Our Proposal to turn the 21st century into an era of women’s revolution
Women’s World Democratic Confederalism
We are living through a historic process, we are sitting at the precipice of profound change. There are serious upheavals in many areas of life, from society to politics, from economy to ecology. But it will be the women-led struggle for freedom, democracy, and ecology and its level of organization that will determine whose side this change will be on—whether Capitalist Modernity or Democratic Modernity—one will emerge stronger from this process. This pressure makes this moment in reality for women both ardent and filled with fervent opportunity. Perhaps for the first time in history, the conditions for realizing a women’s revolution have never been so ripe. However, the realization of revolution in the 21st century may prove difficult if organization and struggle cannot reach the holistic and transformative integration required for change. There is still a serious disconnection and fragmentation amongst women’s movements, both within countries and regions, as well as worldwide. What is needed to overcome this is the construction of a democratic system that reaches beyond borders in which the women’s struggle can be organized.
The male-dominant system and the problem of freedom
Power, exploitation, oppression, and domination are often sold to us as natural and permanent phenomena, as if to say ‘this is the way it is’. Making it seem like the struggle for equality and freedom is futile; as though the system of exploitation cannot be overcome, or that there is nothing previous to or beyond male domination and capitalism. Even though they have tried to destroy our memory by erasing and massacring wise women throughout the ages, we know that there was a time before male domination. Before patriarchy, the state and civilization developed in tandem, humanity lived in a natural form of society for thousands of years. The Neolithic Revolution, which began in Upper Mesopotamia in approximately 10,000 BC, was essentially a women’s revolution. The transition of human societies to settled life based on agriculture under the leadership of women meant the reorganization of social life as a whole. Neolithic society, which existed in different geographies at different periods, was matrilineal, but it was still far from institutionalized forms of power and domination.
Therefore, it is wrong to call this society matriarchal. Rather, society was organized around an intrinsic value placed on women for the pioneering role they played in the organization of social life and because they represented the mystery of nature and the magnificence of life in their own bodies. Archaeological artifacts from this period, especially the statues of goddesses symbolizing women who succeeded in the Neolithic revolution, seem to prove this fact. Of course, we cannot know the social life of that period as a whole and with certainty. Howeverboth archaeological and anthropological research conducted in the last 100 years gave some clarity to the time before the written word. These findings revealed little evidence of domination, power, and exploitation in the matrilineal world that existed before 5000 years of male domination. Therefore, it seems freedom, democracy, and ecological life has existed—not as a dream or desire—but as a reality.
From 5000-4000 BC onwards, the time of the Al Ubaid culture, thousands of years of natural social life began to deteriorate. This deterioration did not occur spontaneously, but as a result of the usurpation of the social values created under the leadership of women by cunning men. Beginning in Sumer in southern Mesopotamia, male domination became institutionalized with the spread of state-based civilizations. The mythological tales of this period reveal the transition from a matrilineal natural society to a patrilineal and patriarchal civilized society through the conflicts between mother-goddesses and god-kings.
For the reasons above, The women’s question has become the oldest social problem and constitutes the fundamental contradiction within the dominant system. No kinsfolk, class or nation has ever been subjected to slavery as
systematically as Woman. You could say it is the mother of all problems. As a social being, the woman is the first slave, the first oppressed class, the first colony in history. The enslavement of women is the root of all socio-political problems within and beyond gender. The enslaved woman lies at the root of property. The logic of property, slavery, and subjugation became intertwined with all aspects of social life and the behavioral and emotional scapes of the individual.
Consequently, Society became tailored to all kinds of hierarchical and statist structures and women were not the only ones who lost. Except for a handful of hierarchical and statist powers, all of society lost something to this regime. As hierarchy and division of class became intertwined in society, sexism and classism left its mark in every sphere of life. As we gradually enter the era of societies beset by problems, the phenomenon of oppression and exploitation developed among different societies. The civilizations that emerged with the development of the cities, class, and state universalized the problems which became the basis of the dominant systems. It is possible to define all systems of civilization of the early and medieval ages in terms of oppression and exploitation. Capitalist modernity—as the last civilization system—maximized oppression and exploitation. In all stages of state-civilization, and in capitalist modernity in particular, social problems led to crises and prolonged chaotic conditions. Today, especially since the 1970s, the process of finance capital, which has marked capitalist modernity, is the era in which social crises are most profound and persistent.
