La rivoluzione come scienza-donna: una fragile eccezione nel deserto delle alternative

(Revolution as Woman-Science: A Fragile Exception in the Desert of Alternatives)

Abstract

The essay introduces the reader to the most remarkable features and achievements of the confederal movement in Northern Syria understood as an exceptional example of an effort to outline an alternative way for society in the current century. After an introductory summary of the current outcomes of concepts such as “revolution,” “reform,” “left,” and “right”, especially after 1989, the text focuses on the major projects led by the Tev Dem movement in Western Kurdistan and Northern Syria in terms of economic reforms, building up grassroots local institutions, and the creation of a political space for women’s autonomy and assertiveness. The institutions of the current, unrecognized Democratic Federation of Northern Syria are analyzed in their political functions and mutual relations; they are considered as a reformist regional project that is based on a critical and pragmatic reconsideration of socialist goals, methods, and principles and breaks away from historical materialism and Marxism in general. The essay concludes by sketching an introductory overview of the philosophy of history and the ethics of the movement and explaining the roots of the revolutionary theory of Jineoljî (Woman-Science) outlined by Northern Syria’s Women Congress and others.