Publié le 1 août 2016 par admin Par Janet Biehl Traduction : Ronald Creagh Murray Bookchin, théor... more Publié le 1 août 2016 par admin Par Janet Biehl Traduction : Ronald Creagh Murray Bookchin, théoricien du social aux États-Unis, a fécondé la gauche politique par ses idées sur la démocratie d'assemblée, l'écologie et l'opposition aux hiérarchies sous toutes leurs formes ; et il a formulé ces idées bien avant qu'elles ne deviennent populaires. Bookchin a grandi à New York. Il était jeune communiste durant l'ère progressiste des années 1930 ; mais vers la fin des années 1940 il rejeta le marxisme-léninisme comme étant non seulement autoritaire mais aussi fallacieux, chimérique -somme toute, le prolétariat n'était pas révolutionnaire. Mais plutôt que d'abandonner une politique radicale, comme le firent beaucoup de ses anciens camarades, il maintint le cap et s'efforça de repenser le projet révolutionnaire pour une ère nouvelle. Si le capitalisme ne trouvait pas sa limite dans la chute progressive du taux de profit, quel serait l'obstacle qu'il ne pourrait pas surmonter ?
Today Rojava has become the epicenter of popular desires for radical democratic change. Like Pari... more Today Rojava has become the epicenter of popular desires for radical democratic change. Like Paris in 1789, St. Petersburg in 1905 and 1917, and Barcelona in 1936 crystallizes an era's aspirations for social and political revolution.
First I compare assemblies in two places, New England and Rojava. Then I discuss the importance ... more First I compare assemblies in two places, New England and Rojava. Then I discuss the importance of documenting proceedings in assemblies, a task too often neglected. A documentation project for Vermont's town meetings found many things, including the fact that women's participation increased from 1970 to 1998 and that it corroborates women's greater de facto participation in local assemblies than in representative structures of government.
On Saturday, December 6, 2014, the Academic Delegation met with two representatives of Tev-Dem ad... more On Saturday, December 6, 2014, the Academic Delegation met with two representatives of Tev-Dem administration in Qamişlo, who spoke to us through translators. As with all leadership positions in Rojava, they were a man and a woman: Abdulkerim Omar and Çınar Salih. First they gave us some background to Rojava's thinking about the state and democracy. Then they explained the structure of the democratic self-governmentthe commune and council system-and took our questions. Salih did most of the talking.
In February 1999, at the moment when Abdullah Öcalan was abducted in Kenya, Murray Bookchin was l... more In February 1999, at the moment when Abdullah Öcalan was abducted in Kenya, Murray Bookchin was living with me in Burlington, Vermont. We watched Öcalan's capture on the news reports. He sympathized with the plight of the Kurds-he said so whenever the subject came up -but he saw Öcalan as yet another Marxist-Leninist guerrilla leader, a latter-day Stalinist. Murray had been criticizing such people for decades, for misleading people's impulses toward freedom into authority, dogma, statism, and even-all appearances to the contrary-acceptance of capitalism.
understood earlier than almost anyone that an ecological crisis was not only looming but posted a... more understood earlier than almost anyone that an ecological crisis was not only looming but posted a challenge to capitalism and the whole social order. In the 1950s and 1960s, before most people even knew what ecology was, he was proposing fundamental solutions. Being ahead of his time, however, meant that his ideas were either ignored or condemned when they were first published; they remain insufficiently recognized today.
Publié le 1 août 2016 par admin Par Janet Biehl Traduction : Ronald Creagh Murray Bookchin, théor... more Publié le 1 août 2016 par admin Par Janet Biehl Traduction : Ronald Creagh Murray Bookchin, théoricien du social aux États-Unis, a fécondé la gauche politique par ses idées sur la démocratie d'assemblée, l'écologie et l'opposition aux hiérarchies sous toutes leurs formes ; et il a formulé ces idées bien avant qu'elles ne deviennent populaires. Bookchin a grandi à New York. Il était jeune communiste durant l'ère progressiste des années 1930 ; mais vers la fin des années 1940 il rejeta le marxisme-léninisme comme étant non seulement autoritaire mais aussi fallacieux, chimérique -somme toute, le prolétariat n'était pas révolutionnaire. Mais plutôt que d'abandonner une politique radicale, comme le firent beaucoup de ses anciens camarades, il maintint le cap et s'efforça de repenser le projet révolutionnaire pour une ère nouvelle. Si le capitalisme ne trouvait pas sa limite dans la chute progressive du taux de profit, quel serait l'obstacle qu'il ne pourrait pas surmonter ?