The phenomenon in which the crisis of capitalist modernity is most reflected today is the dichotomy of women’s freedom vs. slavery. This is not accidental, but is directly linked to the woman and the order of relations and contradictions around her. Since the problem of women constitutes the core of all social problems, the social being with whom the ruling system has the deepest and most structural contradictions with is also the woman. Therefore, the only area where all the gordian knots can be untied, that is, where the question of freedom can evolve into a real solution is through women’s freedom.
This is not a reductionist approach, but a fact that emerges when the dialectical relationship between women’s freedom and the freedom of society is analyzed in depth. Therefore, any movement fighting for social freedom, justice, and democracy must put women’s freedom at its center if it wants to succeed. In this first quarter of the 21st century, the main reason for the growing pursuit for women’s freedom is the insistence of the male-dominant world to maintain its validity in a way that is no more valid than before. In fact, the male-dominant ideology and its reflection in life aggravates the problem of women.
Our age demands women’s leadership
The 5,000-year-old patriarchal system and the current expression of state-dominated civilized society—capitalist modernity—is in a state of structural crisis. Capitalism, which is based on the law of maximum profit, as a system needs to constantly grow and make more and more profit, and therefore exploit more and more human and natural resources. Its existence requires this. But endless exploitation is not possible without resistance. Because of this it would be wrong to view the last 5000 years of history as belonging only to those with sovereign power. This History also belongs to those who defend free life against all kinds of attacks made by the ruling-statist system. The history of these people, which we can call democratic society, is much older than the history of these exploitative systems.
The current structural crisis of the global capitalist system is reflected in the Middle East-North Africa region in the form of the Third World War. While in the rest of the world it is felt in the rise of right-wing regimes, organized attacks on democracy and freedoms, neoliberalism, and increased exploitation. Increasing wars and militarism, anti-democratic regimes and fascist coups, migrations and displacement policies, deaths, climate disasters, destruction of nature, genocidal attacks, poverty and violence are the direct consequences of the global capitalist system. Today, nearly 83 million people are displaced and living as refugees. One child in every 6 children lives in a war or conflict zone. In 2020 alone, at least 135 thousand people lost their lives in wars and conflicts. A forest area the size of 30 football fields is destroyed every minute. 1/10 of the world’s population lives in extreme poverty, destitution and hunger. Even these figures clearly show that humanity is facing a state of total war today. Therefore, the (dis)order we call global capitalist hegemony is essentially a regime of war.
The ruling system and its constant production of crises hits women the hardest today. Capitalist modernity already constitutes the stage in the history of civilization that subjects women to the most intense exploitation. However, it is very important that we analyze in depth the level of sexism, misogyny and feminicide today. Because the male-dominant system has mobilized all the means and tools at its disposal on the basis of misogyny. We have seen this reality very clearly at the global level with the Covid-19 pandemic. Even international organizations admit that violence against women has reached the level of an epidemic. According to official figures, 81,000 women and girls were murdered worldwide in 2020. Of these, 47,000 were killed by intimate partners or family members. In other words, every 11 minutes a woman or girl is murdered at the hands of those closest to her. Today, it is estimated that one in three women [736 million women in figures] have been subjected to physical and/or sexual violence by their husbands or intimate partners at least once in their lives. According to the results of a survey conducted in 2019, sexual harassment, sexual violence, and physical violence are at the top the list of women and girls’ biggest problems (30-22%). Sexual violence is also used as a systematic weapon in wars and occupations. Centuries after the end of the Middle Ages, women are kidnapped as booty, sold in slave markets, and subjected to constant rape. Millions of people live in poverty and destitution when hunger could be completely eradicated with equal distribution of resources. The gap between men and women in poverty has widened by about 9 percent since Covid, and the feminization of poverty is deepening rather than being overcome. At the same time, there is a highly organized attack on women’s vested rights all over the world. Against equality between the sexes, a movement that seeks to limit women to the role of motherhood and wifehood, that is, to their biological existence, appears in different parts of the world with the same arguments, albeit using different masks. The Turkish state’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention, Poland’s intention to do so, and the misogyny carried out by movements masked as religion in the US and Latin America are based on the same mentality. The basic ideologies of capitalist modernity—sexism, nationalism, religious fundamentalism, and scientism—act in complete harmony and complement each other in this regard.
