![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Womens-assembly-near-Qamislo-by-Janet-Biehl.jpg\")
CREDIT JANET BIEHL<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
This everyday aspect of the communes has proven its worth in times of war, especially in terms of collective security. As an active citizenry breeds a collective familiarity, residents are attuned to observing the unusual. Many terror cells have been discovered and dissolved as residents report suspicious activity to their commune, which is then followed up by the defence commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those who are active in the communes do not receive financial compensation for their efforts, which can prove difficult when they must also ensure their economic livelihoods. But compensation comes in the form of other resources gained from their work: social networks, education, knowledge. They become friends and establish diverse relationships with people from their neighbourhood and other communes, developing a rich understanding of the political and administrative governance of their city. Above all, this kind of experience and knowledge is a new phenomenon for people at the grassroots, providing an opportunity for communities to govern themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Women in the communes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Every commune has a women\u2019s assembly that takes care of women\u2019s affairs and also serves as a contact point for women. Women also administer and make politics in the public sphere. A co-chair system ensures that every commune has both a male and female co-chair, breaking with the strong patriarchal representation that characterises the centralised state. Along with some practical advantages, this system has significant feminist-revolutionary symbolic power. But representation is only one part of a subtle and comprehensive process of addressing and transforming old attitudes and building new egalitarian social relations in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The co-chairs of all the communes of the city meet in a large monthly district council meeting, where the city municipality or, if necessary, representatives of other offices are also brought in. There are often heated debates between the commune co-chairs and the municipality when it comes to infrastructural points. Much is needed, but resources are few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The decentralised processes in Rojava provide a demonstrable alternative to the centralist tendency of nation states and the problems they create in the mosaic Middle East. The significance of Rojava is thus not only the national liberation of the Kurds in western Kurdistan and Syria, but the deepening and widening of democracy, emancipation and participation of society in a decentralised and local form of self-government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the real strength of Rojava \u2013 and it is an immense and inspiring strength. The people of Rojava, a small political-geographical entity caught in a conflict between imperialist states and other hostile actors, have managed to build and maintain a fertile democratic experiment. It is the task of all of us to keep the Rojava experiment on its feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n