Today Rojava has become the epicenter of popular desires for radical democratic change. Like Pari... more Today Rojava has become the epicenter of popular desires for radical democratic change. Like Paris in 1789, St. Petersburg in 1905 and 1917, and Barcelona in 1936 crystallizes an era's aspirations for social and political revolution.
First I compare assemblies in two places, New England and Rojava. Then I discuss the importance ... more First I compare assemblies in two places, New England and Rojava. Then I discuss the importance of documenting proceedings in assemblies, a task too often neglected. A documentation project for Vermont's town meetings found many things, including the fact that women's participation increased from 1970 to 1998 and that it corroborates women's greater de facto participation in local assemblies than in representative structures of government.
On Saturday, December 6, 2014, the Academic Delegation met with two representatives of Tev-Dem ad... more On Saturday, December 6, 2014, the Academic Delegation met with two representatives of Tev-Dem administration in Qamişlo, who spoke to us through translators. As with all leadership positions in Rojava, they were a man and a woman: Abdulkerim Omar and Çınar Salih. First they gave us some background to Rojava's thinking about the state and democracy. Then they explained the structure of the democratic self-governmentthe commune and council system-and took our questions. Salih did most of the talking.
In February 1999, at the moment when Abdullah Öcalan was abducted in Kenya, Murray Bookchin was l... more In February 1999, at the moment when Abdullah Öcalan was abducted in Kenya, Murray Bookchin was living with me in Burlington, Vermont. We watched Öcalan's capture on the news reports. He sympathized with the plight of the Kurds-he said so whenever the subject came up -but he saw Öcalan as yet another Marxist-Leninist guerrilla leader, a latter-day Stalinist. Murray had been criticizing such people for decades, for misleading people's impulses toward freedom into authority, dogma, statism, and even-all appearances to the contrary-acceptance of capitalism.
understood earlier than almost anyone that an ecological crisis was not only looming but posted a... more understood earlier than almost anyone that an ecological crisis was not only looming but posted a challenge to capitalism and the whole social order. In the 1950s and 1960s, before most people even knew what ecology was, he was proposing fundamental solutions. Being ahead of his time, however, meant that his ideas were either ignored or condemned when they were first published; they remain insufficiently recognized today.
Dilar Dirik, journalist and activist of the Kurdish Women's Movement
''Written by long-time acti... more Dilar Dirik, journalist and activist of the Kurdish Women's Movement ''Written by long-time activists of the Kurdish freedom movement, this book is the first authentic insight into the complex dimensions of Rojava’s radical revolution. From autonomous women's communes to ecological cooperatives to multiethnic peoples’ self-defense, the authors let us enter a world of freedom cries - a deeply human grassroots revolution with the potential to change the course of Middle Eastern civilization. Recommended for all believers in humanity.''
John Holloway, Autonomous University of Puebla and author of Crack Capitalism ''The Kurdish revolution of Democratic Autonomy is of enormous importance for the future of the world. It points a possible way forward out of the tragedy of the Middle East, and more than that: a possible way forward out of the catastrophe that is capitalism. This book is of great help...A careful and detailed account that is filled with personal narrative, it is both easily accessible and very informative.''
We tnust always be on a quest for the new, for tbe potentialities that ripen with the deuelopment... more We tnust always be on a quest for the new, for tbe potentialities that ripen with the deuelopment of the world and the new uisions that unfold with tbem. An outlook that ceases to look for what is new and potential in the name of "realism" bas already lost contact with the present, for tbe present is always conditioned by the future.
Description This collection provides an overview of the thought of the foremost social theorist a... more Description This collection provides an overview of the thought of the foremost social theorist and political philosopher of the libertarian left today. His writings span five decades, and subject matter of remarkable breadth. Bookchin's writings on revolutionary philosophy, ...
