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About the Conference

Invitation to our 2015 Conference

Dear friends,

you may have heard of or participated in our successful 2012 conference in Hamburg. For three days hundreds of students, intellectuals and activists came together and discussed perspectives to overcome the current, crisis-struck system of capitalist modernity and the ideas of the Kurdish freedom movement and others on this topic.

We are happy to announce our second conference with the title “Challenging Capitalist Modernity II: Dissecting Capitalist Modernity–Building Democratic Confederalism”. This conference will take place on the Easter weekend, 3-5 April 2015, in Hamburg. This second conference shall also focus on the critique of the capitalist modernity but most importantly it will in detail talk about how to build its alternative. Thus economy and women’s freedom shall be two main themes in the 2015 conference. It will not only be bigger (the Audimax takes up to 1200 people), but –we expect– even better.

Invitation

  • Invitation to our 2015 Conference
  • Einladung zur Konferenz 2015
  • 2015 Konferansına Çağrı
  • 2015 Konferansına Çağrı

Call for papers

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  • Kurdi

This year there will be 5 topics for Call for Papers – details to be announced in a few days

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coming soon..

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coming soon.

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coming soon.

programm

3-5 April 2015, Hamburg University, Audimax

3 April 2015 – Friday

12:00-13:00 Welcoming Speeches and Messages


Welcoming Speech | Gülistan Kahraman

Welcoming Speech | Dêrsim Dağdeviren

Welcoming Speech | Prof. Norman Paech

Introduction | Prof. Elmar Altvater

Opening Speech | Reimar Heider

Messages of Greeting | Abdullah Öcalan

3 April 2015 – Friday 13:00-15:00

Session 1:

Dissecting Capitalist Modernity

 Moderation: Dr. Thomas Jeffrey Miley

1. Scientism—Re-colonization of the Mind
Dr. Muriel Gonzales Athenas
2. Capitalism—Accumulation of Value or Power?
Kenan Ayaz
3.Nation State—God on Earth?
Prof. David Harvey
4. Industrialism—Law, Science and Imperialism
Dr. Radha D'Souza
5. Religionism and Secularism—Religion and the State
Rojda Yıldırım

Call for Papers Topic

6.From Marxism and nationalism to radical democracy: Abdullah Öcalan’s synthesis for the 21st century
Prof. Tamir Bar-On

15:00-16:30

Discussion

16:30-18:00

Break

3 April 2015 – Friday 18:00-20:00

Session 2:

Democratic Modernity

Moderation: Eirik Eiglad

1. New Concepts—Democratic Confederalism & Democratic Autonomy
Havin Guneser
2. Liberating Life: Political and Moral Society
Emine Ayna
3. Democratic Nation—A Cure for Nationalism
Asya Abdullah

Call for Papers Topics

4.Truth and Power: Analytics of Power and Nomadic Thinking as Fragments of a Philosophy of Liberation
Michael Panser

5. Social Ecology and the Non-Western World
Federico Venturini

20:00-21:30

Discussion





4 April 2015 – Saturday 10:00-12:00

Session 3:

Ecological Industry and Communal Economy

 Moderation: Thomas Konicz

1.Communal Economy: The Case for the Commons
Silke Helfrich
2. Bağlar Women’s Cooperative
3. All Economies are Ultimately Human Economies
David Graeber
4. Common political imperative for a revolutionary prospect
Penny Vounisiou

Call for Papers Topic

5. Building a Communal Economy in Kurdistan
Azize Aslan

12:00-13:30

Discussion

13:30-15:00

Lunch-Break



4 April 2015 – Saturday 15:00-16:30

Session 4:

Overcoming the Stumbling Blocks of Revolutionary Theory

Moderation: Ismail Küpeli

1. Reproducing Capitalism: Consumption and Habits
Ahmet Pelda
2. New Concepts of Self-defense
Fidan Yıldırım
3. The Centrality of Women’s Freedom
Sara Aktaş
4. Power Relations: State and Family
Dr. Nazan Üstündağ

