Dani

Hi, James. It's really good to be on.

Yeah, well, that's a big question because it's a big project. It's been going on for quite some time.

Yeah, well, that's a big question because it's a big project. It's been going on for quite some time.

Yeah, well, that's a big question because it's a big project. It's been going on for quite some time.

Yeah, it's kind of been lost in discussions and news about the Syrian civil war because it has been such a complex, multipolar, multi-ethnic conflict. And it's been going on for, what, like 13, 14 years now? Yeah. coming up to 14 years, the Kurds in the northeast had been preparing for some time before the outbreak of civil war back in 2011 for something like this.

Yeah, it's kind of been lost in discussions and news about the Syrian civil war because it has been such a complex, multipolar, multi-ethnic conflict. And it's been going on for, what, like 13, 14 years now? Yeah. coming up to 14 years, the Kurds in the northeast had been preparing for some time before the outbreak of civil war back in 2011 for something like this.

Yeah, it's kind of been lost in discussions and news about the Syrian civil war because it has been such a complex, multipolar, multi-ethnic conflict. And it's been going on for, what, like 13, 14 years now? Yeah. coming up to 14 years, the Kurds in the northeast had been preparing for some time before the outbreak of civil war back in 2011 for something like this.

Obviously, they didn't know this was going to happen, but they had been working on revolutionary emancipation for decades and in particular since around 2000 they'd been working on this concept of democratic confederalism which is moving away from a sort of

Obviously, they didn't know this was going to happen, but they had been working on revolutionary emancipation for decades and in particular since around 2000 they'd been working on this concept of democratic confederalism which is moving away from a sort of

Obviously, they didn't know this was going to happen, but they had been working on revolutionary emancipation for decades and in particular since around 2000 they'd been working on this concept of democratic confederalism which is moving away from a sort of

what they call an old paradigm of Marxist-Leninist thought, to this system they've now quite effectively built up there, where democracy is bottom-up, it's structured around small communes and self-organising units, cooperatives.

what they call an old paradigm of Marxist-Leninist thought, to this system they've now quite effectively built up there, where democracy is bottom-up, it's structured around small communes and self-organising units, cooperatives.

what they call an old paradigm of Marxist-Leninist thought, to this system they've now quite effectively built up there, where democracy is bottom-up, it's structured around small communes and self-organising units, cooperatives.

There's a market economy, but it's not a capitalist economy, where there's sort of radical emancipation of oppressed peoples, particularly women, who are really centred in the revolutionary process and organising that. And I think because they, maybe you can't call them conflict avoided, but they haven't avoided conflict. They very famously defeated ISIS amongst other groups in the Northeast.

There's a market economy, but it's not a capitalist economy, where there's sort of radical emancipation of oppressed peoples, particularly women, who are really centred in the revolutionary process and organising that. And I think because they, maybe you can't call them conflict avoided, but they haven't avoided conflict. They very famously defeated ISIS amongst other groups in the Northeast.

There's a market economy, but it's not a capitalist economy, where there's sort of radical emancipation of oppressed peoples, particularly women, who are really centred in the revolutionary process and organising that. And I think because they, maybe you can't call them conflict avoided, but they haven't avoided conflict. They very famously defeated ISIS amongst other groups in the Northeast.

They fought against al-Nusra Front and various other jihadi groups. They also didn't enter into serious conflict with either the FSA, as they were, or the regime and the Assad regime. Mm-hmm.

They fought against al-Nusra Front and various other jihadi groups. They also didn't enter into serious conflict with either the FSA, as they were, or the regime and the Assad regime. Mm-hmm.

They fought against al-Nusra Front and various other jihadi groups. They also didn't enter into serious conflict with either the FSA, as they were, or the regime and the Assad regime. Mm-hmm.

And so they kind of managed to carve out a sort of democratic and semi-enclave, I mean, people would describe it as a state that they quite vehemently say it's not a state, in the northeast of Syria, whilst the worst of the fighting was between the Assad regime and the FSA and groups that came out of the FSA in the west and south of the country.