However, this is just one side of the coin. On the other side, women’s resistance and organization is becoming more unshakeable, both in consciousness and concrete struggle, than ever before. As the women’s struggle for freedom and equality advances, the male-dominant system declines. The male-dominant system, sensing an existential threat, is therefore waging a total war of aggression against women. At the same time, the structural crisis it is goıing through leads to a more layered policy of violence and intimidation against women, because its very existence is based on the exploitation of women.
So on the one hand, while the women’s freedom struggle is growing both quantitatively and qualitatively and is achieving important gains, on the other, the patriarchal mentality and its system are carrying out an organized and systematic attack aimed at destroying these gains. Along with this attack on our progress, we are seeing an increase of misogyny at every level.
Today, women are not only standing up for their own rights, but also leading the
social struggle for democracy and freedom. This reality is evident not only in
Kurdistan but also in Sudan, Afghanistan, Belarus, Chile and many other places.
Therefore, the attacks targeting the struggle for women’s freedom and equality, the policies aiming to confine women to traditional sexist stereotypes, and the mentalities that try to break the will of women by intensifying femicide and misogyny also aim to destroy women’s leadership in the social struggle of the 21st century.
Today, the visible shift of the women’s freedom question to the center of social
struggles stems from its depth of analysis and reach across all experiences of life. The women’s freedom struggle not only embraces all those who are oppressed and exploited, but also has the ability to weave the broadest front of anti-systemic struggle due to the integrity found at its core . In this respect, the women’s struggle is inclusive. It is comprehensive in that it includes struggles for the environment, democracy, justice, equality, and participation. Neither the bourgeois struggle of the 19th century nor the labor movements of the 20th century have been as inclusive and holistic as the women’s struggle of the 21st century. With this characteristic, the global women’s struggle carries the potential to reach a universal level more than any other struggle of the past centuries. However, since it contains all the deadlocks within itself, the women’s struggle can give birth to a global movement for democracy, ecology, and freedom. Only the women’s freedom struggle can lead such a movement. The historical and structural conditions for this have emerged. In fact, such a leadership imposes itself on the world women’s movements as a historical mission.
The system we need: Women’s World Democratic Confederalism
As we have tried to express above, the age we live in has a historical character. It is possible to identify this historicity with more than one dimension. One is related to the central position of the women’s struggle among the social struggles of the 21st century. A second is the deepening crisis and chaos of the patriarchal-capitalist world system. Another is the level of women’s struggle against the patriarchal system and all its expressions. These are actually interconnected dimensions that create opportunities and conditions for the women’s freedom struggle that are perhaps unprecedented in history. First of all, as women’s structures are mobilized in the name of, it is very important that we are aware of this. We need to take seriously the dangers we face as well as the opportunities. Let’s be clear about this: The male-dominant system is trying to liquidate the women’s freedom struggle. For this, it develops multi-dimensional attacks. Depending on the situation, it aims to intimidate women and neutralize our struggle, sometimes with ‘soft’ power tools, sometimes with brute violence, sometimes with liberal discourses, sometimes with threats and blackmail, sometimes with false promises, sometimes with massacres. This is an indicator of the increase in violence against women, especially sexual violence, and the massacre of women, in parallel with the rise of the women’s struggle. This is the reason why the men at the head of the states themselves are so comfortable and recklessly speak out against women, while on the one hand we achieve historic results in the fight against sexism and discrimination. We must not be deceived, we must not be mistaken about the gains we have achieved, because while we succeed in our objectives, there is an organized opposition that aims to destroy these gains. Therefore, we must develop strategies of self-defense for what we have achieved through our struggle with the awareness that there is no guarantee of our vested rights. This can only be possible with a higher level of organization. At the same time, we need to consider the women’s struggle in terms of the role it plays for society´s freedom. It is a frequently stated fact that the level of freedom of society is measured through the freedom of women, that women’s freedom is a condition for society ́s freedom. However, when we consider the concrete outcomes of this fact in the struggle, we can easily say that the struggle against all the ideological pillars of the current era and the dominant system imposes women’s leadership. Just as sexism, nationalism, religionism, sectarianism, fascism, racism, classism, militarism, etc are also misogynist ideologies that enslave and control the whole society. Only the women’s movement, equipped with the mentality of freedom, can assume the leading role in the struggle against these ruling ideologies. However, for this, it is not enough for the women’s struggle to call itself anti-fascist, anti-system, anti-state, anti-colonial, anti-racist, anti-nationalist, anti-militarist. As women, we must actively struggle against all these expressions of the male-dominant mentality. Without this, the society’s freedom will not be possible.