Call for Papers Topic

5. Feminism and the Kurdish Liberation Movement
Dilar Dirik

16:30-18:00

Discussion

18:00-19:00

Break

19:00-21:00

Concert

Rotînda, Zelal Gökçe, Meral Tekçi, Mehmet Akbas

5 April 2015 – Sunday 10:00-12:30

Session 5a:

Lessons to be Learned from Alternative Practices

Moderation: Anja Flach

1. Internationalism—an Evolving Concept
Arno-Jermaine Laffin
2. Individual and Neighborhood: Citizen and Assembly in Montreal
Dimitrios Roussopoulos
3. South Africa: Progressive Politics in a Capitalist Country?
Alex Mohubetswane Mashilo
4. Gandhi’s Vision for India and Democratic Confederalism
Joám Evans Pim

Democratic Confederalism in Kurdistan – Work in Progress

5. Rojava: The Cantons—Resistance and Construction
Mustefa Ebdî
6. Başûr: Stuck between Freedom and the State
Necîbe Qeredaxî

12:30-14:00

Discussion

14:00-15:00

Lunch Break

5 April 2015 – Sunday 15:00-17:00

Session 5b:

Lessons to be Learned from Alternative Practices (continued)

Moderation: Prof. Sabine Rollberg

7. Rojhilat: The KODAR Model
Shirzad Kamangar
8. Bakur: From State to Democracy
Selma Irmak
9. The Fourth World War and How to Win it – A Tribute to Kurds and Zapatistas
Prof. John Holloway
10. The Venezuela Experience
Andrés Pierantoni Giua
11. New England & Rojava: Assembly Democracies
Janet Biehl

17:00-18:00

Discussion

18:00-18:25 Closing speech

New Horizons: Reconstructing Liberation

Gönül Kaya




Technical information:


Translation: Simultaneous in Kurdish, English, German, Turkish, Italian and Spanish
Food: Lunch is 3€ for registered participants
Live stream: The entire conference will be streamed to the internet in several languages
Registration fee: 10 Euros for students/unemployed, 20 Euros for others
Accommodation: Hostel – 15 Euro per person per night standard multi bedroom, Sleeping place in homes for free
Registration is open.
Please register at registration@networkaq.net and specify your preferred accommodation!


Videos

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Conference 2012

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Old Conferences

  • Conference 2012

    		•


    Copyright © 2015 Network for an alternative quest

    Prof. Norman Paech

    Norman Paech is professor emeritus for constitutional and international right and a former member of the German parliament for the left group.

    Prof. Elmar Altvater

    Elmar Altvater is professor emeritus for political sciences. He is regarded as a co-founder of an ecological economy and an early critic of a deregulated globalization of markets

    Reimar Heider

    Reimar Heider is a physician by training and human rights activist. He is one of the spokespersons of the International Initiative »Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan―Peace in Kurdistan« and has translated several books by Öcalan.

    Dr. Thomas Jeffrey Miley

    Thomas Jeffrey Miley is lecturer of political sociology in the Department of Sociology at Cambridge. He received his B.A. from U.C.L.A. (1995) and his PhD. from Yale University (2004). He was a Garcia-Pelayo Research Fellow at the Center for Political and Constitutional Studies in Madrid (2007-2009). His research interests include comparative nationalisms, the politics of migration, religion and politics, and democratic theory.

    Gülistan Kahraman

    Gülistan Kahraman is studying law and has been active in the Association of Students from Kurdistan since 2010.

    Dêrsim Dağdeviren

    Dêrsim Dağdeviren is a pediatrician and chairwoman of the Network of Kurdish Academics (KURD-AKAD).

    Abdullah Öcalan

    ....

