Democratic Autonomy in North Kurdistan: The Council Movement Gender Liberation and Ecology - In Practice: A Reconnaissance Into Southeastern Turkey

In the fall of 2011 a group of TATORT activists journeyed into the Kurdish regions of Turkey to learn how the theory of Democratic Autonomy was being put into practice. They 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 of conditions the movement in North Kurdistan has created structures for a democratic ecological and gender-liberated society. At its core is 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 thought provoking glimpses into the practical implementation of a new left vision. The radical democratic awakening of the Kurds may serve as an inspiration for social change in the Middle East and elsewhere.