Anarchy in Rojava

Islamic State is harvesting the world’s attention, but meanwhile, Kurdish freedom fighters are using the disintegration of Syria to carve out an autonomous state they call “Rojava” (sunset). Their vision is of creating a completely new kind of society based on radical democracy, diversity, tolerance and gender equality – shaped by the ideas of a forgotten American revolutionary thinker called Murray Bookchin. The formerly socialist PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan discovered Bookchin’s writings whilst in solitary confinement in a Turkish prison on a tiny island and found a new template.

This clip from Submedia TV shows how men and women have been fighting the head-chopping ISIS to create a libertarian commune along the border between Syria, Iraq and Turkey.See also this more in-depth documentary from anonymous journalists who had to dodge Turkish army patrols to enter the autonomous zone area to meet Kovan Direj, a Kurdish activist, and read Adam Curtis’s post and analysis of the situation.
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Posted in Liberation
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From: Stream

From Tents to Debt: Striking for Democracy

The Occupy Wall Street encampment at Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan covered with tentsIn the aftermath of the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011, Astra Taylor was part of a group of activists that set up Strike Debt. Intending to raise $50,000 to buy up what they considered unjust and unnecessary medical & educational debt, they ended up with $700,000 which they used to abolish millions of dollars of debt. Heather Smith interviews Astra about the campaign. The two discuss democracy, anarchism and the challenges of building coherent momentum for enduring change out of the highly diverse eruptions of Occupy and similar anti-capitalist movements.
Read the full interview here >>>
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Posted in Journeys, Movement
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From: Stream

How the Fall of the Berlin Wall Changed Techno

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Martin Guttridge-Hewitt’s conversation with Felix Denk & Sven Von Thulenlooking back at the roots of Berlin’s techno culture in the extraordinary time of open possibility that followed the fall of the wall.
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Posted in Roots
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From: Stream