Mahknoconism

**Mahknoconism**, also known as **Mahknovist Democratic Confederalism** is both Libertarian Socialist Principle and Anarcho-Syndicalist Principle, which melds both the ideas of Nestor Makhno (Mahknovism), and the ideas of Abdullah Öcalan, known as Democratic Confederalism, which both ideas were used in the Free Territory of Ukraine and Rojava in Syria.

### History

#### Free Territory of Ukraine

The Free Territory of Ukraine, which was established in 1918 by the he first congress of the Confederation of Anarchists Groups, under the name of Nabat ("The Alarm Drum")issued five main points: suspension of all political parties, rejection of all dictatorships (mainly those organizing over people), negation of any State concept, rejection of any "transitory period" or "proletarian dictatorship", and advocated the self-management of all workers through free workers' councils (soviets). These were in clear contrast to Bolshevik views.

From November 1918 to June 1919, the Makhnovists established an anarchist society run by peasants and workers in Ukraine. The territory under their control stretched approximately between Berdyansk, Donetsk, Alexandrovsk (later known as Zaporizhia), and Yekaterinoslav, (Sicheslav, later Dnipropetrovsk, now Dnipro). According to Makhno, "The agricultural majority of these villages was composed of peasants, one would understand at the same time both peasants and workers. They were founded first of all on equality and solidarity of its members. Everyone, men and women, worked together with a perfect conscience that they should work on fields or that they should be used in housework... The work program was established in meetings in which everyone participated. Then they knew exactly what they had to do". (Makhno, Russian Revolution in Ukraine, 1936).

According to the leaders of the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine (RIAU), society was reorganized according to anarchist values, which lead Makhnovists to formalize the policy of free communities as the highest form of social justice. Education followed the principles of Francesc Ferrer, and the economy was based on free exchange between rural and urban communities, from crops and cattle to manufactured products, according to the theories of Peter Kropotkin.
The Makhnovists said they supported "free worker-peasant soviets" and opposed the central government. Makhno called the Bolsheviks dictators and opposed the "Cheka [secret police]... and similar compulsory authoritative and disciplinary institutions". He called for "[f]reedom of speech, press, assembly, unions and the like". The Makhnovists called various congresses of soviets, in which all political parties and groups – including Bolsheviks – were permitted to participate, to the extent that members of these parties were elected delegates from worker, peasant or militia councils. By contrast, in Bolshevik territory after June 1918, no non-Bolsheviks were permitted to participate in any national soviets and most local ones, the decisions of which were also all subject to Bolshevik party veto.

A declaration stated that Makhnovist revolutionaries were forbidden to participate in the Cheka, and all party-run militias and party police forces (including Cheka-like secret police organizations) were to be outlawed in Makhnovist territory. Historian Heather-Noël Schwartz comments that "Makhno would not countenance organizations that sought to impose political authority, and he accordingly dissolved the Bolshevik revolutionary committees". The Bolsheviks, however, accused him of having two secret police forces operating under him.

The Bolsheviks began their formal efforts to disempower Makhno on 4 June 1919 with Trotsky's Order No. 1824, which forbade electing a congress and attempted to discredit Makhno by stating: "The Makhno brigade has constantly retreated before the White Guards, owing to the incapacity, criminal tendencies, and the treachery of its leaders."

The Bolshevik government in Petrograd initially allied with Makhno and considered allowing an independent area for Makhno's libertarian experiment. But the Bolsheviks increasingly saw the Makhnovists as a threat to their power, both as an example and as a site of anarchist influence. It restarted a propaganda campaign declaring the Free Territory to be a warlord regime, and eventually broke with it by launching surprise attacks on Makhnovist militias despite the pre-existing alliance between the factions.
The Bolshevik press alleged that leaders in the Free Territory, rather than being elected democratically, were appointed by Makhno's military clique. They also alleged that Makhno himself had refused to provide food for Soviet railwaymen and telegraph operators, that the "special section" of the Makhnovist constitution provided for secret executions and torture, that Makhno's forces had raided Red Army convoys for supplies, stolen an armored car from Bryansk when asked to repair it, and that the Nabat group was responsible for deadly acts of terrorism in Russian cities.
A massive military occupation took place. This suppressed the Makhnovists, the Ukrainian nationalists, and other non-Bolshevik groups. The "Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic" was created, which would last until 1991. An underground Makhnovist presence would persist into the 1940s.

#### Rojava

In 2012, in the early stages of the Syrian Civil War, Syrian government forces withdrew from three Kurdish enclaves, leaving control to local militias. Existing underground Kurdish political parties, namely the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the Kurdish National Council (KNC), joined to form the Kurdish Supreme Committee (KSC) and established the People's Protection Units (YPG) militia to defend Kurdish-inhabited areas in northern Syria. In July 2012, the YPG established control in the towns of Kobanî, Amuda and Afrin, and the Kurdish Supreme Committee established a joint leadership council to administer the towns. Soon also the cities of Al-Malikiyah, Ras al-Ayn, al-Darbasiyah, and al-Muabbada also came under the control of the People's Protection Units, as well as parts of Hasakah and Qamishli.

