Five million people amidst a war zone are creating a new society based on principles that are dear to the hearts of many radicals in Australia. Welcome to Posts from AANES: the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). Over the next ten weeks we have a series of interviews with members of a Civil Diplomacy Centre based in the city of Qamislo. This is an insight into how they are organising their society, how they are making decisions and how they are defending their country from aggression from some of the most powerful military empires on the planet. We’re confident you’ll find this series exceptionally interesting but, more importantly, it’s the type of news we need today in order to ensure that here in Australia we continue to act up to create that new society based on egalitarian principles.
In Episode Five of the series, we resume our conversation with Heval Tekosin, our guide into the world of NES, a society based on cultivating friendship and the science of woman. Using anecdotal information surrounding recent protests, how do we tease apart the ideas of various different groups within this small area? What occurs when a group is trying to prevent pluralism from happening in a society like this? Is there a nonviolent mechanism by which we can modify authoritarian behaviour? How are the concepts of useful knowledge vs. the exercise of power uncoupled under the umbrella of philosophical and political "expertise"? How has Rojava's history influenced general attitudes towards this? Is there a form of protection against the push for physical and ideological starvation by neighbouring nation-states? What is the attitude of the people toward refugees in this non-productivist, post-scarcity society and why? How does this compare to attitudes in Australia and other countries? We hope you enjoy the episode.
Visit https://rojavainformationcenter.com/ for reporting by an independent group of foreign and local groups.
Presented by Anarchist World this Week, Radical Australia, and Talkback With Attitude host, Joseph Toscano.
Produced by City Limits producer Karina Aedo
Title tracks Heyran Jaro and Evare by Awaze Ciya
