Not long ago our little group met with two British volunteers who had spent several months at work in the Democratic Society Movement (TEV-DEM), in a territory in northern Syria also known as Rojava. They are members of Plan C, a group of comrades who have been providing practical support and solidarity to the leftist revolution growing in that region. I’m going to write up what I learned from them – please bear in mind that this is my perception of the salient points of their talk, but I’ve given a lot of my own context which I’ve tried to cite where possible.
In spite of the dramatic and extremely serious situation currently developing because of the Turkish invasion of Afrin, the focus of our meeting was to discuss the way society is organized in Rojava, and attempt to dispel some common misconceptions about the region. For me certainly, accurate information about Syria has been difficult to come by. Our speakers had tried to be conscious of their own biases, and emphasized that people tended to see what they wanted over there. I suspect this is because of a repressed leftist political will in places like the UK; as soon as we see something resembling our ideas of justice and equality being realized anywhere in the world, our energy and fervent longing for something new causes us to project like a goddamn IMAX, obscuring the reality of what is happening on the ground.
A side-effect of this phenomenon that amused our speakers was that (for example) anarchist volunteers would arrive in Syria and be shocked to find that a centralized state exists in Rojava, or that people still use money there, or that there are some private industries still. I’m going to give you the straight dope, imperceptibly mingled with my own biases. Fortunately, I only use facts for my opinions and therefore I am only biased towards reality. I recommend that you open your mind completely and accept my second-hand account as the literal truth, and that you regard my perceptions as both authoritative and popular. If by any chance you have reason not to do so, contact me.