Rojava in Focus

The theory, practice, and challenges of the feminist, anticapitalist Rojava revolution.

More than a decade has passed since the revolutionary process began in Rojava, later evolving into the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES). Guided by Abdullah Öcalan’s theory of Democratic Confederalism, a philosophical and political project aimed at building an ecological, nonhierarchical society, the people of Rojava aim to construct alternative, directly democratic institutions capable of transcending the capitalist nation-state.

Rojava in Focus advances a discussion about the revolution within the framework of Democratic Confederalism, assessing the achievements, contradictions, and various shortcomings. The book follows the experience of the revolutionary movement that animates the DAANES, highlighting its achievements as well as the significant obstacles it has encountered. Rojava in Focus grapples with the gap between aspirations and reality, aiming to bridge this gap through constructive criticism.

Essays by activists associated with the Kurdish Freedom Movement and sympathetic critics expand our understanding of the vast changes taking place in the region, the challenges ahead, and connections to other movements around the globe. As well, they point to where the movement may head next.

Contributors include Azize Aslan, Debbie Bookchin, Kamal Chomani, Matt Broomfield, Sixtine van Outryve d’Ydewalle, and Anna Rebrii and Berivan Omar, among others. The book is completed by interviews with members of the Rojava leadership, such as Foza Yusif,  Îlham Ehmed, Salih Muslim, and activists of the DAANES.

Praise for Rojava in Focus:

“Rojava in Focus: Critical Dialogues is an essential work for anyone concerned about the future and how we might actualize emancipation. The pathbreaking exploration of the brave Kurdish political experiment in northern Syria provides the basis for this collection. The authors don’t just clarify the incredible wager of this project, but they also show what emancipatory politics might look like after the disaster of the last century. It’s a work of incredible vision and penetrating insight.” —Todd McGowan, University of Vermont, author of Emancipation After Hegel

“If ‘being is becoming,’ then this book is about what to become and how. Focusing on the struggles for freedom underway in Rojava, contributors to the book, who are participants in the struggle, discuss what the Kurdish struggle for freedom should become and how, a struggle that is located within what is arguably amongst the most complex, multifaceted, and tiered geopolitical problems handed down to us since the early twentieth century.”—Radha D'Souza, Professor of Law, Development and Conflict Studies, University of Westminster

“Rojava in Focus is a brilliantly edited and thought-provoking resource for anyone invested in the fate of anti-authoritarian revolutionary struggle in the twenty-first century. It is also a truly inspiring critical model of revolutionary research bridging the gap between academic and activist writing. An absolute must read.” —Thomas Nail, University of Denver, author of Returning to Revolution

Cihad Hammy was born in Kobani/Rojava. He studies British and American Studies at the University of Hamburg. Hammy has written various articles on the Kurdish Freedom Movement.

Thomas Jeffrey Miley teaches at the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on struggles for self-determination in the twenty-first century. He is co-editor, with Federico Venturini, of Your Freedom and Mine: Abdullah Öcalan and the Kurdish Question in Erdogan’s Turkey and author of Self-Determination Struggles: In Pursuit of the Democratic Confederalist Ideal.

John Holloway writes on forms of anticapitalist struggle. He is the author of Change the World without Taking Power, Crack Capitalism, and Hope in Hopeless Times.