We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Rojava: only chance for a just peace in the Middle East?

Click here to access article by Jeff Miley and Johanna Riha from the University of Cambridge website. (Note: the article also contains a link to a one hour talk delivered by Miley at the University of Cambridge.)

The authors visited the Rojava region on a nine day trip in December of 2014 as a part of an academic delegation "to assess the strengths, challenges and vulnerabilities of the revolutionary project under way."
The revolutionary forces in Rojava are not fighting for an independent nation state, but advocating a system they call democratic confederalism: one of citizenry-led self-governance through the formation of neighborhood-level people’s councils, town councils, open assemblies, and cooperatives. These self-governing instruments allow for the participation of diverse political, ethnic, and religious groups, promoting consensus-led decision-making.
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