@ IANET BIEHL 1991 No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by means, el... more @ IANET BIEHL 1991 No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by uny information storage or retrieval, without written permission from the publisher, except forbriefpassages quoted by a reviewer in a newspaper or magazine. BLACK ROSE BOOKS No. T148 Paperback ISBN: 0-921689-78-0 Hardcover ISBN : 0 -921689 -79 -9 Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Biehl, Janet Finding our way ISBN 0-921589-79-9 (bound)
Back in the 1980s, the emerging Green political movement was looking for an alternative to conven... more Back in the 1980s, the emerging Green political movement was looking for an alternative to conventional politics and became enamored with a "new paradigm" based on holism. The earth is a living whole, a unitary system, ran the adopted view, and we dwellers upon it should peacefully seek consensus over conflict, diversity over monoculture, and symbiosis over polarization. A new ecological spirituality, worshipping nature, even an earth goddess, pervaded the movement.
Green Perspectives: A Social Ecology Publication, 1996
Editors' note: The following article singles out q real crisis that is emerging in anarchism, not... more Editors' note: The following article singles out q real crisis that is emerging in anarchism, not only in the U.S. but in Europe aswell: the steady degeneration ofa left-libertarion radical theory and practice into a bohemian, personalistic, and in many ways decadent lifestyle. In our view, the designation lifestyle anarchism could often be substitutedfor postmodernism throughout the arti c le.
Starhawk defines her theistic spiritudity in opposition to Judeo-Christian theism. Judaism and Ch... more Starhawk defines her theistic spiritudity in opposition to Judeo-Christian theism. Judaism and Christiurity posited a transcendent divinity, separated from nature and humanity-a creaor God distinct from his creation. This separation of the divine from nahre, she argues, has resulted in tlre very dualism of spirit and mauer that was a majrr cause of tlre ecological crisis, of the oppression of women, and indeed of systems of domination in general. The dualism of these religions, she observes, created a split between mind and body, terching Westwr culture to devalue the sensuous, the physical, the body, and the earth. Their hierarchical institutions fostered systems of domination and control. The image of the pariarchal male god, Yahweh, further promoted the subqdination of women, together with the subordination of nature to human needs: "The split between spirit and matter, which lmated God and he sacred outside the world of form and earth and flesh, allows exploiution and destruction of human beings and the earth's resources. The model of God in pariarchal religion furnishes the model thu lends authority o all hierarchies." (p. 16) (By which one assumes she means Western hierarchies; the existence of hierarchy in non'Western cultures is noably absent from the book. One would not gain 0re impression from Sris book that pariarchy or hierarchy exists in non-Western culturu.)
Starhawk defines her theistic spiritudity in opposition to Judeo-Christian theism. Judaism and Ch... more Starhawk defines her theistic spiritudity in opposition to Judeo-Christian theism. Judaism and Christiurity posited a transcendent divinity, separated from nature and humanity-a creaor God distinct from his creation. This separation of the divine from nahre, she argues, has resulted in tlre very dualism of spirit and mauer that was a majrr cause of tlre ecological crisis, of the oppression of women, and indeed of systems of domination in general. The dualism of these religions, she observes, created a split between mind and body, terching Westwr culture to devalue the sensuous, the physical, the body, and the earth. Their hierarchical institutions fostered systems of domination and control. The image of the pariarchal male god, Yahweh, further promoted the subqdination of women, together with the subordination of nature to human needs: "The split between spirit and matter, which lmated God and he sacred outside the world of form and earth and flesh, allows exploiution and destruction of human beings and the earth's resources. The model of God in pariarchal religion furnishes the model thu lends authority o all hierarchies." (p. 16) (By which one assumes she means Western hierarchies; the existence of hierarchy in non'Western cultures is noably absent from the book. One would not gain 0re impression from Sris book that pariarchy or hierarchy exists in non-Western culturu.)
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Papers by Janet Biehl
''Written by long-time activists of the Kurdish freedom movement, this book is the first authentic insight into the complex dimensions of Rojava’s radical revolution. From autonomous women's communes to ecological cooperatives to multiethnic peoples’ self-defense, the authors let us enter a world of freedom cries - a deeply human grassroots revolution with the potential to change the course of Middle Eastern civilization. Recommended for all believers in humanity.''
John Holloway, Autonomous University of Puebla and author of Crack Capitalism
''The Kurdish revolution of Democratic Autonomy is of enormous importance for the future of the world. It points a possible way forward out of the tragedy of the Middle East, and more than that: a possible way forward out of the catastrophe that is capitalism. This book is of great help...A careful and detailed account that is filled with personal narrative, it is both easily accessible and very informative.''