In order to take advantage of the historical opportunities that present themselves
Today, to achieve women’s freedom, and to confront the intensified attacks on the patriarchal system in order to preserve its existence, it is imperative that we organize our struggle on a global scale in every aspect. The dominant system is exhaustive; therefore it can only be overcome by an integrated women’s freedom struggle that overcomes fragmentation and disconnection. For this, first and foremost, we must expand our common struggle and unite our strength. This is something we have expressed many times. Many international and regional/continental women’s organizations, federations, alliances, etc. have been established for this purpose.
Women’s associations and organizations are also trying to unite their struggles
through various platforms, networks and forums within countries and locally.
However, when we compare the level of these organizations with today’s conditions and needs, we see that we fall short. There is undoubtedly more than one reason for this, but in our opinion, the main problem is that the global women’s freedom struggle has not yet been able to go beyond the existing dominant system, that is, it has not yet organized its own democratic system. An alternative cannot be developed within the dominant system, based on its means and methods, and within the material and moral limits it sets. One of the main conclusions we have drawn from our own experiences of struggle is that without a radical rupture, free spaces of life and struggle cannot be built. Again, a fundamental conclusion we have drawn from the Rojava revolution is that resistance and construction must be intertwined, and that we create change to the extent that we put our discourses into practice. Therefore, what is necessary for us is to build women’s freedom spaces in a democratic way against the patriarchal system step by step and to fight together with strong organization. We need to build our own system outside the global patriarchal capitalist system and thus organize beyond the borders of the state and the system of capitalist modernity.
As women, as we develop the search for a democratic organizational form and
system, we believe that Democratic Confederalism can meet this need. The theory of Democratic Confederalism was developed by Rebêr Apo under conditions of isolation and imprisonment on the İmralı Island Prison. Democratic Confederalism, which he envisaged as a model for the social structure of the entire Middle East, especially the Kurds, and for communities around the world, is a social and political system of self-governance based on the organization of the local. It offers the option of the democratic nation as the main solution to the problems arising from the monolithic, homogeneous, monochromatic fascist society model of capitalist modernity carried out by the nation-state. In the democratic nation, every ethnicity, religion, city, local, regional, and national organism has the right to take part with its own identity and democratic federated structure.
Democratic Confederalism takes its reference, throughout the history of civilization from the clan system and tribal confederations to the present day, from the democratic communal structure of the natural society that does not want to be subjected to the centralization of statist society. Therefore, it is not a form of government specific to today, but a strong system that has found its place in history Democratic Confederalism is not a centralized roof system. It is an organized networking model based on democratic autonomy, i.e. the autonomy of each unit within it, but also its responsibility to the whole. It is a network in which many selves form a larger whole. Democratic Confederalism does not uniformize or create new hierarchies and power relations. Rather, it creates multiple, reflexively organized partnerships. It creates links between struggles around common denominators that are issue-oriented, creating a kind of chain that connects the links. These links are not the same color or size. They do not even have the same shape. Some links have more than one chain passing through them. Some chains are short, some are long.