The Kurdish Supreme Committee became obsolete in 2013, when the PYD abandoned the coalition with the KNC and adopted the aim of creating a polyethnic and progressive society and polity in a wider Rojava region of northern Syria. The Movement for a Democratic Society (TEV-DEM) coalition established by the PYD, based on a distinct progressive ideology of grassroots democracy rather than ethnicity, according to Zaher Baher of the Haringey Solidarity Group, has been "the most successful organ" in Rojava because it has the "determination and power" to change things, and because it includes many people who "believe in working voluntarily at all levels of service to make the event/experiment successful". United in the political philosophy of Democratic Confederalism, TEV-DEM established popular assemblies. In January 2014, the three cantons Afrin Canton, Jazira Canton and Kobanî Canton declared their autonomy and the Constitution of Rojava was approved. From September 2014 to spring 2015, the YPG forces in Kobanî Canton fought and finally repelled an assault by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) during the Siege of Kobanî, and in the Tell Abyad offensive of summer of 2015, Jazira Canton and Kobanî Canton were connected.
In December 2015, the Syrian Democratic Council was created. In January/February 2016, the autonomous Shahba region was founded and administrative institutions established as a fourth canton. On 17 March 2016, at a TEV-DEM-organized conference in Rmelan, Syrian Turkmen, Arab, Christian and Kurdish officials declared the establishment the Federation of Northern Syria – Rojava in the areas they controlled in Northern Syria. The declaration was quickly denounced by both the Syrian government and the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces.

In March 2016, Hediya Yousef and Mansur Selum were elected co-chairpersons for the executive committee to organise a constitution for the region, to replace the 2014 constitution. Yousef said the decision to set up a federal government was in large part driven by the expansion of territories captured from Islamic State: "Now, after the liberation of many areas, it requires us to go to a wider and more comprehensive system that can embrace all the developments in the area, that will also give rights to all the groups to represent themselves and to form their own administrations." In July 2016, a draft for the new constitution was presented, taking up the general progressive and democratic confereralist principles of the 2014 constitution, mentioning all ethnic groups living in Rojava, addressing their cultural, political and linguistic rights. The only political camp within Rojava fundamentally opposed were Kurdish nationalists, in particular the KNC, who want to pursue a path towards a nation-state of Kurdistan rather than establishing a polyethnic federation as part of Syria. On 28 December 2016, after a meeting of the 151-member Syrian Democratic Council in Rmelan, a new constitution was resolved; despite the objections of 12 Kurdish parties, the name "Rojava" was officially removed from the full name of the federal region and the region was renamed the Democratic Federal System of Northern Syria.

Öcalan, who is the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, founded this ideology while in prison. While originally a Marxist–Leninist organization, the organization modified their views as Öcalan began corresponding with Murray Bookchin and incorporating some of his ideology. Towards the end of his life, Bookchin became disenchanted with the increasingly apolitical elements of the contemporary anarchist movement and developed libertarian municipalism instead. The central pillars of democratic confederalism are social ecology and anarchist feminism.
According to Öcalan, his ideology is rooted in participatory democracy and autonomy at the local level.

### Platform

The ideas of Mahknoconism combine both the ideas of Mahknovism and Democratic Confederalism. Mahknocons believe in a revolutionary overthrow of a centralized state into a decentralized collection of federations. These Federation run on direct-democracy with the allowance of political parties in these federations. Elections take place every 6 months in the federations, with the people living in the federations being able to disuse and fix issues they may have in the federation every week in local meetings, with attendance to these meetings being optional. In the federations if a a majority of the people from across all or a majority of the federations in the region, express concerns or opinions on the federation wide issue, a referendum will held for people to vote on an issue in the region wide federation to fix.

In the federations the political beliefs, religious beliefs, and ethnic identities of the individuals living are all protected under a society. While these are protected, expressing ideas such as Nazism, Fascism, as well as ethnic based nationalism, and religious fundamentalism are illegal in the federations under the law.

The economic system of Mahknovism runs on a form of Market Socialism, which involves public, cooperative, or social ownership of the means of production in the framework of a market economy. Mahknovism does not allow for monopolies and does not allow the private ownership of factories, emergency response center's (Such as Hospitals, Fire Departments, Police States), office buildings, and much more.

#### Armed Forces and Police

The armed forces in Mahknovism are run in a rather hierarchical manner, with the brigades being divided up into companies, platoons and squads. The Reservists while a part of the army are separately run, this is so that if the main army becomes tyrannical and starts putting forward authoritarian principles the split between the main army, the reservists and national guard, will be prevents from being used as one giant group to put down the people living in the federations.

The Police in the federations usually member's of the federations who can be voted apon to become a police member of the local community. Every 3 months the members of the community vote on and off member's of the police force in the community.

#### Government

In the federations the people there can vote on some on that they want to sent to federation (Representatives) government in the capital to deal with bigger issues in the local federations. People who want to run to become a Representative for there federation can do so, and if they want to they can join a political party. These representatives will put forward the issues and ideas that the people in there local federation have a problem with. Length of the term of a representative depends on how long a certain issue lasts, but the main length time is usually 6 months.

### See Also

Democratic Confederalism

Mahknovism