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Title: Why Komun Academy? Author: Komun Academy Date: June 28, 2018 Language: en Topics: democratic confederalism, libertarian socialism, kurdistan, Komun Academy Source: https://komun-academy.com/2018/06/28/why-komun-academy/
Throughout history, systems of hierarchy and domination have used
mythology, religion, philosophy, and science in order to construct the
ideological foundations of their establishments and civilizations of
violence and power. The rise of the city-state in ancient Mesopotamia
brought with it a radical split between humans and nature, between women
and men, between state and society. With the centralization of power in
the hands of the state, the monopolization of the economy, and the fall
of the woman, the course of human history shifted in favour of systems
of authoritarian elites. We see the result of 5000 years of history in
the current international system of cancerous capitalism, ecological
catastrophe, a global war on women, ethnic and religious violence, and
the progressing destruction of the sense of community which has enabled
beautiful things such as human creativity, culture, and art.
The theft of knowledge production from the community has been one of the
main tools of the state system to subjugate the people under its rule.
Through the usage of the subject-object dichotomy, which defines the
relationship between entities in a hierarchical manner (such as state
versus society, mind versus body, humanity versus nature, men versus
women), the state system claimed the monopoly on meaning-giving
mechanisms and thought systems, putting knowledge in the service of
profit. Thus, while the society, especially workers, artists, women,
youth, indigenous communities, etc. have historically produced knowledge
and culture, these values were stolen from them. Society was alienated
from the lands, waters, forests and mountains, leading to a hostility
towards nature that resulted in maddening urbanization, industrialism,
and ecological catastrophe, as well as a science based on control,
discipline, and destruction. In this context, the connection between
knowledge and life was lost. As official history has been written by the
rulers, the history of the oppressed and the history of resistance,
especially that of women, has yet to be written.
It is clear that in order to liberate ourselves from systems of violence
and oppression, we must first of all prepare the conditions for a mental
liberation. Without the free mind, emancipated from thought systems that
propagate authority, enslavement, discrimination, and capital, we cannot
achieve a more meaningful, just, and free life.
As briefly mentioned above, the positivist and linear-progressivist
perspective of capitalist modernity has led to many injustices,
deformations, and phenomena that counter the meaning of live.
The cumulative gains and values of all living beings, including the
human community, throughout history, are separated from each other or
homogenized. For instance, by segregating the moment from the future in
its analysis of history, positivism has a way of starting everything
from itself. Instead of viewing the relationship between women-men,
nature-human, state-society, individual-society, etc. in a balanced,
organic way that does not obstruct freedom spheres, the system replaces
the essence of these relationships with a mentality of power and
domination, which results in extreme enslavement and oppression. In
concrete situations, this constitutes a state of perpetual war through
the state and state-sponsored nationalism – so much that a crisis in
vision and solution-finding is prevalent in the Middle East and beyond.
The Komun Academy aims at discussing and finding solutions to both,
local, specific problems as well as universal contradictions (human
freedom issues, women’s oppression, ecological crises, capitalist
exploitation, racial supremacy, colonialism, knowledge imperialism,
poverty, war, etc.) through the perspective proposed by Abdullah
Öcalan’s democratic, ecological, and women’s liberationist paradigm with
Democratic Confederalism as its political system. We want to make our
contribution to dismantling Capitalist Modernity and its ideological
pillars through our contribution to Democratic Modernity via a
freedom-based notion of knowing, learning, and educating.
As the fundamental units of Democratic Confederalism, people’s academies
constitute the theoretical groundwork of societal mentality in favour of
freedom. These units which we could even define as village academies
work to guarantee society’s ability to become aware of its own needs and
organize around them, through an ethical-political mentality. The Komun
Academy is not here to merely engage in theoretical discussions, but
illustrates the practical implementations and mobilizations of this
paradigm in lived experience. Because a paradigm which does not achieve
the unity and interplay between theory and practice will not only fail,
but might even work in the service of the system.
The Komun Academy does not aim at idealism which will only appeal to a
small section inside society. Instead, it works to portray the real
struggles that organize themselves around this paradigm all over the
world. We want to be the agora of the mothers, workers, laborers,
strugglers, rebels, youth, and militants!
In this sense, the Komun Academy’s understanding of academy constitutes
the opposite of the academia as presented by the status quo. Rather than
producing science for states, elites, and profit, the Komun Academy aims
to rightfully re-connect knowledge with the community.
The Komun Academy will furthermore reflect the practical struggles of
society’s return to its egalitarian and liberationist essence. Against
the third world war, the rise of right-wing populism, class conflict,
patriarchal fascism, and ecological catastrophes, the academy’s
discussions will view diversity as richness, organize common life and
develop a mentality outside of state and power.
In the spirit of radical democracy, as one of the fundamental dimensions
of Democratic Confederalism, the Komun Academy knows that your critique,
participation, suggestions, interpretations and contributions will be of
great importance. As the energies of individual and society nourish each
other, the contribution of each individual will broaden the freedom
sphere of the discussions.
Bi xĂŞr hatin! Welcome to the Komun Academy!