When Democratic Confederalism is adapted to the global women’s struggle, both in terms of understanding and system, it can offer the basis for organizing the common struggle we urgently need and for building the great women’s power against the male-dominant system. We are women who have joined the ranks of struggle to make a revolution, to turn the 21st century into an era of women’s freedom. Our goal is that clear. We have come to bring about the women’s revolution. Revolution can only come about through organized struggle and power. For this, we say Women’s World Democratic Confederalism (WWDC)
To build the women’s global revolutionary alliance
The WWDC is based on democratic women’s alliances. What is meant by alliances here is the construction of broad unions of struggle. These unions of struggle, which are strategic rather than tactical, that is, developed on the basis of purpose rather than interest, can and should be confederal in themselves, and the relationship between them can and should have a democratic confederal character. In other words, we are talking about democratic women’s alliances formed in line with Democratic Confederalism and forming multiple ties between them.
To create a system for women’s organization
WWDC is a pragmatic and strategic system working towards women’s freedom and equality against social, cultural, and structural patriarchy. It unites and supports beyond difference; pools together practical and theoretical experiences; develops and explores perspectives on collective struggle;, strengthens each other mutually and together in line with the principle that strength comes from plurality. It creates synergy from energy, grows solidarity and puts it to the service of the common struggle.
To bolster internationalism with a women’s perspective
WWDC is a model that embodies the local-universal dialectic, a model that can build commonalities/multiplicities and transform the women’s freedom struggle into a global movement without distorting vernacular realities orerasing or dulling their colors. It is an organizational model which relies on multiple relationships, contacts and ties—both horizontal and vertical—, which are necessary for struggle,a common struggle for all.
To create a democratic system of women’s relations and labor
The WWDC is a system of democratic relations that does not rely on bureaucracy and hierarchy and does not create or reproduce power relations. It opposes centralization and is based on women’s democratic self-management. In addition to this, the WWDC means that the women of the world first of all discuss their basic problems together and develop solutions, take joint decisions in this direction and put these decisions into practice together. In other words, the basis of the common struggle is to reveal and implement the women’s collective capacity to create solutions in both intellectual and practical terms. Through this, a global organization can be achieved.
To raise women’s consciousness of freedom
One of the main pillars of the WWDC system is a democratic and collective pedagogy for women. Freedom is only possible through organization. A fundamental ground of organization is the academy. As women, there is a collective memory where our thousands of years of life, struggle and organizing experiences are hidden. In order to reveal this memory together and turn it into a source of nourishment for today’s struggle, it is essential to intensively develop consciousness-raising activities in the face of the women’s revolution.
To develop women’s self-defense
As women, we face the multi-faceted attacks of the male-dominant system on a daily basis. At the same time, a great wave of attacks is being raised against the gains we have achieved as the result of our organized struggle. WWDC is a system where women build their capacity for self-defense in all areas of life. When we say self-defense, we are not only talking about physical or armed defense. Women’s existence, will, values, thoughts, and hopes must be defended against all kinds of discriminatory, sexist, and misogynist attacks in all areas of life, from politics to law, from economy to social life, from the domestic sphere to the street, from health to education!
Let’s start our system building for the women’s revolution
The historic moment that we are trying to summarize in this document and the need for alliance is expressed not only by us but by women’s movements across the world. In the last few years, galvanizing discussions have been held, accumulating support and commitment for global organization and struggle. As the Kurdistan Women’s Freedom Movement, we would like to share our proposal as we believe that the Women’s World Democratic Confederalism, as a model and system filtered through our ideological, organizational and social experiences, can meet this need. However, our aim is not only to share our proposal; we believe that organized women’s movements throughout the world need to enter into a new collective discussion process on common means and methods of struggle, that is, on the systematization of our struggles. There are many issues that we need to discuss and thus clarify:
- How can we overcome the disconnection and fragmentation between women’s movements?
- How can we develop effective and functional women’s unions?
- How can we grow women’s solidarity and common struggle?
- How can we organize the transnational women’s movement?
As the Kurdistan Women’s Freedom Movement, we want to share, discuss and build the Women’s World Democratic Confederalism together with you, our women comrades all over the world, organized women’s structures and movements. Because we believe that only together, on the basis of women’s collectivism, can we find and develop the solution we need as women of the world. So let’s start building our democratic system together to turn our century into an era of women’s revolution!
Komalên Jinên Kurdistan (KJK)