions that emerge from the interplay between militarism, the party’s body politics and the movement’s revolutionary quest for a more democratic Middle East. Recorded on 4 June.
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Isabel Käser holds a PhD from SOAS where she worked on the Kurdish Women’s Movement. Her work contributes to debates around gender and war, feminism and nationalism, as well as conflict and body politics.
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Final Statement of the International Conference on North and East Syria (Rojava) held at the European Parliament on 11-12 December, 2019
The Kurdish Friendship Group in the European Parliament and representatives of the Self-Administration of North and East Syria (Rojava) in Europe, the International Alliance for the Defence of Rights and Freedoms (AIDL), and the Green / European Union (Free Alliance) held at the European Parliament on 11–12 December an international conference entitled “An International Conference on North and East Syria (Rojava): A Regional and Global Litmus Test”. Continue reading “Final Statement of the International Conference on North and East Syria (Rojava) held at the European Parliament on 11-12 December, 2019”
A New Song Celebrating the Rojava Revolution
The Kurdish campaign for a new democratic feminist environmentalist civilization. Lyrics: Hey freedom seekers
In Memory of Mehmet Aksoy
Debbie Bookchin spoke at the memorial for Memo:
I am very honored to stand before you today and say a few words about Mehmet. Mehmet spoke words of inspiration effortlessly, from his heart, channeling a river of passion for justice and righteousness, with a wisdom that it sometimes seems he was born with, though we all know that he worked hard to become the extraordinary person he was. Unlike him, my words don’t come easily, especially at a time like this. So please forgive me for reading a few comments. Continue reading “In Memory of Mehmet Aksoy”