    Dr. Muriel Gonzales Athenas

    Muriel González Athenas is an activist in feminist, anti-racist, and autonomous networks. For two years, she has been working with the Kurdish women’s movement in Europe on a new departure for emancipatory movements. In 2013, she opened an exhibition in several Catalan cities, called “…so that freedom no longer remains a utopia”, informing on the current positions of the Kurdish movement. She is a historian and a research assistant at the University of Cologne. Her research focus is on gender studies, labor and capitalism, Eurocentric geographies, feminist epistemology and historiographic methods.


    Abstract
    Certain patterns of thinking determine the way we see ourselves and the world around us. These epistemologies are impregnated by the existing power relations. How did feminists criticize these ways of thinking and how do we have to go one step further? What can a feminist science look like?

    Kenan Ayaz

    Kenan Ayaz is a Kurdish human rights researcher and activist who was imprisoned in Turkey because of his political views for twelve years. He is active in the Kurdish people’s struggle for freedom.


    Abstract
    Capitalism is more than a kind of economical organization. It is a system of complex relationships of accumulation and exploitation. An attempt to clear up some things and to expose capitalism.

    Prof. David Harvey

    David Harvey is the Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Geography at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). He received his PhD in Geography from the University of Cambridge in 1961. Harvey authored many books and essays that have been prominent in the development of modern geography as a discipline. He is a proponent of the idea of the right to the city.


    Abstract
    The nation-state, the dominant form of state organization of recent times, appears to be in crisis. This is especially true for the Middle East. What can emerge from today’s chaos?

    Dr. Radha D'Souza

    Radha D’Souza is a Reader in Law specializing in International Law & Development, Law in Third World societies and Resource Conflicts in the Third World. She is a social justice and civil liberties activist working in India and internationally.


    Abstract
    Industrialism and democracy are incompatible ideas. Industrialism relies on command-control mechanisms. Contemporary imperialism is the expansion of industrialism to militarism. Democracy must be underpinned by a very different kind of science and law. Democracy and capitalism must be delinked in public discourse and political practice.

    Rojda Yıldırım

    Rojda Yıldırım is a woman rights activist who was imprisoned for 10 years because of her political views. She is active in the Kurdish people’s and women’s struggle for freedom. She is presently researching different belief systems.


    Abstract
    The last decade has seen the introduction of Islam as a source of legislation in several countries. In Turkey state-imposed laicism is on the descent. Syria and Iraq are faced with a group that claims to resurrect the caliphate. Why does the Western model of secularism fail? And what are the deeper reasons for the renaissance of religion in state affairs?

    Prof. Tamir Bar-On

    Tamir Bar-On is professor for political sciences at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in Querétaro, Mexico. He studies the French Nouvelle Droite or Europan New Right and its relationship to fascism.


    Abstract
    Although Öcalan only was able to read Gramsci very late, he reaches similar conclusions with different dimensions. Öcalan also finds it important to delve into the definition of an intellectual and its role in the transformation of the society. They are also both critical about a class rule, no matter which class it is. How do Öcalan and Gramsci differ and how much are they similar is the main research topic of this paper.

    Eirik Eiglad

    Eirik Eiglad has been involved in a broad range of social ecology projects in Scandinavia for more than two decades, as a movement activist, writer, translator, and editor. Eiglad co-founded the New Compass collective. He is the author of The Anti-Jewish Riots in Oslo and Communalism as Alternative, and the editor of Social Ecology and Social Change.

    Havin Guneser

    Havin Guneser is an engineer, journalist and a women's rights activist. She is one of the spokespersons of the International Initiative “Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan – Peace in Kurdistan” and translator of Öcalan’s several books.


    Abstract
    Socialism is not out of fashion, but after long theoretical debates the Kurdish movement suggests a set of new terms and concepts. “Democratic autonomy” and “democratic confederalism” are becoming practical already in Rojava. The overall concept is “democratic modernity” as the alternative to “capitalist modernity”. What does this all mean?

