NEWS CENTER – In the light of the ideas of Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan, the conference series titled ‘We Want Our World Back’, ‘Resist, Take Back and Rebuild’, ‘Make Autonomous Education and Organize’ with the slogan ‘Challenging Capitalist Modernity’, is on the 4th day of the ‘We want our world back’ -and here’s how!’ continued with the panel.
In the session moderated by Nik Matheou, an activist, researcher and lecturer in Global Medieval History at Edinburgh University, the topic of “Let’s organize to resist, reclaim and rebuild” was discussed. HDP Mardin Deputy Ebru Günay, Amparo’s daughter and Teresa and Elena’s granddaughter Aymara, feminist, popular educator, Feminismo Comunitario Antipatriarcal and member of the Feministas de Abya Yala organization Adriana Guzmán Arroyo, traditional medicine healer and human being from the indigenous Nahuatl people in Mexico rights activist María de Jesús Patricio Martínez (Marichuy), member of the Mexican National Indigenous Congress (CNI), activist and popular educator Physician Manuel Rozental in movements in America.
ORGANIZED SOCIETY IS THE NIGHTMARE OF THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM
HDP Deputy Ebru Günay, who spoke at the panel, stated that organized society is the nightmare of the capitalist system and touched upon the role of organization in the resistance of the organized individual against capitalist attacks and in the building of freedom. Günay said that the society that gets stronger as it organizes will take back what belongs to it, “The resistance and organization that continue to exist despite oppression and force gives hope for freedom. No oppression and prohibition will be able to prevent the freedom struggle. Despite all the difficulties, we are holding this conference today with the determination of the freedom resisters. The biggest attacks on organized societies are experienced in the capitalist system. Governments want to destroy organized society for centuries. Capitalism creates individuals who lack resistance and solidarity. Abdullah Öcalan, who proposes democratic modernity as an alternative to capitalist modernity, draws attention to the fact that all we are experiencing is a nation-state attack. If all the problems of today are getting deeper day by day, it means that we have started to experience a state of slaughter in a society. Nation-states magnify the danger and push the solution further. The tradition of resistance continues with the struggle of organized societies against the nation-state. Capitalist modernity robs society of its ability to govern itself. A society whose self-government capability has been deprived cannot escape from colonial and assimilation policies. The tradition of resistance continues with the struggle of organized societies against the nation-state. Capitalist modernity robs society of its ability to govern itself. A society whose self-government capability has been deprived cannot escape from colonial and assimilation policies. The tradition of resistance continues with the struggle of organized societies against the nation-state. Capitalist modernity robs society of its ability to govern itself. A society whose self-government capability has been deprived cannot escape from colonial and assimilation policies.
HDP CREATED A COMMON FIGHTING GROUND
Expressing that HDP is a party where the polarized and marginalized segments of Turkey have been doing politics together for the last 20 years, Günay said, “As the HDP creates a common ground for struggle, it is exposed to all kinds of attacks by the state. The government also aimed to prevent the society from governing itself by appointing trustees to the municipalities. In the last earthquake, we once again saw how the society governed itself and how solidarity healed the wounds. It was very impressive and promising that the provinces of Kurdistan, which was based on the democratic, ecological, women’s libertarian paradigm, immediately organized and sent aid everywhere. The state, on the other hand, did its best to prevent social solidarity. But our experiences have shown that freedom is possible with resistance and organization. For us, the only way is resistance, the only way is organization,” she said.
THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM DOES MOST DAMAGE TO WOMEN
Another panelist, Adriana Guzmán Arroyo, stated that the capitalist system harms women the most and said, “We cannot talk about eco-climate without talking about femicide. The biggest response we can give to this patriarchal system will be to resist. We must produce new tools for the revolution. Training within organizations is very important to us. First of all, we must destroy the sexist approach. Now is the time for us women to talk. The project of us feminists is based on society, not the state. Our main tools are self-management and organization. As women, we cannot give the idea of changing the world to others. We come with our ideas for the destruction of patriarchal society.”
KURDISTAN WOMEN’S FREEDOM MOVEMENT TO MEXICO WOMEN
María de Jesús Patricio Martínez (Marichuy) said that they are happy to be here as representatives of the Mexican peoples and said, “Our lands have been plundered by capitalist powers for centuries. As Indigenous peoples, we have the right to autonomy and we are fighting for it together with our lawyer friends. There are more than 100 thousand missing in Mexico, femicide and violence are very high. We continue to resist all these events. We organize to build our own areas of autonomy. We need to realize that our minds have been colonized as well as our lands. The truth is that many of the women still have not freed themselves from the oppressive male-dominated mentality. In this sense, the struggle of our comrades in the Kurdistan women’s liberation movement inspires us.”
Another panelist, Manuel Rozental, stated that development and solidarity among peoples is important and said, “Our only hope for survival is resistance. The Kurdish people and other peoples are also based on this. We oppressed peoples are here and we are not going anywhere. We will take back everything the capitalist system took from us,” he said.
