Regardless of efforts at suppression, the 2023 “Testing Plutocrat Modernity” seminar in Hamburg combined over a thousand lobbyists and also academics from throughout the globe for 3 days of optimistic discussion.
By Marcel Suter
Like the previous 3 versions, this year’s seminar attached the Kurdish deal with more comprehensive considerations regarding a globe without injustice, patriarchy and also eco-friendly devastation. A lot had actually altered given that the last seminar in 2017: At that time all eyes got on the Kurdish boxers warding off the Islamic State in Rojava. In the meanwhile the major hazard has actually moved to the Turkish state, which ever since has actually struck the self-governed areas in North and also East Syria two times and also remains to saturate the entire area in war.
As well as it ends up that the lengthy arm of NATO participant Turkey gets to as for the city of Hamburg in the north of Germany. One week prior to the seminar was to be held, the College of Hamburg took out the authorization to utilize their seminar hall. The factor was a letter from the “Verfassungsschutz”, the Federal Workplace for the Defense of the Constitution, in which the College was suggested to terminate the seminar. It was simply a letter, not a lawfully binding paper, and also a clear assault on the flexibility of scientific research, the primary bowed to the stress. To recognize this, one needs to understand that the German state has actually been quelching the Kurdish motion for many years, given that Turkey is just one of Germany’s essential company companions. Turkey utilizes its ability to avoid evacuees from moving westward as a way to blackmail European states right into abiding to its political needs.
Thankfully the coordinators, the Network for a Different Mission, the Pupil Comittee of the College of Hamburg and also the International Campaign for Liberty for Abdullah Öcalan– Tranquility in Kurdistan, had the ability to discover one more area that was big sufficient to fit the 1300 individuals. On the early morning of April 7 th the entrance hall of the “Bürgerhaus Wilhelmsburg” was dynamic with individuals from throughout the globe– lobbyists, researchers, trainees, participants of regional companies, Internationalist and also kurdish young people neighborhoods, youngsters from the environment motion, left-green public political leaders, site visitors from the United States, from India, Brazil, Italy and also various other nations. Relocating in between them were volunteers from Kurdish and also pupil companies along with self-organized impromptu teams ensuring that every visitor obtained what they required. The environment inside the structure was cozy, inviting and also considerate, in raw comparison to the statist, capital-driven facts outside.
The will certainly to withstand these damaging problems– appropriately called “capitalist modernity” by the Kurdish flexibility motion– was a repeating motif at the seminar which in its invite news had actually required “a cumulative position to require our globe back”. John Holloway, popular scholar and also among several global audio speakers, steamed it to the “battle of life versus cash”. Noticeably trembling with indignation, he knocked the College of Hamburg and also the “Verfassungsschutz”, revealing their concern: “They wish to outlaw us since they hesitate people and also our concepts.” According to him, the “bad plutocrats” are constantly seeking brand-new options to magnify the exploitation of labor and also to discover a means “to manage all these individuals”. The battle permanently versus cash on the various other hand begins by claiming “no, we can decline this anymore!” As well as Holloway guaranteed his listerners: “We are not the only one, there is an entire background of battle.”
Which leads us to one more motif that was pointed out in a number of panels: The photo of weaving a social textile, implying the self-organization of areas that is, and also constantly was, occurring throughout the globe. Aymara protestor Adriana Guzman Arroyo spoke about exactly how extractivism in Peru, Ecuador and also Bolivia is ruining areas. The remedy, nonetheless, is not the requisition of the state, however our power to arrange ourselves and also conquer this “system of fatality” and also make certain the “excellent life for all” (” buen vivir” in Spanish) by braking with individuality. This additionally has a worldwide measurement, which Guzman Arroyo called the “area of areas”.
This consequently represents a suggestion that was established beyond of the world: the design of autonomous confederalism. Kurdish thinker Abdullah Öcalan defines it in his publications as “a non-state political management or a freedom without a state”, where choice making lies with the areas and also greater degrees just offer the control and also application of the will of the areas that send their delegates to them.
” The standard”, a shorthand expression for the body of Öcalan’s concepts, was apparent throughout the entire three-day seminar. Capitalist modernity versus autonomous modernity, autonomous confederalism versus the nation-state system, feminism versus patriarchy, social ecology versus ecocide, these are amongst the vital tenets of his political viewpoint. Every one of these were grabbed in the 6 major panels, which in many cases took place for a number of hrs, and also in numerous workshops.
” Multicide” was included plainly in the conversations, a term making up not just genocide, however additionally sociocide, ecocide and also epistemicide. When it comes to Kurdistan, however actually in all conquered areas, every one of these are knotted: Individuals are eliminated, public relationships are ruined and also alternate way of livings, also languages, are forbidden in order to essence worth from the planet, bring about extensive ecocide. To face capitalist and also multicide modernity, resistance is inadequate. We need to develop a counter-modernity, as Kurdish attorney and also political leader Ebru Günay worried. We need to repay to culture the capability to control itself. Organizing, Günay stated pointing out Öcalan, expands culture and also lessens capitalist modernity. That once more reverberated with the speech of María de Jesús Patricio Martínez, that spoke about the Zapatistas’ “juntas de buen gobierno”, the councils of the excellent federal government, that look like the neighborhoods and also settings up of Rojava.
To execute this brand-new culture, we require brand-new universities, stated Zozan Sima, that is aiding to develop a system of females’s academies that educate the Kurdish feminist concept or “females’s scientific research” called Jineology. In a comparable blood vessel, US-based scholar-activist Andrej Grubačić chose a globe confederation of self-governing institutions.
Various other panels and also workshop handled topics as varied as art, cinema, Kurdish dancing, Irish songs as a kind of resistance, Kurdish media, the education and learning of the Zapatistas, folklore, stateless evacuees– a lot of to point out all. From the point of view of social ecology 3 occasions were specifically intriguing: Janet Biehl spoke about the upcoming motion picture regarding her journeys in Rojava where she talked to females in the Kurdish females’ motion, Dimitri Roussopulous provided an intro to decentralized national politics in Montral, Canada, and also Italian post-doc scientist Davide Grasso contrasted Murray Bookchin and also Abdullah Öcalan in his discussion.
The seminar finished with positive overtones and also incantations of “Jin, Jiyan, Azadî”–” female, life, flexibility”, the motto of the Kurdish flexibility motion. Havin Güneser, veteran protestor and also seminar co-organizer, said thanks to Abdullah Öcalan that, although he is jailed and also separated, remains to motivate a lot of individuals. One more motto she pointed out was “We are the 99 percent!”, possibly additionally as a recommendation to late David Graeber, that had actually gone to the last seminar in 2017 face to face.
On the one hand, “Testing Plutocrat Modernity IV” with its caption “We desire our globe back!” made it clear that there is an immediate essential to develop a common, non-hierarchical, eco-friendly and also feminist culture. This is our only escape of our existing eco-friendly and also political dilemmas. On the various other hand, the seminar– and also its global guests from the Netherlands to the Amazon.com– promised that we can depend on global uniformity. In words of Edinburgh scientist Nik Matheou, we just need to grab the strings of transformation and also weave them with each other right into the unique textile of globe autonomous modernity.
Marcel Suter is a European protestor and also an individual in the existing social ecology mentorship program.