STRUGGLES

democratic confederalism in kurdistan
democratic confederalism in all four
regions ofKurdistan, the KCK has been
proscribed too. Thousands ofpeople have
been arrested for connections with the KCK,
including many politicians from the HDP
and DBP.
This has not stopped the movement from
growing. When we visited Bakur in July
2015, local assemblies and commissions
were organising co-operatives. For example,
we visited several farming co-operatives in
the Wan (Van in Turkish) region which had
been established on land donated by
landlords to the Democratic Regions Party.
Profits from the co-operatives are shared
among the workers. We also visited a cooperative
shop which had been set up by the
DTK's economic commission in Wan.
Women's assemblies and ecology
assemblies are also part ofthe DTK. For
example, environmental activists have
formed an ecology assembly in the city of
Batman, which they told us was represented
in the DTK. Women also have a parallel
umbrella organisation, the Free Women's
Union.
Increasingly, people are turning toward the
Democratic Regions Party (DBP) and the
assemblies to solve disputes, rather than
going to the police and courts. In the Wan
region we personally observed local people
asking the DBP to arbitrate in disputes.
Since the HDP's electoral success in June,
the police and army have intensified attacks
against Kurdish people, particularly
activists involved in the movement for
democratic autonomy. In many areas
people have erected barricades against the
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police and read out declarations of
autonomy. In these cities, the Turkish police
and military have launched an all out war,
using tanks, mortars and helicopter
gunships to attack residential streets.
Armed self-defence units, including female
only units, have been set up at the local level
in many places in response.
The DTK has announced that the whole of
Turkey, not just the Kurdish region, could
be run through self-governing autonomous
regions. According to a December 2015
DTK statement:
“Democratic autonomy as the solution to the
Kurdish problem cannot be separated from the
democratisation ofTurkey as a whole. The
declarations ofdemocratic autonomy are thus
steps toward democratising Turkey. We consider
them legal and necessary and proper for all the
peoples ofTurkey. Undoubtedly local democracies
would take different forms according to the
conditions and needs oftheir area, region, and
community. Under the local autonomy ofdiverse
identities, each area can adapt democratisation
into its own circumstances.”
Like Öcalan, the DTK hopes that the
assembly system will take over many ofthe
functions ofthe state:
“Some functions—economy, judiciary,
defence—would remain at the centre, but the
rest– like education, agriculture, tourism– are to
be devolved to the autonomous regions...The
governing model that should be dominant in the
world today is indisputably democracy. No
government that centrally administers every
street, neighbourhood, city and town can be
legitimate; democracy requires the autonomy of
local units.” 9