    Emine Ayna

    Emine Ayna had to abandon the University of Çukurova shortly before the completion of her studies of economics due to political reasons. During her studies, she worked with the first organization of Kurdish women. She was elected to parliament as deputy of the DTP and was its co-chair shortly before the party was banned. She was arrested several times. There are still about 700 proceedings opened against her. She is also a founding member of the platform “Freedom for Öcalan, for peace”. She is currently an MP for HDP and co-chair of the DBP.


    Abstract
    In Kurdistan, people have been taking their life into their own hands for a long time. Feudal structures have been smashed, women advanced. The society is highly politicized, but the movement has even higher aims. Stating that the moral and ethical fabric of a society are more important than the laws of the state that rules, they envisage a political and moral society where people build up an alternative to the state.

    Asya Abdullah

    Asya Abdullah is co-chairperson of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Rojava/Syria. Due to repression under the Assad regime, she was forced to leave university and devoted herself entirely to politics. She sees herself as a feminist activist and has also been active in the Kurdish movement in Rojava for a number of years. She is a founding member of PYD and was elected co-chair along with Salih Muslim in 2011.


    Abstract
    Nationalism of every kind has devastated also the Middle East in the last 100 years. The nation-state, a European import product, was never really at home there. Can the project of a multi-ethnic “democratic nation” in Rojava be a historical turning point?

    Michael Panser

    Michael Panser studied history. Since 2011 self-study of philosophy and political theory with a focus on nomadology, internationalism and revolutionary liberation movements.


    Abstract
    Foucault’s power-knowledge-complex is closely related to Öcalan’s concept of regimes of truth. Every way in which we organize our thinking, our perception, implies a string of possible ideas and acts. Knowledge means power to act, while being separated from knowledge about oneself means powerlessness.

    Federico Venturini

    Federico Venturini is a PhD student of geography in Leeds. He holds a master degree in Philosophy and one in History and European Culture. He researches the relations between modern cities and urban social movements, using Social Ecology as research framework. He is working with social movements in Rio de Janeiro with participatory/militant methodology. He is a member on the of the Transnational Institute of Social Ecology (TRISE).


    Abstract
    How do Murray Bookchin’s social ecology and libertarian municipalism and Öcalan’s “women’s freedom ideology” and democratic confederalism relate to the attempts to implement them? What problems does the concrete political movement face and struggle to overcome, how does this in turn contribute to the further development of theory?

    Thomas Konicz

    Thomas Konicz studied history, sociology and Philosophy in Hanover and Poznan. He is a freelance journalist and publicist working for various left and left-liberal publications, including Konkret and Telepolis. Recent publications by him include ebooks on the ideology of the capitalist crisis and alternatives to it.

    Silke Helfrich

    Freelance journalist and co-founder of Commons Strategies Group and of Commons Institute e. V.,for many years representative for Central America, Mexico and Cuba of the Heinrich Böll Foundation. Editor of “The Wealth oft the Commons: A World Beyond Market and State”, “Wem gehört die Welt?” and “Was mehr wird, wenn wir teilen”. She is currently researching patterns of commoning.


    Abstract
    Marx described the enclosure of the commons as a factor in the emergence of capitalism. Not only since the works of nobel prize laureate Elinor Ostrom we witness a re-discovery of the commons, whether as digital knowledge commons or in commons- based peer production. How can we arrive at a world beyond market & state?

    Bağlar Women’s Cooperative

    The cooperative was founded in 2005. It combines economical and political activities. The women fight against the patriarchal system and for democratic administration and a communal economy.


    Abstract
    In North Kurdistan several women’s cooperatives have been established lately. In a video conference, Saniye Varlı from the cooperative will join us live from Bağlar, a suburb of Amed (Diyarbakır).

    David Graeber

    David Graeber teaches anthropology at the London School of Economics. Active in a number of anti-authoritarian activist projects from the Direct Action Network in 2000 to Occupy Wall Street in 2011, he is also the author of books such as “Debt: The First Five Thousand Years”, “Lost People”, “Direct Action: An Ethnography”, “Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology”, and most recently, “The Utopia of Rules.”


