In this film, I wanted to describe briefly the idea of the Democratic Confederalism. I wanted to show that it works in Rojava (Northern Syria) and that Iranian Kurds desire Democratic Confederalism as well.
Alternative Visions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om_Qk4Ob2DQ This Tamil Nadu man turns 100 acres of barren land to an indigenous forest
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/video/environment/this-tamil-nadu-man-turned-100-acres-of-barren-land-to-an-indigenous-forest-83160 Born into a small farmer family near Villupuram district in Tamil Nadu, Saravanan always had a special connection with nature. At the age of 14, he participated in the 100-day march for the ‘Save the Western Ghats’ rally which deeply influenced his path in life... After being active as an environmentalist in his youth, Saravanan took up the project in Auroville in 1994. With the help of the residents, students and the local community, Saravanan decided to grow a 100 acres of land into an indigenous forest.
Response on Whatsapp:
BA: I feel proud that I was part of the core group in the Save the Western Ghats (Sahyadri Vaachva) campaign around 35 years ago. This man's efforts are commendable and are the result of the campaign. In 2016 I conducted 'Save our Sahyadri Cycle Rally 1200 kms with 40 Cyclist participants and another 40 members as Support Team. This was to assess the in situ state of the Sahyadri range in Maharashtra and weave a network of like minded people who are working towards conservation of our eco system all over the Sahyadri region.
RR Today we should look back and recall that environmental activists including the petitioner in this present case who had predicted/anticipated that this environmental disaster would occur even when the project was proposed. Unfortunately neither the successive Governments nor the Courts paid any heed to it.
Today we are saddled with a polluting power plant which will continue polluting the Western Ghats as well as continue paying token fines which will end up in Government coffers only to be misused by those in power. Western Ghats will continue to be polluted and the company will continue to make profit even after paying a small portion of its profits as 'fine'.
A Pessimist.
AP: Suggest a solution to the problem or else its a dead-end rant, which gets us nowhere Conservation or any form of Activism works only with an inherent and endless optimism. Pessimism is the perfect way to get depressed and loose all energy to make any form of change, be it to the Western Ghats or any place in the world. Its best kept out of such groups.
JD: One of the solutions, is to understand that what will be.. is the fruition of all efforts.. The pessimist included, contributes to a soul searching.. while there has been a change as a result of struggle, legal battles, positive and constructive work, and we must recognise them, there will be those who wish to highlight the structural struggle.. which I suppose will be ongoing.
Concept of Swaraj and Mahatma Gandhi : A Critical Analysis by Dhananjaya Kumar Rout https://magazines.odisha.gov.in/Orissareview/2015/Oct/engpdf/17-22.pdf
Some excerpts: Of course, constructive workers were abstaining from direct political struggles. But on crucial occasions Gandhi enlisted their services for political mobilization. For instance, the seventy nine volunteers of Gandhi in the Dandi salt march team were all constructive workers...
the constructive work organisations founded by Gandhi and the Sarvodaya Mandals and Sarva Seva Sangh are precursors and role models of people's movement, Voluntary organisations and some of the Non-Government Organisations which are launched in various parts of India at present.
it necessary to evolve a mechanism to achieve the twin objectives of empowering the people and empowering the state. It was for this that he developed the two pronged strategy of resistance to the state and reconstruction of the state through voluntary and participatory social action.
Gandhi's idea of Swaraj will show that it can provide a more passable theoretical device to find and assess the fights of the burdened populates. As pointed out previous Gandhi's idea of Swaraj is a complete one and summarises the separate human person and life in an all-inclusive outline. It visualises the liberal deliverance of all from all cruel structures and so can be equated with redemption.
Although the word Swaraj means self-rule, Gandhi gave it the content of an integral revolution that encompasses all spheres of life, at the individual level Swaraj is vitally connected with the capacity for dispassionate self-assessment, ceaseless self-purification and growing selfreliance. Gandhi was undaunted by the task of implementing such a utopian vision in India. He believed that by transforming enough individuals and communities, society at large would change.
Comment: My thoughts went back to the volume to commemorate Niyogi -- "Sangharsh aur Nirmaan". Even so, one of his followers was incarcerated for around two years, and effectively externed from her area of work.
Why is it that most Sangharsh-wadis do token "Nirman" and those who are doing "nirmaan" do token rallies!. In this artilce, speaks about how Gandhi's contrutive workers joined in the Salt satyagraha.
After R Kothari's Non-Party Political Process and Lokayan, I find that the "process" among the alternatives is restricted to the organisations workers. For some reason, in some cases FCRA I suppose, the people or the masses are left completely apolitical..
Perhaps this is the reason that when it comes to voting, or getting work done for one own needs most of the constituents of the various so called isolated alternatives, we the alternatives have to take our share of the blame for the rise of the Right in this country.. Even those involved in "andolan" as was seen in 2022 elections, seem to be party-politically-ineffective..
Thus.. is Sangharsh and Nirmaan part of a duality, or a one ( as in "atman") or both ( as in dependent orignation)
Democratic Confederalism / Stateless Democracy explained. Jun 11, 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcndZ0nZ0mo
The Left, Ecology and Degrowth. A panel with Feyzi Ismail, Kai Heron, Kin Chi Lau and Matt Huber https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-K_zy9NkeI
Saturday 20 April 2024 . As climate change, global warming and massive loss of biodiversity disproportionately affect people along class, race and gender lines, acknowledging that Climate Struggle is Class Struggle is now more urgent than ever. But debates about how exactly the left should address this multi-layered crisis run deep. Whilst degrowth is increasingly gaining appeal—not the least in the mainstream—, it is necessary critically to assess its proposals and limitations. Can degrowth mean anything more than a ‘programme of aggregate reduction’ or ‘ecological austerity’? How does degrowth fit, if at all, within struggles for socio-economic justice, especially in the Global South? Are the analytical tools and the political arguments deployed by the degrowth movement useful to challenge capitalism?
Neighborhood Pods: What They Are And How To Start Them https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1f3NHqqzHw Nov 20, 2020
Neighborhood pods are hyperlocal coordinations of immediate neighbors from 5-30 households to check in on each other, socialize, meet each other's needs, and take shared decisions on shared problems together.
Growing out of mutual aid projects, most recently during the COVID-19 pandemic, they've proved inspiring building blocks for society to reclaim its own autonomy starting at the hyperlocal level, to build resiliency and local self-sufficiency. As states everywhere have proved how little they care for the lives and autonomy of the people living under them, we say that a strong, democratic, organized, and communal society makes the state obsolete!
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