Rojava, Commons and Social Reproduction: Learning Across Movements

Thinking through how to build commons – resources managed collectively in the interests of all needs – and the reproduction of society as a whole – especially the gendering of this process through constructions of womanhood – are central elements of Plan C’s radical politics. At the same time, we take huge inspiration from the Kurdish Freedom Movement, which doesn’t use terms like commons or social reproduction, but likewise places the communal management of collective wealth and the overcoming of patriarchal domination across the social field at the centre of its politics. This is most dramatically demonstrated in the Women’s Revolution of Rojava and North-East Syria, where the struggle has opened space for inspiring projects that directly address these areas in truly revolutionary ways. In this session Plan C’s Kurdistan Cluster and organisers from the Kurdistan Solidarity Network will outline some of the resonances and differences between these visions of struggle for a free, equal, ecological and gender-liberated life, and some of the projects in Rojava that are breaking new ground – like Jinwar, the women’s village, and the Internationalist Commune of Rojava, with internationalists involved in these projects joining us remotely.

Photo by KurdishStruggle on Flickr