    Abstract
    The creation of material wealth is always simply one moment in the larger process of the mutual shaping of human beings, caring labor is really the primary form of labor. Capitalism is perhaps unique among all economic systems in that it entirely inverts this and teaches us that the purpose of human life itself is the production of material commodities. This is a form of social insanity. How do we turn things around?

    Penny Vounisiou

    Penny Vounisiou works as a conservator of antiquities and works of art. She is an active member of the group “Platform for Autonomy, Self Sufficiency and Equality” and a member of the Cretan movement against the industrial renewable energy resources. She also participates in a new group which works on the struggle against privatization of the social possessions.


    Abstract
    The myth that capitalism promises prosperity to all, is still powerful-despite all realities. To overcome it we need the vision of a different world, a different society and a different economy. What is the role of autonomy, self-sufficiency and equality?

    Azize Aslan

    Azize Aslan graduated from the economics department of Marmara University. She has a master degree in Development Economics and is currently working on her doctoral degree in Public Administration and Political Science at Istanbul University. Her doctoral thesis deals with the economic politics of democratic autonomy. She is engaged in the economy works within the framework of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK).


    Abstract
    From Braudel’s, Wallerstein’s and Öcalan’s critique of capitalism to building a communal economy in Kurdistan. What are the discussions, which are the concepts? How does economy relate to the goals of democracy, ecology and women’s liberation?

    Ismail Küpeli

    Ismail Küpeli is a political scientist and journalist. He analyses the conflicts in Turkey and the Middle East and reports on social protests and the results of the neo-liberal crisis politics in Europe. He writes for daily and weekly newspapers, magazines, online media, gives interviews to radio stations and holds lectures.

    Ahmet Pelda

    Ehmed Pelda did his higher education in economics. He works on economics and social change in Kurdistan, alternative economics, ecology and technology. He was a columnist for the newspaper Azadiya Welat and now writes for the Özgür Gündem. On the TV channel Stêrk TV he hosts the program “Economy and Ecology”. In his latest work he deals with the distribution of resources in Kurdistan.


    Abstract
    Capitalism abstracts humans from nature, holds them in a circle of production and consumption and uses them for the accumulation of capital and power. How does the system achieve this, and how can we break out?

    Fidan Yıldırım

    Fidan Yıldırım is a journalist and a political activist. Since the 1980s has taken part in activities to further Kurdish people’s and women’s freedom. She worked in various Kurdish newspapers for many years and continues to write articles for them. She was imprisoned for 11 years in Turkey due to her political views.


    Abstract
    Kurdish women caught everybody’s attention in the brave fight to defend Kobanê in 2014. But they have been fighting before that, and armed defense is only one part of their concept of self-defense. It encompasses education, self-organization, civil obedience, and other forms of struggle.

    Sara Aktaş

    Sara Aktaş graduated from the Philosophy Department in Ankara. After 1990 she joined the Kurdish liberation movement. Due to her political activities she spent 11 years in prison and was released in 2004. She was a founding member of the DTP and actively worked in the women’s councils. In 2009 she was arrested again due to her activities in the Democratic Free Women’s Movement (DÖKH). She spent another 5 years and 3 months in jail and was released on a pending trial. Currently she is a spokeswoman of the Free Women’s Congress (KJA). She writes for various newspapers and magazines on women’s liberation.


    Abstract
    Many real socialist movements that deal with the liberation of woman see these problems as not as central or important as the class contradictions. What are the views of Ocalan and the Kurdish freedom movement in that regard? What are the perspectives?

    Dr. Nazan Üstündağ

    Nazan Üstündağ is an associate professor for sociology at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul. Her fields of interest include feminist theory, post-colonial theory, state and violence issues and narrative methods. Her columns are published by Bianet and Özgür Gündem. She is a founding member of the Peace Council, Women for Peace and Academics for Peace. Üstündağ is also a member of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP)’s central executive committee.


