Real Media: Syria, Anarchism & Visiting Rojava

In the last part of Real Media's interview, a special discussion with anthropologist David Graeber about anarchism, Syria, the bureaucracy of activism and his visit to Rojava where a new kind of society is developing
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[@pattonisgod26]

Amazing interview. Very inspiring! Thank you, David and TRNN! 💚

[@lutherdean6922]

thanks for this content, David Graeber has such astute observation

[@harperdellastrada8284]

Comrade Graeber educating the people.

[@tomgreg2008]

Fascinating.

[@kurdohawler5268]

Great interview. Long live YPG ✌

[@matildetobias7955]

This is all fine and dandy, but as others have pointed out, this is happening with US and, if I'm not mistaken, Russian support (airstrikes, arms, etc). Can such an experiment survive in probably the most dangerous region in the world without active diplomatic, military and economic support from foreign powers? If not, at what price? Democracy? Will foreign powers go along with that once their current enemies are defeated? For instance, the Syrian government has legal jurisdiction over the territory and it can probably do what it pleases there within international law. Are they going to sit back and let half their legal territory in the hands of foreign-supported Kurds? I also heard some buzzwords about ecology in an oil-rich and landlocked region. Are they running or will they run an oil economy? What happens when the big players want a bigger piece of the pie or want to prevent this lovefest from spreading in the region? I would be good to introduce some sanity in the middle-east but this doesn't tell us much about the YPG, their politics or the compromises they are willing to make.

[@andreawisner7358]

Matilde Tobias It sounds to me that instead of having one country and one economy, the Kurds have four countries and four economies and can take benefits from all of them. Since their countries have petroleum economies, they naturally have a petroleum economy, but perhaps they can take steps to mitigation the worst of it.

[@Rb5241]

In Libya before the U.S. & NATO destroyed it, there was participatory democracy.

[@legalfictionnaturalfact3969]

Fuck democracy. It's mob rule. Anarchy is the only way. And it is every way.

[@robertwill23]

If Kurds have police (women police or men police whatever), then how is it anarchy? When you ask anarchists, how everything gonna be structured, if there gonna be police or some security that protects people and investigates various cases or incidents (because people not gonna be all nice all of a sudden if there is no state structure and control), anarchists can't answer this particular question (they start to describe anarchic stateless state in general terms). What Graeber describes is just another form of state but with local representation, with local councils. Direct democracy is pain in the ass. How is it different from old traditional councils of old societies (like Sharia councils?). In many middle eastern villages people are still deciding every little matter by discussing it through village meetings. Kurds only differ in terms of their feminist angle. Direct democracy (various discussions about neighborhood's every matter by residents) can have its limits. I would prefer less participation in every goddam matter of neighborhood (how to pay for gas and electricity, child care, who will serve as police, what to do with local shop owner who harasses clients and et cet). How is it different from today's local councils?

[@ivanliukin9956]

Agreed also as to their capitalist nature Marx said "in a word the abolition of private property" .One of the biggest weakness for Graeber & Chomsky types is what happens when people disagree violently or "who holds the legitimate use of violence" and unsurprisingly former professor Graeber's answer is...... "Women" problem solved and as a American whose democratic candidate was a women the irony is not lost on me;)

[@manuag3886]

Pure anarchy is a pipe dream. You modify the input of the theory to some extent in a way which pertains to the material conditions of that respective society's time. Afterall ML's want a dictatorship of the proletariat to transition to full communism. So why do you seemingly expect anarchists to immediately have no prisons or no police? Transition periods take time. Moreover anarchism doesn't claim to be anything other than another system. The claim is simply that it is a better system.

[@marmary5555]

...so Mr Graeber supports the Balkanization of Western Asia? great! we all know the consequences of this type of situations 😐

[@s3rp]

It's already Balkanized. People have been living in nations build on the drawing board artifically they didn't care and have no loyalty for for decades. This is why some nations became failed states in the first place. People just don't care enough about Libya , Syria , Iraq , Afghnanistan etc. as a concept but for their own tribe .

[@paulcruickshank2105]

Kurdistan? No such place, never has been.

[@Kropotkin2000]

About time there is.

[@andreawisner7358]

Paul Cruickshank It's a state of mind.

[@birgip.m.1236]

40 million Kurds, artificially divided. The Indigenous people of that part of the earth. Fighting for what matters to most people too busy working for the Capitalist system to realize they're contributing to the destruction of the planet.