    Abstract
    Power relationships exist in a state as well as inside a family. How do statism and patriarchy mutually depend on each other? In what sense is the family indeed the nucleus of the state?

    Dilar Dirik

    Dilar Dirik holds a degree in History and Political Science and wrote her Master’s thesis on women’s liberation and the PKK. At the moment, she is working on her PhD at the Sociology Department at the University of Cambridge. Her doctoral thesis tries to compare the nation-state system to the paradigm of democratic confederalism from the perspective of women’s liberation.


    Abstract
    The Kurdish women‘s movement is the strongest in the region – to say the least. But how do their theoretical foundations relate to socialist, radical or anarchist feminism of Western provenance? Which are the original approaches in Kurdish feminism, and why is the most read feminist – a man?

    Anja Flach

    Anja Flach is an ethnologist and member of the Rojbîn Women’s Council, Hamburg. She published tow books on the Kurdish women’s army. Recently she co-authored a book on the revolution in Rojava.

    Arno-Jermaine Laffin

    Arno-Jermaine Laffin studied Political Science and Law in Marburg and Hanover. As a member of the Association of Students from Kurdistan (YXK) he has been active in the Kurdish freedom movement for many years.


    Abstract
    The concept of internationalism was filled over the last one hundred years with different ideas and preconceptions. The Kurdish freedom movement defined itself as internationalist from the start. In the last few years new concepts have opened up new perspectives for internationalist struggles.

    Dimitrios Roussopoulos

    Dimitrios I. Roussopoulos is a Montreal based political activist, ecologist, writer, editor, publisher, community organizer, and public speaker. Educated in philosophy, politics and economics at several Montreal universities and London.


    Abstract
    How were the tools of community organizing developed and used in Montreal neighborhoods to help individuals become participating citizens? How were citizens helped to understand the importance of local community priorities, broaden the idea of citizenship into urban citizenship, and mobilize citizens into assemblies wherein direct democracy found a place? Empowering citizens, who insist on taking decision-making into their hands and forming assemblies, naturally threatens the power elite. What are the fruits of the Montreal model and experience?

    Alex Mohubetswane Mashilo

    Alex Mohubetswane Mashilo is an electrical engineer and jurist. He is currently studying towards a PhD at the University of the Witwatersrand with focus on the relationship between economic and social development. Mashilo is the National Spokesperson and Head of Communications at the South African Communist Party.


    Abstract
    South Africa is one of the few countries in the world where a communist party is part of a government coalition. But despite certain hopes (or fears) that socialism would take over, this did not happen. South Africa is facing huge problems but also opportunities to overcome them. What are the perspectives for progressive parties in capitalist states in the 21st century? What kind of progressive role does South Africa play on the African continent and perhaps the greater world?

    Joám Evans Pim

    Joám Evans Pim is a father, farmer and activist in Galiza (a territory under Spanish occupation). He works with the non-profit Center for Global Nonkilling and seasonally teaches Nonviolence at Åbo Akademi University in Vaasa, Finland. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Transnational Institute of Social Ecology and has been involved with the IntegraRevolucio initiative.


    Abstract
    Gandhi imagined small self-sufficient village republics that should be “capable of managing its affairs even to the extent of defending itself against the whole world”. Things turned out differently in India. How does the Indian experience compare to the project of democratic confederalism?

    Mustefa Ebdî

    Mustefa Ebdî is jurist and minister of local governments and municipalities in Kobanê. After high school in Kobanê he studied law in Aleppo. He worked in the municipality of Kobanê even before the proclamation of the canton. He is also the co-chair of the organization for the rebuilding of Kobanê.


    Abstract
    The three cantons in the Rojava region in Syria are under military, political and economic attack from many sides. Struggling against tanks as well as embargoes, the people nevertheless fight for an ambitious, revolutionary project: a democratic self-administration unlike any other in the Middle East. Kobanê is just the tip of the iceberg.

    Necîbe Qeredaxî




    Abstract
    In South Kurdistan (Irak) a de-facto-state has emerged whose authoritarian tendencies by now have become clear. The contrast to Rojava is obvious. What is the vision of the women’s movement and the newly founded Freedom Movement?

    Prof. Sabine Rollberg

    Prof. Sabine Rollberg is professor for artistic TV formats in Cologne. She studied history, Germanistics and political sciences. She was foreign correspondent and editor-in-chief of ARTE. Currently she is head of editorial staff of WDR/ARTE

    Shirzad Kamangar

    Shirzad Kamangar has been in active politics for the past 15 years in Iran and Kurdistan. He is a council member of the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK). His brother, Farzad Kamangar, a human rights activist too, was executed on May 2010 by the Iranian state for his political views.


    Abstract
    In East Kurdistan and Iran, the Kurdish freedom movement is fighting under extremely difficult conditions. The death penalty is frequently imposed and executed against political activists. What is the KODAR model and how does PJAK want to implement it?

    Selma Irmak

    Selma Irmak is co-chair of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK) and activist of the Kurdish women’s movement. She was a founding member of the DTP. In the KCK operations she was arrested despite being a mayoral candidate in Diyarbakir. During her trial, she was elected as an MP in 2011. After her release from prison in 2014 she joined the HDP group in parliament.


    Abstract
    North Kurdistan (Turkey) has its own unique conditions. Numerous parties, NGOs and organizations pursue the goal of democratic autonomy while struggling against the AKP and the state. What does democratic autonomy mean for this part of Kurdistan? How can the transition from state to democracy happen under these circumstances?

    Prof. John Holloway

    John Holloway is a Professor of Sociology at the Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades in the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Mexico and Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of Rhodes, South Africa. He has published widely on Marxist theory, on the Zapatista movement and on the new forms of anti-capitalist struggle. His books Change the World without taking Power (Pluto, London, 2002, new edition 2010) and Crack Capitalism (Pluto, London, 2010), have stirred international debate and have each been translated into eleven languages.


    Abstract
    We live in a world of increasing aggression against humanity, which the Zapatistas refer to as the Fourth World War. To win this war is not just to win particular battles but to put a halt to the constant aggression. The aggression comes not from the states from but the crisis of a particular form of social organization (capital). To reach the source of the aggression, our struggles must be based on a radically different form of organization. The Zapatistas and the Kurds are the most outstanding examples of this form of struggle.

    Andrés Pierantoni Giua

    Andrés Pierantoni Giua studied political sciences in Milano. He worked as a businessman and political advisor. Currently he serves as co-ordinator of 11 community councils in the Hatillo-Baruta rural area and as an advisor to the minister of commerce of Venezuela.


    Abstract
    The Bolivarian Revolution has created lots of interest around the world. How have the past 15 years changed Latin America? What are the experiences with participatory democracy an communal councils? What problems does the movement face?

    Janet Biehl

    Janet Biehl is an independent writer on democracy and ecology, blogging at biehlonbookchin.com. Her book Ecology or Catastrophe: The Life of Murray Bookchin will be published by Oxford University Press in September 2015. An artist as well, she lives in Burlington, Vermont.


    Abstract
    An example for assembly democracy is the tradition in New England of the town meeting, which has persisted over the centuries since the early colonial settlements by English Puritans. What are the connections with Bookchin’s Libertarian Municipalism and Democratic Confederalism?

    Gönül Kaya

    Gönül Kaya has actively taken place within the Kurdish women’s freedom struggle since 1991. She is on the board of International Free Women’s Foundation. She was a columnist at newspaper Özgür Politika and at present is a columnist in the women’s newspaper Newaya Jin. She currently working within the International Representation of the Kurdish Women’s Movement.